NEW YORK (AP) – A former art gallery director was convicted Wednesday in an art fraud case that brought Robert De Niro to a witness stand to discuss a role he generally plays behind the scenes: artist’s son.
Leigh Morse was found guilty of scheming to defraud four artists’ estates by selling their works without telling them. But she was acquitted of a more serious grand larceny charge that specifically involved the estate of De Niro’s artist father.
The charges against Morse stemmed from a more sweeping case against her former boss, now-imprisoned ex-gallery owner and admitted swindler Lawrence Salander. Morse’s lawyer said she had nothing to do with Salander’s $120 million scheme.
Morse, 55, could face up to four years in prison but won’t necessarily get any time behind bars at her sentencing, set for June 3.
Morse “systematically looted the estates of her clients over a period of many years,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said in a statement.
While working at the now-shuttered Salander-O’Reilly Galleries LLC, Morse kept artists’ estates in the dark about sales of more than 80 works, dissembling even after some estates began inquiring where the artworks were, prosecutors said.
Morse was acquitted of pocketing $77,000 in proceeds from selling two paintings by De Niro’s father, the late Robert De Niro Sr.
The abstract expressionist selected Salander to represent his work, and his son continued the relationship after his father’s 1993 death. Sale proceeds and most expenses in getting the artworks sold were to be split evenly, according to an agreement shown in court.
“I wasn’t watching as carefully as I probably should have,” the actor told jurors last month. But “I trusted Larry implicitly.”
But De Niro said he eventually became concerned after a contemporary of his father’s raised questions about Salander. The actor ultimately learned that Salander had signed over ownership of some of his father’s work to an Italian gallery without his permission, and that the estate hadn’t been paid its portion of any sales after 2001, he said.
De Niro cut ties with the gallery around the end of 2007 and rebuffed efforts by Morse and another staffer to get the estate’s business back, he said.
The actor’s spokesman didn’t immediately return telephone and email messages Wednesday. Nor did Morse’s lawyer, Andrew M. Lankler.
He said during the trial that Morse didn’t know that De Niro wasn’t getting paid, and she’d wanted clients to get what was due to them. She was owed $300,000 in commissions herself, Lankler said.
“Leigh Morse is a victim,” he said during a closing argument last month.
Larry Salander pleaded guilty last year to bilking De Niro Sr.’s estate, John McEnroe and other clients. Salander, 61, is serving six to 18 years in prison.
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Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Police arrested New Hampshire resident Brent Cameron for allegedly trying to take these two antique derringers through a security checkpoint at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Photo courtesy Massachusetts State Police.
BOSTON (AP) — A New Hampshire man has been arrested at Boston’s Logan International Airport after state police found two unloaded antique pistols in his luggage.
Police say the two .22 caliber Derringer pistols were detected just before 8 a.m. Wednesday in a carry-on bag belonging to 44-year-old Brent Cameron of New London, N.H., by an x-ray machine at a security checkpoint.
Cameron told police that he had just bought the guns at auction and did not know they were in the bag. When asked if he had a license, he said he did not but did not need one in New Hampshire. There was no ammunition in his bag.
He is scheduled to be arraigned in East Boston District Court on two counts of possession of a firearm without a license.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
A government shutdown could cause the closure of the Smithsonian Institution and Smithsonian National Zoological Park, commonly known as the National Zoo, but its animal residents, including this male lion, needn’t worry. Caretakers will continue their work as usual. Image by 350z33, licensed through Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
WASHINGTON (AP) – The effect of a federal government shutdown would perhaps first be felt by the public Saturday at the national museums and zoo of the Smithsonian Institution.
“The museums and the zoo would not open,” spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas said. “Most of our employees are federal.”
However, workers in every museum would be exempt from the ranks of those ordered to stay home. Such essential employees are needed to keep the collections secure and in good condition. The spokeswoman says The National Zoo would have many exempted workers, especially the animal keepers.
The government faces a partial shutdown Friday at midnight if Congress doesn’t take action to avoid one. A stopgap government funding bill is set to expire at that time.
A shutdown this weekend would come at an especially busy time for the Smithsonian. The National Cherry Blossom Festival, which concludes this weekend, draws many tourists to an area near the museums. The Smithsonian counts about 3 million visits each April and has already sold 23,000 IMAX movie and lunch combos to school groups for the month.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Murray Jordan pedal car, all original, upholstered seating, full accessories, opening trunk lid, estimate $10,000-$12,000. Bertoia Auctions image.
