August 25, 2014 - Auction Central News

Gianguan Auctions opens Asia Week with courtly rarities Sept. 14

Lot 248, a gilt and silver-inlaid bronze and mythical beast cast with dragon head and tiger body inlaid with a pattern of cloud scrolls, geometric and beasts pattern and embellished with hardstone. Warring States period. Estimate: $80,000-$100,000. Gianguan Auctions image.

NEW YORK – On Sunday, Sept. 14, Gianguan Auctions will kick off the fall edition of New York’s Asia Week with dynamic collections of Chinese paintings, ceramics, carved jades and works of art.

LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.

The morning session of paintings is one of the strongest in recent memory, mixing works from the Song, Ming and Yuan Dynasties with a field of modern and contemporary paintings. Later in the day, the decorative arts, including Chinese bronzes, antique porcelains, carved jades and luxury brand items, come under the hammer in what promises to be a lively session.

Several of the marquee lots reflect benchmarks in the evolution of Chinese history and art. For example, Lot 61, Stallion and Attendant, a Yuan Dynasty work by Zhao Lin, metaphorically challenges the Mongol influence by depicting a regal horse rearing against reins held by a fierce looking keeper. Intricately colored and meticulous in its detail, the painting carries one artist seal, eight collector seals and 11 emperor seals plus five colophons. It will command $400,000-$500,000.

Lot 51, “Mount Huangshan Amidst Cloud,” a Qing Dynasty landscape by Hong Ren, captures the mountain’s jagged peaks and plateaus in an early example of geometric abstraction. The ink and color on paper is titled, inscribed and signed. With two artist seals, two collector seals and one colophon by Cheng Zhenghu, it is valued at $600,000-$850,000.

Meanwhile, classicists will flock to Lot 64, Zhao Yuan’s Snow Mountain with 15 collector seals and two colophons by Ma Jin and Fa Ruozhen. It is estimated at $200,000-$300,000.

Works by 20th century blue-chip artists include three by Li Keran (1907-1989) whose insights and knowledge of water buffalo and their young herders come through in the work. Lot 17, Cross the Willow Pond, is a study in movement as herder and water buffalos make their way through deep water. The catalog estimate is $80,000-$100,000. Lot 49, Autumn Leaves Color captures the light-heartedness of herders atop water buffalo reveling in a swirl of orange autumn leaves. Its estimate is $60,000-$100,000. Finally, Lot 67, A Shepherd, is a tour de force of humor in ink. A young herder contemplates a mountainous landscape while propped precariously in a gravity-defying pose on the side of the water buffalo. In the inscription, the artist compares himself to an overgrown school child. The estimate is $50,000-$80,000.

The ever-popular and prodigious Qi Baishi is represented by Lot 28, Rooster and Cockscomb. In an asymmetrical take on the subject, Qi Baishi, cocks the rooster’s head so that it can peer into a tree in the background, parodying, perhaps, the legend that roosters have eyes in the back of their head. Signed Qi Huang, the painting has one artist seal and is estimated $50,000 to $60,000. Lot 35, Chrysanthemum and Wine, a Qi Baishi still life, stresses longevity and good fortune. Its value is $50,000-$80,000.

Fu Baishi (1904-1965) a leader of the New Chinese Painting Movement that reformed Chinese painting after 1949, authors Lot 32, Crane at Dusk. It is a bold portrayal of a man on a jetty in a rolling sea contemplating a flock of cranes. Entitled and signed, the painting has three artist seals. It is expected to fetch $100,000-$150,000. In Lot 43, the artist depicts The Three Sages, seated under a tree. Signed Fu Baishi, it is estimated at $60,000-$80,000.

Eight paintings by Zhang Daiqain (1899-1983) come to the podium as early as Lot 3. Scholar with Zither, is a 1976, two-panel calligraphic statement on mottled background. Inscribed and signed Zhang Yuan, it carries two artist seals and is expected to go off at $20,000-$30,00. Lot 40, aptly named Mountain Ridges, is a color-splashed landscape expected to bring $40,000-$50,000. Lot 57, Beauty and a Mirror, dated 1944, is a figurative painting destined to fetch $50,000-$80,000.

