Da Vinci’s “Earlier Mona Lisa” makes world debut in Singapore
Singapore: A younger portrayal of Mona Lisa – believed to be painted by the great Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo Da Vinci – depicting his muse in the early twenties, made its world premiere here on Monday.
The first public viewing of the “Earlier Mona Lisa” painting, which experts believe Da Vinci started working on in the early 16th century, 10 years ahead of the Louvre version, opened at the Arts House at the Old Parliament here.
The painting was discovered in 1913 in the Somerset home of a British aristocrat by an art collector and was dubbed “the Isleworth Mona Lisa” – owing to its close resemblance to the world famous and more familiar – “Louvre Mona Lisa”.
The portrait, showing a woman in her early 20s, was initially rejected by the art experts as a later copy of the world famous painting. But in 2013, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich carried out a carbon-dating test and finally confirmed that it originally came from Da Vinci.
During the exhibition, visitors can view the earlier Mona Lisa and also embark on an interactive journey of art, The Straits Times reported. Visitors will be given a tablet computer which showcases the masterpieces of Italian Renaissance and authentication process of the painting before they finally meet with the masterpiece in Singapore’s Old Chambers of Parliament.
The exhibition will be on display from December 16 to February 11 next year, and after that, it is set to head to Hong Kong, China, South Korea and Australia. (PTI)
China clears man 18 years after his execution
Beijing: A court in northern China on Monday cleared a man of the rape and murder of a woman in a public toilet 18 years after he was executed for the crime. The Inner Mongolia Higher People’s Court announced on its microblog that it had overturned the conviction of Huugjilt, who was 18 when he was sentenced to death and executed for the 1996 crime. Huugjilt used only one name, as is common among ethnic Mongolians.
The deputy head of the court, Zhao Jianping, offered his “sincere apologies” to Huugjilt’s parents, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The parents received 30,000 yuan as an expression of the court’s sympathy and were told they could claim an unspecified amount of compensation. Chinese state media carried photos of a court official handing over the verdict to Huugjilt’s weeping parents at their home in Inner Mongolia’s regional capital of Hohot.
State media reported in 2005 that a convicted serial rapist and killer confessed to the murder after receiving a death sentence for other crimes, but was never tried for this killing and has still not been executed. Huugjilt’s retrial was held only last month. Huugjilt had come to the attention of the police after reporting that he had found the woman’s body in a public toilet in Hohhot after hearing a cry for help.
China is believed to execute more people for crimes each year than the rest of the world combined, but keeps the data secret. Huugjilt’s trial and execution came amid one of China’s periodic “strike hard” campaigns, during which police and courts were put under extra pressure to break cases and punish criminals. (AP)