Cartoonist Quits France’s Le Monde in Free Speech Row
A leading French cartoonist on Wednesday said he would no longer work for Le Monde after the newspaper apologized for a cartoon he drew that tackled a sex-abuse scandal.
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Arts
Italian Police Find Stolen Copy of Leonardo ‘Salvator Mundi’
Italian police have recovered a 500-year-old copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s 16th century “Salvator Mundi” painting of Jesus Christ that was stolen from a Naples church during the pandemic without the priests even realizing it was gone.
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Stop Auctioning!
A New York attorney representing himself accuses the state of letting at least three museums unload artwork to raise operating funds — a violation of laws put in place after the Great Recession led to similar auctions that deprived New Yorkers of enjoying cultural treasures.
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Lebanon Returns Two Stolen 18th-Century Icons to Greece
Lebanon handed back two 18th-century religious icons of Jesus and Mary to Greece on Tuesday after they were seized during an auction, a judicial source said.
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Copyright Battle Over Stephen King’s ‘Dark Tower’ Hits 11th Circuit
The copyright holder of a ‘70s comic book hero asked an 11th Circuit panel Thursday to revive a lawsuit accusing bestselling author Stephen King of cribbing elements of the character to create the famous gunslinger protagonist of “The Dark Tower” book series.
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Tintin Comic Book Art Breaks Auction Record at $3.1 Million
A Tintin drawing by the Belgian artist Herge sold Thursday in Paris for 2.6 million euros ($3.1 million), breaking the record for the most expensive comic book art in history.
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Germany Says It Has Handed Over 14 Works From Gurlitt Trove
German authorities have now handed over all 14 works from the art trove accumulated by late collector Cornelius Gurlitt that so far were proven to have been looted under Nazi rule, the government said Wednesday.
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Seuss-Star Trek Mash-Up Crashes and Burns at Ninth Circuit
“Victory is life” not for Star Trek, but for Dr. Seuss, whose publisher emerged victorious Friday in a copyright fight at the Ninth Circuit over the children’s classic “Oh, the Places You’ll Go.”
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‘Priceless’ Haul of Over 27,000 Artifacts Seized in France
French authorities have seized a “priceless” haul of over 27,000 archaeological artifacts ranging from Bronze Age bracelets to Roman coins that had been secretly amassed by a single person in the east of the country, customs said Wednesday.
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Rebuilt Prussian Palace, Scarred by History, Opens in Berlin
A reconstructed Prussian palace will open in Berlin on Wednesday as a museum complex housing colonial artifacts, just as debate is gathering pace around the return of treasures plundered from abroad.
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Shackleton Expedition Artifacts to Be Donated to UK Museums
A sled and flag used in one of explorer Ernest Shackleton’s famed expeditions to the South Pole have been bought by a British government-funded body to keep the treasured artifacts in the U.K.
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Dutch Court Refuses to Return Painting to Jewish Heirs
A Dutch court on Wednesday rejected a restitution case brought by heirs of a Jewish family that originally owned a painting by Wassily Kandinsky that was bought by the city of Amsterdam at an auction in 1940.
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Denmark’s Top Art School Head Sacked Over Royal Bust Stunt
The head of Denmark’s top art school has been sacked over the drowning of a bust of a former king in a Copenhagen canal, the culture ministry said Monday.
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Precious Painting Lost at German Airport Found at Dumpster
A surrealist painting worth more than a quarter million dollars that was forgotten by a businessman at Duesseldorf’s airport has been recovered from a nearby recycling dumpster, police said Thursday.
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Indian Couple Help Traditional Artisans Get Back to Business
Most artisans live in far-flung parts of vast India. With markets and exhibitions closed by the pandemic, many had no way to reach customers. Now they can register on the Direct Create platform to showcase their work.
Read moreNazi-Looted Art
The Ninth Circuit denied a family’s request to rehear its suit against a Spanish museum over a Camille Pissaro painting stolen from the family by Nazis.
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Treasure Sold During Holocaust Fought Over at High Court
A yearslong battle over a medieval collection sold to the Nazis in 1935, now estimated to be worth a quarter of a billion dollars, brought the heirs of Jewish art dealers to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday.
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High Court to Decide Whether Nazi Art Case Stays in US Court
Jed Leiber was an adult before he learned that his family was once part-owner of a collection of centuries-old religious artworks now said to be worth at least $250 million.
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California Monolith Pops Up After Finds in Utah, Romania
Days after the discovery and swift disappearance of two shining metal monoliths half a world apart, another towering structure has popped up and then quickly vanished, this time from the pinnacle of a trail in California.
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