SALE OF EGYPTIAN STATUE CAN'T BE STOPPED DESPITE PROTESTS AND THREAT OF CURSE

AFTER more than two years of pleas, threats and legal lawsuits, a private individual will be able to remove a 4,500-year-old Egyptian statue from a cash-strapped museum in England.

The dispute started in 2014 when Christie's auctioned off the statue of Sekhemka to an undisclosed buyer for a whopping $27 million dollars ... more than twice the anticipated value.

Efforts were made to raise money to buy back the statue and the British Department of Culture slapped an export ban on the statue ... but that ban has now expired after no one was able to come up with the money to buy back the statue.

From the start, this drama has played out like a Hammer Films horror movie.

As the auctioneer was selling off the statue in July 2014, protesters chanted outside the prestigious auction house ... an Egyptian diplomat scowled in dismay ... officials warned of dire consequences to the English museum which put the statue up for sale. And there had even been croakings of doom and the threat that an Ancient Egyptian curse might befall those who sold it ... as well as the new owner.

All that was missing from the scene was a bolt of lightning and crack of thunder when the gavel came down on the purchase of the statue of Sekhemka.

At the focus of the controversy is a small statue less than three feet tall (75 cm) which has been in a museum in Northampton England since the 19th Century, but which local officials felt forced to part with in order to help fund a large expansion of the museum. 

Originally the statue would have been placed in Sekhemka’s tomb chapel as a "living image" for visits from priests and members of his family to honour his memory and leave offerings to sustain him in the afterlife.

Sekhemka was a late 5th Dynasty Inspector of scribes, and served his pharaoh ... possibly king Unas ... around 2400 BC … shortly after the Pyramids were built.

It was obtained by the Second Marquis of Northampton in 1850.

It was taken off display at Northampton Museum in 2010 after officials learned it could be worth millions. 

Local council officials said they had no choice but to sell it because keeping it would require millions to provide proper security and round-the-clock guards.

Archaeologists around the world decried the sale, calling it scandalous and detrimental to efforts to preserve the world's cultural heritage. 

They warned that the fund-raising effort might backfire because the Northampton Museum could now loose government cultural subsidies due to the sale.

Protestors  gathered outside Christie's before the sale said they wanted the statue to be returned to Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities.

Sue Edwards, from the Save Sekhemka Action Group, who travelled from Northampton to the auction, said: "This is the darkest cultural day in the town's history.

"The local authority has made a huge mistake but we will continue our fight to save Sekhemka."

The Egyptian ambassador to Britain said the council should have handed the statue back if it did not want it.

"A museum should not be a store. Sekhemka belongs to Egypt and if Northampton Borough Council does not want it then it must be given back," Egyptian Ambassador Ahsraf Elkholy said.

"It's not ethical that it will be sold for profit and also not acceptable. The council should have consulted with the Egyptian government," Cairo's ambassador said in an emotional plea.

Christie's said it would reveal details of the new owner later, according to the BBC.

In August 2013, the leaders of Northampton Borough Council announced plans to sell the statue of Sekhemka after it was valued at an estimated £2 million.

Leaders of the Liberal Democrat opposition group tried to block the sale this week by calling for Sekhemka to be put back on display at Northampton Museum.

Yet the Conservative leaders of the council blocked their efforts, prompting Liberal Democrat leader, Councillor Brendan Glynane to declare they should be cursed.

He said: "I've read there is a curse attached to Sekhemka and if it should fall on anyone, it should fall on this administration for not having the courage to change their minds."

He was apparently referring to a popular novel entitled THE CURSE OF SEKHEMKA by Matthew Messina.

Amidst the furore, the Priests of Antinous do not condemn the sale outright. But we caution that it sets a potentially dangerous precedent ... particularly against the backdrop of rampant looting and pillaging of archaeological treasures in Egypt.

It is entirely possible that Sekhemka's new owner will be a worthy steward and will ensure the safety of this sacred statue.

