Word: frenchness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...noticed that the painting was missing assumed it had been removed to be photographed.) Once museum officials realized the truth, the Louvre was shut down. Police arrived to question the staff, re-enact the crime and dust for fingerprints, a new crime-fighting technique in those days. The French border was sealed and departing ships and trains searched. By the time the museum re-opened nine days later, the theft was front-page news around the world. Tips were pouring in from amateur detectives, nutty professors and clairvoyants. Thousands of people lined up at the Louvre just...
...thief turned out to be a bisexual con man named Honoré Joseph Géry Pieret. He had once served as "secretary," and perhaps other roles, for Guillaume Apollinaire, the poet and art-world polemicist who was Picasso's constant supporter in the public skirmishes over modern art in the French press. Before long, Pieret had implicated Apollinaire in the thefts. When police arrested Apollinaire, he admitted under pressure that Pieret had sold the pilfered works to none other than Picasso. Thinking they had found their way into a crime ring that might be behind the Mona Lisa case, the cops...
...whole episode proved embarrassing for France. Peruggia had escaped the dragnet of French police, despite the fact that he had once worked at the Louvre, knew the exits and escape routes and had even helped build the glass-enclosed frame Mona Lisa was displayed in - so on the fateful morning he knew how to get her out of it quickly. Then he spirited her back to his shabby apartment and flung her like Patty Hearst into a dark closet, which is where she remained for more than two years...
...fighting - so government troops can get the remaining civilians out of the war zone. The Sri Lankan president met with high-ranking officials from India, just after its government condemned the killing of Tamil civilians. The U.S. has also expressed concern over the dangers faced by civilians, and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is expected to visit the country in the coming days. The Tigers have indicated their willingness to agree to a truce but, according to U.N. officials, are still preventing civilians from leaving...
Just before the latest Cirque du Soleil traveling show begins in its striped tent on Randall's Island, New York City, an announcer warns that the production contains flashing lights, "which may cause difficulty for people with photosynthesis epilepsy." Very considerate, these French Canadians. But given that this audience has more than its share of hip, jaded Manhattanites, the management might also offer an advisory that Kooza features something far more hazardous to an urban sophisticate's enjoyment: mimes and clowns...