December 9, 2014 - Auction Central News

Dreweatts & Bloomsbury to sell garden designer’s books Dec. 17

'The True Lovers’ Knot' from Stephen Blake’s 'The Compleat Gardeners Practice, Directing the exact way of Gardening,' 1664. Estimate: £3,500–£4,500 ($5,458–$7,018). Dreweatts & Bloomsbury image.

LONDON – The working library of one of the most distinguished and influential garden designers of the 20th century, the late Rosemary Verey (1918-2001) opens the sale of printed books and manuscripts to be held at Bloomsbury Auctions on Wednesday, Dec, 17. The stunning 84-lot collection of gardening and horticultural books carries her personal annotations and offers an illustrative insight to the historical works that drove her creative process.

LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.

During her prolific career as a writer, lecturer and garden designer Rosemary Verey designed the famous garden at Barnsley House in the Cotswolds, for which her extensive library proved a vital source of inspiration and technical reference. Visitors to Barnsley house will recognize “The True Lovers’ Knot” from Stephen Blake’s The Compleat Gardeners Practice, Directing the exact way of Gardening, 1664, which she recreated for her own knot-garden [Lot 11].

Her client list spanned the rich and famous from Sir Elton John to the Marquess of Bute, and she had a long association with the Prince of Wales and his celebrated garden at Highgrove. The collection includes a presentation copy of Highgrove Portrait of an Estate signed from Prince Charles; “Rosemary – With much love and gratitude, Charles, 1993,” given as a token of thanks for her advice in formulating his garden [Lot 13].

Another group of works that express the reach of her influence and esteem is a collection of books written by Sir Roy Strong with presentation copies signed by the author, one reads: “For Rosemary – who inspired me to become a garden writer… ” [Lot 69].

Rupert Powell, deputy chairman at Bloomsbury Auctions, commented about her library: “It has been a joy to catalog Mrs Verey’s Library for auction and it is with great pleasure that we offer it to the market. She brought books to read and use; many have notes or post-it stickers at relevant passages. Some of the books have faults, but from 16th century herbals to 20th century influences such as Gertrude Jekyll, it is clear that she utilised her books to assist her creativity.”

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.

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Five held in Brussels Jewish museum killings probe

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.

PARIS (AFP) – French police on Tuesday detained three men and two women as part of a probe into Mehdi Nemmouche, who is suspected of killing four people at Brussels’ Jewish Museum in May, a judicial source said.

Nemmouche, 29, a Frenchman of Algerian origin who spent more than a year fighting with Islamic extremists in Syria, was arrested in the southern city of Marseille shortly after an Israeli couple, a French woman and a Belgian were shot dead at the museum in central Brussels.

He was on a bus from Brussels carrying a revolver and Kalashnikov rifle in his luggage, and has since been charged with “murder in a terrorist context.”

Those arrested on Tuesday include people Nemmouche may have met while in detention, said a source close to the case. Further details about them were not known.

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Nova Ars Auction celebrates Italian design Dec. 16

Athos, sculpted furniture, walnut and fiber, Rivadossi Prod., 2004. Dimensions: 49.2in. x 64in. x 16in. Estimate: €20,000–€25,000. Nova Ars image

ASTI, Italy – An outstanding collection of 20th century Italian design will be sold Tuesday, Dec. 16, at Nova Ars Auction. The 160-lot auction presents ceramics, furniture, lamps, chandeliers, glassworks and many objects made in Italy – from Angelo Mangiarotti to Bruno Munari, from Ettore Sottsass to Paolo Venini, as well as works from other countries.

LiveAuctioneers.com will facilitate Internet live bidding.

Nova Ars specializes in contemporary art, modernism and design made in Italy during the 20th century.

Highlights of the Dec. 16 auction will be:

a 64-inch-tall Athos sculpted furniture (cabinet) of walnut and fiber by Rivardossi, 2004;
two Safra Milano bookcases from Enrico Crespi house, circa 1940;
an Osvaldo Borsani adjustable sofa by Tecno, circa 1954;
an Ignazio Gardella blown glass ceiling lamp by Azucena, 1950;
a Paolo Tilche floor lamp by Sirrah, 1962.

For details contact Nova Ars Auction by email: valeria@novaars.net, e.art.auctions@gmail.com or phone +39 328 9667353.

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.

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Safra Milano, two bookshelves from Enrico Crespi house, circa 1940. Estimate: €15,000–€16,000. Nova Ars image

Osvaldo Borsani, Tecno, sofa, adjustable, violet fabric, circa 1954. Estimate: €9,000–€10,000. Nova Ars image

Ignazio Gardella, Azucena, blown glass ceiling lamp, circa 1950, 12 inches. Estimate: €1,000–€1,500. Nova Ars image

Paolo Tilche, Sirrah, floor lamp, chromed metal, 1962. Estimate: €6,000–€6,500. Nova Ars image

German art dealer on trial for defrauding wealthy clients

BERLIN (AFP) – A German art dealer went on trial Tuesday accused of defrauding one of the country’s richest families of tens of millions in the sales of paintings and vintage cars.

