Billionaire owner of Monaco soccer club in custody, home searched

In this file photograph taken on March 31, 2018, AS Monaco President Dmitry Rybolovlev looks on during the French League Cup final football match between Monaco (ASM) and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) at The Matmut Atlantique Stadium in Bordeaux, southwestern France. The Russian billionaire owner of Monaco football club was in custody November 6, 2018, his lawyer confirmed, the latest twist in his legal battle with a Swiss art dealer who he claims cheated him of up to one billion dollars and Sotheby's auctioneers. Police officers also carried out a search of Dmitry Rybolovlev's luxury penthouse apartment in the principality, said a source close to the case. NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP.

MONACO (AFP).- The Russian billionaire owner of Monaco football club was in custody Tuesday, his lawyer confirmed, the latest twist in his legal battle with a Swiss art dealer who he claims cheated him of up to one billion dollars and Sotheby's auctioneers.

Police officers also carried out a search Tuesday morning of Dmitry Rybolovlev's luxury penthouse apartment in the principality, said a source close to the case. Rybolovlev's lawyer Herve Temine confirmed the latest developments, while stressing the principle of the presumption of innocence.

Temine's colleague Thomas Giaccardi said the latest move came after the seizure and analysis of a mobile phone belonging to one of Rybolovlev's lawyers, Tetiana Bersheda. Since 2015, Rybolovlev has been locked in a legal battle with Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier, who he accuses of having swindled him out of up to a billion dollars, by charging inflated fees.

When Rybolovlev's lawyer Bersheda produced an audio recording from her mobile phone that she said supported his case, the investigating magistrate in the case ordered text messages from the same phone to be extracted. That led to Monaco prosecutors opening a corruption investigation against Rybolovlev in 2017.

His legal team has repeatedly argued that this analysis of the phone was a violation of the lawyer-client confidentiality. That issue is still being fought out in court, but some of the compromising text messages have already been leaked to the French press.

On October 2 this year, Rybolovlev opened a new front in his legal battle, launching a $380-million (333-million-euros) lawsuit against Sotheby's auction house through the New York courts. In it, he accused the auction house of having helped Bouvier, their art advisor, carry out "the largest art fraud in history" -- at his expense.

Rybolovlev says Bouvier tricked him over the acquisition of 38 works of art he bought from him over a decade for more than $2.1 billion. "He repeatedly and blatantly misrepresented the acquisition prices for the paintings," pocketing the difference himself, says the lawsuit.

Sotheby's has dismissed the lawsuit as "entirely without merit". In November 2017, it filed its own lawsuit against Rybolovlev in Switzerland and is seeking to have the action in New York dismissed.

© Agence France-Presse
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Finnish couple jailed over 13 mn euro art forgery scam

In total, investigators submitted over 220 canvases to experts at Finland's National Gallery for verification. Photo: State Art Museum Conservation.

HELSINKI (AFP).- The married owners of an art gallery in Finland were jailed on Thursday and ordered to pay 13 million euros for selling hundreds of forged artworks in a five-year scam. Helsinki district court found that buyers and auction houses had been duped into buying counterfeited paintings bearing the signatures of some of Europe's best known artists, including Matisse, Renoir, Monet and Kandinsky.

Many other works purported to be by Russian artists from the romantic period, and the noted Finnish painters Helene Schjerfbeck and Albert Edelfeldt. Gallery owners Kati Marjatta Karkkiainen, 46, and Reijo Pollari, 75, were each found guilty of 30 charges of aggravated fraud, and sentenced to four and five years' imprisonment respectively. A further eight people were also found guilty and sentenced to up to three years in jail.

Child's play
In total, investigators submitted over 220 canvases to experts at Finland's National Gallery for verification. The majority were found to be forged, and mostly the work of one man, Veli Seppa, a self-taught artist living in southern Finland, who was given a suspended sentence in a separate case in 2017. The most expensive of the counterfeit works was "le Cirque", a painting bearing the signature of French modernist artist Fernand Leger, and which the couple sold for 2.2 million euros.

"The subject of the painting was in itself typical of Leger, who is considered a forerunner of pop-art. However the treatment of the subject was incredibly weak and the painting style was childish," the court said in its written judgement. Convicted forger Veli Seppa admitted in court to painting and signing the work, saying he borrowed material from the library in order to familiarise himself with Leger's style. Seppa said he painted onto an old canvas dating from the 1950s, which he picked up from a fleamarket.

Most of the works have been confiscated but investigators said that some of the counterfeits are still in circulation.

© Agence France-Presse http://artdaily.com/news/108797/Finnish-couple-jailed-over-13-mn-euro-art-forgery-scam#.W9shnJNKiUk

Stolen ancient artefact returns to Iran museum

A pictures shows on October 9 , 2018 a twice-stolen ancient Persian artefact in Tehran's national museum after a New York court ordered it returned to Iran. The limestone relief was handed over to Iran's representative at the United Nations last month and was personally brought back to Iran by President Hassan Rouhani, returning from the UN General Assembly. The bas-relief, approximately 25 centuries old, depicts the head of a soldier from a line of Immortal Guards. ATTA KENARE / AFP.

