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How Obama Outmaneuvered Hardliners And Cut A Cuba Deal

2022-03-25T13:52:45Z

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How Obama outmaneuvered hardliners and cut a Cuba deal By Reuters Published: 11:01, 23 March 2015 | Updated: 11:01, 23 March 2015 e-mail By Warren Strobel, Matt Spetalnick and David Adams WASHINGTON/MIAMI, March 23 (Reuters) - The December breakthrough that upended a half-century of U.S.-Cuba enmity has been portrayed as the fruit of 18 months of secret diplomacy. But Reuters interviews with more than a dozen people with direct knowledge of the process reveal a longer, painstakingly cautious quest by U.S. President Barack Obama and veteran Cuba specialists to forge the historic rapprochement. As now-overt U.S.-Cuban negotiations continue this month, Reuters also has uncovered new details of how talks began and how they stalled in late 2013 during secret sessions in Canada. Senior administration officials and others also revealed how both countries sidelined their foreign policy bureaucracies and how Obama sought the Vatican's blessing to pacify opponents. Obama's opening to Havana could help restore Washington's influence in Latin America and give him a much-needed foreign policy success. But the stop-and-start way the outreach unfolded, with deep mistrust on both sides, illustrates the obstacles Washington and Havana face to achieving a lasting detente. Obama was not the first Democratic president to reach out to Cuba, but his attempt took advantage of - and carefully judged - a generational shift among Cuban-Americans that greatly reduced the political risks. In a May 2008 speech to the conservative Cuban-American National Foundation in Miami, Obama set out a new policy allowing greater travel and remittances to Cuba for Cuban-Americans, though he added he would keep the embargo in place as leverage. "Obama understood that the policy changes he was proposing in 2008 were popular in the Cuban-American community so he was not taking a real electoral risk," said Dan Restrepo, then Obama's top Latin America adviser. Six months later, Obama was validated by an unexpectedly high 35 percent of the Cuban-American vote, and in 2012 he won 48 percent - a record for a Democrat. With his final election over, Obama instructed aides in December 2012 to make Cuba a priority and "see how far we could push the envelope," recalled Ben Rhodes, a Deputy National Security Advisor who has played a central role in shaping Cuba policy. Helping pave the way was an early 2013 visit to Miami by Obama's top Latin American adviser Ricardo Zuniga. As a young specialist at the State Department he had contributed to a 2001 National Intelligence Estimate that, according to another former senior official who worked on it, marked the first such internal assessment that the economic embargo of Cuba had failed. He met a representative of the anti-Castro Cuban American National Foundation, and young Cuban-Americans who, according to one person present, helped confirm the waning influence of older Cuban exiles who have traditionally supported the half-century-old embargo. But the White House wasn't certain. "I don't think we ever reached a point where we thought we wouldn't have to worry about the reaction in Miami," a senior U.S. official said. The White House quietly proposed back-channel talks to the Cubans in April 2013, after getting notice that Havana would be receptive, senior U.S. officials said. Obama at first froze out the State Department in part due to concern that "vested interests" there were bent on perpetuating a confrontational approach, said a former senior U.S. official. Secretary of State John Kerry was informed of the talks only after it appeared they might be fruitful, officials said. Cuban President Raul Castro operated secretly too. Josefina Vidal, head of U.S. affairs at Cuba's foreign ministry, was cut out, two Americans close to the process said. Vidal could not be reached for comment. The meetings began in June 2013 with familiar Cuban harangues about the embargo and other perceived wrongs. Rhodes used his relative youth to volley back. "Part of the point was 'Look I wasn't even born when this policy was put in place We want to hear and talk about the future'," said Rhodes, 37. "THE CUBANS WERE DUG IN" Obama's people-to-people Cuba strategy was complicated by one person in particular: Alan Phillip Gross. The U.S. government had sent Gross, a USAID contractor, on risky missions to deliver communications equipment to Cuba's Jewish community. His December 2009 arrest put Obama's planned "new beginning" with Cuba on hold. The secret talks were almost derailed by Havana's steadfast demand that Obama swap the "Cuban Three," a cell of Cuban spies convicted in Miami but considered heroes in Havana, for Gross. Obama refused a straight trade because Washington denied Gross was a spy and the covert diplomacy stalled as 2013 ended. Even as Obama and Castro shook hands at the Johannesburg memorial service for South African leader Nelson Mandela, the situation behind the scenes did not look very hopeful. "The Cubans were dug in And we did kind of get stuck on this," Rhodes said. Rhodes and Zuniga spent more than 70 hours negotiating with the Cubans, mostly at Canadian government facilities in Ottawa. By late spring 2014, Gross' friends and family grew alarmed over his physical and psychological state. The White House and the Cubans knew that if he died in prison, repairing relations would be left to another generation. With Gross' mother, Evelyn, dying of lung cancer, the U.S. government and his legal team launched an effort to convince the Cubans to grant him a furlough to see her. That bid failed, despite an offer by Gross's lawyer Scott Gilbert to sit in his jail cell as collateral. But a turning point had occurred at a January 2014 meeting in Toronto. The Americans proposed - to the Cubans' surprise - throwing Rolando Sarraff, a spy for Washington imprisoned in Cuba since 1995, into the deal, U.S. participants said. The White House could claim it was a true "spy swap," giving it political cover. But it took 11 more months to seal the deal. Castro did not immediately agree to give up Sarraff, a cryptographer who Washington says helped it disrupt Cuban spy rings in the United States. And Obama, stung by the outcry over his May 2014 exchange of five Taliban detainees for U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, was wary of another trade perceived as lopsided, according to people close to the situation. He weighed other options, including having the Cubans plead guilty to the charges against them and be sentenced to time served, according to the people. Gilbert worked with the Obama administration, but urged it to move faster. From his vantage point, the turning point came in April 2014, when it became clear key Obama officials would support a full commutation of the Cuban prisoners' sentences. "TEARS IN OUR EYES" The last puzzle piece slid into place at a Feb. 2014 White House meeting with lawmakers including Democratic Senators Patrick Leahy and Sen. Dick Durbin. Obama hammered home his opposition to a straight Gross-Cuban Three trade, two people present said. Durbin, in an interview, said he "raised the possibility of using the Vatican and the Pope as intermediaries." Pope Francis would bring the Catholic Church's moral influence and his status as the first pontiff from Latin America. It was also protection against harsh critics such as Cuban-American Sen. Robert Menendez. Leahy persuaded two Catholic cardinals to ask Francis to raise Cuba and the prisoners when he met Obama in March. The Pope did so, then wrote personal letters to Obama and Castro. "What could be better than the president being be able to tell Menendez or anybody else, 'Hey, The Pope asked me?'" a congressional aide said. The deal was finalized in late October in Rome, where the U.S. and Cuban teams met separately with Vatican officials, then all three teams together. Rhodes and Zuniga met the Cubans again in December to nail down logistics for the Dec. 17 announcements of prisoner releases, easing of U.S. sanctions, normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations and Cuba's freeing of 53 political prisoners. Gilbert was aboard the plane to Cuba that would bring Gross home. Landing at a military airfield, Gilbert met Cuban officials who had been in charge of Gross for five years. "Many of us from both countries had tears in our eyes," Gilbert said. Castro and Obama, whose Cuba policy still faces vocal opposition from anti-Castro lawmakers, will come face to face at next month's Western Hemisphere summit in Panama. Aides have dared to imagine that Obama could be the first U.S. president to visit Cuba since Calvin Coolidge in 1928. "We're in new territory here," Rhodes said. (Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Anna Yukhananov, Lesley Wroughton and Mark Hosenball in Washington, and Dan Trotta in Havana. Editing by Jason Szep and Stuart Grudgings)