Highlights of the afternoon session include exceptional Chinese porcelains from the Ming, Song and Qing dynasties. Lot 215 is a magnificent Ming blue and white lobed bowl. The 16 lobes are finely painted with 22 children playing in a court garden scene. At the center of the interior four children play. This auspicious sign is surrounded by Lingzhi and plantain. Of the period and bearing the Xuande six-character double-circled seal mark, the bowl is anticipated to command $400,000-$600,000.

Lot 222 is a pair of Cizhou carved green-glazed meipings. Of potted form, the vases are carved with wide bands of lotus spray. At the shoulder and foot are line borders and scrolling leaves. Ten inches high and of the Song Dynasty, they are valued at $15,000-$20,000.

Lot 204 is a fine yellow ground and green enameled Qilin vase. Of bulbous form with canted shoulder and long neck, the vase is decorated with the mythical hooved chimerical beast known as a Qilin. Of the Qing Dynasty, it bears the Yongzheng six-character mark and is valued at $4,000 to $5,000.

A mythical beast of gilt and silver inlaid bronze embellished with hard stone with dragon head and tiger body at Lot 248. Of the Warring States period and decorated with scrolling clouds, beasts and geometrics, the animal stands fore square and ferocious. Measuring 5 inches high and 10 inches long, the bronze beast is valued at $80,000-$100,000. A similar mythical beast, also silver inlaid bronze resides at Lot 253. Of the Warring States period, its estimate is $30,000-$50,000.

Meanwhile, Lot 250, a carved neolithic bone of the Liangzhu Culture (3400-2250 B.C.) will draw attention from natural history collectors. Retaining the shape of a lower jawbone with teeth intact, the specimen is carved with a Taotie mask. Its catalog estimate is $10,000-$20,000.

With the 2014 International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society meeting set for October in Hong Kong, interest in the collection of snuff bottles may soar. Prime items include Lot 270, a carved green-overlay on white glass Famille Rose painted snuff bottle. The Qing Dynasty bottle carries the Qianlong four-character mark. Its value is $3,000 to $4,000. Another excellent example is Lot 272, a pouch-shaped bottle with enameled cartouches depicting western figures of mother and child. The metal stopper has an integral finial and collar decorated with floral blossom. It is of the Qing Dynasty and has the Qianlong four-character mark. The estimate is $2,000-$3,000.

An extensive collection of carved jade personal items such as pendants, thumb rings, garment hooks, jewelry and a white jade belt. This is followed by carved hard stones seals. Outstanding among them is Lot 154, a Qing Dynasty, Jixue boulder carved in relief with nine dragons chasing flaming pearls on a beige Shoushan stand carved with dragon tortoise. It is estimated at $6,000-$10,000. At Lot 193, the carver’s art is distinguished by a Shoushan set of 12 military officials in full armor. Each is crowned with a zodiac animal head and is surmounted on a wooden stand. The set is valued at $6,000-$10,000.

For luxury brand enthusiasts, Lot 125 introduces a Cartier Tank Francaise diamond bezel wristwatch set with a blue cabochon crystal. It will command $6,000-$7,000.

The Sept. 14 sale will be held live at Gianguan Auctions, 295 Madison Ave in Manhattan, with Internet live bidding available through LiveAuctioneers.

Click to view an exclusive video tour of highlights in Gianguan’s Sept. 14 auction, guided by Mary Ann Lum.

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.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Lot 61, ‘Stallion and Attendant,’ by Zhao Lin. Ink and color on paper. Yuan Dynasty. signed Zhao Lin, with one artist seal, eight collector seals, 11 emperor seals and five colophons by Zhu Yunming, Wang Chong, Liang Qingbiao, Xu Lin and Dong Bangda. Catalog estimate: $400,000-$500,000. Gianguan Auctions image.

