Telling yourself from a TV

Elsewhere the art scene is bustling too. First on the horizon is "How to tell yourself from a television" opening tonight at EN PLO Gallery, Paphos which, as the knowing blurb says, "is bubbling with joy to announce".

New work by Marcus Cope, Paulina Hortynska, Sara Misselbrook and Stephanie Moran.

Marcus Cope completed his MA in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art, London, in 2006. He is currently looking forward to the publication of ‘One New Design for Holes of Varying Sizes.’ (at bob press), a collection of his new drawings and watercolours.

Paulina Hortynska graduated from the University of Marie-Curie Sklodowska in the Faculty of Fine Art in 2004 in Lublin gaining her diploma of oil painting and Master of Fine Arts. She is currently continuing her art education under Cypriot artist Stass Paraskos, at the Cyprus College of Art in Lemba.

Sarah Misselbrook received a first class honours degree in Fine Art from Nottingham Trent University and has recently completed a post-graduate diploma at the Cyprus College of Art. Misselbrook’s works are in private collections in the UK, Cyprus and Australia.

Stephanie Morn studied Fine Art in Manchester and Cyprus and has spent the past five years working as an artist in London and Cyprus. She has exhibited in numerous group shows in England, Italy and Cyprus as well as curating exhibitions and writing articles for art publications.

Also on

Excellent artist Maria Doriti is exhibiting at Pegasus ART Foundation’s Art space Studio 55 Limassol until February 5. Titled Memory and Myth

We’ve had the invitation card to an exhibition at Gloria Gallery, Nicosia of a show by Nikolas Ladomatos which opens at 7.30 on Friday (tonight) February 1.

Nicholas is the son of THE Ladomatos, Great expectations.

Andrew Efstathiou’s exhibition opens on Tuesday February 5 at Gallery Morphi, Limassol. Highly imaginative figurative, paintings, encompassing crowd scenes and movement. It continues until February 29.

Tehnis Dromena Gallery (Strovolos) and the Haemophilia Society are holding a painting, ceramic and mosaic exhibition on Wednesday, February 6 which will be opened by Fotini Papadopoulou wife of the President of the Republic of Cyprus at 7.00 pm.

Net profits will be given to the Cyprus Haemophilia Society. Until February 22. Participants:

Rhea Bailey, Doros Eracleous, Hughes, Andreas Kalogyrou, Koula Kalvari, Eleni Karavioti, George Kepolas, Pieris Lambrou, Savvas Lazouras, Antonia Tsikki Michaelides, Joumana Sayegh, Maria Spyrou, Elpiniki Lada Symeou.

Argo Gallery Nicosia has an original exhibition. Opening on Wednesday February 6, it is entitled Kiss Me If you Dare and continues until February 23. The ‘daring’ artist is Marina Zervou

Opus 39 Gallery has a group exhibition of paintings and ceramics starting on January14 until February 10.

The exhibition will include works by Asproftas, Dikaios, Telemachos Kanthos, Tassos Stephanides, Photos Hadjisoteriou and other very well known artists.

There will also be on sale, engravings of Telemachos Kanthos, the album of six giclee prints of Adamantios Diamantis, the album of Christos Christou and a small album of engravings and poems by Alecos Fassianos.

Christodoulos Kodjapashis Kypriaki Gonia

Christodoulos Kodjapashis was born in Mammari on October 28, 1926 and died on November 6, 1988, at the age of 62. He completed only the first three years of primary school.

In an interview with Andri Krotidou in 1979, he said "I liked painting from an early age. At school I was the first in painting. Because my father was not educated to see my talent and encourage me, he took me out of school, because he kept a coffee shop and needed an assistant".

He started to paint systematically from 1969 following a visit to a Pancyprian Exhibition of Art. Christodoulos was a quiet and simple man, who plucked the courage to discover and nurture what was hidden inside him for years. His village, his country, his work were his inspiration.

In 1979 he held a Solo Exhibition of Paintings at the Gallery of Self-taught painters, Nicosia. The exhibition was opened by the then Cultural Officer of the Ministry of Education, Panayiotis Serghis

He also participated in exhibitions in Cyprus and abroad.

Other milestones in his career include:

1972 Exhibition of Paintings by Self-taught Painters at the Technical School of Nicosia.

1972 Triennale Exhibition, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia.

The Cypriot exhibitors were: Costas Avraamides, Ioannis Christoforou, Chrystalla Demetriou, Christos Eleftheriades, Yiasoumis Georgiou and Nicos Ioannou.

1972 Pancyprian Exhibition of Paintings at the Technical School, Nicosia

1973 With the initiative of the Bank Spaarkasse Hamburg in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cyprus and other Government departments an exhibition was organised in Germany. Among the 31 artists who participated in this exhibition were Michael Kashalos, Stelios Votsis, Solomos Frangoulides, Peter Kallinikos, Telemachos Kanthos, Katy Stefanidou,Christos Eleftheriades, Androulla Antoniadou, Stella Michaelidou, Andreas Chrysochos, Costas and Lefteris Economou, Costas Ioakim, Giorgos Kotsonis, Andis Adamos, Andreas Savvides, Georgios Yiasoumis, Nicos Kouroushis, Michael Finikarides, Charilaos Dikaios, Rea Bailey, Andreas Charalambides and others .

