LONDON – Bidding soared at Kerry Taylor Auctions on June 23 as people in the saleroom battled online and telephone bidders for items from British textile and fashion designer Cilia Birtwell’s collection.
LONDON – A 22.47-carat aquamarine Cartier pendant from the estate of the late Denisa Lady Newborough will highlight the 288-lot section of fine jewels, which comprises part of Roseberys’ fine art auction on Tuesday, June 30.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – A state agency responsible for archiving New Mexico’s past is worried some of the state’s historic material dating back to the region’s Spanish rule may end up for sale online.
The New Mexico Commission of Public Records recently issued a warning that the sale of state public records is illegal. The warning comes after officials noticed some documents being sold online.
New Mexico has lost many of historical documents from Spanish, Mexico and territorial periods to private collectors, state officials said. “The disappearance of government records into private hands deprives the public of access to important historical information that helps us to understand the history our state and our nation,” the agency said.
In addition, the Albany, New York-based Council of State Historical Records Coordinators issued a statement requesting eBay’s assistance in alerting its customers to the illegal sale of historic public documents from all 50 states.
New Mexico State Records Administrator Linda Trujillo told The Associated Press that officials are not aware of any new cases of state records appearing for sale on online but they have discovered some in the past.
“We don’t want state public documents to inadvertently end up in the wrong hands,” Trujillo said. “We just wanted to put this out as a warning and a reminder.”
A search Friday on eBay showed that the online auction site had a number of historical documents connected to New Mexico for sale. One seller posted a 1968 U.S. Cavalry Equipment document from Fort Sumner, New Mexico, related to the Indian Wars. Another seller had handwritten letters sent in 1903 from the Dawson, New Mexico, Mining Company to a resident in a ghost town.
Many public documents are passed down from family members who don’t know they shouldn’t be sold online, Trujillo said. Other times, the documents are stolen by former state employees or researchers who take the documents when workers aren’t looking, she said.
During the last legislative session, state archives officials told lawmakers the New Mexico Commission of Public Records was grossly underfunded and aging state documents were in dire need of more protection.
___
By RUSSELL CONTRERAS, Associated Press
Follow Russell Contreras at http://twitter.com/russcontreras
LONDON – Two memories spring to mind from a childhood visit to stately Chatsworth House, the Derbyshire seat of the Dukes of Devonshire: the first, in some desperation, asking an attendant to tell me the way to the toilet and the second, a violin and bow hanging on the back of a door.
SAN DIEGO (AP) – A new deal expected to be announced before the next Comic-Con will keep the major comic book and pop culture convention in San Diego through 2018.
DALLAS – Heritage Auctions has announced that it will officially open in Hong Kong in late 2015 and that it has hired Kenneth Yung as director of Asian Operations. The company is currently finalizing its plans to acquire space in the city and will hold its first auction in December.
NEW YORK – LG this week agreed to reduce the height of its proposed U.S. headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., after in a compromise with local officials and conservationist groups.Continue reading