Francois Pinault’s Palazzo Grassi on the Grand Canal in Venice. Image by Didier Descouens. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.
VENICE, Italy (AFP) – French luxury billionaire Francois Pinault Friday expressed his passion for art at the inauguration of a new exhibition by New York-based Swiss artist Urs Fischer at his Venice palace.
“It’s an important part of my activities,” Pinault told AFP on the sidelines of the exhibition in Palazzo Grassi on the picturesque banks of the Grand Canal.
“This is my passion; it’s not work as you know. It’s something else. It goes well beyond,” said the 75-year-old founder of fashion and luxury group PPR, home of such labels as Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen.
Pinault snapped up the 18th-century palazzo in 2006 and has turned it into an exhibition space for works from his extensive collection of modern art.
His foundation also bought a spectacular former customs building in Venice and opened it three years ago as a museum called Punta della Dogana.
Pinault, who turned his father’s timber merchant business into a global business empire, also spoke of his Breton roots when talking about Venice.
“Bretons and Venetians are seagoing people. Venetians were maybe more successful than Bretons in that regard but it’s something in common,” he said.
Pinault has handed over the reins of management of the company to his son, Francois-Henri, who held a star-studded wedding celebration in Venice in 2009 for his nuptials with Mexican-born Hollywood actress Salma Hayek.
Speaking about the new Fischer exhibition, which opens on Sunday and runs until July 15, Pinault said he particularly liked the sculpture of a bird hanging on a chain and another of nails with long shadows.
The show includes melting wax sculptures, Pop Art and live models.
At the entrance is an exact re-creation of Fischer’s former London studio intended to allow visitors “to have a physical experience of creation.”
Caroline Bourgeois, chief curator of the exhibition, said: “Urs Fischer’s universe is made up of logic and absurdity, of illusion and real life, of violence and humor, of eternity and the ephemeral.”
Several of the sculptures make use of mechanics like that of a phial balancing on a string, or a packet of cigarettes going round and round.
Fischer “is undeniably a great sculpture of suspended time,” said Bourgeois. The artist, who was born in 1973, said that working for him was “a joy” and that the important thing for him was not “to function like a machine.”
Asked whether a giant penis sculpture might shock some visitors, Fischer said: “It’s for everybody, I did not ask myself the question.”
Another possible eyebrow-raiser at the show is a naked woman striking bronze statue poses, kneeling on a white table or spread out on a couch.
Lovers of Pop Art will like Fischer’s giant Tic-Tac box and a giant 20-dollar bill the size of a laundry detergent box.
Of more classical inspiration is a giant portrait of a woman in black tie.
The exhibition is titled “Madame Fisscher”—perhaps an ironic reference to Madame Tussauds in London—and is the first of a series of single-artist and thematic exhibitions at the Palazzo Grassi (www.palazzograssi.it).
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Francois Pinault’s Palazzo Grassi on the Grand Canal in Venice. Image by Didier Descouens. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.
Coppia di gemelli ibeji con vesti di perline, Yoruba (Nigeria), legno, stoffa, perle di vetro, altezza cm 25, stima 2000-2500 euro, courtesy Cambi Casa d’Aste
MILANO – I collezionisti interessati ad avvicinarsi al mercato dell’arte in Italia hanno diverse occasioni nel calendario delle prossime settimane. Ad iniziare da oggi, 12 aprile, con l’inaugurazione della fiera dell’arte contemporanea di Milano MiArt, l’apertura della nuova sede milanese della casa d’aste di Genova Cambi e l’asta eccezionale di fotografie, sempre a Milano, tenuta dalla casa d’aste internazionale Sotheby’s. “Eccezionale” perché rappresenta un’opportunità per sostenere una fondazione milanese dedicata alla fotografia, la Fondazione Forma, che dall’inizio delle sue attività nel 2005 ha organizzato mostre, incontri e corsi contando esclusivamente sul supporto privato.
