Picasso's electrician reveals artist's 'treasure trove'

Picasso's electrician reveals artist's 'treasure trove' - BBC News Europe

A retired electrician in southern France who worked for Pablo Picasso says he has hundreds of previously unknown works by the artist.

The works include a portrait of the late artist's first wife, Olga

The treasure trove of 271 pieces includes lithographs, cubist paintings, notebooks and a watercolour and is said to be worth about 60m euros (£50.6m).

Pierre Le Guennec, 71, reportedly says Picasso gave him the works as gifts.

But the estate's administrators have filed a case for alleged illegal receipt of the works of art.

According to French newspaper Liberation, the lost Picassos include a watercolour from his Blue Period. Experts say the nine cubist works in Mr Le Guennec's possession are worth 40m euros alone.

Legal battle

The electrician installed burglar alarm systems at Picasso's numerous houses in France, including his villa in Cannes, during the three years before the artist died in 1973.

In September, Mr Le Guennec approached the artist's estate in an attempt to get the canvases authenticated by Picasso's son, Claude.

But Claude Picasso dismissed Mr Le Guennec's explanation about how he came into possession of the art works.

He said his father would never have given so many works to a single person.

"To give away such a large quantity, that's unheard of. It doesn't add up," he told Liberation. "It was a part of his life."

Once the works were authenticated, the family contacted France's specialist art police who have reportedly already raided Mr Le Guennec's home on the Cote d'Azur, confiscating the paintings and interviewing him under caution.

The BBC's Christian Fraser, in Paris, says a multimillion-euro legal battle over the ownership of the paintings will now begin.

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art says Picasso produced more than 20,000 works of art during his long career, but hundreds have been listed as missing - in part because he was so prolific, the AP news agency reports.

Switzerland preps next-gen spectrum auctions

Switzerland aims to sell mobile frequencies in 2011 - Reuters

Auction may net several hundred million Swiss francs

Switzerland has outlined plans to sell additional radio frequencies in the first half of next year. The invitation to tender is taking place with particular reference to the expiry of the GSM and 3G licenses in 2013 and 2016, respectively.

In addition, Switzerland should be one of the first countries in Europe to put the frequencies from the so-called "digital dividend" in the 800 MHz range out to tender. This wide range of mobile radio frequencies will be uniformly put out to tender for use up to the end of 2028.

The auction will be conducted using an electronic auction system from the English company DotEcon. This system allows secure bidding over the internet and has already been used successfully in Denmark, UK, Holland, Norway, Sweden and Hong Kong.

The frequencies will be awarded in a technology-neutral manner so that it will also be possible to use the latest mobile radio technologies such as LTE. The regulator added that the early allocation of frequencies and a utilisation period extending up to the end of 2028 will enable licensees to plan for the long term and to make their investments on a solid foundation. Furthermore, additional frequencies will enable network operators to meet the booming demand for mobile broadband services.

Both the existing mobile radio licensees (Orange, Sunrise, Swisscom, and In&Phone) and any new operators which wish to participate in the auction have until 18 March 2011 to submit a candidature dossier to OFCOM. In it they must specify the maximum amount of spectrum they wish to purchase within the individual bands. They must also lodge a bank guarantee in the amount of the minimum bid for the frequencies they are applying for. They must also prove that they can meet the statutory licensing requirements and the specific obligations of the invitation to tender. If a candidate meets the requirements, it will be authorised by ComCom to take part in the auction.

It is planned to hold the auction in the first half of 2011 and to issue the licences afterwards. To prevent possible collusion and agreements between the bidders as far as possible, ComCom will not make known the names of the candidates. The names of the candidates, the winners, the acquired frequencies and the auction price will only be published after the conclusion of the auction.

Twitter PPC ads to appear in Google’s real time SERPs

Twitter PPC ads to appear in Google’s real time SERPs - Vertical Leap

Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) will soon boast another form of paid search engine marketing - not in the typical AdWords slot but in ostensibly organic results. However, whilst this may seem like a breach of the company’s long-held ethics on transparency and relevancy, there is one caveat: these ads are from an entirely different network – Twitter.

