Silent film star Betty Balfour (1903-1977) was known as ‘the British Mary Pickford.’ Fair use of low-resolution image in accordance with the terms of U.S. Copyright Law.THE HAGUE (AFP) – One of Britain’s “most-wanted” lost films from the 1920s has turned up in a collection of old canisters rescued from a rural Dutch cinema, Amsterdam’s EYE Film Institute said on Wednesday.
“The long-lost British masterpiece called Love, Life and Laughter (1923), featuring actress Betty Balfour, was discovered in the EYE’s collection last Friday,” spokesman Marnix van Wijk said.
Shot by famed director George Pearson, the film was listed as “missing” by the British Film Institute and featured on a list of 75 movies the BFI said “was not in our vaults” but “which we would love to find.”
The silent classic features a youthful Balfour, by far the most popular British screen actress of the time, playing the role of “Tip-Toes,” who dreams of dance hall fame and befriends a young aspiring writer played by Harry Jonas. The pair agree to meet each other in two years to see if their dreams came true.
This particular copy was shown in a cinema in Hattem near the central Dutch city of Zwolle between 1929-32, the EYE said.
The cinema closed down and the canisters were in storage at a local television station.
In 2012 a Dutch journalist brought them to the EYE in the Dutch capital.
“It took a while for us to open the canisters to see what’s inside,” Van Wijk told AFP. “One of our people on Friday got to it, watched the film and saw the title. He went online and then realized ‘Hey, this is a really exceptional discovery’,” he said.
Bryony Dixon, silent movie curator at the BFI’s National Archive, described it as a “very important find.”
“Not only does Betty Balfour, the biggest female star of the silent movie period play the lead role, but also it’s directed by George Pearson, one of Britain’s most talented movie-makers at the time,” he said.
At its release the British press hailed it “as a triumph,” a “classic” and a “masterpiece,” the EYE added.
It premiered for the first time in the Netherlands in Amsterdam’s Tuschinski theatre on October 12 1923.
“We are in consultation with the BFI over how it will be restored and when the public will be able to enjoy the movie once again,” Van Wijk said.
NEW YORK – A major loan exhibition of contemporary Chinese art currently on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be closing soon on Sunday, April 6, 2014. Consisting of 70 works created by 35 artists born in China, “Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China” demonstrates how China’s ancient pattern of seeking cultural renewal through the reinterpretation of past models remains a viable creative path.
Highlights include Xu Bing’s dramatic Book from the Sky (ca. 1988), an installation filling an entire gallery; Family Tree (2000), a set of vivid photographs by Zhang Huan in which his facial features—and his identity—are obscured gradually by physiognomic texts that are inscribed directly onto his face; and Map of China (2006) by Ai Weiwei, which is constructed entirely of wood salvaged from demolished Qing dynasty temples.
Learn more about the exhibition by logging on to www.moma.org.
3ft by 3ft wood galleon, circa 1900, hand made by inmates at New York’s Sing Sing prison.
POTTSTOWN, Pa. – Citizens of the historic eastern Pennsylvania city of Pottstown have banded together with additional supporters of The Carousel at Pottstown project to plan a fundraising auction for Wednesday, April 23rd. All profits from the event will go directly toward the ongoing restoration of a 1905 Philadelphia Toboggan Co., carousel for Pottstown’s city center.
An outstanding selection of donated antiques and quality collectibles will be offered at the auction, which will be held at Maurer & Wilson Auctioneers’ 132 E. 3rd Street gallery. Licensed auctioneers Kathy Maurer and Curt Wilson will preside over the uncataloged, country-style sale commencing at 10 a.m.
“Pottstown has always been known as a pickers’ paradise for rare antiques,” said Carousel at Pottstown committee spokesperson George Wausnock. “The people of our city have been very generous and supportive with our past fundraisers, but this time they’ve outdone themselves. We’ve received some terrific auction items, which will go a long way in helping us achieve our remaining goal of $400,000.”
One of the sale’s top highlights comes from veteran Pennsylvania auctioneer Ted Maurer, who happens to be Kathy Maurer’s father. He has donated a 3ft by 3ft galleon made around 1900 by inmates at New York’s Sing Sing prison. In addition to its impressive size, the model ship boasts hand-knotted rigging and realistic plank decks.
Among the toys to be auctioned are a Lionel Model 385E standard gauge train set with individual boxes, an early Steiff bear on wheels, and numerous tin and cast-iron toys, including an antique horse-drawn cast-iron circus wagon. Another sub-category is Disneyana, with featured lots including Mickey Mouse watches in their original boxes, and a boxed set of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs figures.
An enviable collection of milk glass includes musical milk-glass unicorns. Additionally, the auction includes rare stoneware, large and small advertising items, Oriental rugs, and an antique European carousel horse. A large, single-owner collection of commemorative knives includes coveted World’s Fair souvenirs.
The sports collectibles category is led by a rare, SGC-graded 1953 Topps Mickey Mantle baseball card. Other sports memorabilia runs the gamut of baseball, football, golf, boxing and car racing, with a number of racing photos and programs pertaining to Indianapolis and local racetracks. There are many other early, signed sports photos and ephemera items.
