Caravaggio’s ‘The Raising of Lazarus.’ Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
ROME (AFP) – A Caravaggio masterpiece, The Raising of Lazarus, went on show Friday at Rome’s Museo di Roma after a meticulous seven-month restoration.
One of the Renaissance master’s most important works, it was painted in Sicily soon after he fled from Malta, where he had taken refuge after being sentenced to death for killing a love rival in Rome.
The painting was commissioned in 1608 by Genovese merchant Giovan Battista Lazzari and hung in the family chapel.
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio died two years later, aged 39.
The restoration was carried out by the Higher Institute of Restoration and Conservation with the support of Italy’s culture ministry and in agreement with the regional museum of Messina, in eastern Sicily, the work’s home.
Some experts say Caravaggio, the master of the “chiaro-scuro” technique—the contrast of shadow and light—included himself in the darkened background of the scene, appearing just behind Christ’s outstretched arm as he exhorts Lazarus to “get up and walk.”
The work is considered among the most representative of Caravaggio’s “chiaro-scuro” technique perfected at the end of his life, with the light symbolizing divine grace.
The work was already restored once in 1951, but the second renovation used modern methods and materials, the museum said.
Caravaggio, known as one of history’s most tormented painters, was involved in frequent brawls and vicious beatings.
He died of fever as he was returning to Rome and was buried in a mass grave.
The Raising of Lazarus will be on display at the Museo di Roma until mid-July when it will return to Messina.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Caravaggio’s ‘The Raising of Lazarus.’ Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
A Gulf visible gas pump, which displayed the volume of gasoline with each purchase. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Golden Memories Auction.
TYLER, Texas (AP) – Down an old country road in the boondocks of East Texas, marked off with barbed wire and trailed by sky-high windmills, a freshly painted sign is mounted in front of an old gas station. In bright orange and navy blue letters, the unmistakably iconic “GULF” is inscribed.
Antique-looking signs advertising Nu-Grape soda and Mead’s Fine Bread decorate the beat-up screen door. A rust-covered tractor is parked beneath the awning, showing its age. The scene creates an impression of having taken a step back in time.
Wayne Rogers, 66, misses the time when a gallon of gas was only 17 cents, an ice-cold Dr Pepper came from a glass bottle and folks with giant smiles would gladly service your car.
Nostalgia, along with his love for building and all things antique, led him to completely re-create the outside of the old New Harmony Gulf gas station on his property.
After years of collecting and months of hard work, the project finally was completed—just in time for his family reunion on May 20. His grand opening for the public was May 26.
“I did it so maybe people could step back and forget the traffic out on the loop and just enjoy it,” Rogers said. “Maybe they’ve never seen stuff like this before.”
Rogers started planning his big project four years ago when he purchased a Gulf visible gas pump as an addition to his various collections. He kept it in his workshop until he found an old photo that sparked his attention.
It was a picture of the original Gulf gas station in New Harmony from the 1920s, when Louie Ferrell owned and operated it. Rogers searched for old artifacts and remnants of Gulf stations for four years to construct an entire re-creation of the original one, calling it the New Harmony Gulf Station No. 2. Not only did he restore the items, he repainted every single one in the signature orange and blue.
“I like to drive around and see stuff like this, so I figured I wasn’t the only one,” he said.
He began constructing the front of the gas station—building onto the storage shed by his home—earlier this year. On May 17, Wayne Rogers hung the last piece of memorabilia to his project—the iconic sign out front—just three days before his goal date.
So far, it has been well received in the community. At his grand opening, Moon Pies and RC Colas were served to the curious crowd who showed up to see what Rogers had been hiding behind his workshop all that time.
To give tribute to the original station, Wesley Ferrell, son of the first station’s owner Louie Ferrell, was asked to cut the ribbon. The Gulf Station No. 1 opened in the late 1920s and closed in 1947.
One of his proudest achievements with the project is his “Wall of Fame”—two swinging windows that are donned with photographs of old New Harmony. A brief description is included with each photo.
