Canada star politics journalist Evan Solomon fired over alleged secret art deals

The Toronto Star said Solomon had taken commissions in excess of Can$300,000 for several art pieces. Photo: Tholden28/Wikipedia.org.

OTTAWA (AFP).- Canada's public broadcaster has fired its top politics reporter Evan Solomon after discovering he earned hefty commissions on art sales to wealthy Canadians he interviewed. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in a statement late Tuesday cited a conflict of interest and ethics policy, as well as a breach of journalistic standards and practises for the dismissal. It comes after the daily Toronto Star reported that Solomon had brokered the sale of paintings belonging to art collector Bruce Bailey to BlackBerry founder Jim Balsillie and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney. Carney had been a frequent guest on his daily politics show, while Balsillie had been courted to appear. The Toronto Star also said Solomon had taken commissions in excess of Can$300,000 for several art pieces. The newspaper cited an email in which Solomon discusses access to a wealth of potential new customers after Carney moved to Britain to head the Bank of England. "He has access to highest power network in the world," Solomon reportedly wrote. Solomon said in a statement he formed a business in 2013 to broker Canadian art, and informed the CBC earlier this year. "I did not view the art business as a conflict with my political journalism at the CBC and never intentionally used my position at the CBC to promote the business," he said in a statement. Solomon also apologised for "the damage that my activities have done to the trust that the CBC and its viewers and listeners have put in me."

Soloman, 47, came to the CBC as a host in 1994. He most recently hosted the television show "Power & Politics" as well as "The House" on CBC Radio. Some reports said he was also being groomed to take over the nation's top on-air job as CBC evening news anchor when the current veteran anchor retires. His firing is just the latest ethical imbroglio involving CBC journalists. Financial news host Amanda Lang was accused of being in a conflict over her 2013 reporting on a Canadian bank that sponsored several speeches she gave. She was also said to have been dating a senior executive at the bank. The CBC cleared her of wrongdoing but banned all paid appearances by its on-air journalists. The following year, syndicated radio host Jian Ghomeshi was fired by the CBC after at least a dozen women came forward with accusations he strangled them, punched them or slammed them against walls. Ghomeshi, who has been charged with sexual assault, has argued that his acts were consensual rough sex of the kind found in erotic novels such as the best-seller "Fifty Shades of Grey."

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Antiquities market on alert for looted Syrian spoils to help finance the jihadists' war

Fighters loyal to Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate and its allies smash a statue of late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, father of current President Bashar al-Assad on March 28, 2015 in the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib . A coalition made up of Al-Nusra Front, the official Syrian affiliate of Al-Qaeda, and several Islamist factions seized the city of Idlib, only the second provincial capital to be lost by the regime in more than four years of war. AFP PHOTO / SAMI ALI.


LONDON (AFP).- As armed groups in Syria and Iraq destroy priceless archaeological sites, European authorities and dealers are on high alert for smaller, looted artefacts put on sale to help finance the jihadists' war. Stolen-art expert Chris Marinello, director of Art Recovery International, said he has been shown photographs of items being offered from Syria that were "clearly looted right out of the ground". "You could still see dirt on some of these objects," he told AFP. They included cylinder seals, Roman bottles and vases, although Marinello said it was unclear whether the items were still in Syria, were in transit or had arrived in the key markets of Europe and the United States.

Concerns about looting during the Syrian war have increased following the advance of the Islamic State group through parts of Syria and Iraq, and recent propaganda videos showing their destruction of ancient sites such as Nimrud. The UN Security Council in February demanded UN states act to stop the trade in cultural property from those two countries, amid warnings that they represented a significant source of funding for the militant group. Experts say it is impossible to put a value on antiquities looted from Syria, which has been home to many civilisations through the millennia, from the Canaanites to the Ottomans.

The London-based International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art (IADAA) estimates the entire legitimate antiquities market in 2013 was worth between 150 and 200 million euros ($160-215 million). Marinello said reputable dealers are "being very careful not to touch anything that could remotely be part of this recent wave of looting". But Hermann Parzinger, an archaeologist and president of the Germany-based Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, said there was an "enormous market" from private buyers. He warned that the cultural costs were huge, telling AFP: "The context which is so important to reconstruct the history of these civilisations is completely destroyed."

