February 8, 2012 - Auction Central News

Jenack to present well-rounded antique auction Feb. 19

Rare Chamberlain’s Worcester porcelain tray, 19th century. Estimate $1,000-$1,500. Image courtesy of William Jenack Estate Appraisers and Auctioneers.

CHESTER, N.Y. – William Jenack Estate Appraisers and Auctioneers will present an eclectic sale on Sunday, Feb. 19, which will feature fine art, period furniture, Chinese artwork, embroidery and ceramics. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide live Internet bidding for the 375-lot auction, which begins at 11 a.m.

The artwork will be perhaps the strongest part of the sale with a large Egyptian scene featuring the Great Pyramid and Sphinx painted by Douglas Arthur Teed, a lovely floral in a Chinese vase by Elizabeth Clorinda Darby, and a classical revival painting of a woman selling or serving fruit in an ancient Roman setting by Harold Hume Piffard. To continue the Egyptian theme there is striking artwork of a temple in Egypt by James Hamilton and a seascape by Warren Sheppard.

For the collector of Chinese objects Jenack will be offering several lots of woven and embroidered fabrics including a Kesi woven imperial robe featuring nine dragons, a finely carved Chinese cabinet on stand, a Chinese carved hardwood brush pot, a vintage embroidered collar, a pair of export Mandarin famille rose vases with gilded lizards and a fine Chinese imperial-style famille rose covered jar.

The auction will also going to include a collection of musical instruments including a violin labeled Charotte-Millot with mother of pearl inlay and single-piece back, a vintage violin labeled Jon Bapt Schweitzer 1813, a Hermann Dolling Jr. violin, a Gibson Epiphone special solid-body guitar signed by Les Paul, an Alvarez model RD8 acoustic guitar and a Lyon & Healy Prelude model 668 lever harp.

In the collectible arena there is be offered a collection of Lladro and Royal Doulton figures, Tiffany Favrile glass, English and Continental porcelains, including a 19th-century Spode attributed covered tureen with under plate, a pair of Continental wine coolers on stands with exotic hunt scenes, an 1852 miniature bronze of the Duke of Wellington, Oriental carpets and 19th-century furniture.

Previews will be held at the William Jenack auction facility located at 62 Kings Highway Bypass, Chester NY 10918 beginning Wednesday, Feb. 15. For further information contact 845-469-9095 or email kevin@jenack.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.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

French gilt bronze centerpiece, signed Barbedienne. Estimate: $3,000-$5,000. Image courtesy of William Jenack Estate Appraisers and Auctioneers.

L.C. Tiffany Favrile art glass vase, no. 8709. Estimate: $4,000-$5,000. Image courtesy of William Jenack Estate Appraisers and Auctioneers.

Eugene Demulertt (American 1816-1915), ‘Sunset in Fontainebleau Forest.’ Estimate: $1,800-$2,500. Image courtesy of William Jenack Estate Appraisers and Auctioneers.

Douglas Arthur Teed (American 1864-1929), ‘The Great Pyramid and Sphinx.’ Estimate: $2,500-$4,000. Image courtesy of William Jenack Estate Appraisers and Auctioneers.

Hindman to sell Chinese screen from Wright’s Taliesin

Frank Lloyd Wright acquired this Chinese eight-panel floor screen in the early 1900s. It has a $10,000-$20,000 estimate. Image courtesy of Leslie Hindman Auctioneers.

CHICAGO – On Monday, Feb. 13, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers will offer a 17th-century Chinese eight-panel Coromandel floor screen that was once owned by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Wright purportedly acquired the screen in China sometime in the early 20th century. It was displayed at Taliesin, Wright’s historic home south of Spring Green, Wis. Because Taliesin is a designated historic landmark, the screen is the only item from the home known to have been offered publicly.

Each Coromandel panel is decorated with whimsical figures attending to various tasks. The whole is surrounded with a series of gilt oval medallions, and the reverse depicts spotted deer in a landscape with lingzhi fungus. The screen is also signed by the artist Liu Wangwen and dated 1684.

It was passed within the family by Olgivanna Lazovich Wright to daughter Svetlana Hinzenberg Wright as a wedding gift when she married William Wesley Peters. The screen was mounted to the wall and displayed in William Wesley’s suite. Architect Daniel J. Libermann, who worked closely with Wesley, acquired the screen from his son, Brandoch Peters. A letter addressed to Liebermann by John Ottenheimer accompanies the screen; Ottenheimer recalls the screen at Taliesin during his numerous stays at the home between 1953 and 1970.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Coromandel screen will be offered on the second day of the auction house’s three-day sale. A fully illustrated catalog is available at www.lesliehindman.com. To purchase a printed copy of the catalog, or with addition inquiries, please call 312-280-1212.

