US Supreme Court rejects seizure of Iran artefacts from Chicago museum

The decision confirmed an earlier appeals court ruling that the thousands of 2,500-year-old clay tablets on long-term loan to the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute could not be seized, because Iran was not using them for commercial purposes.

WASHINGTON (AFP).- The US Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a claim by US citizens wounded in a suicide bombing in Israel in 1997, who were demanding the seizure of Iranian antiquities held in a Chicago museum as compensation. The ruling, by eight judges to none, put an end to a long-running legal battle by nine Americans who wanted Iran to pay compensation for its backing of the Palestinian group Hamas, which claimed responsibility for the bomb attack that wounded them.

The decision confirmed an earlier appeals court ruling that the thousands of 2,500-year-old clay tablets on long-term loan to the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute could not be seized, because Iran was not using them for commercial purposes. The plaintiffs had successfully sued Iran for $71.5 million in a US federal court, but the Islamic Republic has few assets frozen in the United States, so the Americans had turned to the tablets from the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis as a potential source of compensation.

The university and museum had feared losing their prized collection of artefacts if the judgement had gone against them. The sensitive case reflected the difficulty victims have in obtaining compensation from sovereign states deemed as supporters of terrorism by Washington.

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It's a miracle! Only after two days, the stolen Million-Euro cello is returned to French musician.

This file photo taken on February 27, 2003 shows French cellist Ophelie Gaillard performing after being awarded the Victoire de la Musique Classique for best soloist. PIERRE VERDY / AFP.

PARIS (AFP).- An 18th-century cello worth more than a million euros was returned to an award-winning French musician on Saturday after she was robbed at knifepoint in a Paris suburb earlier in the week. "I received an anonymous call late in the morning saying that my cello was inside a car in front of my house. I found it in the back seat," soloist Ophelie Gaillard told AFP.

One of the car windows was broken and the musician said she quickly grabbed the instrument, which is "in good condition", before notifying police. An attacker had held her up at knifepoint outside her home on Thursday, forcing her to hand over the cello, as well as her mobile phone, before fleeing on foot in the northeastern suburb of Pantin. "The theft was very violent, I have not been able to sleep for two days. I am so relieved to have found it. I'm coming out of a two-day nightmare -- it's a miracle," she said.

The police confirmed the cello had been found and a source close to the investigation by the BRB unit in charge of armed robberies said: "It's not an instrument that can be sold to a fence on the corner". After the robbery on Thursday, Gaillard appealed for help from the public on Facebook, posting pictures of the instrument.

The cello, which was loaned to her by CIC bank and is valued at nearly 1.3 million euros ($1.6 million), was made in Udine, Italy in 1737 by luthier Francesco Goffriller, son of Venetian master cello-maker Matteo Goffriller. The cello case also contained her bow, which she said was made by acclaimed 19th-century French bowmaker Jean Pierre Marie Persoit "around 1825 in Paris". In 2003, Gaillard was named the best new instrumental soloist at the French classical music awards.

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US judge awards $6.75 million in damages to graffiti artists

This file photo taken on November 18, 2013 shows the historic graffiti mecca 5 Pointz seen after being painted over by developers in the Long Island City neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. Andrew Burton / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP.

NEW YORK (AFP).- In a landmark ruling that graffiti art should be protected by US federal law, a New York judge has awarded $6.75 million in damages to 21 artists whose work was whitewashed by a developer in 2013. In a written decision filed Monday, Judge Frederic Block awarded the maximum possible amount of statutory damages, $150,000 for each of 45 works obliterated at the 5Pointz site in Queens.

For 20 years developer Jerry Wolkoff had invited taggers to showcase their art on his industrial complex, turning it into -- in the words of the artists' lawyer -- the "world's largest outdoor open aerosol museum." But in 2013 he whitewashed the art before demolishing the site in 2014, making way for a planned $400 million luxury residential complex.

The 21 artists from 5Pointz sued for damages, saying they should have been given the opportunity to salvage their work before the wrecking ball destroyed what had become an internationally acclaimed and thriving tourist attraction. They went to trial under the Visual Artists Rights Act that says any artwork should be protected, provided it is of recognized stature.