VINELAND, N.J. – In an auction odyssey that began in March of 2009 with an offering of rare automotive toys, Bertoia’s has been privileged to present an ongoing series of events featuring the antique toy collection of the late Donald Kaufman, co-founder of KB Toys. The four auctions to date have realized $10.9 million. The series’ grand total will be known when the checkered flag waves over the weekend of April 15-16, 2011 as Bertoia’s conducts the Donald Kaufman Auction Part V – The Final Lap. Internet live bidding will be provided by LiveAuctioneers.com.
The last of the toys from the revered Kaufman collection will be auctioned in a 275-lot opening session, followed by a daylong Saturday session containing approximately 650 lots.
“Appropriately, we will start with old store stock of Marx toys, since that’s how the Kaufman toy business began,” said Bertoia’s gallery associate Rich Bertoia. “There are many boxed Marx examples in unusually nice condition. On the other hand, some of the Marx toys in the sale are more common, but they have their rare original boxes. The boxes that contained Marx farm toys and moving vans were almost always discarded – those toys were bought to be played with.”
Collectors of pressed-steel trucks are in for a surprise, Bertoia said. “We set aside many excellent pressed-steel trucks just for this sale. There are more than 100 pieces dating from the 1920s to the 1940s, with a few toys from the Richard Keats Buddy ‘L’ Archive. Other pressed steel toy brands represented include Keystone, Sturditoy, Structo and American National. Of special note are a few very rare trucks whose restorations were completed exclusively with the toys’ original parts. “Collectors might like these restorations, which required great skill and were very expensive to do. Rather than using ‘make-do’ replacement parts from other toys, the trucks’ own parts were painstakingly restored, so they retained their original integrity,” Bertoia said.
The Marx and pressed steel toys, as well as 43 pedal cars – some of them all original and some of museum quality – will be blended into the auction over both days of the sale. Neither day will be “top loaded,” Bertoia said. “In particular, it will be exciting to see the interest level in the pedal cars, which were the largest toys in Don’s collection. There were nearly 250 pedal cars when we started the auction series. For this final selection, we reserved pedal vehicles of every style you can imagine, from fire trucks and work trucks to luxury-level automobiles.” A bumper crop of approximately 200 cast-iron automotive toys has also been added to the sale, to be divided evenly over the two-day period.
Friday’s session will open with the second half of the cast-iron toy grouping, which ranges from common trucks, farm tractors, busses and construction vehicles to several exceedingly rare David delivery trucks.
The cast-iron section of the sale is widely varied. “Anyone who ever wanted something from Donald Kaufman’s shelves stands a very good chance of attaining it, including the first toy Don ever bought – an Arcade Red Baby,” Bertoia said. Because of its significance, that particular toy has been given special status and will be offered as the final lot of the sale. “It takes the collecting journey full circle –the first toy Don bought is also the last one to be sold,” Bertoia said.
Another special inclusion in the sale is the toy that was chosen to grace the cover of each of Bertoia’s catalogs in the Donald Kaufman auction series – a tinplate Hans Eberl van made for a Pittsburgh company called Kaufmann (sic.).
The Saturday session includes a sizable array of light pressed-steel automotive toys by Kingsbury, Metalcraft, Cor Cor, Turner and other manufacturers. An additional 30-35 lots of boxed modern toys by Marklin and Paya will cruise across the auction block.
For those comic character collectors who may have struck out in previous Kaufman sales in which competition for rare examples was fierce, there’s good news. A small but very pleasing selection of comic character toys has been set aside for the April 15-16 sale. “If a paddle got in their way before, this is not only the last chance but also a good chance for comic character collectors to score a great toy,” said Bertoia.
Jeanne Bertoia, owner and co-founder of Bertoia Auctions, concurred. She said she believes the final Kaufman sale might be “more of an American buying event” than previous sessions, since part five is not comprised predominantly of European toys.
“Donald Kaufman was a completist. He had everything,” Jeanne explained. “I would say to those who were not successful at previous sales, here’s your chance to acquire a toy with very important provenance from a legendary collector who will dominate toy conversations for many years to come. There wasn’t a collector like him before he bought his first toy 61 years ago, and there hasn’t been one like him since.”
