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Lost & Found

It was reported that in the Ocean Way area in Cardiff was closed down as police reported the discovery of a WW II bomb.

It is hard to imagine that after all these years WW II bombs are still being found in the UK.

It would be catastrophic if these bombs go off.
If it's a German bomb, I'd be surprised. It was fairly rare for a bomber to make it that far into Wales.
My Dad did show me a huge crater that had been left on the hillside over his village when he lived in South Wales. That was about it for that area, and they just bombed the hillside.
 

‘Lost’ Botticelli masterpiece worth $109 million found in home in southern Italy

The 58- x 80-centimeter (23- x 31-inch) work, painted in tempera on wood, had hung in a church in the Neapolitan suburb of Santa Maria la Carità since the early 1900s, after the church it was originally given to burned down.

When an earthquake damaged the church in 1982, the painting was given by the parish to a local family named Somma for safekeeping, according to a spokesman for the Italian ministry of culture, who told CNN that there is an official decree on file that entrusts the painting to them, and they are not facing any criminal investigation.
For the first few years after the family was entrusted with the painting, local authorities checked on its condition, advising them on where to keep it and helping move and clean it.

But for some reason the checks stopped in the 1990s and the painting was listed on the culture ministry’s inventory of missing works.

The list is frequently updated, and this summer the painting was traced to the Somma family, who had displayed it in their homes over the years, commander Massimiliano Croce said during the presentation of the find.

After tracking down the branch of the family that currently held the painting, the police worked with the local mayor, who was already aware of the Botticelli’s presence in the Somma home and helped mediate its retrieval, Croce said

It is missing some paint and has been scratched, probably during the earthquake in the 1980s and in subsequent house moves.
It is not clear why the state stopped checking on the painting.

“The last time the authorities had inspected the private residence where the Botticelli painting was kept was over 50 years ago,” Croce said. “Since then, inexplicably, the painting had been forgotten by the authorities.”
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Lost in space no more: missing tomato found in space station after eight months​

https://www.theguardian.com/science...it-mystery-international-space-station-tomato

It might have remained one of the greatest mysteries of the universe, destined never to be solved until a freak recent discovery by the crew of the International Space Station (ISS).
The subject? A tomato grown from seed in microgravity by US astronaut Francisco “Frank” Rubio as part of an agricultural experiment.

Rubio was accused of having eaten the fruit when it inexplicably disappeared more than eight months ago. However, the tiny specimen, or at least its remnants, have now been found, according to members of the seven-strong crew during a live stream this week to celebrate the orbiting outpost’s 25th anniversary.
 
I wonder who the female model was? In Botticelli's paintings, I always expect to see Simonetta Vespucci...

It's not unlike her... It'll be good to see it all cleaned and restored in a few years :)
 

Student's lost artwork found 4,000 miles away​



A fashion student who thought she had lost precious sketches has described her shock after they ended up in Pakistan.

Grace Hart, 20, feared she wouldn't get into university after her mother Sonia accidentally threw away her portfolio.

About a year later, Ms Hart discovered her art was being sold in a charity shop in Lahore about 4,000 miles away.

Then, in an even more bizarre twist of fate, a photographer in the city found her on Instagram before wrapping up the designs and sending them back.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cljx6r70x6lo
 
China father drops US$140,000 jade ring from high-rise window into drainage ditch, successful 4-day search sparks firework party


A beautiful jade ring rumoured to be worth one million yuan (US$140,000) and intended for a bride-to-be in China has been accidentally dropped out of a window into a drainage ditch nine floors below.

The incident had residents of Guangdong, southeastern China collectively holding their breath for three days during a salvage operation.

The ring slipped through the fingers of a jeweller’s customer as he was trying to film it in natural light by a window, according to his son who posted the information on Douyin.

The anxious man quickly hired a salvage team to search for the ring.

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The hunt took more than 72 hours and attracted hundreds of onlookers.

When the ring was finally retrieved on the fourth day, there were cheers all round as the ecstatic owner set off fireworks to celebrate.

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-cu...drainage-ditch-successful-4-day-search-sparks

maximus otter
 
Texas woman, 85, to reunite with her long-lost 1959 bridal portraits: 'I missed them'


An 85-year-old woman in Texas will soon be reunited with her bridal photos that were snapped more than 60 years ago, thanks to social media.

