recovered

Every minute that passes is a piece of Napoleonic jewel that will never be recovered

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From the moment it was known theft of the Napoleonic jewels Inside the Louvre in Paris, France began two parallel races where they sought to try to recover part of the loot. The first one didn’t last long. The next day he found out that he was not going to receive a single euro. by insurance because French law prevented it. The second, and more complicated, is a race against time, because every second that passes is a piece that may not be able to be recovered. A global black market. I counted this week The Wall Street Journal that the assault on the Louvre has immediately activated the semi-clandestine ecosystem through which stolen art and, in particular, historical jewels circulate: an international circuit that moves billions and that connects diamond cutting workshops in Dubai or Delhi with discreet jewelers in New York, Antwerp or Tel Aviv. The priority now is not only to recover the pieces, or those that can, but to do so before they come in on that circuit and suffer the most feared fate: being dismantled, separated from their mount and converted into anonymous gems and molten gold without a past. Jewelry is not paintings. Unlike a Picasso or a serial watch, a stolen jewel can disassemble in minutes: the gold melts, the diamond is cut, the emeralds are rearranged and historical traceability disappears. Although they lose their premium for Napoleonic symbolic value, they retain their value as raw material. The situation reinforces the incentive: the ounce of gold exceeds $4,000 after go up 60% in one year, detonating a wave of metal thefts throughout Europe. And unlike pictorial art, ancient gems lack microengravings or universal databases that allow them to be blocked from being released to the market: once split and relocated, they disappear. The method. The media counted this week that the coup combined speed and daring, but left a trail unbecoming of a professional command: the assailants used a moving elevator to access through an upper window, burst display cases with radials and fled on scooters… leaving abandoned the elevator itselfthe tools, part of the costume (work vests) and even an imperial crown from the 19th century with 1,400 diamonds and 56 emeralds. For former specialized agents, this distances the Pink Panthers profile (disciplined groups that leave no trace) and suggests a bold but technically weak team, capable of entering, but not maximizing value or minimizing exposure. What will the thieves do now? For the Journalif the museum does not pay a reward or admit negotiation, the only viable commercial path is cutting and atomization: re-cut large diamonds into smaller sizes to erase the mark, separate secondary stones easily absorbed by the gray trade and melt the gold to sell it as metal. The experts remember that a receiving network remains up to 90% of value: the thief usually receives only 10% of the legal market (the “price of silence” that is distributed among those who participate in the risk, the conversion and the shielding of concealment), but even so the black reward can be higher than that of a stolen painting, the trace of which jumps to public bases. The crux. The incentive persists because the penalties are low compared to profit and because the stolen jewel, once decomposed, leaves few traces to incriminate. Experts they propose to reclassify the looting of heritage as cultural terrorism (harnessing penalties and sending a regulatory signal). Plus: it forces museums to raise standards physical and procedural, from the control of systems such as cranes or external platforms to, as a deterrent idea, verifying the identity of visitors elevated to sensitive parts, although this clashes with the tourist experience and the flow of masses. The Louvre remained closed after the robbery, remembering that beyond the property loss there is an immediate reputational and operational cost. It only works in the shade. Everything in the jewel crime revolves around at speed: the faster they pass into the hands of cutters and smelters, the more irreversible the evidentiary damage is and the more liquid the exit to the black market. Delay, on the other hand, increases the logistical risk, multiplies leaks within the criminal chain, opens cracks for denunciations and devalues ​​the loot before it produces income. That is why the decisive race is not so much between thieves and insurers, but between stopwatches: the clock that marks how long it takes the receivers to volatilize the identity of the pieces compared to the one that measures how long it takes the State to close the perimeter and cut escape routes. The only window. If you want, the Louvre robbery embodies the Achilles heel of historical jewels: they allow a high-profile crime with a low profile outlet because their cultural identity is destructible at the will of the gangsters and its material value remains. The paradox is that an imperial loot can end up becoming in minor gems sewn into the lining of a jacket heading to an unknown jeweler before the police complete the first sweep. Thus, the only real window to rescue the assets is not in the trial, but in the very brief interval between the blow and the cuttingand once that threshold is crossed, what is stolen ceases to exist as part of history to survive only as matter. Image | Benh LIEU SONG In Xataka | No wonder the theft of jewels from the Louvre has been so easy: the museum’s security has been a disaster for more than a century In Xataka | If the question is why Napoleon’s jewels were stolen from the Louvre, the answer is simple: to break them into a thousand pieces.

