Jonathan Wright, No Head for Heights, 2012, one of 19 pylons in the series. Image courtesy of the artist.
GLOUCESTER, England – On March 3, 2012, Gloucester Cathedral will open its doors as the setting for the open west’s annual exhibition. This event, which runs through March 31, is an international competition open to artists practicing across a broad range of contemporary disciplines.
Around 90 pieces of work from 55 artists have been selected by the curators and organizers Sarah Goodwin and Lyn Cluer Coleman, who are joined on the 2012 selection panel by artists Iain Andrews and Dan Chadwick. Work includes sculpture, painting, site-specific installation, drawing, textile, photography, ceramics, print and video. Award winners will be announced on the night of the private viewing.
A number of the artists have recently emerged from fine art MA programs, while many others are already highly established and internationally exhibited. All come from very different backgrounds, and each has a distinct story to tell. This is a significant opportunity for an audience to see a collection of independent visions held together in a powerful and evocative setting.
Award-winning British artist Jonathan Wright’s work is called No Head For Heights and is an homage to the wireless. In 1902 Marconi connected Europe with America by radio, and the world suddenly became a smaller place.
“The significance of long-distance communication still reverberates in our society today. No Head For Heights is an artwork that celebrates this event,” Wright said.
The piece is a “structure of power” reminiscent of an electricity pylon. It supports a text. The text can be read but also transmits. The installation is self-illuminating. The viewer is invited to muse on the word and its relation to the object it rests upon. The solitary beauty of this object reminds us of an industrial landscape, a piece of mysterious technology, buzzing and clicking, oblivious of the dangers created by its existence. Meanwhile the white glowing text casts light upon the viewer.
The aim is to reinvigorate our knowledge and celebrate the enormous significance of Marconi’s research and development in the world of telecommunications and to wonder at the continuing ramifications that Marconi’s transatlantic transmission made to our modern world – a world that seems to shrink by the hour.
The exhibition runs from March 3-31 at Gloucester Cathedral, College Green, Gloucester GL1 2LR England. Hours are: Monday to Saturday 10-5 and Sunday 12-5. Entry is free, but there may be days when access to certain areas of the cathedral is restricted. See closures diary online at gloucestercathedral.org.uk
All are invited to a day of artist talks on March 3 from 10:30 am to 5:20 p.m. Tickets are available at the door or in advance. For additional information visit www.theopenwest.org.uk.
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ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
Jonathan Wright, No Head for Heights, 2012, one of 19 pylons in the series. Image courtesy of the artist.Colin Reid, Still Life with Books, 2009, cast glass, steel, 70 x 62 x 11 cmSaad Qureshi, Others, 2010, paint on plastic on wood, dimensions variableRichard Kenton Webb, Orangeness (Listen), 2011, 6 colour linocut, 30.5 x 30.5 cmBrigitte Williams, Out of the Dark, 2011, print, 110 x 110 cmJarick Jongman, The Boat, 2010, oil on canvas, 100 x 140 cm
William Holbrook Beard (American, 1824-1900), Monkeys Riding Dogs, est. $6,000-$8,000. Quinn’s Auction Galleries image.
FALLS CHURCH, Va. – Quinn’s Auction Galleries will officially launch its new premises at 360 S. Washington St. in the DC suburb of Falls Church, Va., with a Saturday, March 3 auction of fine and decorative artworks. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide the Internet live-bidding capability.
Featured highlights within the sale’s more than 500 lots include paintings from the Denis and Lorena Thurman collection and other consignors, as well as an exquisitely embroidered antique Chinese robe with provenance from the collection of a prominent physician associated with the Rockefeller Foundation.
While residents of Falls Church and Fairfax, Va., between 1953 and 1983, the Thurmans became avid collectors and frequented antiques shops and markets throughout the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland. Their home was decorated with beautiful paintings that revealed the couple’s appreciation of many different artistic genres. Among the paintings from their collection to be offered in the March 3 auction are two mid-19th-century works: an American waterside depiction of a boy with his fishing pole, and William Holbrook Beard’s (American, 1824-1900) whimsical scene of monkeys racing atop hunting dogs, estimated at $6,000-$8,000.
