A cross-section of items, including art, mounted arrowheads and tomahawks, from collection of Eastern Colorado Genoa Tower Museum. Bruhns imageDENVER – The weekend of September 19-21 will mark the end of an era for Colorado, as Denver auction company Bruhns liquidates the contents of the now-closed World’s Wonder View Tower Museum in the town of Genoa.
The story behind the museum should give bidders more than just a tantalizing hint of what they can expect to see in the auction catalog. It’s not like anything that has come to auction in decades.
A popular tourist attraction for nearly a century, the World’s Wonder View Tower was the promotional invention of C.W. Gregory – known as Colorado’s P.T. Barnum – and his partner, Myrtle Le Bow. The original tower structure was erected in the mid 1920s, but its expansion continued over the next decade. Intentionally gaudy and designed to lure passing tourists to its theme rooms, curio shop and museum, the roadside attraction became known to locals as simply “the Genoa Tower.”
In 1934, the US Geological Survey confirmed the tower to be the highest point between Denver and New York City. Visitors who braved the challenging 87-step hike to its 65ft pinnacle were rewarded with a panoramic view of six states. Long before the tower and museum were constructed, the site, with its natural spring, had been a stop on the Lawrence and Pikes Peak Stagecoach Line. It also could be seen from the Texas-Montana Trail.
The tower’s colorful history and inextricable connection to America’s Old West were reflected in the amazing array of collections and natural curiosities that lined its museum’s walls, shelves and ceiling rafters. Within those collections are many items of genuine historical importance, including old rifles and guns; fossils and geological specimens, pottery, stoneware jugs and Indian artifacts. Additionally, the auction inventory includes Western paintings, furniture, tools, pocketknives, antiques and old furniture.
Amateur archaeologist the late Jerry Chubbuck – who was credited with discovering an 8,000-year-old Native-American site in 1957 – took over the museum in the 1960s. He enhanced the museum’s core collection with his own private holdings of 20,000+ Indian arrowheads, artifacts, old photographs, bottles and other antiques. Chubbuck was known for his remarkable natural-history discoveries, many of which became part of the museum’s collection and will be included in the auction.
All items will be sold to the highest bidder, regardless of price. Start time will be 10 a.m. Mountain Time.
For additional information on any item in Bruhns’ Sept. 19, 2014 auction of the contents of the World’s Wonder View Tower Museum, call the gallery at 303-744-6505 or email Bruhns Auction Gallery at bruhnsauction@gmail.com. Visit Bruhns online at www.bruhnsauction.com .
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ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
A cross-section of items, including art, mounted arrowheads and tomahawks, from collection of Eastern Colorado Genoa Tower Museum. Bruhns imageSouthwestern oil-on-board painting, circa 1920s, from collection of Eastern Colorado Genoa Tower Museum. Bruhns imageMammoth tusks from collection of Eastern Colorado Genoa Tower Museum. Bruhns imageIndian pots from collection of Eastern Colorado Genoa Tower Museum. Bruhns imageIndian bust, circa 1890s, from collection of Eastern Colorado Genoa Tower Museum. Bruhns imageArrowhead collections from the Eastern Colorado Genoa Tower Museum.Attractively mounted arrowhead collection from collection of Eastern Colorado Genoa Tower Museum. Bruhns image
2009 photo of the Jewish Museum of Belgium, in Brussels. Credit: Michael Wal, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and1.0 Generic license.BRUSSELS (AFP) – The Jewish museum in Brussels will reopen on Sunday under tight security, in a message of defiance against “brutes”after a gunman shot dead four people there in May, officials said.
Museum officials also said Tuesday that the French suspect held in what the authorities describe as a terrorist-linked shooting does not want to take part in a reconstruction of the events as part of the legal case against him.
“We should not give free rein — I dare say — to bastards,” the museum’s secretary general Norbert Cige told reporters when asked what message the reopening gave.
“We are continuing our educational work. In this world of brutes, it’s necessary,” Cige said.
Unlike synagogues and other Jewish community sites in Brussels, the museum did not have special security precautions before the May 24 attack.
But on Sunday, two police officers will guard the entrance, a metal detector will be set up and visitors searched, officials said.
“The public and our staff can be reassured,” Museum President Philippe Blondin said.
Two exhibitions that began before the shooting — “Warsawwarsaw” and “The dress is elsewhere” — will resume when the museum re-opens on Sunday.
Another, “Gotlib’s Worlds,” will open to the public on November 13 and run through February 15 next year.
