Paris
Homeless population explodes: The homeless of Europe are camping out on the streets of Paris. The French national statistics office says there’s been a 50 percent rise in homelessness in France since 2001 thanks to a dismal economy, and the down and out from other countries are also making their way there. “In London you can’t sleep in a tent and stay in the same place all day,” sociologist Julien Damon told The Guardian (U.K.). “In Paris, you can. There’s no criminalization of begging.” In European surveys, the French are least likely to blame the homeless for their plight; one poll found that more than half the French said they felt that the same could happen to them one day.
Munich
Nazi-confiscated art found: The art world is reeling from the discovery of a massive trove of important 19th- and 20th-century paintings and drawings in a Munich apartment. Some of the 1,500 works were confiscated from museums by the Nazis as “degenerate” art—works deemed “un-German”—while others were apparently sold far under market prices by desperate Jewish owners so they could flee Nazi oppression. Authorities found the trove—including paintings by Matisse, Picasso, Chagall, and Toulouse-Lautrec—almost two years ago, when they searched the apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt, son of an art dealer who collaborated with the Nazis. Gurlitt, 80, had sold a few pieces and was suspected of tax evasion. Focus reported on the find this week; it’s unclear why German officials did not announce it sooner.
