Auctioneer’s gavel with bound book of 1862 court minutes displayed at the Minnesota Judicial Center. Photo by Jonathunder, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic licenses.
MINNETONKA, Minn. (AP) – Some of the top auctioneers in Minnesota and Canada will be sounding their best at the 24th annual Minnesota State Auctioneer Championship.
The event takes place Thursday evening at the Marriott Southwest in Minnetonka and is open to the public.
Twenty-three callers will compete for the championship trophy, ring or belt buckle, and their entry fee paid to the International Auctioneers Championship in Spokane, Wash., this July.
Each contestant will sell three items. Auctioneers will be judged on presentation, chant and voice, and effective auctioneering.
The contest is part of the Minnesota Auctioneers Association Conference and Show. The conference runs through Saturday.
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Online:
http://www.minnesotaauctioneers.org
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Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Auctioneer’s gavel with bound book of 1862 court minutes displayed at the Minnesota Judicial Center. Photo by Jonathunder, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic licenses.
TOKYO (AFP) – A Fukushima museum official on Thursday played down concerns in France about the possible contamination of artworks soon to be loaned to the nuclear-hit region by the Louvre.
The Paris museum plans to send 24 pieces to Japan, including to Fukushima prefecture, home to the stricken nuclear plant, in a show of solidarity with the disaster-hit country.
The touring exhibition will run from April 27 to September 17 in Japan’s Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, a Louvre official told a joint news conference with Japanese museum officials at the French embassy in Tokyo.
The artworks — paintings, sculptures, drawings and other works from different eras and civilizations — will arrive on July 28 at the Fukushima prefectural Museum of Art some 60 kilometres (37 miles) away from the tsunami-hit nuclear power plant.
Tetsuo Sakai, head of the Fukushima museum, said radiation levels inside the exhibition room averaged 0.05 microsieverts per hour — a long way below government-mandated evacuation levels.
However, he acknowledged radiation levels outside the facility have been much higher, still hovering at around 1.0 microsievert per hour.
Museum officials are now removing a contaminated lawn as part of their efforts to reduce levels of radioactivity ahead of the exhibition, he added.
“With these efforts, radiation levels will decline further and further,” Sakai told the news conference.
The show was organised as a gesture of solidarity with the Japanese, after last year’s massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami hit the northeast of Japan, sparking the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the Louvre official said.
“The proposed project is going to encourage Fukushima people, telling them, ‘You are not alone,'” the Fukushima museum chief said.
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AFP) – A painting by Adolf Hitler, done before he became Nazi Germany’s dictator, has been put up for sale by a Slovak auction house, its head told AFP.
“The opening bid for the painting titled Maritime Nocturno is 10,000 euros (13,000 dollars) in a closed VIP auction that currently features four participants,” said Jaroslav Krajnak, owner of the Darte auction house .
The mixed-media painting depicts a full moon over a glittering seascape.
The top bid had risen to 10,200 euros on Thursday.
“The painting has been offered for sale by an unnamed family of a Slovak painter who probably met Hitler personally when he was struggling to become an artist in Vienna during the early 20th century,” Krajnak added.
“I look at him as an artist — in 1913, when Hitler painted this picture, he didn’t know what would become of him in the decades to come.”
The auction house already sold a painting by Hitler from the same family collection last year for 10,200 euros.
The auction, which also offers a painting by Pablo Picasso for 15 million euros, closes on Sunday.
This statement-making antique Chinese jade pendant (lot 448) is a beautiful work of art. Image courtesy of Roland Auction. NEW YORK – Bill Roland, of New York City’s Roland Auction, should be back from filming his new TV series in Los Angeles just in time to sell the Saturday, Feb. 4 sale. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
“It’s shaping up to be another auction filled with great investment pieces and, perhaps, an exciting discovery or two,” said co-owner Rob Roland. The dedicated staff worked through chilling temperatures and snow to process box after box of estate silver, Chinese carvings, and fine art as well as a steady stream of trend-setting modern furniture, for which Roland has become well-known.