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Ai Weiwei to co-design London 2012 pavilion

Ai Weiwei in a June 2007 photo by Benutzer. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany license.

LONDON (AFP) – Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei is reuniting with the Swiss architects with whom he created Beijing’s spectacular Bird’s Nest Stadium, to build a pavilion for this year’s London Olympics.

Ai, along with the Swiss firm Herzog and de Meuron, will join forces again to design a pavilion for the Serpentine Gallery in London’s Kensington Gardens park, the gallery said on Tuesday.

“It is a great honour to be working with Herzog and de Meuron and Ai Weiwei,” said gallery director Julia Peyton-Jones. “We are delighted that our annual commission will bring this unique architectural collaboration to Europe to mark the continuity between the Beijing 2008 and the London 2012 Games.”

In a joint statement, Ai and the architects said the project would involve digging some five feet (1.5 metres) into the park’s soil to collect rainwater, which would be incorporated into the design.

The resulting construction will be “the perfect place to sit, stand, lie down or just look and be amazed,” they said.

Britain’s Guardian newspaper said Ai had been coordinating the project with the architects using online phone service Skype.

Ai — whose activism has made him a thorn in the side of China’s communist authorities — disappeared into custody for 81 days last year as police rounded up dissidents and lawyers amid online calls for protests in China.

Upon his release in June, the world-renowned artist was charged with tax evasion. He is currently battling Chinese demands that he pay 15 million yuan ($2.4 million) which he allegedly owes in back taxes.

The 54-year-old artist — whose installation of 100 million sunflower seeds, made out of porcelain, was exhibited at London’s Tate Modern last year — denies the charges and insists the case is a politically motivated attempt to silence his activism.

The Serpentine Gallery has commissioned artists and architects to create a summer pavillion for the elegant 111-hectare (275-acre) park every year since 2000. Previous designers include the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.

This year’s pavillion will be part of the London 2012 festival, a series of 1,000 cultural performances and events across Britain to mark the London 2012 Olympics.

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U.S.-Dakota War anniversary exhibit stirs controversy

The hanging of 38 Sioux Indians in Mankato, Minn., on Dec. 26, 1862. Image courtesy of unitednativeamerica.com.

MANKATO, Minn. (AP) – A beam that newspapers from 1881 and 1927 describe as part of the gallows used in executing 38 Dakota Indians in Mankato has for decades been stored away. The director of the Blue Earth County Historical Society said she doesn’t intend to display it as the 150th anniversary of the U.S.-Dakota War is marked this summer.

“We are not trying to hide it. We just don’t have the physical capacity to display it,” Jessica Potter told The Free Press.

She said they also don’t have a “solid research base to have it on display,” and said the object would bring strong emotions.

“We have 24,000 objects and we can’t have them all on display in a 3,000-foot museum. And it’s an object that does not have interpretation with it that will be positive to everyone who sees it. We have to be sensitive to that.”

Potter said the authenticity of the timber hasn’t been verified. But there are newspaper articles that describe the whereabouts of the timber soon after the war.

The timber came from prominent Mankato businessman and Civil War Home Guard Cmdr. John F. Meagher. He reportedly bought the timber in an auction held by the Army soon after the hangings and used it as a beam in his hardware store. After a later fire in the building, Meagher shipped the beam by train to the University of Minnesota.

In the Nov. 24, 1881, issue of the University of Minnesota newspaper, the Ariel, a story told of Meagher giving the timber to the university’s museum.

Meagher sent a letter to the university that said in part: “It is a rather hard looking relic and you may be disappointed when you see it, but I can assure you it did the business and completely civilized the Sioux Indians.

“The notches around one side of this were to accommodate the ropes … ” Meagher’s letter said.

The timber was held by the university until 1927 when it was turned over to the Blue Earth County Historical Society as described in a Dec. 24, 1927, Free Press story. The controversy over which historic objects to display has come to the forefront with the sensitive nature of the war and the nation’s largest mass execution in Mankato.

The state Historical Society has the noose used to hang Chief Chaska in storage and said it does not plan to put it on public view when it opens an exhibit on the war, saying they don’t want it to become “the noose exhibit.”

For Darla Gebhardt, a research archivist and librarian at the Brown County Historical Society, keeping compelling history out of reach of the public goes against the very nature of historical societies’ obligations.

“Personally, I know that any artifact here, that anyone could come in and view it. Even if it’s not on display, we certainly take it out,” Gebhardt said.

“That’s just freedom of information. You hold artifacts in trust for the public and the public should be able to view them—not just some people can see them and some cannot.”

Gebhardt, whose great-grandfather defended New Ulm, Minn., from Dakota attacks in August 1862, said objects such as the noose or remnants of the gallows may be painful for some but are part of the historical story.

“I’d certainly like to see Chaska’s noose on exhibit because I think it would be a very personal, powerful experience to see it. While it’s painful for some, history is sometimes powerful and painful.”