An outstanding landscape entered in the sale was painted by Sir James Lawton Wingate (British, 1846-1924). Born in Scotland, Wingate was influenced by Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites. He studied at the Royal Scottish Academy, where his paintings were exhibited regularly. The picture in the auction is expected to make $8,000-$12,000. An atmospheric illuminated landscape from the mid-19th century, est. $1,500-$2,000, is also part of the March 3 art selection.
An exceptional, heavily embroidered gold and blue silk Chinese robe is one of the auction’s star lots. Probably made late in the Qing Dynasty period, the garment is heavily embellished with gold brocade cranes, and tiger and scrolling flower motifs. The exterior reverse features a pink silk ground with a central gold brocade pagoda flanked by dragons. Additional elaborate scenes with cranes and red flowers complement the overall design.
The robe’s provenance can be traced back through three generations of the same family. Prior to the family’s ownership, the garment was in the collection of their friends Dr. and Mrs. John B. Grant, who lived in China for many years prior to 1939. Dr. Grant (1890-1962) was an eminent physician in the public health field and worked for the Rockefeller Foundation.
“Because Dr. Grant was born in Ningbo, China to Baptist medical missionary parents, it is possible that his parents acquired the robe initially,” said Quinn’s vice president Matthew Quinn. An elegant showpiece, the robe has been estimated at $2,000-$3,000.
Also cataloged are a Dale Chihuly (American, 1941-) hand-blown glass basket suite ($2,000-$3,000), Niels Moller Danish Modern chairs, and a desirable C.F. Martin Brazilian wood acoustic guitar. Made in 1960, the classically styled guitar could bring $1,800-$2,200. Additional art objects and paintings – including regional art from California, Kansas and other locales – have come to Quinn’s straight from the collection of artist and noted restorer Lloyd Karnes.
Alongside an unusually large selection of fine art is a richly varied selection of silver, ivory, porcelain clocks and rugs. Also, a choice array of more than 50 Chinese snuff bottles brings fine artistry and delicacy to the Asian portion of the sale. The bottles are from the same Southern California collection that met with great success in a December 2011 auction at Quinn’s.
“Washingtonians go for quality, and that’s what excites those who attend our sales. They know that the vast majority of what we sell comes from prestigious local estates, with additional, carefully chosen pieces from estates and collections from other parts of the United States” said Quinn.
Quinn’s March 3, 2012 Fine & Decorative Arts auction will commence at 11 a.m. Eastern Time. For information on any item in the sale, call 703-532-5632 or e-mail info@quinnsauction.com.
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
‘Musk ox,’ an illustration from Audubon & Bachman’s ‘The Quadrupeds of North America,’ est. $3,000-$6,000. Image courtesy of Waverly’s Rare Books. FALLS CHURCH, Va. – The premier attraction of Waverly’s March 1 Fine and Rare Books, Maps & Manuscripts auction is an 1840 first edition of John James Audubon’s The Birds of America. It comes with provenance from the Washington, DC-area collection of Charles Truitt and is estimated at $40,000-$60,000.
Known as an “octavo” edition, the 9-inch-tall book is especially desirable because it is complete, with all 500 illustrations present.
“Usually Audubon editions of this type are pilfered for their famous and decorative illustrations, which people frame and display. This one is special because it is 100 percent complete,” said Waverly’s specialist Anson Brown.
The consignor of the Audubon book is Charles Truitt’s son, who has kept and cared for the important book from his father’s collection for many years. He has also consigned to auction an edition of John James Audubon and John Bachman’s The Quadrupeds of North America. It is estimated at $3,000-$6,000.
Another highlight of the 215-lot sale, which features Internet live bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com, is a circa-1900 fully leather-bound edition of The Life of Napoleon. It came to Waverly’s from a couple in Winchester, Va., who had kept it on a bookshelf for 38 years.
