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Purdue library launches Amelia Earhart exhibit

Amelia Earhart set numerous flying records before she disappeared on a Pacific flight in July 1937. Image courtesy Signature House and Live Auctioneers archive.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) – Documents, photographs and other items exploring the life of aviator Amelia Earhart have gone on public display at Purdue University.

The Purdue Libraries opened the exhibit chronicling Earhart’s accomplishments and her advocacy of women’s rights on Monday to coincide with the start of Women’s History Month.

Purdue has what it bills as the world’s largest collection of papers, memorabilia and artifacts about Earhart. She was a Purdue career counselor from 1935 until her death in 1937.

She and navigator Fred Noonan were attempting to circumnavigate the globe when the Lockheed Model 10 Electra she was flying vanished over the Pacific Ocean near Howland Island on July 2, 1937.

Earhart was the subject of the 2009 film Amelia starring Hilary Swank.

The display on the fourth floor of the Humanities, Social Science and Education Library in Stewart Center is free and open to the public from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each weekday. Shortened summer hours take effect May 10.

AP-CS-03-02-10 0706EST

‘Short snorter’ $1 bill long on mystery

NORTON SHORES, Mich. (AP) – The 1935 one-dollar bill, its edges frayed and its color faded, reads like a World War II history book.

Scrawled on the back of the bill is a list of some of the most notable spots in the history of the war. The entries start with the United States at Camp Perry, Ohio, and end with the former eastern European nation of Yugoslavia.

Squeezed between are some of World War II’s most historic spots, including Omaha Beach, France, where thousands of Americans lost their lives in one of the war’s defining periods.

But who carried the worn dollar continues to puzzle Ed Sechen, an 82-year-old Norton Shores resident who was handed the bill by a friend 20 years ago.

“It must be from a soldier from that time,” said Sechen, a lifelong coin collector who was attracted by the history of the bill. “It looks like he went to a lot of different places.”

More than 16 million U.S. armed forces personnel served between Dec. 1, 1941, and Dec. 31, 1946, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Approximately 292,000 U.S. service members were killed in battle.

It wasn’t uncommon for soldiers to record a list of places they visited on a dollar bill, said John McGarry III, executive director of the Lakeshore Museum Center in Muskegon. The bills had a name: a “short snorter,” McGarry said.

Some service members had other soldiers sign their dollar bills during their travels.

“First of all, you want something easy to carry and that you’re not going to lose,” McGarry said. “You can fold up a dollar bill and put it in your pocket.”

He said the practice dates back at least to the Civil War when soldiers would write the names of locations they visited on canteens.

At World War II veterans’ reunions, it wasn’t uncommon for vets to compare their short snorters to see who visited the most locations during the war, McGarry said. The vet with the longest list was often treated to a drink or two, he said.

McGarry said each short snorter “is unique because every soldier’s story is different.”

Sechen has always wanted to know who carried the bill. But because there are no signatures or other identifying marks, tracking down the owner could be nearly impossible, he said.

It might have been a soldier from Muskegon. But with the way bills circulate, it could have come from anywhere in the United States.

If someone can show Sechen evidence that the bill belonged to a family member, he’s willing to turn it over free of charge.

“He would have had to carry that for a long time,” Sechen said of the dollar bill. “You would think someone in his family knew about it.”

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Information from: The Muskegon Chronicle,

http://www.mlive.com/muskegon

AP-CS-03-01-10 0551EST

Giant head of pharaoh, King Tut’s granddad, unearthed in Egypt

Until the recent discovery, all sculptures of the Amenhotep III have been damaged, including this quartzite head of the pharaoh. Photo by Jon Bodsworth, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

CAIRO (AP) – Archaeologists have unearthed a massive red granite head of one Egypt’s most famous pharaohs who ruled nearly 3,400 years ago, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities announced Sunday.

The head of Amenhotep III, which alone is about the height of a person, was dug out of the ruins of the pharaoh’s mortuary temple in the southern city of Luxor.

The leader of the expedition that discovered the head described it as the best preserved sculpture of Amenhotep III’s face found to date.