She said it is similar to people seeing the shoes or other personal items of Holocaust victims that are on display in the national Holocaust Museum.

Potter said some people are allowed to view objects in storage, if they have a reason to.

“You have to give us a reason why you want to see an object in our closed collection—people who are doing research on a topic. Then it goes before a collections committee to decide if it has merit,” Potter said.

She said the process is needed because of the time it can take to locate and show someone objects that are in storage.

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Information from: The Free Press, http://www.mankatofreepress.com

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Russian enamels: brilliant color, dazzling artistry

This silver-gilt Faberge cigarette case with an inscription dated 1913 sold for $120,000 in last November’s highly successful offering of Russian art at Jackson’s. The cover bears an image of the Tsar’s Falconer after a painting by Franz Rouband (1856-1928). Courtesy Jackson’s International Auctioneers.

The technique of enameling, in which colored ground glass is fused to metal by firing, dates back to ancient times. Although originally devised as a substitute for precious or semi-precious stone inlays, enameling became a highly-sophisticated art form in its own right.

Many countries produced fine enamel works, but the workshops in Russia – especially those of the 19th and early 20th century – created vividly colored examples that are eagerly sought-after by collectors. The country stood at a cultural crossroads, absorbing influences from East and West.

The catalogue Russian Enamels: Kievan Rus to Faberge, which accompanied a 1996-1997 exhibition mounted by the Walter Art Museum in Baltimore and the Hillwood Museum in Washington, is a classic reference for collectors. The volume includes examples ranging from a Greek 2nd century B.C. bracelet found in the Crimea to precious treasures from the workshops of Carl Faberge.

The late Anne Odom, then Chief Curator at Hillwood, wrote: “The quintessentially ‘Russian’ enamels were the result of a melding process that had been going on for centuries, mixing Turkish, Persian, and Western styles that had entered the Russian design vocabulary in the 17th century. By the end of the 19th century they had been fused into a style that today is popularly recognized as Russian.”

Collectors and connoisseurs of enamels have a lot to celebrate. In addition to works in the permanent collections of the two museums, the exhibition mentioned above included loans from a mysterious private collection. This source has recently been revealed as the collection of Jean Montgomery Riddell, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 100.

The Riddell collection – more than 260 examples of enameled Russian silver – has been bequeathed to Baltimore’s Walters Art Museum. A case of representative pieces, including the tankard illustrated here are already on display, and the museum plans a touring exhibition with catalogue within the next few years.

William Johnston, Walters’ Senior Curator at Large, wrote the introduction to the 1996 catalogue and is now working on the Riddell project. The curator met Mrs. Riddell many years ago, when she came to the museum. He remembers, “The Walters is quite strong in Russian decorative arts, including enamels, silver, and ivories. I took her around, and she asked if we would be interested in her collection. We went down to her apartment in the Washington, D.C. area and she showed me around, and then we kept in touch over the years.”

The collector’s husband, Richard J. Riddell, had begun to collect Russian enamels during his work for the United States government. With his collection as a foundation, Jean Riddell began to enlarge her holdings through acquisitions from well-known dealers at home and abroad.

Johnston continues, “Jean Riddell formed what was regarded as the largest collection anywhere of Russian enamels. She bought a few earlier representative pieces from the 17th and 18th centuries, and she also bought some St. Petersburg Faberge. But what she concentrated on were the Moscow enamels of the late 19th century and the early 20th century.”

These Moscow pieces include tea wares and boxes decorated with traditional Russian motifs by noted artisan Feodor Ruckert, exquisite painted plaques from the Stroganov Institute, a striking kovsh made by Ivan Khlebnikov, and plique-a-jour pieces from the firm of Pavel Ovchinnikov. The Russian Enamels catalogue recommended above has an excellent glossary which explains complex enameling techniques such as champlevé, cloisonné, filigree, and plique-a-jour.

Auction prices for these enamels have soared in recent years, as wealthy Russians have actively participated in the international market. When Soviet politicians were more concerned about factories and harvests, decorative arts flowed to Europe and the United States. Now western collections formed in the 20th century are coming up for sale, and Russian buyers compete vigorously to buy back fine examples of their national heritage.

Jackson’s International Auctioneers in Cedar Falls, Iowa has become an outstanding player in the global market. One of the firm’s specialties is Russian material including icons, porcelain, silver, and enamels. Their November 2011 auction totaled $4.5 million, thanks in part to a miniature Russian triptych of the Kazan Mother of God, which sold for $240,000.

Stars among the enameled lots included a silver-gilt box with a painting of a warrior on the cover, marked by Feodor Ruckert of Moscow, 1908-1917, which sold for $132,000, and a hexagonal box of the same period from Faberge’s Moscow workshop decorated with a portrait Tsar Ivan which brought $84,000.

