The National Gallery will be challenged next week over the provenance of one of the world’s most valuable paintings
Posted in General on 21. Aug, 2010
The National Gallery will be challenged next week over the provenance of one of the world’s most valuable paintings. An article in the respected journal Art Review will claim that the Gallery altered the back of “Samson and Delilah”, attributed to Rubens, and this concealed the fact it is not his work.
The claim, if true, would mean that the painting – for decades thought to be the work of the great Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens and estimated to be now worth £40m – is the work of a comparative unknown and worth as little as £1m.The new evidence is presented by Michael Daley, the director of ArtWatch UK, which campaigns to ensure the authenticity of masterpieces. It chimes in with a number of doubts raised in recent years over the authenticity of the work. It has hung in the National Gallery since 1980, when it was bought for the nation at auction for £2.5m – the world’s second most expensive painting at that time.Question marks over its true provenance first surfaced in 1986 but the National Gallery has always stood by its assertion that Rubens was responsible.
Detractors claim it is a copy of a now missing original, painted by one of his pupils, most likely Jacob Jordaens.Jean Liddiard, the National Gallery’s head of press, says that every scientific test to date showed the picture was dated 1609, making it the original rather than a later copy.. Navy gunners trained to shout “bang” instead of firing live weapons cannot be considered properly trained according to Iain Duncan Smith, shadow defence spokesman. Navy gunners trained to shout “bang” instead of firing live weapons cannot be considered properly trained according to Iain Duncan Smith, shadow defence spokesman.
Naval recruits at the land-based HMS Cambridge training establishment near Plymouth, in Devon, are believed to have been told to load shells, set their aim and then shout “bang” into a microphone as a cost-cutting measure.Mr Duncan Smith told GMTV’s Sunday Programme with Alastair Stewart if the claims were true it was neither “laughable” nor “good husbandry of resources”, even if savings of £5 million were possible.”I notice in Sierra Leone there are frigates there who are preparing to use their guns in support of British troops, ranges up to 15 or 16 miles which will cover the airport, and they will need to be accurate and well trained.”If of course the people, let’s say in two years’ time, coming through are the same ones going “bang” instead of firing their guns there will be question marks about the quality of their training.”Mr Duncan Smith said the ban on live fire training had to be seen against a background of the Government cutting £800 million a year out of the defence budget.On top of that there was an annual 3% “efficiency saving” – which, he said, “many of us believe is just simply another word for a cut”.”This is part of that process – it’s very damaging and it’s damaging to morale.”The Ministry of Defence has insisted the procedure was standard while the Navy said live firing was no longer necessary and the forces had to give value for money.The move comes after a series of reports of cut-backs in Britain’s armed forces, including claims that navy ships were pulled out of exercises because they cannot afford the fuel.end. A Glasgow M says he hopes boxer Mike Tyson will act as a role model for youngsters when he fights in the city next month. A Glasgow M says he hopes boxer Mike Tyson will act as a role model for youngsters when he fights in the city next month.
Jimmy Wray, Labour MP for Baillieston, who attended a meeting with Home Secretary Jack Straw together with representatives of the fighters promoters two weeks ago to push the convicted rapist’s case for a visa, says Tyson’s high profile should be put to good use when he visits Scotland.Earlier this week Mr Straw’s decision to allow Tyson to fight in the UK for a second time caused uproar from women’s groups and some MSPs.When the former world heavyweight champion fought in Manchester in January he attracted massive public and media attention.Now Mr Wray says that the boxer’s appeal to the young should be harnessed when he arrives to fight Lou Savarese at Hampden Park on June 24.Mr Wray said: “Kids will listen to him and I would like him to say to them ‘don’t make the same mistakes I have’.”I would like him to say ‘If you want to defend yourself get into the ring and learn the noble art’.”Nobody can condone what he did but we do not want to crucify him for it.
