‘Doppelkopf’ (Double Head) by Thomas Schütte appears tormented. The 67 1/2-inch-tall sculpture has a $600,000-$900,000 estimate. Image courtesy of Phillips de Pury & Co.
LONDON – Phillips de Pury & Co. will conduct its Contemporary Art: Evening Sale on Tuesday, June 29, as a prelude to a double session the following day. Forty-five works by leading contemporary artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Gerhard Richter, Roy Lichtenstein, Olafur Eliasson and Anselm Kiefer will be sold beginning at 7 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time (2 p.m. Eastern). LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live bidding.
Highlights will come fast starting with lot 4, Ugo Rondinone’s stark work of cast aluminum and white enamel titled air/ gets/ into/ everything/ even/ nothing done in 2006. This work is from an edition of three plus two artist’s proofs and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist. The estimate is $300,000-$450,000.
A glazed ceramic bust titled Doppelkopf (Double Head) is the work of sculptor Thomas Schütte. The eerie face, which is 67 1/2 inches tall, carries an estimate of $600,000-$900,000.
Prop for a Film is an important work by Roy Lichtenstein done in 1969 in collaboration with Universal Studios and independent filmmaker Joel Freedman. Magna on board, the work measures 40 by 96 inches. It was later selected for exhibition at the 1970 World’s Fair in Osaka, Japan. It carries an estimate of $700,000-$1 million.
Additional highlights include Out There, an oil on linen by Bridget Riley, which has a $600,000-$750,000, and Ciclo, an oil and newspaper collage on canvas by Emilio Vendova, one of postwar Italy’s most accomplished painters, which is estimated at $600,000-$900,000.
Ugo Rondinone’s ‘air/ gets/ into/ everything/ even/ nothing’ measures 150 inches by 150 inches by 131 7/8 inches. It has a $300,000-$450,000 estimate. Image courtesy of Phillips de Pury & Co. Los Angeles County Museum of Art chose Roy Lichtenstein to participate in an Art and Technology project in 1969. The result was his large magna on board image titled ‘Prop for a Film.’ It is expected to sell for as much as $1 million. Image courtesy of Phillips de Pury & Co. Bridget Riley painted ‘Out There’ in 2004. The oil on linen measures 51 inches by 153 1/2 inches and has a $600,000-$750,000 estimate. Image courtesy of Phillips de Pury & Co. Italy’s Emilio Vendova created ‘Ciclo’ in 1960-62. The signed and dated work has a $600,000-$900,000 estimate. Image courtesy of Phillips de Pury & Co.
VIENNA (ACNI) – At an auction today in Vienna, the world’s largest gold coin was sold for euro3.27 million (US$4.02 million).
The 2007 Canadian million-dollar-denomination Maple Leaf coin was offered by the Dorotheum, the largest auction house in Continental Europe. Reportedly, eight bidders were in competition.
Made of pure gold, the coin weighs in at 100 kg (220.46 lbs.) and is 999.99/1000 gold. One side of the coin bears the image of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, while the other features three maple leaves, the national symbol of Canada.
The coin was sold on behalf of the liquidators for Austrian investment and venture capital firm AvW Invest AG. It was purchased by Oro Direct, the largest precious metal trading company on the Spanish Peninsula. According to Oro Direct’s Web site, the company sells gold products issued by the Austrian Mint and Argor Heraeus.
According to a spokesperson for the Dorotheum, the outstanding price achieved by the coin “was largely influenced, as expected, by the currently very high price of gold.”
The intelligent, level-headed Carl Hubbell became one of baseball’s best pitchers in the 1930s, ironically by throwing screwballs. Image courtesy of Regency-Superior Ltd. and LiveAuctioneers archive. MEEKER, Okla. (AP) – Humble can be incredibly impressive.
In life, Carl Hubbell, described by many as a very humble man, was one of the greatest pitchers in the history of baseball.
The pride of Meeker was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., in 1947 and his bio reads: “Baffling hitters with a devastating screwball, The Meal Ticket compiled a streak of 46 1/3 scoreless innings in 1933 and won 16 straight games in 1936 and a record 24 over two seasons. The nine-time All-Star remains famed for his performance in the 1934 All-Star Game, in which he fanned Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin in succession.” That’s very impressive.
