Aerial view of Woodburn Circle on West Virginia University’s downtown campus. 2004 photo by Wvuuam, Creative Commons license, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – Work on the first phase of West Virginia University’s new art museum is expected to be completed in May.
The old Erickson Alumni Center is being renovated to house the museum’s staff offices, a gift shop and a hall for performances and other events.
The second phase involves construction of a three-story building next to the Creative Arts Center. Curator Bob Bridges says about 3,000 works of art owned by WVU will be moved to the new building.
Museum director Joyce Ice says the building is slated to open in 2012. She isn’t sure when construction will start.
The project’s total cost is about $10.5 million. Ice says WVU has raised about $8.5 million to $9 million so far.
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Information from: The Dominion Post, http://www.dominionpost.com
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
NEW YORK – LiveAuctioneers App Technologies, a division of LiveAuctioneers LLC, has launched the world’s first app (application program) for real-time bidding through Apple-brand mobile devices. The downloadable app is compatible with both Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch series, and interfaces with sales conducted by the nearly 900 auction houses worldwide who use LiveAuctioneers.com for Internet live bidding.
“This is one of the most exciting developments in the history of our company,” said LiveAuctioneers CEO Julian R. Ellison. “In July we took an initial step in this direction by introducing an iPhone app that enabled users to browse our clients’ catalogs and leave absentee bids. Our first-generation app was the first of its kind within the auction industry to connect smart phone users with sales at hundreds of auction houses worldwide. Now we’ve taken it to the next level with an enhanced functionality that allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to bid and interact, in real time, in any auction facilitated by LiveAuctioneers’ bidding platform.”
The LiveAuctioneers live-bidding iPhone app is a free download available from Apple’s App Store. Those who already have the original version of LiveAuctioneers’ app on their iPhone or iPod Touch also can upgrade directly from their devices through the App Store. The technology is compatible with iPhone or iPod Touch software version 3.0 or later.
To bid in real time via iPhone using LiveAuctioneers’ new app, the user simply registers online with the auction house of choice, no differently than if they were registering through their PC or Mac. Upon approval from the auction house, the user is authorized to bid through their iPhone/iPod Touch as the auction is taking place. The app isn’t just for bidders, however. Anyone can use the app to view auctions in progress.
Julian Ellison stressed that bidders will always be able to participate in LiveAuctioneers-supported auctions conventionally through their PCs or Macs, but adds: “There’s no denying that we are an increasingly mobile society that conducts more and more of its business through mobile phones and PDAs. When we first saw the launch of online bidding, which was back in the early days of eBay Live Auctions, people were able to bid against the auction floor through their laptops. Now they don’t even need their laptops. They can be anywhere at all, as long as they have access to their iPhone or iPod Touch. This is the next big step forward for Internet live bidding and will give many more people instant access to auctions worldwide.”
Founded in November 2002, Manhattan-based LiveAuctioneers.com provides real-time Internet bidding capability to 898 auction houses in a dozen countries. LiveAuctioneers.com has opened up once-exclusive sales to the cyber community worldwide through online publication of auction catalogs, and universally accessible Internet live bidding. For further information, log on to https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – Nearly two dozen new state statutes take effect in Lousiana with the start of the new year. Some are arcane or technical changes to existing laws while others are more sweeping.
One of the new statutes prohibits the sale of novelty cigarette lighters. An exemption has been written into the statute, however, that exempts cigarette lighters manufactured before 1980, which are considered collectibles.
Violators could be fined up to $250.
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On the Net:
Louisiana Legislature: www.legis.state.la.us
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Antiques Roadshow : Discovering America’s Hidden Treasures. Copyright WGBH Educational Foundation.BOSTON – Antiques Roadshow, PBS Television’s most-watched primetime series, has announced its summer 2010 tour destinations: San Diego, Billings, Mont., Miami Beach, Fla.; Biloxi, Miss.; Des Moines, Iowa; and Washington, D.C.
Programs taped in those locations will make up Roadshow’s 15th broadcast season on PBS, airing in 2011.
“We’re calling this our Crystal Anniversary Tour,” said Antiques Roadshow executive producer Marsha Bemko, author of the new book, Antiques Roadshow Behind the Scenes. “It’s our way of celebrating Roadshow’s 15-year romance with America’s stories, its objects, and its extraordinary history.”
Roadshow’s 2010 tour features a series of local events at which top appraisers offer the public free evaluations of antiques and collectibles, revealing the often-surprising history and value of these items.