The Indies Fleet sank in 1715 loaded with treasures from the ‘New World’. We just recovered a million dollar one

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On July 24, 1715, from the port of Havana, the Indies Fleet He left for Spain. The holds of the ships kept treasures of incalculable value that the Spanish had collected in the ‘New World‘, but everything was cut short a few days later. On the 31st, a hurricane sank eleven of the twelve ships, and that treasure of hundreds or billions of euros was lost. But not forever, since we just found a part. And the big question is the same as always: now… what. In search of treasure. It is estimated that 1,500 sailors lost their lives, but it was also one of the events that triggered one of the golden ages of piracy in America. Among the riches there were chests with coins and silver ingots, silver chests, others loaded with jewels and precious stones, as well as pearls, emeralds, porcelain and ingots of both gold and silver. It is estimated that the burden would be equivalent to more than 400 million current dollars. Taking all this into account, it is no longer so strange to think that the Indies Fleet of 1715 was the objective of the treasure hunter of the time. The Spanish tried it first, who claimed to have found 80% of the treasure. The problem is that it is not clear that the amount was that and the news spread like wildfire, causing the pirates and privateers will carry out attacks trying get hold of the loot recovered. Coins on the beach. Some were successful, but much of the treasure was still somewhere in the waters of the Caribbean. A couple of centuries later, a retiree named Kip Wagner began finding Spanish coins near his home on the beaches of Florida. None were dated after 1715, so he began to wonder. His suspicions were confirmed when he found an 18th-century map detailing the sinking. He founded the Real Eight Company to search for the treasure, and eight NASA and Air Force divers recovered a couple thousand pieces in a single day. It was clear: the treasure of the Indies Fleet It was there. As usually happens in these cases, treasure hunting companies began to become interested, and the protagonist of this story is 1715 Fleet Queens Jewels. We have found it. They have exclusive “salvage” rights, so they are the only ones who can carry out inspections to recover the treasures and, in the summer of 2025, an expedition carried out the great advertisement: More than 1,000 silver reales and five gold coins minted in the Spanish colonies of Mexico, Peru and Bolivia had been recovered. Some are completely eroded, but many others preserve mint marks -inscription indicating where it was manufactured- and the date, so they have directly become a valuable historical testimony. It is estimated that they all come from the same chest of the dozens that sank that day and it is a unique discovery, since finding a handful of coins is common, but a thousand at once is something much more unique. A good loot. The value of what was found has been estimated at one million dollars, but beyond the coins, a royal lead seal with the impression of the king Philip II. There is still much more at the bottom of the ocean. Despite 70 years of systematic searching, it is estimated that there are at least three ships from the fleet that are still missing, being the next targets of 1715 Fleet. Who keeps it? Sal Guttuso is the company’s director of operations and comments that what was found is “a tangible link with the people who lived, worked and sailed during the Golden Age of the Spanish Empire”, but beyond the romanticism, the big question is who gets the treasure. As they have been found in Florida state waters, its legislation establishes that any treasure considered “abandoned” belongs to the state. However, if you do not want to take charge of the search efforts, Florida grants permits to qualified organizations for exploration and recovery. Thus, it establishes that “salvers” can retain 80% of the recovered artifacts, while the remaining 20% ​​are cleaned, documented and preserved in educational collections and public exhibitions. According to 1715 Treasure Fleet, after cataloging them, some pieces will be exhibited in local museums in Florida. The next thing is to see what happens with future expeditions… and if the Flota de Indias treasure ends up causing a international earthquake like that of the San José galleon. Images | 1715 Fleet (2) In Xataka | The Spanish galleon San José sank carrying 20 billion dollars. Mexico and Colombia are going to bring that treasure to light

Russia has recovered a Soviet festival as a cultural and political counterweight of Eurovision. It will not be easy

