AMSTERDAM (AP) – Two American authors believe Vincent van Gogh was fatally shot by two teenagers and did not die from self-inflicted wounds, but the new theory won a skeptical reception Monday from experts at the museum dedicated to the 19th century Dutch master.

A book by Pulitzer prize-winning authors Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, Van Gogh, The Life, concludes that Van Gogh, who suffered chronic depression, claimed on his deathbed to have shot himself to protect the boys.

“Covering up his own murder,” said Naifeh in an interview broadcast Sunday on the CBS’s 60 Minutes.

Leo Jansen, curator of the Van Gogh Museum and editor of the artist’s letters, said the biography is a “great book,” but experts have doubts about the authors’ theory of his death in 1890.

“We cannot yet agree with their conclusions because we do not think there is enough evidence yet,” Jansen told The Associated Press.

At the same time, there has never been any independent evidence to support Van Gogh’s dying confession that he had shot himself.

“There’s no proof. We just know what he said, and that’s what people always went by,” Jansen said.

Severely wounded in the chest, Van Gogh dragged himself to the rooming house in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, where he was staying. He died about 30 hours later after telling his brother Theo, several doctors and the police that he had shot himself while painting in a wheat field. The gun was never found.

Naifeh and Smith revived unanswered questions that have clouded Van Gogh’s own story: How did the painter, who had a widely known history of mental illness, obtain a revolver, and what happened to it? Why would he shoot himself at such an odd angle and not put the muzzle next to his heart? How did he manage with his wound to make the difficult journey more than one mile through the fields back to town? And what happened to his painting gear?

The authors say an art historian who visited Auvers in the 1930s heard rumors from citizens who were alive in 1890 that Van Gogh had been shot accidentally by two boys.

They also discovered a “guilt-ridden” 1956 interview by a wealthy French businessman, Rene Secretan, who said he and his brother had known Van Gogh that summer and had tormented him mercilessly. Secretan, inspired by a Wild West show that was popular in France, borrowed a gun from the owner of the inn where Van Gogh was staying, but he claimed the artist stole it from him.

Secretan recalled in the interview that they taunted Van Gogh, a lonely man who craved company, by putting salt in his coffee and getting their girl friends to tease him with fake seductions. But the authors say Secretan was never asked if he had been involved in the shooting, and he died the following year.

Naifeh said the evidence indicates that the shooting “involved these two boys. And that it was either an accident or a deliberate act. Was it playing cowboy in some way that went awry? Was it teasing with the gun with Vincent lunging out? It’s hard to know what went on at that moment.”

They theorize that Van Gogh was wounded in a farmyard closer to the inn, and that the boys fled with the gun and took the artist’s materials when they fled. Van Gogh, suffering from bouts of temporal lobe epilepsy, “decided to basically protect them and accept this as the way to die. These kids had basically done him the favor of, of shooting him,” said Naifeh.

Jansen said the authors’ theory still had problems, including the unlikely idea that Van Gogh would lie about his attempted suicide. Although he acknowledged in his letters that he was tired of living, he considered suicide immoral and indecent. It was also a criminal offense, and survivors could be imprisoned.

“There’s plenty of reason to look at the unclear circumstances again. It’s just that their conclusion, in our opinion, is not yet sufficiently proven,” Jansen said.

Van Gogh was 37 when he died. He had been painting for only 10 years, but had produced nearly 1,000 paintings and 1,100 drawings. None were sold in his lifetime, but they now command multimillion-dollar prices on the rare occasions they come up for auction.

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-10-17-11 1617GMT

 

 

 

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – The state Capitol has been a symbol of Oklahoma’s history and aspirations since it opened in 1917. The halls of the limestone and granite edifice were lined with the portraits of famous residents, including humorist Will Rogers, Olympic champion Jim Thorpe and Soquoyah, creator of the Cherokee syllabary. The building sat on an oilfield with dozens of working rigs that represented the state’s hopes for prosperity.

But 94 years later, the building reflects Oklahoma’s problems, especially its fiscal hardship. The stately structure is beginning to crumble. Yellow barriers have been erected to prevent visitors from climbing the steps of the Capitol’s south portico because mortar and pieces of limestone are falling from slabs overhead.

An engineering analysis found mortar between the massive limestone panels was disintegrating, and the metal clips holding the panels have apparently corroded. Repairs, along with revamping the outmoded electrical, plumbing and other systems, could cost as much as $130 million.

“We’re still attempting to cover the scope of the problem,” said Mike Enneking, director of facilities management for the state. “We haven’t really decided what we’re going to do yet.”

The problem comes at the worst possible time, as the state works to recover from a $500 million budget deficit from last fiscal year. The Legislature made significant budget reductions during the last session in funding for schools, mental health and public safety. State officials must now weigh the costs of restoring the state’s iconic monument against the needs of programs with human impact.