Looted items held back Italy has proposed that world heritage body UNESCO create a military taskforce to protect cultural sites in war zones, but many experts believe little can be done to stop the current destruction. Instead, they are forced to wait until the conflict ends and watch in horror as priceless historic sites are destroyed and the spoils gradually emerge onto the market. Vernon Rapley, a former head of the art and antiquities squad at London's Metropolitan Police, expects many Syrian items to be held back to avoid flooding the market, as occurred after the US-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The looted artefacts were likely to be "hauled up in warehouses either in the country or near the country, and only linked to the art trade in small pieces and at a later stage", he told AFP. Stephane Thefo, who leads an Interpol unit dedicated to fighting the illegal trafficking of cultural goods, agreed that many items may disappear for years -- but insisted that tackling the trade was the best way to combat looting.
The French policeman would like to see tougher national laws on trafficking of cultural goods, something Germany is currently considering. "We have to act by seeking to narrow markets for the illicit trade, hoping that by curbing the demand, the supply would eventually decrease," Thefo said. Identifying heritage items Identifying looted objects is no easy task, however, not least because cultural crime is rarely a police priority.

The law puts the onus on the authorities to prove an item is illegal and a long delay in an artefact being sold, or multiple owners, make it hard to establish provenance. At a conference at the V&A museum in London this week on the destruction of cultural property in conflict areas in Iraq and Syria, Mali, Libya and Yemen, archaeologists stressed the need for proper inventories of heritage sites. They noted that objects that have been photographed and digitally catalogued are more likely to be recovered. Interpol is currently building a database of stolen objects, and James Ede, a London dealer and IADAA board member, urged cultural bodies to share their information with dealers. "This material will necessarily surface on the open market sooner or later. The challenge therefore is to identify it and where possible to return it when it is safe to do so," he said.

By: Alice Ritchie
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United States returns Egyptian artifacts smuggled by an international criminal network

A sarcophagus, which is part of more than 120 ancient artefacts that had been smuggled outside Egypt and were later confiscated by the US customs, is displayed for the press at Cairo International airport on April 24, 2015, after returning from the United States. The items were on a ministry list of smuggled items, and include a group of coloured coffins dating back to the 26th dynasty, a stele from the new kingdom and several Greco-Roman coins. AFP PHOTO / HOSAM ATEF.

WASHINGTON (AFP).- The United States returned Wednesday dozens of ancient artifacts that had been smuggled out of Egypt by an international criminal network, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said.The items -- including a Greco-Roman style Egyptian sarcophagus discovered in a Brooklyn garage in 2009 -- were handed back to the Egyptian government at a ceremony in Washington. "To think that some of these treasured artifacts were recovered from garages, exposed to the elements, is unimaginable," said ICE director Sarah Saldana in a statement.

The discovery of the nesting sarcophagus generated leads that resulted in the 2010 seizure of more smuggled Egyptian items, including a funerary boat model and hundreds of ancient coins, ICE said. The items have been linked to a global crime network that is the subject of a five-year-old ICE effort known as Operation Mummy’s Curse.

So far, the effort has secured four indictments, two convictions, 19 search warrants and 16 seizures totaling approximately $3 million, ICE said. "The ongoing investigation has identified a criminal network of smugglers, importers, money launderers, restorers and purchasers who used illegal methods to avoid detection as these items entered the United States," ICE said. "Items and funds were traced back to Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Iraq and other nations." Since 2007, ICE has returned more than 80 items to Egypt in four repatriations -- and a total of more than 7,800 artifacts to 30-plus countries, from French paintings to Mongolian dinosaur fossils.

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ISIL fighters bulldoze ancient Assyrian palace in Iraq

Winged-bull statues were placed at the gates of Assyrian palaces as protective spirits [Getty Images]

Baghdad - Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters have used a bulldozer to start destroying a 3,000-year-old Assyrian city near Mosul in Iraq, archaeologists and other sources have told Al Jazeera. The demolition at Nimrud on Thursday comes less than a week after video was released showing ISIL fighters destroying ancient artefacts in a Mosul museum. "They came at midday with a bulldozer and started destroying the palace," said an Iraqi official in touch with antiquities staff in Mosul. She said the winged-bull statues known as lamassu at the gates of the palace of Ashurnasirpal II had been smashed. It was not clear what else had been destroyed on the site, about 20km southeast of Mosul.