Vicki Kruscwitz, who grew up in New Harmony and is a relative of Rogers, served as the historian, collecting photos of people and places from back in the day. In fact, it was in one of her albums that Rogers found the old Gulf station photo.
“It’s history in the pictures,” she said. “I think it shows people what the community was like and allows you to step back in time to get a feel of it. Most people here had grandparents and great-grandparents grow up in New Harmony, so they can see what their family experienced also.”
As a boy, Rogers grew up on a farm south of Fort Worth, where his fascination and love for windmills and tractors began. Since then, he has collections of old engines and farm wrenches, to name a few, which he proudly displays in his station.
“If you have ’em out for people to see, it’s a collection. If you keep ’em in boxes, you’re a hoarder,” Rogers said laughingly.
While the majority of his station is completed, Rogers calls it his “continuing project.” He hopes to add to his collection and pour in more history into his vision.
“Somebody told me if I live to be 100 years old, I still won’t be finished. I reckon they’re right,” he said.
Robbie Caldwell, senior pastor of New Harmony Baptist Church, said Rogers can fix or repair just about anything, and for him, this project was not just another example of his handiwork but a big contribution to the community as well.
“New Harmony is a community known for this church and the families here,” he said. “It (the station) adds to the history here, and it’s a wonderful thing.”
Rogers’ longtime friend Richard Jester, of New Harmony, said Rogers would call him for help on the project every so often, but most of the construction was done on his own. He also said the people of New Harmony were more than willing to help the effort as well.
“It shows the heritage here. Many people didn’t grow up here, but a lot did. They were a big help to him.”
He has included several items into his station that many people will not see in East Texas. For example, authentic limestone Kansas fence posts line the entrance to the gas station, a collector’s item that took him years to find.
Rogers encourages anyone and everyone to stop by and see his re-creation. He wants people to not only see his hard work but to also see the history and heritage of the New Harmony community from way back when.
“I don’t hunt, I don’t fish, and I don’t chase wild women. This is what I do,” he joked. “At least my wife knows where I am—out of trouble.”
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Information from: Tyler Morning Telegraph, http://www.tylerpaper.com
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-06-14-12 1533GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
A Gulf visible gas pump, which displayed the volume of gasoline with each purchase. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Golden Memories Auction.
Finely carved rhinoceros horn ‘lotus’ libation cup, 17th-18th century. Estimate: $40,000-$60,000. Michaan’s Auctions image. ALAMEDA, Calif. – Michaan’s Auctions is excited to have acquired an exceptional example of one of the most coveted forms of Asian works of art in the marketplace for their auction Monday, June 18. Lot 8096 is a carved rhinoceros horn ‘lotus’ libation cup, which is expected to sell for $40,000-$60,000.
LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding for the 400-lot auction, which will begin at 10 a.m. PDT.
The libation cupis an extraordinary testament to the traditional art form. It is one of those rare objects whose intrigue and value continue to attract many different types of collectors, progressively reaching new levels of value, importance and desirability. Rhino horn works are estimated at a total number of less than 4,000 worldwide. The scarcity of these works of art as well as the rhino itself explains why well-preserved rhinoceros horn carvings of the finest craftsmanship are extremely sought after in today’s market. Rhinoceros horn carvings have been historically regarded as national treasures and the rhino horn itself as one of the most precious materials known to man.
The exquisitely carved cup from the 17th to 18th century is fashioned in the form of a furled lotus leaf. A ribbon-tied cluster of high-relief lotus flowers with lotus leaves, seed pods, lychee fruits and branches issue from elegant reticulated stalks at the base of the piece. The horn displays an overall deep, rich honey tone whose highly polished surface holds a beautiful luster as well. The cup is then held by a custom made reticulated lotus theme hardwood stand, lovely complement to the masterwork. Measuring 6 1/2 inches in height and weighing 219 grams, the cup is a substantial piece in stature as well.
