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posted by Fnord666 on Monday February 26 2018, @02:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the do-you-have-anything-to-declare? dept.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/24/588537379/customs-agents-search-a-bus-near-paris-and-discover-a-stolen-degas-painting

In December 2009, a small painting by Edgar Degas was quietly stolen from the Cantini museum in Marseille, France. Museum staff discovered Les Choristes was missing when they arrived in the morning, and the prosecutor suggested it could be an inside job because the painting had been unscrewed from the wall and there was no evidence of a break-in. An investigation was launched, but nine years went by and the 1877 painting — worth an estimated $1 million — wasn't seen again.

That was until last Friday, when French customs agents happened to check a bus parked at a highway stop about 18 miles east of Paris. The officers opened a suitcase in the luggage compartment, and there it was: vibrant pastels in red, orange, and yellow, depicting a chorus from the opera Don Juan. In the lower left hand corner: Degas' signature. The agents asked the bus passengers who owned the suitcase. No one claimed it.


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  • (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday February 26 2018, @02:51PM

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Monday February 26 2018, @02:51PM (#643951) Journal

    Yes, in the same way that theatre is now obsolete because you can video and put anything online.

    I agree with you that photography and digitization, as well as other forensic recording techniques, do bridge a gap that just because something is stolen doesn't mean we can't know what it was. But even so, art museums still exist for reasons, and to be in the presence of the original can be a moving experience that no copy can truly replicate. (Otherwise, why not simply have digital museums online - no need to go anyplace.) At least, that's my experience when I go to museums - there is often something about the work itself that makes it worth the trip. Photography I'm less sure of - can a near perfect photographic duplication replace an original? I'm not into viewing photography, much, so I don't know.

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