July 19, 2012 - Auction Central News

Letters reveal details of search for doomed explorer Scott

Twenty-seven newly discovered letters, 1910-1912, detailing the expedition to find polar explorer Capt. Robert F. Scott.

LONDON – A newly discovered letter describing the discovery of the bodies of Capt. Robert Falcon Scott and his companions on their famous fatal polar journey 100 years ago is to be auctioned.

Written by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, the youngest member of the Terra Nova expedition and one of the 12-man search party who found Scott, the letter will be offered for sale within the Polar section of Christie’s Travel, Science and Natural History auction to be held in South Kensington on Oct. 9.

Preserved by a family member, and hitherto unknown to scholars, the correspondence is part of a series of 27 letters covering the whole span of the expedition from its departure in June 1910 to the sad return of the survivors to New Zealand in February 1913. The correspondence is a major new source by one of the most prominent expedition members and is estimated to fetch between £50,000 and £80,000 ($78,600-$125-800) when sold as a complete collection.

“With hindsight, it feels as if it was always a given that the death of Scott and his companions would be hailed as a paradigm of British heroism, but the letters show us the real fear amongst the expedition members that they would be received as failures, and be subject to hostile criticism, particularly in the press,” said Thomas Venning, Director and Senior Specialist at Christie’s.

The letter dated Nov. 20, 1912, written by expedition-member Cherry-Garrard from the Antarctic, reports, “We have found the bodies of Scott, Wilson & Bowers, and all their records … Their death was, I am quite sure, not a painful one – for men get callous after a period of great hardship – but the long fight before must have been most terrible.” Scott and the doomed polar party of Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers, Lawrence Oates and Edgar Evans had reached the pole on Jan. 17. After the loss of Evans and Oates on the return march, Scott, Wilson and Bowers, battling on against starvation and blizzards, eventually succumbed in their tent around March 29. Cherry-Garrard, who was one of the 12-man search party who found their bodies six months later on Nov. 12, comments in the letter to his mother, “Theirs is a fine story … Wilson & Bowers had died very quietly, probably in their sleep.”

Aged just 24 when he volunteered to join Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition, Cherry-Garrard was its youngest member. His memoir, The Worst Journey in the World, has become one of the classics of polar literature. It draws its title not from the polar journey but from the terrible sufferings he experienced six months earlier during an expedition with Wilson to visit the breeding grounds of the Emperor Penguin at Cape Crozier in the depths of the Antarctic winter—the plans for which he describes with fatal optimism to his mother: “Old Bill … & I are going to Cape Crozier for some time in the winter if all goes well & that will be great fun I think, but of course very cold.”

Cherry-Garrard experienced a physical and mental breakdown in the months after the loss of Scott’s polar party, a period he describes in the correspondence as “about the worst time I have ever had … it has been an absolute hell.” The letters are also notable for his complaints about adverse press coverage of the expedition, which he describes as “nothing less than a tissue of lies,” and his fears of “hostile criticism” on his return home. In the event, Scott and his companions were instantly elevated to the pantheon of British heroism, and it was to be more than 50 years before a critical reassessment of the expedition took place.

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Space shuttle Enterprise goes on display in New York

A Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, flies over New York City carrying the Space Shuttle Enterprise to its final destination in April 2012. Photo by Tiffany Moy.

The Space Shuttle Enterprise, as seen from the offices of LiveAuctioneers.com, was originally named the 'Constitution.' NASA officials changed the name to 'Enterprise' after Star Trek fans organized a letter-writing campaign to have it renamed. Photo by Tiffany Mamone. — The Space Shuttle Enterprise, as seen from the offices of LiveAuctioneers.com, was originally named the ‘Constitution.’ NASA officials changed the name to ‘Enterprise’ after Star Trek fans organized a letter-writing campaign to have it renamed. Photo by Tiffany Mamone.

NEW YORK (AFP) – A New York aerospace museum opened the space shuttle Enterprise to the public Thursday.

The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum has installed the space shuttle on the deck of the aircraft carrier Intrepid, a museum facility docked at a pier on Manhattan’s West Side.

NASA administrator Charles Bolden and museum president Susan Marenoff-Zausner presided over the exhibit’s opening ceremony Thursday, joined by three of Enterprise’s original four pilots.

The ceremony launched the museum’s five-day space festival, with exhibits and educational demonstrations to usher in its latest acquisition.

NASA retired Enterprise, a prototype completed in 1976, from its nearly four-decade tenure as a test craft this year, after its flight over the Manhattan skyline, past the Statue of Liberty to New York’s JFK airport in April.

In June, the craft was transported from the airport to the museum by barge.

Space shuttle Discovery was flown to Washington last April. Discovery is open to the public at a headquarters of the National Air and Space Museum in nearby Virginia.

