Cenovus CEO Pourbaix to step down, become executive chair; Jon McKenzie to be new CEO

Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press

CENOVUS ENERGY INC (CVE:CT)

24.51 0.34 (1.37%)

As of: 02/18/23 3:22:47 am
REAL-TIME QUOTE. Prices update every five seconds for TSX-listed stocks

Chart Type - 1year

See Full Stock Page »

Cenovus Energy Inc. chief executive Alex Pourbaix will step down from his CEO role later this year in order to devote more time to his evolving role as an outspoken champion of Canada's oilsands industry and its decarbonization ambitions.

The Calgary-based energy company said Thursday that Pourbaix, who has led Cenovus since November of 2017, will become executive chair, while chief operating officer Jon McKenzie will become CEO in a transition that will take place after the company's annual meeting set for April 26.

On a conference call with analysts, Pourbaix said the change will allow him to focus his attention on external efforts, including working with all levels of government to advance the oil and gas industry's decarbonization goals.

Cenovus is a member of the Pathways Alliance, a group of oilsands companies that together have pledged to spend $24.1 billion to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from oilsands production by 22 million tonnes by 2030.

Pourbaix has been one of the most outspoken advocates of the Pathways plan and has been heavily involved in the group's efforts to secure federal and provincial support for a massive proposed carbon capture and storage transportation line that would capture carbon dioxide from oilsands facilities and transport it to a storage facility near Cold Lake, Alta.

"Next to safety, there is nothing more important to Cenovus and our industry than reaching a durable solution between government and industry to achieve our emission aspirations," Pourbaix said.

"Once I move to the executive chair position, I intend to dedicate even more time to this pivotal external issue for both Cenovus and our industry."

Pourbaix was one of the prominent industry voices who successfully lobbied the federal government for the creation of an investment tax credit for carbon capture and storage projects in Canada, which was announced in the federal budget last year.

However, he has also been vocal in his stance that more government support is needed before companies will pull the trigger on investing in carbon capture. Pourbaix and other oil and gas sector leaders have said Canada needs to do more to stay competitive with the U.S. and its Inflation Reduction Act, which they say offers more incentives for the technology.

Environmental groups have been critical of the industry's lobbying for more support, given the record profits oil and gas companies earned in 2022 due to sky-high commodity prices.

Cenovus earned $6.45 billion in 2022 compared with $587 million in 2021.

Pourbaix said Thursday that he wants to see the industry, the federal government, and the Alberta government come to some type of "durable" agreement as to what this country's emissions reduction ambitions are. He added a structure needs to be put in place to make sure the oil and gas sector can achieve those goals while still remaining economically viable.

"I think it's just incredibly important for Canadians that we find a way for this industry to be able to continue to thrive, and the way we're going to do that is by constantly improving our environmental leadership," Pourbaix said.

The announcement of the change came as the company reported a fourth-quarter profit of $784 million or 39 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Dec. 31 compared with a loss of $408 million or 21 cents per diluted share a year earlier.

Revenue in the quarter was $14.1 billion, up from $13.7 billion in the last three months of 2021.

Cenovus reported total upstream production amounted to 806,900 barrels of oil equivalent per day for its most recent quarter, down from 825,300 a year earlier.

Total downstream throughput was 473,500 barrels per day, up from 469,900 in the fourth quarter or 2021.

On the call with analysts, McKenzie -- who joined Cenovus in 2018 from Husky Energy as chief financial officer, and was instrumental in Cenovus's merger with that company -- said he expects a smooth transition to the CEO role, with little change in corporate focus.

"Both Alex and I have our fingerprints all over the corporate strategy, and we developed this in a partnership together with the rest of our leadership team," McKenzie said.

Pathways Alliance president Kendall Dilling said in an emailed statement Thursday that he is grateful Pourbaix will continue to devote his energy to the group's ambitions.