But Hubbell is also humble in death.
How?
This is the 30th year of the Carl Hubbell Museum, which is located in the foyer of the City Hall/Fire Station in Meeker. So, you could literally go into City Hall to pay a utility bill and also see a photo that includes Hubbell and Babe Ruth, signed by Ruth. Or you could marvel at the silver boxes he received for winning the National League Most Valuable Player honors in 1933 and 1936.
It is nothing huge, nothing elaborate, but the museum is impressive.
Although born June 22, 1903 – 107 years ago – in Carthage, Mo., Hubbell moved with his family to just outside Meeker 13 years later. In 1923 Carl graduated from Meeker High School. Meeker was home.
In 1978, while visiting the community, Hubbell talked about where he wanted his memorabilia to eventually be displayed.
At that time, lifelong Meeker resident Vernon Markwell and wife, Gail Markwell, became friends with Carl Hubbell. The grand opening of the City Hall/Fire Station and the Carl Hubbell Museum was held Sept. 26, 1980.
“He’s a good example of a young man who tried hard to do his best in what he did and he never bragged, he was so humble,” Gail said of the man called by some “King Carl.”
“He was a really great guy.”
That was in life, but he was already thinking ahead to death and to how what he had might benefit others, such as the children of Meeker.
“He said ‘The Hall of Fame has been wanting my junk,’ that’s what he called it,” Gail Markwell said, “‘but I want it to where kids will be able to come in and see it and say I can be like Carl.’”
He didn’t mean they had to have a great screwball pitch. He was talking about being the best at what you do.
Hubbell and Vernon Markwell became such good friends that one day the retired baseball player called the auctioneer and real estate broker and asked to meet with him.
Again, thinking ahead, he asked Markwell to give his eulogy when the time came.
Hubbell, 85, died Nov. 21, 1988, in Scottsdale, Ariz. One week later, Markwell delivered the eulogy at the Meeker High School gym.
“Through all of these years and all of these outstanding achievements, even to becoming famous,” Markwell said, “Carl was and remained a humble man, a kind man, a modest man, and a quiet man.
“For instance when the subject of errors on the playing field behind him was brought up, Carl was quoted as saying ‘Nobody makes an error on purpose. All you can do is bear down harder and resist the temptation to blame the other fellow.’”
Hubbell’s musuem may be small, but again, it’s remarkably impressive. Many items came from the pitcher but others have been donated. And through the 30 years, visitors have come to the museum from Meeker and throughout Oklahoma as well as Virginia, Ohio and other states.
In addition to the black and white photo with Ruth, there’s a picture of Hubbell standing next to Gehrig. There’s the 1923 Meeker High School baseball team photo. And displayed a few feet away is a commencement announcement from the Meeker Class of 1923.
There are baseballs from a no-hitter in 1929 and his 18-inning 1-0 win in 1933. Then there’s the Baseball Chess Set featuring the American and National Leagues. In the set’s case, the Hubbell piece is between Rogers Hornsby and Stan Musial. And next door, a case contains even more Hubbell items in the Meeker Historical Museum.
What’s powerful about all this is that the items say what the man himself chose not to speak about.
Gail Markwell said, “If you asked Carl something about himself he changed the subject to praise someone else.”
___
Information from: The Oklahoman, http://www.newsok.com
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. Image courtesy NURFC. CINCINNATI (AP) – A two-ton section of the Berlin Wall has become part of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in downtown Cincinnati.
The section measuring 12 feet tall and 4 feet wide will be dedicated as a monument July 3 outside the museum that focuses on how Civil War era slaves reached freedom, and on freedom around the world. It arrived Wednesday.
The Munich, Germany, Sister Cities Association worked to help get the section from Berlin to Cincinnati as part of a relationship with the Ohio city that began more than two decades ago as the Soviet bloc was falling apart.
The Freedom Center plans an educational mini-park for the segment, which will be lit at night. Other sections of the wall that divided East and West Berlin until 1989 have been given to other cities over the years.
