Van Gogh Museum rules out public debate over “lost” notebookNovember 30, 2016 - 15:59 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum ruled out Tuesday, November 29 a public debate over the authenticity of a book of sketches that an art historian has said belonged to the Dutch impressionist, AFP reports. Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov, a University of Toronto academic, has declared the apparent find to be "the most revolutionary discovery" in the history of Van Gogh's work. But the Dutch museum says the sketches, said to be from the artist's stay in the French city of Arles, are fake. Welsh-Ovcharov's French publishers Le Seuil reproduced the drawings earlier this month in a book titled "Vincent Van Gogh, the fog of Arles: the rediscovered sketchbook." The art historian says the drawings came from the Cafe de la Gare in Arles -- where Van Gogh stayed -- which "records that on May 20, 1890 Dr Felix Rey (who had treated Van Gogh's severed ear) visited the cafe on behalf of the artist" and left a large book of drawings. But the museum, which has already sought answers directly from the publisher, said that an open debate would not be helpful. "We will need to have all the hard facts first. "We therefore call on the publisher and the author to provide a clear and open response to all our comments, to all the issues in need of clarification and to the questions raised," it said. "Until they have, we see no point in a scholarly debate and our contribution to the discussion ends here: we will no longer respond to further questions." Top stories The creative crew of the Public TV had chosen 13-year-old Malena as a participant of this year's contest. She called on others to also suspend their accounts over the companies’ failure to tackle hate speech. Penderecki was known for his film scores, including for William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist”, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”. The festival made the news public on March 19, saying that “several options are considered in order to preserve its running” Partner news | PACE wants concessions from Azerbaijan to accept Baku back A PACE co-rapporteur said that Azerbaijani authorities must make certain concessions so that the country can return to PACE. Armenia PM, France envoy discuss regional matters Issues related to the consistent development of Armenia-France cooperation were discussed. Turkey extends military presence in Azerbaijan The Turkish parliament has adopted a bill submitted by Recep Tayyip Erdogan to extend the mandate of Turkish troops. Russia to begin assessing migrant workers' speaking skills Rosobrnadzor is planning to change the Russian language exam for migrant workers and include an assessment of speaking skills |