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Iraqis Throng to Picasso in Baghdad

The Picasso in Baghdad exhibition allows Iraqis to experience fine art at first hand. (AFP)
The Picasso in Baghdad exhibition allows Iraqis to experience fine art at first hand. (AFP)
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Iraqis Throng to Picasso in Baghdad

The Picasso in Baghdad exhibition allows Iraqis to experience fine art at first hand. (AFP)
The Picasso in Baghdad exhibition allows Iraqis to experience fine art at first hand. (AFP)

Picasso, Dali, Miro, Chagall... names that are instantly recognizable in the international art world. Now works by these masters are being exhibited in Baghdad thanks to an anonymous Iraqi collector, said an Agence France Presse report.

The exhibition at the Hiwar gallery -- one of the last to remain open in the city -- includes 24 Picasso lithographs.

For gallery owner Qassem Sabti, "this exhibition is a historic chance" for Iraqis to feast their eyes on artworks of such a high standard, in a first for the capital.

"It is presented by an Iraqi person who prefers not to disclose his identity due to the circumstances in Baghdad," Sabti said, according to AFP.

There are 42 works in all being shown: in addition to those by Pablo Picasso, there is work by Salvador Dali, Joan Miro and Marc Chagall.

They "belong to an Iraqi who lives in the United Arab Emirates who wanted to open a museum dedicated to Picasso in Baghdad or Karbala, where he's from," said Sabti.

"But he wasn't able to do so as he couldn't secure the necessary guarantees to protect the artworks," added the gallery owner, who also heads the Iraqi Plastic Artists Society.

"The works on display are very valuable and have been collected over 30 years... some date from the 1950s and 1960s."

Priced at between $15,000 (12,600 euros) and $25,000 (21,000 euros), there is little chance of them being snapped up by local buyers.

Instead, the main aim of the show is to let them be seen by students and those who appreciate the fine arts.

For painter Mohammed Shawqi, "this exhibition reflects a return to stability in the country.

"Who would have dared mount a show of such valuable works just a few years ago?"

The exhibition was a breath of fresh air for 30-year-old engineer Zinah Sulaiman, who heard about it on Facebook.

It was the first time she had been able to see works by Picasso, "and I hope I will see more of this".

"It's important that art be supported here, especially since we are a people of culture and history."

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Blood Tests Allow 30-year Estimates of Women's Cardio Risks, New Study Says

A woman jogs in a park in Saint-Sebastien-sur-Loire near Nantes, France January 19, 2024. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
A woman jogs in a park in Saint-Sebastien-sur-Loire near Nantes, France January 19, 2024. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Blood Tests Allow 30-year Estimates of Women's Cardio Risks, New Study Says

A woman jogs in a park in Saint-Sebastien-sur-Loire near Nantes, France January 19, 2024. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
A woman jogs in a park in Saint-Sebastien-sur-Loire near Nantes, France January 19, 2024. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

Women’s heart disease risks and their need to start taking preventive medications should be evaluated when they are in their 30s rather than well after menopause as is now the practice, said researchers who published a study on Saturday.

Presenting the findings at the European Society of Cardiology annual meeting in London, they said the study showed for the first time that simple blood tests make it possible to estimate a woman’s risk of cardiovascular disease over the next three decades.

"This is good for patients first and foremost, but it is also important information for (manufacturers of) cholesterol lowering drugs, anti-inflammatory drugs, and lipoprotein(a)lowering drugs - the implications for therapy are broad," said study leader Dr. Paul Ridker of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Reuters reported.

Current guidelines “suggest to physicians that women should generally not be considered for preventive therapies until their 60s and 70s. These new data... clearly demonstrate that our guidelines need to change,” Ridker said. “We must move beyond discussions of 5 or 10 year risk."

The 27,939 participants in the long-term Women’s Health Initiative study had blood tests between 1992 and 1995 for low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C or “bad cholesterol”), which are already a part of routine care.

They also had tests for high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) - a marker of blood vessel inflammation - and lipoprotein(a), a genetically determined type of fat.

Compared to risks in women with the lowest levels of each marker, risks for major cardiovascular events like heart attacks or strokes over the next 30 years were 36% higher in women with the highest levels of LDL-C, 70% higher in women with the highest levels of hsCRP, and 33% higher in those with the highest levels of lipoprotein(a).

Women in whom all three markers were in the highest range were 2.6 times more likely to have a major cardiovascular event and 3.7 times more likely to have a stroke over the next three decades, according to a report of the study in The New England Journal of Medicine published to coincide with the presentation at the meeting.

“The three biomarkers are fully independent of each other and tell us about different biologic issues each individual woman faces,” Ridker said.

“The therapies we might use in response to an elevation in each biomarker are markedly different, and physicians can now specifically target the individual person’s biologic problem.”

While drugs that lower LDL-C and hsCRP are widely available - including statins and certain pills for high blood pressure and heart failure - drugs that reduce lipoprotein(a) levels are still in development by companies, including Novartis , Amgen , Eli Lilly and London-based Silence Therapeutics.

In some cases, lifestyle changes such as exercising and quitting smoking can be helpful.

Most of the women in the study were white Americans, but the findings would likely “have even greater impact among Black and Hispanic women for whom there is even a higher prevalence of undetected and untreated inflammation,” Ridker said.

“This is a global problem,” he added. “We need universal screening for hsCRP ... and for lipoprotein(a), just as we already have universal screening for cholesterol.”