| | In a 2,000-Year-Old Tunnel Leading to Jerusalem's Old City, a Glimpse of an Ancient War
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A worker with the Israel's Antiquities Authority shows a sword found in what archaeologists say is a 2,000-year-old drainage tunnel leading to Jerusalem's Old City, at the IAA's offices in Jerusalem, Monday, Aug. 8, 2011. On Monday, archaeologists from the IAA unveiled a standard-issue Roman legionnaire's sword found during excavations of an ancient drainage tunnel beneath Jerusalem, late last month. The excavation of the tunnel has yielded new artifacts from a war here 2,000 years ago, archaeologists said Monday, shedding light on a key episode of the past buried under today's politically combustible city. AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner.
JERUSALEM.- On the eve of Tisha B’Av, artifacts were exposed that breathe new life into the story of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. A sword in a scabbard that belonged to a Roman soldier and an engraving of the Temple’s menorah on a stone object were discovered during work the Israel Antiquities Authority conducted in the 2,000 year old drainage channel between the City of David and the Jerusalem Archaeological Garden. The channel served as a hiding refuge for the residents of Jerusalem from the Romans during the destruction of the Second Temple. During the course of work the Israel Antiquities Authority carried out in Jerusalem’s ancient drainage channel, which begins in the Siloam Pool and runs from the City of David to the archaeological garden (near the Western Wall), impressive finds were recently discovered that breathe new life into the story of the destruction of the Second Temple. T ... More |
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| Events Promoter Mikel Barsa's Alleged Marilyn Monroe Sex Film Gets No Buyers | | Texas Billionaire and Philanthropist Charles Wyly Killed in Colorado Car Accident | | Sotheby's 2011 Autumn Sale Series to Be Held in October at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre | .jpg)
Pictures allegedly taken from a newly discovered 8-mm version of a film, purportedly showing Marilyn Monroe. AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko.
By: Alexander Wilson, Associated Press
BUENOS AIRES (AP).- There were no buyers Sunday at the auction of a 1940s stag film that an events promoter claims shows a young Marilyn Monroe having sex before she became a movie star. The auction was a flop. Nobody came forward willing to pay Mikel Barsa's starting price of 2 million Argentine pesos, about $480,000. Barsa said it didn't help matters that a spokeswoman for Monroe's estate was quoted in an Associated Press interview calling the whole thing a fraud. "It doesn't surprise me. The latest statements of Nancy Carlson didn't do anything good for all this," Barsa said, referring to the spokeswoman for a company in charge of protecting Monroe's image and estate. Barsa said he was still negotiating with an unidentified buyer from Denver whom he said was offering much less than a fair price. But he also ... More | | 
File photo of Sam Wyly posing at his Explore book store in Aspen, Colo. AP Photo/Ed Kosmicki.
DALLAS, TX (AP).- Texas billionaire and philanthropist Charles Wyly, whose family donated millions of dollars to Republican causes and Dallas arts projects, has died after a car accident in western Colorado, authorities said. He was 77. Wyly, who maintained a home near Aspen, Colo., was turning onto a highway near the local airport when his Porche was hit by a sport utility vehicle Sunday, the Colorado State Patrol said in a statement. Wyly died at Aspen Valley Hospital. "He is among the finest people I have ever known," William Brewer III, Wyly's attorney and long-time friend, said in a statement to The Associated Press. "His contributions in business, philanthropy and civic leadership will forever be remembered." The other driver suffered moderate injuries. In Texas, Wyly and his younger brother, Sam, along with their wives, gave $20 million to help build Dallas' performing arts center. They also donated big, but quietly, to Republican causes: the brothers had said they'd give ... More | | 
Zeng Fanzhi (b. 1964), Mask Series. Oil on canvas, 1998, 99.6 x 80.4 cm; 39 1/4 x 31 5/8 in. Est: HK$4–6 million / US$510,000-770,000. Photo: Sotheby's.
