Museums

Nearly four decades after their deaths, four combat photographers received a museum burial Thursday as family, friends and former colleagues recalled how the men gave their lives to show the world "Vietnam as they saw it." A helicopter carrying the four photographers was shot down over a mountainside in southern Laos on Feb. 10, 1971. Human remains were recovered in 1998, along with wreckage including camera parts, film and broken watches.

On the shores of Normandy where thousands of Americans died in the cataclysm that was D-day, a museum that aims at being more than a collection of rusting relics is preparing to commemorate another day that changed the world: Sept. 11, 2001. More than 120 mementos, including building keys and a smashed-up vehicle, are being shipped from New York to the French city of Caen for the first exhibition outside the United States, and the largest anywhere on the attack, its roots and aftermath.

For lovers of rare musical instruments, the Fiske Museum at the Claremont Colleges long has been an astonishing if somewhat mysterious collection. Its 1,200 instruments from around the world include an 18th century Italian mandolin, unusual over-the-shoulder military brasses from the Civil War era, a gourd fiddle from Africa and a 9-foot-long temple trumpet from Tibet.

America's fascination with crime will take a new turn Friday -- opening day for the National Museum of Crime and Punishment. In film classics such as "Little Caesar" and "Dial M for Murder" and today's TV staples of "CSI" and "Law & Order," crime has long been glorified. This new museum seeks to downplay the fame given to criminals and spotlight law enforcement's investigative work.

Tourism officials in Salzburg, Austria, are debating plans to build a "Sound of Music" museum. The Von Trapp family featured in the 1965 movie and Broadway musical lived there before the start of World War II. Salzburg officials say a museum containing memorabilia from the film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer could draw 140,000 visitors a year. But not everyone is enthusiastic about the idea. More than 600 neighborhood residents have signed a petition rejecting the proposal, saying they fear a museum would jam local streets with tour buses.

The city Department of Water and Power will pay two Hollywood museums $75,000 each to settle a dispute over artifacts allegedly contaminated by toxic PCBs in a 2004 electrical transformer fire. Leaders of the nonprofit Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters and the Society of American Magicians agreed Thursday to drop their lawsuit against the city after Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Allen White indicated that she was prepared to rule the contamination was not as severe as the two groups claimed.

A sweeping government audit has revealed that up to 50,000 pieces are missing from Russia's museums -- everything from Pre-Revolutionary medals and weapons to precious works of art -- a member of the survey team said Thursday. Former Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the survey after his government was deeply embarrassed in 2006 by hundreds of thefts from the crown jewel of Russia's art world, St. Petersburg's Hermitage gallery. More than 1,600 museums have been inspected since then, and most of them have items missing, Interior Ministry Col. Ilya Ryasnoi said in a telephone interview.

Francesco Ra is the Maytag repairman of Italian tourism. He is the guard and greeter at the least-visited museum in all of Italy: the National Royal Palace Museum of Pisa. Days, sometimes weeks, go by without seeing a single art lover or curious tourist. "I read a lot," Ra said. When a reporter wandered by, he practically snapped to attention, eagerly offering the guest sign-in book, with its many blank pages.

Mick Jagger's pout is officially fit for a museum. London's Victoria and Albert Museum announced Tuesday that it bought the original artwork for the Rolling Stones’ famous "lips" logo, inspired by the singer's mouth. The museum said it bought the work at an auction in the United States for $92,500. The lips-and-tongue logo was designed by London art student John Pasche in 1970 and first used on the band's "Sticky Fingers" album the next year.

Maybe you came here, to the edge of wine country, for some grown-up fun amid the Cabernets and Chardonnays of Napa Valley. But for dessert, you get the house that Charlie Brown built. Or rather, the museum Charles M. Schulz built. And the ice rink, the coffee shop, the gift shop, the gardens and the baseball field. Schulz, the father of the "Peanuts" cartoon strip, lived in Sonoma County for more than 40 years, constructing an empire around the hapless Charlie Brown and the irrepressible Snoopy.