FRISCO, Colo. (AP) – Police in the Denver suburb of Thornton have arrested a man suspected of stealing items from the Frisco Historic Park and Museum in the mountains.
Frisco officials say Tony Bana was arrested Sunday. He was transferred to Breckenridge on Tuesday to await court proceedings. They say Bana has lived and worked in both Summit County and the Front Range.
The historic park and museum suffered a fire at one of its buildings June 19. Investigators later discovered several items were missing and suspected arson.
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The James S. McDonnell Planetarium built in 1963 features a thin-shell and hyperboloid structure by Gyo Obata. This building is one of the most distinctive components of the St. Louis Science Center campus.
ST. LOUIS (AP) – The St. Louis Science Center, which has drawn scrutiny over the salaries its top executives earn, plans to cut five of its nine vice president positions and to reevaluate how it compensates its leadership team.
In a brief statement Tuesday, the center said it plans to cut five of its nine vice president positions and to reconfigure the remaining four, but it didn’t say whether its current vice presidents would be fired or demoted, the St Louis Post-Dispatch reported Wednesday. The center will also hire a consulting firm to help determine appropriate executive compensation.
The four vice presidents will be responsible for “science content and technology, science education programs, business operations and institutional advancement.” Commissioners who make up the center’s governing board approved the change at a closed-door meeting on Tuesday.
The newspaper has published several articles about executive compensation at the science center, which is one of five St. Louis Zoo-Museum District institutions, all of which receive property tax money in St. Louis city and county. According to the paper, the science center paid 10 vice presidents more than $1.8 million in total compensation in 2010, and eight of the 10 made more than $184,000. One of those positions already has been eliminated.
The Post-Dispatch reported that the center awarded $264,000 in performance bonuses this year to current and former executives, while none of the other four institutions offered similar bonuses. And eight or the 13 highest-paid workers at district institutions, with the exception of CEOs, worked at the science center.
Ted Hellman, the chairman of the science center’s board of commissioners, said he thinks the paper’s coverage has been unfair, but he declined to elaborate. A spokeswoman for the science center did not respond to a phone message from The Associated Press on Wednesday seeking comment.
In the statement it issued, the center said the changes have been in the works since December.
Last year, the district generated more than $70 million. The funds are split among the science center, Missouri Botanical Garden, Missouri History Museum, St. Louis Art Museum and St. Louis Zoo.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – The chairwoman of the reorganized Kansas Arts Commission has asked the National Endowment for the Arts to continue funding programs in the state amid concerns from commission members about how much money will be available for awarding grants in the state.
Linda Browning Weis released a letter on Tuesday that was sent a day earlier to the NEA’s director of state and regional partnerships.
The letter states that the arts commission, despite not receiving direct state funding, is the lead agency in Kansas for arts programs. Gov. Sam Brownback vetoed $689,000 in funding for the commission this year. All of the commission’s staff was terminated.
“We aren’t here to bury the Kansas Arts Commission. We are here to resurrect the Kansas arts Commission,” Weis told commissioners Tuesday.
Weis said she received an email from the NEA earlier Tuesday confirming receipt of her letter and that it was being reviewed.
To fund the programs, Brownback created the Kansas Arts Foundation, a private organization charged with raising funds for state arts programs that would distributed by the commission.
Critics argue the changes disqualify Kansas from NEA funding without direct state funding. The Mid America Arts Alliance notified the commission in July that it was putting all grant requests on hold pending further review by the NEA of the state commission’s status.
Commission members appeared concerned about what their new role is and how much money the foundation has raised.
“We have seen nothing in writing,” said Henry Schwaller, a commission member and former chairman.
Weis declined to say how much money the foundation has been raised, saying it wasn’t an agenda item and she wasn’t prepared to share the information. Brownback announced in July that he was donating more than $30,000 from his inaugural fund to the foundation, but other amounts raised haven’t been disclosed.
The commission voted to ask the foundation to report quarterly to members about how much money has been raised and what is available to distribute in Kansas.
Commissioner Larry Meeker said it was also unclear what the commission’s authorities were under the new arrangement, including use of office space donated to the foundation for use by the commission.
