December 18, 2009 - Auction Central News

French tech upstart challenges Google for right to digitize culture

PARIS (AP) – France’s efforts to digitize its culture, from Marcel Proust’s manuscripts to the first films of the legendary Lumiere brothers, long have been bogged down by the country’s reluctance to rely on help from American internet giant Google Inc.

A new startup launched Thursday says it may be the answer.

The consortium of French technology companies and government-backed IT research labs says it can provide the know-how needed by Europe’s libraries, universities, publishers and others to scan, catalog and deliver to end users the contents of their archives – better than Google can.

The consortium’s partners have studied the results of Google Books’ scanning efforts, “and we know that we can do better,” said Alain Pierrot, one of the project’s leaders.

“We also know we have a ways to go, in productivity, in quality, in profitability. And we set up the consortium to do exactly that,” Pierrot said at a news conference to present the project.

The all-French challenger calls itself “an alternative to Google,” despite a yawning gulf between them in terms of size.

The French project goes by the name “Polinum,” a French acronym that stands for “Operating Platform for Digital Books.”

It is led by Jean-Pierre Gerault, the chief executive of a French company that makes optical scanning machines used to rapidly and automatically scan thousands of book pages an hour. He said it has attracted euro4 million ($5.7 million) in financing from the European Union and local authorities in France’s Aquitaine region where it is based. It aims to have its technology operational in three years.

Google’s Google Books project meanwhile has already scanned and cataloged more than 10 million books as of last month. France’s version, the Gallica project run by the French national library, has less than a million items in its database, including books and other documents.

The consortium has a mere euro4 million ($5.7 million) in financing, collected from the European Union and local authorities in France’s Aquitaine region. Its goal is to have its technology and service operational within three years.

Pierrot says the consortium can improve on Google’s book scanning efforts with scanners that give better quality images, more advanced optical character recognition, and a more powerful search system to make finding valuable data in the mass of digitized content easier.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made catching up on France’s digital delay one of the national priorities by earmarking euro750 million of a euro35 billion ($51 billion) spending plan announced earlier this week for digitizing France’s libraries, film and music archives and other repositories of the nation’s recorded heritage. These funds will mainly go to French libraries, universities and museums, who will use them to develop their own plans for digitizing their holdings.

The consortium, meanwhile, intends to be the technological choice for those institutions, Gerault said. He declined to estimate what part of the euro750 million the consortium thinks it can capture.

France’s culture ministry has been in difficult negotiations with Google, which would like to help digitize France’s archives but has met resistance in France over fears of giving the internet search giant too much control over the nation’s cultural heritage, as well as over how it would protect the interests of authors and other copyright holders.

French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterand said last month that while he would like to find common ground with Google, “there are also certainly in Europe people capable of taking on all or part of the challenge.”

A progress report released this week by the culture ministry called France’s digitization efforts “slow and insufficient,” and said that the National Library’s Gallica program and a similar European-wide venture called Europeana “are not perceived as satisfactory alternatives” to Google.

Google declined to comment.

The consortium is made up of eight members, including i2S. Other members are Exalead, a French search engine, Isako, a software and electronic publishing company, and Labri, a Bordeaux-based information technology research laboratory.

Gerault rejected a suggestion that the project was a case of too little, too late.

“France is not further behind other countries, even the United States” in terms of digitizing its cultural heritage, said Gerault. “It’s not too late, the digital book revolution has just begun.”

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On the Net: http://www.polinum.net.

‘Scoop’ up the best of private collections at Kimball Sterling, Jan. 1

Ford woody pedal car, est. $1,500-$2,500. Image courtesy Kimball M. Sterling.

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Kimball M. Sterling’s New Year’s Day auctions have a well-earned reputation for being a fun and festive way to start off a new calendar year. The popular Tennessee auctioneer has been hosting his Jan. 1 sales for the past 20 years, and the 2010 edition looks like another barn-burner.

Expect to see a huge variety of antiques and collectibles in the upcoming sale, which will feature Internet live bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com. Much of the inventory comes from quality estates and collections, with two of the featured highlight sections being the Barger collection of pedal cars and ice cream dippers, also known as “scoops.”

The Barger collections are well known throughout the United States. The ice cream dippers will be offered together with a selection of desirable peanut butter pails. In all, the grouping comprises 100 lots.