"Alex's contributions to not only the creation of Pathways Alliance, but to our continued efforts to decarbonize our industry's production, have been monumental," Dilling said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 16, 2023.

'No cuts coming': Shopify president says company has no plans for another layoff

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press

SHOPIFY INC - CLASS A (SHOP:CT)

58.70 1.69 (2.80%)

As of: 02/18/23 3:23:36 am
REAL-TIME QUOTE. Prices update every five seconds for TSX-listed stocks

Chart Type - 1year

See Full Stock Page »

As a growing number of tech companies carry out successive rounds of layoffs, Shopify Inc.'s president says there are no more cuts in the works for the Ottawa-based e-commerce company.

"There's no cuts coming for us," Harley Finkelstein told The Canadian Press.

"We're in a really good place."

His confidence that the company's reductions are done comes months after Shopify was among the first of the world's tech giants to lay off staff in a summer cut that impacted 1,000 workers — roughly 10 per cent of staff. The company attributed the move to it misjudging the growth of the e-commerce sector.

Since then, few major tech companies have been unscathed by the fading investor exuberance, falling valuations and pressure to reach profitability in the event a predicted recession materializes.

Tech giants as big as Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Intel and Zoom have culled staff from their workforces along with smaller Canadian brands like Wealthsimple, Lightspeed, Clearco and HootSuite.

After Shopify's cuts, Finkelstein feels the company is at the right size.

"I don't think we are going to grow our head count very much," he said. 

"I think we can keep it pretty flat other than maybe a couple of key hires."

Asked what areas might garner hires, he said software and product staff are always in demand because there are fewer of them.

But retaining current staff is just as important. To keep workers, Shopify is leaning on Flex Comp, an initiative which gives staff a “total rewards wallet” and allows them to regularly choose between cash and stock options for their compensation. 

It was implemented in the wake of Shopify's layoff and as its stock came under pressure, falling from a 52-week high of $113.43 to a low of $33.

In designing the program, Shopify completed an extensive benchmarking exercise to ensure salaries are competitive, but executives warned Flex Comp will likely weigh on its 2023 outlook.

Historically, allocations staff made sat at around 70 per cent cash and 30 per cent equity, Finkelstein said.

"I think Q4 allocations may be skewed slightly more cash than those levels, but it's sort of expected that it will vary each quarter," he said.

"Cash gives certainty, but if you understand the business, obviously, you know, equity is what a lot of people want because they want to be able to participate in the upside there as well."

The company is also hoping to remain attractive to talent with a "digital by default" focus it adopted in 2020 after chief executive Tobi Lütke declared "office centricity is over."

Since then, most staff have worked remotely and Shopify opted not to move into The Well complex at King Street West and Spadina Avenue in downtown Toronto. The company was initially slated to occupy 254,000 square feet at The Well, with the option to add another 433,752 square feet.

"We don't need that much space given the new digital by design," Finkelstein said.

Now, staff feel like they can move wherever and whenever they want (Finkelstein is in the process of shifting his family to Montreal) and travel on a whim.

For those that want to head into an office, Shopify is maintaining some sites, including one at the King Portland Centre, not far from The Well. Many people gathered at the company's properties in recent weeks when it held a series of summits and hack days. Others joined virtually or invited colleagues living nearby over to their homes.

"They hosted like watch parties... so I actually think it is working really well for us," Finkelstein said.

He credits that flexibility with helping the company appeal to new, prized hires like Jeff Hoffmeister, who led Shopify’s initial public offering and worked for Morgan Stanley since 2000. Hoffmeister joined as chief financial officer but is able to work in New York, where Finkelstein frequently travels. 

Around the same time as Hoffmeister joined Shopify, chief technology officer Allan Leinwand announced he will be departing the company with chief executive Lütke to take on some of his responsibilities.

Rather than replace Leinwand, Lütke is now overseeing research and development. He previously stepped in to take over chief product officer Craig Miller's responsibilities, when he left in 2020. At the time, Lütke said there were no plans to replace Miller.

