Wednesday's Art Notes

_View of a Buddha statue discovered inside an ancient monastery in Mes Aynak, in the eastern province of Logar on November 23, 2010. The archaeological dig is located at the world's second-biggest unexploited copper mine. The Chinese government-backed mining company, China Metallurgical Group Corp., which won the contract to exploit the site, has given archaeologists three years to finish the excavations. Archaeologists fear that the 2,600-year-old Buddhist monastery will probably be largely destroyed once work at the mine begins. Photo by Shah Marai/ AFP/ Getty Images_ * An expected guest at a writer's conference in Istanbul, Nobel-prize winning author V.S. Naipaul has canceled his appearance after pressure from conservative Islamic media outlets in Turkey, via "The Wall Street Journal":http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704526504575634592872501652.html?mod=googlenews_wsj. * A record that John Lennon unknowingly signed for his murderer, Mark David Chapman, just hours before his death will be sold on an "Internet auction":http://momentsintime.com/Lennon.htm, via "The Guardian": Exercising to piano music helps prevent seniors from falling, via "BBC":http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11796896. * An Austrian art commission suggests that a museum give up and return art works that had been looted by Nazis, via "Bloomberg":http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-24/nazi-looted-art-should-be-returned-by-museum-austrian-commission-rules.html. * The Royal Shakespeare Company opens its new theater complex in Stratford-Upon-Avon, via "The Guardian":http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/gallery/2010/nov/23/rsc-stratford-shakespeare-theatre-complex#/?picture=368973560&index=0.