Lot 69, ‘Lotus in the Wind,’ 1943, by Zhang Daqian. Signed Zhang Yuan, with two artist seals $80,000-$100,000. Gianguan Auctions image.

Lot 270, carved green overlay on white ground Famille Rose enamel painted glass snuff bottle carved in relief with plantain leaves. Molded with green overlay cartouches of auspicious crane and deer under a pine tree. Green quartz stopper with finial and bronze collar. Recessed reign mark incised. Qing Dynasty, Qianlong four-character mark. Estimate: $3,000-$4,000. Gianguan Auctions image.

Lot 41, Calligraphy of an emperor, Zhao Ji (Song Huizong), Northern Song Dynasty, inscribed and signed, with two artist seals. Estimate: $13 million-$16 million. Gianguan Auctions image.

Lot 215, a blue and white 16-lobed large bowl painted with 22 children playing in a court garden scene, and the interior four children and Lingzhi and plantain. Ming Dynasty, Xuande six-character double-circled seal mark and of the period. Shi Yang Tang Collections, New York. Estimate: $400,000-$600,000. Gianguan Auctions image.

Reading the Streets: 21st Precinct Show

Ivanorama at the 21st Precinct Show, New York. Photo by Ilana Novick.

NEW YORK – The irony of a graffiti show in a police station was too delicious to ignore entirely, but it was the sheer variety of styles, colors and the excitement of meeting new favorite pieces that made August’s “21st Precinct Show,” curated by Outlaw Art’s Robert Aloia, one of my favorites of the year. It was proof that even in our detached age, a clever concept is no match for witnessing the results of artists given the freedom to go joyfully crazy.

The former police station on East 22nd Street was most recently a shelter, and is soon to be pricey condos (the most luxurious holding cells in history?). For a beautiful, brief moment, however, it was tagged, spray painted, wheatpasted and stickered by an all star cast of artists including Elle, Matt Siren, Adam Dare, Sheryo and the Yok, Bunny M, RAE, Icy and Sot, and so many more.

In one corner was Ivanorama’s stark black and white wheatpaste of a young girl, pigtailed and wide eyed, screaming with her hands at the sides of her face in that classic Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone pose, with the words “NYC will eat you if you let it” written underneath. Even the children know the rent is too damn high.

On the wall of a room that once fingerprinted gangsters and prostitutes were Dali and Picasso, spray-painted into a boxing ring, with the command to “make art” written above. The piece gave no indication of who would win this particular match.

Reading the Streets favorites Icy and Sot contributed a stencil of a boy, faced obscured by a bandana, carrying a Coke tray filled with Molotov cocktails in the shape of soda bottles.

Upstairs, photographer Jesper Haynes recreated his ’90s era darkroom, complete with red lights, red drapes, and photos of the East Village in the late 80s and early ’90s. The Velvet Underground played in the background, as the people next to me chatted about nightclubs and friends and artists who moved on. I may or may not have teared up, but if anyone asks, I blame the heat.

Composure regained, I ended my trip with a visit to Queen Andrea’s room, all abstract neon shapes, including what looked like a sun who decided that yellow was just too limiting, and pink and blue and green and orange were much more appropriate for its special rays.

NYC may eat you if you let it, if you don’t, it just might give you some thrilling art.

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Icy and Sot at the 21st Precinct Show, New York. Photo by llana Novick.

Jesper Haynes at the 21st Precinct Show, New York. Photo by Ilana Novick.

Savior El Mundo at the 21st Precinct Show, New York. Photo by Ilana Novick.

Kovels Antiques & Collecting: Week of Aug. 25, 2014

Poison rings are part of history and mystery stories. Perhaps Lucrezia Borgia murdered her foes with her ring. This 18K gold ring with a hidden compartment has red enamel trim and an emerald set in the center. Advertised as a poison ring at a 2014 James Julia auction in Fairfield, Maine. It sold for $1,185.

