Booty Call

I was reading in the news today about vandals using a hammer and chisel to steal bits of of the giant rocks of Stonehenge in England, and it reminded me of something that kinda disturbed me during my trip to Chicago. It was the Tribune Tower, the headquarters building of the Chicago Tribune news media empire. It's a very handsome building, but embedded in its outer walls are a bunch of trophies looted from other famous buildings around the world. I'm sure they would dispute the term "looted"--maybe the pieces of stonework were leftovers from remodeling, that would otherwise be used as doorstops-- but I bet at least some of them weren't.

Wouldn't most Americans feel a bit miffed to encounter a chunk of the White House embedded in the walls of some British newspaper, for example? Of course, it's possible that some of the pieces aren't genuine--we're talking about the work of journalists here--but there's something very narcissistic and bullying about thinking that one can pick up other people's stuff and display it as one's own. Newspapers have gotten in trouble over that before.

Above: The Wrigley Building on the left, the Tribune Tower on the right. Click to enlarge.




Above: chunks of the Cologne Cathedral, the Greek Parthenon, and a fortress in the Philippines.




A head that the British Parliament wasn't using any more.