Gardner photograph titled ‘Ruins of the Norfolk Navy Yard.’ Image courtesy of the Mariners’ Museum. NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) – Some rarely seen images from the Civil War are on display in Virginia.
The Mariners’ Museum has opened a show that features more than 120 photographs from the George Eastman Collection. The exhibit at the Newport News attraction runs through April 27.
The photographs capture Civil War battlefields, prisons and fortress interiors. They were taken by pioneering photographers from the era, including Mathew Brady.
The Civil War was the first conflict in which photography loomed large. For the first time, the American public could view images from the battlefield and the destruction brought on by the war.
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AP-WF-03-03-14 0707GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Gardner photograph titled ‘Ruins of the Norfolk Navy Yard.’ Image courtesy of the Mariners’ Museum.
One of the buildings on the campus of the former St. Paul’s College. Image by Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
LAWRENCEVILLE, Va. (AP) – St. Paul’s College in Lawrenceville is up for auction – all 35 buildings and 183 acres.
An auction and real estate company is listing the historically black college for auction at a date to be announced. The historic property in Southside Virginia closed last summer after it abandoned its years-long quest to keep its accreditation and amid crushing debt.
Founded in 1888, St. Paul’s had been affiliated with the Episcopal Church.
In a listing on Motley’s Auction and Realty Group’s website, St. Paul’s is touted as being on the National Register of Historic places. Its 35 campus buildings in Brunswick County include a gymnasium, classroom buildings, administration buildings and dormitories. The property also includes an athletic field.
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AP-WF-02-28-14 0811GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
One of the buildings on the campus of the former St. Paul’s College. Image by Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
An Etruscan sarcophagus in the British Museum, not the lid seized in New York City. Image by Jononmac46. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-share Alike 3.0 Unported license. NEW YORK (AP) – U.S. officials have seized an ancient Roman sarcophagus lid from a New York City storage facility on behalf of Italian officials who say it was looted from Italy decades ago.
A marble statue of a reclining half-clad female is carved in the lid of the funeral box.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents said Friday the statue appeared at a public exhibition in New York as recently as last week. Authorities don’t know when it entered the U.S.
Federal prosecutors said in court papers filed Thursday the statue is believed to be one of the antiquities illegally obtained by Italian art dealer Gianfranco Becchina.
Becchina was convicted in 2011 of trafficking in plundered Roman artifacts. He ran an antiquities gallery in Basel, Switzerland.
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AP-WF-03-01-14 0104GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
An Etruscan sarcophagus in the British Museum, not the lid seized in New York City. Image by Jononmac46. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
The historic Mentone Springs Hotel burned Saturday night. Image by Raegan A. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. MENTONE, Ala. (AP) – Staring despondently at the smoke that billowed from the 130-year-old Mentone Springs Hotel, general manager Judy Rathel sat in a car and took a cigarette break.
Rathel, who was the innkeeper Saturday night when the Mentone Springs Hotel burned down, struggled to find words to describe the loss of northeast Alabama’s crown jewel.
Holding a tattered, smoke-damaged garden gnome she found in the debris of the massive fire, Rathel said the small town of Mentone will never be the same.
“You can’t replace a 130-year-old icon,” she said Sunday, with tears in her eyes. “It was magical. People would come up here to just sit on the porch and enjoy the peace and quiet.”
Yellow police tape surrounded the hotel complex Sunday morning. The smell of smoke lingered in the air as spectators young and old came out in droves to pay their respects and take pictures of the fire scene with their cell phones.
A sign outside one nearby business read, “Closed. Mourning loss of our Grand Old Lady Mentone Springs Hotel.”
Mentone resident Heather Tarrance, who watched in tears as flames engulfed the hotel Saturday night, stood Sunday morning outside a small house her aunt used to rent near the inn.
“It was just heartbreaking last night,” she said. “It was so sad. You just wanted to jump in there and stop it. … I’m not sure what Mentone is going to do now.”
Rathel said she and two other guests were in the first-floor lobby shortly after 7 p.m. when they heard a loud popping noise and saw smoke coming from upstairs. After the power in the kitchen went off, a hotel customer grabbed a fire extinguisher and sprinted to the upper floor.
“When he got up there, the panel was emblazed and we called 911,” she said, adding that there were eight guests staying at the bed and breakfast this weekend.
The fire quickly spread to the nearby White Elephant antique mall. Authorities at the scene said no one was injured in the blaze, which firefighters battled until the wee hours of the morning Sunday.
