Norman Rockwell Painting Lazybones Art Theft Anniversary: Lost No More

Summary: The 41st anniversary of the Norman Rockwell painting Lazybones art theft June 30, 1976, is the happiest of all because of the cover art's recovery.

Lost no more: Lazybones, 1919 oil on canvas by Norman Rockwell, is also known as Boy Asleep With a Hoe or as Taking a Break: Public Domain, via FBI Art Theft

The Norman Rockwell painting Lazybones art theft June 30, 1976, affirmed a happy ending three-plus months before its 41st anniversary, through press releases and public ceremonies March 29-31, 2017, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The 25-inch (63.5-centimeter) by 28.5-inch (72.4-centimeter) oil on canvas, signed on the mid-left side, bears the alternate titles Boy Asleep with Hoe and Taking a Break. The painting behind The Saturday Evening Post's magazine cover Sept. 6, 1919, contains one hole near the signature from an accidental puncture with a pool cue. The puncture drove an unexpected change in ownership in 1954 and, subsequent to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) publicity around the theft's 40th anniversary, in possession.

Nobody expects civil or criminal proceedings in the wake of the missing painting's quiet recovery and public return to its current legal owner, Susan Grant Murta.

A radio interview by Louis Lappen, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, is credited with triggering recovery of Norman Rockwell's Lazybones: Public Domain, via U.S. Department of Justice

Special Agents Jake Archer, Timothy Carpenter and Michael Harpster and retired Special Agent Robert Bazin furnished sparse details on the recovery from a Philadelphia-area antiques dealer.

Louis D. Lappen, acting U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia, gave a radio interview during the 40th Norman Rockwell painting Lazybones art theft anniversary year as triggering recovery. Reconstructed timelines have the dealer a good-faith buyer for a few hundred dollars after the burglary in the Fox Hollow section of Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Attorney Lappen identified the 40-year, kitchen whereabouts of the eighth of 11 Rockwell covers for The Saturday Evening Post in 1919 since "His wife liked Rockwell."

The sale jumpstarted ultimate recovery of the Norman Rockwell (Feb. 3, 1894-Nov. 8, 1978) painting, not of a Sony Trinitron color television and silver coin collection.

Norman Rockwell's Lazybones (1919) is lost no more: FBI Philadelphia @FBIPhiladelphia via Twitter March 31, 2017

Cherry Hill Police Department, Chubb Limited and FBI Philadelphia records keep company with Grant family reports of the break-in during an excursion to Ocean City, Maryland. Alarm-activated entry and a Chubb Limited insurance policy respectively led to a futile look by Cherry Hill policemen and to Robert and Teresa Grant's $15,000 claim.

Daughter Susan Grant Murta mentioned that "The painting was in every house we ever lived in" until the break-in through the Harrowgate Drive residence's basement window. She noted that "We're happy just to see it again" since "My father loved that painting. He was devastated. He always thought we'd get it back."

Transfer in title from Chubb back to Grant family heirs occurred through return of the Norman Rockwell painting Lazybones art theft casualty and of the payout.

Robert Grant acquired Lazybones in 1954 for $75 from the painting's previous owners, who often hosted pool games with William "Willie" Mosconi: Willie Mosconi (center) between two images of billiards player Edward "Chick" Davis in 2006 mural by John Lewis, assisted by Warren Rice; 1412 South Street, Southwest Center City neighborhood, South Philadelphia; June 30, 2013: Jason Murphy (jasonmurphyphotography), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Special Agent Bazin priced the Grant purchase at $75.00 from the painting's previous owners, Haddonfield acquaintances of pool player William Mosconi (June 27, 1913-Sept. 17, 1993).

Fran O'Brien, Chubb Group Senior Vice President and North America Personal Risk Services Division President, quantified the painting's current estimated value at $600,000 to $1 million. The exchange of the Chubb-held painting for the Grant payout resulted in a $15,000 donation to Robert Arthur Morton Stern-designed Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Laurie Norton Moffatt, CEO and Director of the world-largest original Rockwell art collection, stated, "We so greatly appreciate the generous donation to the Museum by Chubb."

Basement window holes took the Norman Rockwell painting Lazybones art theft casualty away from its owners, but the painting's hole took it back 41 years later.

The Norman Rockwell Museum benefits from Lazybones' return by receipt of Chubb's $15,000 donation; Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Berkshire County, western Massachusetts; Aug. 27, 2005: Rmrfstar, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Lost no more: Lazybones, 1919 oil on canvas by Norman Rockwell, is also known as Boy Asleep With a Hoe or as Taking a Break: Public Domain, via FBI Art Theft @ https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/philadelphia/news/press-releases/fbi-seeks-missing-norman-rockwell-painting-stolen-40-years-ago-today

Louis Lappen, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania: Public Domain, via U.S. Department of Justice @ https://www.justice.gov/usao-edpa/meet-us-attorney

Norman Rockwell's Lazybones (1919) is lost no more: FBI Philadelphia @FBIPhiladelphia via Twitter March 31, 2017, @ https://twitter.com/FBIPhiladelphia/status/847883880820494336

Robert Grant acquired Lazybones in 1954 for $75 from the painting's previous owners, who often hosted pool games with William "Willie" Mosconi: Willie Mosconi (center) between two images of billiards player Edward "Chick" Davis in 2006 mural by John Lewis, assisted by Warren Rice; 1412 South Street, Southwest Center City neighborhood, South Philadelphia; June 30, 2013: Jason Murphy (jasonmurphyphotography), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonmurphyphotography/9177690998/

The Norman Rockwell Museum benefits from Lazybones' return by receipt of $15,000 donation; Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Berkshire County, western Massachusetts; Aug. 27, 2005: Rmrfstar, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rockwell_museum.jpg

For further information:

