Rare masterpiece by Italian maestro Giotto copy emerges from Transylvanian church ruins

The fragments found deep in the Romanian region are part of a 14th-century fresco reproduction of Giotto's "Navicella" mosaic that used to adorn St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. By: Peter Murphy

BUDAPEST (AFP).- A jewel among the wild grass? A Hungarian historian is convinced that patches of fresco in a Transylvanian church ruin are a rare medieval copy of a legendary masterpiece by Italian maestro Giotto. The fragments found deep in the Romanian region are part of a 14th-century fresco reproduction of Giotto's "Navicella" mosaic that used to adorn St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Szilard Papp told AFP in Budapest last week. Only three other 14th-century copies of the work, depicting Christ walking on water before apostles in a boat, are known to exist, in Strasbourg in France and in Florence and Pistoia in Italy. "This is definitely the fourth," said Papp of the Transylvanian fresco, in the village of Jelna, 430 kilometres (270 miles) northwest of the Romanian capital Bucharest. Giotto made the vast mosaic -- measuring roughly 10 by 14 metres (33 by 45 feet) and considered a marvel of medieval art -- for the basilica's atrium around 1300. It was later destroyed during the 17th century reconstruction of the basilica. "It is astonishing that such a major work was reproduced in a small village church on the periphery of western Christianity at that time, so far from Rome," said Papp, who works for the Budapest-based Istvan Moller Foundation, a heritage protection body. "Who painted the fresco and how will likely forever remain a mystery," he added. Papp's theory is that probably a sketch of the mosaic somehow made its way from Rome via painters workshops to Transylvania where a local artist painted the copy in the church.

During a trip to Jelna in 2014, he first saw the fragments of colour on the wall in the mostly roofless church, abandoned since its congregation of ethnic-German Lutheran Protestants died out in 1976. Last year he examined photographs from 2003 of the fresco in a less degraded state, but it was not until he later came across fragments on bits of plaster stored in a museum warehouse in nearby Bistrita that his pulse quickened. Decaying churches Poring over academic literature on Giotto's mosaic, Papp finally arranged the pieces of the puzzle in January. "When I put together all the elements -- the sail, mast, apostles, the Christ figure, the heads with their particular gestures -- visible separately on the wall, in the photos, and on the museum fragments, I realised it must be the 'Navicella'," he told AFP. Remarkably, it is not "less faithful" to the original than the other three copies, he said. "There is a lot (in the findings) that makes sense", Ciprian Firea, a historian in the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca's Institute of Archaeology and Art History, told AFP. The church was built in the second half of the 14th century by ethnic Germans, thousands of whom settled in Transylvania, then part of Hungary, after an invitation by a 12th-century Hungarian king. After the 16th century Reformation frescoes were whitewashed or plastered over by Protestant converts from Catholicism who frowned upon imagery inside churches. Barely altered since the Middle Ages, decaying churches in Transylvania have revealed many medieval frescoes since the fall of communism in Romania in 1989. The church in Jelna could totally collapse within one year unless urgent repairs are carried out, experts warned at a seminar in Bistrita Thursday.

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Pissarro painting looted by Nazis and owned by the University of Oklahoma to return to France

Pissarro completed "Shepherdess bringing in sheep" in 1886.

WASHINGTON (AFP).- A painting by Camille Pissarro will return to a Jewish family in France whose art collection was looted by the Nazis in 1941, a lawyer who led the negotiations said. The University of Oklahoma will give back "La bergere rentrant des moutons" -- or "Shepherdess bringing in sheep" -- to Holocaust survivor Leone Meyer, her New York lawyer Pierre Ciric told AFP about the restitution agreement signed Monday. Meyer is the adoptive daughter of late businessman Raoul Meyer, who was co-owner of the French retail company that owns the upscale department store chain Galeries Lafayette. He deposited his art collection in a vault at the bank Credit Commercial de France in 1940 before the Nazis seized it during their occupation of France. Pissarro completed "Shepherdess bringing in sheep" in 1886.

