TIRANA, Albania (AFP) – Several frescoes by a master painter were vandalized and some of their parts stolen from a 16th-century Orthodox church in southern Albania, an official said Wednesday
“Several frescoes were savagely damaged with axes and knives while some of their parts were stolen,” Arber Kadija, a culture ministry official, told AFP.
Fragments of the wall paintings were found on the ground at the St. Paraskevi church in Vlash, a small village some 60 kilometers south of the capital, Tirana, Kadija said.
Police were investigating whether the incident was linked to illegal art trafficking or “an extremist act,” he added.
The historic church was vandalized twice, on Dec. 31 and Jan. 4, Kadija said. It was unclear why the damage was not reported earlier.
Art historian Auron Tare called the destruction of the frescoes a “most serious crime.”
Most of the frescoes, created by Albania’s best-known icon painter, Onufri – renowned for the intensity of his colors and his humanist scenes of Orthodox iconography – were “badly damaged,” he said.
But Tare noted that the perpetrators neglected to steal the church’s most prominent fresco depicting the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus.
Most of Albania’s 2.8 million inhabitants are Muslims. Orthodox and Catholic Christians make up around 17 percent of the population.
In the past two years, more than 20 Orthodox churches and monasteries have been looted, according to Gentian Stratoberdha, an official of the Albanian Orthodox Church.
He insisted that the authorities should do more to protect some 170 Orthodox shrines in Albania.
Since the fall of communism in the 1990s, more than 2,000 icons and hundreds of works of art have been stolen from museums, archaeological sites and churches in Albania.
In 2008, 18 icons were taken from the Byzantine church of Saint Mary in the southern town Labova. The perpetrators have never been found.
In 2011, the government allocated some 200,000 euros ($266,000) for the protection of the country’s cultural heritage, to the dismay of experts who said the amount was insufficient.
The Rodin Museum in Paris is loaning 50 works by the 19th century sculptor to the exhibition, including ‘The Kiss.’ Image courtesy of Wikimedia Common.
PARIS (AFP) – Fancy a slice of art in between flights?
Culture vultures now have a chance to satisfy their on-the-go urges with a new museum in the heart of France’s largest airport, showcasing collections from top art institutions.
Meant as a “window” onto the capital’s main museums, the exhibition space unveiled Tuesday at Charles de Gaulle international airport will allow passengers “to get to know Paris’ rich cultural offering better,” said Pascal Bourgue, marketing and services director at Aeroports de Paris.
Open between the first flight of the day and the last, and offering free entry to all passengers transiting through terminal 2E, the “Museum Space” as it has been dubbed is set to display original works, on loan from Parisian museums, he said.
Nestled between the waiting lounges and boutiques, the space designed by architects Willmotte Pere et Fils blends wood, glass and steel in its decor.
The 2,700-square-foot area targets long-haul international passengers, many of them bound for Asia.
For its inaugural six-month exhibition, organizers reached out to the Rodin Museum which loaned some 50 works by the 19th-century sculptor, including The Thinker and The Kiss.
The Rodin Museum’s director Catherine Chevillot hailed the initiative as “unusual and original,” and a way to “reach an audience which isn’t necessarily familiar with museums.”
After Rodin, the gallery is expected to host two six-month exhibitions a year, although it has not yet disclosed which museums are taking part.
Francis Briest, president of the fund set up to finance the space, says the art institutions involved will get a chance to showcase their collections to a wider audience.
A similar museum exists within Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands, but it is dedicated solely to the country’s national museum, the Rijksmuseum. American gallerist Larry Gagosian in October also opened an exhibition space at Le Bourget airport nearby, but that targets a more limited audience of private jet passengers.
With a record number of 61.6 million passengers having passed through the doors of Charles de Gaulle airport last year, the museum expects to host between 1,500 and 2,000 visitors a day.
“On an average, passengers spend between one and a half to two hours in the airport. During that time, they’re relaxed and open to this type of experience,” Bourgue said.
“The goal is to make this area a real cultural space, with a vibrant and dynamic offering,” Briest said.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
The Rodin Museum in Paris is loaning 50 works by the 19th century sculptor to the exhibition, including ‘The Kiss.’ Image courtesy of Wikimedia Common.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Quinn & Farmer’s catalog auction featuring exquisite fine jewelry and other estate treasures will be held at the company’s Charlottesville gallery on Saturday, Jan. 19. Internet live bidding will be provided by LiveAuctioneers.com.