Le fotografie all’asta sono state donate dagli artisti e dai collezionisti, e il ricavato andrà in favore della fondazione per finanziare le sue attività future. Tra le fotografie in vendita ci sono opere di importanti fotografi italiani come Mimmo Jodice, Gabriele Basilico e Massimo Vitali, ma anche nomi internazionali come Henri Cartier Bresson, Robert Capa e Martin Parr.
La casa d’aste Cambi, invece, utilizza l’occasione dell’apertura della sua nuova sede per presentare gli highlight delle prossime vendite di arte africana e arte moderna e contemporanea che si terranno il 24 aprile a Genova. L’asta di arte africana offrirà artefatti prodotti dagli Yoruba, una popolazione di circa 20 milioni di persone basata principalmente nella regione sudoccidentale della Nigeria, che tiene l’arte e gli artisti in grande considerazione. La loro religione, che è estremamente complessa e si fonda su uno straordinario numero di divinità, può essere considerata alla base della religione vudù. L’asta contiene diverse statue di gemelli, chiamate “ibéjì”, che rimandano alla venerazione dei gemelli presso gli Yoruba: quando un gemello muore, viene raffigurato in una statua che rimane con il gemello sopravvissuto e che viene accuratamente nutrita, lavata e curata da tutta la famiglia. Le stime vanno da 650 a 2.200 euro.
L’asta di arte moderna e contemporanea dello stesso giorno presenterà opere di artisti italiani e internazionali con stime che partono da 150 euro per un collage di Giosetta Fioroni, l’unica artista donna nel movimento romano della Scuola di Piazza del Popolo, a 50.000 euro per una testa di bronzo dello scultore Arturo Martini. Il lotto di copertina è una tela estroflessa di Agostino Bonalumi, che al momento è uno degli italiani più ricercati sul mercato internazionale (stima 20.000-50.000 euro). Da marzo Bonalumi è rappresentato negli Stati Uniti dalla Barbara Mathes Gallery di New York.
Inoltre, prima di questi due eventi a Genova, Cambi terrà la sua quarta asta online dall’inizio dell’anno, a dimostrazione del grande successo di cui gli incanti online godono in questo momento. Anche la casa d’aste torinese Sant’Agostino Aste fa il suo ingresso nel mercato online il 18 aprile con la sua prima vendita di dipinti del XIX e XX secolo esclusivamente sul web.
Novità interessanti anche da Roma, dove il 19 aprile la casa d’aste Bloomsbury batterà la collezione di Luciano Chesini, architetto, proprietario di un albergo e presidente dell’associazione organizzatrice della fiera dell’arte contemporanea di Roma, RomeContemporary. Contemporanea è anche la sua collezione, che include opere figurative dagli anni ’80 a oggi. Tra gli highlight ci sono opere di Carlo Bertocci (stima 1.500-2.000 euro) e di altri rappresentanti della Pittura Colta, un movimento nato in Italia negli anni ’80 in opposizione alla Transavanguardia, che aspirava a forme rigorose e contenuti intellettuali, ricchi di citazioni storiche e letterarie.
Altre opere in vendita riflettono l’interesse di Luciano Chesini per il teatro, un altro campo in cui è attivo, oppure mostrano persone che ammira. Tra gli esempi c’è la fotografia di Pierpaolo Pasolini di Glauco Cortini (stima 600-800 euro), la fotografia di Curzio Malaparte di Guglielmo Coluzzi (stima 300-500 euro), e i ritratti di Maria Callas e Anna Magnani di Mario Schifano, un importante artista della Pop Art italiana (stime tra 2.000 e 4.000 euro).
Ulteriori eventi delle prossime settimane sono dedicati ad altri segmenti del mercato e del collezionismo: il 20-21 aprile, per esempio, Farsetti offrirà a Prato dipinti e arredi dal XVII al XIX secolo tra cui un capolavoro di Tranquillo Cremona stimato 240.000-280.000 euro. Dipinti e arredi antichi andranno all’asta anche da Meeting Art a Vercelli dal 24 al 29 aprile. La International ArtSale di Milano il 18 aprile metterà all’asta gioielli e orologi, mentre Gonnelli Casa d’Aste presenterà a Firenze a fine mese una serie di manoscritti antichi tra cui la collezione del figlio del fondatore della casa d’aste (27-28 aprile).
