1,000 Frida Kahlo Look-Alikes, Daring Jewel Heist at London Art Fair, and More Fresh News

Frida Kahlo (Mexican, 1907-1954) painting titled ‘Autorretrato con Collar de Espinas y Colibri’ (‘Self-portrait with Thorn Necklace and Humming-bird’) from the Nickolas Muray Collection, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. Fair use of low-resolution copyrighted image.

 

News and updates from around the arts and auction community:

  • Over 5,000 guests attended a party hosted by the Dallas Museum of Art last Thursday to celebrate Frida Kahlo’s 110th birthday. More than 1,000 of them came dressed as the beloved Mexican artist, who died in 1954. The occasion may make the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest-ever gathering of people dressed as Kahlo. [Read more from Artnet News]
  • Precious gems valued at more than $3.8 million were stolen from a Swiss dealer set up at an exclusive London art fair. Detectives are baffled as to how it could have happened, since the venue was swarming with round-the-clock security guards. [Read more from The Telegraph]
  • A collection of rare James Bond-style gadgets used by British spies during WWII is headed to auction. Among the items are a smoking pipe with a detachable mouthpiece that serves as a lethal steel dagger, and a pencil whose “lead” is actually a thin removable blade. [Read more from the Daily Mail]
  • The elegant Georgian-style Manhattan townhouse owned and enjoyed for almost 70 years by the late David Rockefeller – John D. Rockefeller’s grandson – is on the market. The price? Hold onto your hats. [Read more at TopTenRealEstateDeals.com]

 

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Rockies meet the Alps in landscape painting exhibit at Newark Museum

Albert Bierstadt, ‘Western Landscape, Mount Whitney,’ 1869. Oil on canvas, 36 x 54 in. Collection of the Newark Museum, Purchase 1961 The Members’ Fund 61.516

 

NEWARK, N.J. – A major exhibition at the Newark Museum will explore Alpine landscape art and culture in the United States and Europe in the 19th century. This unique transnational show will feature stunning mountain scenes painted by of some of America’s most celebrated landscape artists—including Albert Bierstadt, Frederick Church and Thomas Cole—alongside master works by the influential Swiss Alpine painter Alexandre Calame and other leading European painters, such as J.M.W. Turner and John Ruskin.

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Bendetto Robazza fountain of wild horses a winner at Capo Auction

Benedetto Robazza (Italian, b. 1934) sculptural fountain. Price realized: $3,300. Capo auction image

 

NEW YORK – An 8-foot-tall fountain was one of top sellers at Capo Auction Fine Art and Antiques’ sale June 24, along with select pieces of antique furniture. The fountain, by Benedetto Robazza (Italian, b. 1934), depicts two horses splashing in the sea. Composed of plaster and having green and blue weathered patina, the mid-20th century work sold for $3,300. Absentee and Internet live bidding was available through LiveAuctioneers.

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Moxie Festival goes on in Maine without the event’s founder

Tin lithograph Moxie advertising horse car, copyright 1916, 8 in. long. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers archive and Noel Barrett.

 

LIBSON, Maine (AP) – Maine residents held the 35th annual celebration of all things Moxie without the event founder who helped to introduce the quirky beverage to a new generation.

Frank Anicetti, who died in May at 77, loved the soda enough to create the Moxie Festival in 1982 and to turn his family’s store into a mini-museum of Moxie memorabilia. He also paved the way to Moxie being declared the official soft drink of Maine in 2005.

But even the man nicknamed “Mr. Moxie” acknowledged the bitter concoction is an acquired taste.

“On the first taste, you may want to spit it out and throw it away. On the second taste you may want to do the same, but don’t. Wait for that third taste to allow the true flavor of moxie to tickle the taste buds,” Anicetti once said.

The theme of the parade on Saturday was “Moxie Salutes the Red, White & Blue.” There also was a chugging contest described as “not for the faint of heart or esophagus.”

The creator of the beverage was a Maine native, Dr. Augustin Thompson, whose brew was originally marketed 132 years ago “Moxie Nerve Foods” in Lowell, Massachusetts. What started as a cure for a variety of ills is currently bottled in New Hampshire.

Anicetti did his part to help keep one of the country’s oldest soft drinks from fading away. He helped to transform Lisbon’s former Frontier Days when the legions of soda fans showed up for a book signing by Frank Potter, author of The Moxie Mystique.

It’s unclear why he had such a bee in his bonnet for the beverage.

“Frank was crazy about it. It was a drink that Maine kids grew up on,” said festival coordinator Tracey Steuber. “Why? I have no idea.”

Before he died, Anicetti closed the store that had been in his family for three generations and auctioned off much of the memorabilia.
The store, formerly called Kennebec Fruit Co., is now a pub but retains orange awnings and door in a nod to the orange-and-black Moxie colors. The pub is called “Frank’s.”

Inside, there’s a plaque with Anicetti’s likeness inscribed with the words: “Mr. Moxie, 1940-2017, Always Remembered.”
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