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“It’s all about bronze and about the copper in bronze,” Ton Cremers, former head of security at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, said in a telephone interview. “Very few thefts of sculptures are solved. I think it’s less than 5 percent. They damage the sculpture right away. Within a day, the sculpture disappears. That makes it very difficult to solve these cases.”

At the Johannesburg Art Gallery, home to Picassos, van Goghs and Rodins, thieves stole a figure of a woman in mourning by South African master sculptor Sydney Kumalo. The Kumalo is one of a total of four bronzes taken in a robbery in January and another in September at the city-owned gallery.

A small bronze titled “A chair, a boat and a vase” by well-known South African sculptor Barend De Wet was wrenched from the facade of the national art museum in Cape Town in May.

“If they are caught with it, they can’t say that they didn’t know,” he said.

“There’s a lot of very sophisticated (security) systems internationally that, unfortunately, we just can’t afford,” said Antoinette Murdoch, chief curator of the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Cremers recommends that steel skeletons be built inside larger bronzes to make it harder for thieves to cut them into pieces and cart them away. Smaller pieces can be fitted with electronic devices, the same strategy boutiques use to keep shoplifters from walking off with clothing. He acknowledges, though, that such fixes might be beyond the budgets of museums in poor countries.

Bernard Maguire, spokesman for the Metal Recyclers Association, said his industry group alerts scrap dealers across South Africa when a theft, whether of copper wire or a bronze statue, is reported.

Two years ago, Massie said, a registry of thefts he makes public in an effort to ensure pieces are recovered listed no stolen bronzes. Last year, there was one. This year, there have been five four alone from the Johannesburg gallery and the one from the national gallery.

The Johannesburg Art Gallery is not a client, but Massie listed its losses because he wanted to help. The cash-strapped gallery has had to cut back on gardeners and can’t afford a badly needed new roof and air conditioning system.

“They’re in a woeful position of holding the nation’s treasures and having no budget,” Massie said. “One has to have a lot of empathy with the directors and curators. It’s not their choice to have poor security.”

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Donna Bryson can be reached on http://twitter.com/dbrysonAP

Bronze sculptures are only the latest target in South Africa: Days before U2 played a stadium in Johannesburg earlier this year, officials blamed copper thieves for power problems at the venue. Cable theft has led to service interruptions on the Gautrain, a sleek new South African light rail service.

The phenomenon also has been seen in Latin America, where vandals in Brazil sawed off the arms of a bronze statue of soccer legend Pele in 2007.

“I understand that art will be stolen,” said Noah Charney, who founded a think tank called the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art. “But I get very upset when art is destroyed … that is an irrevocable attack on beauty, culture and civilization.”

Murdoch said the city has promised her 1 million rand (about $125,000) to upgrade security, and she is seeking more from donors.

South Africa, well known for its high rates of murder and other violent crimes, is only the latest country where copper thieves are targeting art.

He said the members code of conduct also makes it clear that “if you do suspect something is stolen, you’re duty bound to communicate that to police.” But he said some items are cut up before they even reach dealers.

JOHANNESBURG One of the bronze sculptures stolen from the Johannesburg Art Gallery is worth about $16,000. Curators fear thieves sold it to a scrap dealer for a mere $250.

Gordon Massie, managing director of a Johannesburg company that specializes in ensuring fine art, said the true extent of the problem may never be known because private collectors who have lost bronzes don’t want to invite attention. And some government galleries refuse to list losses on their site for fear they’ll be accused of failing to care for their nation’s heritage.

Prices for metals with industrial uses like copper the main component in bronze have been booming. And as the stolen bronzes fail to turn up at auction houses, galleries can only fear the worst.

In one stunning case in 2005, thieves took a two-ton, $5.2 million bronze by famed English sculpture Henry Moore from the artist’s estate north of London. Police, saying “Reclining Figure” was too well known to have been sold on the art market, said the thieves may have stolen the work to melt it down and sell it for a fraction of its value as scrap.

