Man threatening to make French museum 'hell' taken into psychiatric care

Police officers and journalists stand in front of the archeology museum in Saint-Raphael, southern France on October 23, 2019 after a man who had broken into the museum and threatened to turn it into a "hell", provoking a four-hour standoff, has been detained. Police had surrounded the site, where several messages in Arabic had been scrawled on the walls, including: "The museum is going to become a hell". Valery HACHE / AFP.

SAINT-RAPHAEL (AFP).- Police in southern France on Wednesday detained a man who had broken into a museum overnight and threatened to turn it into "hell", before admitting him to a psychiatric hospital, authorities said.

The man, who had provoked a four-hour standoff with police, was "mentally disturbed", regional prosecutor Patrice Camberou said. He was "a very mentally disturbed person, he was totally delusional, it was impossible to question him," said Camberou.

The museum, a historic monument, includes a medieval stone church and a vast collection of amphoras and other items from the region's Roman history.

"Some amphoras dating from the Roman period have been destroyed," Saint-Raphael's mayor, Frederic Masquelier, said at a press conference.

The man was about 18 years old but gave officers several identities, including that of the fictional "Aladdin". The man was seized "without resistance and without violence" in the gardens of the archeology museum in the Mediterranean town of Saint-Raphael shortly after 11:00 am (0900 GMT), the government's top regional official Eric de Wispelaere said.

Officers from the elite RAID crisis intervention unit as well as a bomb disposal squad surrounded the site, where several messages in Arabic, including "The museum is going to become a hell," had been scrawled on the walls, according to police sources. De Wispelaere said the man had acted alone and no explosives were found.

The standoff led officials to lock down a large part of the historic centre of the resort town of some 35,000 people, tucked between Cannes and Saint-Tropez. "There are barricades everywhere, the street is completely blocked off," Sebastian Belkacem, who owns the Duplex restaurant opposite the museum, told AFP by telephone.

https://artdaily.cc/news/117786/Man-threatening-to-make-French-museum--hell--taken-into-psychiatric-care © Agence France-Presse

F.B.I. Recovers Nazi-Looted Painting From New York Museum

The Arkell Museum had no inkling of the early 20th-century canvas’ dark past Winter

The Nazis seized Winter, an early 20th-century painting by American artist Gari Melchers, in 1933. (U.S. Attorney's Office)

By Jason Daley smithsonian.com October 28, 2019

Soon after Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, his Nazi propaganda machine singled out the Berliner Tageblatt, a liberal-leaning newspaper known for its criticism of the far-right party, as a symbol of the so-called “Jewish press.” That same year, the paper’s publisher, Hans Lachmann-Mosse, fled to Switzerland with his wife Felicia. The Nazis, in turn, quickly seized the family’s art collection—a trove including, among others, a painting titled Winter by American artist Gari Melchers.

Eighty-five years later, the Associated Press reports, authorities have finally found this looted work of art. As court documents obtained by the AP reveal, the early 20th-century scene has long been hidden in plain sight, albeit in an unexpected locale: namely, the Arkell Museum in Canajoharie, New York. The upstate museum, unaware of the painting’s provenance until contacted by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, surrendered the work in mid-September.

As Suzan D. Friedlander, the museum’s executive director and chief curator, tells the AP, staffers were “of course very upset to learn the history of the painting’s seizure from the Mosse family by the Nazis in 1933.” Winter will remain stored in the F.B.I.’s Albany office until it can be returned to the family’s descendants.

According to the AP, businessman and philanthropist Rudolf Mosse—known for building a German media empire comprised of some 130 newspapers and journals—purchased the painting at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition in 1900. Following his death in 1920, Mosse’s daughter and sole heir, Felicia, inherited both the family business and her father’s extensive art collection. Her husband, Hans, meanwhile, became publisher of the Mosses’ flagship publication, the Berliner Tageblatt.

Per the Albany Times Union’s Brendan J. Lyons, the Nazis relied on collaborator and art dealer Rudolph Lepke to sell Winter and similarly looted paintings following their seizure from Jewish families. Lepke sold the painting to an unknown buyer in May 1934, and five months later, Bartlett Arkell, co-founder of the Beech-Nut Packing Company, purchased the work for his personal collection during a sale at Manhattan’s Macbeth Art Gallery.

