Athens to hide sculptures after busts go missing

Tourists take pictures in front of the Athens Academy adorned with sculputures depicting ancient greek philosophers , Plato (L) and Sokrates (R) on June 10, 2016. Athens is to store away dozens of outdoor sculptures after five brass busts went missing last month and a marble statue was vandalised in the area. "We have pinpointed 49 sculptures that are in a vulnerable position," Mayor Yiorgos Kaminis told a news conference on June 9. Officials suspect the five brass busts of early 20th century Greek poets and writers were removed by smelters as a number of pavement curb box covers, which give access to utility pipes and wiring, have recently disappeared. LOUISA GOULIAMAKI / AFP.

ATHENS (AFP).- Athens is to store away dozens of outdoor sculptures after five brass busts went missing last month and a marble statue was vandalised, officials have said. "We have pinpointed 49 sculptures that are in a vulnerable position," Mayor Yiorgos Kaminis told a news conference on Thursday. "We are examining the temporary withdrawal of some (of them) and their replacement with copies." Officials suspect the five brass busts of early 20th century Greek poets and writers were removed by smelters as a number of pavement curb box covers, which give access to utility pipes and wiring, have recently disappeared.

Authorities have in recent years struggled to restore many of the capital's 200 or so outdoor sculptures from recurring vandalism. A statue that had its limbs and head smashed in April near the city centre had just been cleaned up with EU funds, Kaminis said.

A woman reads on a bench next to a bust of a former Greek professor and prime minister tagged by an anarchistic symbol by the Athens Academy on June 10, 2016. LOUISA GOULIAMAKI / AFP.

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Modigliani owner denies canvas taken from Jewish dealer

"Seated Man With A Cane", a portrait of a man with a moustache, hat and cane.

GENEVA (AFP).- The owner of a Modigliani painting allegedly looted by the Nazis has insisted there is no proof it was taken from a Jewish art dealer, after the Panama Papers leak led to it being briefly seized. Authorities in Geneva sequestered the painting in April after the release of millions of documents from law firm Mossack Fonseca revealed the identity of the portrait's current owner, billionaire art dealer David Nahmad, through his offshore company.

Swiss authorities looked into the case before indicating last month that the painting, worth an estimated $25 million, could be returned to Nahmad. Mondex Corp, a Canadian group that helps track looted assets, says the work belonged to British art dealer Oscar Stettiner, a Jew who fled Paris in 1939 prior to the Nazi occupation. But Nahmad, who is himself Jewish and says he could never accept art looted by the Nazis, says there is no concrete evidence that Stettiner was ever robbed of the work, or even owned it. According to documents given to AFP by Nahmad's associates, a Modigliani self-portrait was mentioned in a 1947 legal claim to three works owned by Stettiner in the aftermath of the Allied liberation of Paris. But the 1918 work owned by Nahmad -- "Seated Man with a Cane", which shows a mustachioed figure in a suit and hat -- is not considered a self-portrait.

Mondex, convinced that Stettiner's Modigliani is the one currently in Nahmad's possession, has since 2011 been appealing to US authorities to help the late Briton's grandson get it back. But US authorities struggled to determine the identity of the current owner. The Nahmad family told a US court they were not the owners, and that it belonged to the International Art Center, a company set up by Mossack Fonseca. But the leak revealed that Nahmad was the sole owner of the company. Nahmad and his family, based in New York, have made a fortune from art-dealing and currently own around 4,500 pieces, including 300 Picassos worth at least $1 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

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National Gallery of Denmark removes 'negro' in titles

The old building / J. V. Dahlerup. Photo: Ida Tietgen Høyrup.

