Damien Hirst (b.1965) ‘Valium,’ digital print in colors, 2000, signed in black ink. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com archive. NEW YORK (AFP) – A Florida pastor was convicted in New York on Tuesday of trying to sell five forged works of millionaire British artist Damien Hirst to an undercover detective for $185,000.
Kevin Sutherland, 46, was convicted by a jury in the State Supreme Court of attempted grand larceny in the second degree and faces up to seven years in prison when sentenced on May 19.
The pastor, who dabbles in art dealing, approached auction house Sotheby’s in Manhattan with a purported Hirst painting in December 2012.
When Sotheby’s tried to authenticate the “spin” painting, Hirst’s London studio, Science Ltd., said it was a fake.
Sotheby’s contacted the district attorney’s office and an undercover police detective emailed Sutherland to enquire about Hirst artwork for sale.
Sutherland then offered five supposedly Hirst art works to the undercover officer, insisting they were authentic.
He offered two “spin” paintings and three “dot” limited edition prints, called Valium, Opium and LSD for $185,000.
He was arrested on Feb. 7 last year when he met the detective, assured him of their authenticity and accepted a cash payment.
Hirst’s studio confirmed all five pieces were forgeries, the district attorney’s office in Manhattan said.
Sutherland, a pastor at the nondenominational Mosaic Miami church, testified that he had previously sold 10 to 12 artworks.
District Attorney Cyrus Vance welcomed the verdict in what he called the “largely unregulated” art industry.
“It is particularly important to hold accountable those who fraudulently deal artwork and to preserve the integrity of this market,” he said, thanking the jury.
Sutherland’s lawyer Sam Talkin told AFP: “We’re going to look into all possible appeal issues.”
Hirst, 48, is perhaps the most famous of the Young British Artists who dominated the art scene in the 1990s. He won the prestigious Turner Prize for contemporary art in 1995.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Damien Hirst (b.1965) ‘Valium,’ digital print in colors, 2000, signed in black ink. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com archive.
Bold original gouache painting by Alexander Calder, titled ‘Loops Filled In.’ Price realized: $78,200. Cottone Auctions image. GENESEO, N.Y. – A bold original gouache painting by the renowned American artist Alexander Calder (1898-1976), titled Loops Filled In, signed lower right and dated 1972, measuring 23 inches by 31 inches, sold for $78,200 at the annual Winter Fine Art & Antiques Auction held March 29 by Cottone Auctions.
LiveAuctioneers.com facilitated Internet live bidding.
The Calder painting was one of two artworks that brought identical selling prices. The other was a color linocut on Arches paper by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), titled Faunes et Chevre. The work was numbered in pencil lower left (26/50) and on the reverse. Like the Calder, it also fetched $78,200. In all, just under 500 lots came up for bid in an auction that grossed about $1.5 million.
It was a busy day for Cottone Auctions’ staff, which had to tend to a packed house of around 250 people in the gallery, as well as nearly 3,000 approved online bidders. And, for some lots as many as 15 phone lines were humming, in addition to the estimated 1,000 left bids that were recorded that day.
“It was exhausting, but it was exhilarating, too,” remarked Matt Cottone of Cottone Auctions. “Fortunately, the market is very strong for better artwork and fine decorative accessories, as we had plenty from both categories in this auction. We stayed true to our philosophy of trying not to sell too much merchandise in any one sale and only offering better, fresh-to-the-market items.”
The auction was loaded from start to finish with original paintings by noted, listed artists, Tiffany lamps, estate silver, sculptures, Asian art, antiquities, art glass, Oriental rugs, period furniture and more. Headlining the event was the estate of William Levine of Rochester, N.Y., a businessman, philanthropist and modern art collector. His 43 lots accounted for $410,000.
Following are additional highlights from the auction. All prices quoted include a 15 percent buyer’s premium.