___
Information from: The Cincinnati Enquirer, http://www.enquirer.com
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-CS-06-24-10 0854EDT
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
A section of the Berlin Wall, measuring 12 ft by 4ft and weighing two tons, arrives at the NURFC on a flatbed tractor-trailer truck. Image courtesy NURFC. A tug transports the Berlin Wall segment to its new, permanent position at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Image courtesy NURFC. Members of the media were on hand for the arrival of the Berlin Wall section. Image courtesy NURFC.
Gustav Oppel’s porcelain Art Deco figure of Venus riding a sea horse is in good condition. The 16-inch-high figure has a $3,000-$5,000 estimate. Image courtesy of Michaan’s Auctions.
ALAMEDA, Calif. – Michaan’s Auctions will celebrate Independence Day July 4 with a star-studded auction of nearly 800 lots of art, antiques and fine jewelry. The auction, which will start at 10 a.m. Pacific, will have Internet live bidding provided by LiveAuctioneers.
The sale will begin with approximately 200 lots of jewelry. Two items of special interest are 18K gold rings with large natural color jadeite cabochons. One in yellow gold carries a $5,500-$7,000 estimate. The other, in white gold and flanked with six full-cut diamonds, has a $4,750-$6,000 estimate.
A jadeite and diamond Buddha pendant in 18K white gold on a 15-inch chain carries a $3,750-$5,000 estimate.
An Art Deco diamond, synthetic sapphire, platinum bracelet is estimated at $3,000-$5,000. The bracelet featuring six old-European-cut diamonds weighing a total of approximately 1.25 carats and is accented by 138 single-cut diamonds weighing a total of approximately 2.75 carats and further enhanced by 36 French-cut sapphires weighing a total of approximately .75 carat.
A Swiss-made ladies Tiffany & Co. 18K gold wristwatch has a $2,000-$3,000 estimate.
An Art Deco Gustav Oppel porcelain figure of Venus riding a sea horse, 16 inches tall by 17 1/2 inches long, is expected to finish in the money at $3,000-$5,000.
Fine art will include a Christian August Jorgensen (American, 1860-1935) watercolor on paper titled Desert Near Cathedral City – Palm Springs, California. The dated 1932 work measures 10 inches by 14 1/8 inches and is estimate at $1,000-$1,500.
A Self-portrait in oval etching by Rembrandt Van Rijn. (Dutch, 1606 – 1669), 6 1/2 inches by 5 5/8 inches, has an $1,800-$2,200 estimate. Framed, matted and glazed, the signed and dated 1634 etching appears to be in excellent condition.
Asian antiques will include a carnelian carving of two female figures each holding a lute and scroll and attached to a reticulated wood stand. The 5 3/4-inch-tall carving has a $300-$500 estimate. An archaistic bronze censer decorated with a large dragon and lions verso is expected to sell for $800-$1,200. The underside of the bowl-shape censer bears a temple mark reading “Longyun Zhai.”
Heading the furniture category is a Victorian four panel screen painted with frolicking putti, which has a $1,000-$1,500 estimate.
The auction will also have coins, stamps and collectible glass beads.
The jadeite cabochon in this 18K yellow gold ring measures 15.9mm by 12.5mm by 4.3mm. It was accompanied by a Gemological Institute of America identification report and was estimated at $5,500-$7,000. Image courtesy of Michaan’s Auctions. Standing 64 inches tall is this Art Deco figure of Mercury holding a banner marked "J.W.K." This unusual piece of advertising has a $4,000-$6,000 estimate. Image courtesy of Michaan’s Auctions. Shreve & Co. made this sterling silver four-piece tea service in the Fourteenth Century pattern. Bearing a "B" monogram, the set has a $2,000-$3,000 estimate. Image courtesy of Michaan’s Auctions. Putti frolic on the panels of this Victorian painted screen, which stands 64 inches high. Each wooden panel screen is 17 inches wide. The screen has a $1,000-$1,500 estimate. Image courtesy of Michaan’s Auctions.
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) – Macedonian police say they have arrested 48 people, including local politicians and archaeologists, in a nationwide crackdown on the illegal antiquities trade.
Spokesman Ivo Kotevski says the operation started early Thursday in eight towns, and about 100 artifacts dating from prehistoric to Ottoman times have been seized.
Kotevski said more than 60 homes were raided, and the confiscated items included jewelry, coins, pottery and bronzes “of exceptional historic and archaeological value.