Gregory Rabassa Translator Of Gabriel Garcia Marquez Dies

2022-03-25T03:47:46Z

Lenora9000: Die Seite wurde neu angelegt: „Gregory Rabassa, translator of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, dies By Associated Press Published: 22:32, 14 June 2016 | Updated: 22:33, 14 June 2016 …“

Gregory Rabassa, translator of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, dies By Associated Press Published: 22:32, 14 June 2016 | Updated: 22:33, 14 June 2016 e-mail 11 shares NEW YORK (AP) — Gregory Rabassa, a translator of worldwide influence and esteem who helped introduce Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Julio Cortazar and other Latin American authors to millions of English-language readers, has died. A longtime professor at Queens College, Rabassa died Monday at a hospice in Branford, Connecticut. He was 94 and died after a brief illness, according to his daughter, Kate Rabassa Wallen. Rabassa was an essential gateway to the 1960s Latin American "boom," when such authors as Garcia Marquez, Cortazar and Mario Vargas Llosa became widely known internationally. He worked on the novel that helped start the boom, Cortazar's "Hopscotch," for which Rabassa won a National Book Award for translation. He also worked on the novel which defined the boom, Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude," a monument of 20th century literature. This photo supplied by Clara Rabassa shows her father Gregory Rabassa in 2011. Rabassa, a renowned translator who helped introduce Gabriel Garcia Marquez and other Latin American authors to millions of English-language readers, died Monday, June 13, 2016, at a hospice in Branford, Conn., after a brief illness. He was 94. (Clara Rabassa via AP) Garcia Marquez often praised Rabassa, saying he regarded the translation of "Solitude" as a work of art in its own right. "He's the godfather of us all," Edith Grossman, the acclaimed translator of "Don Quixote" and several Garcia Marquez books, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "He's the one who introduced Latin-American literature in a serious way to the English speaking world." Rabassa's other translations included Garcia Marquez's "The Autumn of the Patriarch," Vargas Llosa's "Conversation in the Cathedral" and Jorge Amado's "Captains of the Sand." In 2001, Rabassa received a lifetime achievement award from the PEN American Center for contributions to Hispanic literature. He was presented a National Medal of Arts in 2006 for translations which "continue to enhance our cultural understanding and enrich our lives." Survivors include his second wife, Clementine; daughters Kate Rabassa Wallen and Clara Rabassa, and granddaughters Jennifer Wallen and Sarah Wallen. Language was a lifelong fascination for Rabassa, whose father was Cuban and mother from New York City's Hell's Kitchen. He was born in Yonkers, New York, in 1922, and raised on a farm in Hanover, New Hampshire, near Dartmouth College, where Rabassa majored in romance languages. Fitting for the future translator, he served as a cryptographer during World War II, later joking that in deciphering secret messages it was his job to change English into English. After the war, Rabassa studied Spanish and Portuguese as a graduate student at Columbia University and translated Spanish- and Portuguese-language works for the magazine Odyssey. He broke into mainstream publishing in the 1960s when an editor at Pantheon Books asked him to translate Cortazar's "Hopscotch," a stream-of-consciousness novel that had the Spanish title "Rayuela." Around the same time "Hopscotch" won the National Book Award, in 1967, Garcia Marquez was finishing his masterpiece of magical realism, "One Hundred Years of Solitude." Rabassa's reputation was so high that Garcia Marquez waited three years for the English version so that the translator's schedule could clear. "A good translation is always a re-creation in another language. That's why I have such great admiration for Gregory Rabassa," the Colombian author told The Paris Review in 1981. "My books have been translated into 21 languages and Rabassa is the only translator who has never asked for something to be clarified so he can put a footnote in. I think that my work has been completely re-created in English." Rabassa's contribution to "One Hundred Years of Solitude" was sealed immediately, through what became the novel's immortal, English-language opening sentence: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." As Rabassa recalled in his 2005 memoir "If This Be Treason," several words needed interpretation. "Firing squad" could have easily been translated into "firing party," but Rabassa thought "squad" a better word for American readers. He acknowledged receiving some criticism for turning the Spanish word "conocer," which technically means to be familiar with or to have experienced, into "discover." "What is happening here is a first-time meeting, or learning," Rabassa explained. Even translating the title, "Cien Anos de Soledad," required precision and poetry. "Cien" can mean "one hundred" or "a hundred." Rabassa decided on "one hundred," because he believed Garcia Marquez had a specific time frame in mind. A choice also was needed for "soledad," which can mean "loneliness" or "solitude." "I went for 'solitude' because it's a touch more conclusive and also can carry the germ of 'loneliness' if pushed along those lines, as Billie Holiday so eloquently demonstrated," Rabassa recalled. Rabassa's approach was unorthodox. He would often agree to take on a book before having seen the text and then translate as he read it for the first time. In his memoir, Rabassa acknowledged laziness might have been a reason for not reading the book twice, but he also believed "by doing things this way I was birthing something new and natural." His work with Garcia Marquez made him famous, but he was much closer personally to Cortazar, the Argentine author and opponent of the Peron regime. They shared, Rabassa recalled, a warmth for "jazz, humor, liberal politics, and inventive art and writing." Friendship meant that Cortazar not only forgave the occasional error by his translator, but sometimes welcomed it. Rabassa remembered working on a sentence about an egg left too long in a frying pan and inadvertently reversed two letters. A correction was unnecessary, Cortazar declared. The mistake was an improvement. And so, in tribute to the ceramic state of stale food, "fried eggs" remained "fired eggs."

