Chimp Makes A Monkey Of Art Expert

A German art expert was fooled into believing a painting done by a chimpanzee was the work of a master.

The director of the State Art Museum of Moritzburg in Saxony-Anhalt, Katja Schneider, suggested the painting was by the Guggenheim Prize-winning artist Ernst Wilhelm Nay.

"It looks like an Ernst Wilhelm Nay. He was famous for using such blotches of colour", Dr Schneider confidently asserted.

The canvas was actually the work of Banghi, a 31-year-old female chimp at the local zoo. While Banghi likes to paint, she is not able to build up much of a body of work as her mate Satscho generally destroys her paintings before they can get to the gallery.

But this one survived long enough to give Schneider a red face.

"I did think it looked a bit rushed", she later told a German newspaper.

In other animal related news, the Japanese are working hard trying to get their fat penguins to exercise.

Being wintertime, the king penguins at a zoo in northern Japan are putting on weight and authorities at the local Asahiyama Zoo are taking the penguins on 500-yard walks on the snowy grounds twice a day to help curb the gain.

Spokesman Tetsuo Yamazaki said weight gain in the winter is natural but to fend off excessive obesity, the zoo instituted the winter exercise program. The zoo, on the northern island of Hokkaido, takes the penguins on strolls from December until April.

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