Authorities told AL.com the fire started because of an electrical panel explosion from the second floor, but the official cause has not yet been determined.
The Mentone Springs Hotel was one of the oldest hotels in the state of Alabama and was featured in The New York Times best-seller 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. Built with 57 rooms in 1884 by Dr. Frank Caldwell of Pennsylvania, the hotel was named after Mentone in France after Caldwell’s daughter saw news reports of Queen Victoria visiting there.
Jim and Darlene Rotch, who own the hotel and antique mall, made the car trip to Mentone from Birmingham on Sunday morning. Rotch, who has operated the nearly 100-year-old White Elephant since the late ’70s, said he purchased the hotel with his wife almost four years ago after the former owner died.
When she and her husband bought the hotel, Darlene Rotch said the bed and breakfast underwent an extensive months-long renovation, which included all new furnishings, painting and cleaning. They recently installed a new white picket fence around the property to prepare for the inn’s 130th birthday.
“We were getting ready to do so many fun things,” she said. “That’s what makes this all so sad.”
Rotch, who said he and his wife live in Birmingham but stay at their historic Fort Payne home on the weekends, underwent surgery on Friday to remove a kidney stone. He was back in the emergency room Saturday morning just hours before the hotel and antique store went up in flames.
Still in disbelief, the couple didn’t know what to expect when they arrived at the property on Sunday morning. Both structures are a total loss, but the evergreens and daffodils on Sunday flourished as brightly as ever.
“I don’t even feel like I’m at the hotel right now,” said Darlene Rotch, who is also the chief executive officer of Panorama Public Relations in Birmingham. “When I drove in, I thought I was going to be really emotional, but I was like, ‘Where am I?’ This is surreal.”
Deb Eberhart, a Fort Payne resident who lived in Mentone for eight years, said her daughter was a waitress at the Mentone Springs Hotel when she was 17.
“This is such a loss because it was so old,” she said. “When you walked into it, it just had this feeling. That’s what’s so sad about it. This is what brought in the attractions and vacationers.”
Darlene said she and her husband have heard conflicting reports about whether the hotel is the oldest in the state, but it is “definitely in the top three.”
The couple plans to meet with insurance adjusters soon to discuss what they will do next with the facility and antique mall, which had about 15 dealers.
“They’re all just sick over this,” she said. “Not because they lost stuff, but because we all just had so much fun here.”
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AP-WF-03-03-14 1433GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
The historic Mentone Springs Hotel burned Saturday night. Image by Raegan A. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
President Abraham Lincoln’s Tomb, Oak Ridge Cemetary, Springfield, Ill. Image by David Jones. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – A $700,000 restoration project at the temporarily closed Abraham Lincoln’s tomb in Springfield is expected to finish in April.
The interior of the tomb in the Oak Ridge Cemetery, which has been closed since December, was wrapped in plastic this week, according to a report in The (Springfield) State Journal-Register.
Crews are working to fix plaster molding and repair cracks in the tomb’s marble walls and repairing the ceiling in the rotunda as well as the tomb’s burial chamber. They’re also adding LED lighting and fresh paint.
“This is as close as we can get to the original color, and it’s beautiful,” said Candy Knox, the site superintendent.
The tomb was built in 1869 and houses the bodies of Lincoln, along with his wife Mary and three of their four sons.
About 350,000 people visit each year.
“There hasn’t been a lot of work done over the past few years, and things have deteriorated. There’s also been some water damage,” said Felicia Burton, a project manager with the state Capital Development Board.
Edward Magee, a foreman with Continental Decorative Painting in Chicago, is one of the workers who is helping with the project.
“It’s an honor to work here,” Magee said. “There’s only one Abraham Lincoln and only one Lincoln’s Tomb.”
Authorities are restoring the tomb ahead of the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s death in April 2015.
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AP-WF-02-28-14 1756GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
President Abraham Lincoln’s Tomb, Oak Ridge Cemetary, Springfield, Ill. Image by David Jones. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
Painting depicting Maharana Jagar Singh II, circa 1740. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury image.
LONDON – Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions will conduct an Interior sale on Wednesday, March 12, featuring Asian Art from private UK collections, alongside English delftware and a stunning selection of carpets to suit all budgets and tastes. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
A painting depicting Maharana Jagar Singh II riding in procession on an elephant leads a fine collection of Indian miniatures. Highlighted with gilding, the opaque watercolor dated circa 1740 is from Rajasthan “the land of Kings” in west India. Opaque watercolor or gouache uses “Chinese White” zinc oxide paint to create an opaque effect, adding more body and brightness to a painting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art houses a similar painting, Maharana Jagat Singh II in Procession. This example, from a private UK collection is estimated at £800-£1,000 [Lot 80].