Che il grand tour del mercato italiano abbia inizio!
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Note sull’autore:
Silvia Anna Barrilà è una giornalista italiana specializzata sul mercato dell’arte. Collabora regolarmente con Il Sole 24 ORE (ArtEconomy24). Inoltre scrive di arte, design, lifestyle e società per varie riviste italiane e internazionali tra cui ICON (Mondadori) e DAMn Magazine. Vive tra Milano e Berlino.
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
Coppia di gemelli ibeji con vesti di perline, Yoruba (Nigeria), legno, stoffa, perle di vetro, altezza cm 25, stima 2000-2500 euro, courtesy Cambi Casa d’AsteAgostino Bonalumi, ‘Blu,’ 1997, tela estroflessa e tempera vinilica, cm 80×80, autentica dell’archivio Bonalumi su fotografia n.97-008, stima 20.000-25.000 euro, courtesy Cambi Casa d’AsteTranquillo Cremona, ‘Lo studio,’ 1870-1872, olio su tela, cm 120×105, stima 240.000-280.000 euro, courtesy FarsettiRara perla melo giallo-arancio, stima 70.000-90.000 euro, courtesy International ArtSale, MilanoGabriele Basilico, ‘Fort Mahon,’ 1985, stampa ai sali d’argento, vintage, cm 30 x 40, firmata, intitolata e datata sul retro; timbro a secco Gabriele Basilico sul margine, courtesy Fondazione Forma
Ai Weiwei in a June 2007 photo by Benutzer. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany license.
BEIJING (AFP) – Chinese artist and government critic Ai Weiwei said Friday he was suing Beijing’s tax bureau for violating the law when it imposed a multimillion tax evasion fine on a company he founded.
Ai, who disappeared into custody for 81 days last year as police rounded up dissidents amid online calls for Arab Spring-style protests in China, always denied the charge and says it is politically motivated to silence his activism.
He was accused of tax evasion linked to Fake Cultural Development Ltd.—a company he founded but registered to his wife—upon his release from custody last June.
The Beijing tax bureau subsequently in November issued a bill for 15 million yuan ($2.4 million) in alleged back taxes, giving the artist 15 days to pay it or hand over an 8.45 million yuan guarantee.
Ai was able to pay the guarantee—needed by law to challenge the charge—thanks to a huge wave of donations from supporters of his activism and art.
“The whole accusation over FAKE company’s tax issues has no basis and it (Beijing tax bureau) violated the law, they didn’t have correct procedures,” he said, adding his lawyers had filed two lawsuits in two separate Beijing courts.
The 54-year-old told AFP the tax office never allowed the firm’s lawyers to review the evidence brought against it and added the bureau never even saw the full, original file against the company, which the police still holds.
He added that the accountant and manager of FAKE are still missing and have not been allowed any contact with Ai and the company’s lawyers.
“The tax bureau said it’s not their fault because the police somehow forced them to do it (impose the fine), they never saw the originals (of the evidence), they never saw the accountant or manager, they never even questioned them,” he said.
“It’s a very political order, they have to do it … but the only thing we can do is sue them because they put the charge on us.
“We have no other way to clear our name … All we can do is do this openly.” The artist has previously angered authorities with his investigation into the collapse of schools in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and into a 2010 fire at a Shanghai high-rise that killed dozens.
His artwork has sold worldwide and he was named the world’s most powerful art figure by influential British magazine Art Review last year.
Prince Twins Seven-Seven (Nigerian, 1944-2011), ‘The Dream of the Abiku Child,’ ink, watercolor and oil on brown wrapping paper glued to plywood, 40 x 27 in. Est. $4,000–$6,000. Material Culture image.
