Long-Missing Degas Painting Will Return to France

Stolen Degas painting to be sent home to France: US

NEW YORK (AFP) – An Edgar Degas painting stolen nearly 30 years ago from a museum in France will be returned by the US government, which recovered the rare artwork shortly before it was to be sold at auction, officials said Thursday.

The painting, "Blanchisseuses souffrant des dents," was stolen from a French museum in 1973 and resurfaced recently when investigators discovered that it was set for auction at Sothesby's in New York.

Degas' Impressionist portrait of a laundrywoman holding her face in pain from an aching tooth was stolen in December 1973 from the Malraux Museum in Le Havre, Normandy.

The artwork, painted by Degas between 1870-72, had been on loan from the Paris government to the museum, which was destroyed in World War II, in honor of its reconstruction.

The Sothesby catalogue for the November 3, 2010 auction had estimated the painting's sale price to be between 350,000 dollars and 450,000 dollars.

"The return of this masterpiece to the French government reflects our commitment to ensure the return of stolen artwork and cultural patrimony," said Loretta Lynch, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, in a statement.

Lynch said Sothesby's promptly cooperated with law enforcement and pulled the piece from the auction block once it learned that it had a purloined artwork in its possession.

US customs officials and authorities from INTERPOL were also involved in the recovery of the painting, officials said.

This article is from: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101202/ennew_afp/entertainmentusfranceartcrime_20101202171620

Another Collapse Of Ruins In Pompeii

Another Collapse at Pompeii Renews Calls for Better Care

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

ROME — Less than a month after Pompeii’s so-called House of Gladiators collapsed into rubble, portions of a garden wall at the nearby House of the Moralist fell down on Tuesday, prompting new calls to better safeguard the city buried by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.

Antonio Varone, Pompeii’s director of excavations, said the house – which actually consists of two adjacent abodes that belonged to two families – was in no danger.

The wall, which bordered an unexcavated area and was shored up earlier this year, had been completely rebuilt after the United States bombing of the Naples area in World War II, according to the culture ministry. Mr. Varone told the news agency ANSA that the wall had most likely succumbed to the “incredible, incessant torrential rains” that have washed over central Italy in recent days.

“These atmospheric phenomena are so unusual that they’ve even surpassed the protection that we have set into place,” he said. Pompeii officials were monitoring the areas most at risk, he said.

Demands that the Italian government take better care of its fragile archaeological sites grew after the collapse in early November of the Schola Armaturarum, whose walls were decorated with frescoes of military themes. Political opponents of the government have called for the resignation of the culture minister, Sandro Bondi, and a confidence vote is expected in December.

On Tuesday, Tsao Cevoli, president of Italy’s National Association of Archaeologists, said that the collapse of the wall was further “proof of the incompetence with which Minister Bondi and this government has handled the situation at Pompeii,” ANSA reported.

 

This article is from: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/another-collapse-at-pompeii-renews-calls-for-better-care/?partner=rss&emc=rss