We join our friends at Jeff Burzacott's HIEROGLYPHICA (who provided the transliteration of Sekhemka's name above) in a fervent prayer that Sekhemka has "a joyous and abundant after life in his new home ... wherever that may be."

MODERN SCULPTURE 'RUINS' INSTALLED AGAINST BACKDROP OF POMPEII RUINS

AN amazing exhibition of modern sculptural "ruins" has been installed against the backdrop of the ancient ruins of Pompeii.

The exhibition of over-size colossal bronzes by Polish artist Igor Mitoraj runs through 8 January 2017.

The traveling exhibition arrives in Pompeii from a widely hyped stints in the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento and the Trajan's Forum in Rome.

In all, 28 bronze sculptures have been placed in strategic areas of Pompeii, including the Temple of Isis, the Forum, the Stabian Baths and the portico of the amphitheater.

The elegant sculptures, inspired iconology based on Classical myths and legends, exquisitely complement the ancient ruins of ancient Pompeii. A perfect marriage between modern and ancient culture.

ANTINOUS IS THE GOD OF THE GAYS BUT WAS HE GAY IN THE MODERN SENSE?

WE are often asked whether Antinous was gay during his mortal lifetime ... truly gay, at least as we understand the complex sociological and orientation that exist today.

This stunning portrait by famed collage artist DOUG STAPLETON shows modern faces superimposed on the face of Antinous.

But was Antinous "gay" in the modern sense?

Scholars have quibbled ... especially in Victorian times ... that Hadrian and Antinous were not homosexuals in the modern sense.

Instead, they were engaged in a socially acknowledged erotic relationship between an adult male (the erastes) and a younger male (the eromenos) usually in his teens ... or so the uptight scholars argued.

These semantic nuances allowed academics to sidestep the socially loaded issue of calling some of the greatest figures in history "practicing homosexuals" ... because that might imply that homosexuality was in fact not a degenerate mental illness, but instead was perfectly normal.

Even up until the turn of the 21st Century, many academicians (mostly male) persisted in avoiding the "G" word when referring to Hadrian and Antinous.

All of that changed at a news conference in London a few years ago.

"Hadrian was gay, and we can say that now. The Victorians had a problem with it. But we can say it." Thorsten Opper, a British Museum curator of Greek and Roman sculpture shocked the stuffy world of academia when he made that statement ... at a news conference announcing the Museum's Hadrian: Empire and Conflict" exhibition in 2008.

The British Museum, that bastion of staid and conservative scholarship, signaled a paradigm shift in historical awareness of homosexuality. 

The collage portrait of Antinous by artist Doug Stapleton on this page symbolizes the many layers of perception of gayness through the ages.

Our own high priest, Flamen Antonius Subia, explains the change in attitude that has taken place ... it is not so much gayness which has changed ... but rather the cultural perception of gays has changed ... not only society's perception of gays ... but more especially the perception of gayness amongst gays.

"Gay has always been and always will be, or so I feel," Antonius says. "Antinous was gay in the way that gays were in Roman times, which is different from how gays were in the 1950's, which is different from how gays are now," he says.

"Antinous represents the divine essence that we all hold in common, so yes, I believe that in his own way and for his time, Antinous was gay just like we are now."

MORE TUT TESTS REVEAL MORE SECRETS BUT EXPERTS WON'T REVEAL THEM ... YET!

A new series of radar scans has revealed more secrets, but experts caution an impatient world that the results require patient study before any firm details can be revealed.

Egypt's new antiquities minister says that a third round of radar scans seeking hidden chambers in the famous chamber offered more hints in the search for what could be Queen Nefertiti's tomb.

"We have a lot of information. So at this moment, 10 hours after finishing work, we can't say 100 per cent whether there is something or not," Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Anany said after the scans were complete.

It will take at least a week to review the extensive data collected by two types of radar scanners, he said. The team needs time to remove signal interference and anomalies in the data, said Mohamed Abbas, the head of the Egyptian team involved in the research.

A fourth round of scanning, using yet another technique, is scheduled for later in April, followed by an international conference of experts on May 8 to discuss the findings.