“Police discovered a small museum in one house,” he told The Associated Press.
Kotevski said the suspects planned to sell the illegally excavated artifacts abroad.
Macedonia has some 6,000 archaeological sites, and major problems with antiquities theft.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
“We’ve learned that this area was a lot more self-sustaining in the 1760s than we originally believed,” said archaeological expert Dr. Christopher Stevenson.
However, it remains unclear what will happen to the site once the most recent dig is finished. Archaeologists hope that the unearthed foundations of the tavern will be preserved for future generations.
The dig, which will continue through July 18, is the last of of three consecutive summers of this grant-funded project. In three years, Stevenson’s crew of roughly 20 archaeologists and local volunteers unearthed more than 36 cart loads of artifacts, numbering in the thousands.
One of the more significant finds is a piece of pottery which is engraved with the words “Success to the king of Prussia.” Stevenson calls this possibly the oldest verfied piece discovered underneath the former tavern.
“It was made to commemorate the Seven-Year War from 1754 to 1763 and was brought here by the British,” Stevenson said.
The Golden Ball was built in the 1760s by tobacco merchant Richard Hanson. British soldiers are known to have frequented it during the Revolutionary War, and later it served as the first Petersburg City Hall and courthouse. It was demolished in 1944.
Little is known about life in Petersburg before the birth of the republic, and the recent finds help to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
“For example, the pieces of pottery and the bones found in the are where the tavern’s kitchen once was help us understand how much Petersburg relied on shipments from England and how much was actually created here,” Stevenson said.
First interpretations of the find conclude that while the many pottery makers would later have shops all over the city, they did not yet exist in the area.
“The pottery still came from England via Williamsburg,” Stevenson said.
But the bones, he added, led to the conclusion that the people in Colonial Petersburg already farmed their own land.
“They were pretty independent in that respect,” he said.
At last year’s dig, historians focused on the back yard of the tavern site, where they found another foundation from the 1760s.
“This year, we’ve already exposed another large piece of this foundation,” Stevenson said. “It’s the same type of brick, which means that the artifacts that we find here are from the same period.”
The finds will be displayed at an exhibition at the Prince George Regional Heritage Center later this year.
But the fate of the tavern’s site has not yet been decided.
Stevenson said that while the site will not be redeveloped, it will take serious efforts to preserve it.
“It is very fragile,” he said. Just to cover it up with a shed would cost $100,000, he said.
Even though there are no concrete plans, Stevenson said that the tavern could theoretically be rebuilt over the trenches.
“A replica would be possible, and it could serve as a museum,” he said.
The Golden Ball Tavern excavation is a collaborative project sponsored by the Prince George County Historical Society, Historic Petersburg Foundation Inc, Richard Bland College and the City of Petersburg, with funding from The Cameron Foundation.
___
Information from: The Progress-Index,
http://www.progress-index.com
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – A civil rights group asked on Wednesday to intervene in a lawsuit against North Carolina tax collectors in an effort to protect the identity of online buyers and their purchases.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the motion in a lawsuit involving Amazon.com and the state Department of Revenue, which wants to collect state taxes on products purchased online.
The ACLU filed the motion to a federal court in Seattle, where Amazon is headquartered. The civil rights group said the state agency’s demand for information is unconstitutional.
The revenue department has asked Amazon for the names and addresses of buyers and a description of their purchases.
The ACLU said it was acting on behalf of several North Carolina residents who were concerned about people discovering the titles of books they purchased. One woman did not want people to find out about her atheist beliefs, and a law student was afraid that if her political views were exposed, it would hurt her career prospects.
“The ACLU is not taking issue with the department’s authority to collect taxes on these purchases, but there is no legitimate reason why government officals need to know which books or movies or CDs North Carolina consumers are purchasing,” said Jennifer Rudinger, executive director of the ACLU in North Carolina.
Rudinger said Amazon has already provided the department with product codes that reveal the exact items purchased. She said her organization wants the state agency to destroy the codes and narrow the scope of its information requests.
The revenue department said it would give online retailers through August to sign an agreement to collect and pay taxes on products sold to North Carolina customers.
Amazon.com filed the lawsuit in April and said complying with the department’s information requests would harm customers who may have bought controversial merchandise and could diminish future sales.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