PHILADELPHIA – Renowned for its art institutions and rich multicultural heritage, Philadelphia will soon add another very colorful feather to its cap. Material Culture, the city’s popular 60,000-sq.-ft. showplace for antiques, textiles and handcrafted decorative arts, will introduce its new auction division on May 5, 2012 with a 500-lot sale titled “New World Orders.” All forms of bidding will be available, including live via the Internet through LiveAuctioneers.com.
Material Culture’s wealth of experience and loyal following of customers, advisors and associates worldwide set the stage for the company’s entry into the auction arena, said founder/owner George Jevremovic.
“Our relationships with collectors and other friends in the business have been built on a basis of mutual trust over 30-plus years. I’ve been reaching out to them over the past two years, and our May auction debut is a tribute to those people and connections,” said Jevremovic.
No matter how broad a descriptive brush one uses, it is a formidable challenge to categorize the mix of artworks in the May 5 sale. Lot after lot, the word “unique” springs to mind, whether it’s a mystical 12th-century carved marble relief from northern India or a brilliantly-hued Felipe Jesus Consalvos cigar-band artwork.
Material Culture has always been thought of as something of an eclectic wonderland for decorators and homeowners seeking offbeat artworks and one-of-a-kind statement pieces.
“Our aesthetic knows no boundaries – it runs from Asian antiquities to classic Nakashima furniture to outside-the-box creations by self-taught artists,” said Jevremovic. “Now we have the opportunity to share our discoveries with the world via the auction route.”
A survey of the array of international treasures chosen for Material Culture’s auction premiere starts with the predicted top lot: an original 19th-century Samuel Anderson Robb cigar store Indian. For many decades, the masterfully hand-carved figure greeted visitors entering Reese’s Antiques on Pine Street in Philadelphia. Appearing to have all-original paint, the 77-inch-tall statue has been in the same owner’s hands since the 1940s and has never before been offered for sale. An American folk art classic, it is entered in the May 5 auction with a $40,000-$60,000 estimate.
Cuban-American artist Felipe Jesus Consalvos (Cuban-American, 1891 – circa 1960) was a cigar roller whose natural talent as an artist was not widely known until after his death. Consalvos presciently created modernist collages that incorporate cigar bands and cigar-box paper as well as photographs, postage stamps and magazine images. His mixed-media depiction titled Guitar – one of several Consalvos artworks in the sale – could make $6,000-$8,000.
Contemporary Chinese painter Guo Runwen’s early oil on canvas titled Standing Nude with Back View was purchased directly from the artist in 1988 at his studio in Guangzhou, China. Fresh from a Delaware collection, the 31½- by 21½-inch artwork is estimated at $30,000-$40,000. Another 20th-century Chinese painting, Fan Zeng’s (b. 1955-) ink and color on paper titled Zhong Kui Shen Wei, is signed and bears two seals. In vertical format measuring 53 by 26 inches, it carries an estimate of $6,000-$8,000.
There are many early Asian works scheduled to cross the auction block, including a dimensionally carved 12th-century marble relief from Jain in northern India. Featuring deities, elephants and other animals in a temple setting, it measures 30½ by 10 inches and is 7 inches deep. Estimate: $4,000-$6,000. Also to be offered is a finely carved 18th-century Chinese ivory vase estimated at $4,000-$6,000.
The Dream of the Abiku Child by acclaimed African artist Prince Twins Seven-Seven (Nigerian, 1944-2011) is a stunning mélange of fantasy and color. The 40- by 27-inch artwork was created in ink, watercolor and oil on brown wrapping paper and glued to plywood. The human subject, wearing intricately patterned clothing adorned with stars, seems to leap from the setting, which also features multiple fish and a dot pattern similar to that seen in Australian aboriginal paintings. One of three works in the auction by Prince Twins Seven-Seven, it is estimated at $4,000-$6,000.