And Roland said don’t miss the noteworthy collection of antique Chinese artifacts. There are fine silver and enamel opium boxes, jade, hard stone and ivory carvings, exceptional carved bamboo brush pots and outstanding bronzes from various periods. This follows after a museum quality ivory brush pot became the focus of a fierce bidding war during Roland Auction’s previous sale, resulting in a hammer price of nearly 15 times the high estimate.
Meanwhile, silver enthusiasts should be eager to view the beautiful Paul Storr coffeepot, as well as the other 50-plus silver lots, which include Georg Jensen, Tiffany and American coin examples.
Shelves of Waterford, Baccarat and other fine crystal compete for space with English porcelain dinner services by Minton and Royal Worcester. Customers can often be heard commenting on the old-fashioned feel at Roland, which takes pride in maintaining a casual, friendly environment.
Still, there’s nothing old-fashioned about their chic selection of 20th-century design, which includes examples by Laverne, Paul Evans, Grosfeld House, Maitland-Smith, Karl Springer, Donald Deskey and so many more sought-after designers.
One particular lot is creating a great deal of attention at Roland. It is a magnificent Max Ernst bronze (lot 260), the cornerstone of an exciting collection of modern art.
Roland Auction has established itself as the place to find unique gifts and, with Valentine’s Day looming around the corner, we are offering gift-giving guidance with a touch of humor and all best wishes.
The sale will be conducted at Roland Antiques Gallery, 80 E. 11th St. in New York. For details phone 212-260-2000.
An architectural masterpiece, The Lotus Temple in South Delhi exemplifies a newly empowered India, whose rapidly growing upper class is becoming interested in Western art. Photo licensed under the Creative commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.NEW DELHI (AFP) – The first works by Van Gogh and Picasso to be auctioned by an Indian gallery are on display at a luxury hotel in New Delhi, a sign that dealers in Western art are now chasing local money.
The 1885 Van Gogh landscape “L’Alee aux deux promeneurs” and the 1953 Picasso oil “Le Transformateur” are being previewed ahead of a sale next month when 73 lots by top Impressionist and modern artists will go under the hammer.
The auction will be the first sale of international masterpieces to target India, where a developing interest in Western art has been fueled by strong economic growth.
“Indian collectors don’t necessarily have access to this sort of work but they have grown up with these big names,” said Abha Housego, representative of Saffron Art, which is conducting the online auction.
“It is a major challenge to do something like this for the first time.”
Housego said that wealthy Indian collectors were broadening out from Indian artists such as M. F. Hussain, the celebrated painter who died last year, toward international stars.
“Indian art is strong but Van Gogh represents a gold standard for buyers,” she said. “These names bring people in.”
Timed to coincide with the fourth annual India Art Fair in the city, the auction preview also includes work by Marc Chagall and Henry Moore alongside the Van Gogh — which has an estimated auction price of close to $1 million.
“There is such a burgeoning art market here and a fantastic economic scenario,” the fair’s founder Neha Kirpal told AFP.
“For the first fair we had three foreign galleries, but this year it will be 45 foreign galleries from 20 countries.”
Kirpal said the fair, which opens on Thursday, tries to balance development of the local art scene with education of a new generation of collectors who will have an ongoing interest in top-class work.
“The seriousness of foreign galleries at the show is very obvious as European dealers are in need of new markets,” she said. “There is saturation in some markets, as well as the changing economic environment.
“In India there is optimism, looking especially at the growth in the luxury and lifestyle sectors.”
Whether the new money will invest in Indian or international art is the key dilemma for dealers, but many feel domestic art is a riskier bet.
“Prices were sky-rocketing and there were very high-value transactions taking place,” Kirpal said, remembering the dramatic bubble in Indian art prices that burst in about 2008.
“What is required for a sustainable market is more people who are quality collectors who look at art in the long-term,” she said.
At the fair, Graham Steele, director of the world-leading White Cube gallery in London, showed off work by Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and Antony Gormley, and said he was eager to see the public’s response.