HONG KONG.- Sotheby’s Hong Kong Autumn Sales 2011 will be held at Hall 3, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from 1 to 6 October 2011. The six-day sales series will offer the finest collections across eight collecting categories, namely Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Fine Chinese Paintings, 20th Century Chinese Art, Contemporary Asian Art, Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Paintings, Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite, Important Watches and Wine. A total of over 3,400 lots on offer are expected to fetch in excess of HK$2.4 billion / US$300 million*. Selected highlights will be showcased in travelling exhibitions across Asia in September, concluding in a public exhibition of all the properties on offer in Hong Kong from 1 to 5 October 2011. AUCTION HIGHLIGHTS The Classic Cellar from a Great American Collector VIII (1 October). Offering over ... More |
| Alexander McQueen Retrospective Among Top 10 Most Visited Exhibitions in Museum's History | | Robert Rauschenberg: Botanical Vaudeville at The Edinburgh Festival 2011 | | Out of Museum of London's Archives and Into the Light, Charles Dickens Revealed | 
Stefanie Batten, from New York, seated left, reads as she and others wait on a general admission line to get into the Metropolitan Museum of Art. AP Photo/Tina Fineberg.
NEW YORK, N.Y.- The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that the exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, which closed last night at midnight, attracted 661,509 visitors during its run from May 4 to August 7, placing it among the Museum’s top 10 most visited exhibitions. Joining other blockbusters on the list such as Treasures of Tutankhamun (1978), Mona Lisa (1963), and Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2010), Savage Beauty ranks as the eighth most popular exhibition ever held at the Met in its 141-year history, and is the most visited of the special exhibitions organized by The Costume Institute since it became part of the Museum in 1946. “We are enormously gratified that visitors turned out in record numbers to view this powerful exhibition of McQueen’s work,” said Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of The Metropolitan ... More | | 
Inverleith House, Robert Rauschenberg Botanical Vaudeville, Urban Katydid 1986. Photos by Michael Wolchover. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
EDINBURGH.- The American artist Jasper Johns (B.1935) once said of Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) that he had invented more than any artist since Picasso. Rauschenberg has altered the cultural landscape and continues to exert a profound influence on contemporary artists. Robert Rauschenbeg: Botanical Vaudeville is the first museum exhibition devoted to the artist to take place in the UK in thirty years – and it features thirty seven works made between 1982 and 1998. During this time, Rauschenberg was exploring the reflective, textural, sculptural and thematic effects of metal, glass and other reflective surfaces in several series of works. All are represented here, and the paintings and sculptures on display vary from the highly-polished glamorous metallic ... More | | 
Dickens Dream © Charles Dickens Museum.
LONDON.- Today, the first works of art and objects, which will tell the story of Dickens in a new exhibition exploring one of the world’s most influential authors, have been taken out of storage at the Museum of London. The exhibition will examine the central relationship between Dickens and London – the city that inspired much of his work – and that he described as his ‘magic lantern’. Often walking the streets at night, Dickens would build in his mind the settings, plots and characters of his novels. Evoking the atmosphere of the streets of Victorian London and the river Thames , visitors will follow in Dickens’ footsteps and be taken on a memorable and haunting journey, discovering the places and subjects which sparked his imagination. ‘Every noise is merged, this moonlight night, into a distant ringing hum, as if the city were a vast glass, vibrating.’ Bleak House by Charl ... More |
| Japanese Musician and Artist Yoko Ono Awarded the 8th Hiroshima Art Prize | | Self-Taught Artists Brought Into the Mainstream in New Exhibition at The Chrysler Museum of Art | | Paul Adair Shows the Result from His Residency in Los Angeles at Stills Gallery | 
Japanese musician and artist Yoko Ono. EPA/JENS KALAENE.
HIROSHIMA.- In 1989 the city of Hiroshima, first place in the world to suffer a nuclear attack, established the Hiroshima Art Prize with the object of promoting through art the "spirit of Hiroshima" that yearns for permanent world peace and prosperity for all humanity. The Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art is to stage an exhibition showcasing the work of the eighth prize winner, Yoko Ono. In a creative avant-garde career spanning over half a century, Yoko Ono, born in Tokyo in 1933, has pushed the boundaries of art with her command of an abundance of media including visual arts, performance, music, film and poetry. Her works, which aim to stimulate the imagination and encourage viewers to take part in their actual production, have been highly acclaimed as pioneering examples of the conceptual art that has emerged as a current of contemporary art since the 1960s. Since then she ha ... More | | 
Matt Sesow (American, b. 1966), Out of Detox. Oil on chipboard. Ellin and Baron Gordon Collection, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, gift of Ellin and Baron Gordon ©Matt Sesow.