BEACHWOOD, Ohio – Poison rings play a part in a lot of murder mysteries. Adversaries were removed with a flick of a ring cover over a glass of wine. The idea of a ring that held poison is thousands of years old, but it is the Victorian era that’s called “the era of the poison ring.” A ring was made to conceal a small compartment with a tight cover that could hold a poisonous powder. It was designed to be used to kill foes or to commit suicide if captured by enemies. But historians now think the rings were not often used to hold poison. Instead, the small compartment held religious relics, locks of hair of lovers, notes or other tiny memorabilia of a romantic or religious nature. The poison ring is not out of fashion. Internet ads offer hundreds of modern versions today. Prices range from under $40 for pewter or plated metal rings to thousands of dollars for gold rings set with precious stones.

Q: We purchased a stool in the 1970s while we were living in England. It’s wood, 18 inches high, and has vertical fluted sections that join to make a circular outer case. When the top is raised, a hinged toilet seat appears. Under it is a compartment with a lidded ceramic potty jar. It also has a hinged slide-out footrest with a leather top. There are no marks on the wood frame. The lettering on the bottom of the jar reads, “Burleigh, Made in England.” We have no idea of its origin or history. Can you help?

A: You have a type of commode the English call a “close stool.” During the days before indoor plumbing, chamber pots with lids were usually kept under beds and used in the evenings when it was too dark or too difficult to go outside to an outhouse. The more well-to-do 18th-century family could afford a close stool, a small decorative cabinet that held a chamber pot inside. It was chair-seat height and had an opening on top so the user could sit somewhat comfortably. Later close stools were made with hinged outer lids that could be lifted to access the chamber pot. By the 1870s, many had a toilet seat and a lid. A pullout footrest made it easier for a child to use. Fancy close stools were designed to look like elegant pieces of furniture with stained woodwork and upholstered tops. With the advent of indoor plumbing, they were used as parlor stools or stands. The mark on your chamber pot was used in the 1930s by Burgess & Leigh, a British pottery company founded in 1862 in Burslem, England. The pottery started using the name “Burleigh Ware” in the 1930s, and it uses the same name today. Your close stool is worth about $200 to $300.

Q: I have been collecting Space Race-related mechanical banks for a few years. They’re all pot metal, and some of them are labeled with the name of an American astronaut or a commercial bank. The shapes include a rocket, flying saucer, ray gun and spacecraft. What do you think they’re worth?

A: Banks like yours were made from the 1950s into the early ’70s by Dura Mold & Manufacturing Co. and Astro Manufacturing Co., both in East Detroit (now Eastpointe), Mich. Most were sold at wholesale prices to banks and insurance companies, which probably gave many of them away to new customers. While the banks are not very old, they appear to be scarce and are sought by an eager group of collectors. They sell online for $40 and up

Q: We have a booklet called Kellogg’s Funny Jungleland Moving Pictures. The part of the cover with the title on it is orange and below that is a picture of an elephant and a giraffe dressed like people. The pages inside are illustrated with other animals dressed like people. They are cut into sections that can be moved to change the clothes the animals are wearing. It’s marked “Copyright 1909 by W.K. Kellogg” and “Patented Jan. 15, 1907.” The booklet is in pretty good shape other than a little hole in the fold of the book. What is it worth?

A: The booklet was a promotional item for Kellogg’s Corn Flakes. It sells for about $10 today, but the hole in yours decreases its value.

Q: I recently inherited volumes of new collectible plates and plate sets and am researching venues to either bulk wholesale them or to offer them at below cost to a major retailer. Every plate I have looked at comes with a certificate of authenticity, a box, etc. All are new and in perfect condition. Do you know a retailer who might be interested in them?