COPENHAGEN (AFP).- The National Gallery of Denmark said Tuesday it was removing the word "negro" from titles and descriptions of artwork, prompting criticism that it was trying to rewrite history. The Copenhagen museum said the words "negro" and "Hottentot" -- a derogatory name for the Khoikhoi ethnic group -- would be removed from 14 works, as they reflected the language used during colonial times. "At the time, it was the word that was used (but) you no longer do," the art museum's head of collections and research, Peter Norgaard Larsen, told AFP. The two words would be replaced by either a nationality or a mention saying the person depicted was of African descent. "We continually change the titles of our works. They are always being revised ... so that we address the audience in a language corresponding to the time we are living in," he added. Original titles by an artist however will not be changed.

A spokesman for the anti-immigration Danish People's Party (DPP) blasted the move, saying it was "stupid" and "unhistorical". "It makes our ancestors (look) better than they were," he told Danish news agency Ritzau. "If you are to take history seriously, you should obviously show that they used the term that we, for various reasons, do not use," he added. Naser Khader, a Syria-born lawmaker for the Conservative People's Party, accused the museum of "cleansing history." Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum took similar steps to remove racially offensive terms from titles and descriptions last year.

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Two important Old Master paintings recovered by the Art Loss Register

Aniello Falcone (1607-1656), Battle scene, oil on canvas, 150 x 205 cm.

Detail of Workshop of Valentin de Boulogne (1591-1632), Concert with four people and a drinker, oil on canvas, 103 x 148 cm.

LONDON.- The Art Loss Register has recovered two large Old Master paintings, both of which were stolen in Rome in 1994: one from the former Senator and Prime Minister of the Italian State (1970-1972) Emilio Colombo, the other from the office of an accountant. These two works are the largest to be recovered by the ALR in the company’s 25-year history.

The close partnership between the Art Loss Register and the Italian Carabinieri High Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage in this case was essential to ensuring a successful outcome for these two masterpieces, and for the victims of the original crimes. Chief Marshal Salvatore Simone and Adjutant Marshal Antonio Ammendola of the Carabinieri expressed their ‘thanks to the Art Loss Register for their indispensable collaboration, as well as the professionalism and expertise they demonstrated in the identification and subsequent return of these two paintings stolen in Rome’.

The paintings were both stolen in 1994, but it was not until December 2014 when a private individual searched both paintings against the Art Loss Register database that a positive match was made. The Art Loss Register’s research revealed that the paintings corresponded to two losses reported by the Carabinieri in Rome. The Carabinieri confirmed to the Art Loss Register that the works had never been recovered and were keen to secure their return to Italy.

The team at the Art Loss Register made further enquiries into the location of the works, and was staggered to discover that they were located in a storage vault just a few hundred metres from its London offices in Hatton Garden.

The Art Loss Register informed the current owner, who had no link to the theft, that the paintings were stolen. In an act of goodwill, he swiftly surrendered the pictures and relinquished all rights to the works.

The Art Loss Register has since been working closely with the Carabinieri to arrange for the shipping of these works back to Italy. The size and condition of the paintings made this a tricky undertaking. The shipping took place during the last week of May. The paintings will now need to undergo relining and restoration before being returned to their rightful owners, since the old canvases were severely damaged by the thefts.

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Malaysian artist charged for depicting PM as clown

Fahmi Reza poses with his caricature of Prime Minister Najib Razak. Photo: Facebook / Fahmi Reza.

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP).- A Malaysian graphic artist was charged Monday with violating multimedia laws by caricaturing Prime Minister Najib Razak as a sinister clown to protest at allegations of massive corruption. Fahmi Reza's depictions of Najib went viral earlier this year, and posters and stickers bearing the images have also appeared in public places, earning the designer-activist comparisons to street-art provocateurs like Banksy. He was charged under a section of Malaysian communications and multimedia laws that forbid disseminating online content deemed to "annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass" others. Fahmi, 38, faces a possible one-year prison sentence and 50,000 ringgit ($12,200) fine, said his attorney, Syahredzan Johan. "This is essentially criminalising (free) expression," said Syahredzan. Fahmi pleaded not guilty after the charge was read out in court. Syahredzan said police were also investigating him for sedition. In a Facebook posting Monday, Fahmi vowed to "defend my rights to criticise the corrupt rulers by using art as a weapon".