NORFOLK, VA.- The Chrysler Museum of Art and Old Dominion University partner to present Into the Mainstream: Self-Taught Artists from The Garbisch and Gordon Collections. The exhibition opens August 13 in the Chrysler Museum and will be on view through December 31. Admission is free. This collaborative exhibition pairs ODU’s Barron and Ellin Gordon collection of self-taught artists with the Chrysler’s 19th-century work in the same tradition. The Chrysler’s contribution includes works collected by Walter Chrysler, Jr.’s, sister and her husband, Bernice and Edgar Garbisch. The Garbisch collection is extensive, with more than 2,600 pieces. Upon their deaths, most of their art was donated to major museums such as the Chrysler and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The Gordons’ collection includes selected pieces from the 375 ... More | | 
W Temple St & N Hill St, 2009-2011 from Fountains (Los Angeles) Kodachrome yellow C type print on fibre-based paper, custom frame, 30.5 x 40.6cm, edition of 2 + 1 AP. All images are copyright of the artist.
PADDINGTON.- For Paul Adair, undertaking a residency in Los Angeles was an ideal opportunity, fascinated as he is by everything ersatz. His interest has been driven by the desire to replicate and repeat things, and to highlight the artificial. In earlier series Decoy (2005) and Three-Hole Mountain Inn (2008) each photograph's precise formal composition gave way to the crudeness of his self-made constructions. In these new works he is moving from photographic representation of things in space to explore the material based world as ‘total image’, or an expanded photographic space. During the 3 months he spent in LA in 2009 he collated data for future works in the form of photographs. The sprawling geography of LA was overwhelming, so he embarked on smaller journeys to discover something ... More |
| Preperations Underway for RM Auction's Highly-Anticipated Battersea Sale | | Legendary 1910 Chinese Dragon Dollar Could Bring More Than $1 Million at Heritage Auctions | | Mat Collishaw Brings Ron Arad's Installation to Life at the Roundhouse in London | 
1938 Aston Martin 15/98 Sports 2/4 Seater.
LONDON.- The focus of the collector car world returns to Central London, 26th October as RM Auctions lifts the gavel on a magnificent selection of 80 of the world’s finest automobiles at Battersea Evolution. Celebrating its fifth anniversary in 2011, RM’s flagship UK sale is regarded as the UK’s most consistently successful, highest grossing collector car auction, a reputation earned over the years for its stunning consignments, record prices and strong international clientele. Last year’s auction, headlined by the famous 1964 Aston Martin DB5 James Bond movie car, achieved in excess of £19 million in sales with a strong 87% sell-through; bidders represented over 30 countries around the world. The 2011 auction promises to continue the momentum, presenting yet another exceptional roster of blue-chip automotive marques for the savvy collector. “The collector car market is vibrant,” says Max Gi ... More | | 
"This enigmatic issue is one of China's rarest coins, with only two genuine pieces known," said Warren Tucker, Vice President of World Coins at Heritage.
BEVERLY HILLS, CA.- The legendary 1910 Chinese Dragon Dollar, called the Yunnan Spring Dollar in reference to the four Chinese characters that translate to "Spring 1910" on its reverse, could bring in excess of $1,000,000 as part of Heritage Auctions Sept. 8-9 Long Beach Signature(r) World & Ancient Coins Auction, at the Long Beach Convention Center. "This enigmatic issue is one of China's rarest coins, with only two genuine pieces known," said Warren Tucker, Vice President of World Coins at Heritage. "It's been a coin of mystery and legend since its discovery around 1920. Despite near constant research in Chinese numismatics, time has yielded no definite reason or meaning for the term 'Spring 1910.'" The first genuine example of this issue to appear at public auction was sold in Beijing, in April 2002, at the Hua Chen auction. That same piece later ... More | | 
Mat Collishaw.