“Why do we need office space if we have no money?” Meeker said. “Are we becoming a front for the foundation?”
Weis and others said the commission would continue to award grants and not the foundation. They said it was at least symbolic to have physical presence to show that public support for the art hadn’t ended in Kansas.
“It matters to donors. You can’t just be in the ether. You can’t do that and expect the public to take you serious,” said Sandra Hartley, commission secretary-treasurer.
Brownback appointed Weis to serve as chairwoman of the committee, along with six other members. The previous members had been strong critics of the governor’s push to reduce the state’s role in funding arts programs and have them rely more heavily on private funds.
Senators rejected an executive order that would have moved the arts programs under the State Historical Society, leaving the commission in place. Brownback responded by vetoing the commission’s budget, saying it wasn’t a “core” function of state government.
The governor has said that having a private foundation raise money for arts programs potentially could raise more money to support the arts than through state tax dollars or federal sources.
But Schwaller and Meeker said foundation funds that may come with stipulations from donors that they be spent on specific programs could limit the commission’s ability to support arts statewide, or attract matching NEA funds.
“We don’t want strings attached. The NEA doesn’t like strings attached,” Schwaller said.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
‘View of the Red Cedar River’ by Frances Farrand Dodge. Michigan Women’s Historical Center & Hall of Fame.
LANSING, Mich. (AP) – The Michigan Women’s Historical Center and Hall of Fame is opening an art exhibition on Sunday.
The exhibit is titled “Selected Works from the Michigan Women’s Historical Center Art Collection.” It features works from the museum’s permanent collection.
The exhibit includes a newly acquired oil painting by Frances Farrand Dodge of Lansing, a prominent artist from the early 20th century.
The center says admission is free and says light refreshments will be provided for an opening reception from 2-4 p.m. in the gallery. The exhibit continues through Oct. 29.
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ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
‘View of the Red Cedar River’ by Frances Farrand Dodge. Michigan Women’s Historical Center & Hall of Fame.‘Martha W. Griffiths’ by Patricia Hill Burnett. Michigan Women’s Historical Center & Hall of Fame, Lansing, Michigan.‘Helen Milliken’ by Patricia Hill Burnett. Michigan Women’s Historical Center & Hall of Fame, Lansing, Michigan.
Teplitz amphora portrait vase depicting a woman, made circa 1899-1905 (est. $4,000-$6,000). Image courtesy of Elite Decorative Arts. BOYTON BEACH, Fla. â Hundreds of quality lots of fine porcelain, original artwork and estate jewelry will cross the block in an estates sale planned for Saturday, Aug. 27, by Elite Decorative Arts, starting at 1 p.m. Eastern. The event will be held in the Elite Decorative Arts gallery, located at 1034 Gateway Blvd., Suite 106, in Boynton Beach.
Online bidding will be facilitated by LiveAuctioneers.com.
Phone and absentee bids will also be accepted. Previews will be held on Friday, Aug. 26, from 11 a.m.-5 p.m., and Saturday, Aug. 27, the date of sale, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Porcelains will include examples by Meissen, Sevres, Dresden, Royal Vienna, Wagner and more. The name Tiffany will also be chanted frequently.
One lot is expected to bring $80,000-$100,000 or more. It is a pair of large bronze and ivory Continental figures, one depicting a warrior wearing a crown with a sword to the hip and the other depicting a warrior wearing a bearskin headdress and scaled armor. The figures, each one 18 inches in height on a 3 1/4-inch-round wooden base, were made circa 18th or 19th century.
Tiffany pieces will feature a stunning linenfold double-shade student desk lamp with a great brown patina to bronze and marked on both the base and shade (est. $15,000-$20,000); a pair of impressive bronze and Favrile glass picture frames with grapevine design, circa 1900 (est. $6,000-$8,000); and a sterling silver Revival snake urn, 54.265 troy ounces (est. $4,000-$6,000).
Also from Tiffany will be a magnificent ribbed Favrile art glass vase with ribbed design and yellow iridescent color, circa 1900 (est. $2,000-$3,000); an iridescent Favrile ribbed art glass vase in a beautiful yellow and purple color, circa 1900 (est. $800-$1,200); and a sterling silver cut crystal pitcher and sterling silver spoon, both in the Chrysanthemum pattern (est. $300-$500).
