Month: March 2020

One of the supposedly most valuable exhibits at the Museum of the Bible in Washington has turned out to be fake. Experts have determined that 16 waxy yellow fragments said to be remnants of the Dead Sea Scrolls are not part of an ancient Hebrew Bible, but rather forgeries. The real ancient scrolls were first found in 1947 in Qumran caves near the Dead Sea shore. They are considered to be one of the most significant historic discoveries of all time and are kept in Israel. American billionaire Steve Green acquired the fakes about 10 years ago from private collectors to be one of the central exhibits in his Bible museum, which opened in 2017. Scholars were immediately suspicious of the authenticity of the scrolls, compelling the museum to submit the items for analysis by more than one appraiser. Evidence that the scrolls were not authentic led the museum to hire Art Fraud Insights for expert analysis that took six months and resulted in a 200-page report. “After an exhaustive review of all the imaging and scientific analysis results, it is evident that none of the textual fragments in Museum of the Bible’s Dead Sea Scroll collection are authentic,” said the head of the investigation, Colette Loll of Art Fraud Insights.     Scientists have found that the collection of fragments was a set of deliberately made forgeries created in the 20th century with the intent to mimic the authentic Dead Sea Scroll fragments. The forgers have used mineral surface deposits consistent with Middle East archeological digs and used small scraps of ancient leather, coated with an amber material to create a surface with the appearance of ancient parchment.  Investigators have also determined that the ink used on the fragments did not match the ink on the authentic scrolls. The scientific report notes that since 2002 the antiquities market has become flooded with unknown textual fragments written in Hebrew or Aramaic, described as newly discovered biblical fragments.  The 200-page report is accessible from the museum’s web page.
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The NCAA made more than $1 billion last year, almost $867 million from the men’s Division I basketball tournament, and most of that from a massive television rights deal with CBS and Turner that runs through the 2032 tournament.The cornonavirus not only wiped out the games, but it will create some unexpected red ink on the NCAA’s balance sheet this year. Exactly how much is to be determined.”Well, I can’t give you any specific numbers because we don’t know yet,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said. “We know that the financial implications are all negative and we’re going to have to deal with those.”The NCAA canceled the tournament last Thursday because of concerns over spreading the virus. At first, the NCAA announced the games would go on, but the general public would be kept out of the buildings. A day later, the whole thing was scrapped.The NCAA’s contract with CBS and Turner pays about $800 million per year.It is standard for media rights contracts to have language that relieves rights holders from financial obligations if games are canceled due to events outside the control of the property, said Chris Bevilacqua, co-founder of Bevilacqua Helfant Ventures.”Typically, those right fees are paid in installments. Let’s presume a couple of those installments were probably already paid and the bigger installments haven’t been paid because the tournament hasn’t happened,” said Bevilacqua, who has advised leagues and college conferences in TV contract negotiations but was not involved in the NCAA’s deals.”I’m sure they have a way to deal with a total and complete cancellation,” he said.Emmert has said the NCAA has business disruption insurance to cover some of its losses.Bevilacqua said the long-running partnership between the NCAA and CBS, which has aired the tournament every year since 1982, and Turner could help the two sides find a resolution to any outstanding money matters.”Maybe that allows for CBS and Turner to extend the deal by a year at some favorable rate whenever it ends,” Bevilacqua said.Sponsorship deals that companies have with CBS and Turner to run advertisements during games are typically structured similarly to the rights fees. If the spots don’t run, the sponsors don’t have to pay.Typically, the money flows from sponsors to the networks to the NCAA to the schools.”Every one of those steps has to be worked through to determine what is going to happen here. And that has to happen in conjunction with the insurance conversation,” said Greg Shaheen, a former NCAA executive who oversaw the men’s basketball tournament. “And the insurance company is going to, I’m certain, want to say to the association: ‘You know, we want to make sure that you get every penny you potentially are entitled for out of your contracts before we just roll over and pay some amount.’”The NCAA distributes 60% of its annual revenue to schools in various ways, including shares called units distributed to conferences and determined by how many teams from a league reached the tournament and how many games those teams won.Last year the Division I Basketball Performance Fund doled out $168.8 million.The NCAA and the richest and most powerful conferences, such as the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference, should be able to take any possible financial hit that comes from the men’s basketball tournament not being played. All the Power Five conferences have billion dollar TV deals, with football as the centerpiece. Not completing their conference basketball tournaments will cost them both in lost box office and lost inventory provided to their rights holders.”For the top six or eight conferences … they all have a decent amount of flow through in terms of their regular revenues,” Shaheen said.Those mid-major conferences, the ones that usually get only one team in the tournament, and rely heavily on the few tournament units they accrue, could really feel the pinch of the lost revenue.”We have had that question arise, how revenue will be affected?” Atlantic Sun Commissione Ted Gumbart said. “And the simple answer is, it’s going to be affected and we have to realize that it’s an unprecedented situation and we may have to make some changes.” 