Furniture lots cross a wide spectrum of styles. A late-19th-century Syrian mirrored cabinet, crafted of walnut with mother-of-pearl and bone inlay, comes from a collection of antique Damascus furniture in the auction. The cabinet is expected to bring $8,000-$12,000. Dating from the Art Deco period, a pair of perennially stylish Bauhaus tubular steel and leather lounge chairs will be offered with a $2,000-$4,000 estimate.
Idaho-born artist James Charles Castle (American, 1899-1977) was born profoundly deaf, and it is not known to what extent he could read, write or use sign language, but he had an innate talent for creating art from found objects of humblest origin. Today, Castle’s works are found in many institutions’ collections. In 2008-2009, the Philadelphia Museum of Art organized a Castle exhibition that toured nationally. Material Culture’s May 5 auction features a James Castle drawing on paper titled Labor Day. It comes with provenance from the J Crist Gallery in Boise and could realize $4,000-$6,000.
Material Culture’s Saturday, May 5 inaugural live auction will commence at 11 a.m. Eastern Time and will feature Internet live bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com. Preview: April 22-May 4, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily. The gallery is located at 4700 Wissahickon Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19144. For additional information on any lot in the sale, email expert@materialculture.com or call 215-849-8030.
Material Culture will host an inaugural auction party and special exhibition preview from 6-10 p.m. on Saturday, April 28. The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served and there will be live music. RSVP at info@materialculture.com or call 215-849-8030.
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
Prince Twins Seven-Seven (Nigerian, 1944-2011), ‘The Dream of the Abiku Child,’ ink, watercolor and oil on brown wrapping paper glued to plywood, 40 x 27 in. Est. $4,000–$6,000. Material Culture image.
Samuel Robb 19th-century cigar store figure, 77 inches tall, the greeter at Reese’s Antiques in Philadelphia since the 1940s. Est. $40,000-$60,000. Material Culture image.
Finely carved antique ivory vase, Chinese, 18th century, 7 1/8 inches tall. Est. $4,000-$6,000. Material Culture image.
Guo Runwen (Chinese, b. 1955-), ‘Standing Nude with Back View,’ oil on canvas, 31½ x 21½ in. Est. $30,000-$40,000. Material Culture image.
Fan Zeng (Chinese, b. 1938-), ‘Zhong Kui Shen Wei,’ ink and color on paper, signed, two seals, 53 x 26 in. Est. $6,000-$8,000. Material Culture image.
Felipe Jesus Consalvos (Cuban-American, 1891 – c. 1960), ‘Guitar,’ mixed media. Est. $6,000-$8,000. Material Culture image.
James Castle (American, 1899-1977), ‘Labor Day,’ drawing on paper, 4 x 17½ in. Est. $4,000-$6,000. Material Culture image.
Pair of 1930s tubular steel and leather lounge chairs, European. Est. $2,000-$4,000. Material Culture image.
Carved marble relief, 12th century, Jain, northern India, 30½ x 10 x 7 in. Est. $4,000-$6,000. Material Culture image.
Syrian mirrored cabinet, late 19th century, mother-of-pearl and bone inlaid walnut, 118 in. tall x 61 in. wide. Est. $8,000-$12,000. Material Culture image.
The original Jazz Bowls are 11 1/2 inches by 16 inches. Image courtesy Rago Arts and Auction Center.
LAMBERTVILLE, N.J. – One of the few original Jazz Bowls extant will be sold in Rago’s June 17 auction of Modern and Contemporary design. Signed by Schreckengost and stamped Cowan, the large bowl carries an estimate of $40,000-$60,000.
“This could be the last of the original Jazz Bowls in private hands,” said David Rago.
LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding for the two-day auction.
The first Jazz Bowl was commissioned by Eleanor Roosevelt in celebration of her husband’s reelection as governor of New York in 1931. Ceramicist Viktor Schreckengost was only in his mid-20s when he created it, a worker at Cowan Pottery in Rocky River, Ohio, and the youngest faculty member at the Cleveland Institute of Art.
