December 22, 2009 - Auction Central News

Jackson’s plows through $2 million auction during blizzard

This oil on canvas by Austrian artist Hans Zatzka (1859-1945) titled Symphony of the Water Nymphs, sold for $44,400 on Dec. 8 at Jackson’s. Image courtesy Jackson's International Auctioneers.

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – If Jackson’s International Auctioneers were searching for a new motto, they might aptly choose the following: “Neither record snow, blowing winds nor frigid temperatures will prevent us from having a successful auction.” Indeed such was the case Dec. 8 and 9 at Jackson’s, which witnessed a supercharged auction amid a record 14-inch snowfall combined with wind gusts of 50 miles an hour and temperatures plunging below zero.

It was perhaps the unique mix of material (Chinese, Russian and Picassos) that in turn created the perfect storm of bidders who helped raise prices and disolve any thoughts of a less than stellar auction. Gross sales totaled more than $2 million.

“I have to hand it to my staff” said Jackson’s President and CEO James Jackson. “As our client services director Jessi Brogan said the day before the storm, ‘We’d all better prepare to get here and launch this thing because people in Moscow, Peking, London, Paris and Rome don’t know anything about this storm and further still could care less.’” Jackson continued, “Just to be on the safe side we hired a snow plow truck to pick up employees and deliver them to the gallery despite the fact that every school, airport, store and factory within a 300 mile radius was shut down. None of us expected many people, if any, to actually show up but indeed there were over two dozen die-hard auction-goers who somehow made it to our gallery including two from China, one from Chicago, two from New York, one from Kansas City, and another from Dallas as well as one from Minneapolis.”

The auction began with more than 600 bidders having preregistered, which produced a steady sales pace throughout each session. Phone lines were busy with stranded bidders calling in to arrange phone bidding or leave bids, and LiveAuctioneers.com provided Internet live bidding.

The sale opened with a variety of European art including lot no. 1, a lovely oil on canvas portrait of a young woman by British artist William Clarke Wontner (1857-1930) that sold for $45,600. That was followed by an alluring oil on canvas by Austrian artist Hans Zatzka (1859-1945) titled Symphony of the Water Nymphs which drew wide interest including 15 phone lines. Estimated at $12,000-$18,000, it finished at $44,400, selling to a New York buyer. A charming oil on canvas by French artist Henri Schlesinger (1814-1893) titled A Ride in the Park brought $26,400, which was a good bit over the high estimate. Perhaps the biggest surprise in European paintings was the 29- by 44-inch oil on canvas unsigned Venetian scene attributed to British artist John Joseph Hughes (1820-1909). Estimated at $1,000-$2,000, the painting ended up selling to a buyer from Florida for $26,400. Other European works of note included a 13th-century Limoges enamel corpus Christi mounted to a later copper gilt cross which sold for $15,600. A lovely bronze figure of a water nymph by Italian sculpture Luca Madarassi (1848-1919) sold for $10,200.00 against an estimate of $3,000-$5,000. And a pair of 13- by 18-inch oil on canvas Paris street scenes by French artist Antoine Blanchard (1910-1988) sold for $15,600.

Next up was a small but diverse group of Russian items with the highlight being a beautiful bronze by Evgeny Lansere (1848-1886) titled Zaporozhets after the Battle. It finished at more than twice the high estimates coming in at $33,600. A few other Russian works of note included a small (9 by 12 inches) landscape by Mikhail Klodt (1832-1902) that sold for $13,200. A Russian snow scene by Dmitri Nalbandian (1906-1993) did $12,000, and a folding iconostasis finished at $9,600. A 13-inch bronze of an armless female torso by Moissey Kogan (1879-1942) also sold for $9,600 and an 8-inch-diameter steel plate commemorating the coronation of Czar Alexander III sold for $3,600.

The highlight of a group of modern works on paper from a Las Vegas, Nev., collection was a 1962 linocut print by Picasso titled Tete de Femme, which that measured 25 inches by 20 inches. Estimated at $40,000-$60,000, the print drew wide interest finishing at $81,600. Other Picasso linocuts inculded Jacqueline Lisante, 1964, measuring 25 inches by 20 inches, $60,000; Femme au Chapeau, 1962, in colors, measuring 13 inches by 10 inches, $45,600, and Picador et Taureau, 1959, finished at $36,000.