The latest move isn't as big as it may seem to outsiders, Finkelstein said.

"He's been doing this for a long time and now we're just sort of documenting it officially."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 16, 2024.

Shopify's early job cuts fuel rebound in

earnings, stock price

Geoffrey Morgan, Bloomberg News

Shopify Inc. was among the first technology giants to slash its workforce during last year’s market rout. Now, some investors say its stock is poised to outperform peers over the course of 2023 as those job cuts translate into lower costs, narrower losses and better cash flow.

The Canadian e-commerce firm shocked the market when it cut 1,000 jobs in July – a move that sent the stock plummeting 14 per cent in a day as Chief Executive Officer Tobi Lutke said the company need to lower expenses after an aggressive pandemic expansion plan. The move preceded waves of layoffs across the tech sector, including at Amazon.com Inc. and software maker Microsoft Corp.

The payoff should begin to be evident on Wednesday, when Shopify reports fourth-quarter results. Analysts in aggregate have boosted earnings per share estimates by 37 per cent over the past six months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. While free cash flow is still expected to be a negative US$109.3 million, that’s less than half the amount from the third quarter.  

“We are pretty excited about the cost actions’ impact on this year,” said Ivana Delevska, chief investment officer at Spear Invest. Her firm built up a position in Shopify in the fourth quarter, betting on a rebound. 

The earnings bump that Shopify is likely to get may be a leading indicator for other tech companies that were relative latecomers to cost cutting, such as Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc. Shares of Meta surged on Feb. 2 after CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledged to make 2023 the year of efficiency. 

Since the job cuts, Shopify has announced new partnerships, a flurry of updates for customers and a significantly higher pricing plan. Delevska said the combination of those efforts should be visible in the earnings. “I think there is going to be a bump at the next set of results,” she said.

Investors appear to have bought into the turnaround story. Shopify’s stock has jumped 40 per cent this year while Amazon shares are up 18 per cent. Indeed, it’s one of the five best-performing stocks in the MSCI World Information Technology Index in 2023 and traders are betting it has room to bounce further, with options pricing in an implied 9.5 per cent move after earnings.

Shopify’s profitability plan is “likely to be the main focus area of attention” during its earnings call, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Anurag Rana wrote in a report, adding that an e-commerce rebound is expected after Amazon’s third-party business unit posted 20 per cent growth compared with consensus expectations of 7 per cent.

To be fair, Shopify’s bounce comes after an outsized drop – even in the tech sector. The Ottawa-based company started 2022 as the most valuable in Canada, with a market value of C$217.8 billion and a 6 per cent weighting in the S&P/TSX Composite Index, before a near record slide. Its performance last year was so dismal that it almost singlehandedly dragged the country’s main index into the red and affected the value of the pension holdings of every person working in Canada since the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec are both shareholders.

The company, now valued at C$70 billion, has a long way to climb to regain its former glory. Analysts remain to be convinced, however. They forecast that Shopify will lose money every year through 2025, and their average price target for the stock over the next year is C$61.54, a drop of 5.4 per cent from Monday’s closing level. It has only 20 buy ratings versus 23 holds and five sells.  

Still, shareholders continue to expect growth over the longer term.

“With a low single-digit percentage of U.S. retail sales currently flowing through its platform, and much less elsewhere, there is abundant scope for continued rapid growth,” Baillie Gifford investment manager Gary Robinson said in an email. The firm is Shopify’s second-largest shareholder and added to its holdings in 2022 because the shares didn’t reflect the “long-term opportunity.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2024.

NOT CORPORATE PROFITS BUT YOU AND ME

Excess household savings may help economy avoid harsher downturn: BMO

Nojoud Al Mallees, The Canadian Press

High household savings in Canada and the U.S. may help both countries avoid a severe downturn as high interest rates ripple through the economy. 