The jury in Brooklyn found last November that the developer broke the law, but their decision was non-binding, leaving Block to make the final ruling. In doing so, he raised from 36 to 45 the number of works of art he deemed of sufficient stature to qualify for damages. "If not for Wolkoff's insolence, these damages would not have been assessed. If he did not destroy 5Pointz until he received his permits and demolished it 10 months later, the court would not have found that he had acted willfully," the judge wrote.

"The shame of it all is that since 5Pointz was a prominent tourist attraction the public would undoubtedly have thronged to say its goodbyes during those 10 months and gaze at the formidable works of aerosol art for the last time. "It would have been a wonderful tribute for the artists that they richly deserved," he added. Eric Baum, lawyer for the artists, welcomed the decision.

"The decision is a clear indication that aerosol art is in the same category as any other fine art, equally worthy of the protection of federal law," he told AFP. "Their art should be cherished and not destroyed," he added. Wolkoff's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

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FYI Check out for Before and After Photo's of the Whitewashed 5 Pointz Artwork: http://gothamist.com/2013/11/20/photos_before_after_photos_of_5_poi.php#photo-17

'Lost' Klimt drawing discovered in Austria

Gustav Klimt, "Zwei Liegende" ("Two Reclining Figures")

VIENNA (AFP).- A drawing by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, which disappeared from a museum collection, has been found in the effects of a recently deceased secretary, authorities said on Tuesday.

The drawing "Zwei Liegende" ("Two Reclining Figures") is one of four works by Klimt and fellow pioneer of Viennese Modernism Egon Schiele that have been at the centre of a drawn-out legal battle between the city of Linz and the heirs of artist and collector Olga Jaeger. Jaeger had given the works to a museum in Linz on long-term loan in 1951. But when her descendants asked for them back in 2006, they were nowhere to be found.

They took the city to court and after a long legal battle were awarded damages of 8.21 million euros ($10.1m). Now city authorities say that the Klimt drawing has been tracked down. A secretary took the work and hid it for years in a cupboard, before leaving instructions that it be returned to the city after her death.

From next month until May the drawing will be included in of one of the dozens of exhibitions being organised in Austria to commemorate the centenary of the deaths of Klimt and Schiele. It will then be returned to Jaeger's descendants as long as they forfeit the compensation awarded for the work.

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Lebanon's national museum unveils five artefacts looted during civil war

A picture taken on February 2, 2018 shows a marble sculpture in the Greek-style of a standing nude male dating back to the 4th century BC, part of a collection of repatriated artefacts on display during a ceremony at Beirut National Museum in the Lebanese capital. The Lebanese Ministry of Culture and the Directorate-General of Anitquities repatriated in December 2017 and January 2018 five marble sculptures lost during the war in 1981. JOSEPH EID / AFP.

BEIRUT (AFP).- Lebanon's national museum on Friday unveiled five ancient sculptures, including a Phoenician bull's head returned by the United States, that were looted during the civil war. The life-size 4th century BC white marble bull's head, the star artefact among the works that were all looted in 1981, had been loaned to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met).

The five pieces were discovered on the Phoenician site of Eshmun, near the southern port city of Sidon, during excavations carried out in the 1960s and 1970s. "We are committed, as much as we can, to repatriating pieces stolen during the war," Lebanese Culture Minister Ghattas Khoury said during a ceremony at the National Museum of Beirut. Lebanon's civil war lasted 15 years from 1975 to 1990.

The five statues were stolen from a storeroom in Byblos and later surfaced "on the international antiquity market", the culture ministry said in a statement. They were repatriated over the past two months. The bull's head had been exhibited at the Met and was spotted as part of a drive by Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.

The official has made it a priority to track stolen artwork and the repatriation of the Lebanese sculptures capped months of cooperation between Beirut and the US authorities. The repatriated works unveiled on Friday also included a 6th century BC marble statue that had ended up in the same private collection as the bull's head.

The other pieces were a 4th century BC statue that had been in the possession of a private New York collector, a 5th century BC marble torso that turned up in Germany and a statue of a young boy which customs seized at the northern port of Tripoli.

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