“The gentleman knew that it probably had value, as he noticed that it was an edition of 1 of 26 volumes issued by the publisher. Upon examining the set at Waverly’s, we found that it contained a letter signed around 1794 by Napoleon Bonaparte, when he was a general,” said Brown.
The letter was likely dictated by Napoleon, penned by his secretary, marked “personal” and signed by Napoleon, according to Brown. “What is most remarkable is that, after 38 years of ownership, the couple never even knew the letter was there,” Brown said. “They were pleasantly surprised when I told them the auction estimate would be $4,000-$6,000.”
Other noteworthy items in the March 1 sale include a certificate of membership in the Society of the Cincinnati, signed by President George Washington, estimate $2,000-$3,000; and Andrew Ellicott’s map titled “Plan of the City of Washington in the Territory of Columbia,” estimate $1,000-$3,000.
“This is probably the strongest auction we’ve had in the last couple of years,” said Brown. “In addition to connoisseur’s items like the Audubon Birds of America edition, we also have a number of pieces that aren’t particularly rare but still quite sought after by collectors,” said Brown.
Waverly’s March 1 Fine and Rare Books, Maps & Manuscripts auction will commence at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time. For information on any item in the upcoming auction, call 703-532-5632 or e-mail info@quinnsauction.com.
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
‘Musk ox,’ an illustration from Audubon & Bachman’s ‘The Quadrupeds of North America,’ est. $3,000-$6,000. Image courtesy of Waverly’s Rare Books.
‘White-headed sea eagle or bald eagle,’ one of 500 illustrations contained in a complete 1840 octavo edition of John James Audubon’s ‘The Birds of America,’ est. $40,000-$60,000. Image courtesy of Waverly’s Rare Books.
Certificate of membership in the Society of the Cincinnati, signed by President George Washington, est. $2,000-$3,000. Image courtesy of Waverly’s Rare Books.
Circa-1794 letter signed by Gen. Napoleon Bonaparte that was tucked inside a circa-1900 leather-bound edition of ‘The Life of Napoleon,’ est. $4,000-$6,000. Image courtesy of Waverly’s Rare Books.
John James Audubon’s The Birds of America, 7-volume set, 1840-1844, 1st octavo edition. From the Charles Truitt Estate. Est. $40,000-$60,000. Image courtesy of Waverly’s Rare Books.
Pair of very large elephant ivory tusks, both on 15-inch bases. Estimate: $100,000-$150,000. Image courtesy Elite Decorative Arts. BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – An antique Chinese carved rhinoceros horn libation cup expected to fetch $150,000-$250,000, around a dozen stunning Chinese carved coral group figures and an extremely rare Chinese bronze wine container that could top out at $200,000-$300,000 are a few of the items bidders will be vying for at an auction slated for March 17-18.
The sale will be conducted by Elite Decorative Arts, at the firm’s spacious gallery facility located in the Quantum Town Center at 1034 Gateway Blvd. (Suite 106-108) in Boynton Beach. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
Over 800 lots of Asian antiques—including ivory, jade, coral, stone carvings, porcelain, bronze, silver, art glass, artwork and furniture—will be sold, starting both days at 6 p.m. Eastern.
The rhino horn libation cup (circa 18th/19th century) has been masterfully relief carved throughout and depicts trees, people, pagodas, clouds and rock formations. The piece measures 4 inches in height, weighs 333 grams and includes a fitted reticulated teakwood base. It is difficult to overstate the desirability of such cups to collectors, who will pay fantastic sums to own one.
The Imperial quality Chinese hand-carved red coral group figures are truly stunning in their attention to detail. Dating to the late Ch’ing Dynasty, the beautifully carved figures vary from 7 to about 17 inches in height, and are perched on fitted wooden bases, some with handsome silver inlay. The best of the groupings are expected to sell for $30,000-$60,000 each.
The rare Chinese bronze wine container (Warring States period, 475-221 B.C.) is bird-shaped and inlaid with silver, gold and copper. The surface is covered with cupric oxides, due to its extended burial. The back and sides of the object depict coiled serpents and archaic birds, and the chest shows a mythical horned animal. The removable head is inlaid with gold and silver.
