TOKYO: A Japanese sushi entrepreneur paid a record $3.1 million for a giant tuna Saturday as Tokyo’s new fish market, which replaced the world-famous Tsukiji late last year, held its first pre-dawn New Year’s auction.
Bidding stopped at a whopping ¥333.6 million for the enormous 278-kilogram fish — an endangered species — that was caught off Japan’s northern coast.
Self-styled “Tuna King” Kiyoshi Kimura paid the top price, which doubled the previous record of 155 million yen also paid by him in 2013.
“It’s the best tuna. I was able to buy a delicious, super fresh tuna,” the sushi restaurant chain owner proudly told reporters.
“The price was higher than originally thought, but I hope our customers will eat this excellent tuna,” Kimura said after the auction.
Tsukiji — the world’s biggest fish market and a popular tourist attraction in an area packed with restaurants and shops — moved in October to Toyosu, a former gas plant a bit further east.
Opened in 1935, Tsukiji was best known for its pre-dawn daily auctions of tuna, caught from all corners of the world, for use by everyone from top Michelin-star sushi chefs to ordinary grocery stores.
Especially at the first auction of the new year, wholesalers and sushi tycoons have been known to pay eye-watering prices for the biggest and best fish.
Despite the relocation, the auction ritual remained intact: before dawn, buyers in rubber boots were inspecting the quality of the giant fresh and frozen tunas by examining the neatly cut tail end with flashlights and rubbing slices between their fingers.
At 5:10 am, handbells rang to signal the auction was underway and the air filled with the sound of auctioneers yelling prices at buyers, who raised fingers to indicate interest.
In a roar of wholesalers surrounding the day’s best tuna, an auctioneer hammered the top price as the Kimura side outbid his rival wholesaler in a thrilling head-to-head battle.
Japan consumers a large portion of the global bluefin catch, a highly prized sushi ingredient known in Japan as “kuro maguro” (black tuna) and dubbed by sushi connoisseurs as the “black diamond” because of its scarcity.
A single piece of “otoro,” or the fish’s fatty underbelly, can cost dozens of dollars at high-end Tokyo restaurants.
The new market has already opened its auction warehouse to visitors to witness the organized pre-dawn chaos from a balcony, hoping to take over a must-see spot for tourists from Tsukiji.
“Finally, the first New Year auction was held at Toyosu market,” said Yoshihiko Otaki, a market official.
“We have a lot of tuna here like we did in Tsukiji,” he said.
Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike, wearing white rubber boots, said: “I sincerely hope this market will be loved by many people.”
The relocation was a lengthy and controversial process.
Few would contest the fact that Tsukiji was past its prime, and there were concerns about outdated fire regulations and hygiene controls.
In contrast, the new market, located around two kilometers to the east at Toyosu, boasts state-of-the-art refrigeration facilities and is nearly twice as big again as Tsukiji.
But Toyosu is located on the site of a former gas plant and the soil was found to be contaminated, forcing local authorities to spend millions of dollars to clean it up and delaying the move.
Record $3.1 million paid in New Year’s tuna auction at Japan’s new market
Record $3.1 million paid in New Year’s tuna auction at Japan’s new market
- ‘It’s the best tuna. I was able to buy a delicious, super fresh tuna’
- Japan consumers a large portion of the global bluefin catch
Eminem’s mother Debbie Nelson, whose rocky relationship fueled the rapper’s lyrics, dies at age 69
- Eminem has disparaged his mother in songs such as the 2002 single “Cleaning Out My Closet”
Debbie Nelson, the single mother of rapper Eminem whose rocky relationship with her son was known widely through his hit song lyrics, has died. She was 69.
Eminem’s longtime representative Dennis Dennehy confirmed Nelson’s death in an email on Tuesday. He did not provide a cause of death, although Nelson had battled lung cancer.
Nelson’s fraught relationship with her son, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, has been no secret since the Detroit rapper became a star.
Eminem has disparaged his mother in songs such as the 2002 single “Cleaning Out My Closet.” Eminem sings: “Witnessin’ your mama poppin’ prescription pills in the kitchen. ... My whole life I was made to believe I was sick when I wasn’t.”
In lyrics from his Oscar-winning hit “Lose Yourself” from the movie “8 Mile,” his feelings seem to have simmered, referencing his “mom’s spaghetti.” The song went on to win best rap song at the 2004 Grammy Awards.
Nelson brought and settled a pair of defamation lawsuits over Eminem’s statements about her in magazines and on radio talk shows. In her 2008 book, “My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem,” she attempted to set the record straight by providing readers details about the rapper’s early life, writing that Eminem had forgotten the good times they had.
“Marshall and I were so close that friends and relatives commented that it was as if the umbilical cord had never been cut,” she wrote.
In 2004, she was dragged from her car on Eight Mile Road, the street in a Detroit suburb made famous by “8 Mile,” by a 16-year-old who was later sentenced to more than four years in prison. She suffered bruises and a broken foot.
