In summary this week: “A masterpiece in your living room?”, “Who benefits from online prize pools?”, “Colette’s last notes”, “The good looks of RC Lens”.
A masterpiece in your living room?
Certain masterpieces, sometimes forgotten in a family living room for ages and saved from oblivion in extremis, make their owners millionaires. “Special Envoy” followed the story of several paintings with exceptional destinies: the sale, in June 2023 for more than 2 million euros, of a masterpiece by Anne Vallayer-Coster, a major woman painter from the 18th century; the discovery of a new, unpublished work by French master Jean-Honoré Fragonard during a family inventory; the authentication of a rare painting by an Italian Renaissance artist, Lavinia Fontana. This last painting decorated the house of its owner, without the latter suspecting that he had there a rare piece sought by many museums.
How do experts work to authenticate these works? How can you distinguish a painting by a great master from that of a student or copyist? Certain “discoveries” also give rise to controversies over their attribution, such as a large nude attributed to Gustave Courbet by certain specialists, while others doubt that it is indeed the hand of the master.
A report by Laura Aguirre de Carcer, Swanny Thiebaut, Mathieu Renier, Benoît Sauvage.
Guest: Laura Aguirre de Carcer, journalist.
Who benefits from online prize pools?
Initially, they were intended for family or friendly occasions, but in recent years, online prize pools have multiplied, and Leetchi, Papayoux, OnParticipe or CotizUp have developed a new activity: “solidarity prize pools”. To rebuild Notre-Dame, help orphans in Ukraine, support caregivers during Covid-19, send donations after an earthquake, the amounts raised often exceed a million euros. But who launches these calls for donations? Who controls what happens to the money?
In 2022, the number 1 platform in France, Leetchi, has alone collected more than… 250 million euros, a colossal sum. Fueled by social networks and the news, certain platforms are not very careful about who collects, how much, and for what use, and certain unscrupulous influencers surf on the charity of the French to enrich themselves completely illegally. So, who really benefits from online prize pools? Can we trust the platforms?
A report by David Corre and Maureen Alibert / Flair Presse.
Colette’s last notes
Her life, shehas always lived it in music“. Colette Maze, born June 16, 1914 and died November 19, 2023, was a pianist. For her, music was “ a world of images, beauty, colors” And “a hand is like a paintbrush, each finger must have its poetry“She discovered the piano when she was very young, preferred it to her dolls and never stopped playing. Her instrument appeals to her.”gave tenderness“, perhaps the one that was missing from this child whose mother “was tough and only knew how to slap“.
A graduate of the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, Colette Maze took lessons from Alfred Cortot and Nadia Boulanger, then became a piano teacher and has practiced all her life. At 108 years old, she still practiced every day for four to five hours on her Steinway, chosen for its “good sound“. She affirmed it: with music, “we can stay young in our heads, in our hearts…“.
A report by Violaine Vermot-Gaud, Claire-Marie Denis, Luis Marques, Benoît Sauvage, Mathilde Rougeron and Marie Bouchet.
The good looks of RC Lens
A priori, football and mining have nothing to do with each other. And yet… during each match in Lens, an entire region celebrates the glorious mining epic of its past. To shoot this report which tells a love story between a club and its land, the journalists arrived in the former mining basin of Pas-de-Calais on the day of Saint Barbara, the patroness of miners. Here, it is a date celebrated almost as much as Christmas. Every December 4, the Racing Club de Lens releases a new jersey in homage to the “black faces”. And even at 90 euros, fans are snapping it up.
For three years, the club has achieved exploits. Good news for this territory which is becoming depopulated and has never really recovered from the closure of the mines in the 1970s. In the heyday, in 1933, Lens was home to the largest mining company in the country, with 17,000 employees. It was the miners who built, under the direction of chief engineer Félix Bollaert, the famous local stadium. And Lens, once proud of its miners, is today proud of its footballers…
A report by Arnaud Muller, Edmond Muller, Marguerite Teulet and Steven Kali.
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