Meissen piecesâthe German-made antique porcelainâwill be just as ubiquitous and impressive. Star lots will include a hand-painted oval-covered dresser box with a reticulated design (est. $2,000-$3,000); an antique figural group candlestick with four-arm candelabra insert (est. $600-$800); and a pair of hand-painted figural candlesticks with cherubs (est. $600-$800).
Still more Meissen will feature an antique figurine of a fishing goddess, showing a nude female sitting on rocks with a serpent at her feet, circa 19th century (est. $300-$400); a figural group of five cherubs dancing, playing music and eating fruit, circa 19th century (est. $300-$500); and a hand-painted covered teacup and saucer snowball blossom cup (est. $200-$300).
One of the top achievers in the original artwork category is expected to be an oil on canvas depiction of a nude female by Russian/American artist Raphael Soyer (1899-1987). The matted and framed work measures 20 inches by 16 inches and is estimated to bring $6,000-$8,000. Soyer was not only a renowned painter of urban subjects but also a noted author.
Other artworks of note will feature an original oil on canvas rendering of a young child by Hugo Oehmichen (German, 1843-1932), matted and framed and measuring 10 inches by 14 inches (est. $4,000-$6,000); and an original oil on canvas still life by P. Dufour of a dinner table with fruit and other items, signed lower right and 24 1/2 inches by 30 inches (est. $3,000-$5,000).
Two portrait vases are expected to do well. One is an antique Riessner, Stellmacher & Kessel amphora Trnovany Bohemia hand-painted vase depicting a woman wearing a tiara, in beautiful purples and turquoise (est. $4,000-$6,000). The other is a 19th-century French porcelain Paris Exposition vase depicting three cherubs holding up a bouquet wrap (est. $800-$1,200).
A pair of finely painted late 19th-century German portrait plates by Wagner, one depicting Napoleon Bonaparte and the other Madame de Parabere, are each expected to fetch $500-$700. Both boast stunning gilt work and an exquisite wreath design and red and green enameling to the outer rim. These fine quality plates measure 9 1/2 inches in diameter and are marked at the bottom.
Rounding out just some of the dayâs expected top lots: a KPM porcelain portrait plaque depicting the bust of a young woman (Berlin, circa 1900, est. $4,000-$6,000); a Royal Vienna hand-painted porcelain lidded stein titled The Dancing Graces (est. $1,500-$2,000); and a bronze figure of a drunk woman by Nam Greb (Franz Bergmann, Austrian, 1838-1894, est. $400-$600).
Elite Decorative Arts is an established, third-generation, full-service antique and auction gallery, specializing in fine decorative arts, paintings, estate jewelry and more. The gallery is located in the Quantum Town Center, located at 1034 Gateway Blvd. A full-time, knowledgeable staff is on hand Monday-Friday, from 10-6.
Elite Decorative Arts is always accepting quality consignments for future auctions. To consign a single piece, an entire estate or a collection, you may call them at either 561-200-0893, or toll-free, at 800-991-3340; or, you can e-mail them at info@eliteauction. To learn more about Elite Decorative Arts and the Aug. 27 sale, log on to www.eliteauction.com.
A Richard Neutra design, this is the Lovell House at 4616 Dundee Dr., Los Angeles, built in 1971. It is believed to be the first steel-frame house built in the United States and also is an early example of the use of gunite (sprayed-on concrete). Image by Los Angeles, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The streets of Beverly Hills are graced with homes by such 20th-century architectural luminaries as Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Paul Williams for a simple reason: The affluent enclave’s residents of decades past could afford to build them.
But with those structures in increasing jeopardy as preferences turn more toward larger homes, the city is poised to reconsider its laissez-faire approach toward properties with claims to cultural importance.
Beverly Hills City Council members plan to discuss a potential plan Tuesday to halt the demolition of potentially significant structures until its planning department can come up with guidelines for a preservation ordinance, which – unlike many of its Southern California neighbors – it doesn’t now have.
The panel could vote to hold a meeting in the coming days to take action on the proposed moratorium, which would grant a reprieve to a 1954 Neutra-designed home known as the Kronish House that’s being eyed for demolition.