James L. Jackson, the auction house’s president, has become an expert in the Russian market. He notes that small treasures like the personal icons and decorated boxes are highly prized by Russian buyers, not only as additions to their own collections but also as gifts to friends.

He explains, “Believe it or not, these are the kind of things they give – something small and portable. When you have that much wealth, what is $100,000 here or there? He acknowledges that the Russian market has become an important part of Jackson’s business: “That’s been growing and growing and growing. Fifteen or twenty years ago, there were very few people who could speak fluently about Russian icons and knew the major players – collectors, sellers, dealers, museums, what have you.”

Having catalogued so much Russian material, Jackson finds he has become the go-to man on the subject: “The fruit that it bore was that people of every ilk – major collectors, museums, universities – began to call me, because I’m of the old school where you share knowledge. There are some serious American collectors, to be certain, but I would say all of the major works in the last sale went back to Moscow and St. Petersburg.”

Jackson is already looking forward to the next sale of Russian material on May 22-23, 2012, which will include important material from private collections including more icons from Dr. John Sinsky. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide the Internet live bidding.

Meanwhile, collectors can follow the progress of the exhibition of the Riddell bequest at www.thewalters.org. Enthusiasts also can look forward to the Hillwood Museum’s upcoming exhibition, “The Style that Ruled the Empires: Russia, Napoleon, and 1812,” on view February 14-June 2, 2012. Copies of the Russian Enamels catalogue are available at www.hillwoodmuseumshop.org.

Visit Jackson’s International online at www.jacksonsauction.com.

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ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Only two and a half inches high, this personal icon of a guardian angel was made by the distinguished Moscow workshop of Feodor Ruckert, 1899-1908, and was sold in 2010 for $36,000. Courtesy Jackson’s International Auctioneers.

The Hillwood Museum in Washington, D.C., is filled with Russian treasures gathered by wealthy collector Marjorie Merriweather Post. Among the enamels is this magnificent kovsh made in the early 20th century by Mariia Semenova, who took over her father’s workshop in Moscow. Courtesy Hillwood Museum.

This tankard made by the Moscow firm of Pavel Ovchinnikov, 1888-1896, is part of the Jean M. Riddell collection of over 260 Russian enameled objects recently given to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. Collectors can look forward to a catalogue and traveling exhibition of the works. Courtesy The Walters Art Museum.

This tall gilded silver covered cup is decorated with double-headed Imperial eagles. The masterwork, bearing marks for a Moscow workshop circa 1885, brought $105,600 at Jackson’s May 2010 sale. Courtesy Jackson’s International Auctioneers.

This fine silver-gilt kovsh with shaded enameling in the Pan-Slavic taste, Moscow 1908-1917, brought $26,400 when Jackson’s sold the lifetime collection of Dr. James F. Cooper in May 2010. Courtesy Jackson’s International Auctioneers.

A scenic view of Moscow surrounded by enameled foliage decorates this silver-gilt cigarette case by Feodor Ruckert, circa 1900, which brought $60,000 at auction last November. Courtesy Jackson’s International Auctioneers.

Mob smashes Buddhist statues in Maldives museum

Among the holdings of the Maldives National Museum is this top from a 'malaafaiy' (vessel for food items) with Arabic writing. Lacquered wood, made in Tulhaadu Island. Maldives. Photo by Javier Romero-Frias, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

MALE, Maldives (AFP) – Police said Wednesday a mob had stormed the Maldives national museum and smashed Buddhist statues, an act of vandalism which former president Mohamed Nasheed blamed on Islamic radicals.

“A mob entered the museum yesterday (Tuesday). They smashed many statues. This included some statues of Buddha,” police spokesman Ahmed Shiyam told AFP.

In an interview with AFP, Nasheed, who resigned the presidency on Tuesday, said the vandals included Islamist hardliners who had attacked the museum because they believed some of the statues inside were “idolatrous”.

Islam is the official religion of the Maldives and open practice of any other religion is forbidden and liable to prosecution.

The museum in the capital Male boasts a large collection of historical artifacts, ranging from stone objects to fragments of royal antiquities from the country’s Buddhist era to the rule of Islamic monarchs.

“I can tell you that the damage is very big,” a museum official told AFP by telephone, asking not be named because police had requested him not to speak to the media.

“A team of police officers are here and are investigating,” he added.

Police spokesman Shiyam said the building had been sealed off to allow a proper assessment of the damage.

Religious radicals, who had painted Nasheed and his administration as un-Islamic, had taken part in three weeks of anti-government protests that led to the president stepping down.

Alleging that Nasheed was under the influence of Jews and was trying to bring Christianity to the Sunni Muslim nation, they had attacked him over flights arriving with Israeli tourists and “improper” social conduct on island resorts.