“Other statues have always had something broken: the tip of the nose, the face is eroded,” said Dr. Hourig Sourouzian, who has led the led the Egyptian-European expedition at the site since 1999. “But here, from the tip of the crown to the chin, it is so beautifully carved and polished, nothing is broken.”

The head is part of a larger statue found several years ago, along with the parts of the body, the back slab, and the ceremonial beard which Souruzian says will soon be connected with the head.

Amenhotep III, who was the grandfather of the famed boy-pharaoh Tutankhamun, ruled from 1387-1348 B.C. at the height of Egypt’s New Kingdom and presided over a vast empire stretching from Nubia in the south to Syria in the north.

Sourouzian said the pharaoh was famous for leading Egypt at the peak of its ancient civilization, when peace and luxury were prevalent throughout the kingdom. Craftsmen were also honing their artistic techniques during the period, which may explain the symmetrical features of the unearthed head.

“But he may have looked exactly as this statue and he may have been a very beautiful, very handsome man,” Sourouzian told the Associated Press.

Amenhotep III’s massive mortuary temple was largely destroyed, possibly by floods, and little remains of its walls.

The expedition, however, has unearthed a wealth of artifacts and statuary in the buried ruins, including two statues of Amenhotep made of black granite found in March.

AP-CS-02-28-10 1432EST

Baterbys’ opening sale at Delray Beach well attended

Officers from Baterbys and local dignitaries held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the event.

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – More than 300 eager bidders packed the new Baterbys Art Auction Gallery facility at 13900 Jog Road in to participate in an inaugural auction event Feb. 20. People poured in from across Delray and the Palm Beach areas to vie for art by some of the most recognizable names in 20th-century fine art. LiveAuctioneers provided Internet live bidding.

Artists like Salvador Dali, Marc Chagall, Yaacov Agam, Elena Bond, Peter Max and Ken Keeley were represented at the sale. Bidders were favorably impressed with the high level of sophistication the gallery brought to the area.

Buyers commented favorably about the service and information provided by the Baterbys art consultants.

Also in attendance were the mayor of Delray Beach and representatives from the Palm Beach and Greater Delray chambers of commerce.

The Delray Beach opening, at what Baterbys is calling the Palm Beach County Gallery, came a week before a live and Internet auction Feb. 27 at the Baterbys main auction gallery, located at 9101 International Drive in Orlando, Fla. Works by many of the same artists were offered at that event, too.

Previews were scheduled for both sales, immediately preceding the events, with free cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.

Baterbys typically donates the auctioneers’ premium to a local charity. For the Delray and Orlando sales, the premium was donated to UCP of Central Florida, an organization that serves children with disabilities and developmental delays.

These were the first auctions of the year for Baterbys, named Best Art Gallery in Orlando for 2009 by Orlando Style Magazine and SneakySunday.com (a Web site dedicated to local arts and entertainment).

With more than 25 years’ experience in the art world and auctioneering, Baterbys offers a lifetime money-back guarantee of authenticity.

Baterbys produces quarterly art review books that also serve as catalogs. The hardcover books are priced $49.95, less with a subscription.

For details call 866-537-0265 or e-mail them at press@baterbys.com.

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Bidders vied for works by some of the most recognizable names in 20th-century fine art. Image courtesy Baterbys.

People poured into the new Baterbys gallery in Delray Beach for the Feb. 20 sale. Image courtesy Baterbys.

Lars Klingstedt artwork to be auctioned for cancer charity

EL PASO, Texas (AP) – Jay Leno has two Lars Klingstedt originals hanging in his 17,000-square-foot Big Dog Garage.

Mariah Carey is a Klingstedt fan and plans to work with him to create a Marilyn Monroe portrait for her.

Over the past 20 years, the El Paso designer-artist has always found inspiration for his art from pop culture, nature and classic cars from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.

But five and a half years ago, he began to draw that inspiration from his mother – Niecie Klingstedt, a breast cancer survivor.

“I really admire her for her courage and determination,” Klingstedt said in telephone interview from his home in Manhattan, N.Y. “It’s inspiring to know that despite everything she has gone through, she still has the drive and the energy and positive attitude to keep going.”

