• Art

    Picasso Watch: Steve Wynn Accidentally Damages “Le Reve”

    October 17, 2006 /

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    PICASSO, Pablo (Espagne, 1881-1973)

    Las Vegas Review-Journal: NORM: Wynn accidentally damages Picasso

    Pablo Picasso’s “dream” painting has turned into a $139 million nightmare for Steve Wynn.

    In an accident witnessed by a group that included Barbara Walters and screenwriters Nora Ephron and Nicholas Pileggi, Wynn accidentally poked a hole in Picasso’s 74-year-old painting, “Le Reve,” French for “The Dream.”

    A day earlier, Wynn had finalized a record $139 million deal for the painting of Picasso’s mistress, Wynn told The New Yorker magazine

    The accident occurred as a gesturing Wynn, who suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease that affects peripheral vision, struck the painting with his right elbow, leaving a hole the size of a silver dollar in the left forearm of Marie-Theresa Walter, Picasso’s 21-year-old mistress.

    “Oh shit, look what I’ve done,” Wynn said, according to Ephron, who gave her account in a blog published on Monday.

    Wynn paid $48.4 million for the Picasso in 1997 and had agreed to sell it to art collector Steven Cohen. The $139 million would have been $4 million higher than the previous high for a work of art, according to The New Yorker.

    Cosmetics magnate Ronald Lauder paid $135 million in July for Gustav Klimt’s 1907 portrait “Adele Bloch-Bauer I.”

    Wynn plans to restore “Le Reve” and keep it.

    Sellers remorse or a genuine accident?

    Flap bets the former rather than the latter.

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  • United Nations

    United Nations Security Council Watch: Guatemala Leads Security Council Vote But Fails to Win Super Majority

    October 17, 2006 /

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    Members of the Guatemalan delegation including Guatemala’s Foreign Minister Gert Rosenthal, left, reacts to the results of the 13th round of votes to fill a seat on the Security Council which the anti-U.S. administration of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez wants badly while Washington backs Guatemala, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2006, at United Nations headquarters.

    AP: Guatemala leads Venezuela in U.N. vote

    Guatemala failed repeatedly to muster the necessary votes to beat out Venezuela for a Latin American seat on the U.N. Security Council, prompting diplomats on Tuesday to demand a compromise candidate.

    In the 16th round of voting in the 192-member General Assembly, Guatemala had gained 108 votes to Venezuela’s 76, results that differed little from previous rounds. That was short of the necessary 123 for a two-thirds majority to win a two-year stint on the U.N.’s most powerful body.

    The voting results led diplomats to call for an alternative — a step that would require the United Nations’ Latin American and Caribbean group of nations to agree on a new candidate. Guatemala and Venezuela would also have to give up their campaigns.

    Guatemala has contributed many peacekeeping troops to various United Nations missions and it is a damn shame that Hugo Chavez and his machinations are preventing Guatemala from obtaining this seat. Venezuela which has had membership previously on the UNSC should withdraw.

    However, if a withdrawl is not forthcoming any of the compromise countries: Uruguay, Costa Rica, Mexico or the Dominican Republic should be expeditiously chosen.

    In any event, President Bush will be blamed for the impasse.

    Stay tuned………

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  • North Korea

    North Korea Watch: United Nations Sanctions are a Declaration of WAR

    October 17, 2006 /

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    A North Korean soldier stands guard by the bank of the Yalu River near the town of Sinuiju, October 17, 2006. North Korea denounced U.N. sanctions on Tuesday as a declaration of war, while across the border in Seoul an official said there were signs the reclusive Communist state may be preparing for a second nuclear test.

    AP: NKorea: Sanctions are declaration of war

    North Korea on Tuesday blasted U.N. sanctions aimed at punishing the country for its nuclear test, saying the measures amount to a declaration of war and that the nation wouldn’t cave in to such pressure now that it’s a nuclear weapons power.

    The bellicose remarks — the central government’s first response to the U.N. measures imposed last weekend — came as China warned the North against stoking tensions and the American nuclear envoy arrived in South Korea for talks.

    The North broke two days of silence about the U.N. resolution adopted after its Oct. 9 nuclear test, issuing a Foreign Ministry statement on its official Korean Central News Agency.

    “The resolution cannot be construed otherwise than a declaration of a war” against the North, also known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

    The North warned it “wants peace but is not afraid of war” and that it would “deal merciless blows” against anyone who violates its sovereignty.

    The communist nation “had remained unfazed in any storm and stress in the past when it had no nuclear weapons,” the statement said. “It is quite nonsensical to expect the DPRK to yield to the pressure and threat of someone at this time when it has become a nuclear weapons state.”

    If North Korea and Kim Jong-Il wishes WAR then there will be little the United States, South Korea or the United Nations can do. American soldiers and alot of innocent South and North Koreans will die.

    But, make no mistake the United States would defeat North Korea’s military within 60 days of the launch of the campaign. A declaration of war by North Korea against the United States would unleash massive fire power from the United States military arsenal.
    And North Korea is preparing a second or a second series of nuclear tests.

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    The Natural Resources Defense Council on October 13, 2006, released this satellite image of North Korea’s suspected nuclear bomb test site taken by GeoEye’s Orbview-3 satellite two days before the October 9, 2006 test.

    This is unbelievable but understandable since their first test was more fizzle than POP.

    Reuters: U.S. detects activity at North Korea test site: media

    U.S. spy satellites have detected suspicious vehicle and people activity near the site of
    North Korea’s nuclear test that may signal preparations for another test, U.S. television networks reported on Monday.

    U.S. officials said they could not be certain of what the North Koreans were doing in the area, but the activity there could be preparations for a second nuclear blast, NBC and ABC said.

    In Seoul, a South Korean government official told Reuters on Tuesday: “The government is aware of signs related to North Korea’s possible second nuclear test. We cannot exclude the possibility of a second test.”

    But he added there was no firm information on a possible new test.

    U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on the eve of a trip to the region to try to stiffen the resolve behind U.N. sanctions on North Korea, said she hoped Pyongyang would not conduct a second nuclear test.

    Stay tuned……..

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    North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (C) inspects the Korean People’s Army unit 851 at an unidentified location in North Korea in this undated file photo released August 30, 2006. North Korea said on October 9, 2006 it had safely and successfully carried out an underground nuclear test, flying in the face of a warning from the U.N. Security Council.

    Previous:

    Michael Ramirez on North Korean Appeasement

    North Korea Watch: United States – A Return to 6-Party Talks is Insufficient

    North Korea Watch: North Korea Wants 6-Party Talks to Continue

    North Korea Watch: United Nations Imposes Arms Sanctions on North Korea

    Michael Ramirez on China and North Korea

    North Korea Watch: China and Russia Oppose United Nations Sanctions on Korea

    North Korea Watch: New Poll – South Koreans Want Nuclear Weapons

    North Korea Watch: China Reluctant to Support United Nations Sanctions

    North Korea Nuclear Watch: North Korea Threatens War Against the United States

    Michael Ramirez on Nuclear North Korea

    North Korea Nuclear Watch: McCain vs. Clinton

    North Korea Nuclear Watch: Kick North Korea Out of the United Nations?

    North Korea Nuclear Watch: United States Proposes United Nations Sanctions Against North Korea

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