Acquired in Hong Kong in the 1970s by a private Los Angeles collector is an exceptional gilt-bronze archaistic ritual bell (lot 8136, $20,000-$30,000). The bell displays a rare decorative scheme that makes it an unusual find. It appears that only two other comparable examples are known; one sold at Christie’s, London on March 29, 1966 as lot 171 and the other sold at Sotheby’s, Paris on June 9, 2010 as lot 43.
Bells of this type were known as bianzhong and were usually assembled in graduated sets of 16, providing 12 musical tones with the four repeated notes in lower or higher octaves. They were also suspended in two tiers of eight attached to tall wooden frames. This arrangement is depicted in a court painting by Guiseppe Castiglione titled Imperial Banquet in Wanshu Garden (illustrated by Chuimei Ho and Bennet Bronson, Splendors of China’s Forbidden City, The Field Museum, Chicago, p. 52, pl. 42). The bells were arranged in accordance to their thickness and their respective musical note. An example of such a set is illustrated in Life in the Forbidden City of Qing Dynasty (The Forbidden City Publishing House, 2007, p. 50, no. 50, see fig. 1).
These bells were also essential in conducting Confucian ritual ceremonies at the Imperial altars, at formal banquets and during military processions. In 1741, Qianlong set up a music division for court music and specified melodies for various court functions prevailed into the early 20th century (op. cit., the Field Museum, p. 52).
Michaan’s Auctions is pleased to have the opportunity to present a third offering of fine Chinese glass from the Ina and Sandford Gadient Collection. The 13 lots for sale reflect over forty years of the Gadient’s passion for the sophisticated art form. Recognized as some of the most prominent Chinese glass collectors in the world, their pieces have been exhibited nationally as well as internationally. Their glassworks are also held in permanent museum collections at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York, the Lowe Museum at the University of Miami, Florida, the Norton Museum in West Palm Beach, Fla., the Honolulu Academy of Art in Hawaii and the Lentz Center of Asian Culture at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. The quality and variety of their glass acquisition sets the collection above many others and includes rare pieces from Ming and earlier dynasties.
The collection is largely based on the Gadients’ diligent study and careful, focused selection of glass from the United States and abroad. The Gadients typically followed their own research conclusions when choosing pieces, but occasionally sought expert advice before securing major acquisitions. One of their primary advisers was Dr. Clarence Shangraw who served as chief curator emeritus at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum for many years. Shangraw’s expertise and guidance helped form the couple’s outstanding glass group and in turn he discussed the Gadient Collection in his essay, “Treasures of Chinese Glass Workshops.”
Highlighting the Gadient Collection lots are three glassworks from the late Qing Dynasty, each exceptional in their own right. Lot 8078 is a four-color overlay-decorated blue glass jar, displaying superb carving workmanship. The bulbous body is adorned with fine yellow, pink and red roses blossoming from lush, translucent green branches. Butterflies flutter among the blooms, set upon a backdrop of exquisite turquoise glass ($13,000-$18,000). Lot 8080 is a bottle vase bearing the Qianlong mark, vibrantly shaded in a turquoise-blue hue. The multiple layers of lively blue glass display a varying translucence, creating a remarkably beautiful effect ($13,000-$18,000).
From the same period is lot 8076, an imperial yellow lotus flower bowl ($4,000-$6,000). The lotus is regarded as an auspicious symbol, carrying strong significance in the Asian culture and Buddhism. When this flower, recognized as one of the Eight Sacred Symbols, is used in Buddhist art the representation conveys a message of purity. The structure of the plant also carries meaning with its dense root and abundant blossoms, seen as signifying prosperity and a strong, solid foundation. The brilliantly hued bowl features layers of incised lotus petals cradled by an undulating lotus leaf rising from the foot of the bowl. The bowl is also accompanied by a finely carved wood stand depicting a lotus pond.