After Sunday’s Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in El Paso, Klingstedt will auction some of his paintings as part of the first Art For A Cure, an evening of culture, food and giving. Klingstedt’s sister, Kerstin Klingstedt, is producing the event to honor their mother.

“Both of my children are very compassionate children, and they are constantly doing good for other people,” said Niecie Klingstedt, who is 71, but feels as if she were 60. “I am honored and thrilled, but I don’t think I handled it any differently than any other breast cancer patient. It hit so close to their hearts that they felt more compassionate. It affected them to do something.”

Through the support of family and friends, Niecie Klingstedt has been cancer-free for five years.

“It’s very, very scary, and my heart goes out to anybody who gets the diagnosis of any kind of cancer. It’s almost like a death sentence,” she said. “I met another cancer survivor who told me, ‘Cancer will change your life forever, but it will be for the better.’”

Of course, Niecie Klingstedt thought her friend was a little crazy.

“At the time, in the middle of treatment, I thought, ‘This is better? Better than what? Hell?’” she said. “Now I realize what she meant, and I took those words literally and decided that’s how I wanted to live my life, in a positive manner.”

The charity event will include live and silent auctions, food, door prizes and swag bags.

“Her battle with cancer is probably the most brave and courageous thing that I have ever gotten to be a part of,” said Kerstin Klingstedt. “To watch her do it and be there to support her it has given me tons of inspiration. Just seeing her go through it and the way she handled it was extremely amazing.”

Niecie Klingstedt’s breast cancer was diagnosed almost six years ago, and she was immediately taken to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for treatment for three months.

“She is a really strong woman, so she really didn’t let us know how much pain she was in or how hard it is on her,” Kerstin Klingstedt said. “Seeing her brave face and seeing how hard she fought it is a blessing.”

The highlight of the Art For A Cure event will be the auction of 10 original pieces of artwork by Lars Klingstedt.

“I’m excited,” said Lars Klingstedt of his first major showing in El Paso. “I have participated in several charity events all over the country but never in my hometown.”

Available for auction will be selections from his portraits series (Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Barack Obama) along with selections from his classic cars, nature and travel series.

All proceeds from the event will be donated directly to the El Paso Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

“We have received more than $6,000 in merchant donations that will be auctioned off,” Kerstin Klingstedt said. “I thought it was going to be a small, intimate art show of maybe 100 people and my goal was to raise $2,000, but we are going to blow that out of the water.”

AP-WS-02-24-10 1100EST

Picasso portrait to add spark to N.C. museum reopening

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – The North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh is getting four paintings as it prepares to reopen, including a nude portrait by Pablo Picasso of one of his lovers.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Thursday the paintings are being donated by Julian and Josie Robertson. Julian Robertson is a Salisbury, N.C., native who owns a hedge fund called Tiger Management.

Deputy art director John Coffey says the museum never would have considered such a painting 50 years ago. He says the museum’s collection has always been “polite.”

The Picasso is titled Seated Woman, Red and Yellow Background and was painted in 1952. It depicts Francoise Gilot, the mother of two of his children.

The museum has been closed since September, while moving more than 750 pieces to a new building. It’s scheduled to reopen April 24.

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Information from: The News & Observer,

http://www.newsobserver.com

AP-ES-02-25-10 0626EST

Chanel treasures hit the auction block in Paris

Coco Chanel (1906-1999), photographed by Horst P. Horst in Paris, 1937. This 9 1/2-inch by 9 1/4-inch silver gelatin print, signed in pencil on verso by the photographer, was auctioned by Phillips de Pury on Sept. 16, 2006. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Phillips de Pury.

PARIS (AP) – Hundreds of fashionistas, collectors and would-be consumers with a dream jostled for a closer look at some of the more than 800 garments, accessories and shoes by the storied luxury giant Chanel that hit the auction blocks today.

Lots on display included iconic tweed skirt suits, classic chain handbags, 1980s-era ensembles in screaming hues by the label’s current designer, Karl Lagerfeld, and vintage haute couture gowns by Mademoiselle Chanel herself.

The organizer, auctioneer Pierre Cornette de Saint Cyr, said he expected the sale to fetch between $270,000 and $540,000, though he added there “could be surprises.”