Although pandemic savings have diminished significantly, many households still have above-average savings, says the report published Friday. 

Large savings were amassed by households during the pandemic as lockdowns restricted spending in areas such as entertainment and transit. 

Many workers also benefited from income support programs rolled out by governments, which cushioned incomes. 

Middle and upper-income households hold most of the excess savings currently in the economy, noted Sal Guatieri, BMO senior economist and the report's author. 

Meanwhile, low-income households have depleted most of their savings as high inflation and interest rates take a larger bite out of their budgets.

"That's not surprising, given, number 1, they built up relatively lower savings to begin with than upper income households," Guatieri said. "They've (also) been more challenged with the rising cost of necessities,

For the bottom 40 per cent of income earners, net savings have dwindled by 12 per cent between the first quarter of 2020 and third quarter of 2022. In contrast, savings were up for the top 40 per cent.  

Although these excess savings among some households may serve as an economic buffer, Guatieri warns they could also serve as a "double-edged sword" for central banks fighting off high inflation. 

The Bank of Canada and U.S. Federal Reserve have raised interest rates aggressively to slow spending in both economies and bring inflation down from decades-high levels. 

The report also notes "the thinner cash cushion available for lower-income groups means they are more susceptible to a slowing economy."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2023.

The de-Russification of Ukrainian art

Shlomit Lasky

A New York museum has renamed an Edgar Degas painting to recognize its Ukrainian, not Russian, theme; and acknowledged formerly Russia-designated artists as Ukrainian

Barley two months into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, London's National Gallery responded to criticism on social media and changed the name of a work by French impressionist artist, Edgar Degas, from "Russian Dancers" to "Ukrainian Dancers."

Now, in response to ongoing pressure to recognize Ukrainian culture that had been colonized under the Tsarist and Soviet regimes, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) has renamed another Degas work.

The artwork known as "The Russian Dancer" was officially changed to "Dancer in Ukrainian Dress" last week as the MET also designated nineteenth-century painters Ivan Aivazovsky, Illia Repin, and Arkhyp Kuindzhi as Ukranian, not Russian, artists.

"Step by step, Ukraine reclaims our cultural identity," tweeted Anton Gerashchenko, advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, in response to the retitling of the Degas work almost a year since the Russian invasion.

 

Artists recognized as Ukrainian

The recognition of Ukrainian artists at the MET was accompanied with the redrafting of captions on artworks.

"Kuindzhi was born along the coast in Mariupol, when the Ukrainian city was part of the Russian Empire," reads the changed caption accompanying Arkhyp Kuindzhi's circa 1905-08 painting, "Red Sunset" — which includes a view of Ukraine's Dnipro river.

Mariupol was the site of fierce fighting during the initial invasion, and the destruction of cultural heritage including a museum named after the artist.

"In March 2022, the Kuindzhi Art Museum in Mariupol, Ukraine, was destroyed in a Russian airstrike," the painting caption in the MET now reads.

A Met spokesperson told DW that it continually researches and examines objects in its collection in order to determine the most appropriate and accurate way to catalogue and present them.

"The cataloging of these works has been updated following research conducted in collaboration with scholars in the field," read a statement.

Yet at time of publication, the MET is still to change the name of another Degas work in his series currently titled "Russian Dancers," that is a very similar to the "Ukrainian Dancers" retitled by London's National Gallery last year.

Arkhyp Kuindzhi's "Red Sunset" depicts his Ukrainian homeland

Image: Public domain - Rogers Fund, 1974

Degas works portray Ukrainian culture

"Dancer in Ukrainian Dress" is part of a series of pastel drawings that the French impressionist created between around 1890 and the early 1900s.

The series portrays Ukrainian women in traditional folk costumes with blue and yellow ribbons in their hair — the Ukrainian national colors.

Fascinated by dancers as a painting subject, it is believed that Degas was inspired by Ukrainian dancers he had encountered while they were touring Paris.