Sure to pique strong collector interest from the Gadient offerings is a rare “snowstorm” multicolored, tiered glass vase. The lower body of the baluster form is speckled with shades of aubergine, turquoise and green glass. The mouth of the rim is an opaque aubergine as well, complementing and echoing the color scheme. A four-character Daoguang reign mark is evident upon the base and the piece measures slightly over 8 inches in height. It has also been recognized as being quite similar to a choice vase held in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing. Although not identical, it is noteworthy that many striking, comparable characteristics parallel the two pieces (lot 8081, $3,000-$5,000).
The breadth of the June Fine Asian Works of Art Sale is evidenced in the selection of offered lots, presenting a valuable opportunity for Michaan’s clients to add a variety of top-tier pieces to their collections. Lots include a rare aloeswood brushpot (lot 8185, $6,000-$8,000), huanghuali folding chairs (lots 8335, 8336, $4,000-$6,000 each lot), a silver Pancharaksha Kalachakra mandala (lot 8104, $4,000-$6,000), a yellow-glazed vase with Jiaqing mark from a prominent San Francisco estate (lot 8262, $10,000-$15,000), Pu Ru (1896-1963) pair of small paintings (lot 8376, $3,000-$5,000) and an enamel decorated silver Shibayama Koro with cover (lot 8396, $3,000-$5,000). The caliber of the property in the sale is sure to entice bidders from around the world and draw interest from personal collectors and dealers alike.
For general inquiries about the auction email info@michaans.com or phone 510-740-0220. Michaan’s Asian art department contacts are Harry Huang, specialist, ext. 135, harry@michaans.com; and Kim Jee, manager, ext. 111, kim@michaans.com.
The decommissioned lightship Nantucket in the port of Boston in August. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. BOSTON (AP) – Robert Mannino apologized as he lowered an ordinary wooden ladder instead of a gangplank for visitors to come aboard the 149-foot Nantucket Lightship/LV-112.
For 39 years, this lightship was ambassador and traffic cop, the first to greet trans-Atlantic travelers on the world’s great ocean liners, and a warning for ships approaching the treacherous Nantucket Shoals.
Now, Mannino, president of the U.S. Lightship Museum Society, wants to renovate the ship and open it as a Boston Harbor maritime museum. It is currently berthed at the Boston Harbor Shipyard and Marina, but will be moved to a more accessible location nearby and open for tours as of July 14.
The LV-112 is the largest and best-known of the 179 lightships that marked hazards in U.S. waters between 1820 and 1982. Only 17 of those vessels survive, nearly half in private ownership. The LV-112 was recently designated a National Historic Landmark, as well as one of only 20 historically and/or architecturally significant buildings or sites selected as National Treasures by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Two years ago, the ship itself had to be rescued from Oyster Bay on Long Island, where it had been neglected for eight years after a failed effort to turn it into a museum. Mannino and his nonprofit group raised $230,000 to move it to Boston, clean the bottom of more than 4 tons of barnacles and marine growth, repaint it and make it seaworthy.
He estimates it will cost $870,000 more for structural repairs, plumbing, heating, electrical and mechanical systems, main engine and auxiliary engine servicing, fire suppression systems and cosmetics.
The vessel is tied securely to the dock but the smell of fuel oil, combined with a rolling swell from a passing vessel was enough to induce queasiness. The officer’s quarters, with the leather bench built into the arc of the stern, and its snug, white bunk rooms, suddenly went from cozy to claustrophobic.
But Boston Harbor is nothing like Nantucket Shoals where this lightship and its crew of 20 stood guard for nearly 40 years. Held in place by a 4-ton mushroom anchor, more than 100 miles from shore, the lightship endured thick fogs and storms with ferocious seas. Its mariners were in isolation for weeks at a time.
“They talk about the perfect storm. You all have three of them every year,” remembered Peter Brunk of Portsmouth, Va., who served as captain of the LV-112 for a year and half from 1970 to 1971.