Other opaque watercolor and gold examples of Indian miniatures include a 19th century Indian Company School painting housed in a carved wooden frame, estimated at £500-£700 [lot 74] and a folio from the Ragamala series, dated 1660-1680. It is estimated at £300-£500 [Lot 77]. Works from the Ragamala series symbolize the fusion of poetry, art and music in medieval India. The word Ragamala means “garland of Ragas” and a raga is a musical phrase that evokes an emotional response, associated with a particular time of day, season or mood.
A black crepe silk child’s kimono highlights a fine collection of Japanese textiles. Decorated with cranes, symbolic of longevity and good-fortune, and highlighted with gold thread, the early 20th century kimono is from the Taisho period and is estimated at £150-£200 [Lot 97].
A collection of English delftware emphasises the influence of other cultures on British products. Iconic Chinese blue and white porcelain was imported to Europe from the mid-16th century, and although the Chinese would not disseminate the recipe for true porcelain, the Dutch responded with the production of delftware from the town of Delft in the Netherlands. The tin-glazed earthenware was cheaper than its Chinese counterpart and was developed using tin-oxide to create a whiter ground that mimicked the fashionable Chinese blue & white porcelain. Production using the glaze was copied across Europe, and in the UK was called English delftware.
Unlike their European counterparts, early Dutch and English delft emulated the Chinese style of decoration. A flower brick from Bristol, one of the key production centres in the UK, is an example, circa 1740. The flower brick bears paper labels for Jonathan Horne, London. A prominent figure at the heart of English and Continental delftware, he was appointed MBE for his services to medieval English ceramics. With its excellent provenance and generally fine condition, this example is estimated at £600-£800 [Lot 154].
Tin-glaze, outside of England and the Netherlands, developed along more European lines with an Italian Renaissance and French Baroque style. Despite the limitations of using only the mineral pigments that would fuse to the tin-glaze, the introduction of a polychrome palette saw this European style filter into English delft. An example, probably from Vauxhall circa 1730, shows a stylized English garden, complete with cockerel, highlighted with reds, yellows and greens. It is estimated at £500-£800 [Lot 306].
Also from a London production center is an unusual English Delftware blue and white colander, from Lambeth circa 1770. It is decorated with houses in an oriental landscape and is estimated at £250-£350 [Lot 336].
A fine selection of rugs and carpets include a part silk Kashan rug estimated at £200-£300 [Lot 438] and a Tabriz carpet estimated at £800-£1,000 [Lot 333]. Tabriz is the capital city of the East Azerbaijan Province of northern Iran and has historically made a diverse range of carpets to suit all tastes and budgets. Another example from Tabriz is a pair of rugs decorated with polychrome flowering urns, estimated at £300-£500 [Lot 354].
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.
Vistors pause for refreshment at one of the many coffee and champagne bars at the private view of ART14 London at the Olympia Grand Hall on Feb. 27. Image Auction Central News.
LONDON – There is a new kid on the art fair block and all the signs are that ART14 London may be reaching the parts that Frieze, thanks to its somewhat élitist exclusivity, cannot reach. Although in only its second year, ART14 London is already beginning to feel like a mature and confident event. There was a genuine sense of occasion at the VIP private view on Thursday, with professional footballers, A-List artists and celebrity chefs among those strolling beneath the great arched ceiling of the Olympia Grand Hall. Food, music and other forms of entertainment were high on the agenda this year in recognition that the modern fair visitor needs an occasional pause in the wall-to-wall contemporary art.
Art14 London hosted no fewer than 182 galleries from 42 countries, making it one of Europe’s largest contemporary art events, combining art with performance, music, fine dining and celebrity spotting. We came across artist Liliane Lijn performing one of her now famous poem game with a group of willing participants. London-based artist Liliane Lijn performs her Poem Game with visitors to ART14 London last week. Image Auction Central News.
Meanwhile, by way of contrast, there were more Rolls Royces parked outside than you could shake a stick at, confirming how contemporary art fairs have become an essential port of call for every self-respecting High Net Worth Individual in London.