A saxophonist as well as an artist, Schreckengost saw jazz as the perfect expression of the New York City’s excitement and drive. He caught its spirit in three-dimensions: tilting skyscrapers, Radio City Music Hall, the Cotton Club, cocktails, signage, stars, a drum head with the word “Jazz.”
He built it large, in a simple shape he called “parabolic.” To evoke the light of a New York night, he covered the bowl with black engobe (watery clay mixed with glaze), scratched his design in a pattern of black and white, fired it, covered it with a glaze he called Egyptian Blue, and fired it again.
Mrs. Roosevelt was so taken with the bowl that she commissioned two more. Immediately after, a New York City gallery placed an order for approximately 50. The handcraft was arduous, taking Cowan’s artisans an entire day to incise one bowl. A second version was made with a flared lip and then a third. The third version, known today as “the poor man’s Jazz Bowl,” was a production line. It is slightly smaller than the original, with a flared lip and raised, not sgrafitto, decoration. Bowls with other themes were also designed, as well as decorative plates.
The Jazz Bowls were something less than a footnote in the history of design until the mid-1980s. With the resurgence of appreciation for Art Deco, the bowls began to be featured in museum exhibitions. Within a decade, the Jazz Series was widely recognized as an icon of American design. The highest selling price to date is from a Sotheby’s auction in December 2002, when a bowl of equal size from a private collection sold for $254,400.
No one knows with certainty how many hand-incised Jazz Bowls were made before Cowan folded at the end of 1931. Estimates range from 20 to 50. Fewer than 20 are known, and which of these were made for Eleanor Roosevelt seems to be something of a mystery. The one to be sold at Rago’s in June is the latest to emerge. It may be the last.
The auction will begin at noon Saturday, June 16, with Early 20th Century Design and continue at noon Sunday, June 17, with Modern/Contemporary Design.
Previews will be at Rago Arts and Auction Center from Saturday, June 9, though Thursday, June 13, from noon to 5 p.m., Friday, June 15, noon to 7 p.m. and by appointment. Doors open at 9 a.m. the days of the sale.
For details visit www.ragoarts.com or phone 609-397-9374.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
The original Jazz Bowls are 11 1/2 inches by 16 inches. Image courtesy Rago Arts and Auction Center.
Dorothy’s ruby slippers from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ movie. This pair is on display at the Smithsonian’s American History Museum. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
WASHINGTON (AP) –Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz have a new home with a diverse set of artifacts in a new timeline of American history that includes a piece of Plymouth Rock, a slave ship manifest, Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone and Kermit the Frog at the Smithsonian Institution.
The National Museum of American History opened the exhibit Thursday featuring iconic objects from pop culture along with items dating to the Pilgrims’ arrival in 1620 in Plymouth, Mass. “American Stories” will be a new chronology of U.S. history from the early encounters of Europeans and Native Americans to a Barack Obama campaign button written in Hebrew in the 2008 presidential election.
Dorothy’s famed shoes from the 1939 movie will help show the emergence of American pop culture and its significance in forming our shared memories. Mixing items from pop culture into a broader timeline is a big change for the museum. For more than 20 years, the slippers have been shown in a separate gallery of memorable items from the movies and entertainment history. Now they will join other items that explore the nation’s founding, growth and reforms, innovations and contemporary society.
“We’re so getting away from the time when history was all about white men on horses,” said Marc Pachter, the museum’s interim director. “This is a broader definition of what is important to remember.”
More than 100 objects are on display in the new gallery. Curators combed through the museum’s vast collection and acquired objects that help show how the peopling of America through immigration and the convergence of cultural traditions created a distinctive place, Pachter said.
This is the museum’s first major exhibit with a Spanish translation, which can be accessed online or with mobile smartphones. The museum also developed a mobile app with fuller descriptions of each object on display in English and Spanish.
Curators also are asking visitors to suggest objects that should be part of the American history collection. They can make suggestions in the exhibit or on the museum’s website.
“We know that there are millions of untold American stories out there,” Pachter said. “We will never tell them all, but we can do better in the range of what we collect and display.”
