unforum

[snurge]

[/quote]

On the painting you can read:
"...the Original Painting in the Collection of..."
Unfortunatley I can't read the rest. I asked Markus about a better picture some time ago. He replied that he has not a better picture. Then he wanted to send me the text, but has never done so (sometimes he answers emails, but the most time I do not get an reply )[/quote]

Ok, so i was getting wound up by this painting and trying to locate it.
After scouring the Cardiff City hall website, reviewing every picture i could see, i decided to bite the bullet and try and get some information by calling Cardiff City Hall.
I spoke to a really nice Welsh gentlemen for about 15 minutes who proceeded to tell me that he'd been working for the City Hall since 1993 and he's never heard of this painting, nor the title or anything that might look like it (yes i described it to him too).
He has given me a few other leads as to where it might be if it was there before 1993 (which it can't have been if Markus took the picture recently) or if it was moved during the time when the city hall was closed during 1997 for a refurbishment. I will check these to try and find it.

This does however bring forward the point that Markus 'could' be feeding us iffy information.
How do you suggest that we proceed with this from here? Should we contact Markus with this information and see what this brings or do you think that we need to keep the fact that we know this from him?

[snurge]

I have finally managed to find the "Hercules and Omphale" picture online.
I dont know if this will help or hinder but the artist looks to be "Gustave Boulanger". Also, the dates of the 'prints' i've found seem to be from before the suggested 1887 date.

Here is a link to a print i found (although its only Ebay..there are a couple of prints here) http://tinyurl.com/5s37wl or http://tinyurl.com/5cxzk9

[Weezel]

[danteIL]

I am impressed.. calling Cardiff and everything... good job!

So are we supposed to:

a) accept what Markus told us on face value, because it is important to the story that there is a painting about Hercules and Omphale in the Cardiff City Hall from 1887, even though none of that is apparently true?

b) realize that Markus is lying to us completely and start to look for hidden motives (I'm already suspicious)?

c) perhaps believe that Markus is not the best reader of English, so perhaps he got confused when he took the photo of the painting?


Like all of this 'second story' stuff, it isn't clear what we are supposed to think.

[lhall]

I also just got a reply back with the same result:

"This is the first time I have heard of this painting, it isn't on display at City Hall anymore try the National Museum of Wales as we did display a lot of their artwork until 1997 when we returned it to them."

So, who knows!

[AUZ505]

[jasper]

[AUZ505]

[lhall]

[snurge]

[snurge]

Markus wrote in his diary from 13th February.
"Ich bin nach unten gelaufen um Jack zu finden, aber er war nirgends zu finden. Jack hatte offensichtlich genug Geld: Das Haus hatte viele teuere Sachen. Ein riesiger Fernseher war auf einer Wand, und auf einer anderen, ein Gemälde das sehr alt und sehr teuer aussah. In der Küche sah ich einen Zettel von Jack. Er war in der Arbeit, würde aber um 6 zurück sein."

translated (by Aerith)
"I ran downstairs to find Jack but couldn't find him. Obviously Jack had enough money: In the house were many expensive things. A gigantic television was on a wall and on another wall there was a painting which looked very old and expensive. In the kitchen, I saw a note Jack had left me. He was at work and would be back around 6pm."

Is it possible that this 'old and expensive' painting was the Hercules/Omphale painting?

Jack introduced Markus to Flickr and Markus bought a Digicam with the money he stole from Jack.

I know that we should be careful in terms of finger pointing but i still am a little wary of Markus due to what we currently beleive to be misinformation about this painting.
Also, stealing from a stranger who's gone out of their way to help you when in need doesn't seem like the best behaviour in the multiverse.

[jasper]

Then again, it might be fairly creepy if Jack had that painting with the omphalos related name and just happened to be in the right place at the right time, with the right disposition to pick up an amnesiac labyrinth runner from another world. I mistrust Markus for stealing and hiding, and it takes a couple of long stretches to put the painting into Jack's house, but if it is there, I mistrust Jack too.

[snurge]

[Elizabeth123]

Has anybody contacted Ariadne (or Markus) about this? It might be interesting to see what kind of excuses he might come up with!

[danteIL]

Thinking about second stories, I suppose the fact that the Melbourne artifact showed up in a fire station could relate to the fact that it described visions of catastrophes and fires in other worlds..


*streeetch*