Spies And Hackers Can Eavesdrop On Conversations From 82 Feet 25 Metres Away By Analysing The Vibration Patterns In A Hanging Light Bulb A Study Has Found

2022-03-24T17:08:00Z

Lenora9000: Die Seite wurde neu angelegt: „Spies and hackers can eavesdrop on conversations from 82 feet (25 metres) away by analysing the vibration patterns in a hanging light bulb, a study has found…“

Spies and hackers can eavesdrop on conversations from 82 feet (25 metres) away by analysing the vibration patterns in a hanging light bulb, a study has found. The 'lamphone' technique discovered by security experts from Israel needs only a laptop and gear — including a telescope and sensor — costing less than just £1,000. According to the team, they did not develop the lamphone to eavesdrop on people — but to highlight the potential vulnerability. For those concerned about the security implications, however, the technique is easy to thwart — one simply needs to pull the curtains, or invest in a big lampshade. Scroll down for video Spies and hackers can eavesdrop on conversations from 80 feet (24 metres) away by analysing the vibration patterns in a hanging light bulb, a study has found (stock image) The 'lamphone' technique discovered by security experts from Israel needs only a laptop and gear — including a telescope and sensor — costing less than just £1,000. Pictured, an illustration of how the 'lamphone' method can use the vibrations of a light build to reconstruct audio from a distant room <div class="art-ins mol-factbox floatRHS sciencetech" data-version="2" id="mol-b94f0bb0-afb8-11ea-bc05-dfafd6293202" website can eavesdrop from 80 feet away by watching light bulbs

How A Hunky Shepherd Made Kate Humble Go All Aquiver

2022-03-23T07:39:57Z

Lenora9000: Die Seite wurde neu angelegt: „Kate Humble is wasted as a presenter. She ought to be an old-fashioned matchmaker, pairing off husband-hungry girls with eligible lads and arranging their m…“

Kate Humble is wasted as a presenter. She ought to be an old-fashioned matchmaker, pairing off husband-hungry girls with eligible lads and arranging their marriages for a fee. She certainly threw herself into the search for a dashing dog to mate with her Welsh sheepdog bitch, Teg, on My Sheepdog And Me (BBC2). But please don't imagine this was common or garden breeding: Kate compared herself to the mature ladies of a Jane Austen novel, on the lookout for presentable bridegrooms to wed their daughters. Kate Humble threw herself into the search for a dashing dog to mate with her Welsh sheepdog bitch, Teg, on My Sheepdog And Me (BBC2) Every mutt she saw came in for careful scrutiny. ‘I have to confess I've had my eye on Will,' she mused, as Teg and another dog sniffed around each other. ‘There's some chemistry going on there.' Her heart was won, though, by Tango, a dog trained to round up feral sheep that have escaped from flocks into forests. This was the boyo for her Teg — though the decision might have been influenced by Tango's owner, who could hoist a ram over his shoulders as if it were a sack of feathers. ‘He's like superman, like a man mountain,' Kate quivered. When Kate and her husband, TV producer Ludo, moved from London to a Monmouthshire farm in the early Nineties, they took their middle-class ways with them. RELATED ARTICLES Previous 1 Next Furious Countryfile fans brand BBC show's first live event... Is this the most extreme reality TV show yet? Eden's... Share this article Share Every decision about the dog was subject to a civilised family debate, which involved complex negotiation and bargaining — with special regard to foreign filming schedules, holiday plans and so on. Muddling through is not this couple's way. Teg had one eye that was half-blue, half-brown. ‘She looks like a cross between David Bowie and Basil Brush,' quipped Kate to a couple of shepherds on a Snowdonia hillside. That drew some blank looks. And when he brought Teg to be mated, Ludo expended his media small talk on the dog's owner, in a torrent of elegant chatter and wry asides. ‘She's going to get Tango'd,' he commented drily. The farmer answered in monosyllables and eyed him with sidelong suspicion. Witty wordplay might be essential in the TV world, but Welsh country folk expect less talk and more work. SEA DOG OF THE NIGHT Ray Mears spotted a trawler off the Brittany coast in Wild France (ITV), scooping up seaweed with a gigantic spinning billhook. This device was a Scooby-Doo, claimed Ray. Oh yes — and I suppose the captain was called Shaggy and his boat is the Mystery Machine. adverts.addToArray({"pos":"mpu_factbox"})Advertisement However, while her mum and dad were doing all they could to embarrass her, Teg was fitting right in to rural life. She was a natural herder, gently but firmly nosing the ewes through gates and into pens. Even the judges of the Welsh Sheepdog Society were impressed, and they looked a hard bunch to please. It was Teg who made this one-off programme such a feelgood pleasure. Soppy and affectionate one minute, she was transformed at a single whistle into a clever, obedient creature who seemed able to read Kate's mind. That, of course, is how all pet lovers see our pooches — we know there's a doggy genius behind those soulful eyes. And when she had her first litter, a million viewers gave a little whimper and said: ‘I want one!' Training a dog to round up a hill flock might look a complicated business, but it's simplicity itself compared to the rulebook of Alphabetical (ITV), host Jeff Stelling's rapid-fire teatime quiz. Even the algorithm used to calculate the daily prize requires a degree in pure mathematics. Alphabetical host Jeff Stelling's efforts is challenging to play at home with 200 snappy questions, even if the canned laughter and applause is loud and grating And you'd have to be a GCHQ cryptographer to work out the sequence by which correct answers earn five points, three or one, while contestants answer questions aided by clues to the word's first or last letter. Got that? Would it help to know that the format is based on a Spanish show called Pasapalabra? No, thought not . . . The confusion this caused didn't affect the game, since some players were floundering from the start. What tiny crustacean, beginning with K, is eaten by many animal species? ‘Kipper!' said one chap. The answer was ‘krill'. And which world-famous gorilla, beginning with G, is commemorated by a statue at London Zoo? No, sorry, ‘Godzilla' is wrong — it's ‘Guy'. With no sign of an audience, the canned laughter and applause is loud and grating. Despite all these flaws, Alphabetical does involve around 200 snappy questions, which makes it challenging fun to play at home.

