Thieves Nabbed Trying to Sell Masterpieces

When Mom helps out on the conspiracy, the thieving and then cutting a deal with the insurers of the priceless art, it is clear that the genetic material is not made of strong moral fiber or intelligence genes. Twenty two years after Renoir, Pissarro, as well as notable 17th and 19th century painters, a German man domiciled in Dubai, his dear old mum and another rather elderly gent from Walem approached the insurance company to fence the stolen goods and collect millions of euros.  The insurance company had already paid 2.9 million US after the theft and these folks obviously did not have a television, newspaper or the world wide web to see that the world economy is collapsing and insurance companies are feeling downright penny pinched. 

The detective, Ben Zuidema, said that he was contacted out of the blue by a man wanting to sell the paintings back to the insurers for €5million (£4.5 million). Included in the offer was €1 million for Mr Zuidema to facilitate the deal.

“Immediately I passed information to the investigators,” said the private detective. “Since then I have co-operated with them to find the paintings.” A sting was arranged with the police for the canvases to be handed over for €1 million, according to reports in the Dutch media.

The Dutch National Prosecutor’s Office said that this led to the recovery of the paintings by David Teniers, Willem van de Velde, Jan Brueghel the Younger, Eva Gonzalès, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Paul-Desiré Trouillebert.(Ruben Schipper photo)

Add to that the thieves were brutes and badly damaged some of the paintings by folding the revered collection of Europen artists in half, as if they were the best of a kid's schools competition for glorious refrigerator art.  But the coupe de grâce, is the 60 year old gallery owner who died a couple of years ago under suspicion from the Dutch police after buying and fully insuring right before the spectacular heist.  Turns out Mr. Noortman has a room named after him in London's National Gallery that is dedicated to the Dutch masters.  Paging Hollywood....

(Photo courtesy Ruben Shipper/EPA of Jan Brueghel's painting)

The original theft took place in Maastricht, a Dutch city, near the German and Belgian borders, known for its well preserved historical sites and disputes as to whether it is Netherlands oldest
city while in today's cultural climate is quite filled with European urban chic.  In the time since the 22 pieces art disappered into thieving hands from the Noortman gallery in 1987, The Maastrict Treaty was negotiated and signed on 9 February, 1992 formalizing the European Union and the monetray unit of echange the euro, not art.  In an interesting aside, the selling of cannabis and other drugs in cofee shops and the like prompt tourism and controversy too as the mayor tries to congregate the shops and the customers all in one spot.  Its only right that the Dutch police multi-task on different front.  Today, recovering stolen art and nabbing the thieves and tomorrow....

'The suspects were apparently trying to sell the artworks to the insurance company that had paid out 2.27 million euros (S$4.43 million) after they went missing,' the statement said.

The modern-day value of the paintings had yet to be determined.

The paintings did not all reside together during their captivity nor were they treated as priceless cultural artifacts.  Six were found in a quaint southern town, Valkenburg and two more in cough, Walem, where the oldest member of the trio resides.  It is stongly hinted that a ninth painting was somehow destroyed by the gallery owner who is unable to defend himself.  Pierre-August Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Paul Desire Trouillebert now await the fate of their work in the hands of art historians, curators and the rooms of restoration.



One restoration that shall live in infamy was a painting that was found in an Italian village full of spiders, dust and knick knacks.  It was a famed Italian Baroque painting by Caravaggio, a murdiring evil genius art fiend who was a poet with a paintbrush.  Jonathon Harr writes the story of the lost masterpiece and then once the provenance was secured all manner of burecratic bungling ensued in its restoration.  The Lost Painting is a great read for just about $10USD.

Contemporary Middle East Art Show

Ramin Haerizadeh

What an attention grabbing, interesting collection of contemporary art emanating from the art inspired people of the Middle East and old world Persia. That's nothing new as art has held an ancient pride of place from the birthplace of Three Faiths. The Saatchi Gallery compiled a wide range of artists using an assortment of mediums involving the head, heart and hands of artiste and audience. The political or the profane are not held in abeyance as the freedom of expressions include a beautiful rendering of a deplorable West Bank checkpoint that illustrates what both sides endure and see differently. Charles Saatchi pulled artists with ancestral roots from Arabia and Persia, but domiciled all over the globe, for "Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East", the almost five month showing in Britain. (Qalandia by Wafa Hourani)

British collector Charles Saatchi has filled his new gallery with over 80 paintings, sculptures and installations from the Middle Ea st representing a vibrant art scene that he hopes will challenge people's assumptions about the region.

