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| US returns stolen Impressionist painting to France Posted: 21 Jan 2011 06:08 PM PST  A visitor takes a picture of banners which block the entrance to the Louvre Museum in Paris. — Reuters pic The small painting "Blanchisseuses souffrant des dents," completed by Degas between 1870 and 1872, emerged in a Sotheby's auction 37 years after it was stolen from the Malraux Museum in Le Havre in Normandy. The 6.25-inch by 8.5-inch piece (16 cm by 21.6 cm) is estimated to be worth between US$350,000 (RM1.19 million) and US$450,000 (RM1.53 million). The painting depicts the heads of two women and is known in English as "Laundry Women with Toothache." "On behalf of ICE, it is a great privilege to return this painting that rightfully belongs to the people of France, and reflects a part of your nation's history and rich heritage," said Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton at the repatriation ceremony. Morton noted Degas spent about a year in New Orleans painting American scenes after finishing the work. US authorities investigated the painting after Interpol identified it in a Sotheby's auction catalog last October. The painting was consigned to the sale by Ronald Grelsamer, a well-known New York surgeon who said he had received the paining as a gift from his father. He and Sotheby's voluntarily surrendered the work after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency gave proof of the decades-ago theft, Morton said. French authorities have yet to determine where the painting will be housed upon its return to France, French Ambassador Francois Rivasseau said. — Reuters |
| Russian spy Chapman launches weekly TV show Posted: 21 Jan 2011 03:51 PM PST  Anna Chapman, a former Russian spy looks on before delivering a speech at a congress of the pro-Kremlin Molodaya Gvardiya (Young Guard) movement in Moscow. — Gambar Bernama The 28-year-old redhead has posed in lingerie, attended a space launch and even had a sing-a-long with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin since she returned to Russia following her arrest and expulsion with nine other Russian sleeper agents. "I will reveal all secrets," Chapman said on the one-hour, nightly show "Mysteries of the World with Anna Chapman," which aired on the private Russian channel REN TV. Dressed in a black and red velvet dress, Chapman reported on a "miracle" baby from Russia's Dagestan region in the mainly Muslim North Caucasus, where an Islamist insurgency is raging. In 2009 media reports about the baby had caused a frenzy in the region when imams said pinkish scrawled verses from the Koran had appeared and faded on the child's body every few day. Regional experts dismissed the claims, saying the impoverished, violence-torn region was clinging to any hint of hope. Chapman became one of Russia's most famous spies when photographs she posted on social networking site Facebook were plastered across the front pages of tabloid newspapers around the world. Although celebrated by the Kremlin and Russian media, the Russian spy ring was reported to have failed to secure any major intelligence before their arrests. — Reuters |
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