“We need to button down some sort of ordinance that addresses preservation needs,” Beverly Hills Mayor Barry Brucker said. “There is something wrong with having a historically important building and you take out a demolition permit and 10 days later you can take a sledgehammer to it.”
Brucker said the city hasn’t needed a preservation ordinance in the past because its wealthy residents had traditionally been eager to restore and live in its architectural gems.
But many recent property buyers are more interested in razing the often modest-sized, architecturally significant homes so larger structures can be built, he said. The average size of a new single-family home in Beverly Hills increased from less than 4,200 square feet over the 1970s to more than 7,300 square feet over the 2000s, according to San Diego-based tracking firm DataQuick.
The city’s bout of architectural soul searching was prompted by an apparent plan by the current owner of the Kronish House to secure a demolition permit for the property, which at some 6,900 square feet is already among the largest of its architecturally pedigreed peers.
A firm called Soda Partners LLC bought the home that sits on two acres for $5.8 million at a foreclosure auction in January. Months later, it put the property back on the market as a teardown for $14 million, not even mentioning in its listing that it included a home by the famed architect until it was pressured to do so by preservationists.
Jeffrey Soza, who is named in business records as Soda Partners’ agent of service, did not return a call seeking comment.
The Kronish House is not visible from the street, but real estate agent Mike Deasy, who specializes in architecturally significant properties, characterized it as dilapidated but salvageable.
Los Angeles Conservancy advocacy director Adrian Scott Fine said the flat-roofed home with sliding glass doors that open up on a swimming pool area is an important example of Neutra’s signature “pinwheel” design style that places a house’s living room at its center.
Fine lamented Beverly Hills’ record of allowing property owners to demolish homes by famous architects, such as Lautner’s 1951 Shusett House, a 3,000 square-foot home that is in the process of being replaced with a structure some three times larger.
He also criticized Beverly Hills for allowing the demolition of homes with cultural significance beyond their architectural importance, such as the Mediterranean-style structure that was home to George Gershwin in the 1930s and was later owned by singer Rosemary Clooney. It was torn down in 2005.
“There’s a need for growth and development in every community but there’s also a need for preservation,” Fine said.
Brucker said the Beverly Hills council hopes to devise a new ordinance to take that need into account, while it works on other new legislation that gives tax breaks to homeowners who maintain architecturally or historically significant features of their properties.
He said the city’s prospective historic preservation ordinance wouldn’t try to scuttle demolitions altogether, but might delay them long enough to come to some accommodation between property owners and preservationists, even if it means actually having important structures physically relocated.
But Brucker said Beverly Hills’ special challenge is to weed out the structures that require protection from the city’s copious selection of those that have more tenuous connections to the rich, famous and architecturally talented.
“You have homes that various famous lived in, but does that make them historic? You have famous architects but they may not be the architect’s most famous work,” he said. “So I really want to send things off to the planning commission so we’re not all over the map and protecting a home that Ozzy Osbourne lived in or Beckham lived in just because they were famous.”
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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A Richard Neutra design, this is the Lovell House at 4616 Dundee Dr., Los Angeles, built in 1971. It is believed to be the first steel-frame house built in the United States and also is an early example of the use of gunite (sprayed-on concrete). Image by Los Angeles, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
U.S. $2 1/2 gold coin, 1911-D, AU. Estimate: $3,000-$5,000. Image courtesy of Michaanâs Auctions. ALAMEDA, Calif. â Michaanâs Auctions will present its Fine Stamp and Coin Sale featuring an exceptional collection from the estate of Richard Smith. Michaanâs will offer his entire collection in the sale on Monday, Aug. 8, beginning at 10 a.m. Pacific. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
Smith was an avid coin collector and long-standing member of the American Numismatic Association and compiling a comprehensive collection during his lifetime.
His collection includes numerous rare issues, U.S. and international gold and silver coins, U.S. Civil War era tokens and a vast accumulation of ancient coins and German porcelain coins. Particularly noteworthy are eight U.S. $20 gold coins, all from the early 20th century. Each coin is in excellent, almost uncirculated condition and is being offered in eight individual lots, each estimated at $1,500-$1,800.