The works, gathered over the last four years by the Baghdad-born impresario, touch on sensitive topics. They depict the horror of conflicts past and present, explore suppressed sexuality and examine awoman's place in the Muslim world.

"Our sense of the Middle East is so dominated by reports of war, the tensions and the troubles," said Rebecca Wilson, the gallery's head of development. (Untitled Art from Shadi Ghadirian)

From prostitutes to praying women in ethereal white tinfoil, aptly named ghosts, which is a three dimensional echo from another culture. On a much smaller exhibition scale it is somewhat reminiscent of the Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang in Shaanxi Province, China with neatly aligned rows and a rhythmic repetitive use of material. The show opens Friday 30 January with a scheduled close on 6 May, 2009. There is a illustration book - 208 pages, available through the Saatchi Gallery that captures the art and include biographical sketches of some of the artists. Kader Attia's contribution is the Ghost display. (Pictured WshhWshh from Nadia Ayari)

Beirut Cautchouc is a Beirut floor mat map by Marwan Rechmaoui

(Photo Courtesy Reuters: Toby Melville)

Tala Madani

Since it is art, criticism to follow should be a hotbed of controversy. First, because many of the artists are Iranian while others live in a more westernized flamboyant habitat like Dubai. The art scene is seeing a number of means for Middle Eastern artworks to arrive on the stage. Qatar opened a spectacular edifice, Museum of Islamic Art, with the building itself as the first piece of art from the Chinese American architect, IM Pei.



The ever artful and always interesting author on Arabic art and architecture, daab, brings the beauty of interiors to life in the book, Arabian Design. Forms and function and the influences from the past show up in very modern building or contemporary pieces of artwork throughout the Middle East.

Art, Architecture and Arabia

I M Pei's architectural pedigree scales the heavens of all types of art on the world's most populated continents. A mix of cultural form and function wrapped in glass, steel and stone gives iconic meaning to some of the world's most prestigious museums, Louvre's inverted pyramid, Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the National Gallery of Art or the Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean (MUDAM) in Luxembourg, all containing priceless works on display. At the age of ninety one, Ieoh Ming Pei, Pritzker Prize winner and a multicultural phenom put his imprimatur in Doha, Qatar on the newly opened Museum of Islamic Art (MIA). The magnificent spare no expense building sits astride one of the famed man-made islands as a modern wonder paying homage to the past. Showcasing the art pieces on two floors the curator paid attention to a span of a thousand years, across geography from the ancient Persia to a jade pendant from India to a multitude of art materials. Exhibits are exquisite after the impressive eye candy the symmetrical museum makes upon arrival with reflecting pools, a geometric main staircase hall with the Zen of an Islamic garden. It was a cool enough event that Robert De Niro attended the museum opening amongst the Gulf region's pantheon of royalty.

Ten years ago, this started with the Emir H H Sheikj Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thanki and Sheikh Hassan Al Thani family concentrating on the procurement of Islamic artifacts amidst Europe's established auction houses. London's art scene saw an influx of capital dedicated to filling a museum that was but an idea on a draft board as the final crown jewel in the stellar architectural career of I M Pei. Five stories of wonder encapsulating 382,000 square feet with a price tag of $300 million is the entry fee to establish Doha as a cultural destination for Arabian and Western tourism and pride of place in the hoity-toity art world. The collection features a $73 million dollar Mark Rothko abstract painting as well as the best of art from other cultures while featuring the works of little known Islamic masters. (Picture: Maher Attar)

Not long ago, the idea of culture being a reason to visit the Gulf would have made other Arabs laugh. No longer.

The Syrian cultural historian Rana Kabbani sees a political element to the museum, putting Doha on the cultural map.

"I think all the rulers in the Gulf see what they really lack isculture on a grand scale, as a kind of imperial identity. It's a political-cultural lack. They have the means, and they're going for it."

That's why along the coast, two museums are planned for Abu Dhabi - branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim.

Art in the Islamic world is taking a new resonance as the museum of the millennium opens and Saudi Arabia holds more gallery exhibitions albeit in embassies. To inaugurate the museum there is an exhibit and a conference Beyond Boundaries - Islamic Art Across Cultures. There was a Sunday special panel featuring the architect of the decade, I M, Pei on Islamic Architecture from Tradition to Modernity.