The oil-on-canvas painting -- valued in its last appraisal at $1.5 million -- was later acquired by a Swiss merchant and a New York gallery before it was bought by collectors Aaron and Clara Weitzenhoffer. They bequeathed it to the University of Oklahoma in 2000. Under the settlement's terms, the painting will be displayed for five years in France before it will move on a rotating basis between the University of Oklahoma's Fred Jones Museum and a French museum. The deal also requires Meyer to donate the painting to a French art institution during her lifetime or in her will. "The priority was for public display," Ciric said about the negotiations, which began after Meyer filed suit in May 2013. The university drew criticism during the process for objecting to returning the work based on procedural rules and the statute of limitations.

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Modern 'Indiana Jones' on mission to help find undiscovered treasures and defend wonders

'Real-world Indiana Jones' Sarah Parcak unveils a wish to enlist people around the world to help save antiquities. GLENN CHAPMAN / AFP.

VANCOUVER (AFP).- A technology-wielding archeologist billed as a real-world "Indiana Jones" called Tuesday for an online platform that entices just about anyone to help find undiscovered treasures and defend archeological wonders. Sarah Parcak envisions a 21st century army of citizen scientists to battle the looting and destruction of the world's antiquities. And now, thanks to winning this year's coveted TED Prize, her wish may just come true. "We are at a tipping point with our cultural heritage," Parcak told reporters. "We are losing the battle against looters. If we don't do something in the next couple of years, it will be gone." The TED Prize provides a million dollars to kickstart a big vision and opens a door to call on the nonprofit organization's innovative, influential and ingenious community of "tedsters" for help. Parcak wants people around the world to become explorers, detecting antiquities looting faster than currently possible and pointing archeologists to promising spots on the planet. "The only way we are going to be able to get ahead of the looters and protect sites is to engage the world and make them part of what we do as archeologists," Parcak said. Her exploration includes a game with digital "cards" that people can quickly flip through to scrutinize satellite imagery for tombs, pyramids, looting "pits" and other points of potential interest to archeologists. Only tiny sections of imagery will be shown, along with broad location data such as what country is involved. "The last thing we want is for looters to log-in and help find sites to loot," Parcak said. "The most exciting part is, it will be a game." Parcak condemned destruction of antiquities by the likes of violent extremists from the Islamic State group and saw looting done by the desperately poor as "heartbreaking."

Digital digs Archeologists will follow up on sites pinpointed by the "crowd," paving the way for protection from governments or law enforcement agencies. Virtual explorers will visit digs using social media tools such as Periscope, Instagram and Google+. "The world is going to get to engage with archeology in a way that has not been done before at this scale," Parcak said. Her team is consulting with citizen scientists and game experts on the project. "We don't know what getting people excited about discovery will do," Parcak said. "We know this will allow the world to become archeological activists as well as discoverers." Enlisting people in countries around the world is vital in the fight against intentional destruction of antiquities and looting that is "spiraling out of control," she maintained. "We can't stop the looting, and we can't change the mindset of people like ISIL, but we can become advocates to stem the antiquities trade," Parcak said. She hopes to roll the platform out this year. "Sarah is the ultimate 21st century explorer," said TED Prize director Anna Verghese. "We find ourselves at a critical moment in time when we can empower and ignite an army of citizen scientists to find, share and protect our heritage." Spying the past from space Parcak was introduced to aerial photography through her grandfather's use of it in forestry work. She was studying Egyptology at Yale when she began exploring the potential for using more modern tools to apply her grandfather's approach to archeology. Parcak was pursuing an advanced degree at Cambridge University when she created a technique for processing infrared imagery from satellites that helped her detect undiscovered archeological sites in Egypt. She has since turned to mapping looting. Her work has caused some to refer to Parcak as a real-world version of the Indiana Jones character made famous in films starring Harrison Ford.

Parcak is a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she founded the Laboratory for Global Observation. She has won attention for her work satellite mapping Egypt and uncovering hidden pyramids, tombs and settlements. The annual TED Prize has grown from $100,000 to a million dollars since it was first awarded in the year 2005, to U2 band leader Bono and his vision of fighting poverty and disease. The TED community includes scientists, celebrities, politicians, artists, and entrepreneurs. Since its inception in 1984, the gathering has grown into a global forum for "ideas worth spreading." TED has won a worldwide following for trademark "talks" during which accomplished speakers deliver thought-sparking presentations. Videos of talks are available for free online at ted.com.

