In a small valley in the Peloponnesus, the shrine of Asklepios, the god of medicine, developed out of a much earlier cult of Apollo (Maleatas), during the 6th century BC at the latest, as the official cult of the city state of Epidaurus.  Its principal monuments, particularly the temple of Asklepios, the Tholos and the Theatre--considered one of the purest masterpieces of Greek architecture--date from the 4th century.  The vast site, with its temples and hospital buildings devoted to its healing gods, provides valuable insight into the healing cults of Greek and Roman times.  The Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus is a remarkable testament to the healing cults of the Ancient World and witness to the emergence of scientific medicine.  Situated in the Peloponnese, in the Regional unit of Argolis, the site comprises a series of ancient monuments spread over two terraces and surrounded by a preserved natural landscape.  Among the monuments of the Sanctuary is the striking Theatre of Epidaurus, which is renowned for its perfect architectural proportions and exemplary acoustics. The Theatre, together with the Temples of Artemis and Asklepios, the Tholos, the Enkoimeterion and the Propylaia, comprise a coherent assembly of monuments that illustrate the significance and power of the healing gods of the Hellenic and Roman worlds.  The Sanctuary is the earliest organized sanatorium and is significant for its association with the history of medicine, providing evidence of the transition from belief in divine healing to the science of medicine.  Initially, in the 2nd millennium BCE it was a site of ceremonial healing practices with curative associations that were later enriched through the cults of Apollo Maleatas in the 8th century BCE and then by Asklepios in the 6th century BCE.  The Sanctuary of the two gods was developed into the single most important therapeutic center of the ancient world.  These practices were subsequently spread to the rest of the Greco-Roman world and the Sanctuary thus became the cradle of medicine.  Among the facilities of the classical period are buildings that represent all the functions of the Sanctuary, including healing cults and rituals, library, baths, sports, accommodation, hospital and theatre.  http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/491

The Woman in Gold  Tom Teodorczuk on the remarkable restitution story behind one of Gustav Klimt’s most iconic works, now the subject of a major Hollywood movie  The mesmerising radiance of Adele Bloch-Bauer’s gaze in Gustav Klimt’s gold-flecked 1907 portrait of her provides no hint of the turbulent fate that lay in store for the painting.  Commissioned by her sugar-industrialist husband Ferdinand, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I  took Klimt three years to create, and was completed amid speculation that the Austrian artist and his high-society subject were lovers.  Following Adele’s death in 1925 from meningitis, the masterpiece remained in the Bloch-Bauers’ Vienna townhouse until the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938.  Targeted amid the Nazis’ cultural looting spree, it was one of five Klimt paintings taken from the Bloch-Bauer residence, with the pictures ending up in Vienna’s Belvedere Gallery.  Ferdinand died in exile in Switzerland in 1945.  The Nazis also stole an engagement ring belonging to Maria Altmann, Adele’s niece. Altmann escaped from Austria, making her way to Los Angeles with her husband, where she opened a dress boutique.  When the Austrian government passed a restitution law in 1998, ruling that property stolen by the Nazis could be returned to its rightful owners, Maria Altmann—now in her 80s—began a legal battle to regain the Klimts that belonged to her family, which included a second portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.  She partnered with inexperienced lawyer Randol Schoenberg—grandson of her aunt’s composer friend Arnold Schoenberg—for what became a protracted battle for justice against the Austrian authorities, the latter erroneously arguing that they legally owned the pictures.  Altmann needed to obtain proof that Adele’s stated wish to leave the paintings to the Belvedere Museum was superseded by the will of Ferdinand (the legal owner), who named his nieces as heirs, and secure a ruling from the United States Supreme Court, permitting her to sue Austria in an American court.  An arbitration panel in Vienna would ultimately award Altmann ownership of the paintings.  In June 2006 cosmetics magnate Ronald Lauder purchased Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I  for $135 million—then the highest price ever paid for a painting—for display in Manhattan’s Neue Galerie, a sale brokered by Christie’s.  The other Klimts were sold at a Christie’s sale of Impressionist and Modern Art later that year.  In 2007 filmmaker Simon Curtis happened to see a BBC documentary about Altmann, Stealing Klimt, and unsurprisingly thought the remarkable tale was tailor-made for Hollywood.  His resulting movie is Woman in Gold, starring Dame Helen Mirren as Maria Altmann and Ryan Reynolds as her lawyer, Schoenberg.  The film switches between Adele Bloch-Bauer in turn-of-the-century Vienna, the upheaval suffered by the family in the wake of the Nazi occupation of Austria, and Maria’s legal crusade towards the end of her life (she died in 2011).  According to Curtis, Woman in Gold  is not merely the narrative of a painting, but a portrait of a century.  ‘It’s one of the great stories of the 20th century,’ he notes.  ‘Maria was born during that remarkable time in Vienna when it had become the crucible for all the great ideas of the 20th century.  Art, music, science and psychology were merging together.  Then there was this extraordinary chain of events, and at the conclusion of the century both Maria and the painting ended up in the United States.’  With the help of the late investigative journalist Hubertus Czernin, played in the film by Daniel Brühl, Maria proved that Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer had named his nieces as heirs.  At times, said Lash, the fight was farcical.  ‘I had a good time watching the expressions of the judges during the Supreme Court case, particularly Judge [Clarence] Thomas who dozed off for a good part of the hearing.  I kept a record based on their facial expressions of who would be voting which way, and I wasn’t far wrong.’  Austria vs. Altmann was a landmark case for restitution according to Monica Dugot, International Director of Restitution at Christie’s.  ‘It was at a time when, while there were a number of restitution claims pending, there hadn’t been such a major victory,’ she explains.  Read more and see pictures at http://www.christies.com/features/The-Woman-in-Gold-7494-1.aspx