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You may like more or less, but there is an indisputable truth about Eurovision: it is not just a music festival. Beyond choreographies, lights, Brillibrilli And the catchy melodies, the appointment organized by the UUr is loaded with geopolitics. Russia knows. Hence, you have decided to start Your own alternative to the European Festival, which was expelled by the invasion of Ukraine: Interview. Your name may find you strange, but connect with an appointment of the Soviet era. The big question, now that the festival has started Your countdownit is whether Interview will become a real alternative to Eurovision. It will not be easy. What happened? That Russia is promoting its own Eurovision. Or rather, he wants to recover an old festival that hurts its roots in the time of the USSR, back in the 60s and 70s, when it served as showcase and agglutinator of the nations of the socialist block. The appointment is called Interview And it has been cooking over the last months: In February Vladimir Putin gave order to start it, In June The first participants were announced and (except for unforeseen changes) the appointment will be held in two weeks, Saturday 20in Moscow. Do we know what it will be like? More or less. The web Interview is grim Live Arena From the Russian capital, it will be issued through the official channel Piervy Kanal and will include about twenty artists. In June, at the beginning The countdown From the appointment, the organization talked about the participation of 20 countries, especially members of the geopolitical block BRICS and CEIalthough the list includes some surprise. Specifically those responsible for the festival They announced As participants to Azerbaijan, Belarus, Venezuela, Vietnam, Egypt, India, Kazakstán, Qatar, China, Colombia, Cuba, Kyrgyzstan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, United States, Tayikistan, Uzbekistan, South Africa and Russia itself. Only only the representatives of 17 candidates are announced on the interview website, including the great surprise: the US flag bearer artist, Brandon Howard. Why is it interesting? Input because it shows the determination of Vladimir Putin to recover interview, An old appointment Soviet whose history can go back to the 60s and 70s and that had Two great stages: between 1965 and 1968, when it was developed in Czechoslovakia; and between 1977 and 1980, when Sopot, Poland, replacing the City International Festival. In the early 80s the authorities decided to cancel it after the emergence of the movement Solidarność and his destiny was definitely marked with the fall of the USSR. In 2008 He had a fleeting resurgence and in 2014 Putin He showed his interest In recovering the cut, but the authentic support seems to have now received it, in 2025, Three years later that the Uuer decided to expel Russia from the Eurovision Festival for the invasion of Ukraine. What does Putin intend? Interview resurgence is not a simple matter of nostalgia or historical curiosity. In the festival there is a clear component of geopolitics and culture, just like there is in Eurovision. Good test is the list of countries with confirmed representatives or Howard’s presence. The context is not accidental either: the relaunch of interview comes three years after the Uuer showed the exit door to Russia, after Putin Try to recover Friendship games as an alternative to the Olympic Games (of which It was also excluded for his role in Ukraine) and in a moment of international claim in which the Russian leader has been shown with such relevant leaders Like Xi Jingping, Narendra Modi or even Donald Trump. Is it only geopolitics? No. There is also a cultural factor that Kremlin wanted to make clear from the beginning. Months ago, after the return of Interview, the Russian senator Liliya Gamerova was announced He claimed that the festival “will promote real music” and turn its back on “false values ​​outside any normal person” in an evening reference to Eurovision. In 2014, Putin’s vindication of Interview coincided with the victory at the European Festival of Conchita Wurst And last year the winner was the non -binary artist Nemo Mettler. In a Interesting analysis Posted today in The Guardian Elise Morton recalls that throughout the last decades Eurovision has been associated with the causes LGBTQ+, a link that can be traced at least 1997, with the participation of PALL ÓSKARthe first openly gay contestant of the festival. 11 years ago the victory of the Drag Queen Wurst coincided with Putin’s attempt to promote “traditional values” in Russia, which included limiting LGBTQ+contents. What will it be for? With interview, The expert reflects In Visual Cultura Bárbara Barreiro, the objective of the Kremlin is clear: to create a “cultural counterweight” to Eurovision, “to challenge Western cultural dominance” at a time when the UER Festival has become a “representative of liberal values.” Not just that. As Morton remembers, it has also served as a showcase so that countries that were under Soviet domain exhibit their cultural independence. Will it have it easy? It does not seem. Eurovision’s popularity lies in its effectiveness as an audiovisual show, something to which interview should aspire. And no matter how much the Russian festival presumably an artist poster, the truth is that it starts with some disadvantages. To begin its ignorance and the low impact that seems to be having on social networks. On Instagram the event has just over 4,000 followers. It is a figure understandable by the difficulties in accessing the platform from Russia, but its mark on the Russian network Vkontakte And Telegram is not much better, with just dozens of followers. Is it the only handicap? Another logistics challenge is the time spindle. Although in Eurovision Australia participatesmost participating countries (whether or not in Europe) share a more or less similar schedule. To hit with an hour of maximum audience does not represent a great challenge for its organizers. Nor manage a vote system that makes the audience feel participate. Musicians from countries such as the US, Russia, China or Saudi Arabia … Read more