Other modern prints worthy of mention include Marc Chagall’s color lithograph titled Chloes Judgment,1960, from Daphins and Chloe, measuring 16 inches by 25 inches, which sold to a buyer in New York for $21,600. Another Chagall color lithograph, Le Bouquet Rose, 1980, sold for $20,400, which was followed by Les Lilas, also a color lithograph by Chagall, sold for $18,000.

The second session opened with American art including a fresh to the market snow scene by Ernest Lawson (1873-1939). The 18- by 24-inch oil on canvas sold for $45,600. That was followed by a still-life by Iowa artist Marvin Cone (1891-1964), which sold above the high estimate bringing $31,200. A typical Normandy river landscape by American artist George Ames Aldrich (1872-1941) sold for $11,400. A group of three small oil sketches by Chicago artist Walter Krawiec, each measuring 11 inches by 14 inches, totaled $9,000 against an estimate of $1,500-$2,500. An oil on Masonite pinup girl by American artist William Metcalf brought $8,400, and Thomas Hart Benton’s lithograph Frankie and Johnnie sold for $7,200. An interesting bust of titled The Head of David-after Michelangelo, by American artist Richmond Barthe (1901-1989) did well selling for $6,600 against an estimate of $1,000-$2,000, and a 12- by 20-inch oil by Arthur Parton (1842-1914) depicting raging rapids sold for $5,280.

Next were American and European glassware, porcelain and decorative arts. The first lot, a Tiffany Pomegranate lamp sold for $16,800. That was followed by a pot metal figural lamp modeled after a work by Oscar Bach and containing a Steuben globe shade. It sold for $4,800. A 5-inch miniature Daum Nancy snow scene vase sold for $2,000, and a Legras Indiana cameo vase did $3,120. A 16-inch KPM plaque depicting the male saint Rodriguez after the painting by Murillo sold for $6,000, a 6- by 5-inch oval KPM plaque of a Greek girl sold for $4,000. A lovely pair of Meissen cupid figurines made slightly over $5,000, and a Meissen figural grouping of musicians did $4,800. A large Zsolnay vase titled Allegory of the Flood modeled by Lajos Mack and measuring 25 inches drew wide interest, selling to a buyer from New York for $10,800.

Decorative arts and furnishings saw a good amount of action as well with a French Empire period bronze figural clock tripling the high estimate bringing $18,000. A pair of elephant tusks deacessioned from an Iowa museum also sold for $18,000. A Louis XVI-style mahogany and ormolu mounted curved glass vitrine sold to a buyer from Los Angeles for $22,800 followed by a similarly decorated gilt bronze and vernis mounted side cabinet that sold $18,000 against an estimate of $2,000-$4,000.

By far the most super charged bidding was in the Oriental or Chinese section with most every lot receiving active bids from the floor, phone, Internet and absentee bid department. The highlight of Chinese art was a carved jade water basin cataloged as 19th century with a question mark. The 3-inch-deep, 21-inch-long and 11-inch-wide carved stone basin carried an estimate of only $1,500-$2,000, but ended up selling $55,200 to a phone bidder from China. That was followed by a 16-inch carved jade urn also cataloged as 19th century and with later regain seal of Qianlong. Estimated at $600-$900 it too sold to the phone for $14,400.00. Next to sell was a Chinese export ceramic fishbowl measuring 18 inches in height, and although with a hairline crack in the base, still sold for $18,000 against an estimate of $800-$1,200. A pair of Chinese cloisonné vases with floral designs, each circa 1900 and about 12 inches in height, sold for $8,400. A gouache on card painting by well-known Indian artist Jamini Roy (1887-1972) sold for $16,800. A pair of Chinese carved ivory puzzle or mystery balls that sold to a collector from Boston for $10,000.

For complete auction results with illustrations or information on how to consign items visit Jackson’s website at www.jacksonsauction.com.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

The bronze grouping, Zaporezhets after the Battle, by Russian sculpture Evgeny Lansere (1848-1886) sold to a buyer from Moscow for $33,600 at Jackson’s. Image courtesy Jackson's International Auctioneers. — The bronze grouping, Zaporezhets after the Battle, by Russian sculpture Evgeny Lansere (1848-1886) sold to a buyer from Moscow for $33,600 at Jackson’s. Image courtesy Jackson’s International Auctioneers.

A linocut print by Pablo Picasso titled Tete de Femme (Bloch 1063), sold for $81,600. Image courtesy Jackson's International Auctioneers. — A linocut print by Pablo Picasso titled Tete de Femme (Bloch 1063), sold for $81,600. Image courtesy Jackson’s International Auctioneers.