“We’re at a point now, both for preservation of the building and for public safety, that the Legislature is going to have to be addressing this,” said Richard Ellwanger, chairman of the State Capitol Preservation Commission.

Visitors seem to be reaching the same conclusion.

“I noticed the caulking is cracked,” said Robert Channer of Lapeer, Mich., who toured the building Friday. “It doesn’t look like they have an exterior maintenance program. It’s a shame because it’s a beautiful place.”

State officials have been aware of the growing problems but unable to address them.

Legislation was filed in 2009 to form a public-private partnership to raise money for renovations, but it didn’t pass. In bad economic times, deferring costs has become commonplace.

“We haven’t done much to fix anything,” said Rep. Guy Liebmann, R-Oklahoma City, the measure’s author. “It’s not a Republican House. It’s not a Democratic House. It belongs to everybody. And they need to take care of it.”

Alex Weintz, spokesman for Republican Gov. Mary Fallin, said the governor has no specific proposal to address the Capitol’s deterioration. Ellwanger said he believes the state will have to ask private donors to help pay for the work. A call for public donations raised $21 million to put a dome on the neoclassical structure for the state’s gala centennial celebration in 2007. The dome completed the original architect’s design after work was cut short by the onset of World War I.

While state officials have been emphasizing austerity this year, the deterioration has become impossible to ignore. Concern about falling debris prompted state crews to erect covered scaffolding above a walkway at the Capitol’s southeast corner.

“We don’t want anybody to get injured,” Enneking said.

A detailed examination found a concrete beam above the south portico that is crushing the brick that supports it, antiquated piping and electrical wiring that are original to the building. There’s extensive cracking of the terrazzo floor in the building’s lower level. Some officials estimate a thorough rehabilitation project could take 10 years.

The work of architect Solomon Layton, who designed more than 100 public buildings in Oklahoma, the Capitol was constructed of reinforced concrete between 1914 and 1917 for just $1.5 million. Its exterior is composed mainly of white limestone with a base of Oklahoma pink granite.

The building is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the state, drawing more than 15,000 visitors a year, according to the Department of Tourism.

“State capitols in every state are the people’s house,” said Barbara Pahl, vice president for western field services for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “People need to have things they feel good about. The capitol represents all of that.”

Several other states have had to restore their aging capitol buildings in recent years. The Utah State Capitol, dedicated in 1916, underwent a four-year, $200 million renovation. A $57.4 million renovation of the Nebraska State Capitol that began in 1998 was recently completed.

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

AP-WF-10-16-11 0201GMT

 

 

 

 

 

ROME (AFP) – Sumptuous baroque frescoes covered over by Napoleon Bonaparte during redecoration of a luxury apartment in Rome for his Empress wife are once again on show after a painstaking restoration.

Brilliantly colored biblical scenes, towering columns and lush vegetation painted by Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669) adorn the walls and ceiling of the rooms once dedicated to Marie-Louise and now home to Italy’s president.

When Pietro da Cortona took his brushes to it, the rooms were one enormous 229-foot-long gallery, boasting sweeping views of the eternal city.

The Baroque master’s designs represent “a perfect osmosis between interior and exterior,” Rossella Vodret from Rome’s artistic heritage administration told journalists at a press preview on Tuesday.

Restorers have kept the gallery split into the three individual salons created under Napoleon, who between 1812 and 1814 spent the colossal sum of 1 million golden francs on sprucing up the palace.

Despite his hefty investment, the French Emperor never set foot in Rome.

It was his architect Raffaele Stern who blocked off windows looking down onto an inner courtyard, lined the walls with fabrics and put up new walls.

Today, the rooms are bathed in light—with all of its 26 windows uncovered.

Quirinal curators discovered during electrical works just 10 years ago that the original baroque frescoes had not been destroyed but were hidden behind wall coverings or new paintings.

With a $680,000 budget, restorers unveiled the frescoes, which date to between 1655-1656—a key moment which marked the end of the Counter-Reformation and the beginning of the Baroque period.

At the heart of them are 18 biblical scenes depicting tales from the creation of man, to Moses parting the Red Sea and the birth of Jesus.

As part of celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy, the Quirinal Palace—which has housed popes, kings and presidents—will be open to the public from the end of November until March.

The Palace is also open on Sundays (www.quirinale.it).

LONDON (AFP) – A homage to the disappearing format of analogue film by the British artist Tacita Dean is the latest exhibition to fill the cavernous space at the Tate Modern in London.

Plunged into darkness, visitors to the former power station see a huge screen resembling a piece of film, placed vertically, up which scrolls a constantly changing series of images, such as the sun, a snail or a factory chimney.

Dean is the 12th artist to fill the Turbine Hall and the first since Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s “field” of sunflower seeds. The shows have so far attracted 26 million people, according to the museum.