(Reuters) Apple Inc (AAPL.O) sent out media invitations on Wednesday announcing plans for an education event at New York’s Guggenheim Museum on January 19 but did not reveal further details.

The iPhone and iPad maker is notoriously tightlipped about its carefully staged launch events and this time is no different.

The invitation, integrating the Apple logo into an outline sketch of the Manhattan skyline, simply asks guests to “Join us for an education announcement in the Big Apple”.

The invitation-only event will take place at the modern and contemporary art Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

(Reporting By Yinka Adegoke; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

CONCORD, New Hampshire (Reuters) Republican front-runner Mitt Romney emerged on Sunday from back-to-back debates in New Hampshire a bit dinged but not seriously dented as rivals stepped up attacks to slow his march toward the presidential nomination.

Two days before voters in the small New England state head to the polls for the first 2012 primary election, Romney took heat on a number of topics: his record as governor of neighboring Massachusetts, the attack ads run by an outside group on his behalf and a suggestion he would wither in the face of attacks from Democratic President Barack Obama.

One by one, the contenders lined up to fire on the former venture capitalist in a surprisingly heated debate after they largely left Romney alone Saturday night. But there was little to suggest he had suffered any setback in New Hampshire, where he is heavily favored to win.

“Romney was dinged in the second debate, but not seriously wounded,” said Larry Sabato, political analyst at the University of Virginia. “Basically, the candidates firmed up their own individual base but I don’t think they took much away from Romney either in terms of Republicans or independents.”

Slowing Romney’s momentum has taken on new urgency in the face of polls showing he is also favored in the South Carolina primary on January 21, despite being seen as less socially conservative as his competitors in the church-going southern state.

Although Romney’s win in the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday was an eight-vote squeaker over Rick Santorum, backing it up with a win in New Hampshire would be a feat never achieved by a Republican candidate who is not an incumbent, adding to a sense of inevitability about his candidacy.

The online exchange InTrade, which takes bets on the outcomes of events such as elections, now shows Romney with an 83 percent chance of winning the Republican nomination to run against Obama in the fall.

ROMNEY PAINTED AS MODERATE

And yet, the race for second continued to hold the Republican field in suspense, with Santorum, libertarian congressman Ron Paul, former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Governor Rick Perry and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman all vying for the spot.

Santorum, whose lackluster campaign caught fire in Iowa and who has pinned hopes more on the next contest in South Carolina, came out punching at Romney, even though he endorsed Romney in his 2008 run for the party’s nomination.

“If his record was so great as governor of Massachusetts, why didn’t he run for re-election,” said Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania.

Criticism of Romney zeroed in on whether the former governor of a moderate New England state would be the strongest candidate to fly the conservative flag against Obama in the November election.

Gingrich, hurt by a spate of negative ads organized by former Romney staffers, said Romney would “have a very hard time getting elected” and had policy positions that are not sufficiently different from Obama.

“There’s a huge difference between a Reagan conservative and somebody who comes out of the Massachusetts culture who essentially has a moderate record,” Gingrich said during the NBC/Facebook debate in Concord, New Hampshire.

But Romney defended himself as “a solid conservative” who was in politics on a detour from his business career as a venture capitalist. Acting like a front-runner, he kept his focus more on Obama than on his Republican rivals.

“I happen to believe that if we want to replace a lifetime politician like Barack Obama … we’ve got to choose someone who is not a lifetime politician, who has not spent his entire career in Washington.”

Gingrich bristled at Romney’s attempts to paint himself as a reluctant politician.

“Can we drop a little bit of the pious baloney?” he quipped. “You were running for president while you were governor.”

HARD CHOICES OVER CANDIDATES

In the most tumultuous nominating process in the Republican camp in decades, it is hard to know what voters want – a flagbearer of conservative values or a serious challenge to a vulnerable incumbent trying to revive the sagging U.S. economy.

Sue Grant, 49,wholesale Ed hardy jeans, was one of those torn New Hampshire voters, “on my knees praying,” as she struggled to make a decision on her candidate. Romney appeared to be off her list.

