The reconstructed Pergamon Altar at Pergamon Museum in Berlin. Image by Raimond Spekking / CC-BY-SA-3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons). This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
BERLIN (AP) – Berlin’s museums authority says one of the city’s best-known cultural treasures, the second-century B.C. Pergamon Altar, will be shut to visitors for up to five years from September for restoration work on the building that houses it.
The altar, decorated with a marble frieze, was built between 197 and 156 B.C. in the present-day Turkish town of Bergama. It’s the centerpiece of Berlin’s Pergamon Museum.
The museum is being restored as part of a plan to overhaul the neoclassical Museum Island complex, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The authority that runs Berlin’s public museums said Tuesday the central hall that contains the altar will close Sept. 29 and likely won’t reopen until 2019, though it plans to set up a temporary exhibition nearby with original material from the altar.
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AP-WF-02-18-14 1751GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
The reconstructed Pergamon Altar at Pergamon Museum in Berlin. Image by Raimond Spekking / CC-BY-SA-3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons). This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
PARIS (AFP) – Three thieves were on the run Wednesday after snatching a briefcase containing 300,000 euros worth of jewels outside the famous Drouot auction house in Paris.
The thieves used tear gas to incapacitate two auctioneers and two assistants outside the auction house in central Paris around 6p.m. (1700 GMT), police said.
They then grabbed the briefcase containing about 300,000 euros ($412,000) worth of jewels and escaped on a motorcycle.
Two of thieves continued their escape in a car parked near the auction house, but, in an apparent bid to confound pursuers, then switched cars by stealing a vehicle from a passing driver.
Rare 1862 baseball tickets and scorecard. Saco River Auction Co. image. BIDDEFORD, Maine (AP) – Saco River Auction Co. will give Civil War buffs and sports fans a chance to compete for a piece of baseball history today.
Saco River Auction Co. in Biddeford, which sold a 148-year-old baseball card last year, plans to auction a scorecard, four tickets and three concession passes from an 1862 game featuring the Washington Nationals and the 71st regiment of the New York Militia. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
Troy Thibodeau from Saco River said the tickets, which are actually military passes, are important to collectors trying to understand the origins of baseball. Few artifacts from that era remain.
Thibodeau said a newspaper clipping and an invitation from the team president would also be auctioned.
The priciest baseball card ever is a 1909 Honus Wagner card, which sold for $2.8 million in 2007.
Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Rare 1862 baseball tickets and scorecard. Saco River Auction Co. image.
Marilyn Monroe, ‘Last Sitting’ by photographer Bert Stern, August 1962. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image. LONDON – Three unique and previously unseen Polaroid images of Kate Moss, taken by the fashion designer Tom Ford during a fitting for Gucci’s Spring/Summer 1997 collection, will go under the hammer as part of Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions Photo Opportunities sale on Friday, Feb. 28.
LiveAuctioneers.com will facilitate Internet live bidding.
Annotated in black felt tip in the margin, the photos were used for ordering the model walks for the catwalk show. Ford had been working as creative director of Gucci for two years when the photographs of Moss were taken. In that time, he revolutionised the Italian fashion house with sex, style and glamour through his campaigns and models. He said of Moss: “I have a feeling Kate will be embodying the spirit of the times for decades to come.” The Polaroid’s are estimated at £300-£500 ($500-$835) each (Lots 257, 258 and 259).
A selection of more than 20 photographs of one of Hollywood’s most photographed women, Marilyn Monroe, offers a rare opportunity to own some of the most beautiful and iconic images of one of the most famous starts of the 20th century. The photographs were taken by some of the world’s most famous photographers including George Barris, Bert Stern, Cecil Beaton and Milton Green, and many of them are signed by the artists.
From the last photo shoot she undertook just six weeks before her death in August 1962, four revealing and iconic images that embody a very personal record of the troubled star. In an interview about three-day photography session with Marilyn Monroe titled “Last Sitting” photographer Bert Stern said: “Well what do you want to do?” and I said, “Well I dunno, what do you want to do?” She picked up this scarf, looked through it, and it was transparent, she could see me. She understood right away, and said: “You want to do nudes. And I said, “Well that’s a good idea.” These memorable images are estimate at £1,500-£2,000 (Lot 209).