Alongside the collection of pedal cars – which exhibit great variety and are in top condition – are some highly sought-after bicycles. The centerpiece of the collection is a rare restored Gene Autry boy’s bicycle with its holster and gun. This particular model holds great appeal with both bicycle enthusiasts and collectors of Western film memorabilia. The auction estimate on the Autry bike is $2,000-$3,000. Another prized entry is a Schwinn Black Phantom that sure to stir nostalgic memories for many of the boomer generation.

The auction will also feature a group of watches, including a minute repeater and other interesting timepieces from a San Francisco estate.

Native-American items include Navajo rugs and some jewelry.

In the art category there are four original Native-American illustrations by Edwin Deming.

Approximately one-fourth of the sale is devoted to a collection of outsider and folk art, with major works by carver Linville Barker, including the largest of his known cat designs. Additionally, there will be Tennessee primitives and a potpourri of other fine items.

For information on any item in the auction, contact Kimball Sterling at 423-928-1471.

Visit the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

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Click here to view Kimball M. Sterling Inc.’s complete catalog.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Gene Autry bicycle, est. $2,000-$3,000. Image courtesy Kimball M. Sterling.

Largest known size cat carved by Linville Barker, est. $3,000-$5,000. Image courtesy Kimball M. Sterling.

Edwin Dunning Native-American painting, est. $700-$1,200. Image courtesy Kimball M. Sterling.

J. B. Hudson 14K gold minute repeater watch, est. $1,500-$2,500. Image courtesy Kimball M. Sterling.

Navajo transitional rug, est. $1,000-$1,500. Image courtesy Kimball M. Sterling.

Brunswick billiard rack, est. $1,000-$1,500. Image courtesy Kimball M. Sterling.

Liechtenstein royal cancels major UK art exhibit

LONDON (AP) – The prince of Liechtenstein has canceled a major London art exhibition because British officials have held up the export of a Renaissance painting he bought in 2006, officials said Wednesday.

Prince Hans-Adam II pulled the plug on the exhibition, planned for autumn of next year, because of a criminal investigation into whether the permission to export the painting was properly obtained, according to museum officials in London and Vienna.

Johann Kraeftner, director of the Collections of the Prince of Liechtenstein and the Vienna Liechtenstein Museum, stressed that neither the prince nor the museum was involved in the probe surrounding The Infante Don Diego, by 16th century Spanish painter Sanchez Coello.

He said that the British government’s failure to tell them what was going on during the more than two-year investigation meant that his institution could not trust it with its art.

“We are not going to entrust our great treasures to a state that treats us badly,” Kraeftner said, adding he tried to find an “amicable solution” with the Royal Academy of Arts in London, where highlights from the prince’s 500-year-old collection were due to go on display.

The exhibition had been due to include Italian and German Renaissance paintings as well as other work – although The Infante Don Diego was not due to go on display, the academy said.

It added that it was disappointed by the prince’s move and was working on finding an alternative to the show.

The British investigation was first made public in 2007, when Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs announced the arrest of an unnamed art dealer on suspicion of manipulating the documents needed to export The Infante and other works, including a 17th century Dutch masterpiece by Michiel van Musscher titled Portrait Of An Artist.

The agency declined comment when asked for an update on the investigation Wednesday, but confirmed that The Infante was still being kept in the U.K.

Kraeftner said his museum would be willing to reconsider a show in London once the matter was resolved.

“We just want legal certainty,” he said.

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Associated Press Writer Veronika Oleksyn in Vienna contributed to this report.

AP-ES-12-16-09 1403EST

Received Id 1260540362 on Dec 16 2009 14:03

London Eye: December 2009

This rare 18th-century Chinese famille rose 'abstinence plaque,' a kind of Chinese chastity belt worn by ladies of the court, fetched £6,500 ($10,500) at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury in November.

While the recession has had a negative impact on the top of the art market, with the bigger fine art auction houses suffering significantly reduced consignments to their blue-chip sales, elsewhere it seems to have had a positive effect. British provincial auction houses have been busy emphasizing their green credentials, promoting local auction sales as recycling opportunities that offer an attractive alternative to buying new.