My £4m Enigma Estate: It apos;s Got A Heated Pool Gym Tennis Court

2022-03-22T22:45:25Z

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With its gabled, late-Victorian red-brick exterior and oak-panelled interior, Cournswood House could almost be Bletchley Park, the English country house at the heart of the recent Oscar-nominated drama The Imitation Game, about the cracking of Germany's wartime Enigma code. So it is appropriate that at least two of Cournswood's long-term residents have had strong Bletchley connections. The first was wartime Naval cryptographer and Enigma codebreaker Dillwyn Knox, who bought it in 1921 and lived there until his death in 1943. His funeral was attended by many from Bletchley Park, and a memorial stone to Knox can be found bordering the property. Cournswood House is in the south of Buckinghamshire - in ten acres of secluded woodlands in the picturesque village of North Dean Bletchley connections: Codebreaker Dillwyn Knox, left, who bought it in 1921 and lived there until his death in 1943 and right, Sharon Constancon, who is related to the Leon family who once owned Bletchley Park And the current owner, businesswoman Sharon Constancon, is related to the Leon family who once owned Bletchley Park. 'I only discovered this when I went on a visit to Bletchley Park with my uncle,' says Sharon. 'The Leon family donated the building to the Government in 1937 for use as a code-breaking centre.' RELATED ARTICLES Previous 1 Next Head-in-the-sand house sellers refuse to admit market has... Mega-home where the STAMP DUTY could buy you another... Share this article Share While both are in Buckinghamshire, Cournswood House is in the south of the county - in ten acres of secluded woodlands in the picturesque village of North Dean - while Bletchley Park is in the town of Bletchley in the north, 20 miles away. During the Second World War at Bletchley Park, Dillwyn Knox led the team that made the first breaks into the code Germany was using, and he encouraged Alan Turing - the subject of The Imitation Game - in his work there. Although Knox does not feature in the new movie, he was portrayed by actor Richard Johnson in the 1996 television film Breaking The Code, which starred Derek Jacobi as Turing and Prunella Scales as his wife Sara. The pool is in a glasshouse, where vines thrive in the heated environment. A separate glasshouse houses the Jacuzzi and a herb garden Cracking mysteries seems to be something Knox enjoyed in his private life too, as novelist Agatha Christie was a good friend and often visited Cournswood. 'I fell in love with Cournswood House the moment I saw it,' says Sharon, who bought it in 2003. 'It's an outstanding property with lots of potential.' Apart from the main house, there are two cottages, offices, a swimming pool, Jacuzzi, gym, and woodland with lakes, Japanese-style bridges, waterfalls and fountains. The pool is in a glasshouse, where vines thrive in the heated environment. 'The grapes are perfect for making chutney,' says Sharon. A separate glasshouse houses the Jacuzzi and a herb garden. AT A GLANCE Price: £4million Location: North Dean, Buckinghamshire Bedrooms: 5 Unique features: Office suite, indoor swimming pool, two cottages, Jacuzzi, gym, grass tennis court, former home of wartime codebreaker Dillwyn Knox adverts.addToArray({"pos":"mpu_factbox"})Advertisement There are five bedrooms, four bathrooms (two en suite) and five reception rooms. The large drawing room has high ceilings, ornate cornicing and a fireplace with carved wooden mantel and surround. Double doors open on to a triple-tiered terrace, with an open barbecue, that overlooks the lakes and woodlands. In the dining room, solid parquet flooring continues through to the serving room, reached through a pair of oak double doors. The modern kitchen is a chef's delight, with Gaggenau and Miele ovens. In the centre is an island incorporating a breakfast bar and storage units. 'I love entertaining and the kitchen offers everything you could possibly want,' says Sharon. The reception hall features a sweeping staircase to the first floor, where there are the bedrooms and bathrooms as well as two dressing rooms and a TV/cinema room. The master bedroom opens on to a circular balcony with stunning views over the gardens, lakes and woods. In the library, still concealed behind one of the wall panels, is Knox's private safe. One of the property's cottages overlooks the lakes, while the other is on the edge of the woods. 'Both cottages are ideal for short- or long-term lets or for staff, friends or family visits,' says Sharon. At the entrance to the property there are electric gates with majestic stone golden eagles perched on top of pillars. 'I'm moving to downsize,' says Sharon. 'I'll miss the privacy, security and tranquillity, not to mention the wildlife, such as deer, red kites and ducks.' hamptons-int.com, 01494 611313

Sumner Redstone apos;s Extraordinary Life

2022-03-21T06:11:14Z

Lenora9000:

Sumner Redstone in 1988, after he took over Viacom and while he was making a play for Paramount Pictures Sumner Redstone's death on Tuesday comes after a colorful life that began humbly in Boston and saw him rise bombastically through the TV and movie world, collecting film studios and cable conglomerates all while juggling two marriages, a string of messy affairs, family feuds and mammoth business deals. The ViacomCBS giant died aged 97, his family revealed on Tuesday, after a sad existence in recent years. After being hospitalized in 2014 with pneumonia and having ingested food in his lungs, he spent much of the last six years unable to speak. He communicated through an iPad and was cared for round-the-clock by nurses who have claimed he was often reduced to tears and screaming by an ex-girlfriend, Sydney Holland, who they say tried to keep him from his family. That life in his final days is a far cry from the trail he blazed in the world of entertainment over the last 50 years. Born Sumner Rothstein in Boston in 1923, his father Max sold linoleum from the back of a truck and his mother was a housekeeper. When he was a teenager, his father changed the family name to Redstone. Redstone was dismayed and thought his father was trying to abandon their Jewish heritage. Friends close to the family have since suggested that Max did not want the family to be associated with the famous gangster, Arnold Rothstein, who fixed the world series. After high school, he enrolled at Harvard, on a scholarship, and graduated within three years. He was so skilled in languages that he was invited to Washington during World War II to work as an army cryptographer to decipher Japanese military codes. In 1947, Redstone married his first wife, Phyllis. They welcomed their children Shari and Brent and the family lived for a time in San Francisco, where he worked in a law firm and later teaching at a university. Redstone's first foray into the world of TV and movies came in 1954, when he abandoned his law career to join his father who had saved enough money to buy a drive-in movie theater. Together and with the contribution of Sumner's brother, they bought 11 more. Redstone married his passion for movies with his legal expertise to sue film studios which, at the time, didn't allow drive-ins to lease first-run films. In the early 1960s, as the appetite for drive-in theaters declined, he tore them down and started building multiplexes in their places. Redstone became CEO of his father's company - National Amusements Inc - in 1964. For the next several years, he invested on he side in studios but his quickly ascending career was brutally halted in 1979 in a hotel fire. In 1979, Redstone was staying at The Boston Copley Plaza when a fire tore through the hotel. He was staying with his mistress and escaped by clinging on to a window ledge as flames burned his hands Redstone was rescued from the hotel on a ladder. He later wrote in his autobiography: 'The fire shot up my legs. The pain was searing. I was being burned alive' Redstone was in the hotel fire with his then mistress, Desla Winer (together, right). She escaped with fewer injuries. The pair remained friends for years. He was married at the time to his first wife, Phyllis (together, left in 1997). The pair were married for 52 years, during which time he had several affairs, before they divorced in 1999 Redstone circa 1981, in another portrait shot by The Boston Globe (left) and in 1986 (right). By then, he'd recovered from the fire injuries and was quickly charging ahead with buying up movie studios Sumner (center) with Shari (second from right) and Phyllis (far right) along with children believed to be Shari's kids and TomF Freston and Michael Stipe in 1993 Redstone was staying at The Copley Plaza with his mistress, Delsa Winer, when a fire tore through the building. He was 55 at the time. 'The fire shot up my legs. The pain was searing. I was being burned alive,' Redstone in his autobiography, describing surviving the 1979 fire at the Copley Plaza Hotel where he was spending the night with a mistress when flames engulfed his room He climbed out through the window and clung to the window ledge as flames burned his hand and opera crypto browser (cb.run) 45 percent of his body until he was rescued by fire fighters. 'The fire shot up my legs. The pain was searing. I was being burned alive,' he wrote in his autobiography. Redstone had to undergo five surgeries but nothing could correct the damage to one of his hands. He would later say that he felt lucky to be alive. In 1987, he went after Viacom, his biggest business play to date. He bought it was $3.4billion. Next, he bought Paramount in 1993 for $8.2billion. CBS was folded into Viacom in 1999 through a stock merger worth $37billion - the largest deal in media history at the time. He separated the pair in 2006 and put Les Moonves in charge of CBS. Shari brought the two companies back together with her coup over the last few years which resulted in the ViacomCBS merger, a $30billion deal. Redstone with Bill Clinton during Clinton's presidency in 1996. He remained friends with the Clintons for years and fundraised for their charity enthusiastically Wife number two: Redstone married New York City teacher Paula Fortunato in 2003. The pair were married were five years before he filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences, in 2008. They divorced in 1999. Under the terms of their prenuptial agreement, she got $5million - $1million for every year they were married Redstone receiving his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame i 2012 Sumner, at the time of his death, owned 80 percent of the company and Shari owns 20 percent. His shares will be divided now into two trust; one for his two children - Shari and Brent - and their kids, and one for his first wife, Phyllis. Phyllis remained married to him until 1999 - staying by his side throughout many affairs, including with Winer, who he was caught in the fire with. Three years after divorcing Phyllis, and at the age of 79, he married 40-year-old New York City public school teacher Paula Fortunata. They were married for five years before Redstone filed for divorce. The pair had a pre-nuptial agreement in place which awarded her $1million for every year they were married. It was during those years that Manuela Herzer, one of the ex-girlfriends he accused of stealing $150million from him, claims they cemented their relationship. In court documents, she said they were close friends and confidantes since 1999. Herzer worked in his home while he was in a relationship with Sydney Holland. Details of their complicated relationships became public in 2015, after he'd thrown both women out of his home. By then, his health had all but diminished and his family, namely Shari, feared for how the women were controlling him. In 2014, Redstone's health took a drastic turn for the worse when he was hospitalized with pneumonia. Redstone boasted famously that he'd never die. In an interview with Larry King (above) he said: ''The people who fear dying are people who are going to die. I'm not going to die.' In 2006, Redstone separated CBS from Viacom. He'd folded it into Viacom as part of a $37billion merger but when the Viacom stock price started stagnating, he took them apart again and put Les Moonves in charge of CBS. Moonves is shown with him in 2013. He was ousted from CBS during the #MeToo movement as allegations of sexual misconduct emerged. The two men are shown with Moonves' wife, Julie Chen, and Redstone's then-girlfriend, Sydney Holland. It was one of his final outings before his health took a drastic downturn Sumner Redstone in 2014 with the cast of Teenage Mutant Turtles, including Megan Fox, in 2014. He'd ingested food into his lungs and by the time he emerged from the hospital, could no longer speak. Manuela Herzer sued after being thrown out by Redstone. She claimed she'd been unfairly iced out by him and his family. A judge ordered her last year to repay $3million in gifts that he lavished on her Redstone had such difficulty speaking in the past several years that he has had to communicate with an iPad loaded with recordings from past interviews along with buttons for 'yes', 'no' and 'f*** you'. Shari wrote in emails to her relatives that the gilrfriends tried to keep her and other members of the family out of the home and that her father's nurses told her they filled his head with claims that his children and grandchildren didn't love him. 'I just called to tell him that I love him and that I would be there tomorrow and all he kept saying was, ‘Leave Sydney and Manuela alone,"' Shari wrote to her children, according to an email obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. 'He said it 100 times. He was not interested in the fact that I love him or that [her son] Tyler and I were coming out,' she went on. Shari and her son went to the home the next day but were asked to leave at Sydney's instruction. Joseph Octaviano, one of Sumner's nurses, later emailed Shari, saying: 'One time Manuela told your dad that none of his family loves him except them.' Sumner had given both Holland and Merzer tens of millions of dollars throughout their relationships. He begged Shari not to go after the women for it, asking her to give him 'peace of mind'. In 2015, his household staff and nurses filed a police report alleging that the two women had been emotionally and financially abusing him. It drew Shari into a fight to defend her ailing father, with whom she'd been at war with for decades. Disturbing details of how they abused him emerged in emails from the staff. They told of hearing him cry and scream when Sydney tried to stop him from seeing his grandchildren or great-grandchildren. Eventually, a judge sided with Shari. The two women now are not thought to have any claim to Redstone's private wealth - estimated to be some $3billion - or ViacomCBS shares.

