www.kansas.com Posted on Sat, Feb. 01, 2003 ALEXANDRA OLSON Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela - For more than two decades, Henri Matisse's "Odalisque in Red Pants" graced the walls of the Sofia Imber Contemporary Art Museum, helping make the museum the envy of the Latin American art world.

But for at least the past three years, the museum now says, the painting that hung in the Caracas museum wasn't a Matisse. It was a forgery.

The 1925 painting of a topless, raven-haired woman kneeling on a floor, worth about $3 million, was stolen as long as two years ago and replaced by an imitation, museum officials said this week.

Now authorities from Venezuela and four other nations are hunting for the original. And the scandal has embarrassed museum officials, who can't say how long the roughly 15,000 people who visit the museum each month have been admiring a fake Matisse.

"You can't just make the switch freely inside the museum," director Rita Salvestrini told a news conference Thursday. "There had to be inside complicity."

The painting is one of Matisse's "odalisques," paintings of Arab dancers in which he expressed his fascination with North African and Islamic culture.

The Sofia Imber museum purchased the painting from the Marlborough Gallery in New York in 1981 for more than $400,000. It had been on display ever since, except for a brief loan for a Spanish exhibition in 1997.

In November, Miami art collector Genaro Ambrosino, a Venezuela native, sent an e-mail to Salvestrini expressing indignation that he had heard the piece was up for sale.

Salvestrini quickly denied it. The painting was in the museum, she said. But on Dec. 1, experts discovered that the painting in the museum was a fake.

The Sotheby's auction house in Miami sent Salvestrini a copy of a document supposedly authorizing the painting's sale on behalf of museum founder Sofia Imber, who was forced to resign in 2001 as part of a people's "cultural revolution" by the government of President Hugo Chavez.

The document was signed by two museum employees who quit with Imber. Officials now believe it was forged.

There are notable differences between the original and the replica, which Salvestrini displayed at a news conference.

The fake has a dark shadow behind the dancer; the original doesn't. The genuine painting has seven green stripes in the lower right hand corner; the replica has six.

The museum has more than 4,000 other pieces, including other Matisses, Picassos and works by renowned Venezuelan kinetic sculptor Jesus Soto. Salvestrini insists there's no reason to suspect other pieces are fake, but she is having them examined anyway.

Investigators from Interpol, the FBI, Venezuela, Britain, Spain and France have pursued a vast array of leads, some suggesting the painting could have been stolen as far back as 1997.

The FBI suspects a Venezuelan woman who lived in Miami Beach, Fla., stored the painting at Fortress Art Storage in Miami, then smuggled it to Spain. The FBI has not named the woman.

French police are investigating leads that a collector brought it to France. The Caracas newspaper El Mundo has speculated the Matisse may have been swapped during the 1997 Spanish exhibition loan.

Wanda de Guebriant, a French Matisse expert, has told French police that a New York gallery owner told her in 2000 the painting was being offered for sale there. Investigators have refused to identify the gallery owner.

Guebriant told police that at the time she believed the one in New York must be a fake and that the original was in the Caracas museum.

In February 2001, she said, she was approached by French gallery owners saying they had been offered the painting.

"The people who knew that the piece was being circulated around the world never informed us," Salvestrini said. "The thing is, it didn't occur to anyone the piece could have been authentic."

ON THE NET

Sofia Imber Museum of Contemporary Art: www.maccsi.org.ve

Art Loss Register: www.artloss.com

www.sfgate.com ALEXANDRA OLSON, Associated Press Writer Friday, January 31, 2003
-(01-31) 20:28 PST

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Under international pressure, opponents of President Hugo Chavez agreed Friday to ease a 2-month-old strike -- but not in the crucial oil industry, the world's fifth-largest exporter.

Strike organizers said factories, schools, malls and franchise restaurants would be urged to open next week, at least on a restricted schedule.

The decision came after many of those participants were already considering abandoning the strike, fearing bankruptcy.

Most small businesses never joined the stoppage, which began Dec. 2 under the organization of a combination of labor unions, business leaders and opposition political parties.

But Chavez opponents insisted the walkout would continue in the oil industry, which provides half of government income and 70 percent of export revenue. The strike has slashed production by two-thirds.

