Brueghel work found in dim French TV room sells for $845,000

PARIS – One of Flemish painter Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s largest known works, whose discovery behind the television room door of a house in northern France amazed the art world, fetched 780,000 euros ($845,000) at auction in Paris Tuesday. The 17th century oil painting — which experts call “exceptional” and was long considered a fake … Read more

Kidjo, Blackwell, Pärt awarded Sweden’s Polar Music Prize

STOCKHOLM – Five-time Grammy Award winner Angélique Kidjo, Island Records founder Chris Blackwell and Estonian composer Arvo Pärt have won the 2023 Polar Music Prize, a Swedish music award. The three “all made such a global impact with their music,” Marie Ledin, managing director of the annual prize, said in announcing the winners on Tuesday. … Read more

Gwyneth Paltrow’s experts to testify in Utah ski crash case

PARK CITY, Utah – Gwyneth Paltrow’s attorneys are expected to call a series of experts and read depositions from her two teenage children on Tuesday in the first full day of the movie star ‘s trial that they have to call witnesses to make their case. Due to the trial’s judge-imposed eight-day clock, Paltrow’s defense … Read more

Judge: District attorney can’t be co-counsel in Baldwin case

SANTA FE, N.M. – A New Mexico judge said Santa Fe’s district attorney shouldn’t serve as co-counsel in the manslaughter case against actor Alec Baldwin and a weapons supervisor in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer during a 2021 movie rehearsal. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer on Monday said the district attorney should either lead the … Read more

Report: Queen Elizabeth II asked Germany for pricey horses

BERLIN – Two horses fit for a queen, please. That’s what Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II had asked for as a gift during her state visit to Germany in 1978, weekly Der Spiegel reported Monday. The expensive present raised eyebrows among German bureaucrats at the time, who noted that the Holsteiner and the gray Elizabeth requested … Read more

Renée Fleming stars as `Nixon in China’ arrives in Paris

PARIS – After spending decades portraying generals’ wives, a countess and a courtesan, Renée Fleming walked gingerly onto the stage of the Bastille Opera in a blond wig, red coat and black gloves to depict Pat Nixon, former first lady of the United States. John Adams’ “Nixon in China,” a 1987 work among the most … Read more