Fahmi was warned by police previously to stop posting the images, which show Najib in powder-white clown make-up, evilly arched eyebrows and a garish blood-red mouth. Najib is battling accusations that billions of dollars were stolen from a state-owned development fund he oversees, and is under pressure for accepting a mysterious $681 million overseas payment. Najib denies accusations that the huge payment was siphoned from the struggling fund. But he has fuelled anger by curbing investigations, purging government figures who have demanded transparency and clamping down on media reporting of the affair. Even before the corruption allegations emerged a year ago, Najib's government had moved to silence critics following a 2013 election setback. Dozens of government opponents including opposition politicians have been investigated for, or charged with, a range of offences over the past three years, typically sedition. The campaign has drawn growing warnings from international human rights groups that free expression and democratic rights in Malaysia are under severe threat.

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"Better Safe Than Sorry" - Flood shuts Paris Musee d'Orsay until Tuesday

A photo taken on June 3, 2016 shows boxes containing valuable artworks from the Louvre reserves stored among statues in one of the museum's rooms of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities after they were evacuated from the basement following days of heavy rains which led the River Seine to reach its highest level in three decades. GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP.

PARIS (AFP).- The world-famous Musee d'Orsay in Paris will be closed until Tuesday due to the flooding of the Seine river, it announced on Friday. The museum, which houses a world-renowned collection of 19th and early 20th century art, was shut on Thursday evening as concerns grew about the rising water levels. Sitting alongside the river in a renovated train station, the museum is one of the highlights of Paris, welcoming some 3.4 million visitors last year.

The most-visited tourist spot in the city, the Louvre museum, which attracts some nine million visitors per year, was also closed on Friday to allow staff to move artworks stored in its underground vaults to higher floors. Managers were set to decide later in the day when it would re-open. The Museum of Decorative Arts, next door to the Louvre, remained open but also took measures to protect items stored in its basements.

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Precious United States stamp "Inverted Jenny" found six decades after its theft

A rare stamp known as an "Inverted Jenny" is displayed at the World Stamp Show in Manhattan on June 2, 2016 in New York City. The stamp, one of the most famous stamps in American history, was stolen from a display case at a convention in 1955 and only located last March. The stamp, which features an airplane printed upside-down, only surfaced at a New York auction house in April when an Irish man who had inherited it brought it in. Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP.

NEW YORK (AFP).- A rare US stamp known as the "Inverted Jenny" has been recovered 61 years after its theft. The stamp was officially donated Thursday to the American Philatelic Research Library (APRL), according to a release from the US Attorney's office in New York. The Inverted Jenny stamp came from a sheet of 100 stamps printed in 1918, and gained fame for being misprinted upside down. The sheet was later broken up and individual stamps sold to collectors. The stamp has an image of the Curtiss Jenny JN-4HM biplane modified for shuttling mail. It com

memorated the US Postal Service's first airmail flight on May 15, 1918, with a value of 24 cents per stamp. On Thursday, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara announced the return of one of the stolen stamps. Investigators recovered the stamp after the Spink auction house in New York alerted authorities that an individual had tried to sell the stamp. The owner Keelin O'Neill assured the FBI during questioning that he had inherited the "Inverted Jenny" from his grandfather, now deceased. O'Neill agreed to relinquish the stamp to authorities once he learned it was stolen.

The returned stamp is one of four from a block stolen from collector Ethel B. Stewart McCoy in 1955. Three of the four stamps stolen from McCoy -- who died in 1980 -- are entrusted to the APRL. The fourth is still missing. At a Robert A. Siegel auction on Tuesday in New York, an Inverted Jenny stamp from the original sheet of 100 sold for $1.2 million to a private buyer.

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