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Thousands of artifacts unearthed along Calif. rail line

The archaeological dig is near the historic Mission San Gabriel Arcangel in San Gabriel, Calif. Photo by Robert A. Estremo. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

SAN GABRIEL, Calif. (AP) – Archaeologists have dug up thousands of pieces of history along the route of a planned train trench near the historic San Gabriel Mission.

The Los Angeles Times says some 20,000 artifacts have been uncovered so far, including coins from the 1800s, chunks of pottery, Native American shells and railroad spikes.

A 30-member team of archaeologists is working along the path of a $498 million, 2.2-mile trench that will lower existing train tracks 30 feet, easing traffic tie-ups along the San Gabriel Valley route east of Los Angeles.

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

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Judge orders return of painting to former owner’s heirs

A federal judge has ordered the return of this 16th-century Baroque painting to the heirs of its former owner, a Jewish man who died shortly before the German occupation of France in World War II. Image courtesy of the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – A federal judge has ordered the return of a 16th-century Baroque painting depicting Christ carrying the cross to the heirs of a Jewish man who died shortly before the German occupation of France in World War II.

U.S. Judge Robert Hinkle filed the order Monday to return the work titled Christ Carrying the Cross Dragged by a Rogue to the descendants of Federico Gentili di Giuseppe. U.S. authorities seized the Italian painting last November from a Florida museum that was lent it by the famed Pinacoteca di Brera museum of Milan.

The painting by Girolamo Romano is believed to date to about 1538 and was purchased by di Giuseppe in 1914 during an auction in Paris. He died in 1940, a month before Nazi troops entered and occupied France.

The work is believed to have been among more than 70 paintings from di Giuseppe’s collection auctioned by the French Vichy government in 1941 to pay off debts, court records indicate. But members of di Giuseppe’s Jewish family who fled the country because of the Nazi occupation have said the sale was illegal and had sought the painting’s return.

U.S. Attorney Pam Marsh said last November that the federal government believed that the painting was stolen and rightfully belonged to the family. Court documents stated that no one other than family heirs had filed a claim for ownership of the painting, which depicts Christ crowned with thorns as he carries a cross and is being dragged along.

The painting was one of 50 works lent to the Mary Brogan Museum of Art & Science in Tallahassee. The museum, which had been struggling financially and faces an uncertain future, closed its doors to the public last month.

The painting has been held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at an undisclosed location. No one was available from Marsh’s office on Monday evening to discuss when and how the painting would be handed over to the heirs.

Court documents filed by U.S. authorities contended that the Milan museum—which is Italian government-owned—should have known that the painting was claimed by the di Giuseppe family. Lawyers for the family wrote to the museum back in 2001 about the painting, which had been acquired by the Pinacoteca di Brera in 1998. The Italian government had been contacted previously about the painting as well.

The former chief executive officer for the Tallahassee museum said late last year that her organization did not know about the dispute over the painting when it arranged to bring it from Milan as part of an exhibit.

Federico Gentili di Giuseppe was an Italian of Jewish descent who amassed a large collection of paintings that he kept on display at his home in Paris. He died of natural causes shortly before the Nazis invaded France. Other family members were forced to flee Paris without their possessions when they heard of the pending invasion.

Some of the family members made it to England, but other relatives that remained behind died later in concentration camps, court records show. The Vichy government ordered the liquidation of the estate based on debts and said that none of the heirs showed any interest in the estate. But at the time there were laws that said that Jews who fled occupied France were banned from returning there.

Court records indicate that some of the paintings auctioned off were allegedly bought by “straw” purchasers on behalf of Nazi officials.

In 2000, two American museums reached settlements with the heirs of di Giuseppe that allowed those museums to keep two pieces of artwork that were in their collections. A French court in 1999 returned five paintings to the family from the Louvre museum in Paris.

In 2008, the American Association of Museums released guidelines for museums to follow to avoid acquiring artifacts that may have been illegally exported. Museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles have agreed in recent years to return artifacts to Italy that the Italian government says were looted or stolen.

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Metropolitan Museum of Art announces renovation plans

NEW YORK —The Metropolitan Museum of Art has unveiled plans for a comprehensive redesign of the four-block-long outdoor plaza that runs in front of its landmark Fifth Avenue façade, from 80th to 84th Streets in Manhattan.

The plan also calls for the creation of new fountains—to replace the deteriorating ones that have been in use since they were built in the 1970s along with the existing plaza. The fountains will be positioned closer to the Museum’s front steps, improving access to its street-level public entrances at 81st and 83rd Streets. The renovated plaza will also feature tree-shaded allées (in place of the current trees that have limited lifespans and low environmental benefits due to their planting conditions), permanent and temporary seating areas, and entirely new, energy-efficient and diffused nighttime lighting. Seasonal planting will be added along the building to provide color and visual interest throughout the year. All of these new features respect and complement the architectural highlights of the landmark façade and the monumental, recently refurbished central stairs. OLIN, the landscape architecture, urban design, and planning firm, has been retained by the Museum as the lead design consultant for the project.