Helge Achenbach, 62, who has been in pretrial detention for about six months, denies the accusations against him, which carry a maximum jail term of 10 years.

The art consultant’s contested deals included paintings by Pablo Picasso, Roy Lichtenstein and Gerhard Richter, while the vintage car sales were of Ferraris, Bentleys and Jaguars, news portal Spiegel Online has reported.

Prosecutors accuse Achenbach of more than 20 counts of fraud, as well as charges of forgery and breach of trust, in the trial that started in the western city of Essen, the court said in a statement.

The state charges that he defrauded the late Berthold Albrecht, heir to the Aldi Nord supermarket empire, of 22.5 million euros ($27.7 million) in the sales of 14 artworks and nine cars, by deceiving his client about the original purchase prices.

Achenbach is also accused of having defrauded two other wealthy customers in art deals, the court said.

In the dock with him is a former business partner, identified by the court only as Stefan H. in keeping with German reporting rules for criminal defendants.

In a separate civil case, before a court in the defendant’s western home city of Duesseldorf, the family of supermarket tycoon Albrecht, who died in 2012, is suing Achenbach for almost 20 million euros in damages.

The Essen court has set an initial eight further court hearings until Jan. 21.

George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation sells for $8.4M

George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation. Image courtesy of Keno Auctions

NEW YORK – George Washington’s first presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation has sold to a private collector for $8.4 million. This rare document, which was exhibited at Keno Auctions Townhouse, was offered at private treaty sale.

The buyer requested that his identity and the final selling price remain confidential, said sellers Seth Kaller and Leigh Keno. The only other known copy of the proclamation resides in the Library of Congress.

“It is a great pleasure to have handled this extraordinary document establishing a uniquely American celebration,” said Kaller. “The new owner has agreed to share it with the public at an appropriate American cultural institution.”

Leigh Keno added: “It has been a great honor to have exhibited this iconic manuscript. The fact that it sold to a collector who believes in sharing with the public is the icing on the cake.”

In the Proclamation, issued on Oct. 3, 1789, our first president designates “Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being . . . That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks-for . . . the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness… for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge.”

On Oct. 3, 1863 – exactly 74 years after George Washington’s Proclamation-Lincoln established the fourth Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving, setting the precedent that remains to this day.

While the proclamation will depart Keno Auctions Townhouse, located at 127 E. 69th St., the exhibition and sale of documents has been extended and includes two important original documents:

A rare July 1776 broadside printing of the Declaration of Independence, attributed to a printer in Exeter, New Hampshire, priced at $1.2 million.
A highly personal letter handwritten and signed by George Washington in 1782, priced at $98,000.

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Ohio museum loans carousel deer for White House display

Herschell Spillman carved wood standing deer. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com archive and Rich Penn Auctions.

SANDUSKY, Ohio (AP) – The holiday display at the White House this year includes a couple of carousel animals from the Merry-Go-Round Museum in northern Ohio.

The curator of the museum in Sandusky delivered four carousel deer to the White House this past week. Three are from the Merry-Go-Round Museum and another comes from a private collection in New Jersey.

The museum’s Kurri Lewis tells the Sandusky Register that he got a call in August asking if the museum would be able to provide a few carousel animals to the White House.

He personally delivered them last weekend after all were checked by the Secret Service to make sure they weren’t a security risk.

The deer will remain on display at the White House until late December.

AP-WF-12-07-14 1819GMT

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Field Museum scientists open Egyptian mummy coffin

One of the Egyptian mummies in the Field Museum exhibit. Image courtesy of the Field Museum.

CHICAGO (AP) – Once the lid was off the wood coffin holding the 2,500-year-old mummified remains of a 14-year-old Egyptian boy, scientist J.P. Brown could relax.

The conservator at Chicago’s Field Museum and three other scientists had just used clamps and pieces of metal to create a cradle to lift the fragile lid. Wearing blue surgical gloves, they slowly lifted the contraption containing the coffin lid and carefully walked it to a table in a humidity-controlled lab at the museum.

“Sweet!” Brown said, after helping set the lid down. He later added: “Oh yeah, god, I was nervous.”

The well-planned routine came Friday as scientists started conservation work on the mummy of Minirdis, the son of a stolist priest. The mummy needs to be stabilized so it can travel in the upcoming exhibit, “Mummies: Images of the Afterlife,” which is expected to premier next September at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. It is expected to travel to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in fall 2016.

The Field Museum has had the mummy since the 1920s, when the institution received it from the Chicago Historical Society. It’s part of the museum’s collection of 30 complete human mummies from Egypt.

“There’s always a risk of damage,” said Brown, who did the work in a lab filled with plastic-covered examination tables set behind a large window to let schoolchildren watch his daily work. “So we like to handle these things as little as possible.”