“The Macbeth Gallery was a popular gallery where Mr. Arkell purchased a number of his paintings that he eventually donated to the Arkell Museum,” museum trustee Charles J. Tallent tells Lyons. “The painting was with the museum since 1934, until it was reclaimed by the Mosse family.”

Arkell, who was by all accounts unaware of Winter’s unsavory past, later donated the painting to the New York museum that bears his name.

As Kate Brown writes for artnet News, the Arkell Museum immediately waived its legal rights to the painting upon learning of the work’s Nazi ties. “We have been part of making something right, at long last, and take that responsibility very seriously, and to heart,” Friedlander, who says she’d like to be present when the painting is returned to the Mosses, tells Brown.

The looted work of art’s rediscovery is no fluke, but rather the product of a fruitful collaboration—fittingly dubbed the Mosse Art Research Initiative—between the family’s descendants and the Free University of Berlin. According to Colin Moynihan of the New York Times, five university researchers have combed through correspondence, auction catalogs and Nazi-era records to identify art once owned by Mosse and his heirs. Although the team suspects the Nazis took 4,000 items from the family, the project has only identified 1,000 by name to date.

The Mosse heirs, meanwhile, have spent the last seven years working to recover their stolen art. In addition to Winter, they have successfully reclaimed a lion sculpture by August Gaul, an Egyptian sarcophagus dating to 200 A.D., and a drawing by artist Adolph Menzel.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/fbi-seizes-nazi-looted-painting-new-york-museum-180973411/

Looted coffin acquired by Metropolitan Museum is headed back to Egypt

US and Egyptian officials presided over handover at a repatriation ceremony in New York

From left in foreground, US Homeland Security Investigations special-agent-in-charge Peter C. Fitzhugh; the Egyptian minister of foreign affairs, Sameh Hassan Shoukry; Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.; and Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos witness the handover of an ancient Egyptian coffin at a repatriation ceremony in New York AP Photo/Michael R. Sisak

NEW YORK - A looted gilded coffin that was removed from display this year at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is headed back to Egypt after a repatriation ceremony in New York attended by an Egyptian minister and a US Department of Homeland Security Investigations agent.

The Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr, announced the handover on Wednesday, which was the result of an investigation by his office’s antiquities trafficking unit in cooperation with law enforcement agencies in Egypt, Germany and France.

Vance’s office and Homeland Security officials had executed a search warrant in February and confiscated the coffin from the Met, where it had been on view as the centerpiece of an exhibition. The coffin was crafted in Egypt between roughly 150 and 50BC and is thought to have once held the remains of a high-ranking priest, Nedjemankh.

The museum had acquired the coffin in July 2017 from what it described as a private collection under the understanding that it had been legally exported from Egypt in 1971. It turned out that the museum had been given fraudulent documents: the gilded coffin had actually been looted in the Minya region of Egypt in 2011 and then smuggled out of the country.

After leaving Egypt, Vance’s office said, the coffin was transported through the United Arab Emirates to Germany, where it was restored before travelling to France. The Met has said that it purchased the coffin from the Paris-based dealer Christophe Kunicki for €3.5m. Vance’s office said that the Met had “fully cooperated” with law enforcement agents once museum officials learned that it had been stolen.

A Homeland Security official said that such investigations had strengthened his department’s relationships and connections with the art world. “The high profit business of smuggling and trafficking antiquities has been around for centuries,” said Peter C. Fitzhugh, special agent-in-charge for the department in New York. “But it is the responsibility of a buyer to confirm the proper provenance of a piece of art or antiquity.”

“The tremendous collaboration between HSI New York and the Manhattan DA in building art cases has allowed us to strengthen relationships within the art world, both domestic and global; develop investigations to track the illicit movement of stolen art and locate its final destination; and, return the priceless cultural property to its rightful homeland for its citizens to enjoy,” added Fitzhugh, who attended the repatriation ceremony with the Egyptian minister of foreign affairs, Sameh Hassan Shoukry.