He can do something positive for Scotland when he comes to fight.”Most of those who are opposed to him coming are anti-boxing anyway and I think he has been treated badly.”Commenting on the meeting with Mr Straw, at which officials from the British Boxing Board of Control were also present Mr Wray said: “It was an information meeting. He heard what we said and told us to go through the usual channels to apply for a visa.”He made a fair and just decision after hearing arguments from the other side. It was the only decision he could make.”A Home Office spokeswoman said: “The meeting did take place and ministers heard representations from people with different opinions on the issue There is nothing unusual in this.”. Two members of a gang known as “The Wild Bunch”, who planned retirement homes in Spain on crime spoils, were finally convicted yesterday after an extraordinary series of Old Bailey trials that began in October 1998 and have cost the public purse more than £7m. Two members of a gang known as “The Wild Bunch”, who planned retirement homes in Spain on crime spoils, were finally convicted yesterday after an extraordinary series of Old Bailey trials that began in October 1998 and have cost the public purse more than £7m.
Charles Tozer, 47, and Francis Pope, 49, threw “every bit of dirt they could” at detectives, civilian witnesses and scientists. In outbursts from the dock they claimed they were being “fitted up and framed” with fabricated and planted evidence. But when it came to their turn to face cross-examination they refused to go into the witness box.The jury of eight men and four women, under 24-hour surveillance since the current case began to combat any nobbling attempt, remained unaware that they were trying two professional armed robbers.Tozer, of Kentish Town, north London, and Pope, of Wapping, east London, sacked their legal aid teams of solicitors, QCs and junior counsel five times.Despite being caught red-handed they tried to convince the jury that they were innocently targeted by “bent Old Bill”.
However, they never suggested any motive for why the police should want them back behind bars.At their first trial 70 witnesses gave evidence before they aborted the hearing by getting rid of their legal teams At their second trial 150 witnesses were called. The jury failed to agree verdicts and one member was discharged after being seen “communicating” by signs to the dock.The current trial finally ended yesterday after 50 days and 200 witnesses.Tozer and Pope remained silent as the jury convicted them of an armed attempted robbery of a security guard at Safeway in Roman Road, Bow, on 16 August 1997 when Tozer shot and wounded a security guard. They were also convicted of a £7,800 hold up at the Nationwide in Kentish Town, a month later.Judge Peter Beaumont, QC, will pass sentence on Monday.. Investigators probing the background of a jailed terrorist suspect have uncovered evidence they hope will shed light on urban guerrilla groups that have evaded arrest for 25 years, police sources said Sunday.
Investigators probing the background of a jailed terrorist suspect have uncovered evidence they hope will shed light on urban guerrilla groups that have evaded arrest for 25 years, police sources said Sunday.
Greek anti-terrorist agents have recovered a list of telephone numbers deleted on an electronic address book kept by Avraam Lesperoglou, the suspect connected to six assassinations in the early 1980s, the sources said.Investigators have also traveled to Amsterdam, where they inspected a barge where Lesperoglou lived before leaving the Netherlands to return to Greece.Lesperoglou, 44, was arrested at Athens airport in December after arriving from Amsterdam on a false passport.He is a suspected member of Anti-State Struggle, a group tied to the killings of a public prosecutor, three police officers and two security guards.Police have failed to crackdown on the organization or other terrorist groups that emerged in the mid-1970s, prompting criticism from the United States.Earlier this month, a State Department report described Greece as “one of the weakest links in Europe’s efforts against terrorism.”Greece called the criticism unfair.. Fresh doubt was thrown on the safety of Belgian food products last night as the country suffered its third major contamination scandal in less than 12 months. Fresh doubt was thrown on the safety of Belgian food products last night as the country suffered its third major contamination scandal in less than 12 months.
More than 200 farms were being checked after the discovery of toxic chemicals in animal feed.The scare follows two previous alarms which last year saw a range of Belgian products including eggs, butter, Coca-Cola and Ardennes pâté withdrawn from food shelves across the world. The scandals led to the resignation of two government ministers and a resounding defeat for the Christian Democrat government.The latest scare erupted when polychlorinated bi-phenyls (PCBs) were found in animal feed manufactured in the town of Feluy, 25 miles south of Brussels. The company that makes the feed, Bauduin-Cambier, said any food which might have come from animals given the suspect feed would be removed from the food chain.PCBs are industrial chemicals used in generators and insulating fluid They are non-inflammable and do not break down easily.