Another lot that could easily sail past the $100,000 mark is a pair of large elephant ivory tusks on stands (est. $100,000-$150,000). The tusks are quite literally mammoth: one is 81 3/4 inches in length and 21 inches in girth, while the other is 75 inches in length and 20 3/4 inches in girth. These figures include the bases; by themselves, the tusks are 66 and 60 1/2 inches long.
A pair of smaller, but still large, hand-carved Chinese ivory elephant tusks, each one depicting an emperor and an empress, carries an estimate of $15,000-$20,000. Both 19th century tusks are signed to the base and measure about 24 3/4 inches tall (and weigh 14.2 pounds). The emperor and empress are both fully relief carved with fine detail. Each wears a layered robe.
An 18th century milky white jade Chinese covered urn, carved and rounded by a master craftsman with Imperial quality, 10 inches tall and 6 inches in diameter should realize $40,000-$60,000. Also, a striking, large Japanese bronze figure depicting a standing archer, signed to a bronze plaque on the back of the archer’s left thigh, finely crafted, 28 inches tall, should bring $20,000-$30,000.
An early Western Han (206 B.C.-A.D. 8) to Eastern Han (A.D. 25-220) Dynasty lacquered wooden horse, carved entirely out of a single block of wood, is expected to change hands for a reasonably modest $40,000-$50,000 (considering a similar example sold at Christie’s in 2006 for $419,000). The horse was produced for burial purposes, for a powerful, noble person or leader.
A 14-karat yellow gold emerald green gem jadeite ring should slip on a new and lucky finger for $30,000-$50,000. The ring features a stunning, glowing translucent apple green gem jadeite oval cabochon prong-set stone. The two-tone mount is set with 12 round-cut white diamonds, about .02 carats each. The size 9 1/2 ring has a total diamond weight of 5.0 grams (or 7.8 grams).
Rounding out the short list of expected top lots is a large, 18th century Chinese five-panel throne screen made from Zitan wood (est. $20,000-$30,000). The 133-inch-long by 108-inch-tall throne was possibly given as a wedding present for someone of high Imperial status. The use of Zitan for furniture was especially favored by both the Ming and Qing Imperial Chinese courts.
Previews for the auction will be held on Friday, March 16, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; on Saturday, March 17, from 4-6 p.m.; and Sunday, March 18, also from 4-6 p.m. Internet bidding will be facilitated by LiveAuctioneers.com. Telephone and absentee bids will also be accepted.
Elite Decorative Arts is currently accepting quality consignments for its upcoming March 31 Fine Decorative Arts & Estate Jewelry Auction. To consign an item, estate or collection, call 800-991-3340 or email them at info@eliteauction.com. To learn more about Elite Decorative Arts, log on to their website at www.eliteauction.com
Actress Phylicia Rashad, in a 2007 photo, was master of ceremonies for the groundbreaking of the museum. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama and former first lady Laura Bush celebrated the start of construction Wednesday for the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Obama said the museum “has been a long time coming.” He said it is fitting that it will be built on the National Mall, where slaves were once traded and hundreds of thousands of people marched for jobs and freedom.
The 19th museum in the Smithsonian Institution will tell the history of black life, art, and culture and explore stories that have sometimes been left out. There will also be a court for quiet reflection, Museum Director Lonnie Bunch said.
“We will have stories that will make you smile and stories that will make you cry,” he told The Associated Press. “In a positive sense, this will be an emotional roller coaster, so you want to give people chances to reflect and to think about what this means to them.”
The museum is scheduled to open in 2015. Congress pledged to provide half the $500 million construction cost, and about $100 million has been raised in private funds including gifts from Wal-Mart, American Express, Boeing, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and celebrities such as Quincy Jones and Oprah Winfrey.
The future museum already has a gallery at the Smithsonian’s American history museum with rotating exhibits. The newest one explores Thomas Jefferson’s lifelong ownership of slaves and his conflict and advocacy against slavery, while looking at the lives of six slave families who lived on his Monticello plantation in Virginia.