“The market is not yet hospitable to the international blue-chip art category but there is amazing interest which is very impressive,” he said. “We have not brought these works to sell, but to expose the artists to the Indian scene and learn ourselves about it.”
One gallery owner at the fair, Peter Femfert from Frankfurt, said he had seen collectors in other emerging markets such as South Korea move from their own home-grown art to world classics.
“It is the way collectors move,” he said, promoting a large oil painting by Andre Masson. “You can come here and buy off the wall. There are rich people in this country. Why not?”
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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
An architectural masterpiece, The Lotus Temple in South Delhi exemplifies a newly empowered India, whose rapidly growing upper class is becoming interested in Western art. Photo licensed under the Creative commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
A Chinese carved hardwood opium bed with inset marble panels. Sold for $53,680. Image courtesy Leslie Hindman Auctioneers.
CHICAGO – Proving once again that global demand for the best and most unique property is as strong as ever, the Jan. 22-24 sale of property from O’Hara’s Gallery realized $1,539,060 at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers. The extraordinary results of the sale were largely due to strong online activity through LiveAuctioneers.com, with an average of nearly 800 bidders each day.
The highlight of the sale was a Chinese carved hardwood opium bed with inset marble panels that sold to a bidder in Hong Kong for $53,680 after much competitive bidding. Fine European furniture also realized exceptional prices. A suite of French giltwood parlor furniture decorated with Vernis Martin lacquer work sold for $23,180, and an impressive pair of Empire gilt bronze 36-light chandeliers brought $21,960.
Prices throughout the sale were outstanding for Sèvres-style porcelain and Continental champlevé items, many of which doubled and tripled their estimates. A pair of gilt bronze mounted cobalt urns brought $10,370; and a French champlevé and porcelain mounted mantel clock brought $9,300.
Leslie Hindman Auctioneers’ next sale of Fine Furniture and Decorative Arts takes place Feb. 12-14. That auction will include additional items consigned by O’Hara’s Gallery. For more information, call 312-280-1212.
About Leslie Hindman Auctioneers:
For three decades, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers has been an industry leader combining recognition as one of the nation’s foremost fine art auctioneers with a global base of buyers. Founded in 1982, sold to Sotheby’s in 1997, and reopened in 2003, Leslie Hindman has remained a constant force behind high-profile auctions of everything from contemporary paintings and fine jewelry to French furniture and rare books and manuscripts, and always achieves the highest prices while maintaining the highest levels of integrity and customer service.
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View the fully illustrated catalog from Leslie Hindman’s Jan. 22-24 auction, complete with prices realized, at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
Keith’s endearing and enduring doodles. Art by Keith Haring; photography by Kelsey Savage.
NEW YORK – Since November the New-York Historical Society has reopened after a three-year, multimillion-dollar renovation. I stopped by this weekend to check out the results, especially a portion of newly installed ceiling—straight from Keith Haring’s old Pop Shop in Soho.
The impact of Keith’s strong black interlocking doodles makes for a great entrance to the new museum. The thick bold lines against white background demonstrate Haring’s ability to turn deceptively simple images into an iconic statement.
Keith opened the Pop Shop in 1986, where he sold T-shirts, posters and other inexpensive items bearing his images. The idea was to allow the public access to his work, creating a system to make his art available to as wide an audience as possible. Although he acknowledged that with his success he could receive a premium for his creations, he saw his shop as an extension of his work in subway stations and other public places.
While Haring died tragically in 1990 of AIDS-related complications, his artistic philosophy continues to influence street, and all other artists whose focus is on accessibility over exclusivity today.
The New-York Historical Society Museum is at 170 Central Park West. Their website is nyhistory.org.
For more Keith Haring, an exhibit at the Brooklyn Musuem called “Keith Haring: 1978-1982” is ongoing. The exhibit features 155 works on paper and over 150 archival objects such as sketchbooks, journals, exhibition flyers and documentary photographs. Visit their website: Brooklynmuseum.org.
