Lost Auguste Rodin sculpture sells for €860,000 at auction in France
A small marble sculpture by French artist Auguste Rodin, which was long thought to be a copy, has fetched €860,000 at an auction in France, at the Château de Villandry (Indre-et-Loire), according to the website of the Rouillac auction house.
'Le Désespoir' ('Despair'), a variation on the famous 'Porte de l'Enfer' ('The Gates of Hell'), was produced around 1892. It depicts a woman hugging her knees and holding her foot.
It had disappeared after being sold at an auction in 1906, and its owners had it sitting on a piano in their home, believing it was a replica.
After a six-week investigation, they were informed of its authenticity.
French auctioneer Aymeric Rouillac told AFP that he went to the Comité Rodin in March and the body, considered to be the leading authority on the French sculptor, confirmed it was not a fake after much research and a genealogical survey.
Rouillac described the 28.5cm marble as an 'extremely rare' find.
"We have rediscovered it," he added. And sold it for nearly one million dollars to an anonymous American buyer.
Following Donald Trump's deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles, artists have been speaking out against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation raids and offering support to protestors in LA.
As reported by Euronews, Trump deployed another 2,100 National Guard members and 700 US Marines, in what the authorities have dubbed Task Force 51 meant to "provide continuous coverage of the area" as unrest in Los Angeles continues.
Many celebrities posted messages on social media supporting the protestors and criticising the National Guard's deployment, including Eva Longoria and Mark Ruffalo.
Longoria took to Instagram to express her frustration and described the actions as 'Un-American', while Ruffalo shared a lengthy message to Instagram with the caption: "When you have working class people going after the poor and other working class people you know you are living in an oligarchy."
He added: "The billionaire up at the top is stealing you blind, and you are worried about the poorest of the poor ruining your life? You are pointing your guns in the wrong direction... The president is a grifter."
Ruffalo's post went viral, racking up to 200,000 likes—including from other celebrities, including Jennifer Garner and Halle Berry.
Une publication partagée par Mark Ruffalo (@markruffalo)
Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong posted a scene from one of the LA protests to his Instagram over the weekend, which he captioned with a middle finger emoji and an ice cube emoji, while Tyler, The Creator wrote on his Instagram Story: 'FUCK ICE.'
Singer and actress Reneé Rapp also condemned ICE's actions, writing: 'Fuck ICE fuck this administration fuck all of yall who are complicit in ensuring that this happened this is a fucking disgrace.'
One of the most notable reactions came from Oscar-winning singer-songwriter Finneas, brother of Billie Eilish, who attended the 'very peaceful protests' himself and claimed to have been teargassed by authorities.
'Tear-gassed almost immediately at the very peaceful protest downtown. They're inciting this,' he wrote on Instagram.
Finneas also reposted a clip that appeared to show a reporter, Lauren Tomasi, being shot in the leg with a rubber bullet by law enforcement while she was reporting from the scene.
Elsewhere, Grammy-winning rapper Doechii spoke out against the immigration raids in Los Angeles at the 2025 BET Awards last night.
During her speech, Doechii said that though she was 'honoured' by the award, she wanted to 'address what is happening right now outside of the building'.
'There are ruthless attacks that are creating fear and chaos in our communities in the name of law and order,' she continued, citing Trump's deployment of the National Guard.
'Trump is using military forces to stop a protest,' Doechii added. 'I want you all to consider what kind of government it appears to be when every time we exercise our democratic right to protest, the military is deployed against us. What type of government is that?'
The heated situation has also prompted a fierce political backlash.
Governor Gavin Newsom took to X to announce his plans to sue the federal government over the National Guard deployment, calling it 'an unconstitutional act.'
