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MUSEUM

Spanish Old Master fetches record new price

El Greco's 400 year-old painting "Saint Dominic in Prayer" on Wednesday broke the record for a Spanish Old Master, selling at a London auction for £9,154,500 ($14,000,000).

Published: 4 July 2013 12:29 CEST
Spanish Old Master fetches record new price
A woman looks at portraits by El Greco and his student Luis Tristan (R) during the "El Greco and his workshop" exhibition in Athens in 2007. File photo: Louisa Gouliamaki

The painting was one of two El Greco works up for grabs at the sale, said Alex Bell, worldwide head of Sotheby's Old Master Paintings.

It went under the hammer following a "tenacious" battle between bidders, he added.

The painting represents the 13th-century founder of the Dominican order kneeling and praying besides a crucifix under a dark and swirling sky.

El Greco's Saint Dominic in Prayer

Completed in 15th-century Toledo, it also features the crucifix which El Greco often used in paintings showing saints in devotion.

The London auction attracted a record number of collectors from Asia and the Middle East and generated £35,048,000 in total sales.

El Greco (1541–1614) was born as Doménikos Theotokópoulos on what is now the Greek Island of Crete.

He spent time in Venice and Rome before finally settling in Toledo, Spain where he stayed until his death.

Toledo is where the painter, sculptor and architect produced his best-known work.

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MUSEUM

German police arrest fugitive twin over Dresden museum heist

German police said Tuesday they have arrested one of two fugitive twin brothers from the so-called Remmo clan wanted over their suspected role in snatching priceless jewels from a museum in the city of Dresden.

Published: 15 December 2020 11:11 CET
German police arrest fugitive twin over Dresden museum heist
Archive photo from April 2019 shows the Jewellery Room of the Green Vault. Photo: DPA

The 21-year-old suspect was detained in Berlin on Monday evening over what local media have dubbed one of the biggest museum heists in modern history, a spokesman for the police in the eastern city of Dresden said.

The twins had eluded German authorities when they carried out raids last month and arrested three members of the Remmo clan, a family of Arab origin notorious for its ties to organised crime.

Police then named them as 21-year-old Abdul Majed Remmo and Mohammed Remmo.

All five suspects are accused of “serious gang robbery and two counts of arson,” Dresden prosecutors said.

Police did not immediately name the arrested twin. His brother remains on the run.

The robbers launched their brazen raid lasting eight minutes on the Green Vault museum in Dresden's Royal Palace on November 25th, 2019.

READ ALSO: Everything you need to know about the Dresden museum heist

Having caused a partial power cut and broken in through a window, they snatched priceless 18th-century jewellery and other valuables from the collection of the Saxon ruler August the Strong.

Items stolen included a sword whose hilt is encrusted with nine large and 770 smaller diamonds, and a shoulderpiece which contains the famous 49-carat Dresden white diamond, Dresden's Royal Palace said.

The Remmos were previously implicated in another stunning museum robbery in the heart of Berlin in which a 100-kilogramme gold coin was stolen.

Investigators last year targeted the family with the seizure of 77 properties worth a total of €9.3 million, charging that they were purchased with the proceeds of various crimes, including a 2014 bank robbery.

READ ALSO: €1 million gold coin stolen from iconic Berlin museum

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