STUDY HALL

Comment

Comment by Susan- redshoeartist on September 17, 2010 at 2:12pm

It seems finger pointing has elevated but become not much more sophisticated as it was in the sand pit in pre school... and what a web they weave

Comment by Diana on September 17, 2010 at 1:16pm

i'm still trying to sort it out. it's like -- WHA>>>>>>"??? doesn't make sense.

Comment by Wendy Johnson on September 17, 2010 at 6:51am

Interesting Diana, now what is the moral of this story? Don't drink while on the job even if it's a fraud job?....lol

Comment by Diana on September 17, 2010 at 6:02am

I'm fascinated with odd stories about paintings being stolen. Here's an especially odd one that I found today on the wires:
NEW YORK (AP) - A doorman who works across from New York's
Metropolitan Museum of Art found a painting outside his building
and kept it for weeks, then realized it was a missing work at the
center of a bizarre legal web and turned it in to investigators
this week, an official said.
"Portrait of a Girl," painted in the mid-1800s by
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, vanished in late July after a
middleman showing the work to a prospective buyer at a Manhattan
hotel several blocks from the doorman's building claimed he got
drunk and lost it.
One of the owners sued him over the loss, then dropped the case.
The other owner was recently indicted in federal court on wire
fraud conspiracy charges, accused of lying about the painting's
value and trying to defraud an investor.
A doorman at a building not far from the hotel showed up at a
police precinct house Sunday with the painting, a law enforcement
official said. He told officials that he found it outside and had
it for weeks until he read news reports upon returning from
vacation and turned it over, said the official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity because the investigation was still in
progress.
He was questioned and released, and the information was given to
federal authorities. FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said the painting
had been recovered. News of the discovery was first reported in The
New York Times.
While the doorman had the painting, one of the owners, Kristyn
Trudgeon, sued the middleman, James Carl Haggerty, for losing the
work.
The other owner, Trudgeon's boyfriend Thomas Doyle, was later
indicted on wire fraud charges and accused of lying to an investor
about the value of the art. His attorney says he is not guilty.
The painting, circa 1857, is of a young girl with wide, sad eyes
and a black frock, and is valued at between $500,000 and $700,000.
It was initially reported as worth $1.3 million.
According to Trudgeon's now-dismissed suit, Doyle lined up
Haggerty to take the canvas to the hotel for the potential buyer to
examine July 28. The buyer didn't want it.
Security cameras showed that the buyer left the hotel, and that
Haggerty lingered in the hotel bar for more than an hour and left
with the painting. Haggerty claimed he drank too much and forgot
what happened to the painting.
The FBI began investigating after Trudgeon sued. She abruptly
abandoned the lawsuit this month after learning - when reporters
showed her a prison mug shot - that Doyle had pleaded guilty in
2007 to stealing an Edgar Degas sculpture from a wealthy collector.
Trudgeon's lawyer didn't specify her reasons for dropping the case
but said she was exploring other "potential legal remedies."
The attorney, Max Di Fabio, didn't immediately return a call
Thursday.
Doyle was accused in federal court of misrepresenting the sale
price of the painting to the co-buyer in Japan and to the operator
of an art gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia, who acted as the
co-buyer's broker.
Doyle remains in jail at least until a bail amount is set. His
attorney, Kevin Keating, said it was great news that the portrait
turned up. The doorman was not at his building Thursday.

Comment by Wendy Johnson on September 12, 2010 at 7:18am

Very interesting paintings and so exquisitely executed. That will be a great show Diana.

Comment by Diana on September 10, 2010 at 2:44am

a Giuseppe Arcimboldo exhibit is coming to the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art next week!

Comment by Diana on September 10, 2010 at 2:41am

Here's a cool exhibition coming to Washington, D.C.


National Gallery of Art, East Building
Fourth Street and Constitution Avenue NW
September 19, 2010- January 9, 2011
Bizarre yet scientifically accurate, 16 examples of the fantastic composite heads painted by Giuseppe Arcimboldo will be featured in this exhibition, their first appearance as a group in the United States. The unusual heads are composed of plants, animals, and other objects. Additional works, including drawings by Leonardo and Dürer, small bronzes, illustrated books and manuscripts, and ceramics, will provide a context for Arcimboldo’s inventions, revealing his debt to established traditions of physiognomic and nature studies.

Comment by Wendy Johnson on May 21, 2010 at 3:11am

Wow, what a heist, sounds like something you would see in the movies. The thieves made it seem so easy. Scarry! I hope the paintings eventually resurface.

Comment by Diana on May 21, 2010 at 2:45am

Another art theft!!!

PARIS, May 20 (Reuters) - Art thieves stole paintings by
Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani and two other
well-known artists from a Paris museum in a heist worth 100
million euros ($124.2 million).
Officials from the Musee d'Art Moderne de la ville de Paris
said they discovered the five paintings, which included works by
Fernand Leger and Georges Braque, were missing after noticing a
smashed window pane as they opened for business on Thursday.
"This is a serious crime to the heritage of humanity," said
Christophe Girard, culture deputy for the mayor of Paris.
Girard said the theft was committed by "one or more
individuals who were obviously organised."
Museum officials said the paintings were worth about 100
million euros in total, revising an earlier figure of 500
million euros released by the police and public prosecutors.
The theft is the latest in Paris after robbers stole 32
drawings at the Picasso Museum worth 8 million euros last June
and raises questions as to what could be done with the works.
Robert Read, head of art and private clients at specialist
insurer Hiscox in London said private buyers were unlikely to
have ordered the robbery as art was acquired to be exhibited.
"It's more likely to be criminals trying to exhort money out
of the museum, state or who trade it in the underworld for drugs
or weapons," he said.
The stolen works were Picasso's "Dove with Green Peas",
Matisse's "Pastorale", Braque's "Olive tree near l'Estaque",
Modigliani's "Woman on the range" and Leger's "Still life with
candlesticks".
Picasso's Dove -- a painting dating from the Spanish
master's Cubist period -- itself is worth 22 million euros.
Picasso's 1932 portrait of his lover Marie-Therese Walter,
"Nude, Green Leaves and Bust," sold on May 5 for $106.5 million,
becoming the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction.
"Whether 100 million or 500 million it's a huge amount,"
said Read. "It's as big as you get when it comes to theft. It's
the Premier League of thefts."
A special unit of the interior ministry, the BRB, is in
charge of the investigation and took the frames of the paintings
with them for further analysis.
Read added that more often than not stolen paintings are
recovered. Edvard Munch's The Scream was returned in 2006 two
years after gunmen stole it from the Munch Museum in Norway.

SECURITY SYSTEM FAILINGS?
Museum employees found a window had been broken at the rear
of the east wing of the "Palais de Tokyo" built during the
Universal Exhibition of 1937.
The museum has sophisticated alarm systems, close circuit
television and three guards were on hand on Wednesday night.
Local television said the alarm system had not been triggered.
"We must let the police find out how the security system was
evaded especially as these three watchmen saw nothing and did
not react," Girard said.
Paris' Musee d'Art Moderne is situated in the capital's
well-to-do 16th arrondissement, across the Seine river from the
Eiffel Tower.
A single sheet of white paper was left on the double doors
informing visitors that the museum would remain closed on
Thursday "for technical reasons".
"It's Pink Panther material in the centre of Paris with huge
media interest," said Elliot Macdonald, curator of the art
collection at Hiscox.

Comment by Wendy Johnson on May 15, 2010 at 2:56am

Interesting story Diana, thanks for sharing it here. News, hot off the press
It will be intriguing to see what they discover of these bones.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next ›
• Page