The 377-lot auction will open with a wonderful selection of antique, vintage and custom-designed jewelry valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars. A star lot is the pair of signed Cartier platinum, diamond and sapphire drop earrings. The focal point of the design is the two natural, unheated, matched blue Ceylon sapphire briolettes, weighing 9.20 carats and 10.42 carats, respectively. They are enhanced by two square diamonds, each weighing approximately .12 carats, and 109 single-cut diamonds, each with a .80 carat weight. The superbly designed earrings may realize $20,000-$30,000 at auction.
An example of graceful 18th-century American furniture at its best is the rare circa 1760-1780 three-piece Connecticut Queen Anne cherry secretary/bookcase on frame. It features a bonnet top with three finials, cabinet doors that open to a five-compartment interior, and a fall-front desk that opens to envelope slots and small drawers. The piece also has four graduated drawers with brass pulls, a carved shell skirt and claw-and-ball feet. It stands 50 5/8 inches tall and is estimated at $10,000-$15,000.
For information on any lot in the sale, call 434-293-2904 or e-mail info@quinnsauction.com.
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – A St. Paul man has been sentenced to three years of probation for claiming his pricey art had been stolen and then collecting insurance money.
A federal judge also ordered Jason Sheedy to pay more than $325,000 in restitution to insurance companies. The 39-year-old Sheedy could have gone to prison for more than two years.
Federal prosecutors say Sheedy claimed some valuable artwork had been stolen from a van while he was moving in September 2007. The following year he filed insurance claims and was sent checks totaling about $345,000. In 2011, Sheedy listed six of the painting he said were stolen on an art brokerage website.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press says an art theft registry business spotted the paintings and alerted police. Sheedy pleaded guilty to wire fraud last year.
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Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, http://www.twincities.com
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Snofru’s Bent Pyramid lies just beyond the disputed cemetery. Image by Michael Hoefner. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
DAHSHOUR, Egypt (AP) – In this more than 4,500-year-old pharaonic necropolis, Egypt’s modern rituals of the dead are starting to encroach on its ancient ones. Steamrollers flatten the desert sand, and trucks haul in bricks as villagers build rows of tombs in a new cemetery nearly up to the feet of Egypt’s first pyramids and one of its oldest temples.
The illegal expansion of a local cemetery has alarmed antiquities experts, who warn the construction endangers the ancient, largely unexplored complex of Dahshour, where pharaoh Sneferu experimented with the first true, smooth-sided pyramids that his son Khufu – better known as Cheops – later took to new heights at the more famous Giza Plateau nearby.
The encroachment also reflects the turmoil of today’s Egypt, two years after the uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
Police, still in disarray since the revolution, do nothing to enforce regulations. Fired up by the sense of rebellion against authority, Egyptians feel little fear of taking what they want, sometimes to redress neglect or corruption by authorities, sometimes just for personal gain. Also, as the new Islamist rulers and their opponents struggle over the country’s identity, experts fear Egypt’s ancient monuments, which hard-liners see as pagan, could pay the price in neglect.
In the case of Dahshour, villagers say their cemeteries are full and authorities don’t give permits or land for new ones. So they took matters into their own hands and grabbed what they insist is empty desert to erect family tombs.
“The dearest thing for us is burying our dead,” said Mohammed Abdel-Qader, a resident of nearby Manshiet Dahshour. “This land here is wide and flat, it’s a valley. Where are the antiquities they talk about? … We have no antiquities here.”
The problem is not just at Dahshour. An explosion of illegal building the past two years is endangering Egypt’s ancient treasures around the country, authorities say. Locals living next to some of most beloved pharaonic sites – including the famed Giza Pyramids outside Cairo – are seizing land, building homes, laying farmland or selling off parcels, said Mohammed Youssef, head of antiquities for Dahshour.
At the same time, looting has become more brazen in many places. Just a few weeks ago, several guards at Dahshour were shot and wounded when they confronted thieves doing an illegal dig during the night, he said.
The cemetery expansion is the most dangerous encroachment yet because of how close it comes to the Dahshour monuments, which are on the UNESCO World Heritage site list, Youssef said. Moreover, Dahshour is largely unexcavated, since the area was a closed military zone until 1996. What remains buried is believed to be a treasure trove shedding light on the largely unknown early dynasties.
