VOA慢速英语2011--A New Book on Stealing Rembrandts and Ot

EXPLORATIONS - A New Book on Stealing Rembrandts and Other Artworks

FAITH LAPIDUS: I’m Faith Lapidus.
MARIO RITTER: And I’m Mario Ritter with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we learn about a famous stolen art case and visit the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. We also learn about a technology that uses human energy to power devices like cell phones and computers.
(MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS: Last month, a small drawing by the Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn was stolen from a hotel in southern California. The drawing was valued at more than two hundred fifty thousand dollars. The artwork mysteriously reappeared a few days later in a California church.
However, there are not always happy endings with other cases of stolen art.
In March of nineteen ninety, two men wearing police officer’s clothing entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The men used handcuffs and tape to restrain security guards. The thieves stole thirteen artworks, including three by Rembrandt. The stolen pieces also included works from Johannes Vermeer, Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas.
The artworks were said to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. None of them has ever been found. This remains¹ the largest case of art theft in American history.
MARIO RITTER: Anthony Amore and Tom Mashberg wrote a new book about the history of thefts of Rembrandt works. The book is called “Stealing Rembrandts: The Untold² Stories of Notorious Art Heists.”
Mr. Amore is a security expert. He currently heads security and the theft investigation³ at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Mr. Mashberg is an investigative reporter. Their book explores many interesting facts and stories about the world of art theft.
As part of his work on the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum case, Mr. Amore says he began learning everything about Rembrandt thefts over the past century.
ANTHONY AMORE: “The first step was to research old police records, talk to federal agencies, look at old archived newspaper articles. And then, reach international organizations, Interpol and the rest. And then, through those, especially for older thefts that happened decades ago, I found that art thieves were willing to speak about what they had done.”
FAITH LAPIDUS: Mr. Amore teamed up with Mr. Mashberg to write a book about the subject. Mr. Amore says they made interesting discoveries about art thieves in general.
ANTHONY AMORE: “These guys were involved in all kinds of theft. They were also familiar with robbing things like banks or pharmacies⁴, armored car robberies, home invasions.”
FAITH LAPIDUS: Mr. Mashberg says they also discovered something interesting about Rembrandt works.
TOM MASHBERG: “And we were really shocked to discover that there had been eighty-one robberies involving Rembrandts in the last one hundred years. He left behind at least a thousand works in the United States, Europe, Canada, and other parts of the world. His name is so familiar even to the most common criminal.”
FAITH LAPIDUS: Rembrandt is one of the most stolen artists of all time, second only to Pablo Picasso. Mr. Mashberg says the way art is shown openly in museums makes it easier to steal.
TOM MASHBERG: “When you go into a museum, you don’t want to see armed guards everywhere. You don’t want art to be behind Plexiglass and you don’t want to hear alarms go off every time you get within a couple of feet of a famous painting.”
MARIO RITTER: Art theft takes place more often than one might imagine. Mr. Mashberg and Mr. Amore tell about several thefts in their book. In one case, Mr. Mashberg says criminals burned a painting by Rembrandt to avoid getting caught.
But Mr. Amore notes that in eighty percent of theft cases, the works are found unharmed. Mr. Mashberg says that unlike diamonds or gold, stolen art has little value on the open market. The art is too recognizable to be sold in the art world without attracting attention. So, criminals have a difficult time selling what they have stolen.
TOM MASHBERG: “We have several cases in the book where the thieves just gave up and left the paintings off in a public place, like a train station or a park and then called police and said why don’t you just go pick it up. It’s too much trouble.”
This has not been the case for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. But Tom Mashberg and Anthony Amore are hopeful that the Rembrandts stolen more than twenty years ago will be recovered. And, they say that based on history, stealing art does not pay.
(MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS: For the first time, an American museum is holding an exhibit about the career of Korean artist Lee Ufan. The exhibit opened at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City earlier this summer. The show is called “Marking Infinity⁵.” It brings together seventy of the artist’s paintings, sculptures and drawings.
Lee Ufan was born in Korea, but has lived and taught in Japan. In addition to being an artist, he is a philosopher and a writer. His work is simple and direct. For example, his sculptures involve carefully placed stones and pieces of steel. His paintings are limited to one or two colors, often with repeated shapes.
Mr. Lee spent three weeks setting up his artworks at the Guggenheim Museum. He united examples from fifty years of his art into one statement. Many works are in the central room of the museum, which is in the shape of a spiral. The shape is a good choice for an artist who explores infinity in his work. Something that is infinite is unlimited⁶ and endless.
MARIO RITTER: Alexandra Munroe is the Guggenheim’s expert on Asian Art. She says that ideas of change have influenced the work of Lee Ufan.
ALEXANDRA MUNROE: “What is at the essence of his art is uncertainty⁷ and things that are not fixed⁸ and things that are open and scattered⁹, and open to our interpretation¹⁰ and open to our experience and infinite.”
MARIO RITTER: Mr. Lee grew up during the Korean War. The political changes he witnessed during the nineteen sixties also influenced his work. He became the leader of an artistic¹¹ movement in Japan called Mono-ha, or the “School of Things.” He wanted to create a new kind of art that celebrated¹² natural objects. This was art that paid attention to time and space and how an observer experiences the artworks.
ALEXANDRA MUNROE: “And there is another very important idea that you see both in his sculptures and his paintings, which I call the ethics¹³ of restraint. He’s interested in the relationship between making and non-making.”
FAITH LAPIDUS: Lee Ufan likes to work in series. A series of sculptures or paintings will explore a similar idea. For example, several paintings at the exhibit are called “From Point.” In one work, the artist put blue paint on a brush. He touched the brush to the surface of the painting repeatedly in a straight line. Slowly, the paint disappears from the brush and the mark becomes lighter¹⁴ and lighter. The brushwork suggests movement and the passing of time. The work is a painting, but it also is like a performance because it shows the actions made by the artist.
The Lee Ufan exhibit continues at the Guggenheim Museum until the end of the month.
(MUSIC)
MARIO RITTER: Scientists in the United States are working on a technology that uses human energy to power devices like cell phones, laptop computers, and GPS systems. Tom Krupenkin teaches electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin. He and his team want to reduce dependence¹⁵ on costly¹⁶ and polluting batteries. Instead of using batteries for power, they have turned to human beings.
TOM KRUPENKIN: “We humans are actually very powerful machines.”
MARIO RITTER: Professor Krupenkin and his team have placed a device in a shoe that collects and stores energy from human motion and turns it into electricity. One part of this device is an energy harvester. It has two small containers filled with thousands of very small drops of liquid. These droplets¹⁷ get pushed back and forth¹⁸ as a person walks.
TOM KRUPENKIN: “So it is essentially¹⁹ a flow of a fluid through flexible plastic tubes with embedded²⁰ electrodes which are covered by a special material that we invented. These actually directly convert it into electric power. Now, the output of this energy is stored in a regular rechargeable tiny battery of the style that we have in cell phones.”
FAITH LAPIDUS: The team has also developed a system to permit use of the stored energy by common mobile devices. It does not require connections with wires, and can be used to create a wireless²¹ signal. A cell phone that uses the wireless “hotspot” from the shoe would use much less power than if connected to a wireless telephone network.
The devices are about the size of a credit card. Professor Krupenkin says the system is always powered. So unlike a traditional battery, this energy harvester never needs to be recharged.
The professor says he does not expect this invention to replace traditional batteries. But it will help reduce dependence on them. He says the technology would be useful for people in some rural areas where there is no electrical power. He expects to have a commercial product on the market within the next two years.
(MUSIC)
MARIO RITTER: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange with reporting by Faiza Elmasry, Behnam Nateghi and Rosanne Skirble. I’m Mario Ritter.
FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. You can find our programs online with transcripts²², MP3s, podcasts and pictures at voanews.cn Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