TEHRAN (AFP).- A twice-stolen ancient Persian artefact is in Tehran's national museum after a New York court ordered it returned to Iran. "It now belongs to the people who made it in the first place, and who are now going to preserve it, and is part of their identity," Firouzeh Sepidnameh, director of the ancient history section of the National Museum told AFP on Tuesday. The limestone relief was handed over to Iran's representative at the United Nations last month and was personally brought back to Iran by President Hassan Rouhani, returning from the UN General Assembly.

The bas-relief, approximately 25 centuries old, depicts the head of a soldier from a line of Immortal Guards. It was discovered in an archaeological dig in the early 1930s at Persepolis, capital of the Achaemenid Empire near today's central Iranian city of Shiraz.

The artefact was stolen four years after it was found, and ultimately ended up at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts where it was again stolen in 2011. It was seized by the Manhattan district attorney's office in 2017 when it resurfaced and was put on sale at an art fair. "The international community has evolved enough to realise every artefact must return to its point of origin," said Sepidnameh.

© Agence France-Presse
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Syria's recovered antiquities go on display at Damascus opera

A Syrian woman takes a "selfie" photograph with her phone next to artefacts recovered by the government from archaelogical sites affected by fighting across the country, on display at an exhibition titled "Syria's Recovered Treasures" at the Dar Al-Assad for Cutlure and Arts centre in the capital Damascus on October 3, 2018. The exhibition showcases about 500 pieces of antique ceramic pots, bronze statues, jewelry, and coins dating back to various periods. The exhibits were "found by the Syrian army and its allies, and the different security forces," after they retook cities and archeological sites from rebels and jihadists, antiquities chief Mahmoud Hamoud said. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP.

DAMASCUS (AFP).- Syria's antiquities authority on Wednesday unveiled an exhibition in Damascus of hundreds of artefacts retrieved from around the war-torn country. Dozens of Syria's archaeological sites have been destroyed, damaged or looted since the start of the seven-year civil war, with all sides blamed for the plundering.

On Wednesday evening, golden coins, bronze statues and amphoras were among 500 artifacts on show at the Damascus opera house. Visitors could admire two rare busts rescued from the ancient city of Palmyra and restored in Italy after being damaged by the Islamic State jihadist group. The exhibits were "found by the Syrian army and its allies, and the different security forces," after they retook cities and archaeological sites from rebels and jihadists, antiquities chief Mahmoud Hamoud said.

They "are from all historical eras -- from the tenth century BC to the Islamic era", Hamoud said. In total, more than 9,000 pieces have been salvaged, he said. They come from various regions of Syria, including the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, the southern province of Daraa, and the UNESCO-listed site of Palmyra, he said. "But tens of thousands of archaeological pieces that were smuggled out of the country have not returned," Hamoud alleged. Several artifacts were retrieved from neighbouring Lebanon, he added, but were not part of the exhibition.

Thousands of Syrian archaeological treasures remain in neighbouring Turkey and hundreds more across the border in Jordan, the antiquities chief said. All warring sides have been accused of looting artifacts during the Syrian conflict, from both major archeological sites and the country's museums. More than 360,000 people have been killed since the war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor says.

© Agence France-Presse
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A reciprocating saw forced open the doors of a Calgary Art Gallery, stealing $500,000 worth of art

Police released these images of the suspects and a truck that might have been involved in the break and enter. (Calgary Police Service)

CBC News · Posted: Sep 19, 2018 1:24 PM MT | Last Updated: September 19
Suspects used a reciprocating saw to force open the doors and made off with dozens of works. Approximately $500,000 worth of art was stolen from a Calgary gallery in May and now police are reaching out to the public for help in the investigation. Between 60 and 70 pieces of art were taken from the Gerry Thomas Gallery on 11th Avenue S.W. around 11:50 p.m. on May 20, according to police.

In a news release, police say the suspects entered a commercial building and then broke into the gallery using a reciprocating saw to cut open the main door. "Once inside, offenders took approximately 30 pieces of artwork, including various sculptures and paintings," reads the release.

The inside of the Gerry Thomas Gallery before the art was stolen. (Calgary Police Service)

"The offenders then entered the parkade of the building and forced open a storage room door where they took an additional 30 to 40 pieces of art."

Police say the suspects also broke into an adjacent cafe and stole $10,000 worth of "various property and cash." "It is believed that one of the suspects attended the building earlier in the day, at approximately 5 p.m., and repositioned security cameras in preparation for the break and enter," said police.

Thomas, who owns the gallery bearing his name, said the theft came shortly after the gallery re-opened after undergoing renovations from water damage in January.