The district attorney’s office has declined to say whether it anticipates imminent arrests in connection with the looted coffin. To date, it says, its antiquities trafficking unit has recovered several thousand stolen antiquities jointly valued at more than $150m, many of which have been returned to their rightful owners.

NANCY KENNEY, 26th September 2019 23:09 BST
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/looted-coffin-acquired-by-metropolitan-museum-is-headed-back-to-egypt

Thieves Used Neckties to Steal $2.2 Million in Loot From a French Castle That Helped Inspire Versailles

Christina and Patrice de-Vogüé outside the chateau. Courtesy of the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte.

Caroline Goldstein, September 23, 2019

Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte, Maincy, Seine et Marne, France. Photo by Alain KUBACSI/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images. Last week, in the hours before dawn, six masked thieves crept into the private quarters of the lavish 17th-century chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte. There, the robbers tied up 90-year-old Patrice de Vogüé and his 78-year-old wife, Cristina, with neckties, according to local police. The couple were otherwise uninjured—chateau management told artnet News that they are now “doing fine”—but the thieves made off with €2 million ($2.2 million) worth of loot.

Despite making off with an impressive haul of emeralds, the thieves didn’t attempt to take any of the tapestries, bronze sculptures, or paintings that adorn the lavish buildings. As of press time, they have yet to be caught.

The estate is often used as a stand-in for Versailles on movie sets, like the 1979 James Bond film Moonrake and Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. The dramatic landscape is also used as an event space for lavish gatherings like the 2007 nuptials of Eva Longoria and Tony Parker and yearly Grand Siècle events, where costumed enthusiasts gather to frolic on the expansive lawns in 17th-century garb.

The baroque chateau was built over the course of 20 years under the direction of Nicolas Fouquet, Louis XIV’s finance minister as he was quickly ascending the social strata of the monarchy. Fouquet’s design was revolutionary for uniting the various aspects of the estate: Louis Le Vau was brought on as architect, along with landscape gardener André Le Notre, and renowned painter Charles Le Brun, who together created a harmonious mise-en-scene that would become the hallmark of Louis XIV’s style.

The recent theft wasn’t the first time trouble hit came to the palace, however. Shortly after its completion in 1661, Fouquet was arrested for allegedly embezzling from the king. But even though it turned out to be a ruse concocted by Jean-Baptise Colbert, who took Fouquet’s place as finance minister, in the aftermath of the scandal, Voltaire wrote: “on 17 August at six in the evening Fouquet was the King of France: at two in the morning he was a nobody.” Louis XIV responded by ordering his own bigger and better version of Vaux-le-Vicomte, thus heralding the considerably larger palace Versailles.

Artnet: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/thieves-rob-french-chateau-1658332?utm_content=from_&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=US%204%3A55%20p.m.%20afternoon%20newsletter%20for%209%2F23%2F19&utm_term=NEW%20US%20NEWSLETTER%20LIST%20%2890%20DAY%20ENGAGED%20ONLY%29

Knife attack badly damages work by top French modern artist

Daniel Buren (1938 - ), Peinture [Manifestation 3] © Philippe Migeat - Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI /Dist. RMN-GP © DB - Adagp, Paris.

PARIS (AFP).- An attacker wielding a utility knife has badly damaged a work by the celebrated French conceptual artist Daniel Buren at the Pompidou Centre in central Paris, the museum said on Friday. The work, "Peinture [Manifestation 3]", suffered "serious deliberate damage" in Thursday afternoon's attack by the man, the museum said in a statement. It said that a museum attendant alerted security, and video cameras allowed the rapid finding of the suspect. "He made no claim (over the attack) and was handed over to the police," it said.

An investigation has been opened by the judicial authorities after the museum filed a complaint to police. The artist, 81, has been informed of the incident and the work itself transferred to the stores of the Pompidou Centre to estimate the damage and restoration needed. It will be replaced on public display by another work from the artist. The Pompidou Centre said it understood the suspect was no longer in detention and had been transferred to a psychiatric unit.