Felipe II wanted to build an XXL channel from Madrid to Lisbon. Now the city has recovered it inspired by ancient Egypt

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When the workers are excavated in a city with the solera and patrimonial wealth of Madrid the ground can become a box of surprises. The team in charge of the expansion of Metro Line 11, which during its excavations at the future Madrid Rio station recently proved it. He found himself With a wall of the Real Canal del Manzanares, the Gran river path dreamed by Felipe II. The structure has value, that was clear from the beginning, but it was so delicate and was in such a complicated area that a doubt arose: how to rescue it? Simple: ‘Looking’ to Ancient Egypt. Underground Award. If Spanish architects know something, it is that when you hurt a shovel in a city and excavas enough it is not strange that archaeological remains begin to emerge. It has happened in the works of Expansion of line 11 of the Madrid Metro. A few months ago The operators who are responsible for horating the ground for the future underground network and the Madrid Rio station found more than rocks: they located remains of the Real Canal del Manzanares. Click on the image to go to Tweet. Curious yes, surprising no. The finding is interesting and will help us know better The old channeling who aspired to connect Madrid and Lisbon with barges, but did not catch off experts. “It has been no surprise to meet this section of the channel here,” I commented In spring a The country Archaeologist Esther Andreu. It is not the first finding in the environment and experts have been in charge of keeping tables and examining the area with laser scanners. What is the real channel? Maybe The craziest dream From Felipe II, that one day, back in the 16th century, he wondered why he could not have Madrid his own port with the Atlantic. Sounds macarronic, but what the monarch had in mind was to imitate the model of locks and channels he had seen In Flanders and create a river route that connected Madrid with Aranjuez and then continue through the Tagus to Lisbon … and America. The project, huge, required a 600 km navigable route capable of saving 650 m slope, as Pedro Gargantilla requires in ABC. With honey on the lips. The project advanced and In 1584 Felipe II himself came to travel from Madrid to Aranjuez to verify in situ the progress of the company. However, neither its real effort, nor that of the engineer behind the project, Juan Bautista AntonelliNor the implication of the monarchs that followed Felipe II on the throne (especially Carlos III) served to make the structure reach the size with which the Austria dreamed. Stayed in a channel of 22 kilometers of extension (far from the initial objective), 14 meters wide and three of draft, with ten locks, header, jetty and houses for workers. Against the project they played several factors, in addition to their considerable technical complexity. The first varapalo was the death of Antonelli in 1588, which happened complications with financing, the distancing Politician with Portugal and, already advanced time, in the 19th century, the growing competition of the railroad, which caused the infrastructure Stay in disuse. That did not prevent the Royal Channel from remembered as an emblematic project whose remains, as Metro has verified, continue to rest under the feet of Madrid. What to do with the remains? The million dollar question. The wall has a heritage and historical value, that is clear, so it would not be unreasonable to do the same as in other stations and expose the vestiges in Madrid Río itself. But one thing is to remove and handle wood remains, small stones or metal parts and a very different manipulate a structure of several tons. How to move it? How to get it out of its original site without destroying it? The questions are brought because, like Andreu explains in ABCin the unearthed section the Royal Channel was about nine meters wide and 1.5 deep. “It was not very deep, it passed parallel to the Manzanares channel. The water flowed because it was built at the same water table of the river,” he recalls. Before the Brete of having to move that huge structure without deteriorating it, those responsible for the project made a curious decision: ‘look’ to ancient Egypt. “A very complicated order”. The company perhaps scared other archaeologists, but not Miguel Ángel López Marcoswith extensive experience in the recovery of the colossi of Amenophis III in Luxor and that it has already been involved in the ‘rescue’ of other pieces of the Madrid heritage, such as The last vestiges from the San Gil barracks. That callus and previous knowledge have helped him to face the Real Canal project, a task that admits, it was not simple. “The commission was very complicated by the situation of the wall embedded in the tunnel and the characteristics of the fragile and mechanical resistance,” account. Metal cage and steel rollers. How did he solve it? The first conclusion reached by López Marcos is that “the extraction should be in block.” “Disassembly would cause the disintegration of the wall, which does not have the necessary consistency,” Clarify The expert before pointing out that conventional engineering lacks resources to “guarantee” the conservation of that kind of structures. It is nothing new. The same challenge has already been found in Egypt, where he can often resort to heavy machinery that facilitates the task. To solve it López Marcos and his companions had to pull ingenuity. The team designed a protective cage, a shield that allowed it to dig under the structure and dispose of a base with steel bars. Everything firm enough to endure a 14 tons structure. Hydraulic beams and cats allowed them to advance the operation and descend the remains of the wall at a sufficient height to move it to a crane truck. To facilitate the movement of the cage with the stones the team also handled steel rollers. Objective: … Read more