Carlos Fernandez, president of Venezuela's largest business chamber, said the decision to ease the strike came at the request of diplomats from six countries -- the United States, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Spain and Portugal. The diplomats were in Caracas seeking a deal on early elections and an end to the strike.

Fernandez suggested that continuing the strike could weaken the opposition, allowing the government to "destroy the business sector and increase unemployment, then build the totalitarian model over the ashes."

With the strike dying down, opposition leaders_ who accuse Chavez of ruining the economy with leftist policies and trying to accumulate too much power -- are hoping international pressure on Chavez to negotiate will help revive their drive for early balloting.

But Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton said the government had no intention of pledging to end Chavez's term early.

"The government has no interest in doing away with itself," Chaderton said Friday.

Diplomats urged both sides to make concessions during negotiations mediated by Cesar Gaviria, the secretary-general of the Organization of American States.

"Reconciliation and healthy coexistence require mutual concessions," said Gilberto Saboia, Brazil's undersecretary for bilateral political affairs, reading a brief statement late Friday. "We reiterate the need for both sides to reach an constitutional, democratic, peaceful and electoral agreement."

The diplomatic group is urging both sides to accept one of two proposals made by former Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter.

One is to hold a recall referendum on Chavez's rule halfway through his six-year term, or August. Venezuela's constitution allows opponents to petition for such a vote by gathering signatures from 20 percent, or 2.4 million, of the country's 12 million registered voters.

The other -- favored by Chavez opponents -- calls for ending the strike in exchange for a government pledge to push through quickly a constitutional amendment cutting Chavez's six-year term to four years, clearing the way for early elections.

Tens of thousands of Chavez opponents marched through Caracas on Friday to protest government investigations into three television stations accused of supporting the strike.

The government has managed to raise oil production beyond 1 million barrels a day -- a third of normal, signaling that Chavez was regaining control of the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA.

Strike leaders insist production will never return to normal unless the walkout ends.

In another sign the strike was weakening, private banks announced they would restore normal working hours next week after two months of opening just three hours a day.

The Bush administration has promoted early elections as a solution to the crisis.

Chavez has irritated Washington by cozying up to Cuba and criticizing civilian deaths in the U.S.-led bombing campaign against Afghanistan. Chavez tried unsuccessfully to widen the negotiating group to include governments more friendly to him.

The government estimates the country has lost $4 billion in the strike. Private economists warn the economy could shrink 25 percent in the first three months of the year after contracting an estimated 8 percent last year.

www.globeandmail.com, February 1 Associated Press

Caracas — Under international pressure, opponents of President Hugo Chavez agreed Friday to ease a 2-month-old strike — but not in the crucial oil industry, the world's fifth-largest exporter.

Strike organizers said factories, schools, malls and franchise restaurants would be urged to open next week, at least on a restricted schedule.

The decision came after many of those participants were already considering abandoning the strike, fearing bankruptcy.

Most small businesses never joined the stoppage, which began Dec. 2 under the organization of a combination of labor unions, business leaders and opposition political parties.

But Chavez opponents insisted the walkout would continue in the oil industry, which provides half of government income and 70 per cent of export revenue. The strike has slashed production by two-thirds.

Carlos Fernandez, president of Venezuela's largest business chamber, said the decision to ease the strike came at the request of diplomats from six countries — the United States, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Spain and Portugal. The diplomats were in Caracas seeking a deal on early elections and an end to the strike.

Mr. Fernandez suggested that continuing the strike could weaken the opposition, allowing the government to "destroy the business sector and increase unemployment, then build the totalitarian model over the ashes."

With the strike dying down, opposition leaders — who accuse Mr. Chavez of ruining the economy with leftist policies and trying to accumulate too much power — are hoping international pressure on the embattled President to negotiate will help revive their drive for early balloting.

But Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton said the government had no intention of pledging to end Mr. Chavez's term early.

"The government has no interest in doing away with itself," Mr. Chaderton said Friday.

Diplomats urged both sides to make concessions during negotiations mediated by Cesar Gaviria, the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States.

"Reconciliation and healthy coexistence require mutual concessions," said Gilberto Saboia, Brazil's undersecretary for bilateral political affairs, reading a brief statement late Friday. "We reiterate the need for both sides to reach an constitutional, democratic, peaceful and electoral agreement."