Women are painting, sculpting and creating their own art behind the veils and scrolled walls in Saudi society. A public showing is a cultural possibility with embassy exhibits more prevalent in the realm of the possible and where chances increase the art's exposure. The colors and compositions are arresting, more so because of who the people are that are trying new mediums are garnering attention for their sophisticated works. The Kingdom pledged to sponsor the best are culled from a competition in their own embassies as a furtherance of showcasing their people's talents with clay, camera or paintbrush.

One artist took advantage of the venue to hang an abstract painting of a woman, with one breast clearly depicted — a hint of nudity still taboo outside the diplomatic confines of the embassy, where Saudi Arabia's religious police cannot enter.

The Wednesday night showing in a small hall was packed with expatriates and, more significantly Saudis, whose presence was a reflection of the surge of interest in the arts in the kingdom in the past few years. Local artsshows have been on the rise, more Saudi artists are participating in overseas exhibits, and more universities and schools are offering arts degrees.

The first non-governmental arts society was established a year ago, with four women on its 10-member board. Saudis have become more accepting of abstract art, which, only a few years ago, was the subject of ridicule. And in many Arab cities, Saudi collectors are snapping up works by local artists, some of whom get special orders from their rich clients.

So many beautiful works to page through in Islamic Art and Culture: A Visual History. It was important to me to find a book written by an eminent Islamic scholar. Professor Nasser D. Khalili presents the full range of art possibilities and the meaning behind each selected piece. Great coffee table book sure to cause cultural discussion.

Romanovs Rehabilitated by Russian Supreme Court

Russia gave the literate world creative and human tales of woe that are art and parcel of the classics. The angst embedded in some of the heart shredding tales of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina or War and Peace, Federov Dostoevsky . Three centuries of the royal house of Romanov ruling Russia until the final R's did them in, Rasuptin & revolution. Now, history is being rewritten showing the family of Tsar Nicholas II did not get shot full of bullet holes and their remains placed in vats of acid for merely political showmanship on eradicating Russia of ruinous royalty. They were a royal family with vassals and serfs that received approbation under the new Russian historical standards removing any Russian Who's Who listing them as state criminals.

Bolsheviks lead the execution of the family with jewels of renown the world over. Coronations were lavish affairs. For ninety years Russia denied it was a Bolshevik operation at Impatiev House as just a few minions were involved. The 2008 Russian Supreme Court validated evidence of innocence of the crimes the family was accused of because while under house arrest, their benevolent servants left their posts with the family stashed in the basement on July 17, 1918, allowing the slaughter to take place. The children did not die at first because of the density and plentifulness of the jewels sewn into their garb. During his lifetime Nicholas II gave exquisite bejeweled Fabergé eggs to his wife and the family coffers contained a fair cache of other mint condition precious stones. The jewels allowed the kids to first withstand bullets then knives making some of the assassins get the heebie jeebies as it occurred to them some sort of Divine intervention was happening. After all, the family was directly descended from Ivan the Terrible who went rampaging bonkers when the Tsarina of his dreams died under suspicious circumstances making him suspect them of her poisoning.

The move does not presage any attempt by the Romanov family to reclaim their palaces or regain a foothold in the constitutional order of Russia. But they were delighted nonetheless.

“The protracted rehabilitation process has come to a successful conclusion,” German Lukyanov, the Romanov family lawyer, told the Interfax news agency. “Justice has triumphed.” The case has been fought largely by Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, a senior member of the royal house.

The ruling may not change the lives of the family, but it does represent a milestone: it is the closest that any post-Soviet government has come to accepting the criminal nature of Bolshevik rule.

Westerners may see that as a truism. But present-day Russia is still in the thrall of the iconography of Lenin. His image is emblazoned on schools and underground stations; his embalmed body is still visited in Red Square, even if not by the thousands of Socialist pilgrims who turned up in the Soviet days.