Adamowski, Carrie. "FBI Seeks Missing Norman Rockwell Painting Stolen 40 Years Ago Today." FBI > News > FBI Philadelphia. June 30, 2016.
Available @ https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/philadelphia/news/press-releases/fbi-seeks-missing-norman-rockwell-painting-stolen-40-years-ago-today

Adamowski, Carrie. "Forty Years After Theft, Stolen Norman Rockwell Painting Recovered and Returned to Owners." FBI > Field Offices > Philadelphia > News. March 31, 2107.
Available @ https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/philadelphia/news/press-releases/forty-years-after-theft-stolen-norman-rockwell-painting-recovered-and-returned-to-owners

FBI Philadelphia @FBIPhiladelphia. ".@FBIPhiladelphia art crime agents stand w/N. Rockwell painting recovered 40 yrs after it was stolen from S. Jersey home." Twitter. March 31, 2017.
Available @ https://twitter.com/FBIPhiladelphia/status/847883880820494336

Johanson, Kristen. 30 March 2017. "Famous Stolen Rockwell Painting Located Thanks to Accidental Puncture." CBS Broadcasting Inc > CBS Local > CBS Philly > News.
Available @ http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2017/03/30/famous-stolen-rockwell-painting-located-thanks-to-accidental-puncture/

O'Reilly, David; and Shaw, Julie. 1 July 2016. "40-Year-Old Theft Vexes FBI: $1M Rockwell Gone from Cherry Hill." Philadelphia Media Networks (Digital) LLC > Philly.com > The Inquirer Daily News > News > New Jersey.
Available @ http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20160701_40_years_on__feds__police_seek_help_finding_stolen_Norman_Rockwell_painting.html

"Report: FBI Recovers Norman Rockwell Painting Taken in 1976." WRCB-TV > News > March 30, 2017.
Available @ https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/philadelphia/news/press-releases/fbi-seeks-missing-norman-rockwell-painting-stolen-40-years-ago-today

Riordan, Kevin. 24 November 2013. "Still a Hole Where Stolen Rockwell Used To Be." Philadelphia Media Networks (Digital) LLC > Philly.com > The Inquirer Daily News > News > Columnists.
Available @ http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/20131124_Years_later__stolen_Rockwell_painting_still_sought.html

Riordan, Kevin. 29 March 2017. "$1M Rockwell, Stolen from Cherry Hill in '70s, to be Reunited with Owners." Philadelphia Media Network (Digital) LLC > Philly.com > The Inquirer Daily News > News > Kevin Riordan.
Available @ http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/kevin_riordan/1M-Rockwell-stolen-from-Cherry-Hill-in-70s-is-recovered.html

Taylor, Laurie. 31 March 2017. "Chubb Returns Stolen Norman Rockwell Painting 40 Years After Theft." Chubb > News Releases.
Available @ http://news.na.chubb.com/2017-03-31-Chubb-Returns-Stolen-Norman-Rockwell-Painting-40-Years-After-Theft

Thomas, Lauren. 31 March 2017. "Norman Rockwell Painting Returns Home, 40 Years After Theft." CNBC > Home US > News > Life.
Available @ http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/31/norman-rockwell-painting-returns-home-40-years-after-theft.html

Walsh, Jim. 31 March 2017. "FBI Returns Painting Stolen 40 Years Ago in Cherry Hill." Courier-Post > South Jersey.
Available @ http://www.courierpostonline.com/story/news/local/south-jersey/2017/03/31/fbi-returns-painting-stolen-40-years-ago-cherry-hill/99862036/

12 Days After June Solstice Earth Reaches 2017 Aphelion Monday, July 3

Summary: Earth reaches 2017 aphelion Monday, July 3, at 20:11 Coordinated Universal Time, 12 days after the June solstice.

Earth’s elliptical orbit around the sun accounts for points of least and greatest center-to-center distances between the two celestial bodies; mean values for the orbit’s two extremes are 152,000,000+ kilometers for aphelion and 147,000,000+ kilometers for perihelion: Gothika (vector image from Horst Frank/German Wikipedia drawing), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Earth reaches 2017 aphelion Monday, July 3, at 20:11 Coordinated Universal Time (4:11 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time), 12 days after the June solstice.

The mid-year solstice that opens astronomical summer in the Northern Hemisphere and astronomical winter in the Southern Hemisphere takes place Wednesday, June 21, at 4:24 a.m., according to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the world’s official time standard. The world’s local time zones either place the astronomical event one day earlier, on Tuesday, June 20, or coincide with the UTC date but may differ in the time at which the solstice occurs.

The attainments of aphelion, which is the farthest center-to-center distance between Earth and sun, and of perihelion, the closest center-to-center distance between the two celestial bodies, usually occur within about two weeks of the year’s two solstices. Aphelion is reached after the June solstice. Perihelion is attained after the December solstice.

Earth does not experience a consistent center-to-center distance from the sun because the Earthly orbit is not circular. Earth’s orbit is somewhat elliptical because of disturbances, known as perturbations, from outside forces or influences. For example, Earth’s moon acts as a perturbing influence on Earth’s orbit around the sun. An elliptical orbit displays two extreme points, termed apsis in the singular and apsides in the plural. Apsides (Ancient Greek ἁψίς, hapsís, “arch, vault”) for a celestial body’s orbit around the sun are identified as aphelion (Ancient Greek: ἀπό, apó, “from” + ἥλιος, hḗlios, “sun”) and perihelion (Ancient Greek: περί, perí, “near” + ἥλιος, hḗlios, “sun”).

Deviations, known as eccentricities, in Earth’s orbit account for annual variations in aphelic and perihelic distances. Retired NASA astrophysicist Fred Espenak notes that the current mean eccentricity of Earth’s orbit is 0.0167. An eccentricity of zero represents a circular orbit while numbers higher than zero denote somewhat elliptical orbits.

