European Philatelic Congress

Fortunes made by stamp issues - Governments are making huge fortunes out of a superfluity of special stamp issues, all at the expense of the poor stamp collector, the European Philatelic congress decided when it met in Leghorn, Italy. The congress decided to ask various governments to cut down on commemorative issues, stamps for special flights and the like. Gen. Italo Balbo, Italian air minister, revealed that the total cost of his squadron flight to Brazil in january-$150,000-had been covered by the sale of special air stamps, and a nest egg had been left over for another flight.

Utica Daily Press - Saturday, July 11, 1931
(Postcard digitized by the collection of Antonio Cantelli)

External links: Italo Balbo (Wikipedia)

Versione italiana

Закат на море в Ливорно

“Закат на море в Ливорно” (Sunset on the Sea at Livorno)
1862, oil on paper mounted on canvas by Nikolai Ge
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

Nikolai Ge (1831-1894), a Russian realist painter, graduated in 1857 from the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. With the gold medal, he also received a scholarship to study abroad. In 1860 he settled in Italy for a few years, after visiting Germany, Switzerland and France.A 1981 Soviet Union postage stamp commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of the painter with a reproduction of the Livornese sunset.

External links: Nikolai Ge (Wikipedia) - Nikolai Ge (WikiPaintings)

Versione italiana