At the time, France had entered an alliance with the Russian empire that included Ukraine, and whose art and culture was on display in the French capital.

Failure to differentiate Russian and Ukrainian culture

When Ukraine was subjugated by the Russian and Soviet empires, so was its culture and heritage.

As part of what is known as the Ukrainian genocide, the Soviet regime lead by Joseph Stalin quashed a rising independence movement by purging cultural figures and outlawing Ukrainian language.

Artist Illia Repin, who painted his "Ukrainian House" in 1880, has been recognized by the MET as Ukrainian

Image: Julian Salinas/The Kyiv National Art Gallery

The Russification of Ukraine meant that it was difficult to discern Ukrainian culture following independence in the early 1990s, notes Daria Badior, a Ukrainian journalist and editor.

"In the media mainstream, few can discern whether an artwork was created in the Ukrainian, Georgian, Estonian, or the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic," she wrote in the online art magazine, Hyperallergic. "It just seems, to the general public, like Soviet art and therefore Russian."

"Every trip to a gallery or museum in London with exhibits on art or cinema from the USSR reveals deliberate or just lazy misinterpretation of the region as one endless Russia," historian, writer and director of the Ukranian Institute London, Olesya Khromeychuk, wrote in German magazine, Der Spiegel, in March 2022.

"Curators have no problem presenting Jewish, Belarusian, or Ukrainian art and artists as Russian," she added, "much like the current president of the Russian Federation would like to see it."

"Putin has one of the largest armies in the world, but he has other weapons too," Khromeychuk wrote, adding that "culture and history take a prominent place in his arsenal."

A report by the European Parliament also noted how Russia's appropriation of Ukrainian culture has been a central part of the ongoing invasion.

"Russian aggressors have looted artefacts from public and private collections, added them to Russian collections and declared them part of Russian history and culture," stated the report.

Other works in Degas' series could be retitled

The renaming of the Edgar Degas series on Ukrainian dancers — which includes around 18 works — will depend on private owners and other museums who hold the works.

Two are at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and one is in Sweden's Nationalmuseum in Stockholm — which according to the museum has not been on display since 2019.

"Based on the information that is now available about the entire series of drawings that Degas made, there is reason for us to consider changing the title as well," the Swedish museum told DW in a statement.

"First, we need to go through the information that the other museums have based their changes on and what a new title in that case would be."

Ukraine's struggle to de-Russify Ukrainian heritage and art is set to continue.

Edited by Stuart Braun

UKRAINIAN NATIONAL POET TARAS SHEVCHENKO COMPARED TO SCOT ROBBIE BURNS

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Radical Robbie Burns, Peoples Poet

Germany's wind energy: Conservationists fear for forests

Kristie Pladson

Germany is counting on wind energy to help replace fossil fuels. But critics say massive investment in the sector is ignoring a different environmental crisis.

They call it the "Sleeping Beauty Castle." Sitting on a hill in the middle of the Reinhardswald, an ancient forest said to be the inspiration for many of the fairy tales written by the Brothers Grimm, the Sababurg is a lovely 14th century castle known for its magnificent rose garden and towers.

But we're not here to see Sleeping Beauty or her castle in the central German state of Hesse. In fact, we're standing with our backs turned to it. Ralf Paschold, a wind energy entrepreneur, points at a tree-covered ridge off in the distance.

"For the next 30 years," he said, "I will produce energy there."

Some locals argue wind turbines would ruin the view from "Sleeping Beauty Castle" in Hessen, Germany

Image: Uwe Zucchi/picture alliance/dpa

Four to five wind turbines a day

Paschold, who is from the area himself, has built wind farms in Canada, France and other parts of Germany. Now he plans to build 18 wind turbines here in the Reinhardswald. Overall, the forest is 20,000 hectares, but Paschold only wants to use 14 hectares where drought and a beetle infestation have killed the trees for his turbines.