Astronomers express distances between Earth and sun in astronomical units (AU). An astronomical unit equates to the mean distance between Earth and sun. In 2012, the International Astronomical Union valued 1 AU at 149,597,870,700 meters, which equals 149,597,870.70 kilometers (roughly 92,955,807 miles). Espenak lists mean values of 1.0167103 AU (152,097,701 kilometers) at aphelion and of 0.9832899 AU (147,098,074 kilometers) at perihelion.

Earth’s 2017 aphelion marks a center-to-center distance of 1.0166756 AU (roughly 152,092,511 kilometers). Norway-based Time And Date website expresses the distance as 94,505,901 miles.

Espenak’s table of closest (perihelion) and farthest (aphelion) distances for the 21st century notes that the 2017 aphelion of 1.0166756 AU (152,092,504.953 kilometers) is 5,190 kilometers less than the mean aphelion of 1.0167103 AU (152,097,701 kilometers).

The 21st century, which spans Jan. 1, 2001, through Dec. 31, 2100, exhibits minimum and maximum extremes in aphelion. Minimum aphelion represents the lowest value. Maximum aphelion represents the highest value.

The 21st century’s minimum aphelion happens Wednesday, July 4, 2085, at 21:34 UTC (5:34 p.m. EDT). Minimum aphelion marks a distance of 1.0166125 AU (roughly 152,083,067 kilometers). Minimum aphelion of 1.0166125 AU (roughly 152,083,067 kilometers) is 14,634 kilometers less than the mean aphelion of 1.0167103 AU (152,097,701 kilometers).

The 21st century’s maximum aphelion occurs Thursday, July 4, 2019, at 22:11 UTC (6:11 p.m. EDT). Maximum aphelion logs a distance of 1.0167543 AU (roughly 152,104,291 kilometers). Maximum aphelion of 1.0167543 AU (roughly 152,104,291 kilometers) exceeds the mean aphelion of 1.0167103 AU (152,097,701 kilometers) by 6,590 kilometers.

Espenak identifies a difference of 0.0001419 AU (21,225 kilometers) in the range between the 21st century’s maximum aphelion and minimum aphelion.

Aphelion and perihelion are not responsible for Earth’s seasons. The tilt of Earth’s rotational axis accounts for Earthly seasons. Aphelion and perihelion influence the length of Earth’s seasons. Earth moves faster around perihelion (30,300 meters per second), effecting a shorter season, and slower around aphelion (29,300 meters per second), encouraging a longer season.

The takeaway for Earth’s reach of 2017 aphelion Monday, July 3, is the currently predictable occurrence of the annual milestone within two weeks of the year’s June solstice.

Earth view at instant of aphelion, July 3, 2017, at 20:11 UTC (4:11 p.m. EDT), 152,092,511 kilometers above 23 degrees 26 minutes north latitude, 0 degrees west longitude (Tropic of Cancer): John Walker/Earth and Moon Viewer, Public Domain, via Fourmilab Switzerland

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Earth’s elliptical orbit around the sun accounts for points of least and greatest center-to-center distances between the two celestial bodies; mean values for the orbit’s two extremes are 152,000,000+ kilometers for aphelion and 147,000,000+ kilometers for perihelion: Gothika (vector image from Horst Frank/German Wikipedia drawing), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seasons1.svg

Earth view at instant of aphelion, July 3, 2017, at 20:11 UTC (4:11 p.m. EDT), 152,092,511 kilometers above 23 degrees 26 minutes north latitude, 0 degrees west longitude (Tropic of Cancer): John Walker/Earth and Moon Viewer, Public Domain, via Fourmilab Switzerland @ https://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Earth

For further information:

“11 Things About the June Solstice.” Time And Date > Sun & Moon.
Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/facts-about-june-solstice.html

Espenak, Fred. “Earth at Perihelion and Aphelion: 2001 to 2100 Greenwich Mean Time.” AstroPixels > Ephemeris.
Available @ http://www.astropixels.com/ephemeris/perap2001.html

Graham, Steve. “Milutin Milankovitch (1879-1958): Orbital Variations.” NASA Earth Observatory > Features. March 24, 2000.
Available @ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Milankovitch/milankovitch_2.php

“June Solstice: Longest and Shortest Day of the Year.” Time And Date > Sun & Moon.
Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/june-solstice.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “2016 June Solstice Signals Summer Start But Also Begins Summer End.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 15, 2016.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/06/2016-june-solstice-signals-summer-start.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “2017 June Solstice Happens Tuesday, June 20, or Wednesday, June 21.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 21, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/06/2017-june-solstice-happens-tuesday-june.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Full Strawberry Blue Moon Seasonally Welcomes 2016 June Solstice.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 8, 2016.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/06/full-strawberry-blue-moon-seasonally.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Martian New Year and Summer Solstice 2015: Happy New Year From Mars.” Earth and Space News. Saturday, June 20, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/06/martian-new-year-and-summer-solstice.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Northern Hemisphere 2017 Summer Solstice Happens Wednesday, June 21.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 14, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/06/northern-hemisphere-2017-summer.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Two Weeks After 2016 June Solstice Earth Reaches 2016 Aphelion.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 29, 2016.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/06/two-weeks-after-2016-june-solstice.html

McClure, Bruce. “Earth Closest to Sun on January 4.” EarthSky > Tonight. Jan. 4, 2017.
Available @ http://earthsky.org/?p=24846

“Perihelion, Aphelion and the Solstices.” Time And Date > Sun & Moon.
Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/perihelion-aphelion-solstice.html

Scharringhausen, Britt. "How Fast Does the Earth Go at Perihelion and Aphelion." Cornell University Astronomy Department's Ask an Astronomer > Our Solar System > The Earth. Last updated July 18, 2015.
Available @ http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/41-our-solar-system/the-earth/orbit/85-how-fast-does-the-earth-go-at-perihelion-and-aphelion-intermediate

“What Causes Seasons on Earth?” Time And Date > Sun & Moon.
Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/seasons-causes.html

“What Is Earth’s Axial Tilt or Obliquity?” Time And Date > Sun & Moon.
Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/axial-tilt-obliquity.html

Whitehorne, Mary Lou. “Why Earth Is Closest to Sun in Dead of Winter.” Space.com > Science & Astronomy. Jan. 2, 2007.
Available @ http://www.space.com/3304-earth-closest-sun-dead-winter.html

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Available @ https://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/seasons.html

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Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/equation-of-time.html

2017-2018 Metropolitan Opera Season Offers Five New Productions

Summary: The 2017-2018 Metropolitan Opera season offers five new productions, including Bellini’s Norma, Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Puccini’s Tosca.