The pictures were spotted at an auction by Lynchburg, Virginia, resident Sandra Poindexter. Originally on the hunt for vintage picture frames, Poindexter was intrigued by the photos and flipped them over to find out any information about the pictures.

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Poindexter saw a piece of masking tape with the name "Harriet Galbraith" written on the back. She soon posted about the find in a Facebook group, where a user was able to track down Galbraith.

Galbraith, a San Antonio resident, had sent the glamorous bridal portraits to her mother in 1959, shortly after her wedding. She wore a Christian Dior gown and elegant elbow-length gloves in the pictures.

After Galbraith's mother died, her family had an estate sale, which is where the bridal photos may have been sold. Galbraith reportedly had been hunting for them for decades.

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/t...long-lost-1959-bridal-portraits-i-missed-them

maximus otter
 

Lost £55m Gustav Klimt Masterpiece To Be Auctioned in Vienna


A long-lost painting by the renowned Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, believed to have vanished for a century, has resurfaced in Vienna, stirring waves of excitement and speculation in the art world.

Gustav-Klimt-Portrait-of-Fraulein-Lieser-1917.-Courtesy-im-Kinsky.jpg


The painting, titled “Portrait of Fraulein Lieser,” once adorned the walls of a Jewish family in Austria and was last publicly displayed in 1925. Its whereabouts remained a mystery thereafter, until recently, when it emerged in the possession of the current owners, who have held it since the 1960s.

Im Kinsky auction house, renowned for its expertise in fine art, appraised the painting’s value at over $54 million (£42 million), deeming its rediscovery nothing short of a sensation.

“In decades, a painting of such rarity, artistic significance, and value has not graced the art market in Central Europe,” the auction house declared in a statement.

The portrait is slated to go under the hammer on April 24, under the auspices of the current owners and the legal successors of the Lieser family, in accordance with the Washington Principles—an international accord aimed at restoring Nazi-looted art to the descendants of its rightful owners.

The painting’s storied past traces back to the Lieser family, prominent Jewish industrialists in Vienna, whose lavish collections adorned their opulent surroundings.

While questions linger regarding the painting’s journey during and after the Second World War, Austrian media reports suggest that no evidence has surfaced thus far indicating that the artwork was looted or stolen.

https://artlyst.com/art_market_news/lost-55m-gustav-klimt-masterpiece-auctioned-vienna/

maximus otter
 
A Turner up for the books.

JMW Turner watercolour found stuck between paintings at Kinsham Court


The painting

The lost Turner was found between some mid-19th Century watercolours and hunting prints - said to be "nothing very exciting"



A lost watercolour by one of Britain's greatest landscape artists found "stuck among" a number of other paintings at a country estate could fetch £50,000.

The JMW Turner painting of Hampton Court, Herefordshire, was found at nearby Kinsham Court and thought to have been forgotten about over time.

Minster Auctions, which is selling it, said although there was no signature on it, "the signature is in the style".

Expert James Pearn said he was "pretty surprised" to find the painting.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-68130848
 
Massive cocaine haul

The seizure of the 5.7 tonnes – the biggest ever in the country – is a major hit to crime cartels.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) and Border Force made the bust in Southampton on February 8 before the cargo reached the Port of Hamburg
‘Inquiries are ongoing with international partners across Europe with a view to identifying the criminal networks involved,’ a spokesperson for the NCA said.

‘Based on UK street-level prices the cocaine would likely have had an estimated value in excess of £450 million.’

The previous largest seizure was 3.7 tonnes of cocaine, also in Southampton, in 2022.

‘While the destination for the consignment was continental Europe in this case, I have no doubt that a significant proportion would have ended up back here in the UK, being peddled by UK criminal gangs.
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Check out old cards.

An unopened case of ice hockey cards found in a basement office has earned a family in Canada $3.1m USD ($4.2m CAD; £2.4m) at auction.

Inside there could be more than 20 "rookie cards" of Wayne Gretzky, one of the sport's greatest ever players. The family who discovered the case hidden in their Saskatchewan office were "ecstatic" at the sale, an auction house spokesman told CBC News. The winning bid was made by a Canadian who has not yet been identified.