Newly Found Online Security Flaw Stems From 1990s

2022-03-21T02:26:53Z

Lenora9000: Die Seite wurde neu angelegt: „Newly found online security flaw stems from 1990s By Afp Published: 22:57, 3 March 2015 | Updated: 22:57, 3 March 2015 e-mail…“

Newly found online security flaw stems from 1990s By Afp Published: 22:57, 3 March 2015 | Updated: 22:57, 3 March 2015 e-mail 6 shares A newly discovered Internet security flaw could leave many websites vulnerable to hackers because of weak US encryption standards in the 1990s, researchers said Tuesday. The flaw dubbed "FREAK" could leave thousands of websites open to attacks if the problem is not patched, according to papers released by French and US researchers. The flaw was discovered by a team led by Karthikeyan Bhargavan at INRIA in Paris -- the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation -- and disclosure coordinated by Matthew Green, a cryptographer at Johns Hopkins University. A newly discovered Internet security flaw could leave many websites vulnerable to hackers because of weak US encryption standards in the 1990s, researchers said Tuesday ©Thomas Samson (AFP/File) A research paper said the flaw comes from "a class of deliberately weak export cipher suites... introduced under the pressure of US government agencies to ensure that the NSA would be able to decrypt all foreign encrypted communication." Green said in a blog post that even some sites maintained by the National Security Agency and FBI appeared to be vulnerable. "Since the NSA was the organization that demanded export-grade crypto, it's only fitting that they should be the first site affected by this vulnerability," Green said. Green and other researchers said the flaw stems from US government-imposed standards for encryption in software that was exported -- a short-lived effort to allow the United States to be able to access software exported to unfriendly regimes. - Part of the software - Even after it became legal to export strong encryption, the export mode feature was not removed from because some software still depended on it, according to Ed Felten, a Princeton University computer science professor. "The flaw is significant in itself, but it is also a good example of what can go wrong when government asks to build weaknesses into security systems," said Felten in a blog post. "Many web sites are vulnerable to this attack, allowing an adversary in the network to spoof or spy on traffic to vulnerable sites." Felten said that the vulnerability on the NSA site is "not a big national security problem in itself because NSA doesn't distribute state secrets from its public site. But there is an important lesson here about the consequences of crypto policy decisions." Green said Facebook's site which operates the "like" button was identified as vulnerable but later patched. Green said the most of the flaws "will soon be patched" but that the flaw is important at a time when the NSA is seeking to maintain access to encrypted software and devices for national security reasons. "The moral of this story is pretty simple: Encryption backdoors will always turn around and bite you in the ass," he wrote.