There are coins minted in limited quantities and there are the truly scarce and rare. The following fall into the latter category and are almost sure to pique feverish collector interest. On the auction block is a U.S. Saint-Gaudens gold coin, 1924, AU (lot 1042, $1,500-$1,800); a U.S. $1 gold coin, 1851-C, AU (lot 1026, $1,000-1,200); a U.S. $2 1/2 gold coin, 1911-D, AU (lot 1033, $3,000-$5,000); a Russian 3 rubles platinum coin, 1844, AU (lot 1051, $2,000-$3,000); and a Philippine silver coin, 1906-S, XF, 1 peso (lot 1157, $1,200-$1,500).
All of the pieces as well as a plethora of other coins and stamps will be auctioned at Michaanâs main gallery at 2751 Todd St. Alameda, CA 94501.
For details log on to Michaanâs website: www.michaans.com or phone 510-740-0220.
The 1994 movie was filmed in and around the former Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield in north-central Ohio. The tree is where Morgan Freeman’s character finds money and a note left by Tim Robbins’ character.
The tree was hit Friday by straight-line winds that split it down its rotted middle and took out one side, Malabar Farm State Park manager Louis Andres told the News Journal of Mansfield.
The tree near the state park is popular with tourists and is part of the local convention and visitors bureau’s âShawshank Trailâ that also includes the former reformatory that closed in 1990 and is now a museum. The trail leads travelers to 12 sites where the movie was filmed.
Lee Tasseff, president of the Mansfield-Richland County Convention and Visitors Bureau, called the damage to the tree âtragic.â
âIt’s a very sentimental part of the trail,â he said.
Trail travelers can look to the left just past the state park entrance and see the site where Freeman’s character walked along a hayfield and removed stones from a rock wall where the money was buried. The movie was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including best actor for Freeman and best picture.
âThere’s all kinds of people who have taken pictures at the tree,â Tasseff said.
He said some people had asked if they could propose under the tree or have a picnic under it, but that isn’t allowed because the tree is on private farmland.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the damaged tree would have to be cut down, the News Journal reported.
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Information from: News Journal, http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com
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El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. NEW YORK (AP) â El Museo del Barrio has named a new director. The museum says Margarita Aguilar will take up the position starting in September.
Aguilar worked as a curator at the Manhattan museum from 1998 to 2006 and is currently vice president and senior specialist in Latin American art at Christie’s. She succeeds Julian Zugazagoitia, who left to become the director of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo.
El Museo focuses on Latino, Caribbean and Latin American art.
Aguilar is of Cuban descent. She has received degrees from New York University and Hunter College, and is currently a doctoral student in art history.
El Museo says it has about 250,000 visitors annually.
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El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Duke Ellington performed at the Coliseum Ballroom in the 1940s. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. BENLD, Ill. (AP) â A decades-old auditorium in the town of Benld that once hosted musicians like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington has burned down.
The Telegraph newspaper in Alton, Ill., reported that the Coliseum Ballroom on Illinois Route 4 burned on Saturday night.
Building manager Kelly Swanson said a local band was playing when members saw the fire and asked the audience to exit. Swanson says between 60 and 80 people were at the concert.
The ballroom, built in 1924, was said to have the largest dance floor between St. Louis and Chicago.
Smoke rose Sunday from where the stage had been in the 10,000-square-foot building.
Benld, a town of about 1,500, is on an older alignment of the famous Route 66.
Part of the building had been made into an antique mall, which housed the merchandise of more than a dozen dealers.
The Telegraph reported that during the Big Band era Duke Ellington, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong and Lawrence Welk performed at the Coliseum Ballroom. Guy Lombardo, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry appeared there in the in the 1950s, followed by Ike and Tina Turner, Ray Charles, Bo Diddley and Johnny Rivers in the 1960s, and Bob Seger, Styx, Foghat and Head East in the 1970s, and Heart, Ozark Mountain Daredevils and Mama’s Pride in the 1980s.
Swanson said Benld fire officials are investigating the cause of the blaze.
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Duke Ellington performed at the Coliseum Ballroom in the 1940s. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