Elsewhere in the sale are two stunning photographs by Italian photographer and architect, Marco Glaviano, of the 1990s supermodel Cindy Crawford. A pioneer of early digital photography Glaviano was the first photographer to have published a digital photograph in American Vogue. He worked closely with some of the world’s most famous models during the 1980s and 1990s and said of the photographs he took at that time: “These are the most iconic pictures I took in my career, when models used to be beautiful like Cindy, before the industry changed to anorexic model (body) types.” The photographs are estimated at £1,000-£1,500 and £1,200- £1,500 respectively. (Lots 261 and 262)
Eight photographs by the British photographer Terry O’Neill, who gained prominence in the 1960s, is highlighted by a 1963 portrait of Jean Shrimpton and Terence Stamp, signed by the photographer. He said of the photoshoot: “This was done in his flat. I was doing a story on Terence Stamp as the hot young star of the time and he was going out with Jean. I wanted these two as the faces of the ’60, which to me, they were” (Lot 204).
In a new initiative for Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions, this sale contains a selection of 80 lots that don’t carry a reserve. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions Head of Photography, Sarah Wheeler said: “Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions are always looking at new ways to open ourselves up to new markets. This section of our sale is accessible to collectors with a range of budgets, and includes photographs by renowned photographers such as Brassai and William Klein, as well as photography by unknown and emerging artists.” The selection also includes press prints of the Royal Family and photographs of the Beatles, Marlene Dietrich and playwright Arthur Miller.
Cecil Beaton (1904-1980) is represented by images of David Hockey, Henry Geldzahler, 1969, and nine other portraits from the 1930s through the 1960s – a total of 10 gelatin silver prints, all printed before 1979, and all annotated in pencil. Sitters include Edith Sitwell, 1962; Mae West, 1970; H.G. Wells, 1932; Jiddu Krishnamurti, 1967; W.H. Auden, 1937; George Balanchine, 1960s; Aldous Huxley, 1934; Pablo Picasso, 1965; and Bernard Berenson, 1955.
View the fully illustrated catalog and register to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
Marilyn Monroe, ‘Last Sitting’ by photographer Bert Stern, August 1962. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.Polaroid of model Kate Moss taken by designer Tom Ford. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.Jean Shrimpton and Terence Stamp, 1963, one of eight portraits by British photographer Terry O’Neill. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.Peter Basch (1921-2004), Brigitte Bardot, Madrid, 1956, set of two gelatin silver prints, each signed, titled, dated. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.Richard Sadler (b. 1927), ‘Weegee the Famous, Coventry,’ 1963, inkjet print on Alumina paper, printed later, signed and numbered. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.Jim Marshall (1936-2010), Jimi Hendrix, 1967, gelatin silver print, printed later, signed, titled and dated in ink in the margin. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.Tony Duran (b.1968), Cindy Crawford, LA, 2005, Giclee print on Epson paper, signed, titled, dated and editioned 1/10 in ink in the margin. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.
Thomas Hickey, ‘Portrait of General Sir Thomas Bowser’ (1749-1833), to be offered by Nicholas Bagshawe. Chelsea Antiques Fair image.
LONDON – After last year’s successful relaunch, the Chelsea Antiques Fair will return to the Chelsea Old Town Hall twice in 2014. One of the highlights in every antiques lover’s diary, the spring fair will take place from Wednesday, March 19, to Sunday, March 23.
The Fair, which was established in 1950, prides itself on its boutique style set up with a great variety of traditional art and antiques and a time line up to mid-20th century. Around 35 specialist dealers have been chosen for their expertise in each field and will bring exquisite highlights to the fair, as well as objects with more affordable price tags from £100. The friendly fair is known as the perfect place to chat to dealers and learn more about their specialties and collecting art and antiques in general.