Inside the coffin, there was expected damage. CT scans, which make X-ray images that allow scientists to see inside the coffin before opening it, showed the boy’s feet were detached and partially unwrapped with his toes sticking out. His shroud and mask were torn and twisted sideways. Those also will be repaired.

Brown didn’t worry that the mummy would scatter to dust when opened – something common in the movies. Pieces of the coffin had previously gone missing, exposing the mummy to the elements.

“The last bit of ‘Indiana Jones’ and all that,” Brown explained before opening the coffin. “That’s not going to happen.”

And it didn’t.

Walking around the opened coffin, Brown pointed and explained the significance of a certain marking, the colored resin on the linen wrappings or the gilded gold on the mask. If Minirdis had lived, he would have been a priest like his father, Brown said. Scientists don’t know why he died so young.

“The fascinating thing about any mummy is that it’s survived as long as it has,” Brown said. “They’re actually amazingly fragile.”

This kind of work is always painstaking, filled with pre-planning and tests so scientists are prepared for the unexpected, said Molly Gleeson, who works with mummies as project conservator at Penn Museum’s “In the Artifact Lab: Conserving Egyptian Mummies” exhibition in Philadelphia.

“These are unique individuals, unique objects,” she said. “There’s nothing else like them. If damage were to happen, we can’t put things back together exactly the way they were before.”

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Online:

Field Museum, http://www.fieldmuseum.org

AP-WF-12-08-14 1230GMT

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Sonia Delaunay exhibition to open April 15 at Tate Modern

Sonia Delaunay, 'Prismes electriques,' 1914, Centre Pompidou Collection, Mnam / Cci, Paris. Copyright Pracusa 2013057

LONDON – Tate Modern will host a Sonia Delaunay exhibition in its Eyal Ofer Galleries from April 15 through August 9, 2015.

Sonia Delaunay (1885–1979) was a key figure in the Parisian avant-garde, whose vivid and colourful work spanned painting, fashion and design. From 15 April 2015, Tate Modern will present the first UK retrospective to assess the breadth of her vibrant artistic career, from her early figurative painting in the 1900s to her energetic abstract work in the 1960s. This exhibition will offer a radical reassessment of Delaunay’s importance as an artist, showcasing her originality and creativity across the twentieth century.

Born in Odessa and trained in Germany, Sonia Delaunay (née Stern, then Terk) came to Paris in 1906 to join the emerging avant-garde. She met and married the artist Robert Delaunay, with whom she developed ‘Simultaneism’ – abstract compositions of dynamic contrasting colours and shapes. Many iconic examples of these works will be brought together at Tate Modern, including Bal Bullier 1913 and Electric Prisms 1914. Her work expressed the energy of modern urban life, celebrating the birth of electric street lighting and the excitement of contemporary ballets and ballrooms.

The EY Exhibition: Sonia Delaunay will show how the artist dedicated her life to experimenting with colour and abstraction, bringing her ideas off the canvas and into the world through tapestry, textiles, mosaic and fashion. Delaunay premiered her first ‘simultaneous dress’ of bright patchwork colours in 1913 and opened a boutique in Madrid in 1918. Her Atelier Simultané in Paris went on to produce radical and progressive designs for scarves, umbrellas, hats, shoes and swimming costumes throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Clients included the Hollywood star Gloria Swanson and the architect Erno Goldfinger, as well department stores like Metz & Co and Liberty. The exhibition will reveal how Delaunay’s designs presented her as a progressive woman synonymous with modernity: embroidering poetry onto fabric, turning her apartment into a three-dimensional collage, and creating daring costumes for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.

The diverse inspirations behind Delaunay’s work will also be explored, from the highly personal approach to colour which harked back to her childhood in Russia, to the impact of her years in Spain and Portugal where she painted Market in Minho 1915 and Flamenco Singers 1915-16. The show will also reveal the inspiration provided by modern technology throughout Delaunay’s career, from the Trans-Siberian Railway to the aeroplane, and from the Eiffel Tower to the electric light bulb. It will also include her vast seven-meter murals Motor, Dashboard and Propeller, created for the 1937 International Exposition in Paris and never before shown in the UK.

Following her husband’s death in 1941, Sonia Delaunay’s work took on more formal freedom, including rhythmic compositions in angular forms and harlequin colours, which in turn inspired geometric tapestries, carpets and mosaics. Delaunay continued to experiment with abstraction in the post-war era, just as she had done since its birth in the 1910s, becoming a champion for a new generation of artists and an inspiring figure for creative practitioners to this day.

The EY Exhibition: Sonia Delaunay is curated at Tate Modern by Juliet Bingham, Curator International Art, with Juliette Rizzi, Assistant Curator, and was organized by the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris-Musées and Tate Modern. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalog from Tate Publishing and a program of talks and events in the gallery.

Visit Tate Modern online at www.tate.org.uk .

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