A: Collector plates are hard to sell and almost all sell for less than their original value. Even the more expensive plates made by Danish manufacturers in the last 30 years have gone down in value. Most collector plates made by American makers sell for about $10 to $15 or less. If you want to sell the entire collection to a retailer, make a list of the plates you have and include the manufacturer’s name and the name of the plate. Be sure to indicate that you have the certificate of authenticity and the box for each. You can contact an online source like Replacements.com or try local antiques or consignment shops. Remember, the retailer has to make money on the deal and you will be lucky to get half the price the retailer sells them for.

Tip: When you move, remember that there is no insurance coverage for breakage if the items are not packed by the shipper.

Sign up for our free weekly email, “Kovels Komments.” Terry Kovel writes about the latest news, tips and questions and her views of the market. If you register on our website, there is no charge.

Terry Kovel and Kim Kovel answer questions sent to the column. By sending a letter with a question, you give full permission for use in the column or any other Kovel forum. Names, addresses or email addresses will not be published. We cannot guarantee the return of photographs, but if a stamped envelope is included, we will try. The amount of mail makes personal answers or appraisals impossible. Write to Kovels, Auction Central News, King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019.

CURRENT PRICES

Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States. Prices vary in different locations because of local economic conditions.

Political poster, Ronald Reagan, “Jelly Bean Kid,” caricature dressed as cowboy, big head, 1981, 33 x 21 inches, $45.
Franciscan teapot, Desert Rose pattern, lid, 4 cups, 9 inches, $125.
Kneeler, Gothic Revival, oak, carved, bible stand, pierced back nautical compass, open-form base, padded knee rest, 1890s, 36 x 18 1/4 inches, $280.
Louis Armstrong windup toy, tin lithograph, vinyl head, cloth clothing, trumpet, Japan, 1950s, 10 inches, $285.
Cigar lighter, countertop, pull-out torch wand, hole punch, Ideal, 4 3/4 x 6 1/2 inches, $330.
Police truncheon, wood, red band, turned handle, painted, c. 1860, 15 inches, $350.
Bronze sculpture, Sphinx, plinth base, patina, England, c. 1900, 7 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches, $430.
Cane, horse head, jockey handle, silver-plated bronze, exotic wood, rubber ferrule, c. 1875, 37 inches, $485.
Stoneware jug, blue, gray, impressed “Burger, Rochester, N.Y.,” 1886, 13 1/2 inches, 2 gallons, $740.
Scrimshawed whale’s tooth, flag, cannon, drum, shield, red, white, blue, A. White, 1959, 7 1/2 inches, $3,305.

Keep up with changes in the collectibles world. Send for a free sample issue of our 12-page, color-illustrated newsletter, “Kovels on Antiques and Collectibles,” filled with prices, news, information and photos, plus major articles and opinions about the world of collecting. An important tool for anyone who buys or sells antiques and collectibles. To subscribe at a bargain $27 for 12 issues, write Kovels, P.O. Box 8534, Big Sandy, TX 75755; call 800-829-9158; or subscribe online at KovelsOnlineStore.com.

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Play ball! Cleveland’s historic League Park redux

An early 1900s postcard pictures Cleveland's League Park. Only the building on the far right and a wall survived demolition in the early 1950s. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

CLEVELAND (AP) – Even in Cleveland, League Park probably doesn’t mean much to a casual baseball fan. The former home of the Cleveland Indians sat neglected and largely forgotten for decades in a not-so-well-traveled east side neighborhood.

But the persistence and, after her death, the memories of a longtime Cleveland councilwoman kept her dream alive to restore the park where Cy Young threw the first pitch in 1891 and where Babe Ruth hit his 500th home run. And on Saturday, the city and baseball fans celebrated its reopening.

Fannie Lewis died in 2008, but those who knew her well can still hear her hectoring council colleagues and administration officials like an outraged baseball manager to raise dollars for the project.

Cleveland public works director Michael Cox laughed when he recalled how hard Lewis fought for League Park.

“If she disagreed with you, she would fight you tooth and nail,” Cox said.

