REQUIEM FOR A REVOLVER
“A tour around the gallery?” The old custodian knew what I was going to ask for, so he opened the door to the halls, allowing me to roam about undisturbed through Aladdin’s Cave. I named it so because there was a true grotto of treasure s , paintings, amphora, statues, watches, coins – in apparent disorder, graded in such a way that the eye could encompass them all, to discern them one by one, details after detail. Gathered here were unique rarities and works of art that deserved their pedestals, made of gold, silver, bronze, marble, and amethyst – it was an organized chaos of all styles and sizes. And they were all amazing fragments from the tapestry of civilization. I went through the hall of Greek and Roman antiquity, then the hall of medieval and renaissance history, and last but certainly not least, through the room with the transparent shrines holding the dormant relics of two world wars, bayonets, rifles, machine guns, grenades, mines. Once, they had caused d...