NEW YORK – Dreaming of exploring islands in paradise? Armchair travelers can start charting their voyage at a Jasper52 online auction of antique maps to be held Tuesday, Jan. 16. The more than 100 antique maps show travel routes and currents, and many more nautical treasures. Absentee and Internet live bidding is available through LiveAuctioneers.
NEW YORK (ACNI) – The New York County District Attorney’s office confirms that its investigators raided the Manhattan office and residence of billionaire hedge fund manager Michael H. Steinhardt on Friday. No fewer than nine antiquities were seized in total from the two Fifth Avenue locations. Prosecutors say the objects were looted from Greece and Italy.
NEW York – On Oct. 22, 1953, Joseph Cornell wrote in his diary: “Juan Gris/Janis Yesterday.” He was referring to the previous day’s outing, when, on one of his frequent trips to the gallery district in midtown Manhattan, Cornell visited the Sidney Janis Gallery on East 57th Street. Among a presentation of approximately 30 works by modern artists, one alone captivated Cornell—Juan Gris’s celebrated collage The Man at the Café (1914), which is now a promised gift to the museum as part of the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – The FBI says a rifle that was used during the Battle of New Orleans is back at a museum after being stolen from there 35 years ago.
NEW YORK – Antique table screens, decorated with important and auspicious symbols, were one of the most important objects in a scholar’s studio before the Qing dynasty. A table screen was placed on the painting table in front of a window to shield the desk from breezes. Later, they were prized possessions in affluent homes in China, and today collectors desire them for their craftsmanship and elegance.