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Man admits to French museum Rembrandt theft

A French man has claimed responsibility for the theft of a Rembrandt painting worth millions that was stolen from a French museum in 1999 and recovered this week, a source close to the investigation said on Friday.

Published: 22 March 2014 08:29 CET

Man admits to French museum Rembrandt theft

Photo: Valery Hache/AFP

The 43-year-old from Lot-et-Garonne in southwest France told police he had stolen the Dutch master's "Child with a Soap Bubble" from a municipal museum as "a challenge" and had never earned any money from it.

He handed himself in on Wednesday night on the advice of his lawyer, a day after the painting was recovered.

Two men, including a former insurance salesman, were arrested on Tuesday in Nice in possession of the painting, which was valued at 20 million francs.

That equates to roughly €3.9 million ($5.4 million) today.

The artwork was stolen from a museum in the nearby city of Draguignan in July 1999. It portrays a teenage boy with long dark brown locks, wearing a golden necklace and holding a soap bubble.

After admitting the theft, the man was allowed to leave while further investigations are carried out, the source told AFP.

"He wants to draw a line under the matter. He is ready to take responsibility for his actions," said his lawyer Franck Dupouy. "He now has a settled family life, he has children and a job, and therefore wishes to conclude this matter."

The man kept the painting at his home up until 15 days ago, Dupouy said, and had "wrapped it with great care".

His client "never earned a single centime" from the sale of the painting. "He was cheated," he said, without explaining further.

The 17th century painting was stolen on July 13, 1999, from the municipal museum in Draguignan.

The man told police that he stole the painting by breaking into the municipal library next door to the museum during a military parade.

An investigation has been launched by the Central Office for the Fight against Traffic in Cultural Goods (OCBC).

The OCBC says there are still 13 Rembrandt portraits being sought worldwide.

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African-born director's new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

The “Haus der Kulturen der Welt” (House of World Cultures), or HKW, was built by the Americans in 1956 during the Cold War for propaganda purposes, at a time when Germany was still divided.

New director Ndikung said it had been located “strategically” so that people on the other side of the Berlin Wall, in the then-communist East, could see it.

This was “representing freedom” but “from the Western perspective”, the 46-year-old told AFP.

Now Ndikung, born in Cameroon before coming to study in Germany 26 years ago, wants to transform it into a place filled with “different cultures of the world”.

The centre, by the river Spree, is known locally as the “pregnant oyster” due to its sweeping, curved roof. It does not have its own collections but is home to exhibition rooms and a 1,000-seat auditorium.

It reopened in June after renovations, and Ndikung’s first project “Quilombismo” fits in with his aims of expanding the centre’s offerings.

The exhibition takes its name from the Brazilian term “Quilombo”, referring to the communities formed in the 17th century by African slaves, who fled to remote parts of the South American country.

Throughout the summer, there will also be performances, concerts, films, discussions and an exhibition of contemporary art from post-colonial societies across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.

‘Rethink the space’

“We have been trying to… rethink the space. We invited artists to paint walls… even the floor,” Ndikung said.

And part of the “Quilombismo” exhibition can be found glued to the floor -African braids laced together, a symbol of liberation for black people, which was created by Zimbabwean artist Nontsikelelo Mutiti.

According to Ndikung, African slaves on plantations sometimes plaited their hair in certain ways as a kind of coded message to those seeking to escape, showing them which direction to head.

READ ALSO: Germany hands back looted artefacts to Nigeria

His quest for aestheticism is reflected in his appearance: with a colourful suit and headgear, as well as huge rings on his fingers, he rarely goes unnoticed.

During his interview with AFP, Ndikung was wearing a green scarf and cap, a blue-ish jacket and big, sky-blue shoes.

With a doctorate in medical biology, he used to work as an engineer before devoting himself to art.

In 2010, he founded the Savvy Gallery in Berlin, bringing together art from the West and elsewhere, and in 2017 was one of the curators of Documenta, a prestigious contemporary art event in the German city of Kassel.

Convinced of the belief that history “has been written by a particular type of people, mostly white and men,” Ndikung has had all the rooms in the HKW renamed after women.

These are figures who have “done something important in the advancement of the world” but were “erased” from history, he added. Among them is Frenchwoman Paulette Nardal, born in Martinique in 1896.

She helped inspire the creation of the “negritude” movement, which aimed to develop black literary consciousness, and was the first black woman to study at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Reassessing history

Ndikung’s appointment at the HKW comes as awareness grows in Germany about its colonial past, which has long been overshadowed by the atrocities committed during the era of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.

Berlin has in recent years started returning looted objects to African countries which it occupied in the early 20th century — Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia and Cameroon.

“It’s long overdue,” said Ndikung.

He was born in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, into an anglophone family.

The country is majority francophone but also home to an anglophone minority and has faced deadly unrest in English-speaking areas, where armed insurgents are fighting to establish an independent homeland.

One of his dreams is to open a museum in Cameroon “bringing together historical and contemporary objects” from different countries, he said.

He would love to locate it in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s restive Northwest region.

“But there is a war in Bamenda, so I can’t,” he says.

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