L.A. historian wonders where Richfield Building’s angels went

Glazed terra-cotta produced the Richfield Building’s unique black and gold color scheme. The gold color was gold dust, pulverized and applied to the terra-cotta in a transparent glazing solution. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Glazed terra-cotta produced the Richfield Building’s unique black and gold color scheme. The gold color was gold dust, pulverized and applied to the terra-cotta in a transparent glazing solution. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Glazed terra-cotta produced the Richfield Building’s unique black and gold color scheme. The gold color was gold dust, pulverized and applied to the terra-cotta in a transparent glazing solution. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The population of winged guardians in the City of Angels is not what it was.

A downtown Los Angeles resident wants to find out what happened to dozens of terra-cotta angel sculptures that once adorned a landmark downtown building that was demolished in 1969.

The Richfield Building, a black and gold Art-Deco tower, which was built in 1929 and served as the headquarters for Richfield Oil Co., was festooned with 40 golden angels wearing roman helmets and breastplates. The 10-foot-tall majestic sentries gazed down on the city from the 13-floor building.

When office tower at 555 S. Flower St. was torn down to make way for a generic-looking high-rise complex, the angels were removed and offered for sale for $100, and one of them was bought by an Orange County family.

Local historian and urban anthropologist Eric Lynxwiler heard the family was selling the sculpture, so he bought it for $2,500 and attempted to bring it back to his downtown loft in a truck.

“I ended up hiring a crane and a forklift,” Lynxwiler told the Los Angeles Times. “The crane operator weighed it and found it was 1 1/2 tons, so I had to have a special base made to hold it. Altogether, it ended up costing $10,000.”

Lynxwiler, 37, wants to know what happened to the other angels. He speculates that some could have ended up amid the rubble from the demolished building that was used to construct Los Angeles-area freeways.

A pair of ornate elevator doors from the Richfield Building were saved and incorporated into one of the high-rise ARCO Plaza towers now standing on the site. The University of California, Santa Barbara, has four of the old building’s front door ornaments.

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Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

 

AP-WS-12-29-10 1216EST

 

Mammoth skull rare find at Gut Bernstorf auction Jan. 8

Emeralds and diamonds form the buds and leaves respectively on this 18K white gold bracelet. Estimate: $8,075-$9,100. Image courtesy of Auktionshaus Gut Bernstorf.

Emeralds and diamonds form the buds and leaves respectively on this 18K white gold bracelet. Estimate: $8,075-$9,100. Image courtesy of Auktionshaus Gut Bernstorf.
Emeralds and diamonds form the buds and leaves respectively on this 18K white gold bracelet. Estimate: $8,075-$9,100. Image courtesy of Auktionshaus Gut Bernstorf.
KRANZBERG, Germany – Auktionshaus Gut Bernstorf will hold its Great Fine Arts and Antiquities auction on Jan. 8 at the gallery near Munich. The auction will begin at 1 p.m. MEZ (Central European Time, 7 a.m. Eastern). Internet live bidding will be facilitated by LiveAuctioneers.

Auctioneer Michael Lehrberger said the auction is in “very positive resonance to our first two auctions in our new established auction-rooms in Bernstorf Estate.”

For the upcoming auction Lehrberger has gathered 581 lots of nice, old, surprising and rare pieces from all over the world. The real “crown jewel” of this auction is the skull with the two tusks of a mammoth from the Pliozaen to Holozaen period. This rarity was excavated in Siberia and after that professionally restored by museum experts. All legal documents are with the skull, one of only a few such pieces known worldwide.

The auction will also feature fine arts, strange rarities, antiques and beautiful collectibles.

“Give yourself the chance to see, feel end enjoy the rememberances and the relics of an almost forgotten world,” said Lehrberger, adding, “It’s a real pleasure for us to welcome you in our house, to know that you enjoyed your time in the auction and we feel really great to see you back again.”

Previews at the auction house will be Jan. 5 and the morning of the sale.

For details visit Auktionshaus Gut Bernstorf’s website: www.gutbernstorf.de or call +49-8166-9932-11.

View the fully illustrated catalog and register to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAucvtioneers.com.

 

View the fully illustrated catalog and register to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

Archaeologists driven to solve mystery of abandoned city

The site of the current archaeological dig is in the vicinity of Monk’s Mound, the largest of the Cahokia Mounds in southwest Illinois. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
The site of the current archaeological dig is in the vicinity of Monk’s Mound, the largest of the Cahokia Mounds in southwest Illinois. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
The site of the current archaeological dig is in the vicinity of Monk’s Mound, the largest of the Cahokia Mounds in southwest Illinois. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) – Archaeologists who have uncovered the remains of a prehistoric city beneath what is now East St. Louis are trying to unravel why that ancient city was abandoned while another one just to the east managed to survive two more centuries.

Archaeologists believe Native Americans abandoned the city of roughly 3,000 or more people around the year 1200, some 200 years before a bigger settlement at nearby Cahokia Mounds ended inexplicably.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Tuesday that the East St. Louis settlement appeared to have been ravaged by fire in the late 1100s, although the cause of that blaze isn’t clear. Joe Galloy, coordinator at the Illinois State Archaeological Survey’s American Bottom Field Station in Wood River, said an attack from outside, rioting or a ritual burning are among theories for the fire’s origin, though archaeologists hope to pinpoint during the dig.

Archaeologists have been working the site since 2008, in advance of construction of an Interstate 70 bridge across the Mississippi River.

Galloy called the archaeological dig near the site of the old St. Louis National Stockyards “an unprecedented look at a Mississippian city” and perhaps the most significant archaeology of any kind under way in the country. About 50 people are working full-time on the effort.

“We’re digging up ancient urban neighborhoods,” he said. “It’s an unprecedented look at a Mississippian city.” When finished, more land will have been excavated than at the internationally known Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, near Collinsville.

Cahokia Mounds was the administrative center for the mound-building Mississippians, who flourished from around 700 to around 1400 over what is now the Midwest and Southeast. In 1100, Galloy said, Cahokia Mounds had roughly 15,000 to 20,000 people; the United States would have no city as populous until Philadelphia in the late 1700s.

Galloy said Cahokia Mounds, the East St. Louis settlements and similar mounds in St. Louis were in near alignment. The only surviving mounds are in the Cahokia Mounds state historic site, with others on both sides of the river long lost to development.

At Cahokia Mounds and many other archaeological sites, land intentionally is left undisturbed for future excavation. But exploration in the path of the bridge needs to be finished in the next two or three years or the opportunity is lost.

Last year, Galloy said, a 3 1/2-inch figurine of a woman holding a cup or dipper was found near a manure drain installed at the stockyards more than a century ago. Workers have found axes and arrow points, along with pieces of pottery.

None of the findings may be a “game changer” greatly altering beliefs about the Mississippians, Galloy said, though he said the project is producing new information against which to evaluate those beliefs. He said researchers will be analyzing the findings for years.

“We’re still in the beginning of the way to understanding,” he said.

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch,

http://www.stltoday.com

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-12-28-10 1156EST