The entire project will be funded through the generosity of Museum Trustee and philanthropist David H. Koch.

Daniel Brodsky, Chairman of the Museum’s Board of Trustees and chairman of the Board’s plaza oversight committee, stated: “Following years of beautification and infrastructure improvements within the walls of the Metropolitan Museum, the Trustees of the institution hope to provide an equally magnificent setting to welcome visitors as they approach our landmark building. We believe this rehabilitation will enhance the entire community and give the appropriate scale and scope to the gateway to one of the finest structures in New York—a setting worthy of the City’s crown jewel. The Museum is enormously grateful to Trustee David H. Koch, without whose encouragement this project might never have been initiated, and whose generosity will now make its realization possible.”

Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum, and Emily K. Rafferty, President, presented the plans at separate meetings held today at the Museum for public officials and for residents of the institution’s Upper East Side neighborhood.

In announcing the plans, Mr. Campbell said: “The Metropolitan Museum’s Fifth Avenue plaza is the public face of the Met, the first on-site experience for our millions of visitors from around the world. As such, it should mark the beginning of the extraordinary environment that awaits them inside, where our magnificent collections will take them across the globe and through centuries of history.

“Our plaza is also one of the most important public spaces in New York,” he continued. “We see the need for a space that will make a significant contribution to our neighborhood, rich in spatial character, with glorious fountains, welcoming shade, choices for seating, beautiful plantings, and light refreshments, all in elegant complement to our iconic Beaux-Arts building.”

Adrian Benepe, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, stated: “The Metropolitan Museum of Art delights millions of New Yorkers and visitors each year and we are thrilled that it has made a home in Central Park for the last 130 years. The Museum’s Fifth Avenue plaza is one of New York City’s most significant public gathering places and its upcoming restoration will ensure that it continues to welcome art aficionados and passersby with a newly expanded urban forest, spectacular display fountains, and other visitor amenities, all in an envelope of environmentally sustainable design.”

Kate D. Levin, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, remarked: “The renovation and redesign of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s plaza is the next step in ensuring that one of our great public buildings is welcoming to visitors from across the street and around the world.”

Forty years have passed since the last renovation to the Metropolitan Museum’s Fifth Avenue presence, when the design emphasis focused on accommodating vehicular access. Today, pedestrian access is a greater priority, and some of the exterior works—including the fountains, trees, limited seating, and paving—have aged beyond repair. In particular, no long-term solution has been found for maintaining the fountains, which recently underwent a round of temporary repairs. The Museum will leave untouched the most iconic element of the prior design, the monumental front steps at 82nd Street.

Since the Museum’s founding in 1870, its rich architectural history has included major renovations, several of them including work on the Fifth Avenue plaza, with more than a dozen architectural firms over the years. The central Museum façade on Fifth Avenue, known as the East Wing, was designed by Richard Morris Hunt and Richard Howland Hunt in 1896, and opened officially in 1902. The imposing and sculptural main entrance is the central portion of the composition and is flanked by low wings set back from the central façade. On each side of the original East Wing are newer wings designed by the firm of McKim, Mead and White. The grand stairs in front of the main entrance were designed by Roche Dinkeloo and Associates in 1968, and approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission before construction. The new design balances the grand stairs with a pair of fountains and bosques of London Plane trees, and two aerial hedges of Little Leaf Linden trees to its north and south.

Over the years, the front steps—which are the primary path for visitors into the Museum—have become a popular area for Museum visitors to sit and enjoy the outdoors.

Improved Museum Access:

In the new renovation plan, Museum access would be improved by providing additional seating options to either side of the grand staircase and by replacing the long fountains currently impeding access to the doors at 81st and 83rd Streets. The existing pavement along the façade of the Museum would be removed and replaced with new North American granite paving to accommodate pedestrians along myriad routes to and from the doors and steps of the Museum.

Fountains:

A pair of contemporary granite fountains, designed by the award-winning firm Fluidity Design Consultants, would be operational year-round, bracketing the grand stairs to create an energized connection between people sitting on the steps and those at the fountains, while punctuating the long plaza along Fifth Avenue with attractive water elements. Each fountain would be a quiet square form inset with a circular stone dome, with seating on long stone benches placed adjacent to the north and south edges of the pools. A circular basin would be subtracted from the rectilinear stone form to reveal a shallow stone dome occupying the basin’s negative space and generating a lens effect in the pool’s water volume. Evenly spaced nozzles, mounted around the edge of the circular basin, would orient glassy streams toward the center of the feature. The streams would be individually size-controlled and programmed to present a wide variety of programmable patterns. In winter, the water would be warmed by recycling steam to prevent freezing, thereby allowing for year-round use.

