NEWS OF THE WEIRD

Make Art Great Again!

A French museum dedicated to the work of painter Etienne Terrus announced April 27 that more than half of its collection from the 19th-century artist are forgeries.

The Terrus museum in Elne, where Terrus was born, gathered a group of experts to inspect the works after a visiting art historian noticed some of the paintings depict buildings that were not constructed until after Terrus’ death. In all, 82 paintings were determined to be fake. BBC News reported that the town’s mayor, Yves Barniol, called the situation “a disaster” and apologized to museum visitors.

Armed and Clumsy

Fort Dodge, Iowa, may not exactly be the Wild West, but tell that to Balew, the pit bull-lab mix belonging to 51-year-old Richard Remme. As Remme and Balew roughhoused at home on May 9, Balew bounded back up onto the couch, where, according to The Messenger, he managed to shoot his owner in the leg.

“I carry in a belly band, under my bib overalls,” Remme told the newspaper. “And apparently he bumped the safety one time, and when he bounded back over one of his toes went right down into the trigger guard,” he explained. Remme didn’t realize he’d been shot until his pant leg started to turn purple. Balew, however, “thought he was in trouble for doing something wrong,” Remme said. He “laid down beside me and cried.”

Bright Ideas

The grandmother of a 7-year-old girl in Marietta, Georgia, became alarmed May 7 when a stranger started following her and the little girl around a Kroger store.

WXIA-TV reported that Einodd Samimi had earlier approached the grandmother at a nearby Walmart and asked if he could “have” her granddaughter for $100. He upped the ante at Kroger, offering to purchase her for $200 and commenting on the little girl’s pretty hair. The grandmother confronted Samimi, drawing a large crowd of shoppers who chased him through the store and to his car. Police arrested Samimi at his home on charges of enticing a child and criminal solicitation.