The Metropolitan Opera hosts the American premiere of Thomas Adés's The Exterminating Angel during the 2017-2018 Met Opera season: Michelle Trovato @michelletrovato via Twitter Feb. 16, 2017

The 2017-2018 Metropolitan Opera season offers five new productions, comprising the American premiere of Adès’s The Exterminating Angel and new stagings of Bellini’s Norma, Massenet’s Cendrillon, Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Puccini’s Tosca.

On Sept. 25, 2017, the Metropolitan Opera’s 2017-2018 season opens with a new production of Norma by short-lived Italian opera composer Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (Nov. 3, 1801-Sept. 23, 1835). Glaswegian opera and theatre director Sir David McVicar directs the two-act tragic opera’s new staging.

English designer Robert Jones is responsible for the setting. The new production sets the opera deep in a Druid forest.

“Visually we’ve tried to find a world which is true to history. They worshipped in forests. They worshipped in groves. We’ve tried to stay true to that. And that, I think, is intrinsic to the story of Norma herself, intrinsic to her tragedy,” Sir McVicar explains in a Metropolitan Opera’s YouTube video released Feb. 15, 2017. “And I think her immolation at the end is a kind of return to the earth. So, as well as being deeply tragic, it’s also incredibly noble and an incredibly liberating thing for Norma to do at the end of the opera.”

The 2017-2018 season’s second new production, which opens Oct. 26, also marks a milestone as the American premiere of The Exterminating Angel by British composer and conductor Thomas Adès. The inspiration for Adès’s two-act surreal fantasy is El ángel exterminador, a 1962 surrealist film by Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel (Feb. 22, 1900-July 29, 1983).

The premiere’s staging is directed by British director Tom Cairns, who wrote the opera’s English libretto. German designer Hildegard Bechtler is the opera’s set and costume designer. The opera’s spacious yet seemingly escape-proof portal necessarily dominates the set.

The 2017-2018 season’s third new production, Tosca by Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini (Dec. 22, 1858-Nov. 29, 1924), opens Dec. 31. The three-act tragic opera’s new production is the 2017-2018 season’s second new staging directed by Sir David McVicar. Scottish designer John Macfarlane is responsible for the new production’s costumes and sets.

Sir McVicar notes the influence of the music of Tosca upon the opera’s staging in a Metropolitan Opera YouTube video released March 3, 2017: “It’s one of the most wonderful openings of any opera ever written. And those massive brass chords, I think, raise an expectation, even to a newcomer to Tosca, who’s never seen Tosca before, that there’s a certain grandeur that needs to be on stage. We certainly hope we’re going to supply that.”

The 2017-2018 season’s fourth new production is Così fan tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Jan. 27, 1756-Dec. 5, 1791). The two-act comedic opera opens March 15, 2018. English stage director Phelim McDermott directs the new production. Tom Pye is the new production’s set designer.

McDermott’s new staging fast forwards the opera’s original setting in 18th-century Naples to late 1940s-, early 1950s-era Coney Island in New York City’s borough of Brooklyn. The modern time and place setting are intended to represent a particular period of Americana.

“I always thought we should do Così at the Coney Island sideshow. So there’s an idea of being away from home and the idea of the fairground and the sideshow being this magical place in which the rules are not quite the same as they are in everyday ordinary life, as it were,” explains McDermott in a Metropolitan Opera YouTube video released Feb. 15, 2017.

The 2017-2018 season’s fifth new production is Cendrillon by Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (May 12, 1842-Aug. 13, 1912). The four-act fairy tale opens April 12, 2018. The new production marks Cendrillon's Metropolitan Opera debut.

The new staging is directed by French opera and theatre director Laurent Pelly, who also is the production’s costume designer. Belgian set designer Barbara de Limburg is responsible for the opera’s sets.

Pelly premiered his staging of Cendrillon at New Mexico’s Santa Fe Opera in 2006. His production emphasizes the storytelling aspect of Massenet’s fairy tale opera.

“’Once upon a time’ -- everything flows from that phrase,” Pelly explains for Belgian dramaturge Marie Mergeay’s Dec. 9, 2015, article in The Opera Platform.

The takeaway for 2017-2018 Metropolitan Opera season’s five new productions is the imaginative expression of the five operas’ musicality into the visual reality of evocative costumes and sets.

English stage director Phelim McDermott transplants the 2017-2018 Met Opera season's production of Mozart's from 18th century Naples to 1950s-era Coney Island: The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera via Facebook June 17, 2017

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

The Metropolitan Opera hosts the American premiere of Thomas Adés's The Exterminating Angel during the 2017-2018 Met Opera season: Michelle Trovato @michelletrovato via Twitter Feb. 16, 2017, @ https://twitter.com/michelletrovato/status/832263872342061056

English stage director Phelim McDermott transplants the 2017-2018 Met Opera season's production of Mozart's from 18th century Naples to 1950s-era Coney Island: The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera via Facebook June 17, 2017, @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/photos/a.134969600532.229232.20807115532/10158975405170533/

For further information:

Barnett, Laura. “Hildegard Bechtler, Designer - Portrait of the Artist.” The Guardian > Culture > Theatre > Portrait of the Artist. Sept. 17, 2013.
Available @ https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/sep/17/hildegard-bechtler-portrait-artist