Another strategy adopted by provincial firms has been to prioritize specialist sales over general dispersals. Salisbury auctioneers Woolley & Wallis are among a small number of UK provincial auction houses who have formed a series of specialist departments with sound expertise in each. As a result they operate more like local versions of Sotheby’s or Christie’s than general auctioneers. This may be the reason why their Asian art offerings, for example, continue to turn up fine and rare objects such as the Yuan dynasty double-gourd vase that made a record hammer price of £2.6 million ($4.6m) at their July 2005 sale.

Their latest Asian art offering on Nov. 11 didn’t quite scale those vertiginous heights, but it did feature a most unusual small 18th-century Chinese famille rose “abstinence plaque.”

Craigslist lawyer surprised by eBay action

GEORGETOWN, Del. (AP) – Craigslist officials were caught off guard when told in 2007 that their minority shareholder, eBay, was going to compete directly with them in the online classifieds business in the U.S., an attorney for Craigslist said Wednesday. Ed Wes said he was equally troubled by eBay’s defiance in the face of Craigslist’s subsequent request that eBay divest or sell its 28 percent minority stake because Craigslist was no longer comfortable having the online auction giant as a shareholder.

Wes said eBay attorney Brian Levey warned him in a telephone call after Craigslist asked for divestiture that eBay CEO Meg Whitman’s response might be to tell Craigslist to go “pound sand.”

“It was as if he knew what the response would be even before Meg responded, even before she saw the e-mail,” Wes said. “It was a stunning moment for me.”

Wes was testifying in a lawsuit in which eBay is challenging antitakeover measures adopted by Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and CEO James Buckmaster in response to eBay’s launch of its Kijiji classifieds site and refusal to sell or divest its shares.

Craigslist contends that eBay was out to control Craigslist despite assurances that it was satisfied with a minority stake, and that it reneged on promises that Craigslist would be eBay’s exclusive vehicle in the online classifieds market in the U.S., and that eBay would help Craigslist expand internationally. Craigslist also claims that eBay misused confidential financial information provided by Craigslist to help develop Kijiji.

Wes testified that Buckmaster began expressing concerns about potential conflicts involving eBay as early as October 2004, two months after eBay bought its minority interest in Craigslist from a disgruntled shareholder. Shortly after closing the deal with Craigslist, eBay began acquiring several online classifieds sites overseas.

“I think Jim was just concerned about eBay having divided interests,” Wes said.

Despite eBay’s acquisition of the overseas sites and its launch overseas of Kijiji in 2005, Wes said Craigslist officials were nonetheless surprised when given 10 days notice of Kijiji’s impending U.S. launch in 2007.

“It was clear to me knowing the way eBay operated that this must have been in the works for some time, and I was surprised that eBay would not have disclosed this earlier,” he said.

Wes said eBay’s announcement that it would compete head-to-head with a company in which it held both a sizable stake and a board seat, combined with eBay’s assertion that its eventual acquisition of Craigslist was “inevitable,” caused Craigslist officials to re-evaluate the relationship and take steps to protect itself.

During the five months that it considered those protective measures, Craigslist did not inform eBay what it was doing, Wes said.

“We didn’t trust eBay, and we felt it was in the best interest of Craigslist not to provide that notice,” he said.

In his cross-examination, eBay attorney William Lafferty asked why Craigslist acted secretly to adopt the protective measures, even though there was no imminent threat of an eBay takeover.

“You never know when the takeover threat may occur,” Wes replied.

Asked why Craigslist never complained about competition until 2007, Wes said eBay had assured Craigslist officials that the overseas acquisitions and Kijiji operations would be contributed by eBay to an international partnership with Craigslist.

Efforts to develop that partnership failed however, due partly to antitrust concerns stemming from an investigation of eBay by the New York attorney general.

Lafferty said that when negotiating the deal with eBay, Wes knew eBay already had acquired a classified site in Germany, and that eBay had no contractual obligation not to compete with Craigslist, only what Wes considered a “moral commitment.”

“Not enforceable in a court of law, is it Mr. Wes?” Lafferty said.

“I don’t know if that’s the case,” replied Wes.

AP-CS-12-16-09 1835EST

Bank accuses high-profile auctioneer of loan misdeeds

AUBURN, Ind. – A Kansas bank has asked a judge to hold auto auctioneer Dean Kruse in contempt of court, alleging he violated terms of a loan on which he still owes $6.5 million.

Hillcrest Bank of Overland Park, Kan., says Kruse did not own three Nazi command vehicles when he used them as collateral for the loan, which is now in default.

