Showing posts with label police. Show all posts
Stolen Gauguin and Bonnard art recovered after hanging on a kitchen wall
Rome (CNN) --
Two stolen paintings by the French artists Paul Gauguin and Pierre Bonnard hung
on an Italian factory worker's kitchen wall for almost 40 years -- without his
knowing just how valuable they were.
Now worth
millions of euros, the artworks were stolen from a family house in London in
1970 and then abandoned on a Paris-to-Turin train.
Italy's
Culture Ministry unveiled the two paintings Wednesday after they were recovered
by police specialized in finding stolen art, following an
"incredible" series of events.
The
paintings were put away in the Italian Railways lost and found storage
facility. At a lost-property auction in 1975, the unsuspecting Fiat worker paid
45,000 Italian lire for them -- roughly equivalent to 22 euros ($30). The man
was an art lover, but he had no idea of the real value of the paintings, police
said.
The man,
whom police did not name, hung the works in his Turin home before taking them
to Sicily when he retired.
Italian
heritage police were alerted last summer when a friend of the worker grew
suspicious of their value.
"There
are all the elements for a nice novel; it is very unique," Gen. Mariano
Mossa, head of the Italian Heritage Police, said at a news conference.
Locked up
in a safe
Police
soon matched the works with those stolen in London. A notice of the theft had
appeared in The New York Times on July 6, 1970.
The
Gauguin painting, titled "Fruits sur une Table ou Nature au Petit
Chien" ("Fruits on a Table or Still Life with a Small Dog"), is
said to have been painted in 1889 and thought to be worth between 10 million
and 30 million euros, police said.
The
Bonnard painting is titled "La Femme aux Deux Fauteuils" ("Woman
with Two Armchairs").
Gauguin
was a post-impressionist artist, and Bonnard is regarded as one of the greatest
colorists of modern art.
It was
still unclear to whom the paintings would be returned, as the couple they were
stolen from have died, apparently leaving no heirs. For now, they will remain
in a police safe.
The theft
that created a legend
Art
looted by Nazis found in German apartment
Source:
Kurt Cobain's case stays closed despite rumors; it was gun suicide
Despite the pledge in those
lyrics that went around the world in the early 1990s, police in Seattle say
that Kurt Cobain did have at least one gun.
A shotgun. And he killed himself
with it at age 27, their case concluded. Nothing has changed about that assessment
20 years after his death.
But as the anniversary of
Cobain's passing approaches early next month, rumors have stirred on social
media that police might be re-opening the case.
They are not, they
said in a statement. But they are releasing new photos of the crime scene.
The released photos do not
include images of Cobain's dead body.
But the dingy, scratched images
of syringes, a tainted spoon, a lighter and other personal belongings strewn
across the floor will likely bring back sad memories for many fans.
Immortal attachment
Despite the pledge in those
lyrics that went around the world in the early 1990s, police in Seattle say
that Kurt Cobain did have at least one gun.
A shotgun. And he killed himself
with it at age 27, their case concluded. Nothing has changed about that assessment
20 years after his death.
But as the anniversary of
Cobain's passing approaches early next month, rumors have stirred on social
media that police might be re-opening the case.
They are not, they
said in a statement. But they are releasing new photos of the crime scene.
The released photos do not
include images of Cobain's dead body.
But the dingy, scratched images
of syringes, a tainted spoon, a lighter and other personal belongings strewn
across the floor will likely bring back sad memories for many fans.
Immortal attachment
he attachment to the
singer-songwriter, who was as much the front man of an evocative musical
movement as he was of the band Nirvana, lives on.
As apparently do theories of how
the icon may have died. They include murder combined with rumors of personal
entanglements.
Some fans seem unwilling to
believe that Cobain, whose name was synonymous with the movement called Grunge
that transformed rock, fled into the arms of death to escape the torments of
depression and drug abuse in 1994.
Then news on Thursday that a
cold-case detective was reviewing Cobain's file triggered a storm of digital
chatter.
But Mike Ciesenski was merely
re-reading Cobain's materials, just in case.
"We knew with the 20th
anniversary coming up and we knew there was going to be a lot of media
interest," he said.
He also watched screened
documentaries and read articles on the conspiracy theories. "I can see why
people have questions," Ciesenski said. "But you can always point to
something and say 'what if.'"
Grungy photos
While reviewing the file, the
detective, who usually searches archives for loose ends, found one -- four
rolls of film taken at Cobain's house that had never been developed.