Telling such stories has been taboo at many museums in the past. Bunch said that by presenting a fuller view of history and dealing directly with difficult issues like race, the Smithsonian can present a fuller view of history and what it means to be an American.
The staff is working to collect more material on popular culture and music, earlier materials from military history from World War I and earlier and artifacts to tell stories from the 19th century, including slavery and post-Civil War Reconstruction.
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National Museum of African American History and Culture: http://www.nmaahc.si.edu ___
Follow Brett Zongker at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-02-22-12 1649GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Actress Phylicia Rashad, in a 2007 photo, was master of ceremonies for the groundbreaking of the museum. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
The original Mr. Met head, as seen on display at the Mets Hall of Fame and Museum at Citi Field in New York. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
NEW YORK (AP) – The New York Mets’ longtime clubhouse manager has admitted he illegally owned millions of dollars’ worth of team memorabilia.
Charlie Samuels pleaded guilty Tuesday in a Queens courthouse to possessing stolen property and tax fraud.
He is expected to be sentenced in April to five years’ probation. The 55-year-old is also banned from any Mets facility, even if he buys a ticket.
Samuels was fired by the team in 2010. He had worked for the Mets since 1976 and became equipment manager in 1983.
District Attorney Richard Brown says Samuels admitted having almost $2.3 million worth of Mets memorabilia and collectibles. His guilty plea includes charges that he evaded paying city and state sales taxes.
The Mets issued a statement thanking those involved in the investigation.
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-02-21-12 1839GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
The original Mr. Met head, as seen on display at the Mets Hall of Fame and Museum at Citi Field in New York. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
RICHMOND, Va. – Internationally renowned artist Dale Chihuly will have a major, site-specific exhibition of his work at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts from Oct. 20, 2012 through Feb. 10, 2013. VMFA’s award-winning and light-infused McGlothlin Wing designed by Rick Mather + SMBW, will provide a dramatic setting for the large scale installations and sculptures by this Seattle-based artist.
“Chihuly is a phenomenon of the art world,” said Director Alex Nyerges. “His magical glass creations have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and he is the most popular and recognized artist working in the field today. Indeed, he is one of the most widely appreciated contemporary artists working in any medium.”
Chihuly’s art remains at the cutting edge of the technical and virtuoso possibilities of glass as a medium. At VMFA he will install work in the 12,000-square-foot special exhibition galleries as well as other parts of the museum. The VMFA exhibition includes many iconic works for which Chihuly is known—Ikebana, Mille Fiori, Chandeliers, Tabac Baskets, Venetians, Boats, Persian Ceiling—as well as site specific installations, taking advantage of the soaring atrium and reflecting pools of VMFA’s McGlothlin Wing.
The presentation at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is Chihuly’s third major U.S. museum exhibition in recent years. Record-breaking crowds attended the Chihuly exhibitions at the de Young Museum in San Francisco in 2008 and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 2011. Chihuly is renowned for his ambitious architectural installations around the world, in historic cities, public museums and gardens. Ninety-seven exhibitions in seven countries have presented artworks by the artist during the last decade, which have been enjoyed by more than 10 million visitors. Chihuly is credited with revolutionizing the Studio Glass movement and elevating the medium of glass from the realm of craft to fine art.
For details log on to www.vmfa.museum/chihuly or call 804.340.1405
Confederate raider Harry Gilmor was wounded in battle at Bunker Hill, W.Va. in July 1864 and captured. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Cowan’s Auctions.
BUNKER HILL, W.Va. (AP) – Neither William Briggs nor Andrew Shute ever made the history books, but their names are causing a stir at the Morgan Chapel where their signatures—along with various other soldiers’ drawings, doodles and even some personal messages, collectively referred to as Civil War graffiti—dot the old Episcopalian church’s interior walls.
Although it’s been about four years since workmen doing minor repairs discovered these personal artifacts, both church officials and local historians are now more eager than ever to move forward with plans to preserve them.
Excitement was running high one recent morning as the Right Rev. W. Michie Klusmeyer, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia, and Berkeley County Landmarks Commission members examined the historic treasures and talked about future collaborations.
