NEW YORK – Leila “Lee” Dunbar, former head of Sotheby’s Collectibles department and longtime Antiques Roadshow sports memorabilia appraiser, will speak on the subject of valuing sports collectibles on Monday evening, Oct. 1, at the Salmagundi Club in Manhattan.
A Certified Member of the Appraisers Association, Dunbar will demystify the process of reviewing and valuing sports memorabilia and offer specific resources for authentication and valuation. The lecture will benefit both collectors and general antiques dealers who want to know how to value sports items that may turn up in estates and consignments.
Those who’ve watched Dunbar in action through her television appearances know they can expect an entertaining, highly informative lecture on Monday evening. The start time for the two-hour talk is 6 p.m., and the cost of admission is $25 ($15 to Appraisers Association members).
The Salmagundi Club is located at 47 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10003. For additional information log on to www.appraisersassoc.org or call 212-889-5404.
Cindy Sherman photograph, untitled. Roland Auctions image. NEW YORK – Roland Auctions’ October Anniversary Auction will be held Saturday, Oct. 6, beginning at 11 a.m. EDT. This sale marks Roland’s two-year anniversary and, with over 600 exciting lots, is expected to be fast-paced and well attended. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide the Internet live bidding during the sale.
Twentieth century design remains a strong focus at Roland, with this sale’s highlights including a polychrome-decorated hall bench by Peter Hunt from the Doris Duke Collection, an outstanding Italian desk attributed to Gio Ponti (purchased from well-known modern pioneer Fred Silberman), and an early Isamu Noguchi Akari standing lamp. Earlier examples include a finely carved easel by Lockwood de Forest, an important Greuby vase and an early Gustav Stickley dining table.
Along with this excellent offering of modern design, there are many extraordinary works of modern art for the collector. A Cindy Sherman photograph, an early Andy Warhol silkscreen, Robert Neffson and Robert Birmelin paintings all offer excellent opportunities to invest in the modern art market while claiming an impressive work of art for your collection.
Included in the auction is the property from a most intriguing Beekman Place estate, which showcased a collection of antique Georgian furniture, fine 18th and 19th century porcelains, a substantial group of table silver and some fine pieces of estate jewelry. Many of these pieces descended through the family, members of whom served as Secretary of the Navy and highly regarded journalists and close friends of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. With an array of fine silver, 18k gold Tiffany and Cartier jewels, fine watches and well-cared for English and American antiques, Sevres, Meissen and other porcelain, this is a collection that will be fought over at auction.
One of the highlights of the Oct. 6 sale is the impressive group of old master paintings. With a multitude of genres and countries of origin, there is sure to be something to appeal to every taste. A few highlights from this selection of paintings and sculpture include H. Moreau, J. Staples, J. Clayton, J. Groth, T.B. Pitman, (after) F.H. Drouais and N. Bedrossian.
There are many treasures in this auction. Magnificent bronze sconces, a collection of antique barometers, a Steinway grand piano, diamonds and much more await to be sold.
The Isleworth Mona Lisa. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
GENEVA (AP) – A Zurich-based foundation attempted to prove to the world Thursday that Leonardo Da Vinci painted an earlier version of the Mona Lisa – a claim doubted by at least one expert on the multifaceted Renaissance artist.
The Mona Lisa Foundation, which has been working with the anonymous owners of the “Isleworth Mona Lisa,” says that after 35 years of research, experts believe it predates the famed 16th-century masterpiece by some 11 or 12 years based on regression tests, mathematical comparisons and historical and archival records.
“So far, not one scientific test has been able to disprove that the painting is by Leonardo,” said art historian Stanley Feldman, a foundation member and principal author of a foundation book titled Mona Lisa: Leonardo’s Earlier Version released Thursday. “We have used methods that were not available to Leonardo 500 years ago.”
“When we do a very elementary mathematical test, we have discovered that all of the elements of the two bodies – the two people, the two sitters – are in exactly the same place,” Feldman told The Associated Press by phone. “It strikes us that in order for that to be so accurate, so meticulously exact, only the person who did one did the other … It’s an extraordinary revelation in itself, and we think it’s valid.”
The Isleworth painting – likewise a portrait of a young woman with an enigmatic smile – is slightly larger, was painted on canvas and has brighter colors than the famed Louvre Museum masterpiece painted on wood. The posture, folded hand positions, faces, expressions and clothing are similar, while the landscape in the background is different.
The foundation says the painting turned up in the home of an English nobleman in the late 1800s – thus the connection to Isleworth – and was shipped to the United States for safekeeping during World War I. After the war, it was analyzed in Italy, and eventually taken to Switzerland where it remained in a bank vault for the last 40 years, the group said.
The Isleworth Mona Lisa has been known publicly for generations – if forgotten by the broader public – and the book excerpts numerous news headlines about the painting and the possibility of its Da Vinci connection in the early 20th century.
Martin Kemp, an Oxford University professor and Leonardo expert, wrote in an e-mail that “the reliable primary evidence provides no basis for thinking that there was ‘an earlier’ portrait of Lisa del Giocondo” – referring to the subject of the painting that’s known as the Mona Lisa in English and La Joconde in French.
Kemp questioned the “debatable interpretations” of source material about the Isleworth painting, and said that scientific analysis cannot categorically deny that Da Vinci didn’t paint it. However, he added: “The infrared reflectography and X-ray points very strongly to its not being by Leonardo.”
“The Isleworth Mona Lisa miss-translates subtle details of the original, including the sitter’s veil, her hair, the translucent layer of her dress, the structure of the hands … ” Kemp wrote. “The landscape is devoid of atmospheric subtlety. The head, like all other copies, does not capture the profound elusiveness of the original.”
The Louvre Museum declined to comment.
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-09-26-12 2310GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
The Isleworth Mona Lisa. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, bought for $7 at a flea market, is no longer up for auction this weekend after a US museum alleged it was stolen more than 60 years ago.
In a statement Thursday, auctioneers Potomack said it had checked the respected FBI and Art Lost Register lists of stolen art when “Paysage Bords de Seine” was consigned for sale last year.
The 19th century landscape had been acquired by an anonymous Virginia resident for $7 at a Shenandoah Valley flea market as part of a box lot that also included a plastic cow and a Paul Bunyan doll.
Potomack, based in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, planned to auction the painting — with an estimated value of $75,000 to $100,000 — on Saturday. But then the Baltimore Museum of Art stepped into the picture, alerting the auctioneers Wednesday it had evidence that the small but vibrant painting had been stolen in 1951, although there is no police record of the theft.
The landscape had been loaned to the museum by Baltimore heiress Saidie May in 1937, 11 years after its acquisition by its last documented buyer, her former husband Henry May, from a Parisian art dealer.
“Potomack is relieved this came to light in a timely manner as we do not want to sell any item without clear title,” said Potomack’s proprietor Elizabeth Wainstein, who has alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“Our objective in conducting a sale is always to ensure fairness and finality both for the consignor and for the buying public. Postponing the sale of the Renoir painting is the best way of achieving that objective.”
Renoir, who died in 1919 at the age of 78, was a giant of the French Impressionist movement, and his paintings remain highly coveted by art collectors — and art thieves — worldwide.
Earlier this month the FBI added another Renoir, “Madeleine Leaning on Her Elbow with Flowers in Her Hair,” to its Top Ten Art Crimes list. Stolen from a Houston, Texas home in 2011, it is thought to be worth $1 million.
