For nearly four decades president and founder Jan David Winitz of Claremont Rug Company has collaborated with clients to provide one-in-the-world antique Persian carpets to complement the interiors of grand residential spaces with great rugs. Whether a lakeside home, a mountain retreat or primary residence, the homes benefit immeasurably from the emotional and artistic impact that their selections provide. “I find that high-ceiling rooms with significant natural light allow for the creation of very special , entirely individual environments,” he says. “Many of my clients have remarked to me that the rugs that they select provide the ‘finishing touch’ for the grand spaces that they occupy.” Because of the expanse that many of these rooms provide, palace-size rugs with the addition of smaller pieces provide both an overall theme and a more intimate series of spaces in these environments.

A German court fined a thief on Wednesday for taking works discarded in a bin by famed artist Gerhard Richter — yet estimated to be worth 60,000 euros ($67,000). Cologne district court slapped the defendant with a 3,150-euro fine for trying to sell the pieces, which Richter had thrown into a wastepaper container in front of his villa in July 2016 because he thought they were not good enough. The judge ruled that even though the pieces were unsigned by the artist, and therefore not able to be sold on the official art market, they were not worthless. The exact value of the four postcard-sized pieces — photos painted with oil — could not be determined, but the court estimated them to be worth around 60,000 euros. Having taken the pieces from the bin at Richter’s home in Cologne, the thief contacted a Munich auction house, which initially accepted them but demanded a certificate of authenticity. The 49-year-old defendant had presented three of the pictures to the head of the Gerhard Ric

Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday they had found an oil painting by the French Impressionist Paul Signac, valued at 1.5 million euros ($1.68 million), which was stolen last year from a museum in France. Police chief Sergiy Knyazev said the painting was discovered at the home of a Kiev man who was also wanted on suspicion of murdering a jeweller. He added that the suspects in the theft, all Ukrainian, had been arrested. The painting would shortly be returned to the Museum of Fine Arts in Nancy in northeast France, Ukraine’s interior minister Arsen Avakov said as he presented the work at an event with French ambassador Isabelle Dumont. The 1915 oil painting, which was cut from its frame during the theft, depicts boats at the entrance to the French port of La Rochelle. “We received information about a group of people looking for buyers for paintings stolen in Europe last year,” said another police official, Sergiy Tykhonov. “Several works of art have been discovere

Few creatures inspire so much fascination – and fear – as sharks. However, sharks are far from the mindless killing machines that they are commonly portrayed to be. Worldwide, biologists have identified about 470 species of sharks, a cartilaginous fish in the class of Elasmobranchii. Some live peaceful lives skimming plankton from the water with specialized gill rakers. Others have robust social lives and remember their favored companions year after year. A few turn the phrase “cold-blooded killer” on its head even more thoroughly and actually have warm blood pumping through their veins. On view at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, CT, a new exhibition, Sharks!, poses this question: How much of what is commonly “known” about sharks is fact, and how much is fiction?