Antiques Roadshow 2010 stops and dates include:
San Diego – June 12, 2010
Billings, Mont. – June 26, 2010
Miami Beach, Fla. – July 10, 2010
Biloxi, Miss. – July 24, 2010
Des Moines, Iowa – Aug. 7, 2010
Washington, D.C. – Aug. 21, 2010
Admission to Antiques Roadshow events is free, but tickets are required and must be obtained in advance. Ticket applications and complete ticketing rules will be available on Antiques Roadshow online or by dialing toll-free 1-888-762-3749 after Antiques Roadshow’s season premiere, Monday, Jan. 4, 2010 at 8 p.m. Eastern Time/7 p.m. Central.
This year’s lineup, with host Mark L. Walberg, kicks off from Raleigh, N.C., with the highest-value treasure ever seen on Antiques Roadshow, a set of Chinese carved jade objects estimated to be worth as much as $1.07 million. Visit pbs.org/antiques for a preview of this record-breaking season premiere.
Additional information about the Summer 2010 Tour is available at pbs.org/antiques
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – A Rhode Island man whom prosecutors call a “habitual con man” heads to trial next week on charges that he duped investors by claiming access to deep-pocketed business connections.
Rocco DeSimone, a former art dealer from Johnston, was convicted in 2005 of filing a false tax return and later escaped from prison. He now is accused of inducing people to invest money in products that he said brand-name companies had offered millions of dollars to buy.
One invention was a protective covering for CDs and DVDs to prolong their life. DeSimone told potential investors that he owned the product and that Nintendo had offered millions of dollars for it, even though both claims were false, federal prosecutors said.
He also allegedly persuaded an inventor to give him an ownership stake in a product called the Drink Stik – a device that connects beverage containers to respirators and gas masks worn by military officers in contaminated areas – by falsely claiming that he was friends with the chief executive of Fidelity Investments. He also lied in telling potential investors that Raytheon Corporation had agreed to buy the Drink Stik for hundreds of millions of dollars, prosecutors said.
DeSimone is accused of taking in roughly $6 million in money, property and forgiven debt. Prosecutors plan to call as witnesses some of the people who gave him money.
Jury selection starts Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Providence and opening statements are expected Wednesday. The trial is expected to last at least three weeks.
One of DeSimone’s lawyers, Katherine Godin, said DeSimone maintains his innocence.
“We’re going to try and establish that he was genuinely trying to market the products and that this was not a fraud,” Godin said.
DeSimone was convicted in 2005 of cheating on his taxes by claiming he owned the painting “Canal at Zaandaam” by Monet for more than a year before selling it. The lie saved him roughly $420,000 in taxes.
The latest alleged scam began when DeSimone was free pending appeal of that conviction, prosecutors say.
He was sentenced to more than two years in prison, but escaped in March 2008 from a minimum security facility in New Jersey before surrendering days later.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AUBURN, Ind. (AP) – Embattled auto auction house Kruse International is suing some of its customers to try to recoup millions of dollars as it faces legal pressure over its own debts.
Auburn-based Kruse has filed lawsuits in DeKalb County seeking more than $2 million. The auction house says it is owed $6.7 million by customers.
Kruse spokeswoman Kelley Ellert says the company plans to file five to 15 additional lawsuits over the next several weeks.
Kruse faces several lawsuits, including one by a Kansas bank alleging auctioneer Dean Kruse violated terms of a loan on which he still owes $6.5 million and another claiming Kruse defaulted on a $7.8 million debt.
The auctioneer told The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne, Ind., in August that the recession has hurt his sales.
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Information from: The Journal Gazette, http://www.journalgazette.net
Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
PARIS – Police say a painting by Impressionist Edgar Degas worth euro800,000 ($1.15 million) has been stolen from an exhibit in Marseille, France.
A police official says the painting, Les Choristes, (or “The Chorus Singers”), was stolen overnight from the Cantini Museum. The official was not authorized to be publicly named because of police policy.
The French national museum authority said the painting — a small pastel painted in 1876-77 — belongs to the famed Musee d’Orsay in Paris, known for its Impressionist works.
A security guard discovered it was missing when opening the museum Thursday morning. The museum is closed Thursday while the theft is being investigated.
No other details were immediately available.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
‘Peanuts’ creator Charles M. Schulz autographed this print of Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Image courtesy of Nate D. Sanders Auction and LiveAuctioneers archive.PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) – It’s hard to believe Walker Sisson when he tells you he has 25,000 “Peanuts” collectibles – until he shows you the inside of his new shed.