Space shuttle Endeavor is now on view at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, and space shuttle Atlantis is available at the Kennedy Space Center in Orlando, Fla.

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Diary of an artist-in-residence: Report from Verbier #7

Blissful relaxation as we arrive on location. Photo by Jonathan Wright.

VERBIER, Switzerland – The first couple of weeks in Verbier are already a blur. I am working myself as hard as I can to complete a second work for the park. At the same time I am becoming familiar with the surroundings of my temporary home, including visits to the local supermarkets. I find one good value for coffee and granola, another good buy for reasonably priced wine. The Kings Hotel where we are staying has the best coffee in town and the staff in the local hardware shop all speak good English. This is a real blessing when one is trying to buy a double-ended wood screw or an adapter for a star key to a half-inch chuck. Technical terms can be tricky in a foreign language.

What’s most remarkable about the mountains is their ability to change. There has not been one morning when they look the same. The light here is simply magical. It illuminates and shadows, dapples and caresses the slopes. Its progress is interrupted by an equally varied range of cloud. This morning everything is shrouded in thick fog that dampens every sound and creates an atmosphere of calm. The cable car ride is a strangely quiet. I am lost in a cloud, literally, and struggle to estimate how long my journey is lasting. Suddenly the car rises out of the cloud and sits above it in a blaze of sunlight. Slightly dazed, I alight with my special Verbier rucksack, a gift from the tourist office, laden with water and sun cream ready to begin my marathon task of digging the channels for my earthing straps.

This is not a task I relish and I have to dig deep into my sense of self-parody to steel myself for the hard work. I find in these situations that talking to myself helps a lot, obviously checking regularly that I have no audience. After a few swipes with my pickax I find that I have to throw myself to the ground, my chest heaving and the sweat already breaking on my brow. “First foot done,” I wheeze…This is going to be a long day.

By 5 o’clock that evening I decide that I have had enough of digging. Fifteen meters out of forty dug—not bad going, especially at this altitude. My next rite of passage is to walk back down the mountain. The cable cars stop at 4:30 at this time of year so I actually have no option.

Kiki had told me that the walk is a superb one, passing through wooded areas and pasture and a small hamlet. It is true that it was picturesque. I even saw grazing deer on my descent.

There is a problem, however, with walking down a 40-degree incline for an hour and a half, the front of my thighs were on fire and my ankles felt like they were buckling under me. I have to admit that I wished it could be over. Indeed by the time I make it back to the hotel it is time for supper and I am certainly ready for it.

Supper is very relaxed. We are joined by Sarah and Linda and the newly returned Kerry Jane. These three are our indispensable helpers, translators and guardian angels. The return of Paul, our curator, and our New York City gallery contact, the charming and charismatic Alaina, means that the Vernissage is imminent. The pace of everything is about to change as press releases are prepared, artists’ statements are gathered and photographs of works are taken.

The following day dawns and the enormous truck has arrived to transport our works up the mountain. The absurdly long hydraulic arm is deftly maneuvered by the driver, and Onyedika’s huge wooden carving is loaded along with my tower and my slab—an extremely nerve racking time as I loosen various wires and pack the now horizontal work. We will have to follow the truck up the mountain road in Julien’s slightly exhausted Toyota pickup.

The road is a crazy switchback of turns and more than once my heart is in my mouth as my work almost grazes the wall or the bank. I cannot bear to watch. The driver was a good one, a very good one, and he smiles at me as he senses my relief on reaching our destination.

So it is that we have reached the final stage, a couple of days and the work must be finished and ready for the public.

I hope Julien has not run out of Abricotine because I think we all need a drink this evening.

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Seb maneuvers the tower. Photo by Jonathan Wright.

Awaiting installation. Photo by Jonathan Wright.

Sabin, Alou and Seb organize a new work. Photo by Jonathan Wright.

Travel advice offered for visitors to 2012 Games in London

LONDON – Whether you are planning on attending the Games this summer or simply live in the London area and will be driving on the roads during that particularly busy time, you’ll need a few pointers as to the best way to get around. Lancaster Insurance Services have looked into the best road advice for classic car enthusiasts on the city routes this summer.

Wherever possible, try to avoid driving into the affected areas. If this is not possible, make sure you leave with plenty of time to make your journey. The changes will take effect several days before the London 2012 events begin on July 27 and will continue for few days after the events end on the Aug. 12.

Some of the major road routes in London will be part of the Games events, and in those cases, there will be diversion signs. It is also important to be aware that there will be minor temporary changes to traffic signals, restricted turns into side roads, suspension of parking/loading bays and some pedestrian crossings will also be closed so check your route before driving.