This year’s fair promises some great discoveries for collectors, investors and anyone decorating their home. Generalists like Mark Stacey, known for his appearances on BBC Antiques programs, will exhibit next to British paintings specialists, jewelry dealers, oak furniture experts and Works of Art dealers, specializing in glass, ceramics, silver and textiles.
There will also be a more active angle to the fair, with some live demonstrations of carpet restoration on the Pars Rug Gallery stand and talks by antiques and art specialists and interior experts.
This year’s fair will again support the Hearing Dogs charity, with a percentage of sales from selected objects going directly to the charity.
The autumn Chelsea Antiques Fair will take place Sept. 17-21.
Show hours are Wednesday 2 to 8 p.m., Thursday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday – Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Admission: £5, but E-Tickets & details on: www.penman-fairs.co.uk. T: 01825 744074
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
Thomas Hickey, ‘Portrait of General Sir Thomas Bowser’ (1749-1833), to be offered by Nicholas Bagshawe. Chelsea Antiques Fair image.Twenty-four Heimxen Gillot tiles, Iris, to be offered by Richard Hoppe. Chelsea Antiques Fair image.
The main living-room of the Finca Vigía, Hemmingway’s home near Havana, complete with the library, very nearly as he left it in 1960. Image by InZweiZeiten. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) – Cuba has released to U.S. researchers copies of more than 2,000 documents related to Ernest Hemingway, media reported Tuesday in Havana, the American literary giant’s home during the 1940s and 1950s.
“More than 2,000 documents held at the Finca Vigia Museum in Havana are now available for the first time for researchers in the United States after having been digitized and sent to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum,” the Cuba Contemporanea magazine wrote on its website.
Now a museum, Finca Vigia, which means “lookout house” is located in the town of San Francisco de Paula just outside Havana. It was Hemingway’s home during much of his more than two-decade-long residence in Cuba.
Among the treasures now accessible to U.S. scholars at the Kennedy Library in Boston is the 1954 telegram from the Nobel Prize Committee in Sweden informing
Hemingway that he had just been awarded its prestigious literature prize.
A statement from the Kennedy Library in Boston said that the trove of documents, which had never seen outside of Cuba, includes letters, passports, telegrams, household accounts, bar bills and recipes.
“We are pleased to make available to researchers copies of these materials that provide a unique glimpse into the everyday life of Ernest Hemingway,” said Tom Putnam, Director of the Kennedy Library.
“For a literary figure who is often portrayed as larger than life, this trove of personal ephemera serves to humanize the man and to understand the writer.”
Officials said it is the second large document release from the Finca Vigia. A first huge tranche of 3,000 digitized images was donated to the Kennedy Library in 2008.
Hemingway, who took his own life in 1961 at the age of 61 after returning to the United States, wrote some of his most famous works in Cuba, including For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea.
He was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his mastery of the art of narrative … and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style.”
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
The main living-room of the Finca Vigía, Hemmingway’s home near Havana, complete with the library, very nearly as he left it in 1960. Image by InZweiZeiten. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
Pharaoh Amenhotep III’s Colossi of Memnon statues at Luxor, Egypt. Image by Than217 at en.wikipedia, This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. CAIRO (AP) – The Egyptian minister of antiquities says that a team of German archaeologists has discovered missing pieces belonging to the famed Colossi of Memnon. The statues, dating to roughly 1350 B.C., were damaged in an earthquake during the Roman era.
The colossi are some of Egypt’s oldest touristic attractions, drawing tourists since ancient times. The twin statues, over 18 meters (60 feet) tall each, are of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, who was worshipped as a deity. The statues are the only remains of a large temple that was built in memorial of the pharaoh.
Minister of Antiquities Mohammed Ibrahim says Sunday the team made the discovery in cooperation with archaeologists from Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities. He said the pieces belong to the belt of one statue, and the base of the other.
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AP-WF-02-16-14 1815GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Pharaoh Amenhotep III’s Colossi of Memnon statues at Luxor, Egypt. Image by Than217 at en.wikipedia, This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
A short-nosed Echidna searching for food. Image by Skyring. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. MANILA (AFP) – Wildlife officers said Wednesday they had seized almost 100 exotic animals and birds, including cockatoos, echidnas and wallabies, that had been smuggled into the Philippines for sale to wealthy collectors.
