Display of Romanian art
marks 100th anniversary
By JOCK HATFIELD
Of the Emerald
In the midst of pipe-lined walls, lockers and the
smell of paint in the Lawrence Hall art department is a
room full of Romania.
The Lawrence Hall art gallery, in Room 141, is
celebrating the 100th anniversary of Romania this
week with an exhibit of Romanian outfits, books, rugs
and pictures.
"History is extremely important to the Roma
nians,” explains Martha Meyer, Romanian professor
and part-time guide for the exhibit. “This exhibit is a
symbol of Romanian pride in their national heritage."
From the 14th to 19th centuries, the Romanians
were ruled by Ottoman Turks, according to Meyer. In
1877 the Turks were driven out of Romania, prompt
ing this year’s centennial celebration.
The small flight of stairs that leads to the Roma
nian exhibit acts as a kind of time warp. It takes the
visitor from a hall filled with lockers, an unplugged
coke machine and a bicycle wheel dressed in a gym
suit to a spacious room displaying pictures of ancient
Romanian gold, the twanging strains of Romanian
folk music and two mannequins brightly dressed in
traditional Romanian peasant garb.
The main attraction of the exhibit is the pictures,
which display Romanian treasures dating from the
seventh century to the present. These treasures,
according to Meyer, mark the major epochs of
Romanian history, from Roman domination through
Byzantine control and the present. For example,
“The clucking hen with golden chicks, a platter set,
shows Roman influence on Romanian art in the
fourth century. “The Golden Buckle,” a 14th century
version of today’s brass buckle crafted from gold into
the shape of a castle, illustrates Byzantine influence
on the Romanian Culture. The pictures are on loan to
the University from the Romanian Library in New
York.
Two Romanian peasant outfits, including an
embroidered sheepskin vest, a homespun green
dress and pointed leather shoes were loaned to the
display by Joel Marrant, an architecture student who
brought the costumes back from a trip to Romania.
Although these costumes are over 40 years old,
Meyer says they are similar to the costumes worn in
Romania today.
"The Romanian folk culture is still very strong,"
says Meyer. “Even the most modem inventions such
as manufactured cloth rely on the old patterns "
A small group of color photographs of Byzantine
churches taken by Dean McKenzie, art history pro
fessor and organizer of the exhibit, are also on dis
play. McKenzie believes the Romania display is a
worthwhile attraction for students.
"Romania is an important country in today's
political world,” he says. "It is one of the freest coun
tries in the Warsaw Pact, and is constantly walking a
•ghtrope between being a part of the Soviet Union
ai.d having its national freedom."
The exhibit opened Monday night with three
speakers on Romanian history and culture. Tuesday
night a slide show on Romanian artwork and ar
chitecture was shown The exhibit will be open from 9
a.m. to 5 p.m. for the rest of the week Saturday the
exhibit will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a
special tour by Meyer at 11.
The art gallery, according to Didier Maujean,
who runs it on a graduate teaching fellowship, offers
a new exhibit once every two weeks, usually showing
the work of students. The gallery is sponsored by the
Fine Arts Department
A mannequin dressed in bright, traditional peasant garb,
watches over an exhibition of Romanian artifacts The dis
play, honoring the 100th anniversary of Romania, will run for
one week in the Lawrence Hall Art Gallery
French battle tanker leak to save coastline
SEIN ISLAND, France (AP) —
Like a big black time bomb, a
tanker full of crude oil lying on the
ocean floor 12 miles away is
threatening the livelihood of the
800 inhabitants of this idyllic
Frency Atlantic island who thrive
on lobster fishing and summer
tourists.
The French government is mak
ing a gigantic effort to remove the
56,000 barrels of oil trapped 300
feet under the surface in the wreck
age of the small East German
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tanker Bohlen that sank in a storm
on Oct. 14, 1976
But officials say there is no cer
tainty their multi-million-dollar ef
fort will remove the oil before it
thins out in warmer spring waters
and drifts onto beaches and fish
ing grounds all around the tip of
the Britanny peninsula.
In October, the islanders and
inhabitants of nearby coastal vil
lages got a foretaste of what might
lie in store. The heavy oil seeped
in between rocks, covered
beaches and killed countless fish
and the fat, juicy lobsters that are
the pride of the local fishermen.
Less than 24 hours after the
Bohlen sank, Sein fisherman Adre
Kertoch caught a lobster covered
with black tar.
Kerloch’s wickerwork lobster
pots were coated with the sticky
black mess, and tar covered the
underside of his boat. "I scraped
off the lobster’s shell and ate it
myself,” he said. “It tasted OK, but
! could never have sold it. As for
my lobster pots—I burned them.”
Kerloch and many of Sein’s two
dozen professional fishermen had
to destroy their equipment after
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the Bohlen sank. The French state
paid them $14,000 compensation
So far the government has
spent one thousand times as
much — $14 million — trying to
prevent further pollution from the
ship s cargo
The Bohlen was carrying
70,000 barrels of crude oil from
Venezuela to East Germany when
it sank. Fourteen thousand barrels
escaped when the ship went
down, but the rest remained inside
the wreck and solidified in the icy
winter seas.
“If something isn't done before
the warm weather, we ll have
every fish and every beach within
20 miles coated with tar," said
Jean-Marie Bacquer, maritime
administrator for the region.
Twenty-six members of the
Bohlen's 37-man crew, including
the captain and every officer ex
cept the radio operator, drowned
when the ship went down. Two
divers and a French soldier have
since been killed in the dangerous
work trying to halt the pollution.
An official French navy inquiry
into the accident said the causes
of the sinking may remain a mys
tery forever.
The East Germans rushed the
11 survivors out of France three
days after the accident without al
lowing French officials to interro
gate them. They have given the
French no information or other
help in trying to determine the
cause of the accident.
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The most widely held theory is
that a northerly gale blew the ship
oft Its normal course along the
English coast into French waters
French navy radar operators on
the mainland watched the ship
heading into dangerous waters,
but were unable to intervene be
cause they did not know the ship's
identity or radio call sign, and the
weather was too bad to allow a
helicopter to take oft.
Darkness was falling over the
roaring ocean when the tanker
sent out its distress call, at 5:36
p.m. Within half an hour, two air
sea rescue planes had taken oft
from the naval base at Brest, 50
miles to the north, and three
French naval vessels were en
route to the scene at full steam
They picked up the 11 survivors.
"Many more members of the
crew might have been saved if the
distress call had come sooner, ’
Bacquer said.
Some French officials believe
the East German captain was so
rigorously indoctrinated against
diverging from his prescribed
route that he delayed his distress
call until it came too late.
French navy divers located the
wreck on the ocean floor within 48
hours. Oil was seeping from open
ings in the hull, but the great depth
posed immense difficulties in ef
forts to seal up the cracks.
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