The diplomatic group is urging both sides to accept one of two proposals made by former U.S. president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter.

One is to hold a recall referendum on Mr. Chavez's rule halfway through his six-year term, or August. Venezuela's constitution allows opponents to petition for such a vote by gathering signatures from 20 per cent, or 2.4 million, of the country's 12 million registered voters.

The other — favored by Chavez opponents — calls for ending the strike in exchange for a government pledge to push through quickly a constitutional amendment cutting Mr. Chavez's six-year term to four years, clearing the way for early elections.

Tens of thousands of Chavez opponents marched through Caracas on Friday to protest government investigations into three television stations accused of supporting the strike.

The government has managed to raise oil production beyond 1 million barrels a day — a third of normal, signaling that Mr. Chavez was regaining control of the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA.

Strike leaders insist production will never return to normal unless the walkout ends.

In another sign the strike was weakening, private banks announced they would restore normal working hours next week after two months of opening just three hours a day.

The Bush administration has promoted early elections as a solution to the crisis.

Mr. Chavez has irritated Washington by cozying up to Cuba and criticizing civilian deaths in the U.S.-led bombing campaign against Afghanistan. Mr. Chavez tried unsuccessfully to widen the negotiating group to include governments more friendly to him.

The government estimates the country has lost $4-billion (U.S.) in the strike. Private economists warn the economy could shrink 25 percent in the first three months of the year after contracting an estimated 8 percent last year.

www.news-journal.com By ALEXANDRA OLSON Associated Press Writer

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP)--Under international pressure, opponents of President Hugo Chavez agreed Friday to ease a 2-month-old strike--but not in the crucial oil industry, the world's fifth-largest exporter.

Strike organizers said factories, schools, malls and franchise restaurants would be urged to open next week, at least on a restricted schedule.

The decision came after many of those participants were already considering abandoning the strike, fearing bankruptcy.

Most small businesses never joined the stoppage, which began Dec. 2 under the organization of a combination of labor unions, business leaders and opposition political parties.

But Chavez opponents insisted the walkout would continue in the oil industry, which provides half of government income and 70 percent of export revenue. The strike has slashed production by two-thirds.

Carlos Fernandez, president of Venezuela's largest business chamber, said the decision to ease the strike came at the request of diplomats from six countries--the United States, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Spain and Portugal. The diplomats were in Caracas seeking a deal on early elections and an end to the strike.

Fernandez suggested that continuing the strike could weaken the opposition, allowing the government to ``destroy the business sector and increase unemployment, then build the totalitarian model over the ashes.''

With the strike dying down, opposition leaders_ who accuse Chavez of ruining the economy with leftist policies and trying to accumulate too much power--are hoping international pressure on Chavez to negotiate will help revive their drive for early balloting.

But Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton said the government had no intention of pledging to end Chavez's term early.

``The government has no interest in doing away with itself,'' Chaderton said Friday.

Diplomats urged both sides to make concessions during negotiations mediated by Cesar Gaviria, the secretary-general of the Organization of American States.

Reconciliation and healthy coexistence require mutual concessions,'' said Gilberto Saboia, Brazil's undersecretary for bilateral political affairs, reading a brief statement late Friday. We reiterate the need for both sides to reach an constitutional, democratic, peaceful and electoral agreement.''

The diplomatic group is urging both sides to accept one of two proposals made by former Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter.

One is to hold a recall referendum on Chavez's rule halfway through his six-year term, or August. Venezuela's constitution allows opponents to petition for such a vote by gathering signatures from 20 percent, or 2.4 million, of the country's 12 million registered voters.

The other--favored by Chavez opponents--calls for ending the strike in exchange for a government pledge to push through quickly a constitutional amendment cutting Chavez's six-year term to four years, clearing the way for early elections.

Tens of thousands of Chavez opponents marched through Caracas on Friday to protest government investigations into three television stations accused of supporting the strike.

The government has managed to raise oil production beyond 1 million barrels a day--a third of normal, signaling that Chavez was regaining control of the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA.

Strike leaders insist production will never return to normal unless the walkout ends.