In the longer term, part of the museum in the heart of Brussels will be demolished and rebuilt, with work to be complete in 2007.
“We want, with absolute determination, to retake our place in the cultural arena of Brussels,” Blondin said.
Mehdi Nemmouche, a Frenchman of Algerian origin who was extradited from France to Belgium in July and charged here with the murders, “does not want to take part in the reconstruction” of the event, Blondin said.
Nonetheless, he said, Nemmouche will “perhaps be brought to the scene” for the re-enactment designed to help prosecutors piece together the crime.
“But will he speak, will he cooperate? We know nothing,” Blondin, said hoping the reconstruction will happen as “quickly as possible.”
Officials had said earlier the museum would remain closed until the re-enactment, but Blondin said the investigating judge finally agreed that it could reopen Sunday on condition that nothing be changed to the entrance where the four people were gunned down.
Sunday is the European day of Jewish Culture.
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Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
2009 photo of the Jewish Museum of Belgium, in Brussels. Credit: Michael Wal, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and1.0 Generic license.
Port Huron Museum’s main building is the Carnegie Center, shown here. Photo by Darren56brown. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 via Wikimedia CommonsPORT HURON, Mich. (AP) – The Port Huron Museum is seeking approval to sell four more of its paintings as part of an effort to fund improvements.
The Times Herald of Port Huron reports the proposed $4,000 sale was set for a city council discussion on Monday night, Sept. 8.
If approved, the sale would bring to number of paintings by Canadian artists being sold by the museum to 15. The council approved selling 11 paintings by James Henderson and Augustus Kenderdine to the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in 2013 for $23,000.
The four paintings proposed for sale are titled “Horse Head,” “The Last Days, Advance from Valencia to Mons,” “Elephants and Natives,” and “Black Oxen,” all by Inglis Sheldon-Williams. Susan Bennett, executive director of the museum, says the paintings were damaged by fire.
Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Port Huron Museum’s main building is the Carnegie Center, shown here. Photo by Darren56brown. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
An example of valuable and highly collectible Hermes ostrich Birkin bag. This handbag is unrelated to the JFK heist and is shown for purposes of illustration only. Photo by Wen-Cheng Liu. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.NEW YORK (AP) – Two Kennedy Airport baggage handlers are under arrest after police say they stole pricey handbags from a traveler’s luggage and put them up for sale on eBay.
Elepcia Barrientos and Lenny Hernandez were charged Thursday with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.
Information on their lawyers wasn’t immediately available.
Port Authority Police say the Jamaica, Queens residents swiped the Chanel and Hermes bags in June from luggage that a woman arriving from London had reported missing.
Police say the pair delivered the luggage to the woman the next day, but got away with two handbags worth a combined value of $40,000.
Police say they closed in on the 39-year-old Barrientos and 42-year-old Hernandez after detectives found the handbags listed on the eBay auction website.
Detectives recovered the bags.
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Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
An example of valuable and highly collectible Hermes ostrich Birkin bag. This handbag is unrelated to the JFK heist and is shown for purposes of illustration only. Photo by Wen-Cheng Liu. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Horses have played a significant role throughout the history of Lyme, New Hampshire, which was located on a stagecoach route that ran from Boston to Montreal. This circa-1910 photo depicts a horse-drawn delivery wagon for Central Market in Lyme. LYME, N.H. (AP) _ An auction has raised $3,500 toward replacing the roof of the town horse shed in Lyme, New Hampshire, believed to be the longest string of horse sheds in New England.
The 27 attached sheds are in need of a new roof, and that costs about $20,000. The Valley News reports some of that money will come from a restoration fund containing private donations.
The sheds sit on town property, but they are maintained by the Lyme Congregational Church. They rely on private sources of funding for maintenance.
Bill Ackerly of Lyme said the sheds were built by his great-great-great grandfather. He estimates his family settled in Lyme in the late 1700s.
Horses have played a significant role throughout the history of Lyme, New Hampshire, which was located on a stagecoach route that ran from Boston to Montreal. This circa-1910 photo depicts a horse-drawn delivery wagon for Central Market in Lyme.
Gilbert Stuart (American, 1755-1828), ‘Lansdowne’ portrait of George Washington, 1796, Collection of the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC. Image from Google Art Project, Google Cultural Institute. Licensed under public domain via Wikimedia Commons
WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the most famous portraits of George Washington will soon get a high-tech examination and face-lift of sorts with its first major conservation treatment in decades.
The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has begun planning the conservation and digital analysis of the full-length “Lansdowne” portrait of the first president that was painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1796, museum officials told The Associated Press. The 8-foot-by-5-foot picture is considered the definitive portrait of Washington as president after earlier images in military uniform.