Nantucket Shoals is an underwater ridge of migrating sand and gravel that extends 24 miles to the east and 40 miles to the southeast of the island. Depths can be as shallow as 3 feet and currents can be strong at 3 to 5 knots. Tidal flows turn sudden corners while running around the trapezoidal shoals, creating a circular current that can turn an anchored vessel sideways to oncoming waves, initiating a nausea-inducing pendulum motion.
“That was a miserable station. The tide runs terrible and you have certain winds out there, put you in the trough,” said Richard Arnold, 82, of Gloucester, who served 20 years in the Coast Guard, including two years on the Nantucket. “She gets in that tide, and you’d be in the trough _ oh my God, the rocking and a-rolling.”
Every hour the current would come from a different direction and inevitably put the boat sideways to oncoming waves, said Brunk. The wind had to be blowing 37 mph or greater before the ship could best the current, swing around on the anchor and face into the waves.
“In the trough, that’s when you find out whether you had sailors or wimps,” Brunk said.
On bad sea days, Mannino said, crewmen would wear coffee cans tied around their neck in which to vomit while they continued working. He’s been in contact with many who served on the Nantucket, and Mannino said there are some who told him jail time would be better than lightship service.
“I thought I was a sailor, being a fisherman. That all changed when I went aboard the lightship,” Arnold said.
Like many who served on the lightship, Arnold’s ears still ring from the foghorn. The ship’s rotating light beam could go 23 miles out to the horizon but it couldn’t penetrate fog. The foghorn’s reach, with a blast as loud as a jetliner at takeoff, was 18 miles. The thick fog conditions nearly half the year meant crewmen had plenty of time to grow to hate the foghorn.
“You could be lying in your bunk and all of a sudden it started. The air compressor vibration woke you up and here you go, the foghorn,” Arnold said. “I suppose you do get used to it. Try to ignore it.”
But while the seamen might complain about the foghorn, they never complained about the seaworthiness of the ship itself.
Built in 1936 for $301,000 as reparation from the British government after its predecessor was rammed by a British ocean liner, the lightship had thick battleship-grade steel, a double hull, and 43 watertight compartments.
“She’s taken a beating over the years,” Arnold said.
No harder a beating than Hurricane Edna dished out in 1954 with 120 mph winds and 70-foot seas.
As Edna came up the coast, weather forecasts changed from gale to hurricane warnings and the men put out lifelines—ropes from bow to stern—to give themselves one more thing to grab.
Although their anemometer broke at 115 mph, the ship was riding fine through most of the storm, Arnold said.
Then, looking out of one of the porthole windows on the bridge, Arnold could see a huge wave forming in the distance.
“When I realized what was going to happen, I turned around and yelled to the chief who was in the captain’s cabin,” Arnold recalled. By the time the chief walked the short distance from the cabin to the bridge, the wave had hit, rolling right over them.
Four portholes on the port side of the bridge were blown inward like cannon shot. The brass ship’s wheel disintegrated, and instruments and controls sparked and caught fire.
“If I’d been standing on that side, they would have taken my head off,” Arnold said. Water was pouring into the bridge and down the stairs into the decks below. Seawater coursed down the smokestacks putting out the fires in the steam boilers, leaving the ship without power. The ship’s rudder also broke.
The force of the blow strained the anchor chain. Even links as thick as a man’s wrist have a breaking point and the chain parted from the anchor.
Adrift without power, the crew’s only hope was to secure the auxiliary anchor. Fortunately, a hurricane-hunting plane burst through the clouds above them and they were able to radio a mayday message and get their position. A quick look at the charts confirmed they were in water shallow enough to drop the anchor.
The problem was that someone had to go out on the bow into winds higher than 100 mph and risk being swept overboard to release the backup anchor. Arnold was one of three who went onto the pitching deck, bent over double against the wind.
“You’re working on adrenaline. You know what you got to do and you do it,” he said.
Once they got the spare anchor over, the ship swung into the sea and rode it out.
