World Vignettes

Art dealer Salmon Lilian said on Thursday he bought the dirty 14 X 17 centimeter panel in December at a Paris auction. The sketch was sold by descendants of the 17th century master, who had possessed the work since it was painted in 1628, he said.

The baroque artist created the oil sketch which depicts an allegorical scene of honor and virtue with two figures with a lion between them for a painting commissioned by the Prince of Liechtenstein. Lilian claims the sketch was the only one Rubens did before completing his final painting of honor and virtue.

Vatican face-lift

VATICAN CITY: Workers are speeding to clean up centuries of grime from the facade of St Peter’s in time to meet their 1999 deadline, restorers and Vatican officials said. The Basilica’s face-lift is supposed to be finishedby September next year, just months before millions of pilgrims are expected in Rome to celebrate the start of Christianity’s third millennium. ENI, the Italian state energy conglomerate, is funding the project and providing technical assistance.

Bite in the clouds

TOKYO: A frustrated Japanese man on a flight from Seoul, angered by a fellow passenger’s repeated refusal to disclose her telephone number, bit her on the arm, police said. The 51-year-old Jirozennyoji repeatedly asked the 33-year-old Tokyo civil servant for her telephone number during the October 6 trip. Angered by her refusal, he allegedly bit her on the right arm, inflicting injuries that required two weeks’ medical treatment, police alleged. Police said the man and his victim had never met before.

Ghost phobia

MADRID: A security guard at Madrid’s famed Reina Sofia art museum went on sick leave because he said he wanted to get away from a ghost who was haunting the place, the daily El Pais said onThursday. The guard said his encounters with an apparition named Ataulfo had caused depression, nervousness and dizziness. The man said other museum officials had also seen ghosts here and said it may have had something to do with the site’s earlier uses as a hospital, jail and a morgue.

Terminator buffs

PARIS: According to a UNESCO study, Terminator, the killer robot played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, is the most popular character among the world’s children. The survey, billed the first-ever worldwide study of violence in the media, said 88 per cent of children know Terminator who has become a "global icon". Many children brought up in environments of violence, such as countries at war or crime-plagued areas, wanted to be like Terminator, who turned good in a follow-on film Terminator 2: Judgement Day and helped save the world.