His business venture is one small part in Germany's vast plan to awaken its domestic wind energy sector from slumber. Germany is already big on wind: with nearly 30,000 onshore wind turbines, the country trails only the US and China.

But it's not enough to meet the country's climate goals. Today, only 0.8% of Germany's land area is approved for onshore wind energy. By 2032, the government wants to have 2% of land area allocated for onshore wind power. This means installing between 1,000 and 1,500 new turbines a year, or four to five a day by 2030, as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently said.

Germany needs wind energy to meet its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2045, a target it's currently in danger of missing, according to multiple studies. The country also missed its emissions reduction targets the last two years in a row, according to think tank Agora Energiewende.

"If Germany fails to meet its climate targets, we will not be able to demand that others meet theirs," Germany's Economy and Climate Minister Robert Habeck said in February.

To meet its 2030 climate goals, Germany should be installing 4 to 5 wind turbines a day

Image: Hauke Hass/Imago Images

Local resistance and red tape

Between its domestic goals and an international reputation as a leader in sustainability, an outsider might be surprised to learn how hard it is to build a wind turbine in Germany.

"Just the time to get the permit takes two and a half years," Paschold said. "Why? Because the process is too difficult."

German states are responsible for proposing spaces of land where wind turbines can be built. But these decisions are often met with fierce resistance from locals, who have a wide range of problems with having wind turbines installed close to home, including fear of health risks or ruining the view of cultural sites, like Sababurg castle.

Complicated regulations, a lack of government workers to process the paperwork, and efforts to keep wind turbines away from animals' natural habitats are also preventing the sector from developing as the government wants, Paschold says.

"The dormouse, the bats, the birds, the small salamander," he said, listing local animals, "I will protect them. Because my heart is beating for them. But we can bring all these things together. It's easy."

Europe's energy pricing system means wind turbines generate a lot of revenue relative to production costs

Image: Hauke Hass/Imago Images

Disturbing protected ecosystems

But the energy entrepreneur knows how difficult this is in reality. His own project is currently on hold while a court tries to determine whether constructing wind turbines in the Reinhardswald poses too great of a risk to the forest's dormouse population.

In a nearby corner of the Reinhardswald, where one of Paschold's turbines is meant to be built, is Annette Müller-Zietzke, an occupational therapist and member of the campaign "Save the Reinhardswald." The group aims to keep wind turbines out of the forest. At the site, she points out how new beech trees have started springing up between the tree stumps. Among the stumps and shrubs is where the dormouse likes to hide, she tells DW.

"Legally, this area is forest as long as all of this is here," she said. In a protected forest like this, you aren't even allowed to pitch a tent because of the risk it poses to the habitat of the animals living there, she points out.

No human would willingly choose to live directly under a wind turbine, adds Müller-Zietzke.

"And then, for these species that are even more sensitive than we are, we just say, 'It probably doesn't matter.' In times of probably the greatest loss of biodiversity since the extinction of the dinosaurs, this is a terrible, fatal development."

Germany trails only China and the US in energy generation from onshore wind turbines

Image: Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images

Big money for wind farmers

The conservationist says that because of her anti-wind views, people often lump her together with rightwing parties, like the far-right Alternatives for Germany (AfD), that are critical of renewable energy.

She rejects this affiliation completely. But she's concerned that other critical environmental issues are being sacrificed in order to hit the country's ambitious wind targets.

Especially if there is money to be made. The system for pricing electricity in Europe, known as the merit order system, means that energy that is relatively cheap to produce, like wind and solar, is sold at the same market price as the most expensive sources of energy. When oil and natural gas prices skyrocketed after Russia invaded Ukraine, the price of electricity generated from wind went up as well.

"It's not the target of the wind farmers to earn this difference with the gas price," said Paschold. "But yes, it's an effect of the system."

