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PEOPLE & ARTS Wednesday 27 March 2019
Barry Lopez looks for hope beyond the 'Horizon'

By ROB MERRILL ers visualize where our peri- works. the world, that you'll be OK
Associated Press patetic narrator is at any Each of the chapters is no matter how hard any
"Horizon" (Alfred A. Knopf), given time, but not much jammed with stories and given task might be? Lopez
by Barry Lopez else in the way of context. personal reflections. Lopez, shares one walking through
Part travel journal, part his- Lopez admits in the pro- perhaps more than any a park in Sydney, Australia:
tory, part science lecture, logue that he consciously other nature writer alive, is "The most fragmentary of
part autobiography, and chose to simply tell stories, introspective to his core. Ev- breezes occasionally un-
completely unique, "Hori- not explain any "juxtaposi- ery experience, every sight, settled the leaves of gum
zon" feels like the crowning tions in time," but it would every person he meets, trees. The delicacy of the
achievement of Barry Lo- have provided readers has made an impression weather reinforced a feel-
pez's illustrious career. with helpful perspective to on him and unlike most of ing I had in that moment of
Fans of his National Book know more about his life us he kept notes. This book unfocused exuberance, a
Award-winning "Arctic circumstances during any is his attempt to look back faith that no matter what
Dreams" (1986) and sub- given trip. on it all and say something people had to face in the
sequent books about little The resulting feel of the about the world we share. world that is coming for us,
understood landscapes, book is fragmented — per- Here he is after looking at a they would fare well. What-
cultures and wildlife will find haps intentionally mirroring piece of chalk white sand- ever the nightmare, some
much to love here. Readers the way memory works? stone in his office, remem- This cover image released group of us would see a
who have never read Lo- — with passages about bering the outrage he felt by Knopf shows "Horizon," by way through, for ourselves
pez might be better served the power of music to "pry about acts of global geno- Barry Lopez. and others."
reading one of his single- something ineluctable out cide the day he picked it Associated Press Whether you personally
topic tomes first. of a particular landscape" up on a beach in San Sal- lean toward the cynical or
At 512 pages, this book is (listening to Beethoven's vador: "What cataclysm, tice he's seen in the world hopeful, one thing is cer-
dense. It's divided into six Fifth Symphony on Skrael- I often wonder, or better, and the irrefutable science tain — we need adventur-
main parts based on the ing Island, 660 nautical what act of imagination will showing how humans are ous, curious souls like Lo-
geography of Lopez's life- miles from the North Pole) it finally require, for us to be altering the climate, Lo- pez to keep traveling and
long travels — western Or- just 20 pages removed able to speak meaningfully pez manages to convey in bringing back stories from
egon, the High Arctic, the from a technical explana- with one another about our his prose a sense of hope. beyond our particular ho-
Galapagos, Kenya, Austra- tion of how the Antarctic cultural fate and about our Have you ever had a mo- rizon — in order to find our
lia and Antarctica. There Moon and Neutrino Detec- shared biological fate?" ment in your life when ev- way forward as a species,
are maps that help read- tor Array at the South Pole Yet despite all the injus- erything seems right with together.q

Dutch art sleuth recovers Picasso stolen 20 years ago

By MIKE CORDER a Picasso stolen from a
Associated Press boat.
AMSTERDAM (AP) — A "Finally, I tracked some-
Dutch art detective said body down who had had
Tuesday that he has recov- it in his possession 10 years
ered a valuable painting ago and he told me which
by Pablo Picasso 20 years one it was," he said. "And
after it was stolen from a then it still took me three
wealthy Saudi's yacht in years to get near it."
France. Brand said the painting had
Arthur Brand told The As- circulated in the criminal
sociated Press that he took underworld of the Dutch
possession two weeks ago capital.
of the 1938 painting "Buste "It was used as some kind
de Femme" after trailing it of money as payment for
for years in Amsterdam. drug and arm deals," he
Brand, a renowned sleuth said.
whose previous finds in- Eventually a person who
clude a pair of bronze hors- had the painting in their
es sculpted for Adolf Hitler, possession decided to turn
has since handed over the it in and reached out to
painting, which he esti- Brand.
mates to be worth around Martin Finkelnberg, head of
25 million euros ($28 mil- the Dutch national police's
lion), to an insurance com- art and antique criminal-
pany. It wasn't immediately ity team, welcomed the
clear what would happen This image released on Tuesday March 26, 2019 by Arthur Brand, shows Dutch art detective Arthur recovery. No arrests have
to the painting. Brand with "Buste de Femme", a recovered Picasso painting. been made.
Brand said he knew it was Associated Press Finkelnberg told Dutch na-
the real thing as soon as tional daily De Volkskrant
he got his hands on it and reason he was convinced from a yacht moored in the said, without specifying that having such a painting
peeled away two plastic of its authenticity. swanky French Riviera port what was there. "When I can be a burden and tak-
bags covering the canvas. In cases of stolen art, he of Antibes, a number of saw the back of the paint- ing it to Brand is a way out.
"You know it's a Picasso be- said, the back of a painting forgeries had been offered ing, I knew it was the real "Done. Everybody happy,"
cause there is some magic can tell experts more than to insurers and rejected. one." Finkelnberg said. "The most
coming off it," he said. the front. "But a forger never knows Brand began his latest hunt important thing is that the
But that wasn't the only He said that since the theft how the back looks," Brand after hearing rumors about artwork is back."q