SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― A federal appeals court on Monday resurrected a Jewish family’s long legal battle to regain ownership of a $20 million masterpiece painting seized in Nazi Germany during World War II.In doing so, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also reinstated a California law allowing lawsuits over art ownership disputes dating back as far as 100 years. The decision reversed a lower court ruling that invalidated the law saying it infringed on the U.S. government’s exclusive authority

ANKARA (AFP) ― Turkish police have launched an investigation after the theft of stolen paintings and artifacts worth an estimated $30 million, local media reported on Monday. Police are hunting for about 40 paintings stolen from a state museum in Ankara after recovering another 30 major artworks in a raid in Istanbul last week. Press reports said many of the artworks were believed to have been sold to art collectors, including a number of prominent figures.Officials at the culture ministry and t

PARIS (AFP) ― Gerard Depardieu will return to the stage for the first time in a decade in “Love Letters,” a play favoured by busy stars with no time to learn their lines.Elizabeth Taylor, Mel Gibson, Kathleen Turner, Sigourney Weaver and Christopher Walken are among the big names who have previously taken on the roles of characters Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner.The play by American playwright A. R. Gurney explores the couple’s decades-long relationship through their letters to ea

PARIS (AFP) ― Television series, once considered too low-brow to be worthy of academic study, have become a mainstay of university curricula and frequent fodder for critical analysis.Academics delve into TV series not only for their artistic merit but also for their sociological or historic value, often comparing them to literary standards such as Shakespeare or Dickens.“Intellectuals scorned TV series for around 40 years,” said French writer and philosopher Tristan Garcia. “And suddenly, with q