Seville wanted more security in its streets at night. So he has recovered an old figure: the serene

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In many towns and cities of Spain, serene are a I remember distanta another time figure that he was in charge of around night through the streets while the rest of the neighbors rested in their beds. In Seville no. There the City Council decided to recover them to late 2023 And the experience has been good enough so that now, once that test is over, he has decided to return big, with more personal, more hours and covering more neighborhoods. Its mission will not consist of replacing the police, but in something much more interesting: demonstrating that serene can fit in the 21st century. What happened? That Seville wants that at night its streets are monitored by a figure that has disappeared in most towns and cities of the country: the serene. And he wants to do it big, in addition, dedicating considerable investment to the program (around 2.6 million euros) so that the guards can cover a large part of the Hispanic capital during every night of the year. Why do you do it? It may be shocking at a time when cities are already controlled by municipal agents and other agencies responsible for ensuring the safety of neighbors and businesses, such as the National Police, the Civil Guard or 112; But Seville acts with knowledge of cause. The Consistory already launched a program with “civic agents” to late 2023a service that worked for months and gave such good results that He wants to consolidate it. What do they do? The Hispanic City Council It makes it clear: The serene figure is not intended to replace the Polysa. On the contrary. His mission is to complement the work of the agents, inform neighbors and tourists, mediate in conflicts, accompany people who may need it, such as the elderly, dependent people or lost visitors, notify problems in urban furniture and alert the Cecop (Operational Coordination Center) Before emergencies. They are a “first proximity front”, In words of the Consistory. Their first year of operation gives a clear clue what the serene can contribute. In just one year they gave almost 500 notices To the CECOP room to inform open shops, problems with lighting, robberies, fires or medical emergencies. In Seville they have accompanied people at night, advising, mediating in the attention to homeless people and even provided “Preventive Protection” to a clerk before a case of harassment. And what does the City Council think? Its mayor, José Luis Sanz Ruiz, I made it clear This week when announcing the commitment redoubled by the serene: “we launched a pilot project in 12 neighborhoods of the historic center and the balance was quite positive. It has achieved a better coexistence, more security for neighbors and better job opportunities for hired people.” That first test was in fact launched as part of a public employment plan that ended Last December Without option In extension. Hence, now the Consistory has tendered a contract for the service to assume a company As of Octoberbetween the 1st of that month and on September 30 of the next year, although the sheet contemplates that the contract can be extended. What will the service be like now? Much more ambitious. If the pilot project had 18 “civic agents” and two coordinators, the new service will expand its seedling until adding 36 agents and two coordinators. This increase will also allow them to expand the Seville area that supervise: of the 12 neighborhoods planned in the 2023 plan, it will be passed to 26 zones. As for the schedule, the serene will be in charge of making rounds from 23.00 to 7.00 h 365 days a year, an hour more than before. That increase is possible thanks to a greater economic effort of the institution. The pilot program was financed by 725,800 euros. Now the investment is triggered to rise to 2.6 million euros. In that amount, They clarify at the City Councilthe salaries of the agents and the material they use, from geolocation devices to the clothes that identify them as serene are included. Are they exclusive to Seville? No. Although Seville has stood out for his commitment to the “civic agents” is not the only town in Spain that keeps serene. His figure has also recovered in Several municipalities Catalans Another example is Gijónwhat are you doing More than 25 years He decided to recover them to make rounds through the streets of the city from entrance at night and to the early morning. His work is very similar to that of his colleagues Sevillians: they help neighbors, merchants and tourists, prove that urban and lighting furniture is in good condition, they inform and warn the police in cases of robberies. Images | Seville City Council and Andrea Leopardi (UNSPLASH) In Xataka | A richer, more live years: the two neighborhoods of Seville that illustrate inequality in life expectancy