The highly acclaimed rapper Eminem won for best hip hop act at the 2024 MTV EMAs and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
He announced in October that he was going to be a grandfather, saying his daughter Hailie Jade is pregnant by way of a touching music video that is a tribute to their relationship.
Artist Jasleen Kaur wins Turner Prize for work exploring her Scottish Sikh identity
- Named for 19th-century landscape painter J.M.W. Turner and founded in 1984 to reward young artists, the prize helped make stars of shark-pickling artist Damien Hirst, potter Grayson Perry, sculptor Anish Kapoor and filmmaker Steve McQueen
LONDON: An artist whose work exploring her Scottish Sikh identity includes a vintage Ford car draped in a crocheted doily won the UK’s prestigious Turner Prize on Tuesday, during a ceremony picketed by pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Jasleen Kaur was awarded the 25,000-pound ($32,000) prize by actor James Norton at the Tate Britain gallery in London.
Kaur used her acceptance speech to express support for scores of demonstrators outside. She is among signatories to a letter demanding Tate, which runs several major British art museums, cut ties with donors who are linked to Israel over its war in Gaza.
“This is not a radical demand,” Kaur said. “This should not risk an artist’s career or safety.
“We need a proper ceasefire now,” she said.
The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas health officials in Gaza. Israel launched the war in response to the militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack that killed some 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage.
A jury led by Tate Britain director Alex Farquhar praised the way 38-year-old Kaur “weaves together the personal, political and spiritual” through “unexpected and playful combinations of material.”
Her winning exhibition mixes sculpture, print, everyday items — including family photos, a Ford Escort car and the popular Scottish soda Irn Bru — and immersive music to reflect on her upbringing in Glasgow’s Sikh community.
Three other finalists – Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson and Delaine Le Bas – received 10,000 pounds ($12,670) each.
Named for 19th-century landscape painter J.M.W. Turner and founded in 1984 to reward young artists, the prize helped make stars of shark-pickling artist Damien Hirst, potter Grayson Perry, sculptor Anish Kapoor and filmmaker Steve McQueen.
But it has also been criticized for rewarding impenetrable conceptual work and often sparks debate about the value of modern art, with winners such as Hirst’s “Mother and Child Divided,” which consists of two cows, bisected and preserved in formaldehyde, and Martin Creed’s “Lights On and Off” — a room with a light blinking on and off – drawing scorn from sections of the media.
In 2019, all four finalists were declared winners after they refused to compete against one another, “to make a collective statement in the name of commonality, multiplicity and solidarity.”
In 2021, all five finalists were collectives rather than individual artists.
The award was initially open to artists under 50 but now has no upper age limit.
Works by the four finalists are on display until Feb. 16.
100-year-old ex-Nazi camp guard could face trial in Germany
- Germany has been scrambling to bring the last surviving former Nazi war criminals to justice since a 2011 landmark ruling paved the way for several trials
BERLIN: German authorities are pressing for a 100-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard to face trial almost 80 years since the end of World War II.
The higher regional court in Frankfurt on Tuesday said it had overturned a decision by a lower court under which the suspect had been deemed unfit to stand trial.
The suspect, named as Gregor Formanek by German media, was charged last year with aiding and abetting murder in 3,322 cases while working at the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin between July 1943 and February 1945.
However, an expert determined in February that Formanek was not fit to stand trial due to his mental and physical condition and the court in Hanau, Hesse state, eventually decided not to open the proceedings against him.
The Frankfurt court on Tuesday found the expert’s decision had not been based on “sufficient facts.”
“The expert himself stated that it was not possible to interview the defendant and that the opportunity for extensive psychiatric testing was not available,” it said.
Germany has been scrambling to bring the last surviving former Nazi war criminals to justice since a 2011 landmark ruling paved the way for several trials.
One former death camp guard, John Demjanjuk, was convicted on the basis that he served as part of Hitler’s killing machine, even though there was no proof he had directly killed anyone.
Since then, several former concentration camp workers have been found guilty of being accessories to murder on the same basis.
However, with time running out, many cases have been abandoned in recent years after the accused died or were physically unable to stand trial.
More than 200,000 people, including Jews, Roma, regime opponents and gay people, were detained at the Sachsenhausen camp between 1936 and 1945.
Tens of thousands died there from forced labor, murder, medical experiments, hunger or disease before the camp was liberated by Soviet troops.
Sean Penn accuses Academy Awards of cowardice at Marrakech Film Festival
- Penn’s remarks dovetail with longstanding criticisms of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for lacking diversity within the ranks of its members and the films that they celebrate with awards
MARRAKECH, Morocco: Sean Penn on Tuesday blasted the organizers of the Oscars for being cowards who, in effect, limit the kinds of films that can be funded and made.
The 64-year-old actor said at the Marrakech Film Festival that he gets excited about the Academy Awards only on the rare occasion that films he values are nominated.
“The producers of the academy have exercised really extraordinary cowardice when it comes to being part of the world of expression and, in fact, have largely been part of limiting the imagination and limiting different cultural expressions,” Penn said at the festival, where he received a career achievement award this week.