The city has spent $6.3 million to make League Park once again a handsome place to play baseball. Cox remembers playing baseball on what was left of the field in the late 1950s and early ’60s, unaware of the historical significance of the turf beneath his feet. The Indians last played at League Park in 1946 and the Negro Leagues’ Cleveland Buckeyes in 1950.

The Cleveland Rams of the National Football League played four regular-season games there en route to an NFL title in 1945. The Buckeyes won the Negro League World Series that same year, a feat that white-owned Cleveland newspapers largely ignored. Most of League Park was demolished in 1951, but the Browns continued to practice football there into the 1960s.

In a nod to modernity and the vagaries of Cleveland’s spring weather, the entire playing surface is now covered in field turf to prevent rainouts of high school games. There are metal bleachers that can hold a couple hundred people instead of the grandstands that seated more than 20,000.

The old ticket office, which housed a commercial laundry for a time, will become the new home for Cleveland’s Baseball Heritage Museum. The only other remnant from the original park is a brick wall that runs along East 66th Street.

The quirky dimensions of the original field have been maintained. The right field line is just 290 feet away, topped with a 40-foot-high fence to replicate the high wall that once stood there. Babe Ruth hit his 500th homer over that wall onto Lexington Avenue in 1929, just a few months before the world was plunged into the Great Depression. Straightaway center field is 460 feet from home plate and the left field line stretches 375 feet, both abnormally long distances in the modern baseball era.

Pete Shimrak said he watched his first Indians game at League Park in 1939 when he was 7 years old. The pitching match-up, he said, was Indians’ all-star right-hander Mel Harder versus the formidable Bobo Newsom of the Detroit Tigers.

It was a different era, Shimrak said. Men dressed in suits, ties and hats. The team didn’t draw well, and given the park’s cozy design, “Every seat was a good seat,” Shimrak said.

He recalled attending a game on Aug. 14, 1945, and hearing the public address announcer tell the sparse crowd of 2,000 that World War II had come to a merciful end. People stood clapping and celebrating for a long time. Indians players and coaches joined their opponents, the Boston Red Sox, on the field to hug and congratulate one another.

Shimrak said he saw many of the American League greats play at League Park before teams were stripped of their stars by the war. He recalled watching the Red Sox’s Ted Williams, perhaps the game’s greatest hitter, hit a ball over the right field wall and onto the street.

Now 82, Shimrak ended up having more than just a rooting interest in baseball. He was a minority owner of the Indians from 1972 to 1986 and had a piece of basketball’s Cleveland Cavaliers franchise at a time.

Shimrak thinks the Yankees’ Joe DiMaggio was the greatest player he ever saw. League Park and “Joltin’ Joe” are forever entwined in baseball lore. It was the site of the final game of his 56-game hitting streak.

“I hated them then,” Shimrak said of Williams and DiMaggio. “But now I’m so glad I got to watch them play.”

AP-WF-08-22-14 2020GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Cleveland has renovated all that remains of the former home of the Cleveland Indians. Photo by Christopher Busta-Peck. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0 License.

CGC rated 9.0 Action Comics #1 Sells for $3.2M

This CGC-certified 9.0 copy of 'Action Comics #1,' the first appearance of Superman, sold on eBay on Sunday, Aug. 24, for $3,207,852.

The price for a copy of the first appearance of Superman keeps going up, up and away. With two days to go, the CGC-certified 9.0 copy of Action Comics #1 listed on eBay by Pristine Comics, was already the all-time record for the most valuable comic book ever sold. And it wasn’t nearly done.

A bid at 4:50 PM PDT on Friday, Aug. 22, brought the comic to $2,100,000, a mere $60,000 short of record set by ComicConnect with their CGC-certified 9.0 copy of Action Comics #1 ($2.16 million). Then at 5:35 p.m. Pacific time, the comic hit $2,193,819.38.

