McCartney divorce battle is back in court

McCartney divorce
battle is back in court

LONDON — Paul McCartney and Heather Mills returned to court Monday in an attempt to agree on terms for their divorce. The fight over the wealth of the former Beatle, who is estimated to have as much as $1.6 billion, could produce Britain’s largest-ever divorce settlement. Mills, 40, looked tense and said nothing as she entered a courtroom at London’s Royal Courts of Justice wearing a gray suit and bright pink shirt. McCartney, 65, arrived at court after his estranged wife, also wearing a gray suit. He said “good morning” as he entered court carrying a large black case. Unlike most British court hearings, divorce proceedings are heard in private, and the door of Court 34 bore a sign reading “No Admittance — Strictly Private.” The hearing before Justice Hugh Bennett is scheduled to last five days. Press reports have suggested that McCartney has offered his wife around $50 million, and that she is seeking at least double that amount.

Thieves steal paintings
valued at $163M

ZURICH, Switzerland — Three armed men in ski masks stole four paintings by Cezanne, Degas, van Gogh and Monet worth $163.2 million from a Zurich museum in one of Europe’s largest ever art heists, police said Monday. The robbers, who were still at large, stole the paintings Sunday from the E.G. Buehrle Collection, one of Europe’s finest private museums for Impressionist and post-Impressionist art, police said. It was the largest art robbery in Switzerland’s history and ‘one of the biggest ever in Europe, said Marco Cortesi, spokesman for the Zurich police. He compared it to the theft in 2004 of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” and “Madonna” from the Munch Museum in Norway. The three masked men wearing dark clothing entered the museum a half-hour before closing Sunday, police said. While one of the men used a pistol to force museum personnel to the floor, the two others went into the exhibition hall and collected the four paintings. One of the men spoke German with a Slavic accent, police said. They loaded the paintings into a white vehicle parked in front of the museum. A reward of about $90,000 was offered for information leading to the recovery of the paintings — Claude Monet’s “Poppy field at Vetheuil,” Edgar Degas’ “Ludovic Lepic and his Daughter,” Vincent van Gogh’s “Blooming Chestnut Branches,” and Paul Cezanne’s “Boy in the Red Waistcoat.”

Today’s birthdays

Movie director Franco Zeffirelli is 85. Baseball Hall-of-Fame sportscaster Joe Garagiola is 82. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) is 78. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Bill Russell is 74. Actor Joe Don Baker is 72. Author Judy Blume is 70. Rock musician Ray Manzarek (The Doors) is 69. Country singer Moe Bandy is 64. Rock singer Michael McDonald is 56. Actor-former talk show host Arsenio Hall is 53. Actor Josh Brolin is 40. Singer Chynna Phillips is 40. Rock musician Jim Creeggan (Barenaked Ladies) is 38. Actress Christina Ricci is 28.