The lawsuit, which is scheduled for a hearing Monday in DeKalb County, caps a trouble-filled year for Kruse and Kruse International. After months of complaints, the Auburn-based auction house now has the lowest possible Better Business Bureau rating.

A message seeking comment on the suit was left Thursday with Kruse’s Auburn office.

The auctioneer told The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne in August that the recession has hurt his sales and caused him to fall behind on some payments.

The pending challenges facing Kruse and his companies include a federal judge’s move last month to order the seizure of Kruse’s 1985 Cessna jet after Kruse defaulted on the loan.

And in June, Kruse, whose primary residence is in Auburn, lost to foreclosure a Phoenix home on which he owed nearly $3.2 million, according to documents filed with the Maricopa County, Ariz., recorder’s office.

Kruse International also owes more than $52,000 in back taxes to the state of Arizona and nearly $37,000 to the city of Phoenix, according to documents from that state and city.

Arizona officials have also suspended Kruse’s license to operate in that state, where the company has held auctions for more than 30 years, following complaints from sellers.

Hillcrest Bank’s lawsuit was filed in August against Kruse, his wife, his auction company and several limited-liability companies he owns. It claims he defaulted on a 2007 loan originally for $13.6 million.

In addition to the Nazi command cars — three 1939 Mercedes-Benzes that Kruse failed to sell during a Labor Day auction — that loan’s collateral includes American Heritage Village, a site adjoining Kruse Auction Park that Kruse has hoped for years to develop.

Hillcrest asked last month that Kruse be held in contempt because an Arizona man, Tim Hurst, claims in an Internet advertisement that he owns the three Nazi command vehicles.

Kruse has argued in court documents that he still owns the vehicles.

Hurst’s attorney, E.J. Peskind, told The Journal Gazette that Hurst received a bill of sale for the vehicles in 2006 before the date when Kruse took out the loan from Hillcrest Bank in exchange for property in Arizona.

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Map found in $10 box at estate sale makes $23,400 at auction

Map of Virginia found in $10 box of books that went on to sell for $23,400 at a Dec. 3 sale at Quinn's & Waverly in Falls Church, Va. Image courtesy of Quinn's & Waverly.

FALLS CHURCH, Va. – A map that was purchased for $10 at a northern Virginia estate sale has guided its owner to a profitable destination at auction, where it sold to an anonymous bidder for $23,400.

The 1827 map of the State of Virginia, drawn by Herman Boye and engraved by H.S. Tanner and E.B. Dawson, had been tucked inside a box of 10 assorted books and offered at an estate sale for a group price of $10. The buyer, a Virginia attorney who dabbles in books, suspected the map might be valuable and took it to Quinn’s & Waverly Auction Galleries in Falls Church, where experts entered it in a Dec. 3 sale with an estimate of $2,500-$4,000.

“There was tremendous interest in it. Every phone line was occupied by a major book or ephemera dealer,” said Matthew Quinn, co-owner of Quinn’s & Waverly. “It was a challenge to settle on a presale estimate for the map because there hasn’t been another one available in the marketplace in the last 35 years. There’s barely even a reference to it on the Internet.”

Comprised of 40 sections, the map is one of only 800 printed for distribution to Virginia’s state senators in 1827, with each map representing one of nine geographic regions. The auctioned map depicts the state before the territorial split that resulted in the formation of a new state, West Virginia, and does not include Arlington County, which was still part of Washington, D.C. at the time of the map’s publication.

Based on an inscription inside the cover of its slipcase, the map was originally the property of John Randolph (1773-1833) of Roanoke, Va., who served seven terms in the Virginia House of Representatives.

Linen-backed and hand-colored, the map details the rivers, roads, towns, county seats, ferries and other natural and man-made points of interest of northwestern Virginia in the 1820s. A population table provides data from the first four U.S. Censuses and lists the number of whites, slaves and free blacks then living in Virginia. Its statistics indicate that at the time of the map’s publication, there were 36,889 freed blacks in the state – less than 10 percent of the number of slaves – out of a total population of 1,065,366 people.

“The map is like an illustrated time capsule of what life was like in Virginia in the 1820s,” said Quinn. “You can see from the symbols on the map how important churches and universities were to the people, and how the state’s fledgling industries were developing.”

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