The last two minutes of the auction began with the price sitting at $2.6 million, but by the time the bidding ended on Sunday at 6 p.m. Pacific, the newly established record was $3,207,852.

This copy of Action Comics #1 was distinguished from the only other 9.0 copy certified to date by the whiteness of its pages. The Nicholas Cage copy, the other 9.0, was listed with “cream to off-white pages.” Allowing that not all copies have been certified thus far – including the Mile High pedigree copy – this has been touted as the finest copy known.

Sold by Darren Adams’ Washington state-based Pristine Comics, this issue is the sixth comic book to sell for $1 million or more, following three other copies of Action Comics #1, a single copy of Detective Comics #27, the first appearance of Batman) and a single copy of Amazing Fantasy #15, the first appearance of Spider-Man.

“Considering the level of commitment required of the potential purchasers for this issue, we can definitely say the bidding was spirited. There were 48 bids, ending in a new world record. The $3 million has arrived,” said Robert M. Overstreet, author and publisher of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide.

“We have been numerous six-figure comics for more than a decade, and while the group is still small, the idea of seven-figure comic books is no longer anything new. The market has recognized with Action Comics #1 that there just aren’t that many copies in any condition of the first appearance of one of the most recognized characters in the world,” he said.

Adams announced the copy’s grade and his decision to sell in on eBay on July 23, 2014, with his company’s ad in The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #44 on the day of its release.

_

Our thanks to J.C. Vaughn and Scoop for sharing this report.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Iraq museum inaugurates renovated halls, remains closed

The National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

BAGHDAD (AP) – The Iraqi National Museum inaugurated two renovated halls adorned with life-size stone statues on Thursday, highlighting the rich history of a country once again shattered by war.

The newly renovated halls feature more than 500 artifacts that mainly date back to the Hellenistic period (312-139 B.C.), some of which were retrieved and renovated after the looting of the museum following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, said Qais Rashid, who head the state-run Museum Department.

The museum chronicles some 7,000 years of Mesopotamian civilization, including the ancient Babylonians, Sumerians and Assyrians, but remains closed to the general public out of security fears.

Iraq is grappling with a re-invigorated Sunni insurgency that has seized large swaths of the country’s north and west since June. The Islamic militants leading the insurgency have destroyed a number of historical and religious monuments they view as un-Islamic or idolatrous.

But the museum inauguration in Baghdad was packed with visitors eager to glimpse relics from happier times.

Rashid said the most important artifacts are the statue of King Sanatruq I, who reigned from around A.D 140 to 180. It shows him wearing a robe and holding a palm leaf in his left hand while extending his right hand in greeting. An eagle on his head extending its wings symbolizes the king’s victories.

Also on display was a headless statue of Hercules, the ancient Greek hero famed for his strength, showing him holding a truncheon and a lion skin.

The statues come from the UNESCO World Heritage Site Hatra, which is thought to have been built in the third or second century B.C. by the Seleucid Empire. It flourished during the first and second centuries as a religious and trading center.

Hatra is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Iraq’s second largest city Mosul, which was captured by the extremist Islamic State group and allied militants in June.

The al-Qaida breakaway group has seized large parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria, declaring a self-styled Islamic caliphate and imposing a strict form of Shariah law in the areas under its control, including a prohibition on depictions of the human form.

Tourism Minister Liwa Smaysin warned that hundreds of Iraq’s archaeological sites located in militant-held areas are under threat of being demolished, including a number of old mosques and shrines, saying Iraq was working with UNESCO to try to protect them.

Looters burst into the Iraqi National Museum the day after Baghdad fell to U.S. troops in April 2003, making off with scores of priceless artifacts and leaving the floor littered with shattered pottery.

The U.S. was widely criticized at the time for failing to protect the site.

AP-WF-08-21-14 1733GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Artist Christo says Arkansas River project at a standstill

The Arkansas River at Salida, Colo., upstream from the proposed Christo installation. Image by Galt57. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

CANON CITY, Colo. (AP) – The artist Christo says his plan to suspend nearly 6 miles of silvery fabric in sections over the Arkansas River is in a “standstill situation.”