The Berlin-based artist said her show was a love letter to the type of film—mainly 16mm and 35mm—that she has used throughout her career, but which is being chased out of existence by digital formats.

“We have created this beautiful media we are now losing,” Dean said, adding that “16 millimeter print is the most in danger.”

The director of the Tate Modern, Chris Dercon, said analogue film was in danger of becoming a “disappearing act” in the 21st century.

“Films will only be seen in museums,” he said.

Old-fashioned film also gets strong backing from Hollywood mogul Steven Spielberg.

Writing in the show’s catalog, he says: “Today its years are numbered, but I will remain loyal to this analogue art form until the last lab closes.”

The exhibition, “Film,” is on show until March 11.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Architect Frank Gehry will update a federal planning group on the design proposed for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial, which could include unique woven “tapestries” with photographs.

There has been some concern the memorial’s design intrudes too much on views of the Capitol. Gehry will present an update on his design Thursday to the National Capital Planning Commission.

Earlier proposals included tall columns for the site near the National Air and Space Museum. Gehry has said he hopes to use tapestries because they have been used historically to tell stories. Images for the tapestries have not been determined.

Eisenhower grew up in Kansas and commanded Allied Forces in World War II.

Planning for the Eisenhower memorial began more than a decade ago. The site was selected in 2006.

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Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

 

ROME (AFP) – Italy’s Arte Povera modern art movement is the subject of a new retrospective at the MAXXI museum in Rome that opened Friday, featuring works by Jannis Kounellis, Giuseppe Penone and Gilberto Zorio.

“These three artists’ research stems from the same reflections on materials and natural elements,” MAXXI director Anna Mattirolo said at a presentation of the show.

“The movement remains a key point of reference for young generations of Italian artists,” she said.

Arte Povera – a radical movement that challenged the status quo – was started in the 1960s during a period of social upheaval in Italy.

A large installation from 1988 by Kounellis entitled “Nameless” greets visitors to the museum – a metal structure against a wall decorated with empty coffee sacks and a burning kerosene lamp that fills the space with a pungent odor.

Giuseppe Penone’s “Sap Sculptures”, which combine leather, wood, resin and Carrara marble in a blend of natural elements, can be found on the first floor.

The walls are covered in leather patches reminiscent of tree bark and the veined marble floor wraps around a wooden totem covered in resin representing sap.

In another space, Gilberto Zorio, a key figure in Arte Povera, has suspended the figure of a bird from a glass wall of the museum. This spectral work, titled “Rome Canoe,” is made of stainless steel tubes and a black canoe.

Milan, Naples, Turin, Bologna and Bari are also hosting Arte Povera exhibitions this year and more information can be found online at http://www.artepovera2011.org

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TOLEDO, Ohio – An Ohio museum is preparing to show off a new acquisition: a painting 5 feet high by 17th century Dutch master Frans Hals.

Toledo Museum of Art Director Brian Kennedy says visitors should be delighted by the work, called Family Portrait in a Landscape. He tells The Blade newspaper the painting is captivating for its strong composition and the way Hals captures the personalities and personal interactions of his subjects.

The 60-inch by 64-inch canvas features a cloth merchant and his family.

The museum won’t say what it paid for the painting, though spokeswoman Kelly Fritz Garrow says the price was nowhere near a record. The Blade reports the highest known auction price for a Hals was $14 million in 2008.

The museum unveiling will be on Oct. 13.

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Information from: The Blade, http://www.toledoblade.com/

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Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

PRAGUE (AFP) – A monument to former US President Woodrow Wilson was unveiled in central Prague on Wednesday, 70 years after the occupying Nazis tore down a nearby statue during World War II.

About 500 people gathered outside Prague’s main railway station – once dubbed Wilson Station – for the unveiling of the 3.5-metre (12-foot) statue commissioned by the American Friends of the Czech Republic society.

“Much of the damage that the Nazis caused can never be undone, but returning the monument of Woodrow Wilson to its proper place is a direct reply to Hitler,” Prague-born former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright said at the unveiling.

Wilson, born in 1856, was US president from 1913 to 1921. He died in 1924.

He is celebrated in the Czech Republic and Slovakia for his role in the establishment of independent Czechoslovakia in 1918 as World War I brought down the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Wilson’s landmark “Fourteen Points” speech to the US Congress in early 1918 backed freedom for peoples under the rule of that empire as well as imperial German and Russia.

“In an era when other leaders saw a global chessboard with the imperial powers as players and everyone else as pawns, Wilson… believed that law should apply equally to big nations and to small, and that every country had a duty to defend this principle,” said Albright.

“Wilson’s words struck a deep chord in the minds of millions of people, especially those here in central Europe who had been struggling to escape the bonds of foreign domination and empires,” she added.