Berry, Mark. “Director Tom Cairns and Thomas Adès Interviewed Before Tomorrow’s World Premiere of The Exterminating Angel.” Boulezian. July 27, 2016.
Available @ http://boulezian.blogspot.com/2016/07/director-tom-cairns-interviews-thomas.html

Cooper, Michael. “Highlights From the Met Opera’s 2017-18 Season.” The New York Times > Music. Feb. 15, 2017.
Available @ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/arts/music/metropolitan-opera-2017-2018-season-highlights.html?smid=tw-nytimesarts&smtyp=cur

Marriner, Derdriu. "2017-2018 Metropolitan Opera Season Includes a Premiere and a Requiem." Earth and Space News. Monday, June 12, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/06/2017-2018-metropolitan-opera-season_12.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "2017-2018 Metropolitan Opera Season Schedules 26 Productions." Earth and Space News. Monday, June 19, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/06/2017-2018-metropolitan-opera-season_19.html

Meet Me At The Opera @MMATOpera. "Metropolitan Opera 2017-18 New Season. Five new productions. Opens with Bellini's Norma starring Sondra Radvanovsky." Twitter. Feb. 15, 2017.
Available @ https://twitter.com/MMATOpera/status/832004752984641536

Mergeay, Marie. “’Once Upon a Time’ -- Everything Flows From That Phrase.” The Opera Platform. Dec. 9, 2015.
Available @ http://www.theoperaplatform.eu/en/article/cendrillon-interview-laurent-pelly

Metropolitan Opera. "Joyce DiDonato and the Met's New Production of Cendrillon." YouTube. June 13, 2017.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs1IfgUUnOs

Metropolitan Opera. "Phelim McDermott on his new Production of Così fan tutte." YouTube. Feb. 15, 2017.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbdM6sOijKE

Metropolitan Opera. "Sir David McVicar on his new Production of Tosca." YouTube. June 16, 2017.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIw2k-kvCa8

Metropolitan Opera. "Sondra Radvanovsky and Sir David McVicar on the Met's new Production of Norma." YouTube. Feb. 15, 2017.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCAo2rIf3nc

Metropolitan Opera. "Thomas Adès and Tom Cairns on The Exterminating Angel." YouTube. June 5, 2017.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ7-PanwJCI&t=1s

The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera. "Single tickets to the 2017–18 season go on sale to the general public Sunday, June 25! The new season features 5 new productions including a new Così fan tutte set in a carnival-esque environment inspired by 1950s Coney Island. More info: bit.ly/2rA9vIr Photo by Martin Smith/English National Opera." Facebook. June 17, 2017.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/photos/a.134969600532.229232.20807115532/10158975405170533/

Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera. “Today is the day! Stay tuned for the 2017-18 Season Announcement at 12 noon ET!” Twitter. Feb. 15, 2017.
Available @ https://twitter.com/MetOpera/status/831881133025591296

Michelle Trovato @michelletrovato. "Excited to see this @metopera next season: An Explosive Opera of 'The Exterminating Angel.'" Twitter. Feb. 16, 2017.
Available @ https://twitter.com/michelletrovato/status/832263872342061056

New York Times Arts @nytimesarts. “Next season at the @MetOpera: a new ‘Tosca,’ a Thomas Adès premiere and Mozart on Coney Island.” Twitter. Feb. 15, 2017.
Available @ https://twitter.com/nytimesarts/status/831913227776884737

“On Stage 2017-18.” The Metropolitan Opera > Season.
Available @ http://www.metopera.org/Season/2017-18-Season/

Ross, Alex. “An Explosive Opera of ‘The Exterminating Angel.’” The New Yorker > Musical Events. Aug. 22, 2016.
Available @ http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/08/22/thomas-ades-the-exterminating-angel

Indoor American Creeping Bellflower Gardens Take the Edge off Weeds

Summary: Indoor American creeping bellflower gardens change unruly outdoor garden flowers into ruly flowering houseplants in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Creeping bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides) blooms from June to October; closeup of creeping bellflower's flower and leaf, Bozeman, southwestern Montana, September 24, 2008: Matt Lavin, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The crop yields, plant health and species diversity around fence lines and in berry patches, cultivated fields, ornamental beds, turf lawns and vegetable plots are compromised by outdoor American creeping bellflower gardens.

The perennial member in the Campanulaceae family of bellflower and harebell herbs and shrubs bears weed designations for such aggressive, disruptive, invasive misbehaviors in Alberta, Canada. The same designation can be considered through legislation consistent with membership of Canada, Mexico and the United States in the North American Plant Protection Organization (NAPPO). Richard Dickinson, in Weeds of North America, University of Chicago Press book published in 2014, describes NAPPO's "phytosanitary measures" as dealing with introduction of invasive plants.

Canada's Weed Seeds Order of 1986, municipal, provincial, state and territorial legislation and the United States' Plant Protection Act of 2000 enable similar designations outside Alberta.

Family ties, featured characteristics and translated scientific names furnish the common names garden harebell, purple bell and creeping bluebell, creeping campanula, rampion bellflower and rover bellflower.

Creeping bellflower, an English equivalent of the scientific name Campanula rapunculoides, gives friendlier impressions in containerized, indoor gardens than in outdoor beds, gardens, pots and yards. The moisture-grabbing, nutrient-robbing, shade-tolerant garden flower introduced into North America from Asia and Europe has biological advantages in prolific seed production and in rampant rhizome formation. The creeping, thick, tuberlike, white rhizomes invade shallow, underground soils so thoroughly that a dense clump of above-ground shoots and of below-ground roots quickly is formed.

Hormones from rhizomes and shoots, moisture and nutrients from soil and nutrients from photosynthesis join to jump seedlings into mature takeovers of American creeping bellflower gardens.