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
Keith’s endearing and enduring doodles. Art by Keith Haring; photography by Kelsey Savage.Small but poignant, a reminder of Keith’s incredibly vibrant vision. Art by Keith Haring; photography by Kelsey Savage.The admissions area of the New-York Historical Society sits beneath a panel from Keith’s Pop Shop. Art by Keith Haring; photography by Kelsey Savage.
Camille Pissarro (French, 1830-1903), Le Marche aux Poissons.
NEW YORK (AFP) – US authorities on Wednesday returned a painting by the Impressionist Camille Pissarro that was stolen in a brazen robbery from a French museum three decades ago.
Manhattan federal prosecutor Preet Bharara said the work titled “Le Marche aux Poissons” [The Fish Market] was handed back, ending an odyssey that began in 1981 when a thief walked out with the canvas during business hours from Faure Museum in Aix-les-Bains.
“International trafficking in stolen art threatens every nation’s ability to safeguard cultural treasures for future generations. It is very gratifying for our office to play a role in helping this artwork find its way back home after so many years,” Bharara said in a statement.
The return of the work was less-exciting news for Sharyl Davis, who bought Pissarro’s street scene at a bargain $8,500 from a Texas art gallery, then tried to sell it in 2003 at Sotheby’s auctioneers.
Davis had been expecting to raise between $60,000 and $80,000 for “Le Marche aux Poissons” at auction. She told Sotheby’s that she knew only that the painting had been consigned to the Texas gallery by a man she knew as “Frenchie.” In fact, he was a Frenchman named Emile Guelton, according to prosecutors.
French authorities caught wind of the work’s reappearance and requested its seizure and return.
A US court found in 2010 that the painting was subject to forfeiture as stolen property. Davis unsuccessfully appealed.
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Camille Pissarro (French, 1830-1903), Le Marche aux Poissons.
Rare set of beautifully carved Chinese ivory figures representing the Eight Immortals, each finely detailed and carrying his or her own attributes, each approximately 13 to 14 inches high. Estimate: $25,000-$30,000. Image courtesy of I.M. Chait.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – I.M. Chait will conduct an Asian & International Fine Arts Auction on Sunday, Jan. 29, beginning at 1 p.m. Pacific Time. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding for the 429-lot auction.
The sale will be highlighted by important Chinese carved jades, including nephrite and jadeite from San Diego and New York Collections.
An antique Chinese carved jadeite figure of an Immortal beauty with bright apple green on her face is one of the top items. Standing 10 3/4 inches high, it has a $20,000-$25,000 estimate.
A pair of openwork carved Chinese jadeite groups of phoenix, each perched above large blossoms of chrysanthemums and peonies, and with other birds, stands about 14 inches high. The apple green and lavender carvings on inlaid wood stands are expected to sell for $25,000-$30,000.
Fine large Chinese carved ivories and jewelry are from the Bel Air estate of Peter Wald and a West Los Angeles collection. Antique netsuke and Japanese ivories together with scholar’s objects and woodcarvings are from a Colorado estate. A carved ivory set of the Eight Immortals, each 13 to 14 inches high, has a $25,000-$30,000 estimate.
The auction will also feature antique Chinese porcelains including Ming and Qing dynasties, together with Buddhist bronzes and Song dynasty tea wares from a Southern California estate.
A large collection of art glass includes Tiffany, French cameo and R. Lalique, from the estate of Dr. E.F. Simpson of Los Angeles. The Tiffany highlight is an 18-light Lily lamp with signed Favrile shades, which carries a $25,000-$35,000 estimate.
For details on any item in the sale, call 310-285-0182.
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
Rare set of beautifully carved Chinese ivory figures representing the Eight Immortals, each finely detailed and carrying his or her own attributes, each approximately 13 to 14 inches high. Estimate: $25,000-$30,000. Image courtesy of I.M. Chait.
Nepalese gilt bronze figure of a seated deity with hands in mudra, 6 3/4 inches high on carved stepped lotus motif wood base. Estimate: $1,200-$1,500. Image courtesy of I.M. Chait.