With the conclusion of the series, collectors will be able to add the final hardbound auction catalog to the five-volume set documenting the Kaufman collection. Volume V includes a special bonus – an index that alphabetically organizes auction entries from the entire compendium of catalogs, listing toys by name and/or manufacturer with the volume and page numbers where each can be found.
For additional information, call 856-692-1881 or e-mail toys@bertoiaauctions.com.
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
Rare Arcade “White” dump truck, cast iron, estimate $6,000-$8,000. Bertoia Auctions image.Chein Hercules ice truck with original box, 19½ inches, lithographed tin, estimate $1,500-$2,000. Bertoia Auctions image.Arcade “White” moving van with Lammert’s advertising on both sides, 13 inches, cast iron, considered the best of all known examples, estimate $8,000-$10,000. Bertoia Auctions image.American National deluxe Packard coupe pedal car, opening doors with wicker trim, estimate $20,000-$25,000. Bertoia Auctions image.Buddy ‘L’ fire engine with original box, 25 inches, formerly in the company archive collection of retired Buddy ‘L’ president Richard Keats, estimate $6,000-$7,500. Bertoia Auctions image.Hans Eberl “Kaufmann’s Big Store” delivery van, clockwork driven, German, probably 1920s, scarce promotional toy, estimate $4,000-$5,000. Bertoia Auctions image.Donald Kaufman’s first toy purchase, a circa-1922 International Harvester “Red Baby” truck, estimate $400-$600. Bertoia Auctions image.
18K yellow gold, diamond and sapphire ring by David Web with central 6.67-carat marquise-cut diamond, estimate $50,000-$80,000. New Orleans Auction Galleries image.
NEW ORLEANS – A luxurious selection of European and American fine and decorative art, furniture and antiques; and superb Chinese jade carvings will greet bidders in New Orleans Auction Galleries’ April 9-10 auction. Adding extra sparkle to the already dazzling array is a signed David Webb 18K gold, diamond and sapphire ring estimated at $50,000-$80,000. Internet live bidding will be available throughout the two-day sale through LiveAuctioneers.com.
The Asian art category is led by a large Chinese carved black and white jade snuff bottle. The bulbous body is carved in relief, the front showing a man in a boat greeting a passenger carrying a spray of ling chih. The reverse is carved with a scene of a scholar and attendant among serrated rockwork. Standing a diminutive 3½ inches tall, it is estimated at $8,000-$12,000.
The top Asian lot is a superb double-sided Chinese carved white jade landscape, the front depicting a waterside pavilion in a mountainous landscape and the reverse displaying another scene of natural terrain. Both sides are expertly carved, with a dimensional qualities that invites the viewer to enter the scene. Measuring 9¼ inches high by 10¾ inches long (excluding stand), it is expected to make $9,000-$12,000 on auction day.
After Raphael Sanzio da Urbino, known simply as “Raphael” (Italian, 1483-1520), a fourth quarter 18th-century oil on canvas title Madonna of the Chair measures 29¾ by 29½ inches. It is presented in a molded and heavily carved giltwood frame with corner acanthine accents and side shell patterns, the slip with corner scrolling designs centered by maiden’s heads. The artwork could finish in the $4,000 to $7,000 range.
New Orleans Auction Galleries has distinguished itself many times in the past with its offerings of Southern regional art. In the April 9-10 sale, the company will present Alice Ravenel Huger Smith’s (American/South Carolina, 1876-1958) A Summer Duck in the Pool at Lavington, a signed watercolor on paper that retains a partial label identifying an agent for the Pan-Pacific International Exposition of 1915. Measuring 13 by 21¼ inches, the work is presented in a period molded giltwood frame with brass artist plaque. Estimate: $12,000-$18,000.
A statue with great presence is the 43½-inch tall, carved and gessoed 19th-century Continental figure of St. Sebastian. The martyred saint is depicted standing on a rocky base and tied to a tree, his near-nude body pierced with arrows while a halo rises behind his head. Provenance: Gift to “Buzz” Harper from the author Anne Rice, formerly of New Orleans and now of Rancho Mirage, California. The statue is estimated at $3,000-$5,000.
The furniture selection includes a signed Louis XV rosewood, kingwood and marble-top commode from the third quarter of the 18th century, by Jean-Francois Lapie (1720-1797; Master 1763). The shaped Rance marble top with a molded edge sits above a conforming bombe case fitted with two short drawers over two long drawers, all banded and quarter veneered, the sides with matchbook-veneered banded panels, raised on shaped legs to sabots. The top case rail is stamped “J.-F. LAPIE.” The commode carries a presale estimate of $5,000-$8,000.
