French museum experts agree to return Egyptian artifacts after Egypt cuts ties with Louvre

October 8th, 2009 Utah Symphony musicians agree to $1.3M in cutsSALT LAKE CITY — Utah Symphony musicians say they'll give up a pay increase, a few weeks of salary and some benefits to help their employer through difficult economic times. The union musicians will donate a total of $1.3 million in salary and benefits.

October 7th, 2009 Egypt cuts ties with France's Louvre museumCAIRO — Egypt said Wednesday its antiquities department severed ties with France's Louvre museum because it has refused to return what are described as stolen artifacts, one of the country's most aggressive attempts yet to reclaim relics from some of the world's leading Egyptology collections. The Louvre has said the museum is open to returning the artifacts demanded by Egypt, though the decision has to be taken by a special committee.

October 7th, 2009 Egypt severs ties with Louvre over artifactsCAIRO — Egypt's antiquities czar took his campaign to recover the nation's lost treasures to a new level on Wednesday by cutting ties with one of the world's premier museums, the Louvre, over disputed artifacts. The Paris museum's refusal to return painted wall fragments of a 3,200-year-old tomb near the ancient temple city of Luxor could jeopardize its future excavations in Egypt.

October 5th, 2009 McDonald's to become Mona Lisa's new neighborPARIS — French culture and American convenience will come together in December — thanks to plans by the McDonald's restaurant chain to hang its shingle in the shadow of the Louvre. McDonald's is delighted at the prospect of feeding hungry culture vultures.

September 10th, 2009 Omar Sharif returns to big screen at VeniceVENICE, Italy — Omar Sharif, whose devilishly handsome looks delighted female fans decades ago, has returned to the big screen at the Venice Film Festival Thursday in a film about an elderly man's encounter with a woman he loved in his youth. "The Traveler," an Egyptian film by first-time feature director Ahmed Maher, is vying for the festival's Golden Lion award.

August 31st, 2009 Tickets on sale for terra cotta warriors exhibitWASHINGTON — Fifteen of China's famous terra cotta warriors are coming to Washington in November for an exhibit at the National Geographic Museum. It's the final U.S.

August 27th, 2009 Doubts cast on authenticity of Picasso in IraqBAGHDAD — Authorities in the art world cast doubt Thursday on the authenticity of an alleged Picasso painting that was seized by Iraqi police south of Baghdad. A painting called "The Naked Woman" that police claimed was painted by Picasso was seized near the southern city of Hillah on Tuesday after the man allegedly tried to sell it for $450,000.

August 11th, 2009 Russian tourist hurls mug at Mona Lisa in LouvrePARIS — The Louvre Museum says a Russian visitor hurled an empty terra cotta mug at the Mona Lisa. A museum spokesman says the canvas of the Da Vinci masterpiece was undamaged in the attack last week, though the mug shattered.

July 3rd, 2009 Rare bust of George Washington to be auctionedLONDON — Art lovers looking for a way to mark U.S. Independence Day may want to consider a rare bust of George Washington being auctioned by Sotheby's in London.

July 2nd, 2009 Italy unveils antiquities returned by US museumROME — Italian officials on Thursday unveiled 14 artifacts spanning from antiquity to the Middle Ages that were looted or stolen from Italy and recently returned by The Cleveland Museum of Art. Culture Ministry officials trumpeted Italy's latest victory in its campaign to recover antiquities they say were stolen or dug up by looters, smuggled out of the country and sold to prestigious museums and collectors across the world.

June 21st, 2009 Greece's New Acropolis Museum opens to visitorsATHENS, Greece — The new Acropolis Museum opened its gates Sunday to hundreds of visitors eager to explore its vast collection of sculptures and artifacts from ancient Greece. The museum holds more than 4,000 ancient works, including some of the best surviving classical sculptures that once adorned the Acropolis.

June 9th, 2009 French police: notebook of Picasso sketches stolenPARIS — A police official says a notebook full of Pablo Picasso's sketches worth several million euros (dollars) has been stolen from the Paris museum that bears the painter's name. The official says the theft was discovered Tuesday morning at the Picasso Museum but it was not clear when or how it took place.

May 14th, 2009 Hollywood lands in DC for 'Museum' premiereWASHINGTON — Ben Stiller and Amy Adams are bringing Hollywood to the capital of the museum world for the premier of "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian." The world's largest museum complex will roll out the red carpet Thursday for stars including Stiller, Adams, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson and Hank Azaria. Claire Brown, a spokeswoman for the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum says staffers are buzzing about the attention from the movie, a sequel to 2006's "Night at the Museum." "We really wanted to expose kids to what the Smithsonian has to offer," she said, noting the Wright brothers' original 1903 airplane, which hangs in the museum, will fly again on screen.

May 14th, 2009 US couple who wanted to adopt on trial in EgyptCAIRO — An American couple, Iris Botros and Louis Andros, thought they were finally reaching their dream of having a child when they came to Botros' homeland, Egypt, to adopt twin orphans. Instead they found themselves in a cage in a courtroom, on trial for alleged child trafficking.

May 6th, 2009 New exhibition documents Louvre during WWIIPARIS — On the eve of World War II, curators at the Louvre swathed the museum's most priceless painting — the "Mona Lisa" — in layers of waterproof paper, boxed it up and spirited it to the French countryside for safekeeping. Leonardo da Vinci's smiling maiden moved another five times during the war before she was brought, safe and sound, back to the Louvre.