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Spain agrees to extradite $33 mn art fraud suspect Jesus Angel Bergantinos Diaz to US

Untitled,1956 attributed to Mark Rothko.

MADRID (AFP).- Spain's top criminal court on Tuesday agreed to extradite to the United States a man suspected of helping to perpetrate one of the world's biggest art frauds over two decades. Jesus Angel Bergantinos Diaz was allegedly involved in the sale of fake masterpieces purporting to be by artists like Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock -- works that were actually done by a Chinese painter he met on a Manhattan street corner. US investigators say the Spaniard, his brother Jose Carlos -- deemed a leading figure in the scam -- and others sold the fake works of art to galleries in New York over two decades, grossing some $33 million (29.6 million euros) in the process. They then laundered the money and hid it overseas. Spain's National Court said Bergantinos, 67, was wanted by US authorities for money-laundering and fraud. He was arrested in April 2014 in the northwestern Spanish city of Lugo, while his brother Jose Carlos was detained that same month at a luxury hotel in the southern city of Seville. Both refused voluntary extradition and were ordered to surrender their passports and remain in Spain pending extradition hearings.

US prosecutors said Jose Carlos would buy up canvases of old paintings at flea markets and stain newer canvases with tea bags, which he gave to Pei-Shen Qian, the Chinese painter, to create what have been dubbed "the Fake Works." Among the bogus paintings were some purportedly by Rothko, Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn and Robert Motherwell. In September 2013, Jose Carlos' girlfriend, Mexican-US art dealer Glafira Rosales, pleaded guilty before a US federal judge to selling counterfeit paintings to two of New York's top galleries. Qian, meanwhile, is suspected of having fled to China. The National Court will now have to decide whether or not to extradite Jose Carlos.

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Italy pits 60-strong task force of art detectives and restorers against world's heritage looters

The hope, UNESCO director Irina Bokova said Tuesday, was that other countries would follow Rome's example and join the heritage fight.

ROME (AFP).- Italy unveiled a 60-strong task force of art detectives and restorers on Tuesday, ready to protect the world's crisis-hit heritage sites for UNESCO in a cultural version of the UN's famous Blue Helmets. The task force, dubbed "cultural peacekeepers", will be dispatched -- when logistically possible -- to assess the damage to globally-prized monuments or works in the wake of conflicts, earthquakes, floods or other disasters. The main aim is to stop the looting and selling of heritage by militants to fund "terrorist activities", UNESCO said. The task force will "assess risk and quantify damage done to cultural heritage sites, develop action plans and urgent measures, provide technical supervision and training for local national staff," the Italian ministry said in a statement. It will also help transfer movable objects to safety "and strengthen the fight against looting and illegal trafficking of cultural property," the ministry said.

Thirty police art detectives and 30 archaeologists, restorers and art historians "are already operational and ready to go where UNESCO sends them," said Culture Minister Dario Franceschini. Italy's art police have an international reputation for tracking down and recovering stolen works. The hope, UNESCO director Irina Bokova said Tuesday, was that other countries would follow Rome's example and join the heritage fight. The idea for an Italian, cultural version of the United Nations peacekeepers -- known by their distinctive blue helmets -- was voted in by the UN after the destruction of sites including in Syria's Palmyra by the Islamic State group. IS seized control of Palmyra in May and has realised international fears by destroying some of the most prized sites in the UNESCO World Heritage listed ancient city. The militants have carried out a sustained campaign of destruction against heritage sites in areas under their control in Syria and Iraq, including the important Iraqi sites of Hatra, Nimrud and Khorsabad, the ancient Assyrian capital. Islamist militants are also accused of being behind attacks on 10 religious and historic monuments in the UNESCO World Heritage city of Timbuktu in Mali.