1 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

2 untold   

adj.数不清的，无数的

参考例句：

• She has done untold damage to our chances.她给我们的机遇造成了不可估量的损害。
• They suffered untold terrors in the dark and huddled together for comfort.他们遭受着黑暗中的难以言传的种种恐怖，因而只好挤在一堆互相壮胆。

3 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

4 pharmacies   

药店

参考例句：

• Still, 32 percent of the pharmacies filled the prescriptions. 但仍然有32%的药剂师配发了这两张药方。 来自互联网
• Chinese herbal pharmacies, and traditional massage therapists in the Vancouver telephone book. 中药店，和传统的按摩师在温哥华的电话簿里。 来自互联网

5 infinity   

n.无限，无穷，大量

参考例句：

• It is impossible to count up to infinity.不可能数到无穷大。
• Theoretically,a line can extend into infinity.从理论上来说直线可以无限地延伸。

6 unlimited   

adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的

参考例句：

• They flew over the unlimited reaches of the Arctic.他们飞过了茫茫无边的北极上空。
• There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris.在技术方面自以为是会很危险。

7 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

8 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

9 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

10 interpretation   

n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理

参考例句：

• His statement admits of one interpretation only.他的话只有一种解释。
• Analysis and interpretation is a very personal thing.分析与说明是个很主观的事情。

11 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

12 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

13 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

14 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。

15 dependence   

n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属

参考例句：

• Doctors keep trying to break her dependence of the drug.医生们尽力使她戒除毒瘾。
• He was freed from financial dependence on his parents.他在经济上摆脱了对父母的依赖。

16 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

17 droplets   

n.小滴( droplet的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Droplets of sweat were welling up on his forehead. 他额头上冒出了滴滴汗珠。 来自辞典例句
• In constrast, exhaled smoke contains relatively large water droplets and appears white. 相反，从人嘴里呼出的烟则包含相当大的水滴，所以呈白色。 来自辞典例句

18 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

19 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

20 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

21 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

22 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句