Picasso made more than one appearance on auction day. His limited-edition engraved bottle (Madoura, 147/300), executed circa 1954 and 17 inches tall, in excellent condition, went for $14,000. Also, a color etching and aquatint by the Spanish artist Joan Miro (1893-1983), titled Le Permissionaire, circa 1974, signed in pencil lower right and numbered 28/50, made $40,000.
A gorgeous Tiffany Studios Daffodil lamp, standing 25 inches tall, with the base signed and the 20-inch diameter shade also signed, in overall excellent condition, went to a determined bidder for $57,000. Also, a Tiffany Studios table lamp with the base signed “Tiffany Studios, N.Y.,” 17 1/2 inches tall, with a 10-inch diameter shade and original patina on the base, rose to $14,260.
A stacked walnut mushroom table by the American modern furniture sculptor Wendell Castle (b. 1932), purchased directly by the consignor from Castle and initialed by him the year it was crafted, 1972, finished at $48,300. The table, in the original finish and in excellent condition, will be included in the new book Wendell Castle: A Catalog Raisonne: 1958-2011, due out soon.
A charming 19th century three-quarter length portrait of a young girl, Marietta Ryan, wearing a lace-trimmed gown and carrying a basket of flowers, unsigned but rendered by Milton Hopkins (American, 1789-1884), breezed to $42,500. The oil on board painting is a classic piece of American folk art, rendered by an artist who made his living primarily by painting children’s portraits.
An oil on canvas painting by the German artist Felix Schlesinger (1833-1910), titled Feeding the Rabbits, artist signed lower right, measuring 16 inches by 20 1/4 inches and housed in the original frame, earned $39,100. Also, an oil on canvas landscape work by the Canadian painter Cornelius David Krieghoff (1812-1872), titled Caughnawaga Indians in Snowy Landscape, made $37,000.
An enameled Russian silver-handled vase, made circa 1900, 6 inches tall, totaling 39 troy ounces of silver, coasted to $17,800; and a Walrath art pottery vase having stylized cattails with a matte finish and standing 8 1/4 inches tall, $15,525. Also, an early Russian icon showing St. George the Warrior in half-length armor, 10 3/4 inches by 13 inches, Moscow School, commanded $19,300.
Rounding out just some of the auction’s top lots, a Native American painted elk skin hide depicting a war dance and hunting scenes, impressive at 60 inches by 50 inches, in generally good condition despite some staining and loss, achieved $18,500; and a fine and rare First French Empire Boutet engraved sword (circa 1804-1815), with a 32-inch blade, rose to $16,100.
Cottone Auctions is especially interested in fine artworks, Oriental rugs, silver, Tiffany, art glass, art pottery, folk art, Native American, old clocks and stoneware. To consign an item, an estate or a whole collection, call them at 585-243-1000 or send an e-mail to matt@cottoneauctions.com.
From: Oliver Forge / Brendan Lynch, a 15th century gilt bronze plaque depicting four offering goddesses, from the Tibetan Dentasil Monastery. Asia Week New York image. NEW YORK – Asia Week New York – the nine-day Asian art extravaganza – ended on a stupendous note: $200 million in sales, exceeding last year’s number by $25 million.
From the minute the 47 international galleries of Asia Week New York opened their doors on March 14, a whirlwind of activities invigorated the city. The annual event was celebrated with a magnificent reception at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on March 17, where U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed more than 600 collectors, curators and Asian art specialists. The event ignited excitement that burned for the entire week, and the Asian art world buzzed with exhibitions and record-breaking auctions that were thronged with international buyers from mainland China, Taiwan, India, Japan, Korea and the United States.
“With an increase in overseas Chinese buyers, combined with many American museum curators and their patrons, Asia Week New York was a tremendous success this year,” said Carol Conover, chairman of Asia Week New York. “A record number of galleries – 47 – saw steady and heavy traffic throughout the week, and the four major auction houses saw sales reach new highs.”