Smiling as he looked up at a wall in the building’s balcony, space that was originally reserved for slaves attending a church service, Klusmeyer chuckled as he recalled one of the soldier’s inscriptions.
Preserving the church—which also formerly served as a hospital for the troops—remains a priority, especially the “special writing on the wall that was uncovered as workers scrapped the walls,” Klusmeyer said fondly.
“I guess my favorite is where a man apologizes for writing on a wall in the house of God, but it had already been marked up,” he added.
While some of it is strictly informational, overall the scribbles provide insight into that early period of American history, Klusmeyer said.
“Some it may seem kind of mundane, such as by this window where it says the 91st Ohio was here, but on another wall someone wrote about having lunch across the creek and it is dated. One person even wrote that he’d slept here … The men who wrote these probably would have been forgotten, but this is a way to keep them alive,” Klusmeyer said.
Moving forward with this local historic preservation is important, he said.
“We’ve been able to do a little bit more, but now we’re kind of stuck on where to go … We want to protect it, but we also want to make it available to the community, for them to see and know a part of our heritage and history,” Klusmeyer said.
“I love the idea of a partnership and welcome anything we can do together. While it is an Episcopal church building, it is really a part of the community’s history—as well as the state and nation,” he said.
Landmarks Commission Chairman Todd Funkhouser said other examples of this type of graffiti have been found in the Shenandoah Valley. In fact, a rear room in the church also lost some due to an arson fire, he said.
“What we have here are the etchings of the Civil War soldiers who were housed in this building that at one time was a hospital, and it’s been a fantastic surprise. We also have unique pot marks where they took out the bricks so they could shoot their rifles out the coverage, all shoulder high, so we are very grateful to the Diocese for having started this stabilization project,” Funkhouser said.
Soldiers often used burnt wood as an instrument to mark the walls, Funkhouser said.
“Upstairs there are several very good examples of soldiers writing notes to the enemy. We have 1861, 1862 and 1864 so many of the companies, and soldiers who were here are represented,” he said, adding that the Confederate Army was extremely active in the Bunker Hill area and was a base of operations in their retreat from Gettysburg.
“One soldier even called out ‘the Confederate traitors’ and that with the hand of God they were going to lick them like the Confederates licked them at Lynchburg,” Funkhouser said.
Funkhouser would like to explore the possibility of working with a graffiti restoration professional at the church, which is located off Route 11, not far from the historic Morgan Cabin.
“I know it can be restored and clarified and sealed so that it will be protected from oxidation as well as weather and the elements, so that is a step we’re looking to initiate,” Funkhouser said.
Falling Waters Battlefield Association President Gary Gimbel, who helped document the graffiti in the church’s back room, said he is always struck by the way folks relate to these old messages.
“I guess the bottom line is that even all this time later, we’re still a lot like them and they were a lot like us. Perhaps because it was so long ago, we tend to think of them as a little mystical but there were people, and many of them were young men who were a long way from home,” Gimbel said.
John Thornton Hilleary, who formerly served as White House gardener during the Johnson and Nixon administrations, was hoping to find something from his great, great uncle Ben White. Explaining that White became a Confederate soldier after running away from an Episcopalian high school, Hilleary said his uncle had camped outside the church during the spring of 1862.
Hilleary didn’t have any luck finding a family link but still wants to see the graffiti preserved.
“There is no doubt that this is history, and we need to make sure these soldiers aren’t forgotten,” he said.
Berkeley County Council member Elaine Mauck has a double interest in the project as she has an antique store and also serves as the council’s liaison to the Landmarks Commission.
“I am very interested and excited because Berkeley County has so much to offer in terms of the Civil War that has been left untapped. My goal during my term is to enhance this opportunity and shine a light on what we have to offer here,” Mauck said.
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Information from: The Journal, http://journal-news.net/
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-02-21-12 2212GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Confederate raider Harry Gilmor was wounded in battle at Bunker Hill, W.Va. in July 1864 and captured. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Cowan’s Auctions.