Sleeping like a king is assured in a transitional American Late Classical into Rococo Revival mahogany full-tester bed from the third quarter of the 19th century and attributed to the shop of Charles Lee. The Massachusetts craftsman was known for his bedsteads supplied to the antebellum New Orleans and Southern furniture trade. The stepped and molded bed measures 124 inches tall, 77 inches wide and 91 inches long. Estimate: $7,000-$10,000.
An American Classical mahogany sofa, first quarter 19th century, featured a molded crest rail with four figural panels, the arms terminating in scrolls on vasiform supports, with molded seat rail and saber legs ending in hairy-paw feet. Of a quality far superior to what is found in new furniture stores, it is estimated at $1,500-$2,500.
One of the sale’s decorative-art highlights it the 3-piece German .800-silver Jugendstil table garniture, circa 1900, by M. H. Wilkens of Bremen. The suite includes a pair of candelabra, each in the form of a realistic bearded iris with one central and three surrounding blooms, all entwined with leaves, with a pair of putti at the base endeavoring to climb the stalks. Each piece is monogrammed on the cartouche “H.de L. V.” for Hugh de Lacy Vincent, and the total weight for the three pieces is 248.08 troy ounces. Provenance: Hugh de Lacy Vincent (1852-1913), to his son Hugh Evelyn Vincent (1890-1951), thence by descent through the family. Estimate: $3,000-$5,000.
A dazzling 18K yellow gold, diamond and sapphire ring by David Webb is composed of a central 6.67-carat marquise-cut diamond surrounded by 9.0 carats of pave-set round brilliant diamonds in two tapered sections, the yellow gold mounting accented on the sides with arches of caliber-cut blue sapphires. Inscribed “Webb,” the exquisitely designed ring is expected to realize $50,000-$80,000 at auction.
For information on any lot in the sale, call New Orleans Auction Galleries tollfree at 800-501-0277, or at 504-566-1849, or e-mail info@neworleansauction.com.
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
Large Chinese carved black and white jade snuff bottle, estimate $8,000-$12,000. New Orleans Auction Galleries image.Chinese carved white jade double-sided landscape, estimate $9,000-$12,000. New Orleans Auction Galleries image.Large Continental carved and gessoed wood statue of St. Sebastian, estimate $3,000-$5,000. New Orleans Auction Galleries image.Fine signed Louis XV rosewood, kingwood and marble-top commode, estimate $5,000-$8,000. New Orleans Auction Galleries image.After Raphael Sanzio da Urbino, known as Raphael (Italian, 1483-1520), Madonna of the Chair, estimate $4,000-$7,000. New Orleans Auction Galleries image.Transitional American Late Classical into Rococo Revival mahogany full-tester bed, estimate $7,000-$10,000. New Orleans Auction Galleries image.Three-piece German .800-silver Jugendstil table garniture, estimate $3,000-$5,000. New Orleans Auction Galleries image.Alice Ravenel Huger Smith (Amer./South Carolina, 1876-1958), A Summer Duck in the Pool at Lavington, watercolor on paper, estimate $12,000-$18,000. New Orleans Auction Galleries image.American Classical mahogany sofa with hairy-paw feet, early 19th century, estimate $1,500-$2,500. New Orleans Auction Galleries image.
Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519), La Gioconda, oil on poplar, painted between 1503-1506, 30.31 x 20.87 inches. Held in the permanent collection at The Louvre, Paris.
ROME (AP) – Italian researchers have announced a plan to dig up bones in a Florence convent in hopes of identifying the remains of a Renaissance woman long believed to be the model for the Mona Lisa.
The researchers hope that the project can help answer some of the enduring mysteries surrounding Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, including whether the woman, Lisa Gherardini, was indeed the model.
They launched their project in Florence Tuesday.
Project leader Silvano Vinceti said the excavations in the Convent of St. Ursula, in central Florence, are scheduled to begin at the end of April.
Lisa Gherardini was the wife of a rich silk merchant named Francesco del Giocondo. Tradition has long linked her to the painting, which in Italian is known as “La Gioconda.”
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-04-05-11 1102GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519), La Gioconda, oil on poplar, painted between 1503-1506, 30.31 x 20.87 inches. Held in the permanent collection at The Louvre, Paris.
