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"Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto," a blue-period painting by Picasso, was withdrawn from Christie's fall auction because of a claim that it had been sold under duress in Nazi Germany. The artwork, currently owned by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Art Foundation, is estimated to be worth $60 million. German historian Julius Schoeps claims that he is the lawful owner because Nazi intimidation forced his great-uncle to sell the painting at a low price in the 1930s.

DEFINITION: (noun) A person without moral scruples. SYNONYMS: reprobate. USAGE: And here, gentlemen, the foul play of these miscreants must come out.

The teachings of this German theologian, widely disseminated by the then-novel printing press, sparked the Protestant Reformation. Luther denied the authority of the priesthood to mediate between the individual and God and rejected the sacraments except as aids to faith. His works were banned by the Church, but the Reformation soon swept across Europe, setting the stage for a century of religious war. In what language were Luther's 95 theses originally written?

The UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 equated the philosophy of Zionism, which is concerned with the support and development of the State of Israel as a Jewish homeland, with racism. The resolution was revoked in 1991, but majority votes of various UN agencies continued to assert that "Zionism is racism." Complicating matters was the fact that it was the 1947 UN Partition Plan that first led to the establishment of the state of Israel. How did Israel respond to Resolution 3379?

The sonnet is a poem with 14 lines, invented in the 13th century in Italy and perfected by Petrarch. Originally, the Italian sonnet was divided into an octave and a sestet. The octave stated a proposition, and the sestet stated its solution, with a clear break between the two sections. When the sonnet reached England in the 16th century, chiefly through translations of Petrarch's works, poets changed its meter, rhyme scheme, and line grouping. What is the origin of the term "sonnet?"