In another sign the strike was weakening, private banks announced they would restore normal working hours next week after two months of opening just three hours a day.

The Bush administration has promoted early elections as a solution to the crisis.

Chavez has irritated Washington by cozying up to Cuba and criticizing civilian deaths in the U.S.-led bombing campaign against Afghanistan. Chavez tried unsuccessfully to widen the negotiating group to include governments more friendly to him.

The government estimates the country has lost $4 billion in the strike. Private economists warn the economy could shrink 25 percent in the first three months of the year after contracting an estimated 8 percent last year.

www.nytimes.com By JUAN FORERO

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan. 31 — Though hammered by a 61-day strike, Venezuela's oil industry is now pumping three times the crude it was in December and will soon meet contractual commitments that were scrapped when the walkout began, the president of the state-run petroleum company said today.

Although far off its prestrike total of 3.1 million barrels a day, Venezuela is now extracting 1.5 million barrels daily and could reach 2 million by the end of February, Alí Rodríguez, president of Petróleos de Venezuela, told foreign reporters. By March, production is expected to reach 2.8 million daily, a level that would allow Venezuela to meet its contractual obligations, which have been suspended. Advertisement

"The international financial community can be absolutely sure that we will meet all our financial obligations," Mr. Rodríguez said.

Petróleos de Venezuela was the fifth-largest exporter of crude and one of four crucial suppliers of oil to the United States before the Dec. 2 anti-government strike began.

Mr. Rodríguez's assessments, if accurate, are the clearest indication yet that President Hugo Chávez's government is on its way to reactivating a once moribund industry that opposition leaders had hoped to use as a weapon to force his ouster.

The strike, which had shut down much of the country, is now fraying as an increasing number of businesses open their doors. Though still able to muster hundreds of thousands for antigovernment marches, as it did today, the opposition is rapidly losing leverage as negotiations with the government enter a new phase in which the two sides are expected to discuss the feasibility of an electoral solution to the country's political turmoil.

"Every day that goes by, the government is winning by attrition," said Lawrence J. Goldstein, president of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation, an industry-supported consulting group in New York. "And every day that goes by, they are winning a little bit more because workers are going back and production is going up."

Today, the government and the opposition met with the so-called friendly nations, including the United States and Brazil, that are trying to help bolster talks by providing guidance and advice to the two sides.

With mediation from César Gaviria, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, the two sides were expected to discuss two proposals put forth earlier this month by former President Jimmy Carter during a visit to Caracas. One calls for a constitutional amendment cutting the president's term to four years from six and leading to an early vote; the other would convene a recall referendum in August.

But the negotiations promise to be difficult, and government officials have grown increasingly defiant this week, feeling that a victory over the strikers is at hand.

Opposition leaders still believe they have an oil card to play, and today they cast Mr. Rodríguez's assessment as exceedingly rosy. They noted that just Thursday the finance minister, Tobías Nóbrega, said the 2003 budget for the oil company would be cut by $2.7 billion to about $6 billion to offset the two-month slide in revenue.

Venezuela, which continues to import gasoline, is refining much of its oil abroad and is in dire need of experienced managers and engineers to restart its operations.

"That is all a big contradiction, what they are saying," said Edgar Paredes, an oil executive who helped lead the walkout. The dissident oil workers instead contend that oil production stands at 1.1 million barrels.

Mr. Rodríguez today acknowledged that spending would drop 40 percent and investment 30 percent this year, possibly foreshadowing a big fall in production that could hurt a country that depends on oil for half of its government spending.

The executive, though, told reporters that a planned restructuring of the company would lead to staff cutbacks and reductions in some operations to make Petróleos de Venezuela more efficient. He did not rule out selling bonds or overseas assets.

Mr. Rodríguez also announced that 5,300 of the company's 33,000 salaried workers — among the thousands who walked off the job — had been fired. He said there was little chance those workers would get their jobs back, particularly the 700 senior executives who helped orchestrate the strike.

Many of those workers also played a role in an April strike that led to Mr. Chávez's temporary removal from power. After reinstating them, the government decided not to retaliate. But not this time, Mr. Rodríguez said.

"Those people got their jobs back or got better positions," he said. "They took advantage of that policy."

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