General top tips to ensure your journey is as hassle free as possible (from getaheadofthegames.com):

Identify the travel hot spots

Plan your route in advance and allow ample additional time to reach your destination

Consider all possible travel options

Avoid the busiest times if you can

Avoid driving into affected areas when at all possible

If you plan on using public transport, bookyour travel in advance to save time and money. If your destination is close enough, consider walking or cycling. It may be your fastest option.

For detailed information about possible travel disruption in your area visit www.getaheadofthegames.com.

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Bernini’s terra-cotta models bring Baroque Rome to Met

Entrance to Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2007 photo by Arad, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

NEW YORK – The great Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680) will be the subject of a major exhibition that will open at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Oct. 3.

To visualize life-size or colossal works in marble, Bernini began by rapidly modeling small clay sketches. Fired as terra-cotta, these studies are bold, expressive works in their own right. Together with related drawings, they preserve the first traces of Bernini’s fervid imagination and unique creative process that evolved into some of the most famous and spectacular statuary in Rome, including the fountains in the Piazza Navona and the angels on the Ponte Sant’ Angelo.

“Bernini: Sculpting in Clay” will feature 50 of these terra-cotta sketch models, shown together for the first time, with 30 drawings. Due to unprecedented loans especially granted for this occasion, the exhibition will be the first to retrace Bernini’s unparalleled approach to sculptural design, and his use of vigorous clay studies and drawings in directing the largest workshop of his time. The exhibition will offer viewers a more profound insight into the artist’s dazzling creative mind, and his impact on the fabric of Baroque Rome.

The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini was the most famous and important sculptor in 17th-century Europe, best known for his stunning works in marble that still decorate many of the churches and piazzas of Rome today. Bernini examined problems of construction and design by modeling damp clay with his fingers and tools with incredible dexterity. He used these studies and related drawings to decide on the perspective of his compositions. “Bernini: Sculpting in Clay” will present an overview of his career and showcase his full range as a modeler by assembling almost all of his surviving terra-cottas, including 15 from the Harvard Art Museums, the largest collection of Bernini terra-cottas in the world, on loan for the first time.

Bernini’s liveliest terra-cottas divulge an impassioned imagination and also raise the curtain on the practical side of sculpture-making. Unlike his contemporaries, Bernini often fashioned his clay figures in groups, and the two such groups that survive will be recreated in the exhibition. Occasionally, he also presented more finished models to his patrons to win commissions or to his assistants to use as guides in carving. The exhibition will also treat the role of drawing in Bernini’s design process and, where possible, the drawings and the models to which they relate will be displayed together. These juxtapositions will make clear the evolution of Bernini’s own works, as he shifted between media, and will allow visitors to follow the many steps of his creative process. Significant clay studies by his closest assistants will also be on display to illustrate the practice of sculpture production in his studio.

“Bernini: Sculpting in Clay” will include other outstanding loans from international museums such as the Musée du Louvre, Paris, the Vatican Museums, the Museo del Palazzo di Venezia, Rome, the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. Many of these loans have never been seen in the United States. Highlights will include a dynamic terra-cotta model for the lion (circa 1649-50) destined for the base of the Four Rivers Fountain in the center of the Piazza Navona in Rome; the series of models for the Angel with Superscription (1668-69); the Moor (1653), Bernini’s largest surviving model; and drawings and clay sketches for the Kneeling Angels (1672) on the Altar of the Blessed Sacrament in Saint Peter’s Basilica.

The exhibition will be featured on the museum’s website at www.metmuseum.org.

After its run at the Metropolitan Museum, which ends Jan. 6, “Bernini: Sculpting in Clay” will be on view at the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, from Feb. 3 through April 14.

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Mars Inc. gives Smithsonian $5M to build business exhibit

Vintage Milky Way candy boxes. Frank C. Mars created the Milky Way chocolate bar in 1923. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Classic Edge Auctions.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Candy maker Mars Inc. is donating $5 million to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to create a new gallery focused on business and innovation in the United States dating back to the 1700s, the museum announced Wednesday.

The McLean, Va.-based maker of Snickers, M&Ms and pet foods will be the lead sponsor of a planned “American Enterprise” exhibit. The 8,000-square-foot multimedia gallery will trace the nation’s economic development from a small agricultural nation to one of the world’s largest economies.

In announcing the gift, Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough said it will tell a broad story about business for visitors of all ages. The Smithsonian is naming the gallery the Mars Hall of American Business. It is scheduled to open in 2015 after a renovation of the museum’s west wing.

The overhaul also marks an effort to expand the museum’s content beyond its roots in technology, cultural and political history. A 2002 blue-ribbon commission questioned, in part, why its exhibits didn’t explore capitalism and the growth of a broad middle class, among other under-represented subjects.