The Untold Story Of American Female Codebreakers During WWII

2022-03-20T00:25:28Z

Lenora9000:

In 1941, the U.S. Navy began quietly recruiting male intelligence officers from elite colleges and universities around the country as it prepared for their inevitable involvement in World War II; they were specifically looking for codebreakers to aid in deciphering the enemy's cryptic language. Just months before on July 9, 1941, Alan Turing and his team of 8,000 female ciphers broke the impossible German Enigma code at Bletchley Park; a feat that turned the tide of war in the Allies favor. By 1942, male enlistment abroad created a shortage in manpower on the home front and President Roosevelt designated a new division in the Navy for women; they were known as WAVES or, Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. One of these volunteers was Judy Parsons, a 21-year-old graduate of Carnegie Mellon University who signed up for the officer training school in 1942. She was sent to the Navy's intelligence headquarters in Washington DC where she was shuffled into a room among other WAVES graduates. 'Does anyone know German?' they asked. Parsons had studied it for two years in high school and was immediately assigned to OP-20-G, a codebreaking division that became the US Navy's version of Bletchley Park. She is one of the 11,000 untold stories of American women responsible for some of the most impressive codebreaking triumphs of the war. Judy Parsons, 99, is a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother who worked as a codebreaker for the US Navy during World War II. She signed up for the officer training program after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University in 1942 and was sent to work in the 'OP-20-G' - a codebreaking division within the Navy's Office of Communications Judy Parsons is one of the many untold stories of women who worked in America's top secret decoding program during WWII. Their work was kept secret for almost 70 years. 'I never told my husband, I never told anybody,' said Parsons to CNN Decoders used a complicated machine known as a 'bombe' (above) to help decipher German Enigma-machine encrypted messages. The bombe was designed by British cryptologist, Alan Turing at Bletchley Park in 1939. Its function was to discover the daily key - wheel order, wheel settings and plugboard configuration of the Enigma coded messages Women in the OP-20-G were recruited from elite colleges and universities around the country. They were tested with weekly numbered problem sets and less than half passed the initial recruitment stages. Those who succeeded were sent to work in the Navy's cramped downtown Washington D.C. headquarters that had been converted from a former seminary campus Cryptographers, both male and female, were trained to decode German encrypted communications during World War II. Those selected for the clandestine work were adept at math, science and foreign languages The surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941 led to the United States' formal entry into World War II. Overnight, a sleeping nation was forced to wake up to the fact that it was woefully unprepared for war. The home front mobilized its human and material resources for the war- effort which created an unprecedented opportunity for women to enter the workforce outside the domestic sphere. Epitomized by Rosie the Riveter, many women rolled up their sleeves to work in factories that built bombs, ships, tanks, and aircraft. Far less known are the stories like Judy Parsons, who joined the WAVES after discovering that the Navy was accepting women for its officer training program in a newspaper ad. RELATED ARTICLES Previous 1 Next Son of RAF gunner whose bomber was shot down and vanished... WWII boat that sank off Kent carrying 1,400 tons of... Goya's American dream: How Spanish immigrants turned their... Sorting the mail and blazing a trail: Remembering the unsung... PICTURED: Wreckage of gunboat that JFK commanded under fire... Britain's wartime women of steel: Stories of the unsung WWII... Share this article Share 628 shares By 1945, 11,000 women were hired to work as codebreakers for the Army and Navy but their work was to be kept entirely secret for almost 70 years. 'We were told that we would be hung at the gallows,' said Parsons to 'I never told my husband, I never told anybody,' she said. It wasn't until the 1990s, when information became declassified that Parsons began discussing the work she did among friends and family. If asked what they did, they were told to tell people that they emptied trash cans and sharpened pencils. 'It was kind-of a blow to my pride not be able to talk about it because everybody assumed I was a secretary,' said Parsons. Others improvised a more cheeky response and said their job was to sit on the laps of commanding officers. 'I would love to have said, I had such a good job you wouldn't believe, but I couldn't say that,' lamented Parsons. They worked hard at dispelling the myth that women were gossipy rumormongers and bad at keeping secrets. 'The top bananas said that women couldn't keep a secret and we showed them that we could,' said Parsons. According to A photo of Judy Parsons after her graduation from Carnegie Mellon University in 1942. The following year, Parsons was one of thousands of women who joined the Navy's new WAVES division. She was placed in the clandestine codebreaking unit because she studied German for two years in high school Parson focused primarily on decoding messages sent to German U-boats. Overtime, she developed kindred feelings for the submarine captains that she tracked so intimately. 'We really felt kind-of unhappy when they were killed, because we felt like we knew them. One of the skippers discovered he was a father just one week before his submarine was sunk. (Above). 'I felt so bad about that, he'll never know his father,' said Parsons to CNN. 'It was an odd feeling to know that you had part of somebody's death' The Navy took possession of Mount Vernon Seminary, a girls' school in tony upper northwest Washington, adding hastily erected barracks to house 4,000 female code breakers by 1944. By the end of the war, there were 11,000 women who worked on Op-20-G If asked what they did, they were told to tell people that they emptied trash cans and sharpened pencils. 'It was kind-of a blow to my pride not be able to talk about it because everybody assumed I was a secretary,' said Parsons The WAVES decoded messages, translating documents and built libraries that kept track of shipping inventories, speeches, and important enemy names. Once a code was broken, it had to be exploited and re-broken daily as the German key was reset every 24 hours. Speed was always of the essence The WAVES were not expected to succeed either. Virginia Gildersleeve, Dean of Barnard College, recalled to the how some Naval officers believed that 'admitting women into the Navy would break up homes and amount to a step backward in civilization.' Until 1942, all cryptoanalytic work was done by men and before arriving at their new job posts in Washington, the recruits received welcome packets that read: 'Whether women can take it over successfully, remains to be proved.' Adding later, 'We believe you can do it.' A propaganda poster from WWII reminds servicemen and women to beware of unguarded talk. Military top brass believed that women were prone to gossip and couldn't be trusted with the clandestine nature of their work. Parsons' kept oath of silence for fifty years. 'The top bananas said that women couldn't keep a secret and we showed them that we could' They were dressed in exquisitely tailored uniforms designed by the American couturier, Mainbocher and housed into hastily modified barracks throughout Washington D.C. and Arlington, Virginia. Years later, some remarked that it was 'the most flattering piece of clothing they ever owned.' The WAVES got to work at the Navy's cramped, downtown intelligence headquarters that were converted from a former seminary campus on Nebraska Avenue. Within a year, 4,000 women worked in the U.S. codebreaking unit. 