Biology keeps the seedling's cotyledons recognizable with 0.08- to 0.19-inch (2- to 5-millimeter) lengths, 0.04- to 0.12-inch (1- to 3-millimeter) widths, oval shapes and upward-curled margins.

Alternate-paired, mature, 1.18- to 2.76-inch- (3- to 7-centimeter-) long leaves look coarse-toothed along margins, heart-shaped, long-stalked and somewhat hairy along margins and upper surfaces lower down. Simple leaves farther up creeping bellflowers in American creeping bellflower gardens manage lance-shaped, stalkless looks and measure more toward the lower end of mature size ranges. Mature, 7.87- to 39.37-inch- (20- to 100-centimeter-) tall herbs need somewhat hairy, straight, unbranched stems to nurture floral clusters called inflorescences, fruit capsules and simple leaves.

Inflorescences occur as one-sided, stalked bunches called racemes that offer grape-, hyacinth- or lupine-like looks or as solitary flowers at axil unions of leaves with stems.

Blue to light purple, nodding, 0.79- to 1.18-inch- (2- to 3-centimeter-) long flowers put forth one pistil, five stamens, five united petals and five united sepals.

Fruiting stages in creeping bellflowers, first described by Swedish-born taxonomist Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778), quicken prolific production of as many as 3,000 seeds. Rounded fruit capsules require three to five pores to release elliptical, glossy, light brown, 0.06-inch- (1.5-millimeter-) long, 0.39-inch- (1-millimeter-) wide seeds for germination within 10 years. Seeds sometimes share the germination-friendly top 0.79 inches (2 centimeters) of soil with Indian tobacco, Campanulaceae family member and North American native not yet designated weedy.

Indoor American creeping bellflower gardens take the edge off unruly, weed-designated creeping bellflowers even though their equivalents never take the poison out of non-weed-designated Indian tobacco.

creeping bellflower's midsummer blooms, Ottawa, southeastern Ontario, east central Canada, July 10, 2008: D. Gordon E. Robertson, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

closeup of creeping bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides) flower and leaf, Bozeman, southwestern Montana, Sept. 24, 2008: Matt Lavin, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Campanula_rapunculoides_(4970189759).jpg

creeping bellflower's midsummer blooms, Ottawa, southeastern Ontario, east central Canada, July 10, 2008: D. Gordon E. Robertson, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Creeping_Bellflower,_Ottawa.jpg

For further information:

"Campanula rapunculoides L." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/5500815

Dickinson, Richard; France Royer. 2014. Weeds of North America. Chicago IL; London, England: The University of Chicago Press.

Linnaeus, Carl. 1753. "14. Campanula rapunculoides." Species Plantarum, vol. I: 165. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/358184

Americanized Hemp Nettle Gardens: Dense, Hairy, Spiny Ground Cover

Summary: Americanized hemp nettle gardens end ground reflection and surface runoff by establishing dense, hairy, pretty, spiny stands on bad soils and poor sites.

hemp nettle's flowers and leaves; Keila, northwestern Estonia; Aug. 2, 2013: Ivar Leidus, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Americanized hemp nettle gardens assuage ground reflection and surface runoff on roadsides and wastelands but augment their naturalized niches on croplands, gardens and orchards where their strong scents act as pest repellents.

The Eurasian native annual becomes one of seven herbaceous members in the Lamiaceae family of mint-related herbs, shrubs and trees to bear North American weed designations. Mediterranean sage, not Eurasian catnip or Eurasian motherwort, claims officially unwelcome weed status from the California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and, with European sage, Washington state governments. Eurasian ground ivy and henbit and native dragonhead and marsh hedgenettle draw respective sanctions in Connecticut, in Alberta and Manitoba, in Manitoba and in Nova Scotia.

The Canadian and Mexican federal governments enact respective sanctions against European self-heal and, with Alaska state and Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec provincial governments, against hemp nettle.

Notched tips and two basal, pointed lobes fit onto oval, 0.19- to 0.39-inch- (5- to 10-millimeter-) long, 0.08- to 0.19-inch- (2- to 5-millimeter-) wide embryonic leaves.

The embryonic stems go from green below the cotyledons to purple toward soil levels and give way to opposite-arranged, oval, toothed, veined, wire-haired first leaf stages. Mature, opposite-arranged, oval to lance-shaped, 1.18- to 4.72-inch- (3- to 12-centimeter-) long foliage has coarse margins with five to 10 teeth per side and bristle-haired surfaces. Hemp nettle, commonly named bee nettle, brittle-stem hemp nettle, dog nettle and flowering nettle, inclines rough foliage from 0.39- to 1.18-inch- (1- to 3-centimeter-) long stalks.

Slender, strong taproots jumpstart growth with dissolved hormones and nutrients that join dissolved hormones and photosynthates from leaves, stalks and stems in Americanized hemp nettle gardens.

Hemp nettle, also commonly named ironweed, ironwort, Simon's weed and wild hemp, knows mature, 11.81- to 39.37-inch (30- to 100-centimeter) heights on branched, bristle-haired, square stems.

The stems let hemp nettle, scientifically named Galeopsis tetrahit (weasel-like, four-parted), look rough with many downward-pointing, stiff hairs and swollen at leaf-to-stem attachment points called nodes. Their tips manage June to September bloom times for terminal inflorescences, called racemes, on central stalks with same-sized stalklets for perfect, irregular, pink, variegated, white blooms. Flowers 0.39-inch (1 centimeter) across need one pistil, two yellow dots and four stamens on five 0.59- to 0.87-inch- (15- to 22-millimeter-) long, tube-shaped, united petals.

Five spine-tipped, 10-ribbed, 0.28- to 0.43-inch- (7- to 11-millimeter-) long, united sepals occur alongside all petals and stamens and every pistil in Americanized hemp nettle gardens.

Hemp nettle, described by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778), produces 2,800 egg-shaped, mottled gray-brown, 0.12- to 0.16-inch- (3- to 4-millimeter-) long seeds.

