windsor castle

$70 Million "Cultural Olympiad" Planned for London 2012

In the buildup to London's hosting duties of the 2012 Olympics, the city's planners have created a "Cultural Olympiad" to generate buzz, highbrow British style. Twelve new public works of art are slated to open, the Royal Shakespeare Co. will produce a Shakespearean festival, a film competition will inspire the next wave of British filmmakers and Windsor Castle will be illuminated by a dazzling light show. The city plans to invest around $70 million in the project.

Lord Sebastian Coe, the chair of London's organizing committee for the 2012 Games, will even participate in Martin Creed's conceptual piece of moving sculpture currently on exhibit at the Tate, a piece featuring a runner sprinting across the museum galleries every 30 seconds, followed by an equivalent pause. The museum is calling it the "purest expression of human vitality."

The hope, organizers say, is to connect sports and the arts and provide a major injection of culture that will inspire young artists the way Michael Phelps makes you want to don a Speedo.

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Tags: cultural olympiad, CulturalOlympiad, london, lord coe, LordCoe, martin creed, MartinCreed, olympic games, OlympicGames, shakespeare, tate britain, TateBritain, windsor castle, WindsorCastle

Value of Buckingham Palace Plummets by $100 Million

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Wealth

It seems even the Queen of England is feeling the credit crunch. The value of her official London residence, Buckingham Palace, has fallen by about $100 million over the past 12 months, the London Telegraph reports. The 52-bedroom mansion, which dates to 1703 and sits on 40 prime acres, is now valued at $1.7 billion, down from $1.8 billion in August of last year. The dollar figure was assessed by UK property values database Zoopla, which has also calculated that the Queen's weekend retreat, Windsor Castle, has dropped about $15 million in value over the same period to $320 million. "The figures highlight that even the Royal Family aren't immune to the recent property market slump and that larger properties have been effected too," Zoopla CEO Alex Chesterman tells the paper, noting that further decreases could well be in the offing.

Gallery: Poor Buckingham Palace