The new gallery will include John Deere’s plow and Eli Whitney’s cotton gin among objects that show the development of U.S. agriculture. The gallery also will showcase Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephones, Alfred Bloomingdale’s personal credit cards and Michael Dell’s early computers. A New York Stock Exchange booth from 1929 also will help tell the story of the stock market crash and the Great Depression.

Curators said the hall will include landmark advertising campaigns to examine the marketing of products and growth of the nation’s consumer culture. An interactive section called “The Exchange” will give visitors a chance to try their hands at choosing marketing strategies, investing money and testing their wits against actual case studies.

Mars President Paul Michaels said it will be an exhibit that honors the innovation of businesses and entrepreneurs. He said the company wanted to support an exhibit that would show how U.S. companies and individuals have “fundamentally, and positively, changed the way the world works.”

The candy maker dates back to 1911 when Frank C. Mars made his first Mars candies in his kitchen in Tacoma, Wash. The Milky Way candy bar was launched in the 1920s. Now the company has net sales of more than $30 billion across a variety of businesses.

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http://americanenterprise.si.edu/

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Follow Brett Zongker on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat

AP-WF-07-18-12 1358GMT

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FBI recovers stolen Matisse a decade after museum heist

MIAMI (AFP) – FBI agents have recovered what is believed to be a Matisse painting valued at $3 million that was stolen from a Venezuelan museum 10 years ago, and arrested two suspects, authorities said Wednesday.

Pedro Antonio Marcuello Guzman, 46, of Miami, and Maria Martha Elisa Ornelas Lazo, 50, of Mexico City, were arrested and charged for transporting and possessing what is thought to be Matisse’s Odalisque in Red Pants, which was reported stolen from a museum in Caracas, U.S. prosecutors said in a statement.

Marcuello Guzman and Ornelas Lazo made their first court appearance on Wednesday, and a pretrial hearing was set for July 20, said the federal prosecutors in Florida.

If convicted, the defendants each face a possible maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison, the statement said.

Prosecutors said Marcuello Guzman admitted to the undercover agents during a meeting that the 1925 painting was stolen, and arranged to have it delivered to the United States from Mexico as part of the deal.

Ornelas Lazo reportedly acted as the courier. Upon presentation of the work to the agents on Tuesday, the pair were arrested, the statement said.

Local media earlier had reported a man and a woman tried to sell the painting to undercover FBI agents posing as art collectors at the Loews Hotel in the tourist hub of Miami Beach on Tuesday.

The museum of contemporary art in Caracas had acquired the painting in 1981 from the Marlborough Gallery in New York for nearly half a million dollars.

It had been on display ever since at the Venezuelan museum, except for a brief loan for a Spanish exhibition in 1997, but officials there discovered in 2003 that the painting that was hanging was a fake.

They were unable to determine exactly when the work was taken or who was responsible for the robbery.

Agents from the international police organization Interpol, the FBI and Venezuelan, British, Spanish and French police struggled to find any trace of the painting over the next decade.

Miami has grown into a dynamic art market, especially for contemporary works, in part thanks to the annual Art Basel show that attracts some of the most prominent buyers and art galleries in the world.

Ai Weiwei’s lawyer pessimistic awaiting tax case verdict

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 Ai Weiwei is unlikely to win a a multimillion-dollar tax case that was filed against a company he founded when a court announces a verdict Friday, the activist’s lawyer said.

The Beijing Chaoyang court has worked with the government, police and prosecutors to trump up charges against Fake Cultural Development Ltd, a firm Ai founded, but which is legally registered to his wife, the lawyer said.

“We should be able to win this case, but from what we have seen so far, this is unlikely,” Ai’s lawyer Pu Zhiqiang told AFP.

“Originally this should have been a very simple case, but the government, police, prosecutors and the courts have tried to make this very complicated on all fronts.”

“We hope everything will become clear in accordance with legal regulations and procedures, but we are not holding out much hope.”

Ai, an internationally acclaimed artist, has said China’s Communist Party regime is seeking to “crush” him due to his social activism and criticism of authority.

The 54-year-old artist, who disappeared into custody for 81 days last year as police rounded up dissidents amid online calls for Arab Spring-style protests in China, was not immediately available for comment Thursday.

He was barred from attending the June 20 trial of the case due to a year-long bail period that expired last month and hoped to attend Friday’s hearing, Pu said.

But the court has already said the five seats open in the nominally “public hearing” have already been taken, Pu said.

After being released from police detention—which supporters say was illegal—Fake Cultural Development was accused of tax evasion and ordered either to pay 15 million yuan ($2.4 million) in alleged back taxes and penalties 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 wave of donations from supporters. In April, lawyers for Fake Cultural Development filed a lawsuit against the tax bureau, which was heard in June.

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