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Russia rejects nomination of jailed artist Pyotr Pavlensky for state art prize

A file picture taken November 10, 2015 shows Russian artist Pyotr Pavlensky, accused of vandalism after torching the doors to the headquarters of the FSB security service, the successor to the KGB, the previous day, standing inside a defendants' cage during a hearing at a court in Moscow. A Russian court on December 3 ruled against releasing radical artist Pyotr Pavlensky from prison as he awaits trial over the torching of the doors of FSB security service headquarters. AFP PHOTO / DMITRY SEREBRYAKOV.

MOSCOW (AFP).- The organisers of Russia's top state art prize on Tuesday rejected the nomination of artist Pyotr Pavlensky for his performance setting fire to the headquarters of the Russian security service. Pavlensky has been held behind bars since November when he set fire to the wooden door of Moscow's notorious Lubyanka headquarters of the FSB security service in a performance protesting against the powers of the secret police. The state-owned National Centre for Contemporary Arts which organises the annual Innovation prize said Tuesday it had rejected the nomination of Pavlensky's "Threat" performance in the visual art category. The general director of the arts centre, Mikhail Mindlin said in a statement that Pavlensky's performance was dropped because its creation involved "breaches of the law and caused material damage." He said that nominating a work whose making involved breaking the law "to a competition which is held by a state organisation and under the aegis and with the support of the culture ministry seems impermissible to us."

Art critic Anna Tolstova, who is a member of the prize's advisory board, told The Art Newspaper Russia that she nominated the performance with Pavlensky's consent and it had got the most votes from the experts. The decision sparked a walk-out by three members of the advisory board, including Tolstova and Dmitry Ozerkov the head of the contemporary art section of the world-renowned Hermitage museum, the state art centre said. Ultimately the organisers decided to drop the visual art category altogether. Pavlensky's partner Oksana Shalygina wrote on Facebook: "Pavlensky has triumphed and forced the state machine to creak and collapse. The only way is ahead!" Pavlensky is currently incarcerated in a Moscow psychiatric hospital, ostensibly to assess his mental capacity. He has been detained in custody until March 6. The 31-year-old artist whose previous radical performances have included nailing his scrotum to Red Square has been charged with vandalism over the performance and faces up to three years in prison. The Innovation art prize has previously been known for its support for risky protest art. In 2011, it awarded the 400,000-ruble (then $14,000) prize went to street art group Voina, or War, for painting a phallus on a drawbridge opposite the headquarters of the FSB security service in Saint Petersburg. The culture ministry at the time condemned the work titled "A cock captured by the FSB" as "disgusting" but said it would not interfere with the jury's decision.

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The Art Loss Register locates two paintings stolen in a house burglary in Amsterdam in 2010

Still Life with Roses by Akkeringa Johannes Evert Hendrik, with an estimate of £2,700-4,000.

LONDON.- Following the Art Loss Register’s location of two paintings stolen in a house burglary in Amsterdam in March 2010, the works have been successfully recovered for the benefit of the insurer. The two paintings are Three Children and a Dog by Johannes Zoetelief Tromp, with an auction estimate of £14,000-20,000 and Still Life with Roses (illustrated) by Akkeringa Johannes Evert Hendrik, with an estimate of £2,700-4,000. In February 2014, the Art Loss Register spotted them in the catalogue of a Swiss auction house. They are one of 95 auction houses that subscribe to the Art Loss Register’s routine catalogue searching service. The auction house stated that, ‘It is precisely for this reason that we subscribe to the Art Loss Register, so that we can detect claimed items as soon as possible and avoid running the risk of selling stolen art.’

The matches were verified with the Interpol database. The Art Loss Register immediately alerted the auction house, which promptly withdrew the paintings from sale. The Art Loss Register also informed the Dutch police and a police investigation began with the Dutch and Swiss law enforcement authorities co-operating internationally. In February 2016, the paintings could finally be returned to the insurer who had paid out on the claim. With stolen art frequently crossing borders to avoid detection, this illustrates the importance of the Art Loss Register’s work internationally with police forces, insurers and auction houses to counter any attempts to sell stolen art.

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