Work will begin in 2016 to delicately remove a yellowed varnish to reveal the original colors and details intended by the artist. The painting will remain on view until then. Once it’s taken to a lab, conservators will use digital x-rays and infrared imagery for the first time to examine Stuart’s work and changes he made beneath the painting’s surface. Some of the work will be completed within view of the public.
“We are preserving this painting forever, for posterity, and at this point in its history, it needs some attention,” said chief curator Brandon Brame Fortune. “It’s still very, very stable. But we want to be sure our visitors are seeing it looking its absolute best.”
Bank of America provided a recent grant to fund the conservation project, along with education programs around the picture.
The 18-month conservation project will be part of a major “refreshing” of the galleries that hold the nation’s presidential portraits to give more historical information about each president’s achievements, challenges and events from their time in office, said museum Director Kim Sajet. Plans call for the improvements to be completed in time for the museum’s 50th anniversary in 2018.
The Lansdowne portrait has been a centerpiece at the Smithsonian since 1968, and about 1 million visitors see it each year.
For his first full-length portrait, Washington was dressed in a black velvet suit, his official dress for receiving the public as a civilian leader, rather than showing him as a soldier or king. It’s based on earlier European portraits of aristocrats and dignitaries.
The president sat for Stuart in Philadelphia and helped determine how he would be portrayed. The resulting picture was celebrated in the U.S. and Europe. It was originally painted for the Marquis of Lansdowne, who had been a British supporter of the colonies during the Revolutionary War.
Stuart created three replicas of the portrait, one of which is held by the White House. It was made famous when Dolley Madison saved the painting when the British burned the White House 200 years ago.
The original Lansdowne painting remained in Britain for most of its history until the 1960s when it was loaned to the Smithsonian. The Portrait Gallery then bought the painting in 2001 for $20 million with a donation from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.
Conservators wanted to clean and restore the painting for many years, but the museum was reluctant to take it off view. The painting is in good condition but does have problems, including paint losses in Washington’s black coat, said CindyLou Molnar, the museum’s head of conservation. The biggest problem is the heavy yellow varnish that disguises details in the painting.
“It will take me quite a while to figure out what it will take to safely remove the yellow resinous varnish and not disturb the actual paint surface,” Molnar said.
In 2001, film X-rays of the painting revealed some changes Stuart made in the picture. In one case, he moved a quill ink pen on the table beside Washington. The images showed how Stuart was having trouble adjusting the figure and objects in his original portrait, Molnar said. New technology will provide a clearer image beneath the surface. It’s not clear, though, whether any new discoveries will be made.
“Anything we can gain in terms of materials and techniques that were used only adds to the picture of how Gilbert Stuart worked,” Molnar said.
The premiere portraitist of his day, Stuart packed symbols of American history into his depiction of Washington. Furniture in the picture is carved with the U.S. seal and eagles. Books in the painting reference the Constitution, Congress and the Federalist papers. In the windows behind Washington, a rainbow appears in the sky behind dark clouds.
“The storm clouds had to do with the passing of the American Revolution,” Fortune said, “and the rainbow signified a new beginning for the new republic.”
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Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Gilbert Stuart (American, 1755-1828), ‘Lansdowne’ portrait of George Washington, 1796, Collection of the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC. Image from Google Art Project, Google Cultural Institute. Licensed under public domain via Wikimedia Commons
The Lenape, a Native American tribe and First Nations people, were indigenous to Pennsylvania and the MidAtlantic region. This 1771 Benjamin West painting depicts William Penn’s 1682 treaty with the Lenape. The painting is in the collection of The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.OIL CITY, Pa. (AP) – An archaeological dig in western Pennsylvania is producing a rare fabric, possibly the only example from the state that dates to 1250 AD.
The Oil City Derrick reported Saturday that the Venango County chapter of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology has been working on the site along Sugar Creek near Franklin for two years.
The excavation has turned up pottery shards, tools and other elements that indicate the presence of Native Americans.
The fabric has a crisscrossed pattern and is woven tightly. It’s being studied more closely at Mercyhurst University in Erie.
The site so far has produced signs of warm-weather occupation, but not things like deer bones that might show early people were there in winter as well.
Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
The Lenape, a Native American tribe and First Nations people, were indigenous to Pennsylvania and the MidAtlantic region. This 1771 Benjamin West painting depicts William Penn’s 1682 treaty with the Lenape. The painting is in the collection of The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