Sun-warmed, 0.39-inch (1-centimeter), 0.39- to 1.58-inch (1- to 4-centimeter) and 0.79-inch (2-centimeter) depths respectively quicken germination of self-heal, of hemp nettle and of henbit and marsh hedgenettle. Marsh hedgenettle retains unknown viabilities whereas dragonhead, ground ivy, hemp nettle, henbit and self-heal respectively remain viable 3, 2 to 5, 10, 25 and 5 years. Hemp nettle and its weedy relatives suffer, for shedding seed before crop harvests, as scorned relatives of basil, coleus, lavender, mint, oregano, sage, salvia and thyme.

Americanized hemp nettle gardens of catnip, dragonhead, European sage, ground ivy, henbit, marsh hedgenettle, Mediterranean sage, motherwort and self-heal thrive on sites that thwart nonweedy relatives.

Hemp nettle's spiny calyx lobes and coarse stem hairs stiffen by autumn; Bozeman, Gallatin County, southwestern Montana; Oct. 30, 2010: Matt Lavin, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

hemp nettle's flowers and leaves; Keila, northwestern Estonia; Aug. 2, 2013: Ivar Leidus, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Galeopsis_tetrahit_-_kare_k%C3%B5rvik_Keilas.jpg

Hemp nettle's spiny calyx lobes and coarse stem hairs stiffen by autumn; Bozeman, Gallatin County, southwestern Montana; Oct. 30, 2010: Matt Lavin, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/plant_diversity/5202209342/

For further information:

Dickinson, Richard; and Royer, France. 2014. Weeds of North America. Chicago IL; London, England: The University of Chicago Press.

"Galeopsis tetrahit L." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/17600083

Linnaeus, Carl. 1753. "2. Galeopsis tetrahit." Species Plantarum, vol. II: 579-580. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/358600

Weakley, Alan S.; Ludwig, J. Christopher; and Townsend, John F. 2012. Flora of Virginia. Edited by Bland Crowder. Fort Worth TX: BRIT Press, Botanical Research Institute of Texas.

Amore and Oliveri on New South Wales Art Gallery van Mieris Art Theft

Summary: The Stolen Cavalier blog by Anthony Amore and Vicki Oliveri crowd-sources New South Wales Art Gallery van Mieris art theft information since May 22, 2012.

Security expert Anthony Amore notes on The Stolen Cavalier blog that "When a masterpiece goes missing, civilization loses a piece of its connection with the period in which it was created. When we abandon the search for such items, we are making a statement about our attitudes towards such matters -- a statement that does not speak well of us as a people." ~ Frans van Mieris the Elder's stolen Cavalier: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The 10th anniversary of the New South Wales Art Gallery van Mieris art theft in Sydney, Australia, acknowledges the fifth year in the New South Wales police's announced deactivation of search-and-rescue attempts.

The removal of the portable masterpiece by Frans van Mieris the Elder (April 16, 1635-March 12, 1681) of Leiden, Netherlands, bore the date June 10, 2007. The Sydney Morning Herald carried the date May 20, 2012, as the conclusion to the active campaign for conducting the oak-framed oil on panel back home.

Acting Sergeant Chris Nash described New South Wales Police Force investigations as suspended four years earlier, the year after removal and replacement with a permanent successor. He explained, "Police cannot speculate on why the artwork was stolen other than to speculate the artwork may have been sold to a black market investor."

"Young Woman With Feather Fan Prepared to Go Out," the companion portrait to the stolen Cavalier, depicts the artist's wife, Cunera van der Cock, Frans van Mieris's wife, and reveals Frans van Mieris the Elder's skill in rendering textures (stofuit-drukking) and attests to his stature as a fine painter (fijnschilder); Kunstmuseum Basel, northwestern Switzerland: Public Domain, via The Athenaeum

Framed, A Cavalier (Self Portrait) by diamond setter, goldsmith, ruby carver Jan Bastiaans van Mieris's painter son fills an 11.69- by 16.54-inch (297- by 420-millimeter) space.

Bright-colored, jewel- and stained glass-like sheens, generally on 12- to 15-square-inch (77.42- to 96.77-square-centimeter) copper or wood panels, give van Mieris the title fijnschilder (fine painter). The word stofuit-drukking (the rendering of textures) honors van Mieris's honing feathers, fur, glass, leather, metal, satin, silk, velvet, wool through thin layers and tiny brushes. Masterpieces inspire theft but impose limitations since Julian Radcliffe of Art Loss Register in London, United Kingdom, identifies sales as copies and security for drug deals.

Non-existent or non-productive leads within 90 days jump retrieval from months to years since FBI Special Agent Robert Goldman judges thieves and unscrupulous collectors prime controllers.

Frans van Mieris the Elder's Man at a Window Smoking a Pipe, also known as Man With Pipe at the Window, disappeared from Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, Romania, in 1968; recovery of the oil on panel portrait (1658) occurred about three decades later, in 1998, in Florida: Google Art Project works from the Brukenthal National Museum, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Vicki Oliveri, Stolen Cavalier blogger with Anthony Amore, security chief since 2005 at Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Massachusetts, knows of another missing van Mieris. The researcher specializing in art theft lists the disappearance of Man at a Window Smoking a Pipe from Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, Romania, in 1968. She mentions the portrait from 1658, within several years of the Cavalier auto-portrait, as mysterious in uses and whereabouts until making it to Florida in 1998. She notes its bearer, a Romanian immigrant unaware of the portrait's stolen status, as naming a Romanian gypsy's role in negotiating the masterpiece's sale in Romania.

The New South Wales Art Gallery van Mieris art theft occurred as the third or fourth of previously unlawful operations in 1942, possibly 1992 and 2004.