According to a report in Marketing Magazine, Twitter’s new sponsored search feature – “Promoted Tweets” – are expected to appear in Google’s SERPs alongside other tweets in the real-time search service, Updates.

This will mark the first time that Google has allowed ads from other networks to appear in its search listings and could potentially be seen as a betrayal of their previous clear distinction between advertising and search results.

However any such criticism would seem somewhat unfounded, as Promoted Tweets appear in this format in any Twitter search results – and Google Updates is, effectively, simply delivering results from that internal search engine to a wider audience.

Marketing Magazine reports that Google and Twitter are believed to share the revenue generating from the PPC-basis Promoted Tweets when they are displayed in Google-powered SERPs. This tie-up has been called a “breakthrough” by Nick Jones, managing director of I Spy Marketing.

“Twitter is pioneering advertising against short-form content, so it was a natural starting place for us,” said a spokeswoman for Google, adding that the company was always willing to explore other advertising models and systems.

Household wealth returns to pre-crisis level

Household wealth returns to pre-crisis level - SwissInfo

The net worth of Swiss households has bounced back to the level it had prior to the financial crisis of 2008, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced on Friday.

In 2009, the net worth of households rose by 6.5 per cent to SFr2,595 billion ($2,615 billion), once again reaching its 2007 level.

In addition to savings, the main reasons for the increase were a recovery in share prices and the continued rise in real estate prices, according to the SNB.

The net worth per capita has increased to around SFr333,000, compared with SFr316,000 in 2008.

Rising stock market prices had a strong influence on financial assets; about one third of the price losses suffered in 2008 was recouped in 2009 on stock markets in Switzerland and abroad.

Deposits with banks and Swiss Post’s financial services grew by SFr23 billion to SFr523 billion. Contributions to occupational pension schemes exceeded the benefits drawn and price gains were recorded on pension fund investments.

The wealth report comes just a week after the first national poverty conference, which called attention to the fact that one in ten people in Switzerland is poor.

In 2008, the poverty line was set at SFr2,300 ($2,375) a month for a single-person household, SFr3,900 for a single-parent/two-children family and SFr4,800 for a married couple with two children.

Google Phases Out “Sponsored Links” Adopts New Name For Ads: “Ads”

Google Phases Out “Sponsored Links” Adopts New Name For Ads: “Ads” - eBrandz Search Marketing & Technology News

San Francisco -- Attempting to bring some innovation to its advertizing structure, Internet search engine titan Google has now finished unfolding a mostly cosmetic change but an important one nonetheless. The paid search results on Google.com are now designated as “Ads” rather than “Sponsored Links.”

This does not alter anything in the way the ads are selected or displayed, but it is an interesting modification if only because the “Sponsored Links” description has been used for a very long time.

Search Engine Land's Barry Schwartz, who first discovered that most people were seeing the “Ads” label rather than “Sponsored Links” got a confirmation from Google.

“Yes, I can confirm this rollout. We are always experimenting with the look and feel of our search result pages, including the delivery of relevant advertising. This is on English language domains now and rolling out to all languages and domains,” a Google spokesperson said.

The modification, obviously, only affects English language domains, since other languages are going to have different names for the feature. Also, it is interesting to note that the change is only for ads on the main Google search engine and not for the other Google products which feature ads, meaning most of them.

Google commenced experimenting with the new name about a month ago and has been unfurling the change since. Promoted Tweets, which started showing up on Google earlier this week, were labeled as “Ads” as well.

The Google Places incorporation and various local ads contribute to the weakening of the “Sponsored Links” term. Another reason for the alteration could be that Google found that the term “Ads” performed better, in terms of user interaction and, therefore, revenue, than “Sponsored Links.”

Bing named their ads “Sponsored Sites” and Yahoo “Sponsored Results.”

However, adoption of the new term may very well have to do with the fact that Google has been diversifying its ad offerings and has not been relying on text ads as much as before.