The inside of the Gerry Thomas Gallery after the theft. (Calgary Police Service)

"It was pretty much stripped bare completely," he said of the gallery walls after the theft. Among the missing items, according to Thomas, was over 30 years of his professional sports photography and memorabilia. Anyone with information is asked to contact the police by calling 403-266-1234 or provide tips anonymously through Crime Stoppers.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-police-gallery-theft-1.4830132

Nazi looted painting by Renoir returned to owner's granddaughter

A Pierre Auguste Renoir painting "Femmes Dans Un Jardin" stolen by the Nazis, unveiled by US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey S. Berman was returned to the heir of its rightful owner, Sylvie Sulitzer during a ceremony at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York on September 12, 2018. The painting was taken by the Nazis during World War II. The 1919 painting was stolen from a bank vault in Paris in 1941 from art collector Alfred Weinberger. TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP.

NEW YORK (AFP).- A Renoir painting stolen by the Nazis from a Paris bank vault was returned to its rightful owner Wednesday after a more than 70-year odyssey from South Africa to London, Switzerland and New York. "Deux Femmes Dans Un Jardin," painted in 1919 in the last year of French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir's life, is finally back in the hands of the granddaughter of the Jewish owner who spent decades trying to get it back.

Sylvie Sulitzer, the last remaining heir of her grandfather Alfred Weinberger, a prominent art collector in pre-war Paris, received the work from US authorities during a ceremony at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. Although Sulitzer knew her grandfather, she had no idea about the missing Renoir until a German law firm, specialists in recovering art looted by the Nazis from Jewish families, contacted her in the early 2010s. "I'm very thankful to be able to show my beloved family wherever they are that after all they've been through, there is a justice," Sulitzer said. Four other Renoirs and a Delacroix, which her grandfather also owned, have yet to be recovered, she told AFP.

The Nazis stole the art in December 1941 from the bank vault where Weinberger stored his collection when he fled Paris at the outset of World War II. After peace returned to Europe, Weinberger spent decades trying to recover his property, registering his claim with French authorities in 1947 and with the Germans in 1958. US officials said the Renoir first resurfaced at an art sale in Johannesburg in 1975, before finding its way to London, where it was sold again in 1977. It was put up for sale again in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1999. But it was only when it was put up for auction by a private collector at Christie's in New York that the auction house called in the FBI. Its previous "owner" eventually agreed to relinquish the picture.

It is thought that up to 100,000 works of art, and millions of books, were stolen from French Jews, or Jews who had fled to France before the Nazi occupation began in 1940. The Allies found around 60,000 of the missing artworks after the war in Germany and returned them to France. Two-thirds were returned to their original owners by 1950, according to a French government report seen by AFP earlier this year that criticized French authorities' inefficiency in returning the rest.

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Spanish sculptures get kitschy colours in another botched restoration

The previously plain wooden carving also features a young Jesus in a bright green robe, while a third statue of Saint Peter now has him in blood red garments.

MADRID (AFP).- A Spanish parishioner has painted three 15th century sculptures in garish colours, giving Jesus a bright green robe in the latest botched amateur art restoration to make headlines in the country. A wooden statue of the Virgin Mary at the chapel in El Ranadoiro, a hamlet in the northern Asturias region that is home to just 28 people, was given a bright pink headscarf, sky blue robe and eyeliner. The previously plain wooden carving also features a young Jesus in a bright green robe, while a third statue of Saint Peter now has him in blood red garments.

The makeover has led to comparisons with the botched 2012 restoration by an elderly parishioner of the "Ecce Homo" fresco of Jesus Christ in Borja which resembled a pale-faced ape with cartoon-style eyes. "It's crazy," said Luis Suarez Saro, who had previously restored the three El Ranadoiro sculptures in 2002-2003 with the regional government's approval.

The woman who carried out the latest restoration, local resident Maria Luisa Menendez, received permission from the parish priest to give them a fresh lick of paint, local newspaper El Comercio reported. "I'm not a professional, but I always liked to do it, and the figures really needed to be painted. So I painted them as I could, with the colours that looked good to me, and the neighbours liked it," she told the daily. Suarez Saro remarked to AFP that Menendez "likes to draw and paint, she did some courses... and she felt the sculptures looked better this way."

While the paint job sparked hilarity online, Spanish art conservation association ACRE sounded the alarm. "Does no one care about this continued pillaging in our country? What kind of society stands by as its ancestor's legacy is destroyed before its eyes," it asked on Twitter.

A church in the northern town of Estella came under fire in June for an amateur restoration of a 16th century wooden sculpture of Saint George which some Twitter users said made it look like comic-book character Tintin. The botched restoration of the "Ecce Homo" fresco has become famous meanwhile, with thousands of tourists now visiting Borja to see it. It also inspired a comic opera that was staged in the 16th-century Sanctuary of Our Lady of Mercy where the painting is encased on a wall.

© Agence France-Presse
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