Added Conover, who, in addition to her role as chair of Asia Week New York, is gallery director of Kaikodo LLC: “This was the best Asia Week my gallery has had since this initiative started six years ago. We saw many American clients we had not seen in the last few years, and of course, many more new Chinese buyers. There was great museum interest from institutions both in the U.S. and from abroad, and there was a definite increase in Chinese buyers.”
Accolades for Asia Week New York poured in from every quarter, as evidenced by the remarks of the participants:
Chinese specialist James Lally of J.J. Lally & Co. in New York said: “The results achieved during Asia Week were beyond satisfactory. I am glad to say that we had more collectors from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong participating this year than ever before, in every category and at every level.
“We did very well this week and had increased interest from museums,” said Nicholas Grindley, another purveyor of traditional Chinese works of art. He reported sales to major museums both in the U.S. and abroad, as well as to new Chinese buyers.
Conor Mahoney of the New York-based Chinese Porcelain Co. observed: “Due to the high quality of exhibitions, we noticed that Asia Week New York attracted a record number of Asian buyers.” Among the sales were Lotus Pod I & II, an ink drawing by Zhao Xu, 2013, and a rare Yue Yao stoneware lamp from the Western Jin Dynasty, A.D. 265–316.
Paris-based Christophe Hioco said, “We were pleased to meet so many visitors, both museum curators and American collectors, with a strong knowledge of Indian art.” He reported that 50 percent of his sales were to museums.
Also here from Paris was Antoine Barrère, who was delighted to see his regular clients as well as new people who expressed a great deal of interest. He also stated that he felt he developed more business contacts than ever before.
Marsha Vargas of the San Francisco-based Xanadu Gallery said that Asia Week New York was a good experience. “We sold a number of Tibetan ritual implements, including stupas and phurbas,” she said, adding that “Chinese buyers accounted for 95 percent of our sales.”
“We have had a very strong response to our exhibition this year and have had many more visitors in particular on the first day and the open-house weekend,” said Brendan Lynch of the London-based Oliver Forge & Brendan Lynch. “We’ve had visits from about 15 museum curators and directors. Sales were good, reflecting quality over quantity.” As well as their usual collection of Indian miniature paintings, Lynch reported that on opening day a private New York collector took home a highly important 15th-century gilt-bronze plaque from the Densatil Monastery in Tibet, depicting four offering goddesses, for a six-figure sum.
“It has been a very exciting week, with dozens of new faces coming into the gallery every day,” said Eric Zetterquist of his eponymous gallery. “More than half of my exhibition is sold, with strongest interest coming from American clients and institutions. Since I am one of the only venues with a significant collection of early Chinese ceramics, specialists of the field from all over the world came to see the exhibition.”
“We are very happy,” said Carlton Rochell of New York. He reported one of his best Asia Weeks ever with over $5 million in sales, almost 30 objects sold, and new purchasers, especially from mainland China.
This year, Asia Week New York welcomed a new partner: Presenting Sponsor Amanresorts, which spotlighted seven of its ne plus ultra resorts from four Asian countries, which include Amanfayun in Hangzhou, China, Aman at Summer Palace in Beijing, China, Amanbagh in Rajasthan, India, Aman-i-Khás in Ranthambore, India, Amangalla in Galle, Sri Lanka, Amanwella in Tangalle, Sri Lanka, and the Amankora in Bhutan.
Asia Week New York also continued its partnership with China Center New York, who returned for the second year as Supporting Sponsor. China Center is projected to open at One World Trade Center in early 2015, and will serve as a gateway for Chinese companies and individuals entering the U.S. to connect with American entities seeking new opportunities with China.
Dates for Asia Week New York are set for March 13–21.
