French Painting Looted during WW2 Looks for Owner

Philippe Hansch, director of the World Peace Center, presents the painting by the French painter Nicolas Rousseau in Verdun, France on Aug. 17, 2020. (AFP Photo)
Philippe Hansch, director of the World Peace Center, presents the painting by the French painter Nicolas Rousseau in Verdun, France on Aug. 17, 2020. (AFP Photo)
TT
20

French Painting Looted during WW2 Looks for Owner

Philippe Hansch, director of the World Peace Center, presents the painting by the French painter Nicolas Rousseau in Verdun, France on Aug. 17, 2020. (AFP Photo)
Philippe Hansch, director of the World Peace Center, presents the painting by the French painter Nicolas Rousseau in Verdun, France on Aug. 17, 2020. (AFP Photo)

A drawing by French painter Nicolas Rousseau is back in France in a bid to trace its rightful owners after it was looted during WW2.

The work is currently on display with a sign calling whoever recognizes it or knows its owner, to contact the authorities.

The 19th century drawing was returned to France, to its rightful owner after being returned by the son of the German soldier who took it on orders.

The small untitled artwork is exhibited at the World Centre for Peace, Liberty and Human Rights in the northeastern town of Verdun. Next to it hangs a sign: "If you recognize the landscape or have any information about this painting, we would be grateful if you would let us know."

Over the last two weeks, it has hung in the lobby of the center, which receives around 60,000 visitors a year, in hope that it will nudge someone's memory and lead the painting back to its owners or their heirs.

Philippe Hansch, the center's head, went to fetch the painting from Berlin at the beginning of August and brought it back by car. "We wanted it to be immediately accessible to visitors when they walk in and free of charge," Hansch said.

In the artwork, a figure sits on a riverbank under cloudy skies, surrounded by tall trees and with a village off in the distance.

Rousseau was a member of the Barbizon school of painters, who embraced naturalism in art.

According to Hansch, its true value goes far beyond its market value of 3,000 to 5,000 euros (2,700 to 4,500 sterling pounds).

"The painting is a big symbol of Franco-German friendship and allows the history of World War II to be told with fresh eyes from the French side and German side," he added.



84% of the World’s Coral Reefs Hit by Worst Bleaching Event on Record 

This handout photo taken on March 12, 2025 and released on March 26 by the Minderoo Foundation shows a diver inspecting corals impacted by a bleaching event on the Ningaloo Reef off Australia's west coast. (Photo by Violeta J Brosig / Minderoo Foundation / AFP)
This handout photo taken on March 12, 2025 and released on March 26 by the Minderoo Foundation shows a diver inspecting corals impacted by a bleaching event on the Ningaloo Reef off Australia's west coast. (Photo by Violeta J Brosig / Minderoo Foundation / AFP)
TT
20

84% of the World’s Coral Reefs Hit by Worst Bleaching Event on Record 

This handout photo taken on March 12, 2025 and released on March 26 by the Minderoo Foundation shows a diver inspecting corals impacted by a bleaching event on the Ningaloo Reef off Australia's west coast. (Photo by Violeta J Brosig / Minderoo Foundation / AFP)
This handout photo taken on March 12, 2025 and released on March 26 by the Minderoo Foundation shows a diver inspecting corals impacted by a bleaching event on the Ningaloo Reef off Australia's west coast. (Photo by Violeta J Brosig / Minderoo Foundation / AFP)

Harmful bleaching of the world's coral has grown to include 84% of the ocean's reefs in the most intense event of its kind in recorded history, the International Coral Reef Initiative announced Wednesday.

It's the fourth global bleaching event since 1998, and has now surpassed bleaching from 2014-17 that hit some two-thirds of reefs, said the ICRI, a mix of more than 100 governments, non-governmental organizations and others. And it's not clear when the current crisis, which began in 2023 and is blamed on warming oceans, will end.

“We may never see the heat stress that causes bleaching dropping below the threshold that triggers a global event,” said Mark Eakin, executive secretary for the International Coral Reef Society and retired coral monitoring chief for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“We’re looking at something that’s completely changing the face of our planet and the ability of our oceans to sustain lives and livelihoods,” Eakin said.

Last year was Earth’s hottest year on record, and much of that is going into oceans. The average annual sea surface temperature of oceans away from the poles was a record 20.87 degrees Celsius (69.57 degrees Fahrenheit).

That's deadly to corals, which are key to seafood production, tourism and protecting coastlines from erosion and storms. Coral reefs are sometimes dubbed “rainforests of the sea” because they support high levels of biodiversity — approximately 25% of all marine species can be found in, on and around coral reefs.

Coral get their bright colors from the colorful algae that live inside them and are a food source for the corals. Prolonged warmth causes the algae to release toxic compounds, and the coral eject them. A stark white skeleton is left behind, and the weakened coral is at heightened risk of dying.

The bleaching event has been so severe that NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program has had to add levels to its bleaching alert scale to account for the growing risk of coral death.

Efforts are underway to conserve and restore coral. One Dutch lab has worked with coral fragments, including some taken from off the coast of the Seychelles, to propagate them in a zoo so that they might be used someday to repopulate wild coral reefs if needed. Other projects, including one off Florida, have worked to rescue corals endangered by high heat and nurse them back to health before returning them to the ocean.

But scientists say it's essential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that warm the planet, such as carbon dioxide and methane.

“The best way to protect coral reefs is to address the root cause of climate change. And that means reducing the human emissions that are mostly from burning of fossil fuels ... everything else is looking more like a Band-Aid rather than a solution,” Eakin said.

“I think people really need to recognize what they’re doing ... inaction is the kiss of death for coral reefs,” said Melanie McField, co-chair of the Caribbean Steering Committee for the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, a network of scientists that monitors reefs throughout the world.

The group's update comes as President Donald Trump has moved aggressively in his second term to boost fossil fuels and roll back clean energy programs, which he says is necessary for economic growth.

“We’ve got a government right now that is working very hard to destroy all of these ecosystems ... removing these protections is going to have devastating consequences,” Eakin said.