Star lots, which could end up fetching several times their estimates, included a 1935 haute couture sheath gown in fine black lace, its neckline embellished with a black silk bow—and a 1929 afternoon dress in verdant leaf print, with a swingy jacket in emerald green.

While the vintage pieces—displayed on mannequins behind velvet ropes—were off limits to the public, most of the lots could be handled, inspected and even tried on. A hoard of women of all ages—some of them dressed in head-to-toe Chanel in a mark of brand loyalty—swarmed the racks, shimmying into slightly too-small jackets, swimming in oversized trenches, and sometimes, just sometimes, finding that perfect fit.

“This is my first time at an auction,” said Francoise Brunet, a 65-year-old Parisian who said her “life’s dream” was to own a quilted Chanel handbag. “My kids gave me some money for Christmas, so here I am, to make that dream come true.”

It took assessor Francoise Sternbach a year and a half to assemble the 820 lots, which she acquired from more than 120 private sellers. Some of the vintage items were dug out of trunks or rescued from attics where they had languished for decades, she said, adding she hoped those lots would end up going to museums.

With bidders expected from across Europe and telephone bidders calling in from as far afield as Asia and the Americas, the rest of the garments will likely get a chance to come back into fashion in the wardrobes of women from around the world.

“These are dresses which have lived during Mademoiselle Chanel’s time, which went to the most famous parties, which were admired and worn by gorgeous women,” said auctioneer Cornette de Saint Cyr. “And they will be worn again by gorgeous women. That’s what I want – for (the garments) to live again.”

The two-day-long sale, held at Paris’ Drouot Richelieu auction house, wraps up Friday.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

A Chanel Couture gold brocade dress and jackets, circa 1970s, was auctioned on Sept. 2, 2009 by Leslie Hindman Auctioneers. The Chicago auction house is renowned for its Vintage Couture & Accessories sales. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Leslie Hindman Auctioneers.

Van Gogh experts authenticate unusual painting

Vincent van Gogh, 'De molen Le blute-fin,' 1886, oil on canvas, 55.2 x 38 cm, Museum de Fundatie, Heino/Wijhe and Zwolle

AMSTERDAM (AP) – A newly authenticated Van Gogh has gone on display 35 years after a discredited art collector bought it in Paris, convinced it was painted by the famed Dutch master but never able to prove it.

Louis van Tilborgh, curator of research at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, said Le Blute-Fin Mill was painted in 1886. He said its large human figures are unusual for a Van Gogh landscape but it has his typically bright colors.

It was bought in 1974 by Dirk Hannema, who was known as a brilliant museum curator but much less successful when buying for his own collection. When he died in 1984 he claimed to have seven Vermeers, several Van Goghs and a few Rembrandts.

He was right only about this one.

On the basis of his knowledge and intuition, he attributed the painting to Van Gogh and dated it as having been realized in 1886. However, due to Hannema’s dubious reputation in the field of attribution, this work did not receive much attention. “This discovery is not an attribution but an absolute certainty,” Hannema assured everyone. Exactly 35 years after his purchase, he has finally been proven right.

The painting went on show Wednesday in the Museum de Fundatie in the town of Zwolle.

Comprehensive study by the Van Gogh Museum established that the painting is genuinely a work by Van Gogh. Dr. Louis van Tilborgh, curator of the Van Gogh research, and Ella Hendriks, head of the restoration department, who are both affiliated with the Van Gogh Museum, explain the attribution in De ontdekking – Vincent van Goghs De Molen ‘Le blute-fin’ in de collectie van Museum de Fundatie (Waanders Publishers), of which The Burlington Magazine will publish an English language version in June.

The exhibition arranged around this newly discovered work by Vincent van Gogh will be on display in Museum de Fundatie – Paleis aan de Blijmarkt, Zwolle, until July 4. Besides Le Blute-Fin Mill, two paintings by Van Gogh that are similar in style (on loan from the Van Gogh Museum and the Noro Foundation), and one by Arnold Hendrik Koning (from the collection of the Van Gogh Museum) will also be presented. In addition, the exhibition will also show other works that Hannema acquired from Hein Art Dealers, including paintings by Huet and Troyon, drawings by Redon and Millet, late medieval sculpture, and a figure by Degas.

