Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi’s ”Prométhée’ sculpture, a gilded bronze head, was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in New York for some USD 12.6 million yesterday (May 2 ). The work of art was conceived and cast in an edition of four in 1911. The starting price for the piece was USD 4.75 million but went rapidly to USD 10 million and later reached USD 11.25 million. A 12 percent commission was also applied as Sotheby’s fee – some USD 1.3 million. The Brancusi sculpture sold at the same auction where Edvard Munch’s picture ‘The Scream’ [...]

Archaeologists discovered 200 bronze and iron pieces in a ceramic bowl on the track of the future Orastie – Sibiu highway, Romania’s Transport Ministry announced. The jewelry, weapon and harness pieces date back from the Iron Age- 9th – 8yh centuries B.C, making one of the most important scientific discoveries in Romania. It is also the first time when such a discovery is made in an archeological site and not by accident. Archeological works on the track of the future pan-European highway on the corridor IV are being coordinated by Romania’s National History Museum. Archaeologists [...]

The Romanian monastery Golia, located in Iasi and Romanian conservation worker Paraschiva Kovacs, from Satu Mare, were among this year’s laureates of the Europa Noastra awards granted by the European Union for cultural heritage merits.   Golia Monastery, awarded in the category Conservation, is “one of the most complex monastic ensembles preserved to these days, due to the fact that the Church, the Tower, the precinct walls and the four corner towers are preserved. The Church was built by Vasile Lupu and his wife, Ecaterina Cercheza, between 1650 and 1652. The project focused [...]

Search engine Google celebrates today (January 30) 160 years since the birth of the Romanian writer Ion Luca Caragiale, through a specially-designed logo for this day. The new logo shows the Romanian writer, and the word ‘Google’ looks like it was written with a pen. Furthermore, the logo includes the image of a letter, which refers to ‘O scrisoare pierduta’ (A lost letter) a comedy written by Ion Luca Caragiale. Ion Luca Caragiale was a Romanian playwritgh, journalist and political commentator who lived between 1852 and 1912. Of Greek origins, Caragiale is considered [...]

Two drawings by Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi will go on auction in Bucharest, on January 26, at Artmark’s auction ‘Avantgarde and Expressionism’. One of the works is a drawing sold by a private collector in Bucharest, who bought it in 2009 from the Christie’s auction house. The drawing, called ‘Hoopoe with topknot’, has an estimated value between EUR 5,000 and EUR 10,000. The second Brancusi piece is a drawing on a postcard, valued between EUR 2,000 and EUR 4,000. The image on the postcard is the only surviving record of a sculpture known as ‘The [...]

GOLIAT, the first Romanian microsatellite put in orbit through a program of the Romanian Space Agency, will be launched by the European Space Agency on February 9, from a base in French Guyana. source: Ziarul Financiar

Romanian IT company Bit-Soft and former book editor Alexandra Rusu will on November 23 launch Booktopia, a socializing site focusing on books, where readers can share reviews and opinions. The project will be launched at the Gaudeamus Book fair that will start in Bucharest this week. Alexandra Rusu, 30, was an editor at the Humanitas and All publishing houses. The project required EUR 15,000 and its website has gone live on November 23. source: Romania Insider [...]

This year’s Swiss Book Prize 2011 went to Romanian-born Catalin Dorian Florescu, for his novel “Jacob beschliesst zu lieben” (Jacob decides to love). The Swiss Book Prize is a literary award that goes to the best out of 60 novels from 40 publishers, chosen by a jury on behalf of the Swiss Booksellers’ Association. The winner gets a prize of 50,000 Swiss francs. “Jacob decides to love” is the fifth novel written by Catalin Dorian Florescu. He was born in Timisoara, Romania in1967, but he moved to Switzerland with his parents in 1982. Catalin Florescu studied [...]