“When you build something over archaeological site, you change everything. We can’t dig in and know what is inside,” Youssef told The Associated Press. “This is the only virgin site in all of Egypt.”
The area is part of the vast Memphis necropolis where pharaohs built their monumental funeral complexes stretching south from Giza in the desert along the Nile Valley.
The construction started suddenly about two weeks ago, apparently when one villager added a new tomb in the desert on the edge of an existing cemetery, guards and residents said. Word went out and hundreds of residents from at least four neighboring villages descended on the site to build tombs of their own, up a small desert valley.
Police did nothing to stop them – nor did the military, still stationed nearby.
The tombs are small complexes on their own, built mainly of cheap white bricks. Each is a walled courtyard with multiple enclosed niches where multiple family members can be buried.
Rows of them now cover several acres inside the UNESCO-defined antiquities zone of Dahshour, coming to within 150 meters of Sneferu’s Valley Temple. The site is the first known such valley temple, which later each pharaoh would build in connection with his pyramid.
Adjacent to the construction is the crumbled 3,800-year-old Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III, an area that has faced heavy looting over the past two years. Just beyond towers Sneferu’s Bent Pyramid, dating some 700 years earlier, with its distinctive bent sides believed to have been caused when the builders had to correct a too-steep angle of ascent half-way through construction. Farther away is the Red Pyramid, in which Sneferu’s builders got the job right, producing the first smooth-sided pyramid, evolving from the stepped structures built by earlier dynasties.
The state minister of antiquities Mohammed Ibrahim said in a statement Monday that an order had been issued to remove the construction and the Interior Ministry, in charge of police, had been asked to carry it out. “The financial resources of the ministry are not enough” to protect the sites, it said.
The question is whether it will be implemented. Younes said the military would have to get involved since police have refused to act. He said past requests for orders to remove illegal construction at archaeological sites had been ignored. “There is no deterrent,” he said.
He also worries that the rise of Islamists to power brings a dismissive attitude to pre-Islamic antiquities.
He pointed out that pharaonic treasures – a key part of the country’s identity – are mentioned in the Islamist-drafted constitution only as “an afterthought,” just in terms of maintaining sites. In fact, the constitution doesn’t refer directly to pharaonic sites or Egypt’s ancient civilization at all, making only a vague reference to “heritage.”
Some at the construction site said they were sure Islamist President Mohammed Morsi won’t order the removal of the modern cemetery because he was a believer and respects Islam’s ways.
Authorities may be wary of forcibly removing the construction and risking a clash with the villagers, who say they won’t go unless they are given a new site nearby and compensation for what they have already built.
Ehab Eddin el-Haddad, one resident building a burial plot, said removing the tombs would require “killing these people, and it would mean a return to the old regime … it would be the return of repression.” Nearby, workers slapped together bricks for a new wall and a heavy machine flattened the earth for construction.
The villagers come from a string of nearby farming communities crammed amid the palm groves in the narrow, verdant strip of the Nile Valley, where land is limited as Egypt’s population of 85 million swells. Residents said they were desperate for new space for burial plots, pointing to old family tombs they said were full. Authorities balked at issuing permits for new tombs or demanded exorbitant fees and bribes, several residents said.
“What can people do with their dead? They can’t throw them in the canal,” said Ali Orabi, a local farmer. “There is death and there is birth, these things don’t stop … You dignify the dead by burying them.”
El-Haddad said nearby land had been set aside to expand the cemetery but after the revolution it was seized by armed local “thugs” who started building houses on it and selling off plots, a common problem with Egypt’s new lawlessness.
Like many others, he resented the authorities’ concern over antiquities and tourism that the villagers say benefit only rich Egyptians, corrupt officials and foreign archaeologists, with no gains for the poor.
“Where is the gold that came out of this land? All smuggled out,” said el-Haddad. “I’m not waiting for some half-naked foreigner to come take out what she finds in the cemeteries. What do I get out of it? … I want a place to be buried in.”
Antiquities theft is believed to be big business in Egypt, fueled by postrevolution chaos, and press reports often accuse local officials of involvement, though few cases have gone to court.
The fear is that looters could also use the construction as cover, even if the villagers are acting out of a legitimate need for land, said Monica Hanna, an independent archaeologist who has worked at Dahshour. Hills nearby are dotted by pits from digs by thieves searching for treasure, mostly from last year.
In the area in general, “there has been more looting than scientific excavation,” Hanna said.