“It was rough, it was miserable, but it calmed things down a lot,” he said about the anchor.
But life on the lightship wasn’t all bad weather and misery. There could be calm days with sun. Regulations were more relaxed on a lightship than other ships, and the crew could trade with fishermen, even Russian trawlers for fresh fish. And relief crews brought enough movies to show two a night, Brunk said.
Sometimes there were moments of surreal magic.
Surprise tropical fish would show up, transported north in the warm Gulf Stream waters. One day, a U.S. Navy sub decided to use Brunk’s lightship for torpedo target practice.
Anything unexplained was blamed on the ghost of Edwin Ramsdell, a journalist who died when his plane crashed near the lightship in 1936.
Then there were the ocean liners.
“The captain of the Queen Mary would light up all the ship’s lights, and I’d light up all the lights on the lightship,” Brunk recalled. “And they’d pass by—300, 400 yards away—and you could hear the captain saying, ‘This is the first sighting of America.’”
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-06-14-12 1522GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
The decommissioned lightship Nantucket in the port of Boston in August. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Raphael’s ‘Portrait of a Young Man’ was looted by the Germans from the Czartoryski Museum in 1939. Its current whereabouts are unknown. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
BERLIN (AP) – Call them the looted treasure detectives.
Experts from museums, auction houses, government agencies and other institutions are meeting in Germany this week as part of an international effort to train art-world professionals in recovering art and cultural treasures looted during the Nazi era.
Sixty-seven years after the end of World War II, there are still millions of items that were lost or stolen during the Nazi era that have not been recovered. The items were taken by the Nazis themselves, plundered by the Soviets at the end of the war and even taken home by Allied troops.
The six-day conference that ends Friday in the eastern city of Magdeburg was organized by the European Shoah Legacy Institute and brings together 35 experts from more than a dozen countries.
“The press tends to focus on the high end of the art market, the major paintings and so on, but what was taken was far vaster,” said Wesley Fisher, director of research for the Conference on Jewish Claims Against Germany, which helps administer the program.
This is the first meeting of the new Provenance Research Training Program, which the Shoah Legacy Institute says will be offering similar workshops in other countries to provide advanced training “in issues concerning cultural plunder during the Third Reich, the Holocaust and World War II.”
“This is an attempt to deal worldwide with the fact that there is no training in this,” Fisher said. “There are people who have some expertise … but they have not been formally trained.”
Developing a worldwide network of experts is extremely important in tracking looted art because it often moves through numerous countries, he explained.
The center in Magdeburg was set up by the German government to coordinate the documentation of cultural assets and lost cultural assets across Germany’s 16 states. Many other countries—especially in eastern Europe—have no mechanisms at all for such work, Fisher said.
“Entire libraries were taken—you’re talking about millions of books—and items in people’s home,” he said. “Just taking the genocide of the Jews alone, if you have 6 million people killed, that’s at least 2 million families … and the sheer number of Torahs, menorahs is very great.”
Participants are attending workshops on culture plunder, methodological training, specialized research and restitution policies, as well as discussions on the political, moral and ethical issues of plunder.
Despite the passage of time, Fisher said the job is more relevant than ever.
“Now, over 60 years later, you’re beginning to get a situation where people are passing on and the items then end up in the family estate and are being given up for auction, so many of these things have been coming to the art market,” he said.
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-06-14-12 1310GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Raphael’s ‘Portrait of a Young Man’ was looted by the Germans from the Czartoryski Museum in 1939. Its current whereabouts are unknown. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Salvador Dali at the Maurice Hotel in Paris, 1972. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – The public has been invited to watch a Tampa Bay-area museum restore four masterworks by Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali.
Conservation efforts that are usually off-limits are open for the next two weeks at the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg.
A nine-member team will spend up to 10 hours a day restoring four of the museum’s eight Dali masterworks.
