Word: courtelis
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...true. Four years earlier, he had bought from Pieret two of the pilfered sculptures, Roman-era Iberian heads whose thick features and wide eyes he would introduce into the great painting he was then just about to embark upon, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Though he would deny it in court, he almost certainly knew at the time that both heads were lifted from the Louvre. He may even have pushed Pieret to take them in the first place. But prosecutors couldn't build a case that either Picasso or Apollinaire had stolen the heads, much less the Mona Lisa...
...exact revenge for Napoleon's massive theft of artworks all across Europe. One problem: Mona Lisa had never been part of the Napoleonic plunder. Though Leonardo had begun the painting in Florence in 1503, he took it with him to France 13 years later when he resettled at the court of the French king François I. After his death there in 1519, the painting passed through several hands until an eager François bought it for the modern equivalent of around $10 million...
...Fiji Trouble in Paradise A day after Fiji's court of appeal declared the regime of military chief Frank Bainimarama unlawful, his ally, President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, abolished the constitution, sacked Fiji's judges and reinstated Bainimarama as Prime Minister. Bainimarama, who seized power in a 2006 coup, wants to reform a political system he calls racist and corrupt. Critics, however, call him a dictator. Fiji's central bank has devalued its currency 20% to boost exports and tourism amid the turmoil...
...woman concept of matrimony. He sent a letter last fall to Thomas Monson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, praising Mormon support for Prop 8, the ballot-initiative in California that made gay marriage unconstitutional. That state's Supreme Court is expected to rule on the validity of the amendment soon...
...defenders say there's nothing radical about him. Koh supports voluntary U.S. participation in bodies like the International Criminal Court and has argued that international human-rights standards should influence U.S. law. His conservative supporters argue he also believes in strengthening Congress's role in treaty approval and in greater congressional say over foreign and national security policy. They say it's fine to attack a nominee for the Supreme Court, but when it comes to the Executive Branch, true conservatives give the President his pick of legal advisers. "Especially," says Starr, "in the quintessentially presidential duty of fashioning...