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The Rolling Stones are postponing its 15-city North American tour because of the growing coronavirus outbreak.The band announced Tuesday that its No Filter Tour, originally expected to kick off in San Diego on May 8, is postponed. The band’s tour was also planned to visit some North American cities they haven’t played in years, including Cleveland, St. Louis, Austin, Texas, Louisville, Kentucky, Charlotte, North Carolina and Tampa, Florida.
“We’re hugely disappointed to have to postpone the tour. We are sorry to all the fans who were looking forward to it as much as we were, but the health and safety of everyone has to take priority. We will all get through this together — and we’ll see you very soon,” the Stones said in a statement.Tour promoter AEG is advising concertgoers to hold onto their original tickets and wait for more information.The Stones’ tour through North America last year was postponed after Mick Jagger had heart surgery, but the band rescheduled those dates and returned triumphantly to the road with a show in Chicago. Another of the rescheduled shows featured the announcement that NASA had named a tiny tumbling stone spotted on the Martian surface after the band.The vast majority of people recover from the new virus, but for some, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. 
 
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This year’s European Championship was postponed for one year on Tuesday because of the coronavirus outbreak. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said the spreading virus currently “makes football and all life in Europe quite impossible.” The tournament is now scheduled to be played from next June 11 to July 11. The UEFA executive committee made the decision after hosting a video conference call with its 55 national member federations. The European Championship final typically attracts a broadcast audience of 300 million worldwide and made UEFA a profit of 830 million euros ($912 million) four years ago. “Moving Euro 2020 comes at a huge cost for UEFA,” Ceferin said in a statement. The decision was taken during an intense day of talks with member federations and the leaders of European club soccer, which is in a near-total shutdown. It is still far from clear when the public health crisis could ease enough for European soccer to resume. Still, taking Euro 2020 off the calendar clears valuable weeks in which domestic leagues and cups, and the Champions League and Europa League, could be completed. “We think postponing the Euro is the only [way] to get a chance to the national leagues and to all the club competitions to finish,” Ceferin said. Euro 2020 was scheduled to start on June 12 in 12 countries from Ireland to Azerbaijan, and Russia to Italy. A one-year postponement became UEFA’s favored option last week. The freeze on games amid the pandemic has put broadcasting deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars on hold and could lead to the 2019-20 season being annulled in some competitions. UEFA’s first call on Tuesday was with leaders of the European Club Association and European Leagues groups, plus the FIFPro players’ union. Completing domestic league seasons would allow titles to be awarded and decide entries for the next Champions League and Europa League. The first qualifying games are already scheduled for late June. If resuming the season is possible, UEFA’s options to complete this season include playing the quarterfinals and semifinals as single games instead of over two legs where each team has a home match. The Champions League final is scheduled for May 30 in Istanbul, but the Turkish city could also be asked host the semifinals in a mini-tournament at a later date. The likely last available date to play the final is June 27. Also, 16 of UEFA’s members are involved in the Euro 2020 playoffs, which were scheduled to be played on March 26 and 31. They will decide the last four entries in the 24-nation final tournament, and could now be played in early June. Postponing Euro 2020 has also created a backlog of national team games in a packed calendar managed by FIFA. June 2021 was occupied by the UEFA Nations League final tournament of four teams, plus the start of FIFA’s inaugural 24-team Club World Cup. It is due to be hosted in China and feature eight European clubs but no broadcasting or sponsor deals have yet been announced. FIFA has not commented on revising its Club World Cup plan. Qualifying games for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar are also scheduled for June 2021 in most European countries. There is currently no space in the calendar to reschedule all those games, and a reduced qualifying program will likely be considered. However, any cuts in national team matches will impact member federations’ revenue and centralized broadcasting deals managed by UEFA.  
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A retired African American educator is using his new career as an artist to educate younger generations about racial divisions that led to some of the darkest chapters in American history. The work of the sculptor is now on exhibit in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where VOA’s Chris Simkins caught up with the artist.
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A retired African American educator is using his new career as an artist to educate younger generations about racial divisions that led to some of the darkest chapters in American history. The work of the sculptor is now on exhibit in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where VOA’s Chris Simkins caught up with the artist.
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