From: Oliver Forge / Brendan Lynch, a 15th century gilt bronze plaque depicting four offering goddesses, from the Tibetan Dentasil Monastery. Asia Week New York image.From Kaikodo: Mansheng Wang, ‘Lotus Pond in Summer,’ 2010. Asia Week New York image.From Joan B. Mirviss Ltd., Yangi Kazuo (1918-1979), asymmetrical sculpted vessel, 1970, glazed stoneware. Asia Week New York image.
LONDON – A suit worn by John Lennon and a shirt by George Harrison, both from the defining ’60s era when the Beatles took the world by storm are the clear headliners in a sale of rock and pop memorabilia at Ewbank’s, Surrey’s premier auctioneer of fine art and antiques. The two-day Entertainments Sale is next Wednesday and Thursday, April 16-17.
LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
Lennon’s dinner jacket and trousers are expected to sell for £10,000-15,000. They were donated to a church in California and acquired by the present owner through a private sale when he brought them to the UK. Each garment bears labels for renowned Beatles tailor D. A. Millings & Son and another with Lennon’s name.
Dougie Millings and his son Gordon produced around 500 garments for the group. Brian Epstein, the Beatles’ manager visited their shop in London in 1963 as part of a move to change the group’s image from black leather jackets and jeans to smart stage suits.
Millings charged £31 per garment and became great friends with group members who called him “Dad.” He played a cameo role as “A Tailor” in the film A Hard Day’s Night.
George Harrison’s pink cotton shirt, worn on stage at the Cavern Club in around 1961-63, is estimated at £7,000-10,000. It was won as a prize in a “Beatle Raffle” organized by Bredbury and Romiley Oxfam Committee – tickets price 6d (2½ pence) – and is accompanied by the winning ticket. Four prizes were offered, the winners being able to choose an item from the Beatles’ personal belongings.
Black and white photographs show the winner holding the shirt and Harrison’s mother, Louise, in his bedroom.
Other rare Beatles and John Lennon-related memorabilia is set to create worldwide interest in the sale of entertainment memorabilia at Ewbank’s. A single A4 sheet of lined paper with sketches of figures in black ink by Lennon, similar to those seen in his 1965 nonsense book A Spaniard in the Works, the reverse with Cynthia Lennon’s name repeated in blue ballpoint, is estimated at £1,500-2,500. It was given to Liverpool comedian Peter Robinson by Lennon during their friendship in the 1960s and has been sent for sale by the executors of his estate.
A motorway service center napkin, signed “Peace John Lennon” with a sketch in typical Lennon style, acquired in the 1990s by a man who had once met Lennon at a motorway service station, is estimated at £500-800.
A British quad poster for the Beatles’ iconic first film A Hard Day’s Night (1964) a “mockumentary” of the Fab Four as they make their way to a London television program, is estimated at £700-1,000. The poster has 31 various portrait photographs by Robert Freeman of John, Paul, George and Ringo and one of Wilfred Brambell, who played Paul’s “clean old man” grandfather.
A U.S. one-sheet poster for Yellow Submarine, the group’s 1968 animated musical fantasy is estimated at £400-600.
Among other highlights, a page from Rolling Stone magazine dated Oct. 26, 1968, autographed in ballpoint by Jimi Hendrix, Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience is framed in a presentation display with a photograph and offered with a certificate of authenticity and is estimated at £1,800-2,200.
A group of signed LP covers include David Bowie’s signed Pinups LP; Cream Live signed by Eric Clapton Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker; Combat Rock, signed by the Clash lineup of Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Topper Headon and the late Joe Strummer; “Zenyatta Mondatta signed by Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland of The Police and the Jam’s Setting Sons, signed by Paul Weller, Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler are each estimated at £150-250.
The Who’s Tommy LP signed by Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend and the late John Entwistle is estimated at £200-400, as is the late Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black and both the U2’s Boy and The Unforgettable Fire, signed by Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen.
Carrying the same estimate are covers signed by AC/DC’s Brian Johnson, Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd on For Those About to Rock” and Super Trouper, signed by ABAA’S Agnetha Ase Fältskog, Benny Anderson, Björn Ulvaeus and Anni-Frid Lyngstad.