“He does not make me warm and fuzzy,” Grant said. “I want somebody that is separate from the same old get along and go along wishy-washy.”

Santorum is running hard on his socially conservative credentials and used the spotlight again on Sunday to reinforce that message. He also emerged unscathed from an exchange about gay rights.

Santorum “has accepted the fact that he’s going to lose New Hampshire, maybe badly. He spoke more to South Carolina than to New Hampshire,” Sabato said.

Santorum has been riding a wave of popularity after a narrow second-place finish to Romney in the first Republican presidential nominating contest in Iowa last week.

Often in the news for negative comments about gays, Santorum managed to strike a conciliatory tone, saying “every person in America, gay or straight” should be treated with respect and that he would still love a gay son.

One of the biggest applause lines came from Jon Huntsman, who responded to a comment Romney had made about him in Saturday night’s debate in Goffstown, New Hampshire.

Romney had slapped Huntsman for “implementing” Obama’s agenda as U.S. ambassador to China, a post he held until April.

Addressing debate moderator David Gregory, Huntsman said: “This country is divided, David, because of attitudes like that. … The American people are tired of partisan divisions.”

“There are five candidates (with) a shot at getting double digits in New Hampshire and I think they all helped themselves today,” said Fergus Cullen, former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party.

(Additional reporting by Sam Youngman and Jason McLure; Editing by Mary Milliken and Cynthia Osterman)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) And the year’s first Oscars go to …

Micro-voxels, the Pictorvision Eclipse electronically stabilized aerial camera platform, Stab-C Classic stabilizing heads and the ARRILASER Film Recorder.

Once again the Academy has announced the winners of its Scientific and Technical Awards, and once again the list of achievements being recognized by the Academy will sail right over the heads of those who aren’t attuned to the Sciences part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

But for those in the know, the eight achievements chosen by the Academy have, in the words of the AMPAS press release, “a proven record of contributing significant value to the process of making motion pictures.”

The Sci-Tech Awards, as they’re dubbed, some in three versions. One awards the recipient with a certificate, one awards a plaque, and one, which isn’t given out every year, awards an Oscar statuette.

This year’s 27 honorees include three men who will receive Oscar statuettes for the design and development of the ARRILASER Film Recorder.

The Sci-Tech Awards will be presented at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Saturday, February 11 — and, if history is any indication, will be hosted by an actress who has appeared in at least one special-effects-heavy movie.

From the AMPAS press release, here are this year’s honorees:

Technical Achievement Award (Academy Certificate)

To Andrew Clinton and Mark Elendt for the invention and integration of micro-voxels in the Mantra software.

This work allowed, for the first time, unified and efficient rendering of volumetric effects such as smoke and clouds, together with other computer graphics objects, in a micro-polygon imaging pipeline.

Scientific and Engineering Award (Academy Plaque)

To Radu Corlan, Andy Jantzen, Petru Pop and Richard Toftness for the design and engineering of the Phantom family of high-speed cameras for motion picture production.

The Phantom family of high-speed digital cameras, including the Phantom Flex and HD Gold, provide imagery at speeds and efficacy surpassing photochemical technology, while seamlessly intercutting with conventional film production.

To Dr. Jurgen Noffke for the optical design and Uwe Weber for the mechanical design of the ARRI Zeiss Master Prime Lenses for motion picture photography.

The Master Primes have achieved a full stop advance in speed over existing lenses, while maintaining state-of-the-art optical quality. This lens family was also the first to eliminate the magnification change that accompanied extreme focus shifts.

To Michael Lewis, Greg Marsden, Raigo Alas and Michael Vellekoop for the concept, design and implementation of the Pictorvision Eclipse, an electronically stabilized aerial camera platform.

The Pictorvision Eclipse system allows cinematographers to capture aerial footage at faster flying speeds with aggressive platform maneuvering.

