Workers raced to build an emergency dam in western Hungary today as cracks in a reservoir widened, threatening to unleash a second torrent of toxic sludge on the village of Kolontar and nearby rivers.
When their children knocked it off the wall with a wayward tennis ball, the Kober family wrapped up the painting they knew as "The Mike" and shoved it behind the sofa.
There it remained for the next 27 years, ignored and forgotten along with the family legend that it was actually painted by Michelangelo.