The auction is rounded out with a broad selection of old tools, quilts, comic books, Boy Scout memorabilia, kitchen utensils (including agate), and Beatles LPs.
The Wednesday, April 23, 2014 auction will be held at Maurer & Wilson Auctioneers’ gallery at 132 E. 3rd St., Pottstown, PA 19464, commencing at 10 a.m. The preview will be held on Tuesday, April 22 from 4-6 p.m., and from 8-10 a.m. on auction day. The carousel committee welcomes any additional auction donations up to and including the day of the auction.
For additional information, call George Wausnock at 610-327-4062, email wausey@comcast.net; or call Fred Hoffman at 610-327-2871. To view images of the carousel’s progress, log on to pottstowncarousel.org.
About the Derek Scott Saylor Memorial Carousel at Pottstown:
The Derek Scott Saylor Memorial Carousel Exhibition Center is located at 30 W. King Street in Pottstown. Phase I of the carousel project was completed in spring 2010. The carousel’s restored antique mechanism has been appraised at more than $1.3 million. Its restoration was accomplished through donations and volunteered services. Carousel animals are still available to sponsor. The Carousel at Pottstown is a 501c3 nonprofit charitable organization whose goal is to help revitalize downtown Pottstown and return revenue to the community with profits from the operating carousel. The carousel venue will also be available to rent for parties, reunions or other family-friendly and corporate gatherings.
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ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
3ft by 3ft wood galleon, circa 1900, hand made by inmates at New York’s Sing Sing prison.From the advertising section, a Coca-Cola advertising thermometer.1953 Topps Mickey Mantle baseball card, SGC graded VG/EX.Early Steiff mohair bear on original wheeled platform.Lionel Model 385E standard gauge train set with boxes.World War II U.S. Navy enlistment poster, framed under glass.Two-gallon stoneware jug with cobalt blue sunflower motif and embossed with manufacturer’s name ‘J.M. Harris, Easton, Pa.’Selection of Disney items, including (left to right) Ingersoll $2 watch standee with attached Mickey Mouse watch, boxed set of Snow White and Seven Dwarfs figures, Pluto marionette, boxed Mickey Mouse watch.
Ai Weiwei in a June 2007 photo by Benutzer. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany license.
BERLIN (AFP) – The biggest-ever exhibition by China’s best-known and boldest contemporary artist, Ai Weiwei, opens in Berlin Thursday with his signature brand of politically explosive works given pride of place.
The show at Berlin’s Martin Gropius Bau museum comes one week after a landmark state visit to Germany by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Its 18 rooms of mainly new installations pack a stinging critique of official corruption, political repression and capitalist excess in the world’s most populous country.
The high-profile dissident painter, photographer, filmmaker, sculptor, architect and blogger will not be allowed to travel to the German capital for the opening of the show called “Evidence” as the Chinese authorities confiscated his passport, organizers said Wednesday.
But Ai’s provocative spirit is present throughout the 32,300-square-foot space the museum has dedicated to him.
At a media preview ahead of the official opening, the museum’s director Gereon Sievernich presented a haunting video of Ai at his studio expressing hope he will be able to attend the Berlin exhibition before it closes on July 7.
“I hope the audience in Berlin can enjoy it, and also can criticize it,” he said, speaking in English.
“I don’t know what will happen in the near future but I still hope that I can come to see the show and share the moment with the audience and give an explanation of the work.”
Ai is China’s most prominent political activist alongside writer and Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, and a darling of the Western art world.
The show’s title “Evidence” refers to the proof – or lack of it – that the Chinese authorities used to detain Ai on charges of massive tax fraud during a roundup of activists three years ago.
One of its most talked-about installations is a replica of the jail cell in which the artist was held at an unknown location.
Called 81 for the number of days Ai spent inside, the chilling reconstruction features a narrow single bed, two chairs, a desk, a wardrobe, walls lined with foam recalling a padded cell and white steel bars over a sole small window high on the wall.
A filthy bathroom is adjacent.
After a few minutes inside the room, the air becomes stifling.
Detained, interrogated, defamed
Another space is filled with porcelain river crabs, a symbol deployed by
Chinese Internet users to protest online censorship.
And three twisted metal bars replicated in marble stand for the horrific damage wrought by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake which killed more than 80,000.
Ai publicly blamed corruption and official incompetence for structural faults in state buildings such as schools for the thousands of children who perished in the disaster.
Han Dynasty Vases with Auto Paint contrasts China’s cultural heritage with the scramble to acquire Western goods, in this case, German luxury cars.
Ai’s trademark wit is also on display, with marble “surveillance cameras” hanging at the museum entrance.
The German government says it has often raised Ai’s case with Chinese officials behind closed doors even as it bolsters ties with Beijing, but German leaders did not speak publicly about the artist during Xi’s visit last week.
However Culture Minister Monika Gruetters delivered a stinging indictment of Beijing’s treatment of its dissidents as she opened the exhibition, calling it Germany’s “cultural event of the year.”
