Navajo blanket tops expectations at Moran’s: $93,750

A Navajo classic period child’s wearing blanket, mid-19th century, cochineal and indigo dyes. Price realized: $93,750. John Moran Auctioneers image

MONROVIA, Calif. – John Moran Auctioneers hosted their biannual Art of the American West and Turn of the Century Design auctions on Tuesday, June 19, and the buyers came out in force. Each auction opened to a standing room only crowd, with plenty of additional interest coming in via LiveAuctioneers and phone bidders.

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Value of early magic collectibles is no illusion

Harry Houdini’s most famous trick was the Water Torture Cell. An original poster publicizing it made $95,000 at Potter & Potter Auctions in February 2017. Photo courtesy of Potter & Potter Auctions and LiveAuctioneers

NEW YORK — From Cardini and the Great Blackstone to David Blaine and Criss Angel, skilled magicians and illusionists have dazzled audiences for more than a century, performing simple sleight-of-hand and tricks as well as daring and elaborate illusions. The great Harry Houdini was famous for extracting himself after being hung upside down in his Water Torture Cell, a feat no other magician dared tackle during his lifetime; and in 1983, before a live audience and millions on television, David Copperfield appeared to make the Statue of Liberty, which stands over 300 feet tall, vanish into thin air.

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Movie posters, silver to costar in Gray’s production July 11

Movie poster from the Orson Welles classic film ‘The Lady from Shanghai,’ starring Rita Hayworth. Estimate: $6,000-$8,000. Gray’s Auctioneers & Appraisers image

CLEVELAND – The art and design of classic, vintage, original movie posters will take center stage at Gray’s Auctioneers & Appraisers on Wednesday, July 11, as over 100 original movie posters and banners will come up for bid online and in Gray’s showrooms at 10717 Detroit Avenue in Cleveland. Absentee and Internet live bidding is available through LiveAuctioneers.

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Met to exhibit 17th-century Persian garden carpet

The ‘Wagner’ Garden Carpet (detail), Iran, Kirman, 17th century. Lent by Glasgow Life (Glasgow Museums) on behalf of Glasgow City Council: from the Burrell Collection with the approval of the Burrell Trustees

NEW YORK –The “Wagner” Garden Carpet—a late 17th-century Persian carpet never before seen in the United States—will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art this summer and fall in the special installation “Eternal Springtime: A Persian Garden Carpet from the Burrell Collection,” opening July 10.

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Crystal Bridges opens newly designed Modern Art Galleries

Edward Hopper, ‘Blackwell’s Island,’ 1928, oil on canvas, 34½ x 59½ in. (87.6 x 151.1 cm), framed: 46¼ × 71½ × 3¼ in. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas

BENTONVILLE, Ark. – Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened the newly designed Modern Art Galleries on June 23. The two enclosed spaces are situated on the north bridge and feature a variety of Modern works from Crystal Bridges’ permanent collection as well as the Alfred Stieglitz Collection. Read more

Pre-Columbian terra-cotta featured in tribal art auction July 5

Matching pair of Mayan lidded terracotta vessels, 8 x 5½ in. Estimate: $3,500-$5,000. Jasper52 image

NEW YORK – The current Jasper52 auction titled Premium Tribal Art offers more than 200 lots of figures and masks integral to traditional ceremonies of cultures from around the globe. Many of the top objects in the July 5 auction are pottery that originated in the pre-Columbian cultures of Central and South America where societies flourished before the arrival of Spanish explorers. Absentee and Internet live bidding is available through LiveAuctioneers.

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Tiffany Studios trio tops $213K at Bruneau & Co. auction

Tiffany Studios table lamp with Poppy shade consisting of variegated blue, green, red, purple and yellow Favrile glass with reticulated bronze overlay. Price realized: $125,000. Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers image

CRANSTON, R.I. – The enduring popularity of early 20th-century creations by Tiffany Studios was on full display at an auction held June 23 by Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers, where a table lamp, a glass vase and a pair of lamp screens, all made by the New York design firm, sold for a combined $213,750. Absentee and Internet live bidding was available through LiveAuctioneers.

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Missouri museum denounces Laura Ingalls Wilder award change

Eugene Christopherson (American, 20th century), oil-on-board titled MRS. INGALLS HARVESTING: LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE SERIES. Image courtesy of Sloans & Kenyon and LiveAuctioneers

MANSFIELD, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri museum dedicated to Laura Ingalls Wilder has expressed disappointment at a recent decision to remove the author’s name from a national literary award.

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Grand clocks highlight John Moran Auctioneers sale July 17

A French gilt and patinated bronze mantel clock, Brindeau à Paris. Estimate: $5,000-$8,000. John Moran Auctioneers image

MONROVIA, Calif. – John Moran Auctioneers will present an important assemblage of Continental and Asian art and objects from a variety of local Southern California estates and collections in their July 17 Traditional Collector catalog. Absentee and Internet live bidding is available through LiveAuctioneers.

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High time for Cheech’s art museum: California gives millions

Cheech Marin at the Alma Awards in 2012. Image by Hispanic Lifestyle, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Just months after California legalized recreational marijuana the state is giving stoner comedian Cheech Marin’s Chicano art museum $9.7 million.

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