Author: NY TIMES

Martha J. Egan has spent decades rummaging around markets and antique stores across Latin America in search of the rare, carefully crafted devotional pendants called relicarios.Her hunt has led her to amass more than 400 of the objects — pronounced reh-lee-CAR-yos; in English, reliquaries — and to write two books about what she has come to view as an overlooked genre within the body of religious art created during the Spanish colonization of the New World.Of course, “there was not much art in the colonial era that was not religious,” said Ms. Egan, 78, who has a bachelor’s degree in…

The Supreme Court on Friday reduced the authority of executive agencies, sweeping aside a longstanding legal precedent that required courts to defer to the expertise of federal administrators in carrying out laws passed by Congress.The precedent, Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, is one of the most cited in American law. There have been 70 Supreme Court decisions relying on Chevron, along with 17,000 in the lower courts.The decision threatens regulations in countless areas, including the environment, health care and consumer safety.The vote was 6 to 3, dividing along ideological lines.The conservative legal movement and business groups have long objected…

Michael Jackson’s debts and creditor’s claims at the time of his death in 2009 totaled more than $500 million, according to a court filing by the pop superstar’s estate that provides details of his financial woes toward the end of his life.Jackson owed about $40 million to the tour promoter A.E.G., according to the filing, which was made in Los Angeles County Superior Court this month and earlier reported by People magazine. The filing said that 65 creditors made claims against the singer after his death, some of which resulted in lawsuits, and that some of his debt had been…

Forty-eight hours before President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump clashed onstage in Atlanta on Thursday, the leaders of Britain’s two major parties, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, went head-to-head in Nottingham, England.To say their debates were different doesn’t begin to capture the Atlantic Ocean-sized chasm that separated them.In content, tone and atmosphere, the British debate showcased two politicians in their prime, sparring over the issues — frequently heated, not without personal jabs, but focused on the policy nuances of taxes, immigration and health care. Neither Mr. Sunak, 44, nor Mr. Starmer, 61, brought up his golf…

The fall couture shows in Paris, which ended Thursday, were held earlier than the usual July dates to avoid clashing with preparations for the Olympic Games, but the season still offered some Parisian high jewelry houses a chance to shine brightly.Their presentations capped a series of glamorous events around Europe, as several houses continued the trend of taking high jewelry debuts on the road: Bulgari showed in Rome; Cartier in Vienna; Chanel in Monaco; Dior in Florence, Italy; and Louis Vuitton in St.-Tropez, France.In Paris, the 67-piece Hermès collection, Les Formes de la Couleur (the Shapes of Color), was the…

shoptalk/ˈmə-nē dis-ˈmȯr-fē-ə/A nagging insecurity about one’s finances — even when one is on solid footing — that is most prevalent among Gen Z and millennials.By Elizabeth LazarowitzThis article is part of Shop Talk, a regular feature that explores the idioms of the business world: the insider jargon, the newly coined terms, the unfortunate or overused phrases.Flashy cars. Five-figure handbags. Island vacations.With the steady stream of conspicuous consumption on social media, it may be easier than ever to feel that you’re always on a beer budget, even if you can afford a bit of champagne.And there’s a name for that: “money…

▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube4. Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug: “Havana”I’ll be honest with you: I personally am not feeling the faux-subversive, macro-budget hyperpop left turn Camila Cabello is attempting to pull off on “C, XOXO.” So let’s instead return to a simpler time, specifically 2018, when this sweat-kissed and relentlessly catchy earworm ruled the airwaves. It still sounds like summer.▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube5. Geri Halliwell: “Look at Me”If you were not, say, an impressionable 11-year-old girl when it happened, it might be difficult to fully understand the cataclysmic shock waves that rippled…

In the early 1870s, an émigré painter watched from a railway footbridge as a steam engine left a station on London’s suburban fringe. His name was Camille Pissarro and he was developing a style of plein-air painting that would soon be called “Impressionism.”Pissarro and a fellow émigré, Claude Monet, only stayed in London for a few months. By April 1874 they were among the painters holding the first Impressionist exhibition in Paris, the subject of a retrospective that runs until July 14 at the Musée d’Orsay and opens on Sept. 8 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.But…

For almost five years, Dr. Maclennan has also taught three-week-long programs on forensic jewelry at the Edinburgh College of Art, part of the University of Edinburgh, where she is a senior lecturer in jewelry and silver smithing. (She also just completed a Diploma in Diamonds and Diamond Grading from the Gemological Institute of America branch in London.)Aditi Ranganathan, 22, a final-year student in textile design, attended two of the programs early in her studies. “I still talk about it to this day because I think it shows that as creatives we can exist in lots of different spaces,” she said.…

Volkswagen, the German car company, said this week that it would invest up to $5 billion in Rivian, the American electric vehicle manufacturer that makes electric pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles and delivery vans.The deal will help Rivian, which has never turned a quarterly profit, make more electric vehicles and help convince investors of its stability. It will provide Volkswagen with the software expertise that auto analysts say it sorely lacks. And it’s a bet by Volkswagen, which could become a large shareholder of Rivian if regulators approve the deal, that Rivian will meet its promise of becoming “the next…