AP-ES-02-24-10 0815EST

Utah man accuses feds of misconduct in artifact case

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – The brother of a Utah sheriff accused federal agents Tuesday of misconduct when they arrested him last June for allegedly trafficking in ancient American Indian artifacts.

David Lacy testified in federal court in Salt Lake City that heavily armed agents stormed his house and held him for hours while grilling him about his collection of artifacts – all without reading him his Miranda rights against self-incrimination.

Two agents earlier testified on Tuesday that they did everything properly.

Lacy is a brother of the sheriff in San Juan County in southeast Utah and one of 26 collectors and dealers in Utah, Colorado and New Mexico who were arrested after a two-year sting operation.

The Blanding, Utah, high school teacher maintained that his collection of Native American artifacts was legally obtained. His testimony Tuesday was the first time one of the defendants testified about the case.

“They were legal,” said Lacy, who was eager to show agents his artifacts and explain how he obtained them. “I had done nothing wrong.”

Removing artifacts from federal or tribal lands is a felony violation, although for more than a century it has been a pastime in the Four Corners region of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. A common defense is that artifacts came from private lands. Lacy wasn’t asked in court Tuesday to explain where his artifacts came from.

In 2007, federal authorities decided to crack down when a Utah antiquities dealer offered to work undercover for the government buying intricately painted bowls that can sell for thousands of dollars apiece, as well as and other artifacts.

Lacy, 55, was accused of selling a woman’s prehistoric loin cloth, a turkey feather blanket, a decorated digging stick, an Atlatl weight, a set of knife points and other artifacts for more than $11,000. He faces nine counts of trafficking or theft in violation of the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act. He has pleaded not guilty.

Lacy testified that he planned a day of golfing on June 10 when nearly a dozen agents showed up at his house outside Blanding, Utah, just after sunrise.

“They said, ‘Open up, police!’ Lacy recounted. “I thought it was my son, who is a deputy sheriff. I told him to knock it off.”

Lacy said he met several armed agents at the door, some carrying shotguns or rifles. He threw on a pair of shorts, T-shirt and flip-flop sandals as agents searched and occupied his house for more than four hours.

A son and a daughter testified Tuesday that agents kept them from visiting to check on their father’s welfare.

It wasn’t until the very end that two federal Bureau of Land Management agents testified that they informed Lacy he was under felony arrest. The agents insisted they advised Lacy of his Miranda rights at the outset, but Lacy disputes that. Lacy did sign a Miranda waiver at the end of his interview.

Under the circumstances, “We think there’s no question he was in custody,” said one of Lacy’s lawyers, Matthew Lewis. That means agents have a special duty to inform a defendant of his rights.

Lewis is asking U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart to suppress information Lacy supplied during his interview. Stewart isn’t expected to rule until May.

Lacy said his interview started out casually, then “they became more adversarial” with agents raising their voices and expressing frustration. He said he had agreed to sit for an interview and consented to the search of his house, an outbuilding, his vehicle and a leased storage shed in town.

Prosecutor Rich MeKelvie said Lacy acknowledged selling some artifacts, but after the hearing his lawyer insisted those artifacts had been legally obtained.

Two of the 26 defendants – one a Santa Fe, N.M., salesman, the other a prominent Blanding, Utah, physician, James Redd – committed suicide after their arrests.

Separately, Redd’s wife and daughter surrendered their own vast collections, pleaded guilty and were sentenced last summer to terms of probation. The rest of the defendants have pleaded not guilty.

AP-WS-02-23-10 1702EST

S.F., modern art museum reach deal on expansion

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The site of an aging San Francisco fire station could soon be home to the art collection of Gap Inc. co-founders Donald and Doris Fisher.

Under a deal announced by Mayor Gavin Newsom Monday, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has agreed to take over the Howard Street fire station property for a planned expansion. In exchange, the museum would spend $14 million to move the station to a new building a few blocks away.

The museum expects to use the additional space to house the Fishers’ modern and contemporary art collection.

City officials say in return San Francisco would get a modern fire house that would improve response times and better withstand an earthquake.

The deal still has to be approved by the fire commission and board of supervisors.

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Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle

AP-WS-02-23-10 1018EST

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