Vermeer’s ‘The Concert,’ one of the paintings stolen in the Boston art heist in 1990. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
BOSTON (AP) – Twenty-five years after the famed art heist at Boston’s Gardner museum, officials have released new surveillance video showing an unauthorized visitor entering the museum 24 hours before the robbery. Read more
Hanna Liden, ‘Everything,’ New York City. Photo by Ilana Novick
NEW YORK – Swedish artist Hanna Liden had never experienced the joys of a bagel until arriving in New York in 1998. As she told Women’s Wear Daily in a recent interview, “It took only a cream cheese-filled in a West Village park, however, for the iconic carbohydrate to make a deep impression on her. Seventeen years after that fateful bite, Liden is honoring the bagel with her new sculpture series Everything.
The Gateway Arch, formally named the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, at night. Image by Daniel Schewn. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
ST. LOUIS (AP) – October marks the 50th anniversary of St. Louis’ Gateway Arch, and organizers have announced plans to celebrate the occasion, including a fireworks display and a chance to meet construction workers who built the structure.
The ‘Lady Blunt,’ another fine and important Italian violin by Antonio Stradivari, Cremona, 1721, auctioned for $15.9 million at Tarisio Fine Instruments and Bows, London, June 20, 2011. Image courtesy of Tarisio.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Renowned violinist Roman Totenberg left his beloved Stradivarius in his office while greeting well-wishers after a concert in 1980. When he returned, it was gone.
Double steeple, curved-glass countertop display cabinet with original glass and mirrors. Woody Auction image
DOUGLASS, Kan. – Woody Auction has saved the best for last with Part 2 of the lifetime collections of Dr. Harold and Audrey Eklund of Iowa, whose many fine antiques will be sold at public auction on Saturday, Aug. 29. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide absentee and Internet live bidding. Read more
A representation of an arrow at the Jeffers Petroglyphs in Minnesota. Image by Benjamin Peterson. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
COMFREY, Minn. (AP) – Jeffers Petroglyphs – where 3,000 stone carvings recently came to light, where archaeologists uncovered tools that suggest Native Americans did more there than simply pass through – the most important discoveries may be self-discoveries. Read more
Vintage Arnold Scaasi velvet lace evening gown. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Donovan & Gray Auctions
NEW YORK (AP) – Designer Arnold Scaasi, whose bright, flamboyant creations adorned first ladies from Mamie Eisenhower to Laura Bush and film stars from Elizabeth Taylor to Barbra Streisand, has died. He was 85.
A copper and brass teakettle by Benson with an estimate of £100-£150. Photo The Canterbury Auction Galleries
LONDON – I’ve already written reams about the Arts & Crafts, and so have others all more learned and erudite than me, so there’s no point in rearranging the words. Encyclopaedia Britannica describes it as “aesthetic movement of the second half of the 19th century that represented the beginning of a new appreciation of the decorative arts throughout Europe.”
One of finest know examples of the 1955 Topps Roberto Clemente #164 rookie card sold for an astounding $310,700. Heritage Auctions image
DALLAS – Mickey Mantle proved himself the undisputed king of postwar baseball memorabilia on July 30 as a PSA-graded 8 example of his Topps 1952 #311 rookie card (below left) realized $382,400 and a 1966 game-worn New York Yankees road jersey (below right) hit $322,650 to lead Heritage Auctions’ $6.1 million Platinum Night Sports offerings at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago.
Mary Cassatt, ‘Eddy Cassatt,’ 1875, oil on canvas, 148.6 x 109.9 cm (58 1/2 x 43 1/4in). National Gallery of Art, Washington. Gift from the family of Col. Edward Buchanan Cassatt
WASHINGTON – A rare early portrait by Mary Cassatt (1844–1926), a self-portrait by Jan Miense Molenaer (1610–1668), a groundbreaking work by Arshile Gorky (1904–1948), and a remarkable photograph of Alice and Lorina Liddell by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832–1898), better known as Lewis Carroll, are among the works recently acquired by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.