PdS Blog apologizes for that extended silence.

As anyone with even a passing interest in Spain will be aware, this painting, Goya's Niños del carretón (Children with a Cart) has been carted away by a thief on its way from Toledo, Ohio to the Guggenheim. (It has actually been stolen once before, in 1870). Meanwhile, blog readers might be interested in seeing this film by Milos Forman, who also made one of my (and many people's) favorite films, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. I personally wasn't overimpressed (particularly by Javier Bardem's English), but the visuals are marvelous, and Stellan Skarsgard makes a memorable Goya, even though the film makes no attempt whatever to inquire into the sources of his genius (it is not the biopic the title leads you to expect). For that, you have to read this. So far, Goya's Ghosts doesn't have international distribution, so you may have to wait a while to see it.

*Update*, 20th November 2006: they've found it in New Jersey. And someone is $50,000 richer for giving the FBI the lead they needed.