To E.F. “Bob” Nettmann for the concept and system architecture, Michael Sayovitz for the electronic packaging and integration, Brad Fritzel for the electronic engineering, and Fred Miller for the mechanical engineering of the Stab-C Classic, Super-G and Stab-C Compact stabilizing heads.

This versatile family of 5-axis camera and lens stabilizers allows any standard motion picture camera to be fitted into the open architecture of the structure. The system can be quickly balanced and made ready for shooting platforms such as helicopters, boats, camera cars or cranes.

To John D. Lowry, Ian Cavon, Ian Godin, Kimball Thurston and Tim Connolly for the development of a unique and efficient system for the reduction of noise and other artifacts, thereby providing high-quality images required by the filmmaking process.

The “Lowry Process” uses advanced GPU-accelerated, motion estimation-based image processing tools to enhance image quality.

To FUJIFILM Corporation, Hideyuki Shirai, Dr. Katsuhisa Oozeki and Hiroshi Hirano for the design and development of the FUJIFILM black and white recording film ETERNA-RDS 4791 for use in the archival preservation of film and digital images.

Specifically designed for laser film recording and widely used in the industry today, the high-resolution FUJIFILM ETERNA-RDS 4791 film stock is an important step in protecting the heritage of the motion picture industry.

Academy Award of Merit (Oscar Statuette)

To Franz Kraus, Johannes Steurer and Wolfgang Riedel for the design and development of the ARRILASER Film Recorder.

The ARRILASER film recorder demonstrates a high level of engineering resulting in a compact,wholesale Ed hardy belts, user-friendly, low-maintenance device, while at the same time maintaining outstanding speed, exposure ratings and image quality.

LONDON (Reuters) Christie’s held a highly anticipated auction of old master paintings in London on Tuesday night, with one of the star works selling for more than 2 million pounds ($3.12 million) above the pre-auction estimate.

“The Battle between Carnival and Lent” by Pieter Brueghel II sold for almost 6.9 million pounds to an anonymous buyer, Christie’s said on its website.

The sale price exceeded the pre-auction estimate of 3.5-4.5 million pounds and set the world record price for the artist at auction, Christie’s said.

The second highest-priced painting on the night was a Willem van de Velde II work, “Dutch men-o’-war and other shipping in a calm,” which sold to a European private collector for nearly 6 million pounds, also a world record price for the artist at auction,Cheap Ed hardy underwear, Christie’s said.

However, the auction’s star attraction “Portrait of Juan Lopez de Robredo,” by Spanish painter Francisco Goya remained listed on the auctioneer’s website as unsold, with an estimated sale tag of 6.2-9.3 million pounds.

The total sale of 24 million pounds, which did not include a sale for the Goya painting, as well as a Nicolaes Maes work that carried an estimated price of 1.5-2.3 million pounds, was just shy of the pre-sale estimate for all the lots of 26 million pounds.

Much of the interest in this week’s series of old master and British art auctions in London has been generated by a Velazquez original that was first valued at 300 pounds ($470).

The portrait of an unknown gentleman goes under the hammer on Wednesday and is set to fetch up to 3 million pounds at Bonhams.

($1 = 0.6410 British pounds)

(Reporting by Stephen Mangan; Editing by Michael Roddy)

(Reuters) Demand for loans to buy homes and refinance mortgages slid in the final week of 2011, even as mortgage rates dipped, an industry group said on Wednesday.

Applications for U.S. home mortgages fell 4.1 percent in the week ended December 30, weighed down by a 9.6 percent drop in purchase loan requests and a 2.5 percent decline in refinancing requests, seasonally adjusted data from the Mortgage Bankers Association showed.

Average 30-year conforming mortgage rates dipped to the year’s low of 4.07 percent from 4.10 percent the prior week, and well below 4.82 percent at the end of 2010.

The slide to near-record-low borrowing rates has spurred more homeowners to seek refinancing, propelling that index up more than 60 percent in 2011.