Top estimates of £300-500 are reserved for Led Zeppelin II signed by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones; Still Life by The Rolling Stones, signed by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts; Queen Greatest Hits LP signed by the late Freddie Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor; and Michael Jackson’s Thriller signed by the King of Pop.
Film posters continue to enjoy a strong following among collectors prepared to bid strongly for rarities to add to their collections. Offerings this time include quads (30 x 40 inches) of the 1970 Hammer Horror Taste The Blood Of Dracula starring Christopher Lee with artwork by Tom Chantrell (estimate £300-500); United Artists’ You Only Live Twice starring Sean Connery as James Bond (£400-600), and A Fistful Of Dollars, the first so-called spaghetti Western directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, released by United Artists (£400-600).
A rare Star Wars quad poster produced prior to the Academy Awards in 1977 with artwork by Tom Chantrell is estimated at £800-1,200.
An American one sheet poster, for the 1960 Paramount horror movie Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles is estimated at £500-800, while a U.S. half sheet for Died With Their Boots On, the 1941 film starring Errol Flynn is estimated at £200-400.
The most valuable movie-related lot in the sale is an imposing, Italian four folio poster for the 1960 film La Dolce Vita with artwork by Georgio Olivetti, which is estimated at £10,000-15,000. It measures more than 6 feet by 4 feet. La Dolce Vita broke box office records when it was released and achieved worldwide acclaim, making the movie one of Frederico Fellini’s many masterpieces. Filmed mainly at the Cinecitta studios, the movie follows stars Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni as they escape the paparazzi through the streets of Rome.
A rare cinema window card promoting the 1939 20th Century Fox movie The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes starring Basil Rathbone, measures just 22 by 14 inches, but is estimated at £700-1,000.
Autographs from out of this world appear on a “First Man On The Moon” first day cover signed by the Apollo XI astronauts Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) Buzz Aldrin (b. 1930-) and Mike Collins (b. 1930) the NASA crew member who piloted the command spacecraft alone in lunar orbit until his comrades returned. It is estimated at £500-800.
A ballot sheet signed by Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) alongside where voters would have put their X to elect the African National Congress in the 1994 general election is estimated at £800-1,200. Mandela’s ANC were the runaway victors, polling more than 12 million of the 16 million votes cast in the elections, the first in which all races were allowed to take part.
For further information, contact the auctioneer on 01483 223101 or email antiques@ewbankauctions.
Buddha (detail). Provenance unknown, central Thailand, first half of the seventh century. Sandstone; H. 67 3/8 in. National Museum, Bangkok.
NEW YORK (AFP) – A landmark exhibition opens in New York next week exploring the ancient kingdoms of Southeast Asia and introducing to the outside world the first treasures from Myanmar seen abroad.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art spent five years preparing the exhibition of Hindu-Buddhist sculptures from a region and ancient culture little known in the United States.
It features 160 stone, terracotta and bronze sculptures of which 22 are from Myanmar, the first pieces of art loaned by Yangon after emerging from decades of international isolation.
The rest from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Britain, France and elsewhere in the United States complete an exhibition that only the vast resources of the Metropolitan could pull off.
“Most of these powerful works of art have rarely if ever been on view outside their home countries,” said the Met’s British director Thomas Campbell.
“We are especially honored that the government of Myanmar has signed its first-ever international loan agreement in order to lend their national treasures to this exhibition.”
The beautifully presented and painstakingly curated “Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia 5th to 8th Century,” opens Monday and runs until July 27.
The museum hopes that it will attract culture vultures keen to bone up on a little-known field, and backpackers and gap-year students who have enjoyed the beaches of Thailand and Vietnam.
Around 6.2 million people visited the Met in each of the last two years, a new audience for these ancient treasures and for Myanmar, which only emerged from international sanctions in 2012.