London-based former art trafficker Paul "Turbo" Hendry emerges as solid for 2007 theft-related leads; "Harold Smith the Art Loss Adjuster [left] talks to Paul Turboman Hendry [right]" in Charles Sabba's painting "Gardner Gossips": Charles Sabba via Gardner Heist Gossips blog post Feb. 14, 2014

Sir William Dobell's (Sept. 24 1899-May 13, 1970) painted Study of a Woman Dozing and Yoshihiro Suda's wood-carved pink magnolia persist as 75- and 14-year-old mysteries. No leads queue up for them, or a possible theft around 1992, even though London-based Paul Hendry qualified as solid in 2012 for 2007 theft-related leads. He referenced eastern Australia- or Europe-based New South Wales Art Gallery van Mieris art theft controllers to Michael Maher, New South Wales Treasury Managed Fund-appointed investigator. Prohibitions against state government-negotiated rewards stopped information flows into investigations, deactivated and suspended June 2, 2008, on "technically still an open police" case June 27, 2012.

Suspensions triggered observations by Anthony Amore, author of The Art of the Con, that "it's quite rare to hear that the search has been given up."

Australian artist William Dobell in 1942, the year his painting, Study of a Woman Dozing, disappeared from Australia's National Gallery of Art as "the first theft of a picture from a national gallery in Australia" (The West Australian, June 10, 1942, page 4): portrait by Australian modernist photographer Maxwell Dupain (April 22, 1911-July 27, 1992): National Library of Australia, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

"A Cavalier (Self Portrait)," oil on wood panel portrait by Dutch Golden Age painter Frans van Mieris the Elder; removed from Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) during art theft of June 10, 2007: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frans-van-mieris-thecavalier.jpg

"Young Woman With Feather Fan Prepared to Go Out," the companion portrait to the stolen Cavalier " depicts the artist's wife, Cunera van der Cock, Frans van Mieris's wife, and reveals Frans van Mieris the Elder's skill in rendering textures (stofuit-drukking) and attests to his stature as a fine painter (fijnschilder); Kunstmuseum Basel, northwestern Switzerland: Public Domain, via The Athenaeum @ http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/detail.php?ID=263946

Frans van Mieris the Elder's Man at a Window Smoking a Pipe, also known as Man With Pipe at the Window, disappeared from Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, Romania, in 1968; recovery of the oil on panel portrait (1658) occurred about three decades later, in 1998, in Florida: Google Art Project works from the Brukenthal National Museum, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frans_van_Mieris_(I)_-_Man_with_Pipe_at_the_Window_(1658).jpg

"Harold Smith the Art Loss Adjuster talks to Paul Turboman Hendry" in Charles Sabba's painting "Gardner Gossips": Charles Sabba via Gardner Heist Gossips blog post Feb. 14, 2014, @ http://gardnerheistgossips.blogspot.com/

Australian artist William Dobell in 1942, the year his painting, Study of a Woman Dozing, disappeared from Australia's National Gallery of Art as "the first theft of a picture from a national gallery in Australia" (The West Australian, June 10, 1942, page 4): portrait by Australian modernist photographer Maxwell Dupain (April 22, 1911-July 27, 1992): National Library of Australia, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Dobell_Max_Dupain.jpg

For further information:

Amore, Anthony; and Oliveri, Vicki. Stolen Cavalier: Dedicated to Recovering a Cavalier by Frans van Mieris Through Crowd-Sourcing Information. Blog at WordPress.com.
Available @ https://stolencavalier.wordpress.com/

ARC CEPS. 28 November 2012. "Vicki Oliveri 2012 CEPS Conference." YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_RmF1cjzhE

Doyle, Margaret; and Dullaart, Jephta. 2006. Amorous Intrigues and Painterly Refinement: The Art of Frans van Mieris. Washington DC: Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art.
Available @ https://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/vanmieris/vanmieris_brochure.pdf

Marriner, Derdriu. 16 June 2017. "Jacques Blanchard and New South Wales Art Gallery Van Mieris Art Theft." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/06/jacques-blanchard-and-new-south-wales.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 9 June 2017. "New South Wales Art Gallery van Mieris Art Theft June 10, 2007." Earth and Spaces News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/06/new-south-wales-art-gallery-van-mieris.html

Oliveri, Vicki. 2014. "A Tale of Two Cities, A Tale of Two Art Thefts." Pp. 79-99. In: Contemporary Perspectives on the Detection, Investigation and Prosecution of Art Crime: Australasian, European and North American Perspectives. Edited by Duncan Chappell and Saskia Hufnagel. Farnham, Surrey, United Kingdom; and Burlington VT: Ashgate Publishing.
Available @ https://books.google.com/books?id=TCgpDAAAQBAJ

Sabba, Charles. 14 February 2014. "Art Crimes Portraits: Gardner Gossips Lecture 2014." Gardner Heist Gossips blog.
Available @ http://gardnerheistgossips.blogspot.com/

Taylor, Andrew. 20 May 2012. "Search for Stolen Masterpiece Ends." The Sydney Morning Herald > Entertainment > Art.
Available @ http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/search-for-stolen-masterpiece-ends-20120519-1yxis.html

Taylor, Andrew. 6 June 2015. "A Cavalier Approach: Investigation of Art Gallery of NSW's Stolen Painting Mishandled." The Sydney Morning Herald > Entertainment > Art.
Available @ http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/a-cavalier-approach-investigation-of-art-gallery-of-nsws-stolen-painting-mishandled-20150608-ghi4e1.html

"Theft from Gallery of New South Wales." Federal Bureau of Investigation > What We Investigate > Violent Crime > Art Theft > FBI Top Ten Art Crimes Art Crime Team.
Available @ https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/violent-crime/art-theft/fbi-top-ten-art-crimes/theft-from-art-gallery-of-new-south-wales

The West Australian. 10 June 1942. "Art Gallery Theft: Painting Taken From Frame." Trove Australia > Digitised Newspapers > The West Australian (Perth, WA: 1879-1954), Wednesday, June 10, 1942: page 4.
Available @ https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/47335718