Tag Archives: picasso

Picasso Weeping Woman painting theft: The great art heist that shocked Melbourne

Christopher Talbot, Herald Sun

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IN December 1985, the National Gallery of Victoria became the proud owners of the Picasso masterpiece Weeping Woman.

It was the most expensive artwork acquired by an Australian art gallery and cost Victorian taxpayers $1.6 million.

Eight months later it was gone.

When the painting was first acquired in 1985, gallery director Patrick McCaughey said the painting would “haunt Melbourne for the next 100 years”.

He wasn’t wrong. The biggest art heist in Victoria’s history has never been solved and the culprit (or culprits) never caught.

On Monday, August 4, 1986 The Age newspaper received a letter addressed to then-arts minister Race Mathews that read: “We have stolen the Picasso from the National Gallery as a protest against the niggardly funding of the fine arts in this hick State.”

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The paper phoned the gallery and indeed the most expensive painting in the nation was gone.

“Confronting the bare wall and the fake label, I was aghast. I excused myself from the committee meeting and began a search of the gallery, desperately hoping that it was a prank and that the painting had been hidden in the building,” McCaughey said in his book The Bright Shapes and the True Names.

Full Article – http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/picasso-weeping-woman-painting-theft-the-great-art-heist-that-shocked-melbourne/news-story/0cf39d2d98b0a354bd5c5fc29b720a8f

MELANIE GRIFFITH, ANTONIO BANDERAS DIVORCE FINAL He Keeps ‘Zorro’ Money, They Split ‘Shrek’ Cash

12/8/2015 10:07 AM PST BY TMZ STAFF

Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas are officially single, after dividing a huge chunk of movie change.

According to final divorce docs, obtained by TMZ, Antonio made a lot of dough on “The Mask of Zorro,” “Desperado,” and “Spy Kids.” He keeps all the cash from those flicks and she gets to keep what she made from her earlier work.

Melanie and Antonio split money from every movie either of them did between 2004 and 2014, including “Shrek 2,” “Puss in Boots,” “Machete Kills,” “Expendables 3” and others.

It appears they signed some sort of postnup in 2004 which changed the financial deal of their marriage … they married in 1996 but it seems they kept everything separate from the date of their marriage until 2004.

Antonio is not getting out clean … he’s paying her $65k a month in spousal support.

She gets the house in Aspen and they sold their L.A. mansion and split the profits.

And there’s a lot of rich people’s stuff that was divvied up. She gets a Picasso called “The Painter and His Model.” He gets a pencil drawing by Picasso and another pencil drawing by Diego Rivera.

Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2015/12/08/melanie-griffith-antonio-banderas-divorce-zorro-shrek/#ixzz3tnC6ZqUs