Government sides with wind sector

The lengthy licensing process, long construction times, and issues with supply chains and inflation are still taking a big bite out of wind parks' profit margins. But with a government mandate to see through the transition to green energy, it can seem like a sure bet in the long term for those willing to invest, even with the hurdles.

Frustrated activists seem to see it this way, too.

"How can it be that we put giant turbines … in such a highly complex ecosystem, which suddenly doesn't seem so complex anymore if we're talking about putting a windmill there?" Müller-Zietzke asked.

Paschold thinks building in the forest is justified under the circumstances. "We have the Earth heating. We have all the problems. We need more and more power. We want to have cars powered by electricity."

So build them, he says, and see what happens in 30 years.

"Perhaps, by then, we have a better idea than producing energy with wind turbines," said Paschold. "And if we have a better idea, I can take them down in a few days."

Natalie Muller contributed to this report.

Edited by: Tim Rooks

Chagall painting stolen by Nazis on display in New York after sale

Issued on: 18/02/2023 - 

New York (AFP) – A painting by Marc Chagall, stolen by Nazis in occupied Poland and returned last year to the owner's family who quickly auctioned it off, is on display through 2023 at the Jewish Museum in New York.

The oil on canvas, which the Russian-born Chagall painted of his father in 1911 after moving to Paris, was sold last November for $7.4 million at the Phillips auction house, capping a tumultuous history.

Purchased in 1928 by Polish-Jewish violin maker David Cender, "The Father" was left behind when his family was forced to move to the Lodz ghetto.

Deported to Auschwitz, where his wife and daughter were killed, Cender survived and moved to France in 1958, where he died less than a decade later without regaining possession of the painting.

In the meantime, the work had reappeared in exhibitions and was remarkably purchased by Chagall himself, probably between 1947 and 1953 without knowing its provenance, according to Phillips and the French Ministry of Culture.

After the artist, who was born in the Russian empire, died in 1985, "The Father" entered France's national collections. It was then assigned to the Pompidou Center and eventually deposited in the Museum of Jewish Art and History in Paris.

The French parliament unanimously adopted a law at the beginning of 2022 to return 15 works of Jewish families looted by the Nazis. The then culture minister, Roselyne Bachelot, had called it a historic "first step," noting that other looted works of art and books were still kept in public collections.

The Jewish Museum's director Claudia Gould said she was "honored" to receive the painting on loan and to be able to display it.

"The vast and systemic pillaging of artworks during World War II, and the eventual rescue and return of many, is one of the most dramatic stories of twentieth-century art, and one that continues to have repercussions today," she said in a statement.

"It is imperative that the Jewish Museum tell these stories."

"The Father" will be on display until January 1, 2024.

© 2023 AFP

Police return stolen Dali drawings to Barcelona owners

Issued on: 17/02/2023 

Barcelona (AFP) – Two 100-year-old charcoal drawings by surrealist master Salvador Dali that were stolen from a Barcelona home last year have been found and returned to their owners, Spanish police said Friday.

The artworks, which have a value of around 300,000 euros ($320,000), were stolen from an upmarket neighbourhood of Barcelona in January 2022, Catalan regional police said.

Police recovered the two drawings and arresting three brothers in their 50s who were involved in "highly-specialised" burglaries.

The drawings -- one of Catalan peasants, the other of traditional dances -- were then sent to the Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation to be authenticated.

Experts concluded they were drawn by the Catalan artist in 1922 when he was 18 to illustrate a book about the local area called "Les Gracies de l'Emporda" ('The Charms of Emporda').



The three arrested brothers had been operating in wealthy Barcelona areas, choosing their targets after days of surveillance then breaking in when the owners were away, usually at weekends.

Once inside, they were selective, taking only valuable works of art as well as coin collections and other antiques.

The trio were arrested in May 2022 along with two accomplices, with police also seizing five prints by the Catalan artist Joan Miro which have yet to be analysed by experts.

They also found 55 watches along with coins and antiques.

© 2023 AFP