Art Up The Ying-Yang (Part 1)

Darlings - all I'm trying to do is work on my friend's family tree and get it ready for a surprise present because her birthday is next month -- AND get the yard ready for winter -- AND get laundry done -- AND study chess for my very first OTB tournament on Saturday October 16 -- AND clean this way too big house (when did it grow to 3,000 square feet from 1,500, I ask you?) that hasn't been touched except for token dusting for my ladies' investment club meetings since I took it off the market in February 2010.  Okay, so I haven't vacuumed in awhile, big dustball deal.  I have regularly laundered my bedding so I don't have bedmites.  Whatever. 

But I've got to keep the blog up too.  I am told - ahem - that I cannot "miss" every other day except if - perhaps - I'm on my death bed; that depends on whether I can still work a mouse and type by using a straw in my mouth, or maybe blink --

So, I've got some stories stored up -- here you are, lovely fans.  Hope you enjoy --

This first one is definitely a femme jolie!  She's so fricking gorgeous, I hate her.  So what if she's been dead over 100 years.  Muslin never looked so good.

Handout from French art expert house Marc Ottavi

This handout from French art expert house Marc Ottavi(MO) shows a painting by Italian artist Giovanni Boldini that was found in June 2010 by an auctionner in a flat which was closed since her owner, who moved to southern France before the war, never returned to her Paris flat and died at the age of 91. The painting was sold for 2,1 million euros at Drouot saleshouse in September 2010(AFP/MO-HO/File)

Reported at:

Yahoo News
Mystery masterpiece emerges from dusty Paris flat
October 6, 2010

The Epoch Times
Giovanni Boldini Painting Found in Paris Flat
October 6, 2010

The Telegraph (UK)
Parisian flat containing €2.1 million painting lay untouched for 70 years
For 70 years the Parisian apartment had been left uninhabited, under lock and key, the rent faithfully paid but no hint of what was inside
October 4, 2010
Reporting in this article leaves something to be desired.  It implies that it was the lady in pink herself who locked up the apartment at the start of WWII and never returned, but died at the age of 91?  Er, I don't think so.  She'd be a hell of a lot older than 91 when she died if it was actually the lady herself, Mde. Marthe de Florian.  If it was her, she would have been 65 or so when she locked up the apartment in 1939 (outbreak of WWII).

A granddaughter?  Perhaps.

So why did she lock up the flat never to return after c. 1939?  You own an exclusive flat in Paris and you don't return to it for 70 years?  You have enough money to pay "the fees" on it every year -- Are you nuts?  Was the woman institionalized?  If not - why not?  And where did she come up with the money to pay "the fees" on the apartment for so long?  I'm sure they weren't cheap! 

What's the story behind the story? 

Are there any French probate lawyers out there in the audience who can do a little research and find out if an estate proceeding has been filed by the now deceased granddaugter of this lady of the evening?