'There's a bit of a misnomer, in that Bletchley Park is often discussed as the primary center where German codes and ciphers were being broken down,' said Commander David Kohnen, a historian at the Naval War College to CNN. 'In fact, after 1943, most of that work was being done in Washington, DC, at Nebraska Avenue by WAVES like Judy.' Historians estimate that the invention of the Enigma decoding 'Bombe' machine and the painstaking work done at Bletchley Park in the UK, shortened the war by two to four years. Without the Bombe machine (a hulking 5,000 ton computer designed by Alan Turing) - the odds of breaking the diabolically difficult German Enigma code were impossible: 1,600 million billion to one. The Bombe was a boon for the Allies who were suffering under Hitler's unstoppable reach. It allowed them to access top-secret German intelligence that eventually resulted in an Allied victory. Much like Bletchley Park, the WAVES worked around the clock in three rotating shifts to decipher German intelligence. Aided by the Bombe, teams of women unraveled coded messages, translated documents and built libraries that kept track of shipping inventories, speeches, and important enemy names. All WAVES were issued exquisitely tailored uniforms designed by American couturier, Mainbocher (above, Judy Parsons showcases her jacket). Years later, some remarked that it was 'the most flattering piece of clothing they ever owned' 72 African-American women had undergone recruit training by July 1945. Those who stayed in the WAVES after the war were employed without discrimination, but only five remained by August 1946 A WAVE decoding unit poses for a picture while stationed at the Naval Communications Command Annex in Washington, D.C. 1945. If asked what they did, they were told to tell people that they emptied trash cans and sharpened pencils Once a code was broken, it had to be exploited and re-broken daily as the German key was reset every 24 hours. Speed was always of the essence. They also tested the security of America's own intelligence in what would be the precursor to what is now commonly known as 'information security.' In the grand plot to fool German forces on D-Day, they created fake radio signals that fooled Hitler into believing the Normandy invasion would take place further up the coastline in Calais or far away places like Norway. Parsons' unit focused primarily on decoding messages sent to the German U-boats that wreaked deadly havoc on the Allied forces at sea. Overtime, she developed kindred feelings for the submarine captains that she tracked so intimately. 'We really felt kind-of unhappy when they were killed, because we felt like we knew them. When somebody died in the family, they got a message, happy birthday type things.' One of the captains was expecting a baby. 'It wasn't a week later that the submarine was sunk and I felt so bad about that. He'll never know his father,' said Parsons to CNN. 'It was an odd feeling to know that you had part of somebody's death.' Intelligence acquired by the WAVES resulted in the entire fleet of German U-boats being sunk or captured by the end of the war - completely eliminating their ruthless control of Allied shipping channels. In some ways, women were thought to be better suited for codebreaking work; but that 'wasn't a compliment,' explained Liz Mundy, author of Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II. It merely meant they were considered better at undertaking the boring tasks that required tedious attention to detail. Women did the painstaking grunt work while the giant 'leaps of genius' were reserved for their male cohorts said Mundy. They 'came from a generation when women did not expect—or receive—credit for achievement in public life.' One team of women agreed that if anyone ordered a vodka Collins while out at a bar together - it would be a signal that someone was showing too much interest in their work and they were to scatter to the ladies room and flee the situation. Above, the former seminary campus in Washington DC that was converted during to serve as the Naval intelligence headquarters during the war. 'There's a bit of a misnomer, in that Bletchley Park is often discussed as the primary center where German codes and ciphers were being broken down,' said Commander David Kohnen, a historian at the Naval War College to CNN. 'In fact, after 1943, most of that work was being done in Washington, DC, at Nebraska Avenue by WAVES like Judy' Cryptographer Genevieve Feinstein received an exceptional civilian service award from Brigadier General Peabody in May 1946. Feinstein was a junior cryptologist with the signal intelligence service and participant in solving the complex Japanese cipher machine known as 'Purple' The Bombe machine stood seven feet tall and weighed around 5,000 pounds. Dozens were installed at the Nebraska Avenue complex in Washington D.C. to help with codebreaking. They ran 24 hours a day and were operated by the WAVES working in three shifts Above, Judy Parsons it seen in old footage from her years as a WAVE. She said after the war, 'The Navy thanked us profusely, sent us home and it was back to the kitchen' Men were considered to be more brilliant but impatient, volatile and a security risk when it came to women and liquor. According to Politico, when the Army began training young soldiers to work as radio intercept operators, a memo was sent out among top brass that read: 'youth is a time for sowing of wild oats and under the influence of women and liquor, much is said that the speaker would not dream of saying when uninfluenced.' However, the WAVES were subject to stricter sexual and social punishments than enlisted men. Lesbianism, abortion were not tolerated and pregnancy, even for married women, resulted in a discharge. American cryptoanalysts played a crucial role in shortening the war with Japan; an enemy that Mundy said 'was willing to fight to the death.' The WAVES intercepted 30,000 water-transport messages per month in 1944 and made sense of the jumbled numerical deluge by searching for patterns with a few 'golden guesses.' Breaking the Japanese codes allowed Allies to destroy every single supply ship that attempted to forge through the Pacific; crippling the Imperial Army's troops. After the war, the Army and Navy's clandestine communications operations merged to become what is now the National Security Agency The WAVES, like so many other women who partook in the home front effort were expected to give up their jobs, go home and start having families. 'The Navy thanked us profusely, sent us home and it was back to the kitchen,' said Parsons. New York Representative Clarence Hancock heralded the codebreaking forces as a great success in a rousing speech to the House on October 25, 1945. 'They are entitled to glory and national gratitude which they will never receive,' he said. 'I believe that our cryptographers ... in the war with Japan did as much to bring that war to a successful and early conclusion as any other group of men.' 'That more than half of those 'cryptographers' were women was nowhere mentioned,' Liz Mundy. Without the Bombe machine (above) the odds of cracking the German Enigma code were impossible: 1,600 million billion to one WAVES also tested the security of America's own codes and intelligence in what would be the precursor to what is now commonly known as 'information security.' In weeks before the D-Day landing in Normandy, the women were also charged with creating phony coded American messages to deceive the Germans about the site of the invasion New York Representative Clarence Hancock heralded the codebreaking forces as a great success in a rousing speech to the House on October 25, 1945. 'They are entitled to glory and national gratitude which they will never receive,' he said. 'I believe that our cryptographers ... in the war with Japan did as much to bring that war to a successful and early conclusion as any other group of men' data-track-module="am-external-links^external-links"> Read more: The little-known story of the Navy women codebreakers who helped Allied forces win WWII - CNN - The Washington Post The Secret History of the Female Code Breakers Who Helped Defeat the Nazis - POLITICO Magazine DM.later('bundle', function() DM.has('external-source-links', 'externalLinkTracker'); );