Saleh Mohammed Shafei, a 77-year-old villager, acknowledged that “there are people who come and dig at night” – but said those like him who are building tombs had nothing to do with the thieves.
“Where else would people go” with their dead, he said. “These people are building because they’re forced to. These old tombs are filled, some three layers deep.”
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-01-14-13 2135GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Snofru’s Bent Pyramid lies just beyond the disputed cemetery. Image by Michael Hoefner. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
A view of the new plaza from the steps of the Fifth Avenue entrance. Construction should be completed in fall 2014. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
NEW YORK – Government leaders and museum officials formally broke ground for the new plaza and fountains at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday.
Chairman Daniel Brodsky, Director and CEO Thomas P. Campbell, and President Emily K. Rafferty led ceremonies marking symbolically the start of work on the redesigned, four-block-long outdoor plaza that runs in front of the landmark Fifth Avenue facade, from 80th to 84th streets in Manhattan. Although construction commenced with excavation in October, the official groundbreaking originally scheduled for November was postponed in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
Brodsky announced that the new outdoor plaza, which will open to the public in fall 2014, will be named “The David H. Koch Plaza.” Koch, a Museum Trustee, contributed the entire $65 million cost of the project.
“Six million pedestrians walk along these sidewalks every year. More than 2,000 museum staff and volunteers enter and exit every day. Thousands more ride by in buses and taxis. We believe all these constituencies will enjoy the new plaza for generations to come” said Brodsky, chairman of the museum’s board of trustees as well as chairman of the Board’s plaza design committee, in making the announcement. “It will give the Met a portal outside that is truly worthy of the masterpieces that grace our galleries inside.”
In addition to the plaza itself, the plan calls for the creation of new fountains to replace the deteriorating ones that have been in use since they were built in the 1970s along with the existing plaza. The fountains will be positioned closer to the museum’s front steps, improving access to its street-level public entrances at 81st and 83rd streets. The renovated plaza will also feature tree-shaded allées (in place of the current trees that have limited lifespans and low environmental benefits due to their inadequate planting conditions), permanent and temporary seating areas, and entirely new, energy-efficient and diffused nighttime lighting. Seasonal planting will be added along the base of the building to provide color and visual interest throughout the year. All of these new features respect and complement the architectural highlights of the landmark façade and the monumental, recently refurbished central stairs. OLIN, the landscape architecture, urban design, and planning firm, has been retained by the museum as the lead design consultant for the project.
Forty years have passed since the last renovation to the Metropolitan Museum’s Fifth Avenue plaza, when the design emphasis focused on accommodating vehicular access. Today, vehicular access on the plaza has become dangerous with the increase in pedestrian traffic, and some of the exterior design elements—including the fountains, trees, limited seating, and paving—have aged beyond repair. In particular, no long-term solution had been found for maintaining the fountains. The museum will leave untouched the most iconic element of the prior design, the monumental front steps at 82nd Street.
Since the museum’s founding in 1870, its rich architectural history has included major renovations, several of them including work on the Fifth Avenue plaza, with more than a dozen architectural firms over the years. The central museum façade on Fifth Avenue, known as the East Wing, was designed by Richard Morris Hunt and Richard Howland Hunt in 1896, and opened officially in 1902. The imposing and sculptural main entrance is the central portion of the composition and is flanked by low wings set back from the central façade. On each side of the original East Wing are newer wings designed by the firm of McKim, Mead and White. The grand stairs in front of the main entrance were designed by Roche Dinkeloo and Associates in 1968, and approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission before construction. The new design by OLIN balances the grand stairs with a pair of fountains and bosques of London Plane trees, and two aerial hedges of Little Leaf Linden trees to its north and south.
Over the years, the front steps—which are the primary path for visitors into the museum—have become a popular area for museum visitors to sit and enjoy the outdoors.
In the new renovation plan, museum access will be improved by providing additional seating options to either side of the grand staircase and by replacing the long fountains currently impeding access to the doors at 81st and 83rd streets. The existing pavement along the façade of the museum will be removed and replaced with new North American granite paving to accommodate pedestrians along myriad routes to and from the doors and steps of the museum.