Curator John Guy said Southeast Asia was dismissed by ancient geographers as “that place beyond India and before China,” but produced some of the greatest Hindu and Buddhist art to survive.
The exhibition tracks the period when both faiths took root in the region from India, absorbed into local belief systems and giving rise to the nation states of today.
‘An enormous act of faith’
It took two years – a “long and rigorous process” – to negotiate the loans from all the countries, Guy told AFP.
“Myanmar is new at this and I have to say they behaved in an extraordinarily professional manner,” he added.
Before coming to New York, some objects had traveled only once: by cart from the ancient city of Sri Ksetra where they were excavated in 1924-26 to the local museum.
As in the case of several other countries, cabinet-level approval was required.
“It’s appropriate,” Guy said.
“We’re asking to borrow their national treasures and bring them half way around the world. This is an enormous act of faith on their part.”
Southeast Asian countries are emerging economies and Myanmar has embarked upon wide-ranging reforms since turning the page on five decades of junta rule that kept the country impoverished.
Guy said the region could expect spin-off benefits such as enhanced tourism and cultural cooperation.
When the exhibits return to Myanmar in August, for example, two conservators will go to work on objects that in the end were deemed too fragile to travel to New York.
“As important as the exhibition is, we would never put a single object at risk,” said Guy, an expert with 20 years’ experience and contacts in the region.
While many of the masterpieces come from Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, the standout contribution from Myanmar is a sixth century sandstone slab that covered a relic chamber in Sri Ksetra.
Guy described it as an “extraordinary object, beautiful in its own right and the way it functioned, offering almost magical protection to the chamber, makes it a very potent object.”
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Buddha (detail). Provenance unknown, central Thailand, first half of the seventh century. Sandstone; H. 67 3/8 in. National Museum, Bangkok.
The Byzantine New Testament manuscript disappeared more than 50 years ago from the monastery on Mount Athos in Greece. Image by Fingalo. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany license. LOS ANGELES (AFP) – The J. Paul Getty Museum has agreed to return to Greece a Byzantine New Testament manuscript illegally taken from a monastery on Mount Athos over 50 years ago, it said Monday.
The documented was acquired in 1983 as part of a “large, well-documented collection,” but recent research indicated that it had been stolen from the Holy Monastery of Dionysiou, said the Los Angeles-based museum.
Specifically investigators found a monastery record dating from 1960 indicating that the book had been illegally removed, said the Getty museum’s director Timothy Potts.
“Over the past six weeks, the Getty Museum has worked cooperatively with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports to understand the recent history of this manuscript, and to resolve the matter of its rightful ownership in a timely fashion,” he said.
“Based on new information that came to light through this process, the museum decided that the right course of action was to return the manuscript to the Holy Monastery of Dionysiou from which it disappeared over 50 years ago.
“The Monastery’s report from 1960, which only recently became available to us, was crucial in reaching this decision,” he added in a statement.
Greece’s culture minister, Panos Panagiotopoulos, said: “This illuminated New Testament, which was copied in 1133 by the scribe Theoktistos and can be stylistically associated with court art produced in Constantinople, is a masterpiece of Middle Byzantine art.
“We applaud the Getty for their responsiveness to this matter,” he added.
The manuscript will remain on display at the Getty until June 22 as part of a collection including several documents loaned by Greece, and will be returned when the exhibition is closed.
Founded by the billionaire John Paul Getty, the Getty Museum is supported by the world’s wealthiest artistic foundation, the Getty Trust, whose assets were valued at $7.9 billion in 2011.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
The Byzantine New Testament manuscript disappeared more than 50 years ago from the monastery on Mount Athos in Greece. Image by Fingalo. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany license.
Rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Little Richard built his career performing in Nashville. Image by Anna Bleker, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Construction on the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville could start as early as next year.
Project leaders told The Tennessean the construction will be one component of a larger redevelopment on the site of the old Nashville Convention Center in downtown.