Tiffany Studios bronze and Favrile glass 18-light Lily lamp with splayed base comprised of overlapping lily pads rising to long gathered stems 22 1/4 inches high, signed ‘Tiffany Studios New York 383,’ the shades signed ‘L.C.T.’ Estimate: $25,000-$35,000. Image courtesy of I.M. Chait.
Pair of magnificently openwork carved Chinese jadeite groups of phoenix, each approximately 14 inches high, wire inlaid wood stands. Estimate: $25,000-$30,000. Image courtesy of I.M. Chait.
Antique Chinese carved and openwork, green jadeite figure of an Immortal beauty with an attendant and crane beside her, 10 3/4 inches high. Estimate: $20,000-$25,000. Image courtesy of I.M. Chait.
Official White House portrait of John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), 35th President of the United States, painted posthumously (1970) by Aaron Shikler. White House Historical Association image.
BOSTON (AP) — Newly released final recordings President John F. Kennedy secretly made in the Oval Office include an eerie conversation about what would become the day of his funeral.
While trying to arrange his schedule, Kennedy remarked that Nov. 25 was shaping up to be a “tough day” after his return from Texas and time at Cape Cod.
“It’s a hell of a day, Mr. President,” a staffer agreed.
The exchange was among the last 45 hours of private recordings Kennedy made. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum released the tapes Tuesday. They provide a window into the final months of the 35th American president’s life.
“Kennedy did not tape as systematically as Johnson or Nixon. But what he did tape was often very important discussions,” said David Coleman, the professor who chairs the Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia. “…What you have is an unusually rich collection of decisions being made in real time.”
The tapes include discussions of conflict in Vietnam, Soviet relations and the race to space, plans for the 1964 Democratic Convention and re-election strategy. There also are moments with his children.
Kennedy kept the recordings a secret from his top aides. He made the last one two days before his death.
Kennedy library archivist Maura Porter said Monday that JFK may have been saving them for a memoir.
The latest batch of recordings captured meetings from the last three months of Kennedy’s administration. In a conversation with political advisers about young voters, Kennedy asks, “What is it we have to sell them?”
“We hope we have to sell them prosperity, but for the average guy the prosperity is nil,” he says. “He’s not unprosperous, but he’s not very prosperous. … And the people who really are well off hate our guts.”
Kennedy talks about a disconnect between the political machine and voters.
“We’ve got so mechanical an operation here in Washington that it doesn’t have much identity where these people are concerned,” he says.
On another recording, Kennedy questions conflicting reports military and diplomatic advisers bring back from Vietnam, asking the two men: “You both went to the same country?”
He also talks about trying to create films for the 1964 Democratic Convention in color instead of black and white.
“The color is so damn good,” he says. “If you do it right.”
Porter said the public first heard about the existence of the Kennedy recordings during the Watergate hearings.
In 1983, JFK Library and Museum officials started reviewing tapes without classified materials and releasing recordings to the public. Porter said officials were able to go through all the recordings by 1993, working with government agencies when it came to national security issues and what they could make public.
In all, she said, the JFK Library and Museum has put out about 40 recordings. She said officials excised about 5 to 10 minutes of this last group of recordings due to family discussions and about 30 minutes because of national security concerns.
Porter said Kennedy comes across as an intelligent man who had a knack for public relations and was very interested in his public image. But she said the tapes also reveal times when the president became bored or annoyed and moments when he used swear words.
The sound of the president’s children, Caroline and John Jr., playing outside the Oval Office is part of a recording on which he introduces them to Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko.
“Hello, hello,” Gromyko says as the children come in, telling their father, “They are very popular in our country.”
JFK tells the children, mentioning a dog Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev gifted the family: “His chief is the one who sent you Pushinka. You know that? You have the puppies.”
JFK Library spokeswoman Rachel Flor said the daughter of the late president has heard many of the recordings, but she wasn’t sure if she had heard this batch.
“He’d go from being a president to being a father,” Porter said of the recordings. “… And that was really cute.”
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Official White House portrait of John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), 35th President of the United States, painted posthumously (1970) by Aaron Shikler. White House Historical Association image.
