English in Madrid

Source: Wikipedia Stolen Picasso found in Romanian forest revealed as fake What was thought to be a stolen artwork by Pablo Picasso recently discovered in Romania has been revealed as a forgery . Experts had hoped that the painting was Harlequin Head, snatched from the Kunsthal museum in Rotterdam in an infamous art heist six years ago. A Belgian theatre company duped a Dutch writer , who wrote a novel based on the daring robbery , into thinking she had found the missing artwork in Romania. It says it staged the hoax as part of a project about the value of truth. The theft of the century, as the 2012 heist was dubbed by local media, saw pieces by Picasso, Monet, Matisse and others taken in three minutes. Four Romanian art thieves were jailed for the heist, but the seven artworks - estimated to be worth as much as €200m (£160m) at the time - were never recovered . Some of the pieces are feared to have been burned by one of the robber's mothers - who t...

Source:  Shane Rounce on Unsplash In 1605, thirteen young men planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Among them was Guy Fawkes, Britain's most notorious traitor. After Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, English Catholics who had been persecuted under her rule had hoped that her successor, James I, would be more tolerant of their religion. James I had, after all , had a Catholic mother. Unfortunately, James did not turn out to be more tolerant than Elizabeth and a number of young men, 13 to be exact, decided that violent action was the answer. A small group took shape , under the leadership of Robert Catesby. Catesby felt that violent action was warranted . Indeed , the thing to do was to blow up the Houses of Parliament. In doing so , they would kill the King, maybe even the Prince of Wales, and the Members of Parliament who were making life difficult for the Catholics. Today these conspirators would be known as extremists, or terrorists. To carry out their pla...

Source: Wikipedia 'It was brutal': Ross Edgley completes 157-day swim around Britain  After 37 jellyfish stings and a rotting tongue, the 33-year-old finally surfaces in Margate   As he hobbled on to dry land for the first time in 157 days, having become the first swimmer to circumnavigate the whole of Great Britain, Ross Edgley’s first thought was not for food, a warm blanket , or a hug . “It was so strange,” he laughed. “I was just really worried I was gonna   * stack it and * face-plant the floor.” Hundreds of spectators gathered at Margate harbour on Sunday morning to cheer the 33-year-old as he emerged from the sea after completing a record 1,791-mile swim around the mainland. Thankfully, he was not made to do a lap of honour . “I got out of the water and thought this is gonna be amazing, I’ll run in like Baywatch,” he told the Guardian shortly after completing the feat . “The reality is that I’m really chubby now, really hairy, and I had a...