She said Ai could be China’s “national cultural institution, the cultural pride of his nation.”
“Instead he is detained, interrogated, defamed,” she said.
“Germany learned a lesson from its two dictatorships: art and science are free.”
She called on the Chinese government to allow Ai to travel abroad.
“We all pledge this unwavering free spirit our deep solidarity,” she said.
Sievernich noted that Martin Gropius Bau, a sprawling late 19th century building, was itself a politically charged venue, having stood over the course of its history next door to the Nazis’ Gestapo headquarters and later, in the shadow of the Berlin Wall.
French artist Paul Gauguin in a circa 1891 photo. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. ROME (AFP) – Italy on Wednesday said it had recovered a painting worth millions of euros by Paul Gauguin, stolen in London in 1970, bought by an Italian factory worker for a pittance and hung in his kitchen for almost 40 years.
The French artist’s Fruit on a table or small dog was stolen from a house in the British capital along with Woman with two chairs by Pierre Bonnard, and they were recovered together in Italy from the pensioner, who used to work for Italian auto giant Fiat.
The Gauguin painting is worth between 10 and 30 million euros ($13 and $41 million) while the Bonnard is valued at some 600,000 euros, Italy’s heritage police said at a press conference on Wednesday.
The paintings turned up in a lost property department at a train station and were sold at auction in 1975 to the Fiat factory worker, who bought them for 45,000 Italian lire, or 23 euros.
“It’s an incredible story, an amazing recovery. A symbol of all the work which Italian art police have put in over the years behind the scenes,” Italy’s Culture Minister Dario Franceschini told journalists.
The paintings by the French artists were found last month after a lengthy investigation, which began when police received a tip that they may have been stolen.
Investigators trawled through back catalogues of exhibitions from the time of the theft, from which the 1889 Gauguin mysteriously disappeared after it was stolen.
They then used newspaper reports about the 1970s theft in The New York Times and a Singaporean paper to trace the paintings back to the London-based family.
“The two paintings were presumably left on a train from Paris to Turin,” said Mariano Mossa, who heads up the heritage police.
“They were bought by an art-loving worker, who hung them for 40 years in his kitchen, first in Turin then in Sicily, after he retired,” he said.
The Gauguin had been cut out of its frame by the thieves and now measures 46.5 centimeters by 53 centimeters (18.3 inches by 20.8 inches), down from its original size of 49 centimeters by 54 centimeters.
Italy opened a special department to investigate art thefts in 1969, the first in the world, which is situated in a Baroque palace in the center of Rome’s bustling tourist center.
The heritage police manages the largest data bank on stolen art in the world, with details on some 5.7 million objects.
Last year they found a painting by Russian-born Jewish artist Marc Chagall, Le Nu au Bouquet, in a private collector’s home in Bologna that had been stolen from a U.S. tycoon’s yacht in Italy in 2002.
They also investigated the theft of possibly thousands of rare books from the Girolamini Library in Naples, which were allegedly smuggled out and sold internationally by its former director.
Mossa said in January that “the turnover generated by the illegal sale of works of art comes fourth on a world level behind the sale of weapons, drugs and financial products.”
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
French artist Paul Gauguin in a circa 1891 photo. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Custer’s Last Stand, oil on canvas, unsigned (American School, 19th/20th Century, probably an original illustration art piece). Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com archive and Millea Bros. Auctions. BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) – Federal officials have returned a trove of artifacts seized from a Custer-themed Montana museum during a criminal investigation that never led to charges, the museum’s director and its attorney said Monday.
Custer Battlefield Museum Director Christopher Kortlander said he has agreed not to pursue further claims against the government in return for the artifacts.
The museum is in the small town of Garryowen, near the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn and within the Crow Indian Reservation.
The war bonnets, medicine bundles and other items were confiscated in 2005 and 2008, during a Department of Interior investigation into whether Kortlander was selling artifacts illegally.
The criminal probe was dropped in 2009 with no charges filed.
But federal officials for years resisted returning some artifacts – including those with feathers from protected eagles – and questioned whether they had been acquired lawfully.
Kortlander insisted throughout that the items were possessed legally.
Several medicine bundles previously reported as stolen were not returned to the museum, according to museum attorney Penelope Strong. There was never any allegation that Kortlander was involved in the thefts, but Strong said he agreed to give up the items out of respect for their original owners.
Court records show the case was settled in late February. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carl Rostad declined to comment beyond what was in the court record.
Most other items seized during the raids – including 7th Cavalry memorabilia, other American Indian artifacts, firearms and thousands of pages of documents – had been previously returned.
Kortlander has struggled for any kind of legal retribution. He sought $188 million in damages from the dropped investigation through an unsuccessful tort claim. He also went after the federal agents who led the criminal probe, but that lawsuit, too, was dismissed.
Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-03-31-14 2210GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Custer’s Last Stand, oil on canvas, unsigned (American School, 19th/20th Century, probably an original illustration art piece). Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com archive and Millea Bros. Auctions.