He and his fiancee Karen Terry had to build the shed next to their Prescott residence just to house all of his collection when they merged their homes. It’s larger than the store-bought size, and boxes are stacked to the ceiling.
Christmas-related “Peanuts” characters fill the house. It was Karen’s idea to find all the “Peanuts” items with a holiday theme and display them, instead of keeping most of them in boxes.
They found that Walker has enough Christmas-themed “Peanuts” ornaments to cover four Christmas trees comfortably. Karen bought a rotating artificial tree for the living room display.
Outdoors, they have set up three large Snoopy inflatables, lined up Snoopy characters on the porch railings and set up Snoopy flags on the roofline.
In case that’s not a hint, Snoopy, by far, is Walker’s favorite “Peanuts” character.
“Snoopy’s a dog of the world,” he explained, citing how Snoopy imitates everything from a World War I flying ace to a wilderness scout. “He’s socially acceptable to every gender and every environment.”
Walker moved around a lot as a child, living with relatives and then becoming homeless when his father was ill. He and his six siblings ended up in foster homes.
His foster mother introduced him to Snoopy at about the age of 10, and that’s when he started collecting them.
He understands now that he was looking for something that wouldn’t go away.
His childhood eventually improved, as his family reunited and moved to Prescott in 1969.
He started collecting more and more Peanuts items, and his friends and family bought him more, too.
“Just one thing led to another,” he said.
Walker and Karen both attended Prescott High School but were four years apart and didn’t know each other. They met a couple of years ago through an online dating site and Walker later moved back to Prescott.
“After I met him, I just fell in love with him and Snoopy,” Karen said. “I knew it was a package deal.”
Their wedding at Goldwater Lake next May will include a 2-foot-tall Snoopy and Belle bride and groom, and they’re thinking of staying at Camp Snoopy in Southern California for their honeymoon.
Karen has embraced Walker’s love for Snoopy, and Walker has embraced the idea of sharing his love of Snoopy with Karen’s nine grandchildren – “under close supervision,” Walker added.
Karen said her grandchildren get a big kick out of seeing Snoopy everywhere when they visit Karen and Walker. Her niece, Kelly Campbell, even created a YouTube video about Walker’s collection.
Right now, alongside the aforementioned Christmas items, their home features shelves covered with “Peanuts” music boxes and coin banks. The kitchen includes “Peanuts” potholders next to a Snoopy-shaped waffle iron and a newly baked Snoopy-shaped cake.
Walker even found Snoopy on galoshes, water skis, fishing poles and tackle boxes.
Among his oddest items are unauthorized knockoffs that the Charles Schulz family isn’t likely to authorize in the future, such as cigarette lighters and shot glasses featuring a pregnant Lucy.
When they want to match their house during the holidays, they dress up in Snoopy earrings, hats and T-shirts.
Walker honestly cannot name his favorite Snoopy item. Among his most prized are his Danbury Collection items such as the “Peanuts” gang sledding down a hill.
And he cannot stop looking for more Snoopy items at thrift stores and garage sales every weekend, although he’s afraid to search the Internet sites such as eBay.
How does he know whether he already has something before he buys it?
“I just know,” he said.
Walker and Karen now are working on a Web site at www.peanutswest.com, and they’d love to put all of Walker’s collection on display in a museum someday.
“That’s our dream,” Karen said.
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Information from: The Daily Courier, http://www.dcourier.com
Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A selection of British ceramic food molds to be offered in Skinner’s Jan. 9, 2010 sale. Image courtesy Skinner Inc.
BOSTON – On Friday, Jan. 8, 2010, at Skinner’s Boston gallery, British food historian Ivan Day will present a program titled Transparent Delights: The Extraordinary History of Molded Desserts in Georgian England.
Guests are invited to a reception at 6 p.m., with the lecture following at 7 p.m. The program is being presented in conjunction with a preview of Skinner’s Jan. 9 European Furniture & Decorative Arts auction, featuring a selection of fine ceramics. Internet live bidding for this sale will be provided by LiveAuctioneers.com.
There is no charge to attend either the reception or lecture, but reservations are requested. Contact Skinner at 617-350-5400 or via e-mail at events@skinnerinc.com.
Skinner’s Boston gallery is located at 63 Park Plaza, Boston, MA 02116.