The cache, hidden in small containers in a van, was made up of wildlife from Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, said Eric Gallego, spokesman for the local office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
They included yellow-crested cockatoos and long-beaked echidnas, two species listed as “critically endangered” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
They also included four wallabies from Australia and about 90 exotic parrots from Indonesia, said Gallego.
Several of the birds or animals had died, possibly from the stress of long travel in harsh conditions, he told AFP.
Law enforcers acting on a tip stopped a van with the wildlife and two attendants in the southern city of Surigao on Mindanao island on Saturday, just as the vehicle was about to board a ship heading north.
The birds and animals are believed to have been shipped from Indonesia to Malaysia and then across the maritime border to the southern Philippines where they would be taken to Manila, said Gallego.
“There must have been an order from a rich person in Manila for the animals as collector’s items. It must be someone who is into rare animals,” he told AFP.
The head of the government’s wildlife division Josefina de Leon said a crime syndicate with members from different countries was known to be smuggling rare animals from Malaysia into the southern Philippines.
Two men caught with the van will be charged with illegally transporting wildlife, a crime punishable up to six months in jail and a 50,000-peso ($1,120) fine depending on the rarity of the animals involved.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
A short-nosed Echidna searching for food. Image by Skyring. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Franz Marc (1880-1916), ‘Pferde in Landschaft’ (Horses in Landscape), gouache on paper, one of the paintings found in Gurlitt’s flat. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. BERLIN (AFP) – An elderly German recluse has taken legal action for the return of a vast art trove seized from his home, including works suspected to be Nazi loot, his spokesman said Wednesday.
Lawyers for Cornelius Gurlitt, 81, filed a complaint last week against a 2011 order by a southern German court to search his Munich flat and seize around 1,400 long-lost works, his spokesman said.
Gurlitt’s legal petition aims for the seizure order to be lifted and the return of the artworks, which included long-lost masterpieces by Matisse and Chagall, Stephan Holzinger said in a statement.
Germany has been embroiled in a fresh debate over Nazi-looted art since news broke in November of the discovery of the works, some of which are believed to have been stolen or extorted from Jewish owners under Hitler.
Gurlitt, the son of a Nazi-era art dealer, is mindful of the “moral dimension” of the case and ready to talk to possible claimants but contests the grounds for the swoop on the works, his lawyers and spokesman said.
The order was based on suspicions of tax fraud against Gurlitt, which “in the defense’s view is not justified,” the statement said. It added that seizing the whole collection breached “the principle of proportionality.”
The public prosecutor’s office in the southern city of Augsburg confirmed receipt of Gurlitt’s legal complaint. “We will make a statement on it,” spokesman Matthias Nickolai said, without specifying when.
Gurlitt feels “a strong moral responsibility” but in no way took part in any possibly questionable acts to acquire the artworks, his spokesman said, stressing that the octogenarian wanted an amicable resolution with any possible private claimants.
One of his lawyers, Tido Park, added that in criminal proceedings, legal and moral aspects must be strictly separated “and a criminal procedure must not be used for settling restitution claims.”
Another Gurlitt lawyer, Derek Setz, was quoted as saying that given the great public interest and political debate, the legal team had a “justified concern about the due process of this procedure.”
Gurlitt and his team said Monday on their new website that three percent of the collection was suspected to be Nazi-looted art and that four claimants had so far come forward, as well as a couple of people who had asked for information.
Gurlitt’s father Hildebrand acquired the paintings in the 1930s and 1940s, when he worked as an art dealer tasked by the Nazis with selling stolen works as well as art the Hitler regime deemed “degenerate.”
Last week, another 60-odd artworks, including pieces by Monet and Renoir, came to light at Gurlitt’s Salzburg house and were immediately placed in safe keeping by Gurlitt’s team.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Franz Marc (1880-1916), ‘Pferde in Landschaft’ (Horses in Landscape), gouache on paper, one of the paintings found in Gurlitt’s flat. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