One might imagine that the exhausting preparations for such a mammoth event would leave its organizers on the verge of collapse, but ART14 London director Stephanie Dieckvoss was positively glowing and energized at the private view, stopping to chat to Auction Central News between a string of TV interviews.ART14 London fair director Stephanie Dieckvoss poses for Auction Central News in front of Chinese artist Zhao Zhao’s installation ‘Waterfall’ at the fair’s VIP evening on Feb. 27. Image Auction Central News.
“Our exhibitors have been incredibly positive and enthusiastic this year,” Dieckvoss told London Eye. “Many more of them have built additional storage space into their stands so that they can replenish stock as works sell. That’s a real indicator of how optimistic and well-prepared everyone is this year. It’s very exciting and once you start to wander around you’ll quickly see how truly international it is, with galleries from across the globe, from Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia and South America.”
The strong Asian flavor was one of the most noticeable features of this year’s fair. Around 30 galleries from Taiwan, China and South Korea were exhibiting, but that was not the only sign of Asia’s growing influence in the contemporary art field. Many British and European mainland galleries were exhibiting work by Asian artists in acknowledgment of the burgeoning global demand. Shanghai dealer Pearl Lam in animated conversation with visitors to her enormous stand at ART14 London this week. Image Auction Central News.
London gallery Edel Assanti, for example, were showing interesting collage-based paintings by London-based artist Gordon Cheung who expressed delight that his work was getting such prominent international exposure. London-based artist Gordon Cheung with one of his large collage-based works on the stand of London dealers Edel Asanti at ART14 London. Image Auction Central News.He thinks ART14 London is now a top event at which to show, particularly since Frieze shifted its emphasis. “When they took the Modern Masters away from Frieze and gave them their own fair it was like draining the canal,” he told Auction Central News. “You used to come across stands showing Lucian Freud or Bacon. But then they removed them to Frieze Masters and it left all that contemporary art with nothing by way of contrast.”
There was no lack of contrast at ART14 London. Taiwanese and Korean galleries are now an important fixture of these London events and offer an opportunity for Western collectors to learn about what is selling in Taipei, Seoul and further afield. London art market student Eunhee Park was helping out on the stand of Arario Gallery of Seoul, which was showing at the fair for the first time. She said the gallery was optimistic about entering the European market. A similar message came from Hye Won Keum, director of SoSo Gallery in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. She was showing delicate wall paintings by the Korean painter Park Kiwon and a group of interesting works by the painter, potter and jewelry designer Kim Eull, who is widely respected in his home country. Some of the works had survived a devastating fire and had been rescued and restored by the artist. Hye Won Keum, director of SoSo Gallery of South Korea, with beautiful paintings on paper by Korean artist Park Kiwon at ART14 London. It was Keum’s second year at the fair. Image Auction Central News.
London’s October Gallery has built an international reputation for showing innovative work by leading African artists and others from what they describe as the “Transvangarde.” Prominent on their stand was a bottle-top wall hanging by Ghanaian artist El Anatsui and a group of the signature petrol can masks by Romuald Hazoumé of the Republic of Benin. The celebrated Beninese artist Romuald Hazoumé (seated) on the stand of the October Gallery at ART14 London. Image Auction Central News. Hazoumé was also the creator of one of the fair’s most impressive large-scale installations, the cruelly punning Rat Singer: Second only to God! of 2013. This consisted of an enormous circle of petrol cans surrounding an up-ended boat, which provided a balcony for the eponymous “Ratzinger,” a crooning rodent in dark glasses. Romuald Hazoumé’s installation entitled ‘Rat Singer: Second only to God!’ 2013, featuring a crooning rodent in dark glasses, presumably a dryly punning reference to the last Pope Benedict, Joseph Ratzinger. Image Auction Central News.
Art and antiques fairs are now proliferating across the globe and barely a month goes by in the UK without at least one fair opening somewhere in the capital or the provinces. Whether ART14 London will succeed in reinvigorating the London art fair scene remains to be seen since this is becoming a bewilderingly crowded field. However, the range of activities, the blend of educational and recreational diversions and the broad expertise of its international board of advisors promise it a bright future. Encouragingly, this fair seems to be about something different from today’s prevailing preoccupation with art as an asset class. This feels like a fair about collecting and keeping as opposed to collecting and flipping for a profit. We spotted the prominent millionaire collector Frank Cohen, often dubbed the “Saatchi of the North,” deep in conversation on the stand of London-based Modern British dealers Austin Desmond. Renowned British contemporary art collector and patron Frank Cohen (center left) in conversation on the stand of London Modern British dealer Austin Desmond at ART14 London’s VIP evening on Feb. 27. Image Auction Central News.