Earlier, it was officially confirmed that the secret chambers behind hidden doorways in the tomb of Tutankhamun "contain either metal or organic material."

Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities announced that two previously un-discovered chambers have been revealed by scans of King Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

The Ministry said that the two chambers, on the North and Eastern walls of the tomb, contain either metal or organic material, according to scans carried out by Japanese radar specialist Hirokatsu Watanabu.

New scans will be conducted later this month to determine the exact dimensions of the chambers, said the Ministry.

The revelations come months after Egypt's Minister of Antiquities said there was a 90 per cent chance that one or more hidden chambers were concealed in the tomb.

The latest findings, which lend credence to British archaeologist Nicholas Reeves' theory that NEFERTITI could be buried in those secret chambers.

At a news conference in November, fittingly held at Howard Carter's Rest House on Luxor's West Bank, the Minister of Antiquities, Dr. Mamdouh El-Damaty, announced that the radar scans of Tutankhamun's Burial Chamber revealed there is A LARGE VOID behind what we now know is a false wall in Tutankhamun's Burial Chamber.

The radar scans revealed that the transition from solid bedrock to masonry is stark. There is a straight, vertical line - the line that Nicholas Reeves first spotted earlier this year on high-definition scans of the tomb wall.

It strongly suggests that the antechamber continues through the burial chamber as a corridor.

Reeves believes that what looks like a solid, painted wall, is actually a ruse designed to foil tomb robbers. 

A number of other tombs in the Valley of the Kings used the same device. Tutankhamun's seems to be the only one that worked.

So what's next?

The Minister of Antiquities suggests that the next step is to drill as small hole in the wall of the side room known as theTreasury. 

It adjoins the "void" behind the wall in the Burial Chamber.

And, importantly, it has no painted decoration that could be damaged.

If a camera reveals artefacts within the chamber behind the wall, then a tunnel starting from the Treasury might be the best bet.

But for now, let's congratulate Dr. Nicholas Reeves for the results so far. He spotted something that ancient thieves, Howard Carter, and hundreds of scientists since missed - the outline of a hidden doorway in Tutankhamun's tomb.

Not only was Nefertiti famous for her beauty, which remains evident through her world-renowned 3,300-year-old painted limestone bust housed at the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, but she was also the Great Royal Wife of the Pharaoh Akhenaten and his chief consort.

Nefertiti's burial site has long been a mystery as archaeologists have so far failed to find the queen’s tomb.

King Tutankhamun's tomb was found in 1922 under the supervision of another British archaeologist and Egyptologist, Howard Carter.

HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN SAINT OF ANTINOUS

WE remember Danish fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen as a Saint of Antinous because he was gay although he may never have acted on his gayness.

Biographer Jens Andersen says the author could not overcome societal strictures against homosexuality ... but also could not bring himself to marry a woman.

In modern parlance, "he was just not that into girls", according to the author.

In an almost Freudian manner, Andersen channeled his sexual energies into his writing, creating some of the finest fairy-tale fiction ever written.

He fictionalized his biography as a wonderful fairy tale, even naming his autobiography "The Fairy Tale of My Life".

His own life read like a fairy tale. He was born April 2, 1805, in Odense, the son of a poor shoemaker and an illiterate laundry woman. 

Like "The Ugly Duckling", he was an eccentric boy who was teased merciless by other children for being odd-looking and awkward and for wearing hand-me-downs.

At age 14 he moved to Copenhagen in hopes of finding other misfits like himself. He succeeded beyond his dreams, winning the hearts of leading bourgeois families, who sponsored his education. 

Andersen finished his secondary schooling in 1828 and determinedly set about establishing himself as a writer. He published his first novel within a year and

was soon on his way to fame, churning out novels, travel books, dramas, autobiographies and poetry. 

Firmly established as a Danish man of letters, he turned his talents to fairy tales in 1837, he began writing the fairy tales that won him international fame and access to the royal houses and cultural elites of Europe. 

He travelled widely, touring Europe and Britain. In London, he stayed with Charles Dickens, who found the effeminate, fussy, self-centered and hypochondriacal bachelor a tiresome guest.