Two decades later, Czechoslovakia was carved up by Nazi Germany on the eve of World War II and then occupied. After declaring war on the United States in 1941, the occupying Nazi forces tore down the statue.

Czechoslovakia ended up in the Soviet bloc after the war, until its communist regime crumbled in 1989. It split peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.

Guests at the ceremony included Czech President Vaclav Klaus and his predecessor, anti-communist icon Vaclav Havel, who marked his 75th birthday Wednesday.

“I think (the statue) is nice, but I’ll only have to examine it when it’s quieter,” said Havel, who is frail from recent illnesses, as he fought his way to his car through a throng of well-wishers.

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Standing tall and naked, the marble statues just outside the state Capitol’s main entrance have been ogled and admired by passers-by for the last century.

Art enthusiasts see the statuary groups as a national treasure.

Preservationists see them as contributing to the grandiose decor that some say makes the most beautiful statehouse in the land.

Schoolchildren see the sculptures and giggle over the 27 figures’ nakedness, something that civic groups around the turn of the 20th century tried to squelch by ordering the artist to place covers over the male genitalia.

But the statuary that depicts sculptor George Grey Barnard’s representation of the spiritual burden carried by mankind has turned into a financial burden on taxpayers.

The art, known as Life of Humanity, has cost millions of dollars over the years in maintenance and upkeep since its dedication on Oct. 4, 1911.

It now costs about $120,000 a year to maintain the sculpture that Barnard, a native of Bellefonte, Centre County, was paid $180,000 to produce, which is about $4.3 million by today’s standards, according to Jason Wilson, research historian for the Capitol Preservation Committee.

That raises a question about whether in these tough economic times the upkeep of this piece of art that sits outside exposed to the elements has gotten too rich for taxpayers.

“In times of financial belt-tightening, everyone must make decisions whether to fund the necessities or the niceties. A hundred thousand dollars every year would fill many potholes across Pennsylvania,” said Matthew Brouillette, president of the conservative-leaning Commonwealth Foundation of Harrisburg.

“Instead of charging the taxpayers, the options include finding a private, nonprofit art supporter to maintain these statues or replace them with less opulent and less costly Capitol decor. My guess is that taxpayers picking up the tab would be for the latter.”

But the Barnard sculptures are a rare example of Symbolist sculpture in America, making them a national treasure and deserving to be preserved, said Brian Hack, an adjunct professor of American Art at the City University of New York, Kingsborough, and Barnard scholar.

“He saw those two works as evoking what he saw as universal truth and he saw them as a way to heal humankind and make better humanity. There’s a whole lesson there he wanted people to understand from it, and it’s kind of sad it’s so expensive to maintain,” Hack said.

The statuary has undergone several major restorations over the past century, including one in the mid-1990s that cost $1.1 million.

Some of the maintenance work done in the early part of the last century did more harm than good when conservators applied treatments that removed the Italian Carrara marble’s natural skin, making the statues more susceptible to damage, said Christopher Ellis, the committee’s senior preservation project manager.

To avoid or delay another costly restoration, the preservation committee 15 years ago began a routine maintenance program to keep the complicated piece of artwork clean and intact. This year, it entered into a five-year contract with Conservation Solutions of Washington, D.C., totaling more than $600,000, to perform that work.

“Sometimes we find tips get knocked off by nature, erosion or with old repairs, the adhesive or grout has fallen off. In fact, we found a fingertip just laying on the statue this year,” he said.

The Barnard statuary is one of the costliest pieces of Capitol artwork for the committee to maintain. With the cutting of the preservation committee’s state appropriation from $4 million in 2008-09 to just below $2 million now, the cost of upkeep for this piece of artwork represents a significant share.

Still, Ellis and committee members think that is an investment worth making.

“We have had people who come to the Capitol, whether they are tourists from outside the United States or even people here in the United States, who recognize the great value of the sculpture. To me, they are just extraordinary sculptured pieces,” said Rep. Paul Clymer, R-Bucks, who chairs the preservation committee.

The only way art like the Barnard statuary would find its way into a state government building today is if it were donated because “there simply is no government money available,” said Tom Darr, the state courts’ deputy court administrator who also serves on the preservation committee.

Darr oversaw the construction of the Pennsylvania Judicial Center that opened in 2009 in the Capitol Complex. The project’s $116 million budget left a wide open plaza and atrium devoid of art that to this day, Darr is racking his brain to try to remedy.

As for the cost of maintaining the Barnard statuary, Darr said it’s the price that has to be paid to preserve a part of Pennsylvania’s heritage.

“While we are all focused on the needs for more jobs and having safety nets and all the terribly important things, it’s worth having a little bit of heritage and artistic culture that gives people a feeling about where we came from,” Darr said.

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Online:

http://bit.ly/ongdXk

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Information from: The Patriot-News, http://www.pennlive.com/patriotnews

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

 

AP-WF-09-27-11 1526GMT