In last week's ISIL video , fighters were shown using power drills and sledgehammers to try to destroy similar statues at the ancient site of Nineveh, within Mosul. The mutli-tonne figures were placed at the palaces' gates as protective spirits. One source told Al Jazeera the fighters warned Mosul residents last week that they would move on to Nimrud next. Hatra, a World Heritage Site, is also believed to be in danger. March 2: Iraqis mourn destruction of ancient statues Since 2002, the World Monuments Fund has listed Nimrud as one of the world’s most endangered sites. The intricate stone reliefs, exposed to the elements, have been decaying. Without security around the site, it has been exposed to looters. The palace belonged to King Ashurnasirpal II, who ruled a powerful empire that included Iraq, the Levant, lower Egypt and parts of Turkey and the Levant. The palace was built with precious wood, marble and other materials brought from the furthest reaches of his kingdom.

Nimrud, known as biblical Calah, is believed to have first been settled 7,000 years ago. At its height, up to 60,000 people lived in the walled city, which contained lush gardens and sprawling parks. Mostly excavated by the British, with the finds taken to the British Museum, the most spectacular discovery was an Iraqi one. In the late 1980s Iraqi archaeologist Muzahim Mahmood discovered a royal tomb containing one of the biggest finds of the last century - hundreds of pieces of golden jewelry and other objects belonging to an Assyrian queen. Iraq's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities on Thursday condemned the destruction at Nimrud, stating that ISIL "continues to defy the will of world".


Jane Arraf | 05 Mar 2015 22:03 GMT | Arts & Culture, Iraq, Middle East, ISIL

Stolen Pablo Picasso painting 'The Hairdresser' worth millions discovered in New York

The painting, known as "La Coiffeuse" or "The Hairdresser," is estimated to be worth millions of dollars, US prosecutors said.

NEW YORK (AFP).- A Picasso painting, snatched more than a decade ago from a storeroom in Paris, has surfaced in New York and will be returned to the French government, US officials said Thursday. The century-old Cubist oil was smuggled into the United States last December from Belgium with a shipping label that described the contents as a handicraft holiday present worth 30 euros ($37).

The painting, known as "La Coiffeuse" or "The Hairdresser," is estimated to be worth millions of dollars, US prosecutors said. It was intercepted by US customs and subsequently seized by Homeland Security Investigations. "A lost treasure has been found," said Loretta Lynch, attorney for the eastern district of New York. "Because of the blatant smuggling in this case, this painting is now subject to forfeiture to the United States.

Forfeiture of the painting will extract it from the grasp of the black market in stolen art so that it can be returned to its rightful owner," added Lynch, who is also the US Attorney General nominee. Painted in 1911, the oil-on-canvas measures 33 by 46 centimeters (13 by 18 inches) and is part of the Musee National d'Art Moderne collection in Paris. It was last exhibited publicly in Munich, Germany, where it was on loan to the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung.

It was then returned to Paris and placed in the storerooms of the Centre George Pompidou. Officials only realized it was missing when a loan request came through in 2001 and they could not find it.

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Man gets 10 years for stealing priceless 12th-century manuscript in Spain

In this file photo Dean Jose Maria Diaz observes a facsimile copy of Calixtinus Codex at Santiago de Compostela's cathedral

MADRID (AFP).- A Spanish court sentenced a man on Wednesday to 10 years in prison for crimes including the theft of a priceless medieval document considered the first guidebook to Spain's Saint James pilgrimage trail. Police recovered the unique 12th-century manuscript in July 2012, a year after it was found to have gone missing from a safe in the famous cathedral of the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela. Judges in a court in the nearby city of La Coruna said in a written ruling that they "consider it proven" that an electrician who worked for years at the cathedral, Manuel Fernandez Castineiras, stole the manuscript. They also sentenced him for the theft of money and other documents, and for money-laundering, the ruling said.

Fernandez's wife was also sentenced to six months on the latter charge. The court ordered them each to pay a fine of 268,000 euros (304,000 dollars). The court found that Fernandez took the manuscript, dubbed the Codex Calixtinus, and hid it among newspapers in a bag in his garage, where police found it in a "well preserved" state. A security video shown at the trial appeared to show him in a cathedral study stuffing money into the pockets of his pants.