"Peinture [Manifestation 3]" was created by Buren in 1967 and shows red and white stripes. It was purchased for the museum's collection in 1986. Buren is perhaps best known for the succession of black-and-white columns he inlaid into the inner courtyard of the Palais Royal complex in central Paris in a hugely controversial installation that opened in 1986.

The damage to the work comes just over a week after a stencilled work by the elusive British street artist Banksy was stolen from outside the Pompidou Centre. The Pompidou, which houses Europe's biggest collection of contemporary art but does not own the Banksy work, filed a police complaint for destruction of property.

© Agence France-Presse
http://artdaily.com/news/116787/Knife-attack-badly-damages-work-by-top-French-modern-artist#.XX_p3ShKiUk

Court’s New Morrisseau Forgery Decision a “Big Warning to Art Dealers”

Art dealing in Canada may become more transparent, some people hope, in the wake of a groundbreaking court decision issued this week.

Art dealer Donald Robinson of Kinsman Robinson galleries examines the painting at the centre of a Norval Morrisseau forgeries case in a scene from the new documentary There Are No Fakes. https://canadianart.ca/news/courts-new-morrisseau-forgery-decision-a-big-warning-to-art-dealers/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly%20September%205%202019&utm_content=Weekly%20September%205%202019+CID_4897313ce52e65c08a0bb3db20b7c7ca&utm_source=E%20Weekly%20Campaign&utm_term=Courts%20New%20Morrisseau%20Forgery%20Decision%20a%20Big%20Warning%20to%20Art%20Dealers

Egypt asks Interpol to trace Tutankhamun relic over ownership docs

An Egyptian brown quartzite head of Tutankhamen as the God Amen. Estimate on request. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019.

CAIRO (AFP).- Egypt has asked international police agency Interpol to track down a 3,000-year-old Tutankhamun artefact that was sold in London for $6 million despite fierce opposition from Cairo, government officials said. Christie's auction house sold the 28.5-centimetre (11-inch) relic for £4,746,250 ($5,970,000, 5,290,000 euros) to an unknown buyer in early July at one of its most controversial auctions in years. But less than a week after the sale, Egypt's National Committee for Antiquities Repatriation (NCAR) said after an urgent meeting that national prosecutors had asked Interpol "to issue a circular to trace" such artefacts over alleged missing paperwork. "The committee expresses its deep discontent of the unprofessional behaviour of the sale of Egyptian antiquities without providing the ownership documents and the evidences that prove its legal export from Egypt," the NCAR said in a statement.

The committee -- headed by Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany and attended by his predecessor Zahi Hawass as well as officials from various ministries -- also called upon Britain to "prohibit the export of the sold artefacts" until the Egyptian authorities were shown the documents. It suggested the issue could have an impact on cultural relations, by referencing "the ongoing cooperation between both countries in the field of archaeology, especially that there are 18 British archaeological missions are working in Egypt". The NCAR added it had hired a British law firm to file a "civil lawsuit" although no further details were given.

'Stolen from Karnak'
The London sale of the head of "Boy King" Tutankhamun angered Egyptian officials at the time and sparked a protest outside Christie's by about a dozen people who held up signs reading "stop trading in smuggled antiquities". Hawass told AFP that the piece appeared to have been "stolen" in the 1970s from the Karnak Temple complex just north of Luxor and the Egyptian foreign ministry asked the UK Foreign Office and the UN cultural body UNESCO to step in and halt the sale. But such interventions are rare and made only when there is clear evidence of the item's legitimate acquisition by the seller being in dispute.

Christie's argued that Egypt had never before expressed the same level of concern about an item whose existence has been "well known and exhibited publicly" for many years. "The object is not, and has not been, the subject of an investigation," Christie's said in a statement to AFP. The auction house has published a chronology of how the relic changed hands between European art dealers over the past 50 years and told AFP that it would "not sell any work where there isn't clear title of ownership".

© Agence France-Presse

http://artdaily.com/news/115087/Egypt-asks-Interpol-to-trace-Tutankhamun-relic-over-ownership-docs#.XSdtq-hKiUk