The book "MAMMARI, my village", published by the local Council of Mammari, mentions has this among things to say about the artist:

"Great achievements by a simple man from our village. Paintings with live colours and bright faces. A quiet contribution from a simple man from our village, to the cultural heritage of our country."

The exhibition will be opened tonight. Friday, at 8 pm by the Mayor of Larnaca, Andreas Moyseos and continues until February 22.

Federal agents raid California museums

LOS ANGELES (AP)

Federal agents raided several Southern California museums in search of Southeast Asian antiquities believed to have been illegally obtained, smuggled into the US and donated so collectors could claim fraudulent tax deductions.

Agents also investigated American Indian artifacts at one museum.

Search warrants were executed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena and the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Authorities said no arrests had been made and no charges had been filed.

Court documents portray a five-year scheme in which the owner of a Los Angeles art gallery worked with a smuggler to bring in artifacts from Thailand and China, offered them as charitable contributions and then tried to claim the donations as tax write-offs by boosting their value. In some cases, museum officials initially questioned how the artifacts were obtained but eventually accepted them, according to affidavits filed in support of the search.

The investigation is the latest public relations debacle for museums in the United States that have been accused by foreign governments of housing treasures stolen from their countries. Italy has been negotiating with various museums, including the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the J.

Cooperating

Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, to have various statues, vases and other items from Roman and Greek times returned.

Michael Govan, director and chief executive officer of LACMA, estimated about 60 items donated to the museum over the past decade that have come under suspicion.

"They were seemingly quite regular objects to be gifted," Govan said, adding the museum is cooperating with the investigation.

"They came from sources who were members of the museum for many years and regular donors, so no, there was no reason for the museum to know ahead of time."

Mingei director Rob Sidner said the museum was cooperating fully with the investigation.

"If the results of the investigation show that these objects were improperly donated and - we were assured they were acquired properly - they will be returned to their rightful owner," Sidner said in a statement.

Representatives from the Pacific Asia museum did not immediately respond to phone calls seeking comment.

A statement from the Bowers Museum said items on display from El Malpais National Monument and Chaco Culture Historic Park in New Mexico were being examined by agents as to whether they were removed without a permit. Items from the Ban Chiang area in Thailand also were being reviewed.

Recorded

All of the artifacts will remain at the museums, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman with the US attorney's office.

The warrants stem from an undercover investigation by a National Park Service special agent who posed as a collector interested in various artifacts. The agent targeted Robert Olson, who is alleged in an affidavit to be a smuggler, and Jonathan Markell, who co-owns an Asian art gallery in Los Angeles with his wife.

The agent said the artifacts passed through US customs because they had "Made in Thailand" labels affixed to them, making it appear they were replicas. Olson, 79, allegedly boasted to the agent he had more item from the Ban Chiang area than Thailand itself, according to an affidavit.

Court documents said Olson, Markell and the agent met more than a dozen times and regularly e-mailed and called one another about the "sale, importation, and donation of stolen archaeological resources from China and Thailand and antiquities illegally imported from Burma." Some of the calls and meetings were recorded, the warrants said.

In the case of the Pacific Asian Museum, Markell, 62, and the agent met with museum staffers in March 2006 to donate items recovered from the Ban Chiang culture in northeast Thailand. Two museum officials questioned the agent about how one of the artifacts was obtained. After Markell assured them that the Thai government wouldn't miss the item because it wasn't "an earth-shattering piece," the museum accepted the donation, the documents said.

Investigators also searched Markell's gallery and home. A phone and e-mail message left for Markell wasn't immediately returned. A call to a phone listed as Olson's went unanswered.

The warrants also detail a relatively simple scam in which Markell allegedly sold antiquities worth a few hundred dollars at a markup to the undercover agent and then used false appraisals to increase the value of the pieces to just less than $5,000 - the Internal Revenue Service's floor for requiring written appraisals to support tax deductions on donated art.

At the Mingei in San Diego, museum officials accepted five Ban Chiang ceramic vessels, along with two other pieces, in June 2006.

The undercover agent allegedly paid $1,500 to Markell, who declared a value of nearly $5,000 to the museum, according to the warrants.

Markell allegedly sent an e-mail to Sidner claiming that his Ban Chiang pieces had come from a now-deceased former curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and were all imported before Thai export restrictions went into effect.

Olson allegedly told the agent that he was being sent Ban Chiang antiquities as they were being dug up in northeast Thailand, in violation of Thai and international law.

It was unclear in court documents whether Mingei officials were aware of the provenance of the artifacts it accepted.

With the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Markell allegedly told the agent he lied to museum officials so they would accept his items. He allegedly also indicated museum officials had found a "loophole" to import restriction on some items but couldn't elaborate.

According to the court documents, the agent who worked with Markell said he didn't seem worried about being caught. The agent said that after providing Markell a news article about someone getting arrested for false tax returns dealing with antiquities, the dealer shrugged it off and laughed.

The documents quoted Markell as saying that "people who had been caught had to have done something stupid.