"This is exactly what Donald Trump wanted. He flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalize the National Guard. The order he signed doesn't just apply to CA (California). It will allow him to go into ANY STATE and do the same thing. We're suing him."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
AFP
38 minutes ago
- AFP
Bricks from Malaysia and New Jersey misrepresented amid LA unrest
"Soros funded organizations have ordered countless pallets of bricks to be placed near ICE facilities to be used by Democrat militants against ICE," says a June 7, 2025 Facebook post from David Harris Jr, a commentator supportive of US President Donald Trump whom AFP has previously fact-checked for spreading misinformation. Image Screenshot from Facebook taken June 11, 2025 The post references George Soros, a billionaire Democratic megadonor commonly targeted by right-wing and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. In another post shared June 8 on X, American actor James Woods, who has also repeatedly peddled misinformation, shared a photo of a different stack of masonry. "It's not like these 'protests' are organized though…," he wrote. Image Screenshot from X taken June 9, 2025 Similar claims citing either of the two images of bricks rocketed across social media platforms amid protests in Los Angeles that broke out June 6, triggered by immigration raids and arrests of what federal authorities say are undocumented migrants and gang members. Los Angeles officials have said the demonstrations were in large part peaceful but punctuated by scattered violence, including moments during which participants torched cars and law enforcement fired tear gas. The unrest continued to escalate over several days, with Trump clashing with California leaders as he bypassed the governor to deploy the state's National Guard to the city -- and active-duty US Marines. Other protests have also spread elsewhere in the country. Local news outlets have reported that some of the protesters in Los Angeles have thrown objects at officers and police cruisers, including rocks and fireworks. But the two widely shared photos showing stacks of bricks are unrelated. Malaysian hardware dealer traced the first image to a Malaysian hardware and construction dealer's page on Building Materials Online, a Malaysian online marketplace (archived here and here). Image Screenshot from taken June 11, 2025 The distributor, Ng Lian Seng Hardware Trading, is based in the town of Jinjang, northwest of Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur. Reached by AFP, a worker at the dealer said the store took the picture and uploaded it to Build Materials Online more than eight years ago. Google Street View imagery appears to show matching pallets of bricks piled up at the location (archived here). Image Screenshot from Google Street View taken June 11, 2025, with elements outlined by AFP New Jersey construction The second photo can be geolocated using Google Street View to West New York, New Jersey (archived here). Image Screenshot from X taken June 9, 2025, with elements outlined by AFP Image Screenshot from Google Street View taken June 11, 2025, with elements outlined by AFP A journalist with the fact-checking website Lead Stories visited the location June 9 and photographed additional construction equipment they found stationed beside the same heap of bricks (archived here). They also observed scaffolding set up along a nearby building, where contractors appeared to be working on the exterior. A well-worn narrative Fearmongering narratives about piles of bricks have become a common trope among accounts that traffic in misinformation since the nationwide protests that followed the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, when images from construction sites were misrepresented in posts claiming authorities or left-wing groups were stashing bricks near planned demonstrations to foment violence. Similar claims have resurfaced around prominent court trials, trucker convoys and the 2024 Democratic National Convention, where protesters demonstrated against Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza. "These days, it feels like every time there's a protest, the old clickbaity 'pallets of bricks' hoax shows up right on cue," said the Social Media Lab, a research center at Toronto Metropolitan University, in a June 9 post on Bluesky (archived here and here). "You know the one, photos or videos of bricks supposedly left out to encourage rioting. It's catnip for right-wing agitators and grifters," it added. AFP has debunked other misinformation about the Los Angeles protests here, here and here. Raevathi Supramaniam contributed to this report.