The conspiracy theories surrounding this family are legendary. Church of the Blood is the structure built upon the killing place where the assassinations took place. For years, two bodies were missing leading to many claims they were the long lost prince or princess or their descendants. Another grave was found leading to DNA results aligning with the rest of the now St. Petersburg interred family. Current descendants wanted the stain on the family's reputation removed and the Court obliged. Little Prince Alexei was the great grandson of Queen Victoria reemphasizing the blood ties from all the crown heads of Europe due to all the intermarrying. The books on the Romanovs are fascinating and where Lenin plays in all of this will keep the playwrights, novelists and historians at it for centuries. To have died in a basement after living in the magnificence of the Winter Palace as serfs died in more menial conditions are what fills Russian literature with irony and angst of the human spirit.

To keep up with all the plot twists and their layers of intricacies, including the healing through prayer and mysticism of Alexei by Rasputin who later had horrible incantations against the Romanovs as other royal nobles attempted to murder him, takes a worthwhile book that covers the indelicacies. Author Lindsey Hughes does that quite well in the biographical The Romanovs: Ruling Russia 1613 - 1917.

Fashion at Emmy Awards 2008 Bling Bonanza

Tonight it is 60 years of magical mayhem as The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences celebrates its 60th year in the golden lightness of being on the small screen. Illuminating stars way past prime time and presenting today's unreal divas and dudes during Emmy's Diamond Jubilee after a financial turkey was laid on taxpayers, just hails an awkward moment to auction off the diamond chandelier for ten million dollars. Let's see who was five carat diamond dressed and who is the cubic zirconia sporting a red-tagged pile of rags. Let the diamond chips fall my way...

Mind Sorbet's Grand Pink Diamond Fashion Carat Award goes to Olivia Wilde:

Olivia Wilde is bring styling perfection to the House of Emmy.

Eva Longoria Parker never misses, ever, especially in Marchesa. Kyra Sedgwick is always Closer in the style 2008 Va Voom edition.

The wonderfully funny Christina Applegate struts her stuff after a serious health crisis.
Teri Hatcher is flouncy and flirty in marigolden glory with no VPLs. (Visible Panty Lines)

Terri Hatcher , Saffron Burrows in Herv Le Bruth Mariska Hargitay

Sandra Uh Oh - takes another frou-frou risk while The Office three piece suited mortician Rainn Wilson. Hey he's a funny guy not a clotheshorse. Oh dear heavens, all the yellow and black, its going to look like a herd of bumblebees.

Brooke Shields is fuchsia fusion. Kate Walsh practiced private. This Desperate Housewife, Marcia Cross is rocking it from the accessories to the hair. Lady O is glammed up with drop chandelier earrings, those may cost as much as the AD green room. She looks der lovely.

On Project Runway - Heidi kisses both cheeks and wishes the departing designer avita zay. Tim Gunn did not make this work... Not even Heidi could rescue it....

Jeremy Piven does debonair.
Ugly Betty's America Ferrera with a heavily flowered grunge goes glam co-star Vanessa Williams -not feelin' it...
Julie Benz Purply Ho Hum

Lisa Rinna flys in a day-glo virginal bright white gown. Randolph Dude did a tiered thingy for Carrie Ann Inaba, the toned Judge from Dancing With the Stars - baaaaad choice.
Grecian gone terribly wrong by Jennifer Morrison.

Oscar winners crashing the TV party - Holly hunter in lilac and violets and Sally Field flyin in Black. Laura Dern, nuf said - ack, but Rita Wilson seems to have fallen off the pedestal - hard.

The Starter Wife got dressed with Morticia as her stylist - Debra c'mon you can so do the chiffon & tulle thing better than that. Lisa Edelstein left her poodle at her House but brought the skirt as Weeds entered its entrant the faboulously talented Mary Louise Parker who went a teal ruche too far. Woof, yikes. Hayden Pantierre redeemed herself after the most unfortunate peachy Emmy quasi hooped bohemian gown.


Unfortunately, a serious competition broke out on the red carpet for the
Pink Poodle Wearing Poo Award!
A D List duvet cover on Kathy Griffin who tried, bless her heart, she actually tried, she even went for the ochre tie wrap of her hips... Ironically, the dress was designed by Rebellion Dog. She wins paws down for worst...





Photos courtesy Reuters













Project Runway's Nina Garcia works with illustrator Ruben Toledo to make style accessible to regular folks like you and me. No Nonsense Nina does it up right in The One Hundred: A Guide to the Pieces Every Stylish Woman Must Own.

Designers to be included in updates

Diamonds and glitterati in platform pumps are everywhere along with some grecian dresses that give togas a bad name... Paging Nina G...