A pair of contemporary granite fountains, designed by the award-winning firm Fluidity Design Consultants, will be operational year-round, bracketing the grand stairs to create an energized connection between people sitting on the steps and those at the fountains, while punctuating the long plaza along Fifth Avenue with attractive water elements. Each fountain will be a quiet square form inset with a circular stone dome, with seating on long stone benches placed adjacent to the north and south edges of the pools. A circular basin will be subtracted from the rectilinear stone form to reveal a shallow stone dome occupying the basin’s negative space and generating a lens effect in the pool’s water volume. Evenly spaced nozzles, mounted around the edge of the circular basin, will orient glassy streams toward the center of the feature. The streams will be individually size-controlled and programmed to present a wide variety of programmable patterns. In winter, the water will be warmed by recycling steam to prevent freezing, thereby allowing for year-round use.
Landscaping
At the far north and south ends of the wings by McKim, Mead and White, where the architecture steps forward toward the street, two allées of large Little Leaf Linden trees will be planted, one on each margin of the sidewalk, continuing the shaded route along the Central Park wall and aligned to the rhythm of the windows along the museum’s façade facing Fifth Avenue. These trees will be pruned in the form of two aerial hedges, similar to the trees at the Palais Royal in Paris. Existing flagpoles will be relocated to rise above the trees at the ends of each allée, responding to the architectural arches of the façade. The presence of trees will create a pleasant experience within the streetscape, reinforcing the central plaza’s volume, yet hedged to ensure that the trees do not detract from the monumentality of the museum’s façade.
Within the central plaza, pairs of bosques of London Plane trees will be planted, flanking the 81st and 83rd Street entrances. By planting the bosques at a 45-degree angle to the street, the resulting lines of the tree trunks will guide pedestrians toward the doorways.
The London Plane trees will be pollarded, a historic pruning technique that allows for maximum sun penetration in the winter to warm the plaza and maximum shade in the summer for cooling. The pollarding also limits the height of the trees so they do not grow to block the view of the imposing façade. Along the base of the building on either side of the central stairway, ornamental beds of mixed shrubs and herbaceous flowers will be planted, referencing plantings seen in early- to mid-20th-century photographs and drawings, including original concepts developed by McKim Mead and White.
The museum expects that the plantings throughout the plaza will help to soften noise and better retain sounds within it.
In the new plan, the museum will plant approximately 100 new trees, more than doubling the former number. The 44 London Plane trees previously on the plaza were planted in inadequate soil conditions, which impeded their health and limited their environmental benefits. The museum transplanted as many trees as were deemed viable for relocation to other areas of the city chosen by the Department of Parks & Recreation. The new London Plane and linden trees will be planted in large tree pits that collect rainwater run-off and allow for healthy root growth, thereby maximizing their life spans and environmental benefits.
Beneath the bosques, shaded seating will be provided, using lightweight movable chairs that allow users to arrange them as they please. These casual seating areas, which will include 30 tables and 120 chairs, are similar in concept to others installed in public areas around the city, and will offer clear views of the plantings and water features of the plaza, with the activity of Fifth Avenue in the background. Additional benches adjacent to the allées of trees will provide further options for seating with shade provided by a series of cantilevered parasols.
At the public parking entry at 80th Street, both the booth along the access drive and the landscape plantings will be refurbished to make the entrance more welcoming as well as to provide better conditions for the Noguchi sculpture currently located on a plinth adjacent to the drive. The new booth will be covered in cast concrete siding with an environmentally sustainable sedum green roof, with trees and significant understory plantings added in order to blend it more harmoniously with the overall park landscape and minimize visibility from Fifth Avenue.
Lighting
The evening ambiance of the museum plaza will be enhanced by a hierarchy of light on the landscape, water features, grand stairs, and façade. The façade is currently lit unevenly by light poles across the street from the building, on the east side of Fifth Avenue. Current lighting will be removed under the new plan. The new elements, which have been designed by the renowned lighting design practice L’Observatoire International, will form a composition to assist with wayfinding, provide visual interest for passers-by, and ensure safe and secure passage through the plaza at night.
Rather than lighting the façade with floodlights, which are energy-inefficient and tend to flatten the features of the architecture, the redesigned LED lighting, mounted on the museum’s façade and the plaza itself, will treat the building like a work of art, providing highlights that enhance the sculptural nature of the façade and its many beautiful design elements. Low-power lights in the museum’s large windows will cast a warm glow and make the Museum feel more approachable at night. This warm-colored lighting from the windows and on the façade will contrast with the cooler white lighting of the fountains and the tree canopy, adding a sense of depth to the façade and plaza. All of the lights will be on dimmers, which can be used to control the light levels and are much more energy-efficient than the current lighting design. The overall impact will be to diminish the intensity of the floodlights now installed along Fifth Avenue.