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
Burundi's ruling party wins all seats in parliamentary vote as opposition cries foul
Burundi 's veteran ruling party won every seat in last week's parliamentary elections, the electoral commission said Wednesday, in a vote critics and observers say was tainted by irregularities. "Nationally, the CNDD-FDD came first with 96.51 percent of the vote," election commission chief Prosper Ntahorwamiye said in a live televised ceremony. None of the other parties obtained two percent of the votes – the constitutional threshold to sit in the National Assembly – "so all 100 seats go to the CNDD-FDD", he added. The final results of last Thursday's poll are due to be announced by the Constitutional Council on June 20. Members of the National Congress for Liberty (CNL), the main opposition party which was barred from the vote, alleged multiple and forced voting, as well as "banned access" and the "arbitrary imprisonment" of its observers. Anicet Niyonkuru, a legislative candidate and leader of the smaller opposition Council of Patriots party, told AFP that voters put pre-filled ballots in the ballot box, calling it "a major fraud that was seen everywhere". Olivier Nkurunziza, the leader of the Uprona opposition party which received just 1.38 percent of the vote, said the elections were "rigged". The Uprona party "denounces rigged elections", Nkurunziza told AFP adding: "We have killed democracy." He said the CNDD-FDD had won 100 percent of the vote in some districts, with no invalid ballots, abstentions or absentees, despite Uprona fielding at least 50 candidates in each area. Journalists and voters who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons also told AFP of significant irregularities. Poverty President Evariste Ndayishimiye took power in June 2020 after the death of his predecessor Pierre Nkurunziza, who had ruled Burundi with an iron fist for 15 years. Since taking office, he has swung between gestures of openness and a firm grip on power, with rights abuses denounced by NGOs and the UN. His party, the CNDD-FDD, was accused of hobbling its main adversary the CNL, which came second in the last elections in 2020. At the time, the CNL called the vote a "farce". In 2023, Burundi's interior minister suspended the CNL citing "irregularities" in the way it organised In 2024, Agathon Rwasa – a former Hutu rebel leader against the Tutsi-dominated army during the civil war which left some 300,000 dead between 1993 and 2005 – was replaced as head of the CNL and replaced by Nestor Girukwishaka, who is said to be close to the ruling party. Burundi ranks as the world's poorest country in GDP per capita, according to the World Bank 's 2023 index, with 75 percent of its 12 million people living below the poverty line. One Burundian analyst, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, told AFP the country is facing "a very deep socio-economic crisis marked by all sorts of shortages, galloping inflation of more than 40 percent a month and increasing public discontent". Burundi has been paralysed notably by a severe petrol shortage for nearly three years.
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
Milei says Argentina to move Israel embassy to Jerusalem in 2026
"I am proud to announce before you that in 2026 we will make effective the move of our embassy to the city of west Jerusalem, as we promised," Milei said in a speech in the Israeli parliament during an official state visit. Argentina's embassy is currently located in Herzliya near the coastal city of Tel Aviv. This is Milei's second visit to Israel since being elected in 2023. His previous trip, in February 2024, was his first official state visit outside of Argentina. During that trip he announced plans to move Argentina's embassy to Jerusalem -- a controversial move that echoed US President Donald Trump's shock 2017 decision to unilaterally recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Israel has occupied east Jerusalem since 1967, later annexing it in a move not recognised by the international community. Israel treats the city as its capital, while Palestinians want east Jerusalem to become the capital of a future state. Most foreign embassies to Israel are located in the coastal hub city of Tel Aviv in order to avoid interfering with negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Speaking ahead of Milei's address to parliament on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "the city of Jerusalem will never be divided again." Several countries, including the United States, Paraguay, Guatemala, Honduras and Kosovo, have moved their embassies to Jerusalem, breaking with international consensus. 'Stand firm' In 2017, during his first term as US president, Trump unilaterally recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital, sparking Palestinian anger and the international community's disapproval. The United States transferred its embassy to Jerusalem in May 2018. Milei, who has professed a deep interest in Judaism and studied Jewish scripture, is one of Israel's staunchest defenders. As Israel faces mounting international pressure over the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza after more than 20 months of war, Milei sought to express his support. "As a nation, we want to stand firm alongside you as you go through these dark days, we will not yield to criticism resulting from cowardice or complicity with barbarism," he said on Tuesday during a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog. He also demanded the "unconditional return of the four Argentines still in captivity" in Gaza after Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war. The Palestinian militant group's attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the retaliatory Israeli military offensive has killed at least 55,104 people, the majority civilians. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable. Out of 251 taken hostage during the Hamas attack, 54 are still held in Gaza including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.