Finally, one of the more interesting features of this year’s fair was the use by some artists of various forms of technology. One of the most memorable of these was the work of Chinese artist Yang Yongliang. Trained as a calligrapher with the famous master Yang Yang from Shanghai, Yang today fuses his skill as a brush painter with digital technologies. The result are intriguing works such as his The Day of Perpetual Night which was showing on the stand of Galerie Paris-Beijing. This animated four-panel photographic work combines the iconography of traditional Chinese landscape painting with modern urban imagery to create an amusing futuristic narrative of moving waterfalls, motorways and flying spaceships. Chinese artist Yang Yongliang’s ‘The Day of Perpetual Night,’ an animated photographic landscape combing painting, photography, print and video technologies, on the stand of Galerie-Paris-Beijing at ART14 London. Image Auction Central News. It was difficult to drag oneself away as new animated details continually emerged from the mountainous landscape.
So, what’s next on the London art fair merry-go-round? Well, the annual British Antique Dealers’ Association fair, the BADA Fair, takes place in Duke of York’s Square in the heart of Chelsea from March 19-25. Auction Central News will be there to test the temperature of this more traditional sector of the London art trade. Among the highlights is a fine and rare late-17th century South Indian or Ceylonese ebony armchair, provenanced to Longleat House in Wiltshire, which will be on the stand of Jermyn Street fine furniture dealers Harris Lyndsay. This late-17th century South Indian or Ceylonese ebony armchair will be on the stand of Jermyn Street fine furniture dealers Harris Lyndsay at the BADA Fair in Chelsea from March 19-25. Image courtesy Harris Lyndsay.
East Tennessee walnut Jackson press, circa 1840-60. John Coker Ltd. image. NEW MARKET, Tenn. – John W. Coker & Co. will conduct an estate auction of a well-known couple from Morristown, Tenn., on Saturday, March 8. The auction, which will be at Coker’s Strawberry Plains gallery, will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern. LiveAuctioneers.com will facilitate Internet live bidding for approximately 300 major lots.
Roscoe and Nadine Buchanan were serious antique collectors and dealers in Morristown, Tenn., during the 1970s and 1980s. After Roscoe died in 1990, Nadine kept the shop, Buck’s Treasures, open a few more years before packing it and taking it home, where it remained until her death last year.
John W. Coker & Co. auctioned the couple’s clock collection at an auction last summer. The contents of the residence will be sold Saturday.
Items to be sold include early chests of drawers, blanket chests, pictures, primitive furniture, a few clocks, marble top pieces, a good East Tennesee walnut Jackson press, New England step-back cupboards, dry sink, Rosewood melodeon, pocket knives, watches and some jewelry.
Left over from other estates that did not get sold at earlier auctions are some Cherokee River cane baskets, early Southern and Tennessee pottery, coverlets, desks, lighting, a vintage fire truck from LaFrance with huge iron wheels, cradles, folk art and currency. There will also be vintage toys, candy containers, an ornately carved Kentucky secretary-press top, circa 1790, and all sorts of surprises, noted auctioneer John Coker
There is a 20 percent buyer’s premium, and dealers must bring their resale certificates if they intend to purchase for resale. There will easily be more than 500 lots with more being added.
Volunteer and artist Frank Drain designed and painted the artwork on the nose. Champaigne Aviation Museum image. Photo4-1.jpg URBANA, Ohio (AP) – They got one part for the World War II-era bomber from under an elderly woman’s porch in the next town, and another was bought from someone who had it hanging in a bar in Colorado. One chunk was a prop in a 1960s TV show, and the tail section was salvaged from a wreck deep in the Alaska wilderness.
When dozens of volunteers are finished piecing them all together at a small Ohio museum, they’re going to roll out a better-than-new, airworthy version of one of history’s most famous military airplanes, the B-17, celebrated in Hollywood adventure movies like Twelve O’Clock High and Memphis Belle.
A behemoth of a vintage plane that hasn’t been manufactured new in nearly 70 years is being built one piece at time here – and when the volunteers can’t buy or barter for parts they need, they’re making them from scratch based on a collection of 28,000 original Boeing Co. blueprints fetched from microfiche at the Smithsonian Institution.
“Modesty aside – and I’ve been around airplanes as much as anybody here – I think we’re building a better airplane than Boeing did,” says volunteer Dick Bidlack, a 79-year-old Vietnam War fighter pilot who’s been involved with the Champaign Aviation Museum project since it started in 2005. “But we’re not trying to build 15 of them a day in a wartime scenario. We’re taking years, so we have a little more freedom.”