The wheels were put in motion to build a museum to honor African American culture in 2000 when the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce created a task force to study the issue.
Initially, the project had a fundraising goal of more than $43 million, but that was reduced after the city offered up the convention center. In 2006, the city committed $10 million toward the project, and Nashville Mayor Karl Dean said the city’s commitment still stands.
“I believe there is strong interest and demand for this type of museum, and the planned location is in a vibrant section of our downtown,” he said.
Known best for country music, some say, Nashville’s original “Music Row” was Jefferson Street, which until the 1970s was a vibrant corridor of live music venues where iconic musicians like Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix built their careers and where local legends like Frank Howard, Jimmy Church and Marion James earned a living.
Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-04-06-14 1736GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Little Richard built his career performing in Nashville. Image by Anna Bleker, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Construction on the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville could start as early as next year.
Big Mike, a bronze version of the Tyrannosaurus rex, stands in front of the Museum of the Rockies. Image by Jllm06, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) – As thunder boomed and lightning illuminated their small camper, Kathy Wankel couldn’t help but think that after years of being buried, the few fossilized bones she and her family had dug up that day, and carefully swaddled in towels and an old sweatshirt, did not want to be moved.
“It was such a terrible storm, it was like saying ‘Don’t take those bones out of there,’” Wankel, 61, said in a telephone interview.
This week, the now nearly complete fossilized skeleton of the Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur that Wankel discovered in 1988 in Eastern Montana will be shipped from the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. There, the Wankel rex will be on loan for 50 years as the centerpiece of the museum’s new 31,000-square-foot national fossil hall, which will open in 2019.
“It’s about time the Smithsonian had their own T. rex,” said Mark Robinson, marketing director at the Museum of the Rockies. “Seven million people a year will be seeing it, and we’re OK with that. It will be good exposure for the Museum of the Rockies, Montana State University and the state.”
Wankel discovered the fossil while walking along the edge of Fort Peck Reservoir near Nelson Creek on Labor Day weekend. Her husband, Tom, was strolling along the base of a ridge when he called to her on the above hillside to come and look at what he had found.
“You better come up here, I think I’ve really found something,” she recalled responding to her husband.
Only a small portion of the dinosaur was visible, she said, about the size of a knife blade. The bones were whitish grey and the bone marrow was visible. Tom got out his pocket knife and began scratching away the hardened dirt surrounding the bone, but the summer had been so dry and the ground was so firm that he soon gave up and they returned by boat to their camp across the water.
Loading up the boat with more tools, their three children, her brother-in-law and his child, they returned to the spot and began chipping away.
“I just had a feeling it was a mega find,” she told The Billings Gazette.
But even with the extra tools, excavation proved difficult. At the end of the three-day weekend, the family had to return home. Montana’s governor stalled the Wankels’ return the following weekend when he closed all public lands to recreation because of extreme fire danger. In the fall of 1988, Yellowstone National Park was ablaze.
“It was mid-October before we got back up there,” she recalled. “We dug out what we could, which turned out to be the shoulder blade and one forearm of a T. rex. They had never found an ulna bone of a T. rex before.”
The bones idled in the basement at the Wankel ranch north of Miles City until Thanksgiving. That’s when the family visited relatives in Bozeman and took the bones along to show to experts at the Museum of the Rockies.
“I was pretty sure they weren’t buffalo bones,” Wankel said.
As the museum’s Patrick Leiggi walked out to the station wagon to inspect the bones, Wankel had the feeling that he was kind of “ho-hum” about the task until he saw the fossils.
“Then his eyes got huge,” she said and laughed. “He was really puffing on that Marlboro cigarette.”
Leiggi fetched the rest of the museum’s paleontology staff, which crowded around the bones, looked at each other but said nothing until Jack Horner, who is now regents professor of paleontology at the museum, asked if they could find the site again. The next year, they led the group to the site, hiking in from the McGuire Creek Road because the reservoir was too low to boat to the bones.