Landscaping:

At the far north and south ends of the wings by McKim, Mead, and White, where the architecture steps forward toward the street, two allées of large Little Leaf Linden trees would be planted, one on each margin of the sidewalk, continuing the shaded route along the Central Park wall and aligned to the rhythm of the windows facing Fifth Avenue. These trees would be pruned in the form of two aerial hedges, similar to the trees at the Palais Royal in Paris. Existing flagpoles would be relocated to rise above the trees at the ends of each allée, responding to the architectural arches of the façade. The presence of trees would create a pleasant experience within the streetscape, reinforcing the central plaza’s volume, yet hedged to ensure that the trees do not detract from the monumentality of the Museum’s façade.

Within the central plaza, pairs of bosques of trees would be planted, flanking the 81st and 83rd Street entrances. By planting the bosques at a 45-degree angle to the street, the resulting lines of the tree trunks would guide pedestrians toward the doorways.

The London Plane trees will be pollarded, a historic pruning technique that allows for maximum sun penetration in the winter to warm the plaza and maximum shade in the summer for cooling. The pollarding also limits the height of the trees so they do not grow to block the view of the imposing façade. Along the base of the building on either side of the central stairway, ornamental beds of mixed shrubs and herbaceous flowers would be planted, referencing plantings seen in early- to mid-20th-century photographs and drawings, including original concepts presented by McKim Mead and White.

These allées and bosques would help soften noise on the plaza and better retain sounds within it.

In the new plan, the Museum would plant approximately 100 new trees, more than doubling the current number. The 44 London Plane trees currently on the plaza are planted in inadequate conditions, which impede their health and limit their environmental benefits. The Museum would transplant as many trees as are deemed viable for relocation to other areas of the City chosen by the Department of Parks & Recreation. The Museum would also make tree restitution payments to the Parks Department, in conformity with New York City law and the Parks Department’s standard reimbursement formulas to support tree plantings citywide. The new London Plane and linden trees would be planted in large tree pits that collect rainwater run-off and allow for healthy root growth, thereby maximizing their life spans and environmental benefits.

Beneath the bosques, shaded seating would be provided, using lightweight movable chairs that allow users to arrange them as they please. These casual seating areas, similar in concept to others recently installed in public areas around the City, would offer clear views of the plantings and water features of the plaza, with the activity of Fifth Avenue in the background. Additional benches adjacent to the allées of trees will provide further options for seating with shade provided by a series of parasols.

At the public parking entry at 80th Street, both the booth along the access drive and the landscape plantings would be refurbished to make the entrance more welcoming as well as to provide better conditions for the Noguchi sculpture currently located on a plinth adjacent to the drive. The new booth would be covered in cedar wood siding with an environmentally sustainable sedum green roof, with trees and significant understory plantings added in order to blend it more harmoniously with the overall park landscape.

Amenities:

Two kiosks, both operated by the Museum, and designed by architects Rick Mather Associates, would be specially designed for placement on the plaza—one within each of the pollarded bosques of trees at 81st and 83rd Streets. The kiosk at the northern end of the plaza would provide light refreshments while the one at the south end would dispense information about the Museum and expedite admissions. These kiosks could be transported seasonally, if required, and would be clad in bronze-colored metal to match architectural details of the building, such as railings and window grates.

It is expected that the Department of Parks & Recreation would re-designate specific vending spots for expressive content vendors as well as its two food concessions, as is currently the case. These and all other vendors would be subject to all applicable laws and regulations pertaining to vendors in parks and other public spaces.

Lighting:

The evening ambiance of the Museum plaza would be enhanced by a hierarchy of light on the landscape, water features, grand stairs, and façade. The façade is currently lit unevenly by light poles across the street from the building, on the east side of Fifth Avenue. Current lighting would be removed under the new plan. The new elements, which have been designed by the renowned lighting design practice L’Observatoire International, would form a composition to assist with wayfinding, provide visual interest for passers-by, and ensure safe and secure passage through the plaza at night.

Rather than lighting the façade with floodlights, which are energy-inefficient and tend to flatten the features of the architecture, the redesigned LED lighting, mounted on the Museum’s façade and the plaza itself, would treat the building like a work of art, providing highlights that enhance the sculptural nature of the façade and its many beautiful carvings. Low power lights in the Museum’s large windows would cast a warm glow and make the Museum feel more approachable at night. This warm-colored lighting from the windows and on the façade would contrast with the cooler white lighting of the fountains and the tree canopy, adding a sense of depth to the façade and plaza. All of the lights would be on dimmers, which can be used to control the light levels and are much more energy-efficient than the current lighting design. The overall impact would be to diminish the intensity of the floodlights now installed along Fifth Avenue.

