This yearâs annual Hot List of the best new hotels from around the world is a story of resilience. Despite enormous hardship in the travel industry, exceptional properties have continued to open across the globe (nearly a thousand last year in the U.S. alone). As always with this endeavor, each of the 69 picks on this yearâs list was safely vetted by our international network of correspondents. Â But as weâve learned in the past year, everything is connected, which is why weâve also expanded the scope of hot to include restaurants, transportation, and destinations, as well as more news weâre excited about set for later this year. In spite of it all, these imminent openings and launches are a success story all their own. We think theyâre a pretty great way to mark the 25th anniversary of this list.
Munch gave museum some welcome PR
February 27, 2021
Norwegian painter Edvard Munch and his most famous work
The Scream provided some welcome publicity for Oslo’s new but still-unopened National Museum last week. The museum’s press release about his “hidden graffiti” on its version of
The Scream seemed to grab more attention around the world, though, than it did at home.
A combination of infrared photography and handwriting analysis led curators to conclude that artist Edvard Munch had scribbled a sarcastic sentence in pencil on the version of his
Scream that’s in the National Museum’s collection. PHOTO: National Museum
Infrared scans have revealed Norwegian artist Edvard Munch was the author of hidden graffiti on his 1893 painting The Scream.
The inscription near the top left corner reads kan kun være malet af en gal mand , which translates from Danish as can only have been painted by a madman and was thought to have been later added by vandals.
Following years of speculation, the National Museum of Norway has confirmed that the small and barely visible sentence was actually by the artist himself in about 1895.
Munch made the inscription with a pencil after a medical student said The Scream was the work of a mentally disturbed individual.