The Screen of Time
CURRENT TOPICS: by Observer
THE recent theft of the famous Mona Lisa of Leonardo da Vinci from the Louvre, which is such a loss to the artistic world, has brought to light the fact that many other valuable works of art have been stolen from the Louvre and other public museums without any arrests following. One thief is reported as having admitted that he lately stole many small pieces of sculpture from the Phoenician gallery in the Louvre and sold them for trifling sums. He lately returned a statuette to the museum in return for a payment, and the authorities admitted that it was actually one from their collection. Three years ago there were forty sculptured heads in one of the cases; now there are about twenty! There seems to be no hope of regaining the Mona Lisa at present, but, just as the famous Duchess of Devonshire of Gainsborough was restored after many years upon the payment of heavy blackmail, it is possible that the robbers will take some favorable opportunity of realizing a large sum by the return of Leonardo's masterpiece.
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For the first time since the creation of the French Academy at Rome, a woman has been admitted as a student at the Villa Medici. Mlle. Lucienne Heuvelmans, the successful winner of the famous "Prix de Rome" for sculpture, had to compete against nine other contestants, but her remarkable ability compelled the judges to decide in her favor and to establish an entirely new precedent. Her subject was The Sister of Orestes Guarding her Brother's Sleep.
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The Norwegian Academy of Sciences has just recognized the claim of woman to admission to that body for the first time, by admitting Miss Kristine Bonnevin of Christiania, a doctor of philosophy and an eminent zoologist. She is Conservator of the Zoological laboratory of the Christiania University, and has produced several interesting scientific works in Norway, Germany, and the United States.
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