The art of a diplomatic row
Austria and the United States have not been at war since Adolf Hitler annexed the land of his birth, incorporating it into the Third Reich. And it is now Hitler's ghost which hovers over what could become the touchiest diplomatic spat between Vienna and Washington since the peace of 1945.
Those easy-going Austrians are furious over what they see as America's arrogance over the confiscation of two highly valuable paintings by the prominent expressionist Egon Schiele - which had been lent to New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) for its just-finished Schiele exhibition.
Under conventions for the international loan of artworks, the borrowing nation has to return the works in pristine condition immediately upon the conclusion of the exhibition they were borrowed for. But Manhattan's district attorney has stepped in to prevent the return of the two artworks because two local families are claiming they were plundered from them by the Nazis more than 50 years ago.
The spat, which has seen some furious diplomatic exchanges, could re-open the same kind of wounds last bared during the Western world's anger at Austria's election of former Nazi officer Kurt Waldheim to its presidency.
And while Austria has many Nazi skeletons still securely locked in its closet, most of its citizens apparently see only superpower conceit in the US actions.
Thousands of art lovers flocked to MoMA's exhibition of Schiele works lent by the Leopold Foundation - an Austrian government-run agency which bought the canvases from a collector, Rudolf Leopold, in 1994. But while the show was going on, most visitors were unaware of the growing row over the claim that the paintings Dead City and Portrait of Wally had ended up in Leopold's hands after being confiscated by the Nazis from Austrian Jews, one of whom died in Dachau concentration camp.
After the news broke, the Leopold Foundation offered to settle the dispute by putting the ownership issue to an impartial panel of experts. But the US relatives of the original owners insisted the works should be held in America until the matter was settled - and the New York prosecutors obliged by issuing an order to that effect.
The US Government has tried to avoid getting embroiled in the row, and for good reason. Firstly, it is extremely bad form to refuse the return of such borrowed treasures. And secondly, even the World Jewish Congress, which has a department devoted to investigating the Nazis' role in art thefts, condemned last week's confiscation as unfair.
By an ironic coincidence, MoMA's chairman happens to be Ronald Lauder, who after serving as US ambassador to Austria in the 1980s came under fire for getting preferential treatment from the Austrian Government to buy some Schiele works at bargain rates and take his booty home to America. Perhaps it would take a neutral observer to truly appreciate this battle - such as the gold-loving Swiss, who can now take a little time out of the Nazi-hunters' spotlight.
The feminist movement in the US has for some years been running out of steam in the face of a female backlash - mostly from young women who take for granted the social advances won a generation ago by their bra-burning sisters. But the movement has just found itself a true hero for the new millennium. And it is a man.
David Stellings, a 20-something New York lawyer, has just won himself the acclaim of womankind - and the wide-eyed astonishment of his male peers. Why? Because his real name is David Soskin.
Mr Soskin - sorry, Stellings - has raised eyebrows across the country by taking his new wife Brande Stellings' surname, and ditching his own. The couple say the highly unusual - if not unique - gender role reversal came as a result of what was initially a joke which David decided to act upon as a gesture of modern male equanimity. The gesture is made even more poignant when one considers that after decades of feminist activism, only about 10 per cent of women do not take their husband's surname.
Good on you, Dave - you big pansy.
Another happy ending from the world of matrimony. As New Yorker Nicole Contos has found out, even the cloud of being abandoned at the altar can have a silver lining. But only in America would it be quite so sparkling. Ms Contos made the front pages in the city's press last November when her fiance, a London lawyer, got cold feet and left her at the altar in front of guests who had flown in from all over the world.
But instead of crying into the champagne, the bride-not-to-be insisted on the US$65,000 (about HK$503,000) reception going ahead, and danced all night to forget about her caddish ex. And proving that nothing interesting that happens in life is complete until it is mirrored in art, Ms Contos has taken on an agent and stands to make millions selling the rights to her story.
One Hollywood producer intends to make a TV movie about her 'ordeal' - and she has even found a sponsor in a tequila company which packed her off on a Virgin Islands holiday, all expenses paid. Following her on vacation will be a tabloid TV show - paying handsomely for the privilege, of course.