Animation cel from Disney/Hyperion’s ‘The Brave Little Toaster,’ one of thousands of animation cels that were part of the collection in the storage locker purchased by John Chong. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive.
LOS ANGELES – After one year of jousting with a prominent Hollywood production company, collector John Chong has won a key legal victory enabling him to sell a trove of Hollywood memorabilia via eBay.
Almost a year ago, Chong purchased the contents of storage unit C011 at a public storage auction in Los Angeles. Chong, who often purchases the contents of storage units sight unseen, was the successful bidder on a mystery unit that was deemed abandoned and subsequently auctioned to settle an unpaid storage bill. Inside the unit he discovered a collection of Hollywood memorabilia belonging to Hyperion Pictures.
Hyperion – owned jointly by Tom Wilhite, former head of motion picture and television production at Walt Disney Studios; and Willard Carroll, a prominent writer, producer and director – attempted to stop Chong from selling his newfound treasure on eBay. The collection purchased by Chong included movie props from the original Wizard of Oz, entertainment industry awards, signed scripts and vintage movie posters. Chong’s valuation expert assessed the collection and valued it in the millions of dollars.
When Chong tried to sell the items online, Wilhite and Carroll filed legal challenges with eBay that, under eBay’s policies, led to the immediate suspension of Chong’s account. Chong retained the services of prominent entertainment and intellectual property boutique law firm, Peter Law Group in Beverly Hills, Calif., to unlock the doors of his virtual eBay store, which, since Chong’s legal victory, has become a magnet for memorabilia collectors across the world.
The Peter Law Group has worked with other collectors, as well, including holders of a set of rare Norman Rockwell photographs, and a collector who discovered a trove of glass negatives thought by some to have been created by iconic photographer Ansel Adams.
In a case of first impression, Peter Law Group filed a lawsuit in California Superior Court on Chong’s behalf. The court recently issued its judgment in which it determined that neither Hyperion, nor anyone acting as its representative, had any rights to the memorabilia in question.
After the ruling was handed down, Chong remarked, “I am so happy that the law really does work and applies to everyone, rich or poor.”
In finding in Chong’s favor, the court expressly determined that it was wrong for Hyperion to file claims with eBay. The sale of collectibles is Chong’s primary source of income, and the eBay challenges were seen as a direct hindrance and threat to his livelihood. Along with the decision on the merits, the court awarded costs and attorneys’ fees to Chong.
To find Chong’s complete collection online, visit eBay and search for the seller teak2010.
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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Animation cel from Disney/Hyperion’s ‘The Brave Little Toaster,’ one of thousands of animation cels that were part of the collection in the storage locker purchased by John Chong. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive.
Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), ‘Wuxia Mountain Clear Autumn,’ Chinese watercolor 1936, achieved an astounding $504,000, more than double its high estimate of $200,000. Image courtesy of 888 Auctions.
PARIS (AFP) – The late Chinese artist Zhang Daqian was the best-selling artist at auction in 2011, global market monitor Artprice told AFP, while Spanish great Pablo Picasso dropped out of the top three.
Chinese artists dominate the top end of the art market. Zhang’s compatriot Qi Bashi was the second top seller and six Chinese artists in all were in the top 10, while Chinese art accounts for 40 percent of sales by value.
“China, which has held the top spot in art auctions since 2010, took two of its star artists to the head of the annual table in 2011,” said Thierry Ehrmann, chairman and founder of Paris-based Artprice.
The third place in the Artprice table was taken by American pop art master Andy Warhol, knocking Picasso—who died in 1973 and has been the bestseller in 13 of the past 14 years—back into fourth place.
Zhang, who lived between 1899 and 1983, was not only top in sales but, according to Artprice, he had the best annual haul of any artist ever with
1,371 pieces going for a total of $554.53 million (418 million euros).
Qi, who lived between 1864 and 1957, came in behind, netting art investors $510.57 million and Warhol hit $325.88 million.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), ‘Wuxia Mountain Clear Autumn,’ Chinese watercolor 1936, achieved an astounding $504,000, more than double its high estimate of $200,000. Image courtesy of 888 Auctions.