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
A view of the new plaza from the steps of the Fifth Avenue entrance. Construction should be completed in fall 2014. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.An artist’s rendering of one of the fountains at the David H. Koch Plaza. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
An example of the fine jewelry items sourced from the Pennsylvania Treasury’s Bureau of Unclaimed Property is this 18K yellow gold and diamond men’s Rolex watch. Estimate: $6,000-$10,000. Morphy Auctions image.
DENVER, Pa. – Morphy Auctions has been awarded a one-year contract to sell unclaimed valuables on behalf of the Pennsylvania Treasury’s Bureau of Unclaimed Property. The goods to be auctioned come from safe deposit boxes located throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and have been stored in the state treasury’s Finance Building vault in Harrisburg.
“There are more than 75,000 items to inventory. Going through it all is like an amazing treasure hunt that produces one surprise after another. People don’t put cheap things in their safe deposit boxes, and some of these items have been untouched in 20 years – that’s what you call ‘fresh to the market,’” said Dan Morphy, CEO of Morphy Auctions.
Morphy said he and an assistant have been assessing and hand-selecting 400 lots of items for inclusion in a Feb. 8-9 Fine & Decorative Arts sale. So far, there are bags of silver coins, precious-metal bars, 1,500 watches and timepieces by Rolex and other makers; antique firearms and swords; musical instruments, historical documents – including one signed by Benjamin Franklin – and a large selection of fine jewelry.
“There are diamond brooches that we’ve set aside for the February auction that will probably bring $10,000 to $20,000 apiece,” Morphy noted.
The contract between Morphy’s and the Pennsylvania Treasury’s Bureau of Unclaimed Property is renewable by mutual consent at the end of the first year.
“I’m very excited about being awarded this contract and have every hope that our arrangement with the Bureau of Unclaimed Property will become an ongoing one. Morphy’s has the knowledge, experience and capability to sell the types of valuables the Pennsylvania Treasury is entrusting to us, and by using the auction method, they will benefit the people of Pennsylvania. It’s a win-win all around,” Morphy said.
“This is the first live unclaimed property auction in more than a decade for Treasury, so we want to get it right, which is why we selected an auction house with a sterling worldwide reputation and one with a proven track record of getting the best price for valuable items,” Treasurer Rob McCord said. “Morphy Auctions lends us the expertise to properly evaluate and price the items from our vault, which enables our team to focus their efforts on the work to search and reunite the remaining property in our possession with its rightful owners.”
All Morphy auctions containing goods from the Pennsylvania Treasury will feature Internet live bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com.
To contact Morphy Auctions, call 717-335-3435.
View the fully illustrated catalog for Morphy’s Feb. 8-9 auction and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at LiveAuctioneers.com.
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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
An example of the fine jewelry items sourced from the Pennsylvania Treasury’s Bureau of Unclaimed Property is this 18K yellow gold and diamond men’s Rolex watch. Estimate: $6,000-$10,000. Morphy Auctions image.
Marius Sabino, Art Deco whimsical world globe lamp. Love at First Bid image. NEW YORK – Fine Art and Asian treasures are getting considerable attention in Love at First Bid’s next auction on Wednesday, Jan. 23, which gets under way at 11 a.m. EST. A few extraordinary estates have yielded many exceptional offerings in the latest of Love at First Bid’s intriguing auction, Objects of Desire 3. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
Since their first sale, barely a year ago, the auction house has expanded from a couture and jewelry specialty house to become a recognized source for exceptional art and decorations, Asian decorative arts, as well as continuing as a consistent source for estate jewelry and designer accessories and clothing.
This sale brings to the market a fine collection of designer and artisan jewelry, featuring such makers as Spratling, Miriam Haskell, Kenneth Jay Lane, Theodor Fahrner, and Lalique. Fine gold and diamond jewelry by Tiffany and other makers, as well as a selection of gold and silver enameled cases, comes just in time for Valentine’s Day.
Among the fashion accessories is a memorable collection of whimsical handbags in forms ranging from Chihuahua and pug to a Maud Frizon flowerpot bag. A classic selection in crocodile, leather and lizard is also included in the mix.