Dali Museum deputy director Joan Kropf tells The Tampa Tribune that the massive canvases haven’t been cleaned since the 1970s. Because of their size, the artworks aren’t covered in glass or kept in the museum’s vault. That exposes them to dirt and other pollutants that can deteriorate the canvases.
The museum has 96 original oil paintings by Dali. It’s the second largest collection of his work outside Spain.
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Information from: The Tampa Tribune, http://www.tampatrib.com
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-06-14-12 1104GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Salvador Dali at the Maurice Hotel in Paris, 1972. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
NEWBURYPORT, Mass. (AP) – Police in Massachusetts are investigating whether an antique store owner accused of breaking into homes in New Hampshire was selling items he allegedly stole at his boutique.
Richard Morrell was held on $10,000 cash bail after pleading not guilty to one charge of receiving stolen property at his arraignment Thursday.
Morrell and his wife run a store called Vintage Diva in downtown Newburyport that describes itself as a seller of antiques, vintage clothing and home decor.
Authorities tell the Daily News of Newburyport that Morrell is suspected of breaking into homes in the New Hampshire communities of Lebanon, Enfield and Grantham.
Dave Rogers, a staff writer for the Eagle-Tribune newspaper in Massachusetts, reported in today’s edition that Morrell was arrested at gunpoint in front of his Horton Street home on Wednesday.
Rogers reported: “The receiving stolen property charge stems from a Seiko stainless steel watch valued at $300 reported missing by a New Hampshire man and found in the trunk of Morrell’s BMW.”
Police say Morrell has prior burglary convictions in New York, Vermont and Florida. He is due back in court on July 11 for a pretrial hearing.
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Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Eiffel Tower, as seen from the Champ de Mars, was built as the entrance arch to the 1889 World’s Fair. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
PARIS (AFP) – Paris authorities are mulling a plan to extend the Eiffel Tower downwards as above ground building would spoil the French capital’s geometry, the head of the landmark’s operating company said Friday.
“Paris Council will deliberate on Tuesday or Wednesday this project for an underground building, we need further studies and we’re moving forward with the project,” deputy mayor in charge of tourism Jean-Bernard Bros told AFP.
Bros, who also heads the steel icon’s operating company SETE, said that the project had been looked at for several months and that a committee had been set up to group together all the extension studies already done.
It is not possible to build at the ground level as “you have to respect the line of sight between the Ecole Militaire and the Trocadero,” Bros said, referring to two landmarks with which the tower is aligned across the Seine.
The two-story underground extension would house the ticket booths currently found inside the edifice’s feet, an Eiffel Tower museum, a children’s area and other visitor amenities.
Visitors currently often have to wait hours in lengthy and chaotic queues zigzagging around the Eiffel Tower to get tickets.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
The Eiffel Tower, as seen from the Champ de Mars, was built as the entrance arch to the 1889 World’s Fair. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
One of several versions of the painting ‘The Scream’ by Edvard Munch (Norwegian, 1863-1944), this one being from the collection of The National Gallery, Oslo, Norway.
OSLO (AFP) – Norway’s trade surplus leapt by an annualized 44.5 percent in May in the wake of bigger oil exports and the record sale of Edvar Munch’s iconic painting The Scream, official data showed on Friday.
The Norwegian Statistics Bureau SSB said the non-European Union country recorded a sharply higher trade surplus of 43.2 billion kroner (5.8 billion euros, $7.1 billion) despite falling crude oil prices.
Exports were 15.5 percent higher in value owing to greater volumes of oil pumped from the country’s huge North Sea reserves, while imports slipped by a modest 0.9 percent, the SSB data showed.
Exports got another boost from the record sale of The Scream in New York on May 3 for $119.9 million.
The painting is one of four versions of a work whose nightmarish central figure and lurid, swirling colors symbolized the existential angst and despair of the modern age.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
One of several versions of the painting ‘The Scream’ by Edvard Munch (Norwegian, 1863-1944), this one being from the collection of The National Gallery, Oslo, Norway.
