All Posts Tagged With: "Concordia"
Italian painting stolen by Nazis recovered by Concordia
Manhattan art dealer returns painting originally owned by German-Jewish Max Stern
A Canadian university is announcing the recovery of a late 16th century Italian Baroque painting that was looted by the Nazis from a German-Jewish art dealer.
The 1595 painting of St. Jerome by Ludovico Carracci was one of hundreds of paintings owned by Dr. Max Stern. The art dealer was forced to sell his art at auction in Cologne, Germany, in 1937.
Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement turned over the work Wednesday morning to Stern’s estate, which was left to Concordia University in Montreal and two other universities.
An ICE spokesman said the painting was taken back to Montreal.
It’s the second painting once owned by Stern to be recovered in less than two weeks.
The painting had been hanging in the living room of Manhattan art dealer Richard L. Feigen. He said he returned the work of art after reading about the recovery of the first painting – a 1632 Dutch Old Master called “Portrait of a Musician Playing a Bagpipe” – in a newspaper.
The article said the painting had been sold at the Lempertz Auction House in Cologne – the same place Feigen bought his painting in 2000 for about $54,000.
Feigen said he called an assistant, who immediately checked with the Max Stern Art Restitution Project and discovered the painting was on a list of missing works.
“I felt the only thing to do was return it,” Feigen said in an interview. “It was a stolen painting and it had to be given back.”
Stern escaped to England in 1937. He later moved to Canada and became an art dealer again.
He died in 1987.
On the Net:
Max Stern Art Restitution Project: http://maxsternproject.concordia.ca/
- The Canadian Press
Concordia unblocks Facebook
After installing a new firewall, university caves to pressure from students and faculty
Starting today, students and faculty at Concordia University will be allowed to access Facebook on the school’s wired network.
The school abruptly banned the popular social networking website in September 2008 to the outrage of many students. According to Concordia’s information technology department, security gaps in the university network were making it possible for hackers to use Facebook to access students’ personal information. That information was then being used to launch attacks on the university network.
At the time, Chris Mota, director of media relations at Concordia, told the CBC that the school was increasingly becoming a target of spamming and phishing schemes, and that the attacks were becoming increasingly sophisticated. For example, he said dozens of people had received fraudulent e-mails, purportedly from the IT department, that requested user names and passwords as part of an effort to upgrade the school’s web accounts. About 70 people responded to that e-mail.
In a press release issued May 1, the university said the decision to reactivate Facebook on the wired network was taken in support of the school’s mission. “Facebook has become an important tool for numerous Concordians, specifically in terms of collaboration with academia, researchers and colleagues. Based on feedback from staff and faculty, this website is beneficial to some university members in a variety of ways, from the advertising of campus events to student/faculty recruiting.”
In their decision to allow Facebook access, university administration cited recent improvements to security checks and procedures at the school, including the installation of a new network firewall.
SFU and Concordia atheletes recognized by CIS
Wrestlers named “athlete of the week”
Wrestlers Miranda Dick of Simon Fraser University and Tyler Marghetis of Concordia University were named Canadian Interuniversity Sport female and male athletes of the week Wednesday.Dick, a fifth-year kinesiology student from Kamloops, B.C., was named CIS outstanding female wrestler of the year after she captured individual gold in the 55-kilogram weight class and led the Clan women to a fourth team title in five years at the CIS championship in Calgary.
Marghetis, a fifth-year mathematics student from Ottawa, returning to the CIS championship after a one-year absence, was crowned at 76 kg for the fourth time. The 25-year-old won his three bouts in Calgary, including the gold-medal final over defending champion Sheldon Francis of McMaster.
-with a report from CP
Concordia names new president
Woodsworth will fill position left after surprise departure of last president
Concordia University confirmed Friday that Judith Woodsworth will serve as its next president and vice-chancellor.
Woodsworth, who worked at Concordia in various positions for 17 years, will start her new job August 1. She earned her bachelor’s and PhD degree at McGill and attended graduate school in France. She has been president of Laurentian University since 2002 and was vice-president (academic) at Mount Saint Vincent for five years before that.
“Like Laurentian, Concordia has also grown tremendously in the last decade and has taken its place in this great University City of Montreal,” said Peter Kruyt, chairperson of the Board of Governors. “The financial restraints, however, of all Quebec Universities makes good planning an essential component of prudent oversight and Dr Woodsworth has a solid track record in this regard.”
Woodsworth will take over from Claude Lajeunesse, who left office suddenly only two years into his five-year term, attracting speculation of conflict among top Concordia officials. Despite a particularly affable press release announcing his departure, the Montreal Gazette reported that “a fundamental clash of operating styles appears to be at the root of the abrupt exit.” The newspaper quoted an anonymous university insider who said that the board had been “uncomfortable” with the president for the past year and that he wasn’t a “people person.”