Between 1989 and 1990, a crew from the Museum of the Rockies descended on the remote landscape, enduring searing heat, lightning that struck and demolished their outhouse, drenching rainstorms as well as rattlesnakes to remove tons of rock with jackhammers to unearth the meat-eating dinosaur.
“I like to think that us giving them a T. rex helped them build up the museum and get funding,” Wankel said. “They’ve done a wonderful job.”
Although once displayed in its “death pose” near the entrance of the museum’s Hall of Horns and Teeth in the Siebel Dinosaur Complex, for the last few years the Wankel rex has been in storage. And in the intervening years, the museum has collected about a dozen T. rex fossil remains.
Now retired from her position at Miles Community College in Miles City where she served as director of nursing, Wankel said she still likes to roam the vast Eastern Montana plains while looking for interesting rocks. But it will be hard to top her 1988 discovery.
“It was a very, very fortunate find,” she said. “We just happen to hit the jackpot.”
Because the dinosaur was found on public land managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the bones are owned by the federal government. It was Corps officials who agreed to provide the fossil to the Smithsonian.
“Jack Horner called me to tell me about it,” Wankel said. “He said really it is the most beautiful specimen, so it should be the nation’s T. rex.”
The Wankel T. rex was estimated to have roamed Eastern Montana about 66 million years ago when the landscape more closely resembled swampy Florida than the rugged Northern Great Plains of today. About 85 percent of the skeleton was eventually unearthed. The fossil was also one of the first studied to see if biological molecules still existed within the fossilized bones.
When alive, the Wankel rex was about 38 feet long and weighed 6 to 7 tons. Its age was estimated at 18 years, not yet fully grown. With teeth as large as bananas, the T. rex was one of the most ferocious meat eaters that ever roamed the earth.
A cast of the dinosaur is on display at the National Museum of Scotland as well as a bronze version that stands in front of the Museum of the Rockies named Big Mike.
The Wankel rex was scheduled to be transferred to the Smithsonian last fall to be unveiled on National Fossil Day, but the federal government’s shutdown halted the shipment.
Festivities are planned in Bozeman on Friday at the Museum of the Rockies. The free festivities will run from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and will include a picnic, appearances by dignitaries and the museum’s mascot, Rocky Rex. A caravan down Main Street will begin at around 2 p.m. with a FedEx truck carrying the boxed-up Wankel T. rex.
As the Wankel rex is unpacked in Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian’s technical staff will scan each bone so that the entire skeleton can be digitally reproduced virtually in three dimensions. The museum would like to eventually scan all of the available T. rex skeletons to compare the fossils to see any variations.
Tom and Kathy Wankel, and 20 members of their extended family, plan to attend the Bozeman festivitites and travel to Washington, D.C., for the festivities planned there to welcome the fossil.
“We just had such a great time, it was such a good experience for our family,” Wankel said.
Yet part of her hates to see the T. rex leave the state, the exodus of one more natural resource.
“I guess I’m just going to have to find another one,” she said, chuckling.
Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks,’ is one of the masterpieces chosen for the advertising campaign. The Art Institute of Chicago, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. WASHINGTON (AP) – Five museums say they are organizing the largest outdoor art show to showcase American art nationwide this summer.
Beginning Monday, curators are asking the public to vote online to choose which artwork will be featured on 50,000 displays for the “Art Everywhere” initiative in August. Members of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America are donating the space.
Museums have nominated 100 artworks to choose from. They include Jasper Johns’ Three Flags, Grant Wood’s American Gothic, Gilbert Stuart’s George Washington and Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks. Other artists include Mary Cassatt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol.
Participating museums include the Art Institute of Chicago, Dallas Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art and Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks,’ is one of the masterpieces chosen for the advertising campaign. The Art Institute of Chicago, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
