The EU is seeking its own way forward after the sobering outcome in Toronto – By Daniela Weingärtner

At their summit in mid-June, European Union leaders were optimistic. To prevent competitive disadvantages for European financial centers, the 27 leaders said they would urge the G-20 to embrace a bank levy system and the introduction of a financial transaction tax, according to the final communiqué from the Brussels meeting.

Two weeks later, it was evident that there would be neither a bank tax nor a Tobin tax at the global level in the near future. Directly after the G-20 Summit in Toronto, the Greens and the Socialists in the European Parliament put their demands for an internal EU arrangement back on the table.

FIFA packs its bags, taking with it what should have stayed in Africa.

The World Cup brought no economic benefit to South Africa’s poor – By Bartholomäus Grill

FIFA promised that all South Africans would profit from the World Cup. But only the world football federation and big business came out ahead.

There was a time when Sepp Blatter was the most popular foreigner in South Africa – after all, he brought the World Cup to the country. “We love you!” a TV host gushed, and the head of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) was visibly moved. The romance did not last very long. Some South Africans would now probably prefer to deny Blatter an entry visa. And his organization has become just another profanity.

An innovative new roof design has transformed the long-neglected inner courtyard of the Albertinum into a generous atrium. From here, visitors can access the New Masters’ Gallery, e. g. the exhibition room from A.R. Penck (below), and the redesigned sculpture hall (bottom).

With an architectural stroke of genius, Dresden creates new storage depots for its art collections at the Albertinum – By Klaus Grimberg

A city reinvents itself: Dresden has followed up projects to rebuild the Church of Our Lady and the Royal Palace with a magnificent restoration of the Albertinum, which now promises to be yet another must-see attraction for art lovers.

It all began with a catastrophe. When the Elbe burst its banks in Dresden during the floods of August 2002, the waters also posed a threat to the Dresden State Art Collections in their subterranean storage depots. In an unparalleled salvage operation, many volunteers toiled day and night to bring the paintings and sculptures beyond the reach of the brown sludge.

The floods came as a shock to the Dresden art world, but – as it is now known eight years later – it had a silver lining. It was clear that the collections’ outstanding art treasures were not going to be secure in the long-term in their ancestral repositories beneath the world-famous Zwinger and the cellars of the no lesser-known Albertinum. A new solution had to be found: storage space that would offer permanent protection against any new flooding.