Silent films recovered: These new releases are oldest in a long time

Rex Ingram's "The Arab" (1924) is among the "lost" movies recovered in Russia. (Library Of Congress)

By Peter Finn

Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, February 9, 2011

 

In a large mahogany box embellished with silk pockets and Cyrillic lettering, 10 lost pieces of America's cultural heritage recently landed in Culpeper, Va. - thanks, in a roundabout way, to the Soviet Union and a bureaucratic penchant for filing.

You might say that Liu Bolin likes to blend in.

But the Chinese artist does more than just wear camouflage pants and stand next to a bush. With the help of some assistants, Bolin paints himself, head to toe and unassumingly just stands there--in grocery stores, next to piles of coal, on staircases, you name it. And, unless you look really closely, you'll miss him entirely--which is pretty much the point.