The richly-decorated Codex is considered one of the Western world's first travel guide books. Among other things it details the route by which the body of Saint James, Spain's patron saint, was taken from Jerusalem to Santiago after his death. That route became known as "the Way of Saint James". It still draws travellers from around the world to the city and its Catholic cathedral, where the apostle's remains are said to be entombed. The manuscript is thought to have been commissioned by Pope Callixtus II, who encouraged such pilgrimages. The 225-page illuminated manuscript contains a collection of texts including sermons, homilies to Saint James and practical travel advice to pilgrims.

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Former electrician and his wife on trial in France over 271 'stolen' Pablo Picasso works

Pierre Le Guennec (R), who is accused of receiving stolen goods after being found in possession of paintings by late Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, sits with his wife Danielle at the court in Grasse, southeastern France on February 10, 2015. Le Guennec, a former electrician, is set to go on trial along with his wife for receiving stolen goods regarding some 271 artworks by Picasso which Le Guennec claims were given to him by Picasso and his wife Jacqueline when he carried out work on their villa in Mougins in the 1970's. AFP PHOTO / VALERY HACHE.


GRASSE (AFP).- A former electrician and his wife who kept 271 works of art by Picasso in their garage for close to 40 years went on trial in France on Tuesday accused of possessing stolen goods. Pierre Le Guennec, now 75 and retired, says the world-famous artist and his wife Jacqueline gave him the oil canvases, drawings and Cubist collages when he was doing work on the last property they lived in before Picasso died in 1973.

But some of the artist's heirs, including his son Claude, suspect otherwise and filed a complaint against the couple, who were charged in 2011. And in a significant twist to the trial on Tuesday, Claude Picasso's lawyer accused Le Guennec of being the "front" for a "case of international artwork laundering." Total confidence in me "Picasso had total confidence in me. Maybe it was my discretion," Le Guennec told the court in the southeastern city of Grasse at the start of a three-day trial which is likely to be closely scrutinised by the art world. "Monsieur and Madame called me 'little cousin'." The former electrician said that one day, Picasso's wife Jacqueline gave him a box with the 271 works of art inside. "She told me 'this is for you'," he said. When he got home, he looked inside and found "drawings, sketches, crumpled paper," adding he and his wife Danielle did not look through everything. Asked by the judge whether he wasn't a little curious, he responded: "no." "I didn't have in mind that they were works of art, they were essays, torn bits, it didn't grab me. "It's not as if I saw a painting, it's not the same, it's not the same reaction." He put the present in his garage and discovered it again years later, in 2009. But when he went to Paris the following year to get the works authenticated at the Picasso Administration, the artist's heirs filed an official complaint.

Claude Picasso, who runs the administration, is one of the plaintiffs in the case. Others include Paloma, Claude's sister, another child Maya, two grandchildren and Catherine Hutin-Blay, the daughter of Picasso's last wife Jacqueline. "I never could see how anyone could swallow that," Maya Widmaier-Picasso said of the defence's argument. "It's like going to the bakery for a baguette and he gives you 271!" she told the court. Picasso granddaughter Catherine Hutin-Blay, the only one of the plaintiffs to have known Le Guennec, admitted that the electrician had a privileged relationship with the artist. "We really trusted him. He was someone who was very familiar in the house and had an absolutely friendly relationship," she said. "However, all this absolutely extraordinary collection, Picasso would never have given that," she added.

Global artwork laundering? Under the charge of possessing stolen goods, the lawyers do not have to demonstrate who the alleged thief was but do have to prove that the couple knew the works of art came from a fraudulent origin. And in a twist to the case, Jean-Jacques Neuer, Claude Picasso's lawyer, accused Le Guennec of being the cover for "a case of international artwork laundering." "These stolen works were given to him because he had had ties with Picasso," he said. Le Guennec had said earlier Tuesday that he made a list of the artworks before presenting it to the Picasso Administration in 2010, with the help of his brother-in-law who had a gallery. But Neuer accused him of never having made any such lists, which he said were too detailed for someone who knew little about art.

In one example cited by the lawyer, the former electrician said that a small pencil drawing had similarities with a 1915 painting of a harlequin exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Neuer had also pointed out before the trial that none of the works in Le Guennec's possession were signed, an unusual occurrence for Picasso who always autographed his work -- whether he gave it away or sold it. The couple's lawyer Charles-Etienne Gudin, however, has said there were only a dozen works of value and that the rest was "very mediocre," insisting that Picasso never tried to sell them. He added that it would have been extremely difficult for anyone to steal from Picasso, as the artist had "an amazing memory" and his property was heavily protected like a "fortress."
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