But demand for loans to buy homes fell in the year, as borrowers struggled to come up with enough cash for down payments or stayed on the sidelines due to worries about unemployment. Some buyers had also leapt into the market in 2010 to take advantage of a first-time buyer tax credit.

The MBA said it does not expect any quick rebound in the mortgage market.

“As part of legislation to extend the payroll tax holiday, guarantee fees for loans purchased by the GSEs and mortgage insurance premiums for FHA loans will eventually increase,” Michael Fratantoni, MBA’s vice president of research and economics, said in a statement. “Given the announced implementation of this change, we do not expect to see an impact on mortgage rates and application activity until at least February.”

Bob Moulton, president of Americana Mortgage Group in Manhasset, New York, said the company’s pipeline of loan requests is off to a better start in 2012 than the same time a year ago, boosted by refinancing.

But caution prevails with a big overhang of unsold homes and the presidential election looming,Cheap Ed hardy belts, he said.

Refinancing applications represented about 82 percent of total mortgage activity in the latest week, the highest share of the year.

“It’s going to be another couple of years until these short sales and foreclosures are flushed out of the system, so you might see a little weakness in prices this year,” Moulton added. “We’re feeling a little better about 2012 than 2011, but you’re always waiting for the next shoe to drop.”

The MBA released data for two weeks on Wednesday, rather than one, because of the Christmas and New Year holidays.

In the week ended December 23, total mortgage demand climbed 0.3 percent, with refinancing up 0.5 percent and purchase applications down 0.1 percent.

The survey covers over 75 percent of U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, according to MBA.

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) VH1 has decided to drop “Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew” like a bad habit. At least for the time being.

While the cable network hasn’t outright canceled the series, which has run for five seasons since its 2008 debut, it has no plans for new episodes of the reality offering for the foreseeable future.

A representative for VH1 told TheWrap that “Celebrity Rehab” — which stars Dr. Drew Pinsky and a rotating cast of famous faces struggling to recover from substance abuse — “is not on the schedule currently.” Which doesn’t automatically spell doom, but it certainly doesn’t bode well.

While popular, the series has generated controversy, with some questioning whether the show fosters effective treatment. Last year, two former cast members died, with “Grease” star Jeff Conaway succumbing to complications from prescription drug use and former Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr expiring at the age of 44, weeks after being arrested while in possession of unauthorized prescription drugs. Meanwhile, “Real Housewives” alum Michaele Salahi was removed from the Season 5 cast,wholesale Ed hardy belts, reportedly because she had no actual addiction (other than to fame, of course) to treat.

Luckily for fans of Pinksy, there’ll be no shortage of him on the airwaves. In addition to “Dr. Drew” on HLN, there’s also his CW daytime show, “Lifechangers,” which launched in September.

McALLEN,wholesale Ed hardy belts, Texas (Reuters) Police fatally shot a 15-year-old student armed with a pellet gun at a middle school in Brownsville, Texas, on Wednesday after he pointed it at officers, police said.

Brownsville police received a call of a student with a handgun at Cummings Middle School about 8 a.m. local time Wednesday, department spokesman J.J. Trevino said.

The boy, eighth-grader Jaime Gonzalez, aimed at officers after they confronted him in a hallway, police said.

Police ordered Gonzalez to drop the gun, but instead he pointed it at the officers, who shot the boy twice, police said.

“The subject pointed the weapon at officers, which in turn, the officers had to use deadly force,” Trevino said.

The gun, a .177-caliber pellet pistol, resembles a Glock semi-automatic handgun, police said.

The student was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, said Cameron County Justice of the Peace Kip Johnson Hodge.

A preliminary investigation indicated Gonzalez assaulted a student before officers arrived and told witnesses he was going to “engage officers with the weapon,” a police news release said.

No other students, school staff or police were injured. Students were evacuated to a nearby high school and classes were dismissed for the day.

The Texas Rangers will assist city and school police in investigating the fatal shooting.

Brownsville is at the southern tip of Texas along the U.S.-Mexico border.

