First, John Ashcroft had the Justice Department hang curtains over statues because he found them offensive, and now the UN has put up a curtain in front of the reproduction of Picasso’s “Guernica” that hangs outside the UN Security Council, saying it’s not an appropriate backdrop for press conferences. Picasso painted Guernica for the 1937 Paris World’s Fair as an indictment of the destruction of the Basque village Guernica by fascists during the Spanish civil war, and is a seminal work of anti-war art. (Via Unqualified Offerings.)