The 79-year-old artist updated supporters on his “Over the River” project during a luncheon in Canon City, Colo., on Thursday. The Daily Record reports (http://bit.ly/1tsEG49 ) his visit also included a rafting trip down the Arkansas.

Christo and his late wife Jeanne-Claude began scouting for a location for the temporary installation in the 1990s. After visiting 89 rivers in seven states, they chose the Arkansas River between Salida and Canon City.

The project received federal approval to move forward in November 2011, but it has been delayed because of legal challenges by groups that say it’s too disruptive. Those challenges are working their way through the legal system.

___

Information from: Canon City Daily Record, http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/

AP-WF-08-22-14 1731GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Judge orders Kansas to turn over ‘In Cold Blood’ files

First edition of Truman Capote's 'In Cold Blood.' Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – A Kansas judge ordered the state Thursday to release more documents to people trying to write a book about the 1959 In Cold Blood murders.

Judge Larry Hendricks issued the order after hearing arguments in a case that will decide what will happen to files kept at the home of a deceased Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent Harold Nye, who was part of the murder probe. The killings of Herb and Bonnie Clutter and two of their children became the subject of Truman Capote’s acclaimed novel In Cold Blood.

The documents will be used by Nye’s family and Seattle memorabilia dealer Gary McAvoy to defend themselves in a lawsuit filed by the state of Kansas.

The dispute arose when Ronald Nye, of Oklahoma City, decided to make the files from his late father public. Initially, he gave the documents to McAvoy to auction off. The men now say they don’t plan to auction off the materials, and instead plan to write their own book about the killing.

But the Kansas attorney general’s office contends the materials belong to the state, and it sued in 2012 to get them back. Tai Vokins, an Olathe, Kan., attorney representing McAvoy and Ronald Nye, said the state has objected to most of his requests for documents needed to defend his clients.

Among the documents ordered released Thursday was the complete KBI investigative file into the Clutter killings, although the only people able to view it will be parties in the case. Hendricks also ordered Attorney General Derek Schmidt to pay $3,986 in attorney’s fees, saying he didn’t think there was a good faith effort on the state’s part.

Assistant attorney general Ward Loyd had argued it would be “over burdensome” for the state the provide the documents. Loyd declined to comment after the hearing.

Two parolees, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, were eventually convicted of killing the Clutters and were executed in 1965. Four years later, Harold Nye began a two-year stint as the KBI’s director.

The hunt for the family’s killers mesmerized the nation and drew journalists from throughout the U.S. to the small western Kansas town of Holcomb.

Hickock and Smith fled to Florida after the Kansas murders, and they remain suspects in the unsolved killing of a Sarasota, Fla., family a few weeks after the Clutters’ deaths.

In Cold Blood, which takes the reader through the killings, the trial, and their execution is celebrated because it reads like a novel. Scholars have long debated its accuracy. Vokins said the proposed book would contradict Capote’s account of the killings.

AP-WF-08-22-14 0116GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Obama could make Chicago’s Pullman site national park

The administration building of the Pullman Palace Car Co. in Chicago. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

CHICAGO (AP) – Chicago’s historic Pullman neighborhood soon may be closer to becoming a national park.

National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis tells The Associated Press that he plans to recommend that the Interior Secretary ask President Obama to declare the southeast Chicago neighborhood a unit of the national park system.

Supporters say it is unlikely Congress will act on bills in the House and Senate. So, they want Obama to use his authority to act independently under the Antiquities Act.

The neighborhood’s ornate brick homes were built in the 1800s by industrialist George Pullman as a blue-collar utopia to house workers from his sleeper-car factory.

Supporters say the neighborhood also is significant for its place in revolutionizing the railroad industry and its contributions to the African-American labor movement.

AP-WF-08-23-14 1431GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Sign up for daily highlights by email