Heritage Auctions, which is based in Dallas, called the discovery of the pristine 1979-80 cards from the now-defunct O-Pee-Chee candy and trading card brand, "the greatest unopened find of the 21st Century". The son was helping his father clear out his office in Regina in November when the case was discovered gathering dust, Jason Simonds, the sports cards specialist at Heritage, told the BBC.

The father was an "old-school collector" who had bought the sealed case years ago intending to open it and build sets to sell but simply never got around to it, he said. The family have asked to remain anonymous.

Cases like this one, which contain 16 boxes with 48 packs per box and 14 cards per pack and over 10,000 total cards, were originally intended to be sold to large stores who would open them and sell the individual packs to customers. Before going to auction, all 16 wax boxes within the larger box were authenticated.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68386074
 

Hidden underground bomb shelter discovered in back garden

50 metres long.

After getting bored in lockdown, Rebecca and her partner Darren, 34, decided to search their back garden and found the opening to the tunnel.

Astonishing walk-through footage shows steps leading down into the shelter to reveal an abandoned passageway.
Footage shows the passage continues to a dead end, where the building administrator said another entrance once stood.

Newspaper cuttings revealed the shelter was built by volunteers during the Second World War to hold 200 women and children during the bombings and protect them from ‘the cruelties of Hitlerism’.

Our row of houses were built in the seventies and so we are assuming that the earth they dug out for the foundations [for these houses], covered up the tunnel.

‘We thought it was going to be really small [when we first discovered it] but it was amazing and we were so shocked by the size of it.’

Rebecca added: ‘The tunnel did lead to the end of the road to the edge of my neighbours garden but they were worried that they might get rats so they blocked their side up so you can only get in from our garden now.’

Since discovering the wartime shelter, the couple said they have cleaned out the passageway and added lights to it but don’t want to alter the building anymore as they want to maintain its history.
Video at link.

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Missing five-year-old found in Florida swamp.​


Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office has shared footage of the joyful moment a missing five-year-old girl was found in swampy woodland in Florida.

She was spotted using a thermal-imaging camera and deputies were sent to her location, reaching her less than an hour after she was reported missing.

The youngster, who is autistic, had wandered from her home. She was found uninjured approximately half a mile away.

Video at link;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-68435311
 

Missing five-year-old found in Florida swamp.​


Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office has shared footage of the joyful moment a missing five-year-old girl was found in swampy woodland in Florida.

She was spotted using a thermal-imaging camera and deputies were sent to her location, reaching her less than an hour after she was reported missing.

The youngster, who is autistic, had wandered from her home. She was found uninjured approximately half a mile away.

Video at link;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-68435311
She seemed to wonder what all the fuss was about!
 
Scientists have found what they believe to be the world's earliest known fossilised forest in cliffs on the coast of South West England.

It was discovered in high sandstone cliffs near Minehead, Somerset, close to a Butlin's holiday camp.

Researchers from Cambridge and Cardiff Universities say they are the oldest fossilised trees ever found in Britain and the oldest known forest on Earth.
The trees, known as calamophyton, resemble palm trees.

"It was amazing to see them so near to home. But the most revealing insight comes from seeing, for the first time, these trees in the positions where they grew."

fossil marks in cliff



https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68500649
 

Photographic treasures found hidden in Texas desk


A collection of photographs from a post-World War One British photographer have been discovered hidden in a piece of furniture in the United States.

Brad Knox said his wife Anni had bought the distinctive bureau at a sale near their home in Austin, Texas in December.

While looking for the details of the furniture's maker, Prof Knox found the prints after discovering a small crack in the desk.

"My six-year-old, Sabine, and I fished out all these papers that had fallen below the drawers and it turned out to be a series of photographs, all seemingly by the same person," he said.

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“Almost all of them have, at the bottom, the insignia Leonard Chettle - Nuneaton," he explained.

He researched the name online and had found the Nuneaton Local History Group's website, and associated Facebook group.

After Prof Knox posted the photographs on the site some people were able to identify relatives and even themselves in the pictures.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg3e0e05d18o

maximus otter
 
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