Inaugurated in 2001, the Neue Galerie on New York City’s Museum Mile exhibits the works of early 20th century German and Austrian artists.  The upper floor of the museum is dedicated to fine and decorative art, including paintings by Klimt, Kokoschka, Schiele, and Werkstaette.  Since 2006, the museum has been home to Klimt’s famous Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer:  The Woman in Gold (1907), considered one the artist’s greatest paintings. https://theculturetrip.com/europe/austria/articles/the-6-best-places-to-see-gustav-klimt-s-art/

-esque  suffix forming adjectives  indicating a specified character, manner, style, or resemblance:  picturesque, Romanesque, statuesque, Chaplinesque   Etymology:  via French from Italian -esco, of Germanic origin; compare -ish  http://www.wordreference.com/definition/-esque  Other -esque words:   arabesque, humoresque, burlesque, grotesque

Tillamook, Oregon is home to the largest free-standing, clear-span wooden structure in the world.  Covering more than seven acres, the building is 1,072 feet long, 296 feet wide, and towers more than 15 stories high.  Hangar B of Naval Air Station (NAS) Tillamook was commissioned and constructed by the U.S. Navy in 1943 to house blimps for anti-submarine patrol and convoy escort.  Hangar A, built in the same year in just twenty-seven days, was destroyed by fire in 1992.  Together, the two hangars could house eight K-class blimps—each 252 feet long.  Each hangar required more than two million board feet of lumber, most of it from Oregon.  Even the gutters and downspouts used wood to conserve metal, and more than 2,000 tons of steel were saved per hangar.  Each timber was treated with fire retardant, and it took fifty different lumber companies to prepare and supply all the wood needed.  The buildings were completed in summer 1943.  The first blimp had arrived on February 15 that year; but because there was no hangar to protect it, it was torn to pieces in a heavy storm on March 27.  With the huge hangars completed, NAS Tillamook stationed blimps during 1943-1945.  They were used to watch over ports in Oregon and Washington and shipping lanes from California to the San Juan Islands, a 500-mile radius.  These Lighter-than-Air (LTA) ships could stay aloft 48 hours, cruise at 50-67 knots, and cover 13,000 square miles of water during a day’s shift.  On September 15, 1945, two weeks after the Japanese surrender, Tillamook station was reduced to functional status.  In 1992, the Port of Tillamook Bay established a small blimp museum and by 1996 had acquired one of the finest collections of operational vintage World War I and II aircraft and a modern F-14 Tomcat fighter jet.  The museum features more than thirty war birds, including a Bf-109 Messerschmitt, A-4B Skyhawk, P-38 Lightning, Martin AM Mauler, 1938 Bellanca Air Cruiser, Bell Helicopter, Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber, AD-4W Skyraider, and the rare Nakajima Ki-43, known as the Peregrine Falcon.  Ulrich H. Hardt  https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/naval_air_station_tillamook_tillamook_air_museum/#.WPyjQBPyuUk  See also http://www.tillamookair.com/hours-/

NAME CHANGES   Puppeteer Shari Lewis (born Sonia Phyllis Hurwitz 1933)  http://mentalfloss.com/article/80749/18-play-along-facts-about-shari-lewis-and-lamb-chop  Composer Vangelis (born  Evangelos Odyssey Papathanassiou 1943) http://www.billboard.com/artist/277731/vangelis/biography  Painter, filmmaker and photographer Man Ray (born Emmanuel Rudnitzky 1890)  http://www.biography.com/people/man-ray-9452778   Rap star Drake (born Aubrey Drake Graham 1986)  http://www.biography.com/people/drake-596834

With the nights getting warmer, skywatchers will have a fine show tonight (May 10, 2017) from the May full moon, known as the Full Flower or Milk Moon.  The moon will appear in the constellation Libra, rising at 7:49 p.m. on May 10 for observers in New York City.  The moon's exact moment of fullness will occur at 5:42 p.m. EDT (2142 GMT) as calculated by timeanddate.com, so most East Coast residents won't be able to see that exact moment—but the moon will still appear full in the sky over the course of the night. In New York City, the moon sets at 6:28 a.m. the morning of May 11.  (These times will vary a bit as one moves farther south or north).  Read more at http://www.space.com/36786-may-full-flower-moon-tonight.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1707  May 10, 2017  On this date in 1869, the First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, was completed at Promontory Summit, Utah with the golden spike.  On this date in 1872, Victoria Woodhull became the first woman nominated for President of the United States.