21L.015
INTRODUCTION TO MEDIA STUDIES
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- CAVE PAINTING ON THE WEB
- Tuesday 4 February 1997
- Martin Roberts
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- A CONFLICT OF INTERESTS II: IMAGES
- Wednesday 18 January 1995 [same day as official announcement
of cave's discovery]
- Jean-Marie Chauvet is issued with a warrant for a "temporary prospecting
mission" [mission temporaire de prospection] by the Ministry
of Culture dated 14 December-31 January 1994--i.e. backdated to 4 days
prior to the cave's discovery.
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- [3 months later--date unknown]
- Jean-Marie Chauvet receives a summons to appear in court [tribunal
de grande instance] in Paris, at which he is ordered to surrender the
photographs that he and his companions took of the cave shortly after its
discovery to the French Culture Ministry. Over the preceding three months,
the photographs and video footage have resulted in around 1m. FF [c. $200,000]
of business for Sygma, the press agency distributing them.
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- December 1996
- believing that the State is trying to rob them of their discovery,
Chauvet, Brunel, and Hillaire initiate legal proceedings against the Ministry
officials responsible for issuing the backdated warrant. Much of the 500,000
FF [c. $100,00] earned by the royalties of their photographs, video footage,
and book are spent on legal fees.
mroberts@mit.edu