Fine table wares from a venerable New York City estate include a Buccellati modernist sterling flatware service, a Wallace sterling tea and coffee service, a set of imposing Mexican sterling goblets, a set of Waterford stemware, an Art Deco painted porcelain coffee urn and more. Other examples are as varies as a large bouquet of hard-to-find Czechoslovakian glass tulips to an important menorah by Aharon Bezalel.
Some Asian objects culled from another formidable New York City estate have garnered a great deal of attention from bidders in the U.S. and abroad. Highlights include pairs of porcelain urns, rock crystal foo dog and other fine carvings, and an extraordinary Ming Dynasty altar table. Also, a framed collection of Japanese gold and silver coins has generated interest among collectors.
Still, it is the art collection that is, perhaps, causing the biggest buzz. “After the tremendous response to a collection of drawings from the estate of Jack Tanzer in our last sale, we were concerned that we wouldn’t be able to top that,” said director and founder Annegret von Winterfeld. Her concerns were unfounded, however, as collections of noteworthy art came pouring in. With paintings, drawings and prints by such luminaries as Edouard-Leon Cortes, Walt Kuhn, Hunt Slonem, Paul Emile Lecomte, Frederick Judd Waugh, John Chamberlain, Henry Moore, Alberto Giacometti, Salvador Dali, Marcel Vertes, and circles of Abraham Brueghel and Jacques Callot, it is sure to be an exciting day at the auction.
Online live bidding is available through www.liveauctioneers.com.
Early Victorian buckle bracelet. Montecito Auction Co. image. WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. – There’s no lack of diversity in Montecito Auction Co.’s 140-lot auction on Saturday Jan. 19. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
From lavender jadeite to a 19th century officer chair to an early Victorian four-piece jewelry suite well preserved in the original box and from a Hoinam jade flowerpot to an Edwardian 1920s diamond pendent, there is no shortage of variety.
Carved using traditional methods such as carborundum sand and soft tools, the lavender jadeite piece resembles a dragon on top of fruit, blooming flowers and a frog on a scepter. The heavy piece rests on a carved rosewood base. “The naturally occurring green veins make the piece so much more interesting as the fruits are carved over those green layers inside the lavender stone,” said auctioneer Cyrus L. Santoriello.
The authoritative design of Victorian period is evident in the gorgeous early Victorian buckle bracelet with seven rose-cut diamonds. Four folded golden leafs and four rings are supporting a center diamond surrounded by six smaller rose-cut diamonds. The buckle type band is adjustable to fit almost any wrist.
Carving a hard stone such as jade to hollow out shape of plants, requires delicate and meticulous workmanship and it is revealed in the 18-inch-tall Hoinam jade flower urn filled with birds on flowered stems and filled leafs. The master who carved this piece used the different colors of the jade to place most of the birds and the blooming flowers in the spot where the veins occur naturally, making it as if someone painted the piece to look real. It is carved in two separate pieces. The top flower fits inside the urn and the piece is supported by a carved wooden base.
Today’s trend in jewelry is judged more on how big the stone is or the weight of the gold, and the workmanship has taken the back seat. The antique Victorian four-piece suite, still in the original box, is filled with precious stones such as diamonds and rubies. It also presents its prized craftsmanship in gold and silver, diamond and garnet. It includes pair of pierced earrings with safety clip backs, ring with single oval ruby in the center and diamonds around, and broach in medallion diamond cluster floral design with ruby teardrops in the middle. All the diamonds are rose cut, in a fitted original box.
The 19th century officer chair in original condition is one of the highlights of this auction. The name “officer chair” is given to it because of the unusual brace on the front legs serves as a footrest as well. “We believe it is made of rosewood but we are not certain because of the age and variety of the wood species,” said Santoriello. The simple construction and carving is another suggestion it has been used in an office. The catalog listing on Liveauctioneers.com pictures the bottom and views from different angles.
“Again, this is a small auction but there is no shortage of variety,” said Santoriello. “We even have some recent calligraphy by Master Zhuang Li-Wai with Chinese government honorary certificates. There are three pieces by this calligraphy artist listed at the end of our catalog for this auction, as it was given to us in the last minutes.”
For details contact the Montecito Auction Co. auctioneer Cyrus L. Santoriello via email: Montecitoauctions@gmail.com or phone 805-630-0970.
View the complete catalog at Liveauctioneers.com – using this link: www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog_gallery/36204 .
