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PEOPLE & ARTS Saturday 18 January 2020
Portrait found in gallery's walls verified as missing Klimt

CHARLENE PELE and FRAN- canvas had been kept in
CES D'EMILIO a vault of a local branch
PIACENZA, Italy (AP) — Art of Italy's central bank while
experts have confirmed experts used infrared radia-
that a painting discovered tion and other non-invasive
hidden inside an Italian art techniques to determine if
gallery's walls last month is it was the original "Portrait
Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of of a Lady."
a Lady," which was stolen Experts said the painting
from the gallery nearly 23 was in remarkably good
years ago. condition. One of the few
The authentication of the signs of damage was a
painting announced Fri- scratch near the edge of
day solved one of the art the canvas that may have
world's enduring mysteries - resulted "from a clumsy ef-
where did the missing work fort to remove the portrait
end up? - but left several from its frame," said Anna
questions unanswered, in- Selleri, an art restorer from
cluding who had taken it the National Gallery in Bo-
and whether it ever left the logna.
museum's property. The experts who did the
A gardener at the Ricci verification work found
Oddi Modern Art Gallery in persuasive evidence in the
the northern city of Piacen- work of their peers more The painting which was found last December near an art gallery and believed to be the missing
za who was clearing away than two decades ago. Gustav Klimt's painting ‘Portrait of a Lady’ is displayed during a press conference in Piacenza,
Italy, Friday, Jan. 17, 2020.
ivy noticed a small panel An Italian high school stu- Associated Press
door on a wall outside and dent, preparing for her
opened it. graduation exams in 1996, painting the later portrait, Anne-Marie O'Connor, the phone interview from Lon-
Inside the space, he found noticed striking similarities Klimt didn't redo much of author of a book about the don.
a plastic bag containing between the painting that the face, but used whitish dramatic fortunes of Klimt's Some of Klimt's works have
a painting that appeared would go missing a year pigment from the earlier "Portrait of Adele Bloch- experienced stunning turns
to be the missing master- later and an earlier Klimt version for the skin. Bauer," has an educated of fortune.
piece. work of a woman with a "Portrait of a Lady" was of- theory. O'Connor's 2012 book "The
"It's with no small emotion similar posture and gaze ficially listed as missing on Before the 1990s, Klimt was Lady In Gold" chronicled
that I can tell you the work but wearing a hat and Feb. 22, 1997 but might largely "considered an Aus- the ultimately successful
is authentic," Piacenza Pros- scarf, accessories that the have been snatched from trian painter, but his stature effort by a woman to gain
ecutor Ornella Chicca told artist didn't include in "Por- a gallery wall a few days really grew at this point," back Klimt's "Portrait of
reporters Friday while two trait of a Lady." earlier, during the exhibit O'Connor said. When "Por- Adele Bloch-Bauer."
police officers stood on ei- Intrigued by the observa- preparation work. trait of a Lady" was taken, That portrait was snatched
ther side of an easel bear- tions of the student — who So who stole the painting? the value of the art nou- from the Bloch-Bauer home
ing the recovered painting. went on to become an art Chicca said police were veau artist's paintings was in Vienna in 1941 by a Nazi
"Portrait of a Lady" depicts researcher herself - experts studying some traces of "soaring," she said. officer. The woman, Bloch-
a young woman sensually back then examined the organic material on the re- O'Connor ventured that Bauer's niece, later sold the
glancing over her shoul- artwork in the Piacenza gal- covered canvas in hopes perhaps whoever took the painting to cosmetics mo-
der against a dreamy moss lery's collection and found they might provide leads. painting stowed it behind gul Ronald Lauder in 2006
green background. Klimt that Klimt had painted it on Asked if authorities knew the gallery's walls while for $135 million.
finished the painting in top of an earlier portrait of whether the piece had waiting for news about the Another celebrity Klimt
1917, the year before he a woman. ever left the gallery's heist to die down but the piece was a second por-
died. The Ricci Oddi gallery Those studying the work in grounds, investigators said stolen work proved "too hot trait of the woman, "Portrait
acquired it in 1925 and re- recent weeks, with the aid that's something else they to handle." of Adele Bloch-Bauer II."
ported it missing in February of X-rays, saw the earlier hope to find out. "It would have been hard Oprah Winfrey eventually
1997. portrait. As for why and when the to sell it to a private buyer" purchased that painting
Since the gardener's dis- Selleri said the radiation painting ended up stashed on the so-called gray mar- and reportedly sold it a few
covery on Dec. 10, the analysis revealed that while behind a wall, journalist ket, O'Connor noted in a years ago for $150 million.q
Christopher Tolkien, son of Lord of the Rings creator, dies

LONDON (AP) — Christo- Tolkien’s life work was ers” and “The Return of the academic in Oxford dem- marillion’ to the mammoth
pher Tolkien, who played closely identified with that King” - when they were onstrates his ability and skill task of giving us ‘The History
a major role protecting the of his father. Among the published in the 1950s. as a scholar,” he said. “We Of Middle-earth’ series, he
legacy of his father’s “The books the younger Tolkien Tolkien Society chairman have lost a titan and he will revealed his father’s grand
Lord of the Rings” trilogy, worked on were “The Sil- Shaun Gunner said “millions be sorely missed.” vision of a rich and com-
has died. He was 95. marillion,” “The Children Of of people around the world J.R.R. Tolkien scholar Dimi- plex mythology.”
The Tolkien Society and Hurin,” and other texts that will be forever grateful to tra Fimi said Christopher The newspaper for the Var
publisher HarperCollins UK flesh out the complex world Christopher for bringing us” Tolkien helped the pub- region in southern France,
confirmed Tolkien’s death. his father created. so many of his father’s liter- lic understand his father’s Var Matin, said Tolkien and
The Centre Hospitalier de He also drew the original ary works. “Christopher’s works. “Tolkien studies his wife, Baillie, had lived
la Dracenie, a hospital in maps that adorned the commitment to his father’s would never be what it is quietly on the edge of the
southern France, said the three Lord of the Rings works have seen dozens today without Christopher village of Aups since 1975.
son of author J.R.R. Tolkien books - “The Fellowship of of publications released, Tolkien’s contribution,” she No funeral date has been
died there Thursday. the Ring,” “The Two Tow- and his own work as an said. “From editing ‘The Sil- set, the newspaper said.q