Although completion is still years away, the gleaming shell of the plane stretched out in the hangar these days is unmistakably a B-17, the rugged 74-foot-long, four-engine bomber called a Flying Fortress because it bristled with .50-caliber machine guns and could take an awful beating in combat.
Volunteer Frank Drain designed and painted the authentic-looking nose art, which features a leggy 1940s pinup girl against an outline of Ohio and the plane’s Champaign Lady nickname.
“If you had to pick an airplane that would attract the public attention, the B-17 is the one to pick,” says the 61-year-old Drain, whose father was a radio operator on a Flying Fortress during the war. Drain now teaches a class on aviation occupations at a local vocational school and brings his students to help out with the project, which can be inspected by visitors any time the museum is open.
More than 12,700 B-17s were built for the war effort, most of them pressed into service for daylight precision bombing raids on industrial targets in occupied Europe from small bases in England between 1942 and 1945. It was harrowing duty that claimed the lives of two out of three young men – their average age was 20 – who served on the storied planes.
After the war, many B-17s were unceremoniously left to rust in scrap yards or pressed into other service. Around 40 are left around the world today, with fewer than a dozen in flying condition.
Coincidentally, history’s most celebrated B-17 – Memphis Belle – is currently being restored about 40 miles away at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force near Dayton. The Belle got the royal treatment from the military brass in 1943 after becoming one of the first B-17s to survive the required 25 missions at a time when American bombers were suffering heavy losses. Museum spokesman Rob Bardua says public display of the plane is still years away, although behind-the-scenes tours allow visitors to see the restoration work.
The fact that the Memphis Belle and other B-17s at the much-larger Air Force museum will never leave the ground again motivates the Urbana museum crew even more in their quest to make the Champaign Lady a flying example.
“There was never a decision to make. When we started the project, it was to make it fly,” says Dave Shiffer, whose ride aboard a touring B-17 with his father and brother in 2005 eventually led to the B-17 project and the founding of the nonprofit museum.
The initial chunks came from five different planes. The many other missing parts that can’t be found and restored have to be fabricated under the watchful eye of Randy Kemp, the 56-year-old project manager who works with a changing cast of around 100 volunteers who have come from as far away as England just to be part of the effort.
Donations and fundraisers are helping pay for the project, which Shiffer says will end up costing millions. A benefit dinner in April at the museum will feature a talk by Amanda Wright Lane – a great-grandniece of Orville and Wilbur Wright.
___
If You Go:
Champaign Aviation Museum, Grimes Field Airport, 1652 N. Main St., Urbana, Ohio, 937-652-4710. http://www.champaignaviationmuseum.org . Open Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
Volunteer and artist Frank Drain designed and painted the artwork on the nose. Champaigne Aviation Museum image. Photo4-1.jpgMuch work remains before the Flying Fortress will again be airworthy. In the meantime museum visitors can get a close-up view of the vintage warplane. Champaigne Aviation Museum image.
From Bruhns’ Sunday, March 9 auction with Internet live bidding through LiveAuctioneers. Image courtesy of Bruhns. DENVER – Discriminating collectors have long found the Mile High City a source for premium quality antiques. Chinese, French and American antiques headline Bruhns Auction Gallery’s March 9 estate auction. The contents of this sale rival anything found in the finest New York or Continental showrooms.
Internet live bidding will be provided by LiveAuctioneers.com. The auction begins at 11 a.m. Mountain time, 10 a.m. Pacific.
Three fine estates from Boulder, Colo., and Denver will be featured in this auction. Over 500 lots including a fine antique clock collection, Chinese and Asian antiques, rare Chinese temple attendants, Chinese furniture, jade snuff bottles, original artwork, estate jewelry and fabulous Italian carved furniture are some highlights of this sale.
One of the paintings certain to command attention is an early oil on canvas Venice canal scene attributed to Felix Ziem, circa 1870.
Chinese jade sensors lead off the auction Sunday.
Heavily carved Italian walnut furniture, including a fabulous hall bench will certainly draw attention. A Herter Brothers American cabinet walnut sideboard will be offered.
A rosewood marquetry sopha, marble-top parlor tables, hall mirrors, vitrines and bookcases are also included in this sale.
For additional information on any item in this auction, call 303-744-6505 or email bruhnsauction@aol.com