Ten years later, Xiaomi has recovered the smartphone crown in China. And he has done it more huawei than ever

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Ten years later, Xiaomi has recovered a crown that had been taken away: that of his native country. The company has just exceeded Huawei and is, at least in this first quarter of 2025, The first mobile brand in China. The key to get it, curiously, is increasingly Huawei. An overwhelming annual growth. Regarding the same quarter of 2023, Xiaomi has grown no less than 40%. Huawei does it in 12%, and I live in 2%. In total, the company sent 13.3 million phones in its native country, very close to 13 million Huawei. These figures make Xiaomi recover a first position he did not enjoy for a decade. Its scenario is favorable: Chinese brands They are the only ones that grow in their native country, and if this Xiaomi trend will be easy to strengthen its position. The reasons for success. According to Canals, the growth of Xiaomi is helped by national subsidy policies and a rebound of the Chinese consumer consuming even more national company in full tariff war. Beyond the support of your country, analyzing Xiaomi’s strategy helps to understand its success. A quite similar to that of the rival that follows more closely: Huawei. Xiaomi has a price of price very consistent in China through the different distributors, and a product diversification that drives you to continue growing as a brand. Its product portfolio has long stopped focusing only on the mobile: they are introduced into the electric carthe Aiot world, and especially in China they have a very interconnected portfolio with Hyperos. Xiaomi is stop selling only product: Sell ​​ecosystem. Boom (for a long time) of national brands, solid product strategy, Pricing aggressive and a strong ecosystem. It is no accident: the two brands that grow the most in China and lead this market bet on these pillars. The importance of AI. Deepseek is having a fundamental role in Chinese mobile sales. While in Europe we bet on Gemini and Chatgpt on Android, in China the integration with Depseek is quite deep. From Canalys they point out that the arrival of this model of AI is reviving the interest of consumers, and that mobile phones already represent 22% of shipments in continental China. In the case of Xiaomi, Depseek is integrated into Hyperos to enhance its Super Xiaoai assistant, integrating the functions of deep thinking (R1) within the operating system itself. The current Chinese podium. After Xiaomi’s victory, photography in China is the following, at least in the first quarter of the year. Xiaomi, 19% market share Huawei, 18% market share Oppo, 15% market share LIVE, 10.4 MARKET FEE Apple, 9.2% market share In full tariff war, Apple will have it difficult to grow in China. In fact, in this first period of the year, its fall is 8%. On the side of Chinese brands, Oppo is the only one that does not grow. Xiaomi, Huawei and Vivo start the year in positive. An independent market. The presence of Chinese mobiles in Europe is remarkable. So much that Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo occupy the third, fourth and fifth position of the podium in the first quarter of 2025, Behind Samsung and Apple. But the Chinese market is different. It’s a Market with special weight of national technology, and a hyperdigitized retail channel that allows it to be even more competitive in price. The context of tariff crisis will only push national brands, throwing the doubt what will happen with Apple that has been losing ground in China for years. Image | Xataka In Xataka | The new Chinese tariffs are a mosquadilla for Apple. It is just what Huawei needed to dominate Asia

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