An exhibition at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City featuring a Water Lilies triptych by Claude Monet will open Saturday, April 9, 2011 and will run through Aug. 7, 2011. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art image.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – One of impressionist master Claude Monet’s Water Lilies triptychs, separated 50 years ago and sold to three museums, has been reunited in a multifaceted exhibit that highlights not only the three-panel artwork, but the artist too.
“I think all of us think of Monet as this father of Impressionism, as this painter who was spontaneous, who painted outdoors in his garden,” said Nicole Myers, associate curator at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, where “Monet’s Water Lilies” opens April 9. “That was certainly true. He presented himself that way publicly, really to the end of his life.”
But Monet had another side that’s also detailed in the exhibition, which ends Aug. 7 before moving on to the St. Louis Art Museum and then to the Cleveland Museum of Art.
“With these later paintings from the 20th century that he’s working on, you see the sort of obsessive, almost obsessive-compulsive, artist who came indoors and worked tirelessly making revisions again and again in this kind of obsessive way,” she said.
It’s unclear if Monet ever considered the three panels finished, she said.
“And it really blows out of the water this impression we have of this man who just sort of dashed off his first thoughts and left things alone. He worked on them almost consistently from 1915 to 1926,” Myers said.
The three panels, each 6-feet tall and 14-feet wide, languished in Monet’s studio at Giverny outside Paris after his death in 1926, Myers said. The pieces on display at the Nelson-Atkins comprise one of two of Monet’s Water Lilies triptychs in the U.S. The other is at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where they are a steady, popular selection.
“What’s amazing about them is the mood they create in the room where they’re installed,” said Ann Temkin’s, MoMA’s chief curator of paintings and sculpture. “It’s a magical one. It becomes a very quiet place. The visitors become quite contemplative.”
The triptych at the Nelson-Atkins was brought to New York in the 1950s. It was then separated, and the individual panels were sold to the St. Louis Art Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Nelson-Atkins. It has been more than 30 years however, since they were shown as Monet intended for them to be seen – together.
“So for a new generation this is really a first time to get the chance to see these great paintings come together,” Myers said.
The paintings, alone in the exhibit’s main room where they provide a serene and powerful display of water, light and nature, are clearly the centerpiece.
But the artist and his process are also crucial elements of the installation, which includes brief film footage of Monet at work in his garden in 1915, dressed in a white suit and straw hat, a cigarette dangling from his mouth.
“We think we know this painter, and yet really … he was … more of what we consider today almost to be a conceptual painter,” Myers said. “If you didn’t know this was a ‘Water Lily’ series would you think that’s what these paintings are about?
“And is that as important as this experience of viewing them, which is of course, what he really intended.”
A separate room also has displays about the artist’s process, among them detailed cross sections of the panels that show the layers of paint Monet added over the years, changing the painting from its original to its current state.
Each of the museums also collaborated to X-ray for the first time sections of their panels, giving a better sense of what each painting looked like in 1921, and what they look like today, showing substantial changes.
Visitors can also use touch screen panels to “make your own Monet,” which can then be displayed on the museum’s web site. Another display allows visitors to get a close-up look at – and touch – versions of the artist’s short, loose brush strokes, and yet another gives visitors the chance to type a word or two describing their experience. Those words are then projected in light on the walls of that room.
In the “Water Lily” series, Monet said he wanted to create “an asylum of peaceful meditation in the midst of a flowered aquarium.”
That flowered aquarium opens next Saturday.
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ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
An exhibition at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City featuring a Water Lilies triptych by Claude Monet will open Saturday, April 9, 2011 and will run through Aug. 7, 2011. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art image.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) – A museum that tells the story of western New York’s vital role in aviation history is being booted from its home in a Buffalo arena.
The NHL’s Buffalo Sabres announced Tuesday that they won’t renew the HSBC Arena lease for the Ira G. Ross Niagara Aerospace Museum. The museum has occupied about 9,000 square feet of space inside the downtown area for the past three years.
Team officials say they want to use the space for other purposes.
The museum’s exhibits tell the story of the Buffalo-Niagara region’s role in the development of aviation in the 20th century.
The museum must remove its items by the end of June. Museum officials say they’ll move the exhibits to the former Bell Aircraft Corp. factory in nearby Wheatfield while they search for a new home.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