Sotheby apos;s Reveals Its Top 10 Priciest Lots Of 2015

2022-03-19T18:02:04Z

Lenora9000: Die Seite wurde neu angelegt: „Money may not be able to buy you happiness, but if you had several million pounds to spare you could have splashed out on Sotheby's most expensive auction lots…“

Money may not be able to buy you happiness, but if you had several million pounds to spare you could have splashed out on Sotheby's most expensive auction lots of the year. A Cy Twombly painting sold for a staggering £47million last month, while Picasso's La Gommeuse - with a hidden piece of art on the back - cost a buyer £46m just days earlier. The hammer went down on the ultimate 'sparkler' - a 12-carat blue diamond ring - at £33m in Geneva. It was bought by a Hong Kong billionaire for his seven-year-old daughter, and he renamed it The Blue Moon of Josephine. Here, auctioneers Sotheby's reveals its top 10 priciest lots of 2015. 1. Cy Twombly, Untitled (NYC) - £47million ($70,530,000) £47million: CY Twombly's Untitled (New York City) was Sotheby's highest selling lot in the whole of 2015 Cy Twombly's masterpiece became Sotheby's top selling lot when it sold for a mind-blowing £47million at a Contemporary Art Evening Auction in New York on November 11. The oil-based house paint and wax crayons on canvas is signed, and inscribed with NYC and dated 1968 on the back. It was produced by the artist as part of his acclaimed Blackboard series. The former army cryptographer painted six bands of repeated loopy lines on a gray background, which was sold by a prominent US collector to benefit a reform temple in Los Angeles. The American painter, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor's artwork sold for more than 10 times the amount it fetched when it last appeared at auction in 1990. 2. Pablo Picasso, La Gommeuse - £45million ($67,450,000) £45million: Pablo Picasso, La Gommeuse features a second portrait by the artist on the reverse of the canvas Pablo Picasso's La Gommeuse was sold by Sotheby's for £45m at sale in New York on November 5. The oil on canvas was painted in Paris in 1901 and is signed in the top left corner. What is unusual about La Gommeuse is that it features a second portrait by the artist on the reverse of the canvas, which was hidden for a century until 2001. The painting on the back was seen in public for the first time when the painting was sold this year. The artwork is the most important Blue Period Picasso - painted between 1901 and 1904 in shades of blue and blue-green - to come to the market in a generation. It came the highest valued Blue Period work ever sold at auction. 3. Vincent Van Gogh, L'Allée des Alyscamps - £44million ($66,330,000) £44million: L'Allée des Alyscamps sold for the highest price paid at auction for a Van Gogh since 1998 Vincent Van Gogh's famous L'Allée des Alyscamps sold at an auction in New York on May 5 for £44m. The oil on canvas - painted on November 1 1888 - broke the record for any landscape created by the famous artist. The selling price was the highest paid at auction for a Van Gogh since 1998, and sold for £8m in 2003. The Dutch painter is one of the most popular of the Post-Impressionist painters today, but was not widely appreciated while he was alive. He suffered from depression and in 1890 he died after shooting himself. 4. Claude Monet, Nymphéas - £36million ($54,010,000) £36million: Monet's Nymphéas, painted in 1905, was sold by Sotheby's at an auction in New York Claude Monet's Nymphéas sold at a sale in New York in May for £36million for well above the estimate. The signed oil on canvas was painted 1905, when he created what are considered to be his finest works. Monet was a French artist and a leading member of the Impressionist group of painters. Nymphéas are among the most iconic and celebrated Impressionist paintings - the subject of which was his famous lily pond in his garden in Giverny. 5. Vincent Van Gogh, Paysage sous un ciel mouvementé - £36million ($54,010,000) £36million: Van Gogh's Paysage sous un ciel mouvementé was sold by Sotheby's in New York in November Paysage sous un ciel mouvementé is another of Vincent Van Gogh's masterpieces in Sotheby's top 10 most expensive lots of 2015. The oil on canvas, painted in Arles in southern France in 1889, was sold on November 5 in New York for £36m. The painting depicts a lush green field under threat of a rainstorm, and was completed two months before the artist painted arguably his most celebrated work - The Starry Night. 6. Blue Moon - £33million - (48,634,000 Swiss Francs) £33million: A Hong Kong billionaire was the top bidder for the 12.03-carat Blue Moon diamond sold this year A Hong Kong billionaire was the top bidder for the 12.03-carat Blue Moon diamond sold in Geneva in November. Joseph Lau bought the diamond for his seven-year-old Josephine and promptly renamed it The Blue Moon of Josephine. The blue diamond, set in a ring, was said to be among the largest known fancy vivid blue diamonds and was the showpiece gem at the Sotheby's jewellery auction. The Blue Moon is named in reference to its rarity, playing off the expression 'once in a blue moon'. The polished blue gem was cut from a 29.6-carat diamond discovered last year in South Africa's Cullinan mine, which also yielded the 530-carat Star of Africa blue diamond that is part of the British crown jewels, and the Smithsonian Institution's Blue Heart discovered in 1908. The sale set a new auction record price-per-carat for any diamond or gemstone and also set a new auction record price for any jewel. 7. Andy Warhol, Mao - £32million ($47,514,000) £32million: Warhol's acrylic silkscreen of the late Chinese communist leader, sold in New York in November Andy Warhol's acrylic silkscreen of Mao Zedong, from the artist's first series of the late Chinese communist leader, sold for £32m in New York on November 19. In the past 19 years, only one such comparable Mao painting of this size from the same series has ever been offered at auction. Sotheby's said it was the highest price paid for a Warhol of the week of auctions at its showroom and that of arch rival Christie's. The artist is still one of the most influential figures in contemporary art and culture more than two decades after his death. 8. Mark Rothko, Untitled (Yellow and Blue) - £31 million (46,450,000) £31 million: Mark Rothko's 8-foot-tall oil on canvas painting sold at a Sotheby's auction in New York in May Mark Rothko's oil on canvas painting sold at a Sotheby's auction in New York in May for £31m. The 8-foot-tall abstract painting of large yellow and blue planes hung at the National Gallery in Washington for 10 years while it was owned by the late Rachel 'Bunny' Mellon. She acquired it directly from Rothko's estate shortly after his death in 1970. The heir to the Listerine fortune and widow of philanthropist Paul Mellon died in 2013. A wealth of her artwork, 43 post-war and contemporary paintings including pieces by Pablo Picasso and Rothko, were sold in 2014 for more than £107m. Rothko was an American Abstract Expressionist painter, born in Russia. 9. Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild - £30million £30million: The oil on canvas is one of the largest abstract paintings by artist Gerhard Richter The abstract work by German artist Gerhard Richter sold for more than £30 million in February - a record for a living artist in Europe. Standing at 9ft 10" by 8ft 2", Sotheby's auctioneers in London described Abstraktes Bild as 'one of the largest abstract paintings by the artist and certainly one of his most chromatically astounding'. The oil-on-canvas, featuring Richter's trademark 'squeegee-style', was bought by an anonymous bidder. Art experts said there was huge interest in the painting because it is not only one of Richter's biggest works, but it is also one of its favourites. Richter had personally asked that the painting go on extended loan to the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, during the 1990s. 10. Amedeo Modigliani, Paulette Jourdain - £29million ($42,810,000) £29million: This oil on canvas painted circa 1919 by Amedeo Modigliani sold for well above its estimate This painting by Amedeo Modigliani sold for £29m, well above its estimate, on the first day of Sotheby's fall art auction in November. The oil on canvas painted circa 1919, was owned by US mall developer A. Alfred Taubman, who served prison time in an auction house price-fixing scandal. It was among 500 works, which stretched from antiquity to contemporary art, and also included paintings by Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock. Taubman, a billionaire who founded the shopping mall business Taubman Centers Inc, died in April at the age of 91. In 1983, he bought Sotheby's and became its chairman. But in the early 2000s, Taubman was convicted and jailed for 10 months over an international price-fixing conspiracy with competing auction house Christie's. He left jail in 2003 still proclaiming his innocence.

Benutzer:Lenora9000

2022-03-18T15:43:39Z

Lenora9000: Die Seite wurde neu angelegt: „Hi, everybody! I'm Bengali male :). I {really }like Grey's Anatomy! Here is my blog [https://cb.run/9YeN cb.run]“

Hi, everybody! I'm Bengali male :). I {really }like Grey's Anatomy! Here is my blog [https://cb.run/9YeN cb.run]