Although unsigned, this French Empire figural bronze clock still made $18,000.00 at Jackson’s Dec. 8 sale. Image courtesy Jackson's International Auctioneers. — Although unsigned, this French Empire figural bronze clock still made $18,000.00 at Jackson’s Dec. 8 sale. Image courtesy Jackson’s International Auctioneers.

A Chinese buyer purchased this 19th-century Chinese carved jade water basin for $55,200. Image courtesy Jackson's International Auctioneers. — A Chinese buyer purchased this 19th-century Chinese carved jade water basin for $55,200. Image courtesy Jackson’s International Auctioneers.

Children’s Museum celebrates Barbie’s 50th anniversary

Andy Warhol painted this portrait of Barbie in 1985. It is synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas. Image courtesy of Mattel Inc. and the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – An Andy Warhol painting of Barbie and interactive fashion shows are the highlights of a new exhibit at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis to commemorate the iconic doll’s 50th anniversary.

“Barbie: The Fashion Experience”’ opened Saturday at the museum, which will be its only stop. Sarah Cole, the museum’s special and temporary exhibits manager, said she worked with toy maker Mattel to put together the exhibit.

“Our Barbie collection was good,” Cole said, “but not as strong as Mattel’s.”

Barbie was introduced to the world at the 1959 New York Toy Fair. Creator Ruth Handler said the doll, based on the German Bild Lilli dolls, represented that women had choices.

The exhibit features a photo timeline of Barbie, life-size Barbie mannequins and a design center where children can create their own fashions using dress forms, computer games and light tables.

Workshops on T-shirt designing, special runway shows and fashion shows also are offered, and visitors can watch Barbie commercials from the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.

But a highlight might be the chance to strut down a Barbie catwalk after getting made up.

Makeup artist Misty Al-eryani, founder of FierceLooks, has three looks for children to apply from hygienic single-use trays.

Al-eryani said she created the looks after thinking about her four daughters and other children, and how they would interact with the doll.

“I wanted them to feel as if they were Barbie’s best friends or Barbie’s little sister,” she said.

Warhol’s 1985 Barbie painting is also part of the display. It is the first time the work has been displayed outside California.

The exhibit runs through February 2011.

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Information from: The Indianapolis Star, http://www.indystar.com

AP-CS-12-20-09 1401EST

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Mattel introduced Barbie, the teenage fashion model doll, in 1959. Image courtesy of Mattel Inc. and the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.

Egypt antiquities chief to demand return of Nefertiti bust

The famous bust of Queen Nefertiti was was recently moved back to Berlin's Neues Museum from the adjacent museum. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

CAIRO (AP) – Egypt’s antiquities chief said Sunday he will formally demand the return of the 3,300-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti from a Berlin museum after confirming it was sneaked out of Cairo through fraudulent documents.

Zahi Hawass, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, has been aggressively campaigning to reclaim treasures that he says were stolen from Egypt and purchased by some of the world’s leading museums.

Hawass’ campaign yielded a huge success this week with the return of painted wall fragments from a 3,200-year-old tomb from the Louvre in Paris. Hawass had cut ties with the French museum and suspended its excavation in southern Cairo to pressure it to return the artifacts.

Highlighting the importance of the efforts, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak traveled to Paris to oversee the handover of the fragments, which arrived in Cairo Tuesday.

The limestone bust of Nefertiti, wife of famed monotheistic Pharaoh Akhenaton, topped the list Hawass has drawn for high-profile items he wants back.

Since the bust was displayed in Germany in 1924, Egypt has been demanding its return. German authorities have declined, saying the bust is too fragile to move.

A statement from Hawass’ office said Friederike Seyfried, the director of Berlin’s Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection, presented documents held by the museum proving the bust was sneaked out of Egypt illegally.

“The national committee to reclaim antiquities will hold an emergency meeting … to examine official steps to demand the final return of the Nefertiti bust from Berlin to Egypt,” the statement said.

The documents include a protocol signed by the German excavator of the bust and the Egyptian Antiquities Service headed by Gustave Lefevre in 1913, a year after the statue was unearthed in Amarna in southern Egypt.

In the documents, the object was listed as a painted plaster bust of a princess. But in the diary of the German excavator Ludwig Borchardt, he clearly refers to it as the head of Nefertiti – whose name means the beautiful one has come.

“This proves that Borchardt wrote this description so that his country can get the statue,” Hawass’ statement said. “These materials confirm Egypt’s contention that (he) did act unethically with intent to deceive.”