“I don’t get very excited about what we’ll call the Academy Awards,” he said, noting exceptions when certain films grace the ceremony, including Sean Baker’s ” The Florida Project,” Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here” and Jacques Audiard’s ” Emilia Perez. ”
Penn’s remarks dovetail with longstanding criticisms of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for lacking diversity within the ranks of its members and the films that they celebrate with awards.
The institution has in recent years taken steps to reform and rebrand itself, but has faced criticism for not going far enough.
Penn also lauded Iranian-Danish director Ali Abassi and his latest film ” The Apprentice ” about President Donald Trump. It faced difficulty finding an American distributor in the lead-up to the US election in November.
“It’s kind of jaw-dropping how afraid this ‘business of mavericks’ is when they get a great film like that with great, great acting,” he said. “They, too, can be as afraid as a piddly little Republican congressman.”
As part of a career tribute, the Marrakech Film Festival is screening four of Penn’s films this week in Morocco’s tourism capital. Local media in Morocco reported several audience members exiting a screening of “Milk” during a scene that depicted two men in bed. Homosexuality is illegal under Morocco’s penal code, although cases are not frequently prosecuted.
The actor, whose 2023 film ” Superpower ” documents war in Ukraine, also voiced support for President Volodymyr Zelensky and called himself a “patriot in crisis” in response to a question about the American political landscape.
UK museum in talks with Greece over ‘long-term’ deal for Parthenon Marbles
- The Marbles overshadowed Mitsotakis’ last official visit to Britain, when Starmer’s predecessor Rishi Sunak canceled a meeting at the last minute after the Greek leader’s public comments on the contentious issue reportedly irked the UK side
LONDON: UK officials hinted Tuesday that a deal was in the works with Greece to end a decades-long dispute over the highly contested and priceless Parthenon Marbles.
The British Museum said it was holding “constructive” talks with Athens over “sharing” the ancient sculptures, raising the likelihood that the friezes will be loaned back to Greece.
The comments came as Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis, amid media reports that he is open to seeing the masterpieces return to their country of origin.
A spokesman for Starmer later indicated that the UK government would not stand in the way of any agreement between Greece and the British Museum to end the centuries-old saga.
“Discussions with Greece about a Parthenon partnership are on-going and constructive,” said a British Museum spokesperson.
“We believe that this kind of long-term partnership would strike the right balance between sharing our greatest objects with audiences around the world, and maintaining the integrity of the incredible collection we hold at the museum.”
The Parthenon Marbles, also called the Elgin Marbles, have been a source of contention between Britain and Greece for over two centuries.
Greek authorities maintain that the sculptures were looted in 1802 by Lord Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
But London claims that the sculptures were “legally acquired” by Elgin, and then sold to the British Museum.
The Marbles overshadowed Mitsotakis’ last official visit to Britain, when Starmer’s predecessor Rishi Sunak canceled a meeting at the last minute after the Greek leader’s public comments on the contentious issue reportedly irked the UK side.
Starmer and Mitsotakis’s talks Tuesday focused on illegal migration and supporting Ukraine but Downing Street refused to deny that the Marbles were also discussed.
“Understandably, the Greek prime minister will have raised many issues,” Starmer’s spokesman said, adding that the Marbles’ future is “entirely” in the hands of the British Museum.
Sky News reported Monday that Mitsotakis and his foreign minister had held at least two “private meetings” with museum officials, including chairman George Osborne, this year.
The Guardian newspaper said the talks were moving toward “an agreement in principle.”
A 1963 UK law prevents the British museum from giving away treasures, but it has about 1,400 objects on long-term loan at other museums every year, meaning a similar agreement for the Marbles is likely.
“We have no plans to change the law that would permit a permanent move” of the sculptures back to Greece, added Starmer’s spokesman.
Ahead of the meeting, Mitsotakis said he was “firmly convinced” the sculptures will return to Athens.
“Discussions with the British Museum are continuing,” he told ANT1 TV on Saturday.
Sunak axing the meeting a year ago was seen as a diplomatic slap in the face to Mitsotakis, and the latest example of the dispute poisoning bilateral relations.
The Greek leader, an ardent campaigner for the Marbles’ return, had told the BBC at the time that keeping part of the Parthenon friezes outside Greece was tantamount to “cut(ting) the Mona Lisa in half.”
Starmer, then head of the opposition, later told the House of Commons that Sunak had “obviously lost his marbles” in canceling the meeting.
Athens’s campaign for the return of the 75-meter (250 feet) long friezes was revived in the 1980s by Greek singer and actress Melina Mercouri when she was culture minister.
In the UK, where according to a YouGov poll in 2023 a majority of Britons back restitution, opponents fear a domino effect, amid claims from several countries.
A UNESCO World Heritage site, the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens is a temple built in the fifth century BC in homage to the goddess Athena.
The new Acropolis Museum, inaugurated in 2009, has reserved a space for the Parthenon friezes on the first floor of the building, where the four sides of the temple have been faithfully recreated to scale.
The missing friezes have been replaced by casts.
Founded in 1753, the British Museum collection of eight million objects also includes the Rosetta Stone.
