| Is Deepa ready for the Oscar walk?
What is the most important thing at the Oscars? The trophy. But there is something more important - the red carpet and the outfits that the film world struts in. Now that our very own filmmaker Deepa Mehta will walk the red carpet for her much 'talked about' film Water, she is also ready with her 'designer' walk. It is a Ritu Kumar design. "It wasn't difficult designing for Deepa as we share similar wardrobe tastes," says Ritu, who is also Deepa's cousin. Deepa will don a gold and silver Banarasi tissue sari. Here's the catch: The sari belongs to her mother and it is several decades old. She will team it with a full-sleeved antique brocade burgundy blouse, antique kundan set and mojris. Now, that's typical Ritu Kumar heritage! There's more. For the Vanity Fair party, the Governor's Ball and the Oscar Ball, "her look will be traditional but very individualistic." And what is Deepa's take? "Ritu didi used to design these really beautiful salwar kameez for my school functions.
Building set for revamp
A BUILDING which was linked to a multi-million pound fraud and bankruptcy investigation could soon be turned into flats and a shop.For The Journal can today exclusively reveal that the once-thriving Wrentham Antiques wholesale and export business, which closed mysteriously in 2002 and was previously owned by Barry Spearing, could soon be transformed.The application to convert the building in High Street into 11 flats and a retail unit with garages and car parking facilities, comes over a year after Spearing was found guilty of defrauding creditors out of hundreds of thousands of pounds.The disgraced antiques dealer has been on the run from police and the Department of Trade and Industry ever since and has still not been traced despite extensive enquiries. Spearing had numerous properties and lots of money but now has nothing.His fall from grace first came to light when he declared himself bankrupt in 2002 and the business was shrouded in doubt.Speaking to The Journal in April 2005, his father Terence, 75, told how his son was sentenced to six months in jail after he was found guilty of beating him up.Mr Spearing claimed his son's problems had escalated over the years and the family antiques business, which once brought in more than £1m a year and exported across the world, had hit trouble about a year before his son went bankrupt.In July 2005, Spearing, formerly of Green Drive, entered no plea at Lowestoft Magistrates' Court to 11 charges brought against him by the DTI.In January 2006, at the start of his trial at Ipswich Crown Court, Spearing was tried in absence.
Records tie Japan to art theft / Italian prosecutors discover link ...
Italian prosecutors have obtained records and photographs that they claim show the head of an international smuggling syndicate that was behind the illegal excavation of antiquities in Italy had dealt with a Japanese antique art dealer, it has been learned. The Italian prosecutors suspected that a number of antiquities housed at some museums or owned by individual collectors in Japan might have been illegally dug up at Italian archaeological sites. The prosecutors named Gianfranco Becchina, an Italian art dealer, as the head of the antiquities smuggling syndicate. One of the prosecutors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Becchina is from Sicily and is suspected to have links with the Mafia. The prosecution searched a warehouse owned by Becchina in Basel, Switzerland, in 2002 and 2005 on suspicion he smuggled illegal items.
Easement aids canal project
HOLYOKE - City businessman Eric S. Suher has become the first of several property owners along the proposed CanalWalk project to sign a formal easement agreement with the city, officials said on Friday. Although there are several more property owners who have not yet signed the agreements, Mayor Michael J. Sullivan hailed Suher's signing last week as a significant step forward for the CanalWalk project, which has been hailed as a catalyst for downtown revitalization. "It is exciting to see things come to fruition," Sullivan said on Friday. "We're trying to move things forward, and we're doing everything we can." "This is the biggest step so far," Senior City Planner Karen A. Mendrala said. "But there's a lot more work to do." Suher, president of E-S Sports Corp.
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