Posted on 01/16/2020 11:21:39 PM PST by mairdie
They discovered Picasso's 'Head of a Young Woman', a 1906 painting valued at £22million, stowed away on the vessel by the ship's captain.
Prosecutors argued Botin had been attempting to sell it abroad, in breach of rules over paintings of cultural significance to Spain. But Botin denied the charges and claimed he was simply taking it to Switzerland for safe-keeping.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Ah yes, the quickest route to Switzerland is the sea route! Any school boy knows that...
Did he own it or did the government?
If he owns it then he should be free to sell it, or burn it, if he wants to.
IIRC, Picasso didn’t take himself too seriously.
Now over a 100 years later we see craziness like this.
Meanwhile, Europe happily imports the Islamic assassins of Western Culture.
GTH, Europe. You’re weak, devoid of character, and effectively worthless.
Pretty weird. You can’t sell a painting abroad? Wouldn’t that be good for Spain’s balance of payments? The payment is only like 100 years old.
I'm guessing that it's similar to our National Register of Historic Places. You might be the owner of a culturally significant property, but the government has seen fit to restrict some of what you can do with it based on a perceived importance of preserving it.
I have mixed feelings on the matter. Generally, I'm a strong believer in private property rights, but I think there is value in having the means in place to prevent say, the Mount Vernon's Ladies Association from selling the property to Chinese investors who were looking to develop high rise apartments on the grounds.
(Sigh. The Daily Mail needs to get rid of its demand that I drop my ad blocker...)
With historic sites in the US, people give up rights when they take government money to maintain them. If someone hasn’t taken the money, let them do as they will. The further this country strays from its history, the less significant many of those sites would be.
And yet, the argument could be made that preservation of those sites may keep us from straying as far as we otherwise might. Preserving our history keeps us in touch with it.
I've heard Mark Levin, for example, frequently recount the inspiration and sense of awe and reverence he felt as a child in Eastern PA visiting Independence Hall. Would he be the same conservative voice had he not experienced that in his youth? I don't know, but I'm guessing it wouldn't be quite the same.
Then have the government own them (instead of taking massive swaths of land out west); I understand their significance, but that in and of itself should stop private owners from obtaining them.
As urban areas fall apart, local groups try to prevent the demolition and sale of old sites because it will expose the cultural vacuum/decay; if the owners never took a penny, and it has only local importance to a select group, let them buy it or shut up. This is a real issue in an area settled by the Dutch 300+ years ago (northeastern NJ).
I use ghostary and have no such problem
I have mixed feelings on the matter. I think your solution would be well suited for Europe where there is an historical pattern of states plundering national treasures from one another, either by force or more insidious, covert means. I would like the owner of this Picasso to be able sell it should he choose to do so, even to a foreigner, but could also understand Spain's interest in a proviso that keeps it inside of Spain.
I think a private-public partnership would be better suited for the USA in such matters, at least with regards to locations. This could be with local, state or federal government depending on the level of interest and importance of the site. I do like there being some private control which keeps the tour guides, local management, etc. as people with a vested interest in preservation of the site, rather than some bureaucrat who sees the opportunity to push an agenda.
A billionaire art collector has been fined £44million and sentenced to 18 months in prison for trying to smuggle a Picasso out of Spain on his yacht.
Jaime Botin, 83, the great grandson of the founder of Spain's largest bank Santander, was rumbled by French customs when his yacht arrived on the island of Corsica in 2015.
They discovered Picasso's ‘Head of a Young Woman’, a 1906 painting valued at £22million, stowed away on the vessel by the ship's captain.
Prosecutors argued Botin had been attempting to sell it abroad, in breach of rules over paintings of cultural significance to Spain. But Botin denied the charges and claimed he was simply taking it to Switzerland for safe-keeping.
Despite this, the court said, Botin took the painting to the Mediterranean port city of Valencia and ordered the captain of his yacht to ‘hide it from authorities’.
The painting resurfaced in 2015 when French customs, working in tandem with Spanish authorities, discovered it in the yacht captain's cabin during a stopover in Corsica.
The verdict, which can be appealed, also transferred ownership of the painting to the Spanish state.
The fine is twice the "value" of the painting?
Looks like Euro authorities take their government by fascism seriously.
Spain doesn’t own the painting. It isn’t hundreds of years old.
Meanwhile international corporations are permitted to extend the US’s copyright laws and own our cultural heritage of the 20th century that should’ve expired into the public domain.
Supposedly Picasso would write $3 checks etc for groceries knowing that the receivers wouldn’t cash them (keeping the autograph instead).
>>Meanwhile international corporations are permitted to extend the US’s copyright laws and own our cultural heritage of the 20th century that should’ve expired into the public domain
Oh, you hit to my heart with that one!
The verdict, which can be appealed, also transferred ownership of the painting to the Spanish state.
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