Near the start of the timeline layout is Plymouth Rock and its mythic place in U.S. history, along with wampum beads made from shells that were prized by American Indians for their value as trading currency. Nearby is Ben Franklin’s walking stick and three-piece silk suit worn at the Treaty of Alliance signing with France in 1778 during the Revolutionary War. The suit is on loan from the Massachusetts Historical Association.
An 1830s slave ship manifest from Alexandria, Va., was recently acquired by the museum and is being displayed for the first time. It records the sale of 83 enslaved Americans, their names and their descriptions to bring humanity to the horrors of slavery, said curator Bill Yeingst, who directed the “American Stories” project.
The timeline continues with President Abraham Lincoln’s gold pocket watch, an 1864 medal from U.S. Colored Troops, Bell’s Big Box Telephone from 1876, a baseball autographed by Babe Ruth around 1929, Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine in a vial from the 1950s, Roberto Clemente’s batting helmet from the 1960s, and an Apple II computer from the 1980s.
Some of the museum’s newest acquisitions expand the diversity of the collection, curators said. There is a prosthetic leg socket from a U.S. soldier wounded in 2003 during the Iraq war. Curators also collected a pink gown from a 2006 Quinceanera, a Latin American tradition of celebrating a girl’s 15th birthday as the transition to adulthood. Natalia Flores of Chicago, who is now 20, donated the gown to add a piece of Latina history to the Smithsonian.
“It’s my own American story here in America,” she said while visiting the museum Wednesday. “It’s a representation of many other stories of Latinas.”
The museum also is featuring a purse carried by Camilla Gottlieb that was filled with about 250 of her family’s life documents as they left their home in Vienna and were taken into concentration camps during the Holocaust. Eventually Gottleib immigrated to the United States. Her family later found the purse in a closet.
A newer relic in the collection isn’t so old but is already starting to show its age. The museum acquired a fourth generation iPod in 2004 from a young Washington resident to show the evolution of music technology from the 1950s to the 2000s. Pachter said an iPod from 2004 already is considered “ancient technology” and will have a place at the Smithsonian.
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National Museum of American History: http://americanhistory.si.edu/
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Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-04-12-12 1529GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Dorothy’s ruby slippers from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ movie. This pair is on display at the Smithsonian’s American History Museum. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Burial crew of Union soldiers after the Battle of Antietam, September 1862. Photograph by Alexander Gardner. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
FREDERICK, Md. (AP) – Long after the guns fell silent at Antietam, the earth yielded up gruesome reminders of the bloodiest day of the American Civil War: bodies, bones, buttons and entire severed limbs—one of which is now the focus of intense study at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.
A Sharpsburg-area farmer is said to have found the human forearm while plowing a field two weeks after the 1862 battle.
Officials at the museum in Frederick, Md., are trying to learn more about the limb in hopes of verifying that it’s a relic of the Battle of Antietam and exhibiting the well-preserved specimen during the battle’s 150th anniversary in September.
The muddy-looking right forearm, with skin and hand attached, was donated anonymously to the museum earlier this year, said Executive Director George Wunderlich. It had been displayed for several decades at a private museum in Sharpsburg in a glass-topped, pine case with a placard reading, “Human arm found on the Antietam Battlefield.”
Though there is little hope of identifying the young man who lost it, Wunderlich said forensic experts may be able to discern his nationality and whether the arm was, as Wunderlich suspects, torn from his body by a bullet or artillery round.
“Being able to put the story of this unknown person before this country is very important to us,” Wunderlich said. “His remains will tell a story that will relate us back to his sacrifice. This was what they gave for what they believed. If done properly, it’s a very poignant story.”
The unidentified farmer who found the limb put it in a barrel of brine, according to Thomas McGrath’s 1997 book, Maryland September: True Stories from the Antietam Campaign. The farmer reportedly gave it to a Boonsboro physician, who is said to have more permanently preserved it with embalming fluid.