Environmental Sustainability:

The plaza design attempts to reconcile the physical need for a significant area of paved plaza with the desire to employ sustainable strategies regarding stormwater management and the urban heat island effect, two goals that are often at odds with each other. To accomplish this, the proposed trees would significantly increase the square footage of shade in the plaza, thereby reducing the surface temperature of the paving by as much as 25 degrees Fahrenheit. Additionally, the design calls for a suspended paving system, which allows for extensive subsurface tree pits that can collect and utilize onsite stormwater that would otherwise drain into the City’s infrastructure. Excess stormwater that is not captured by the subsurface tree pits or the ornamental planting areas would be collected and directed into underground retention areas that hold and slowly release water into the City’s stormwater system. This gives some relief to the extreme demand put on the City’s aging system. On average, the projected annual stormwater reduction per tree is 845 to 1390 gallons.

Project Approvals and Schedule:

To date, the Museum’s efforts to initiate the project have required considerable advance planning, design work, and applications for all of the necessary formal approvals as well as input from several City agencies—including the Public Design Commission, Landmarks Preservation Commission, Department of Parks & Recreation, Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Cultural Affairs, and Department of Transportation—and input from the Central Park Conservancy. Once all of the necessary approvals are in place, the construction phase—which could begin by fall 2012—would take an estimated 23 months to complete. During construction, visitor entrances would remain open to the public and pedestrian access along the plaza from 80th to 84th Streets would be maintained. Because it would require closure of portions of the plaza and street at various times, the Museum is developing a vehicular and pedestrian traffic plan with the Department of Transportation, aided by consultant Sam Schwartz Engineering.

Project Oversight and Consultants:

OLIN was selected as the project’s lead design consultant after a process overseen by a special committee of the Museum’s Board of Trustees for the plaza redesign project. The committee invited proposals from a limited number of architecture firms and landscape designers, leading to the selection of OLIN. Trustee members of the committee are: Daniel Brodsky (chairman), Russell Carson, David H. Koch, Cynthia Hazen Polsky, Henry B. Schacht, Ann Tenenbaum, and Shelby White. Director Thomas P. Campbell and President Emily K. Rafferty served as ex officio members of the committee and construction consultant Peter Lehrer was invited to serve in an advisory capacity. Also participating, from the Museum’s staff, were Morrison Heckscher, the Lawrence Fleischman Chairman of the American Wing, and until his departure last month, Gary Tinterow, the former Engelhard Chairman of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art.

The OLIN team, led by Partner Dennis McGlade, managed and collaborated with a number of consultants for the project, including: Gorton & Associates for project and cost management; Fluidity Design Consultants for water feature design; L’Observatoire International for lighting design; Rick Mather USA Inc. with Spatial Affairs Bureau for kiosk and site furnishings design; and Sam Schwartz Engineering for the vehicular and pedestrian traffic flow plan. Additional consultants are contributing to the areas of civil engineering, transportation engineering, site surveying, irrigation, and other fields.

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art, founded in 1870, is one of the world’s largest and finest museums. Its collections include nearly two million works of art spanning more than 5,000 years of world culture, from prehistory to the present and from every part of the globe. The Museum’s 2.4 million-square-foot building has vast holdings represented by a series of collections, each of which ranks in its category among the best in the world. Last year the Metropolitan Museum was visited by more than 5.6 million people.

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Led by China, global art market hits new record

This year is shaping up to be another blockbuster for Asian art. This magnificent Chinese carved white jade openwork group is expected to make $150,000-$250,000 in Artingstall & Hind's Feb. 26 auction. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com and Artingstall& Hind.

PARIS (AFP) – Global art auction sales surged to a record $11.5 billion (8.7 billion euros) last year despite the weak world economy, with China cementing its spot as the top market, research showed Wednesday.

A report by Artprice, a French specialist, said auction revenues had risen 21 percent last year and for the first time exceeded the $10 billion mark.

China, which took over the first place in global auction sales in 2010, held on to the top spot with $4.79 billion in sales, or 41.43 percent of the market.

The United States was in second place with $2.72 billion in sales, or 23.57 percent of the market, followed by Britain with $2.24 billion, or 19.36 percent of the market.

“The growth of the art market in Asia has been stunning,” Artprice said in a statement on its website. “The year 2011 confirmed not so much the migration of the art market, which is still dynamic in the West, but as a new situation of global art market bi-polarity,” it said.

As well as China’s 38 percent growth in auction revenue last year, Singapore posted growth of 22 percent and Indonesia of 39 percent, the report said.

The year’s best result was also generated by an Asian artist, China’s Qi Baishi, whose 1946 painting of an eagle perched on the branch of a pine tree sold at auction in Beijing last May for 425.5 million yuan ($67.6 million).

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

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