(Reporting by Jared Taylor and Jim Forsyth; Editing by Daniel Trotta)

“Pariah” Writer-director Dee Rees’ feature debut achieves a difficult, intriguing balance. It’s at once raw and dreamlike, specific to a particular, personal rite of passage yet relatable in its message of being true to oneself. Adepero Oduye gives a subtly natural performance as Alike (pronounced ah-lee-kay), a 17-year-old Brooklyn girl who’s struggling to come out as a lesbian. Each day at school, she dresses the way that makes her feel comfortable in baggy T-shirts and baseball caps, and she pals around with her brash best friend, Laura (Pernell Walker), who’s already happily out. But on the bus ride home, she must transform herself into the young lady her mother, Audrey (Kim Wayans), approves of and loves. Audrey hopes arranging a new friendship with a colleague’s daughter, Bina (Aasha Davis), will set Alike down a traditionally straight, female path, but this budding relationship only complicates matters further. Simultaneously, Alike’s home life is deteriorating, as her police officer father (Charles Parnell) begins keeping suspiciously late hours; it’s a subplot that bogs things down and feels like a distraction from Alike’s journey, a device to add tension. But Alike’s story is inspiring to see: Oduye is both melancholy and radiant in the role, and she makes you long for her character to finally find peace. And Bradford Young’s award-winning cinematography gives “Pariah” the gauzy, gorgeous feel of an urban fairy tale. R for sexual content and language. 86 minutes. Three stars out of four.

• Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic

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“A Separation” The title is an apt encapsulation of the film as a whole: It may sound simple, but its results are devastating. Writer-director Asghar Farhadi’s tale begins as a domestic disagreement in contemporary Iran and morphs into a legal thriller, one that will have you questioning the characters and your own perception of them again and again. This transformation occurs intimately, organically and seemingly so effortlessly that you may not recognize it right before your eyes. But the lasting effect will linger; while this story is incredibly detailed in the specificity of its setting, its themes resonate universally. Farhadi sets the tense tone right off the top with a long, single take in which middle-class husband and wife Simin (Leila Hatami) and Nader (Peyman Moadi) sit before a judge to explain their dispute. She wants the family to leave Tehran to provide their studious daughter, Termeh (the director’s daughter, Sarina Farhadi), with better educational opportunities. He wants to stay and care for his aging father, who’s suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. When Simin’s divorce request is rejected,Replica Ed hardy belts, she moves out; while the daughter stays, Nader still needs help watching his father. This leads to one fateful decision, and then another and another, until finally, serious criminal charges are at stake. “A Separation” honestly addresses the notions of trust and respect, loyalty and religious devotion. PG-13 for mature thematic material. In Persian with English subtitles. 123 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.

• Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic

Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Dec. 19-25. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.

1. NFL Football: Chicago at Green Bay, NBC, 24.02 million.

2. “Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick,” NBC, 18.67 million.

3. “Football Night in America,” NBC, 14.73 million.

4. “The X-Factor” (Thursday), Fox, 12.59 million.

5. “NCIS,” CBS, 12.37 million.

6. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 11.43 million.

7. “The X-Factor” (Wednesday), Fox, 11.23 million.

8. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 9.28 million.

9. “The Mentalist,” CBS, 8.47 million.

10. “Person of Interest,” CBS, 8.14 million.

11. “Unforgettable,” CBS, 8.09 million.

12. “Two and a Half Men,” CBS, 7.95 million.

13. “Mike & Molly,” CBS, 7.77 million.

14. “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,Cheap Moncler,” CBS, 7.35 million.

15. “CSI: NY,” CBS, 7.33 million.

16. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 7.29 million.

17. “Terra Nova,” Fox, 7.24 million.

18. “2 Broke Girls,” CBS, 7.2 million.

19. “Hawaii Five-0,” CBS, 7.03 million.

20. “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 6.78 million.

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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.; CBS is a division of CBS Corp.; Fox is a unit of News Corp.; NBC is owned by NBC Universal.