The arm eventually ended up in a private museum that was sold in the 1960s to John G. Ray Jr. After Ray died in 2001, his widow had the museum’s contents sold at an auction, according to battlefield historian Ted Alexander.
Alexander grew up nearby and remembers seeing the arm on display.
“It was quite an attraction,” he said. “It was macabre and something to see as kid.”
The arm’s owner was probably a small man less than 20 years old, said William Gardner, a former Marshall University forensic medicine instructor who examined it in March.
Since the elbow joint is undamaged, with no surgical saw marks, the arm was likely removed somewhere between the shoulder and elbow, he said. The forearm skin and tendons appear to have been violently twisted.
The battlefield’s history and geography offer clues about how a solitary arm could end up buried in a farm field.
“That entire battle took place in people’s fields, their yards,” Gardner said.
The pivotal clash on Sept. 17, 1862, left more than 23,000 soldiers dead, wounded or missing in the war’s bloodiest one-day battle. Historians say some were blown to bits by the furious gunfire. Many were buried were they fell, their shallow graves crudely marked for their eventual removal to cemeteries.
Some remains were never retrieved. In 2009, a battlefield visitor found bone fragments and uniform buttons of an unknown soldier from New York state. But it’s rare to find bones still covered with skin.
“It is really an impressive piece,” Gardner said.
Museum curator Lori Eggleston said she’s keeping the arm dry and handling it as little as possible on the advice of experts at the Mutter Museum, run by the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.
Wunderlich said he hopes to have a Smithsonian Institution forensic anthropologist examine the arm for clues about the owner’s diet and origin.
Battlefield Superintendent Susan Trail said the arm can’t be displayed at the Antietam visitor center because the National Park Service generally forbids displaying human remains. But she said the medical museum could display it at the Pry House, a field hospital site that the museum runs on the battlefield.
“I’m sure the museum will do a very nice job with what they do with it,” Trail said. “When you think about it, it’s pretty awful what happened here—and you just multiply it many, many times over.”
Online:
National Museum of Civil War Medicine: http://www.civilwarmed.org
Antietam National Battlefield: http://www.nps.gov/ancm/index.htm
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Burial crew of Union soldiers after the Battle of Antietam, September 1862. Photograph by Alexander Gardner. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
A portrait of Paul Revere by Gilbert Stuart. It was painted in 1813, when Revere was about 78 years old. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – A rare engraved print created by Paul Revere has been found in the pages of a 19th century book at Brown University.
A Brown preservationist discovered the print a few weeks ago while studying an 1811 book once owned by a 1773 Brown graduate. The book was donated to Brown 70 years ago by the graduate’s descendants.
The print shows Jesus and John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Revere’s name is featured on the bottom corner. Only five copies of the print are known to exist.
Richard Noble, who catalogs rare items in Brown’s collections, says he has several unanswered questions about the find, including Revere’s reasons for making the print, his relationship with the book’s owner, and why it took decades for anyone to notice the rare item.
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
A portrait of Paul Revere by Gilbert Stuart. It was painted in 1813, when Revere was about 78 years old. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
‘Blue House, Munich,’ 1928, Grant Wood (American, 1891-1942), Oil on board, 23 1/2 x 20 1/4 inches. Image courtesy the University of Iowa.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – A family that has owned and cared for an original Grant Wood painting since the 1930s has donated the work to the University of Iowa Museum of Art.
The university on Wednesday announced the donation of the painting, Blue House, Munich, which has gone on display on the third floor of the student union. Wood completed the oil on board painting in 1928.
Wood sold the painting in the early 1930s from his Cedar Rapids studio to Robert J. Miller. It hung in the Iowa and California homes of Miller and his wife before becoming the property of their three children in 1992, rotating among their homes.
Museum director Sean O’Harrow says the work “is a beautiful early painting by Wood” that will be a significant addition to its collection.
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
‘Blue House, Munich,’ 1928, Grant Wood (American, 1891-1942), Oil on board, 23 1/2 x 20 1/4 inches. Image courtesy the University of Iowa.