The existence of these documents was known to archaeologists. It was not clear why the museum decided to hand them over to Egypt now.

Hawass’ statement quoted the director of the museum as saying the authority to approve the return of the bust to Egypt lies with the Prussian Cultural Heritage and the German culture minister. Seyfried will act as a liaison, the statement said.

Nefertiti is the 14th century B.C. wife of Akhenaton, who initiated a new monotheistic religion that involved the worship of the sun. Her bust was recently moved back to Berlin’s Neues Museum from the adjacent Atles Museum, part of a cluster of five art halls that make up one of Berlin’s most familiar landmarks.

Thousands of antiquities were spirited out of the country during Egypt’s colonial period and afterward by archaeologists, adventurers and thieves.

Hawass’s list of most cherished treasures includes another piece held by the Louvre, the painted ceiling of the Dendera temple showing the Zodiac.

He has also asked for the return of the bust of Achhaf, the builder of the Chephren Pyramid, from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and a statue of the Hemiunu, the nephew of Pharaoh Khufu from Germany’s Roemer-Pelizaeu museum.

He says he has recovered 5,000 artifacts since becoming antiquities head in 2002.

AP-ES-12-20-09 1645EST

Recovered Auschwitz sign to be restored

WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Polish police have recovered the infamous Nazi sign stolen from the former Auschwitz death camp cut into three pieces, and said Monday it appeared to have been taken by common criminals seeking profit.

Five men were arrested late Sunday after the damaged “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work Sets You Free”) sign was found near one of their homes in a snowy forest outside Czernikowo, a village near the northern Polish city of Torun, on the other side of the country from the memorial site.

The brazen pre-dawn Friday theft of one of the Holocaust’s most chilling symbols sparked outrage from around the world. Polish leaders launched an intensive search for the 5-meter (16-foot) sign that spanned the main gate of the camp in southern Poland where more than 1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed during World War II.

The men’s arrest late Sunday came after more than 100 tips, said Andrzej Rokita, the chief police investigator in the case.

Police said it was too soon to say what the motive for the theft was, but they are investigating whether the Nazi memorabilia market may have played a part. The suspects do not have known neo-Nazi or other far-right links, Rokita said.

“Robbery and material gain are considered one of the main possible motives, but whether that was done on someone’s order will be determined in the process of the investigation,” added deputy investigator Marek Wozniczka.

“They are ordinary thieves,” Rokita said.

The suspects have not been identified publicly, but Rokita said they were between the ages of 20 and 39 and that their past offenses were “either against property or against health and life,” implying that at least one of them has a record for violent crime.

Four of the five men are believed to have carried out the theft, removing the 65- to 90-pound steel sign from above the Auschwitz gate in the town of Oswiecim, about 30 miles west of Krakow.

“It seems they cut the sign up already in Oswiecim, to make transport easier,” Rokita said at a news conference in Krakow. It was “hidden in the woods near the home of one of them.”

Wozniczka said the suspects will all be charged with theft of an object of special cultural value and could face up to 10 years in prison. He said other charges could possibly be added during the investigation.

Museum authorities welcomed the news with relief despite the damage. Spokesman Pawel Sawicki said authorities hope to restore it to its place as soon as it can be repaired and was working to develop a new security plan.

Security guards patrol the 940-acre (200-hectare) site around the clock, but due to its vast size they only pass by any one area at intervals.

An exact replica of the sign, produced when the original underwent restoration work years ago, was quickly hung in its place Friday.

In a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press, Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, welcomed the sign’s swift recovery.

“Whatever the motivation, it takes warped minds to steal the defining symbol of the Holocaust from the world’s most renowned killing field,” he said.

After occupying Poland in 1939, the Nazis established the Auschwitz I camp, which initially housed German political prisoners and non-Jewish Polish prisoners. The sign was made in 1940. Two years later, hundreds of thousands of Jews began arriving by cattle trains to the wooden barracks of nearby Birkenau, also called Auschwitz II.

More than 1 million people, mostly Jews, but also Gypsies, Poles and others, died in the gas chambers or from starvation and disease while performing forced labor. The camp was liberated by the Soviet army on Jan. 27, 1945.

The grim slogan “Arbeit Macht Frei” was so counter to the actual function of the camp that it has been etched into history. The phrase appeared at the entrances of other Nazi camps, including Dachau and Sachsenhausen, but the long curving sign at Auschwitz was the best known.

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Associated Press Writer Monika Scislowska contributed to this report.

AP-ES-12-21-09 0726EST

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