Twenty years ago, police found no
reason process them, since they had Polaroid snaps of the place where Cobain
perished.
Police had the 35 mm film
developed, but the images are not new evidence. They just want to make them
accessible to the public.
Fear of stoking conspiracy
theories kept them from doing it earlier, Ciesenski said.
"Sometimes people believe
what they read—some of the disinformation from some of the books, that this was
a conspiracy. That's completely inaccurate," he said. "It's a
suicide. This is a closed case."
Many music legends died at the
same young age of 27. They include Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.
It takes many people a long time
to let go of an artist who touched their hearts so strongly through their ears.
Haunting
voice
Cobain's voice was as innovative
Nirvana's interpretation of rock and in step with it.
His velvety yet scratchy vocals
continue in recordings to carry social disappointment and cynical ire in flats
and sharps, all energized by fast-beat, electrified rock.
Just as it did then, when music
fans first took note of it on Nirvana's breakthrough album
"Nevermind" in 1991 -- with its shocking album cover of a baby
swimming naked underwater after a dollar bill on a fish hook.
Cobain's death ended a battle
with hard drugs. His ashes were reportedly scattered in a Washington state
river and a New York Buddhist temple.
Nirvana band mates Krist Novoselic
and Dave Grohl eventually formed other bands.
Cobain's widow, Courtney Love,
stayed in the limelight with an acting career and legal problems surrounding
her own drug problems. Frances Bean, the couple's daughter, has largely lived
outside the public eye.
What was unclear when Cobain died
was whether the music Nirvana created would endure or fade away.
If it does fade, it may remain
immortalized in one place -- Cobain's hometown of Aberdeen, Washington.
There visitors are greeted with a
sign that reads -- in his honor -- "Come As You Are."
Censored Bieber police video may be released, judge rules
MIAMI —
A judge on Tuesday ruled that video images of a partially-clad Justin Bieberwhile the pop singer was in police custody in Florida can be released, but only after blocking out his genitals.The video clips included Bieber providing a urine sample for a drug test following his arrest by police in Miami Beach in January on a charge of driving under the influence.
Lawyers for Bieber, who turned 20 on March 1, had argued that the police surveillance video showing him urinating was inappropriate and should be withheld to protect the Canadian singer's privacy.
"The Court finds that there exists a right to privacy as it relates to the exposure and dissemination of the Defendant's genitalia," Miami-Dade County Court Judge William Altfield said in a written ruling.
In a court hearing on the order, Altfield said that despite the public's right to full disclosure, "Bieber has not lost his expectation of dignity."
He said that while people in police custody have less expectation of privacy, they "are not like animals in a zoo to be filmed and photographed at will by the public or media."
The judge noted that what was at stake was the public access to evidence in court cases, not the media's First Amendment right to free speech under the U.S. Constitution.
"We want to issue our thanks to the court for spending so much time analyzing this issue ... and finding that even Mr Bieber has a right to privacy," said the singer's Miami attorney, Roy Black.
Bieber was charged with driving under the influence, resisting arrest and using an expired license after Miami Beach police say they caught him drag racing on January 23. Bieber pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Besides a small amount of alcohol, he had marijuana and prescription medication for anxiety in his system at the time of his arrest, according to prosecutors.
After Bieber's arrest, lawyers for the Miami Herald, CBS, the Associated Press and other media filed motions demanding all the video be released under Florida's broad public records law.
Reuters is not a party to the case.
Under Florida law, all evidence including photos and videos became public record once they are handed to the defense.
Three of the clips were to be released immediately without being altered while two others would be withheld until technicians can obscure Bieber's genitals, the judge ruled.
"Some type of technological technique will be used to shade or blacken out that area which would depict the objectionable images," he added.
Even though none of the clips clearly show Bieber urinating, in one clip the partition fails to fully block the camera view after he completed giving the sample, "thereby revealing an image of the Defendant's genitalia" according to the ruling. A second clip was also deemed "possibly revealing" of Bieber's private parts, the judge said.
Last week, prosecutors released to the media several hours of video surveillance footage of Bieber while he was in police custody, showing him being frisked, chatting with police, and doing push-ups in a holding cell. But clips of him giving the urine sample were withheld for review by the judge.
The pop star's private life has taken a seemingly tumultuous turn in the past year. Last month he was charged with assaulting a limousine driver in Toronto.
The case is State of Florida v Justin Drew Bieber, B14-2900.
New Source: www.sun-sentinel.com
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