LONDON.- Mat Collishaw has collaborated with architect and designer Ron Arad to create a monumental, site-specific installation at the Roundhouse in London. Entitled Curtain Call, Arad’s structure comprises 5,600 silicon rods suspended from an 18-metre diameter ring, and serves as a 360-degree canvas for film, as well as a platform for live performance and audience interaction. Collishaw will utilise this unique structure to premiere a new video work, Sordid Earth, 2011. Using 15 projectors, the film will be immersive and can be viewed from both the interior and exterior of Curtain Call. Sordid Earth draws on Collishaw’s earlier series, Infectious Flowers, where he explored the confluence of beauty and decay, digitally grafting various skin diseases onto photographs of flowers. The Roundhouse video will use similar images of infected and visually menacing flowers, heightening the impact of these ... More |
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 New Big Picture Show Service and Separation: A Volunteer Nurse in Afghanistan MANCHESTER.- I don’t want to talk about the downside of life here. I don’t want you to worry about me but it has really made me appreciate all I have at home.’ Claire Davies-Griffith writing to her husband from Afghanistan in 2010 Imperial War Museum North in Manchester launched a brand new 360-degree Big Picture Show, exploring the experiences of a female Territorial Army nurse who served with the locally-based 207 (Manchester) Field Hospital, in Afghanistan in late 2010. This unique show, which is projected onto the walls of the Museum’s Main Exhibition Space, features intimate footage of one family, providing insight into the work of this volunteer unit, the effects on those serving, and the impact on the family back home in the UK. Focusing on the themes of service and separation, this film looks at the work of Claire Davies-Griffith who volunteers as a nurse with 207 Field Hospital but usually works a ... MoreThe Metropolitan's "Remembering September 11" Commemorates 10th Anniversary of 9/11NEW YORK, NY.- "Remembering September 11," a concert by the Wordless Music Orchestra conducted by Ryan McAdams, will commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11 at The Temple of Dendur in The Sackler Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Sunday, September 11, 2011, at 3:30 p.m. The hour-long program is free with Museum admission. "The Museum is offering this concert in remembrance of a day that profoundly affected all of our lives," stated Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum. "The Met has long provided a place for reflection and solace, and on this important anniversary it will do so through the thoughtful works of these contemporary composers, brought to life in moving musical performances." The event is part of a slate of activities on that day at the Museum commemorating the anniversary, including a talk with artist Faith Ringgold about the concurrent exhibition The 9/11 Peace Story Quilt, on ... More China Erects, Then Destroys Japanese Immigrant Memorial BEIJING (REUTERS).- Officials in northeast China demolished a memorial to Japanese immigrants to allay a public outcry over its construction last month, state media said on Monday, a sign of lingering anti-Japanese sentiment in the region once occupied by Japan. The 3.8-meter high memorial wall was emblazoned with the names of 229 Japanese immigrants who were among the thousands settled in Heilongjiang province by Japan's government during its World War Two-era occupation. An official said the memorial to the immigrants who died of hunger following Japan's surrender was a mark of the Chinese people's humanness. But residents in Fangzheng county where the memorial was erected criticized officials for wasting public funds to commemorate invaders, the official English-language China Daily newspaper said. Last week, five men from around China traveled to the province to smash the wall with hammers and splash it with red paint, a public show of anger that led authorities to tear down ... More Princeton University Art Museum Receives Major Andrew W. Mellon Foundation GrantPRINCETON, N.J.- The Princeton University Art Museum has been awarded a major grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that will support development and execution of new strategies of engagement and interpretation for all of the Museum’s collections galleries and study rooms. The $500,000 award will fund, in part, a key new Museum initiative, Activating the Collections, including the establishment of a new position, a Curatorial Fellow for Collections Engagement, who will work with curators, faculty, students, guest scholars, artists and other experts across disciplines to develop and present compelling interpretative approaches and materials. The grant also will establish the Museum Voices Colloquium, which will function as a visual arts think tank in bringing together traditional and non-traditional experts to consider new ways of understanding art of the past and present. “We are delighted to receive ... More New Jersey Fish Seller Turned Art Collector Offers Tips for New CollectorsFLORHAM PARK, N.J.- With artists like Andy Warhol commanding astronomical prices at auction, is it possible for a middle class collector on an budget to get into the art market? The answer, states Fred Parker, the New Jersey man who built an art collection worth millions on a fish seller's wages, is yes. What's more, Fred Parker offers the wisdom he has gained over the years to those who love art but are scared off by the ups and downs of the market. In terms of today's market, says Fred Parker, whose collection includes works by N.C. Wyeth and Norman Rockwell, "The media coverage of big name artists is not representative of the overall picture. When it comes to early 20th Century and 19th Century American and Continental paintings, this is a buyers market." The next tip he offers those who seek his advice, is that prices are at an historic low. Mr. Parker adds that experienced collectors, himself included, are using the opportunities presented by a down market to add to their c ... More |
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