While Andersen's novels are traditional romantic works celebrating religion and nature and displaying a deep faith in God, his fairy tales offered room for

his subconscious mind to work out "relationship issues", according to his biographer.

Many of the fairy tales may be read as gay allegories, and some are clearly autobiographical. 

For instance, "The Little Mermaid" was written after a crisis Andersen suffered in 1836 at the marriage of Edvard Collin. 

Andersen's novel "O.T.", depicting an intimate male friendship, is also influenced by this unrequited love, according to the biographer.

Although Andersen typically conducted one-sided infatuations with young men, he did experience a more reciprocal romantic friendship with the Hereditary

Grand Duke of Weimar, Carl-Alexander von Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, whom he met in 1844. 

In his later years, Andersen was infatuated with the young ballet dancer, Harald Scharff.

Andersen died on August 4, 1875. It was not until 1893 that his sexuality was publicly discussed, when a newspaper hinted that he may have been a homosexual. 

In 1901, an article in Magnus Hirschfeld's Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle Zwischenstufen also discussed him as a homosexual.

Actually, says his biographer, Andersen may never have had sexual relations with anyone. The pages of his diaries are festooned with crosses which he used to indicate masturbation.

The famous crosses suggest that he was an ardent masturbator, who meticulously recorded this act, as he recorded everything else in his life.

Throughout his life, Hans Christian Andersen thought of himself as the ugly duckling … a misfit undeserving of being loved by anybody.

ON THE VENERALIA By Flamen Antinoalis Antonius Subia

Mother Venus, Queen of Heaven

I lift up my heart to you.

When I was lost,

You brought me to the ruins of your temple

And all my doubts vanished among the stones.

You have forgiven my transgressions

And restored me to the path of destiny

She-Wolf, Mother of the Romans

In whose border-fields Antinous dwells forever

Gather them around me now

Let the key open the darkest doors

The splendor of your beautiful child

Radiates between us and binds us together

I will spread his power to the far corners of the world

Love, Pleasure, Beauty, Feeling

We are invincible.

Ave Venus
~ANTONIUS SUBIA

THE VENERALIA WHEN VENUS BLESSES HOMOSEXUAL LOVE

ON April 1st we honor Venus Urania, who blesses homosexual love.

When Saturn castrated his father Uranus, and separated the sky from the earth, by cutting away the testicles of heaven, Venus, the Great Goddess of Love was born, where the foam of the testicles washed ashore on the island of Cyprus.

She was attended by the Erotes, the spirits of desire, as seen in this image: "D'après Botticelli" 1984, acrylic on canvas, by the noted Italian artist, Marco Silombria. Soon afterwards she created the three Graces.

She was brought into Olympus by marrying Vulcan, the smith god, but Venus is an older, and more powerful than the Olympians, except for Zeus, because she is directly descended from Uranus, the heavens.

Venus shared her love with almost all the gods, to the humiliation of Vulcan, Juno's son, but her most ardent desire was for the war god Mars, whose virile masculinity is in direct contrast to her voluptuous feminine grace.

Together Mars and Venus fought for the Trojans against the other jealous goddesses, and though Zeus gave victory to the Greeks, he promised Venus that her chosen people would have their revenge.

Flamen Antonius Subia says:

So it was that Venus guided her son Aeneus and his followers out of the burning city and across the world to the place where Rome would one day stand. The descendants of the Trojan refugees and of Mars were Romulus and Remus who founded Rome, whose sons, through War and Love would conquer the world.

Julius Caesar claimed to be descended from Venus through Aeneus, and so she became the guardian spirit of the Emperors.

In the year 135 Hadrian dedicated the Temple of Venus and Roma. Hadrian built one of the largest Temples in Rome for the Great Goddess of Love and for the Spirit of the Deified City.

Hadrian intended with this Temple to proclaim to the Romans that the Empire was the child of Love and War, but that Love, through the Goddess Venus, was to be the foremost power. We dedicate this day to Venus Urania, who blesses homosexual love.