| | Spanish Duchess Gives Up Billions Including Priceless Works of Art to Marry for Love
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Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart y Silva (L), Duchess of Alba, poses in front of Goya's painting 'La Duquesa de Alba de blanco, 1795' ('The Duchess of Alba in white'), depicting her ancestress, during the opening of the exhibition 'Coleccion Casa de Alba' ('House of Alba Collection') at the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville. EPA/JOSE MANUEL VIDAL.
By: Iciar Reinlein
MADRID (REUTERS).- Spain's fabulously rich Duchess of Alba has signed away her enormous wealth, string of palaces, priceless works of art and vast swathes of Spanish real estate to marry for love at 85, Spanish media has reported. Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, a regular subject of gossip in Spain's glossy magazines and said by Guinness World Records to have more titles than any other royal on the planet, wants to marry a humble civil servant 25 years her junior. The duchess has divided her fortune between her six children to convince them that her suitor is besotted with her rather than her money and the kinds of possessions that are considered national treasures, reports said. "Every great love story should end in marriage," the duchess told Vanity Fair magazine in May as she posed in the garden of one of her palaces, explaining why she wanted to make social security worker Alfonso Diez, 60, her third husband. All her children were born to her first husband, engineer Luis Martine ... More |
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| Smithsonian's Archives of American Art Presents "Little Pictures Big Lives" Exhibition | | London-Based Tomma Abts' First Solo Exhibition in the Rhineland On View at Kunsthalle Dusseldorf | | Berlin Exhibit by German Artist Simon Menner Uncovers Once Highly Classified Stasi Photos | 
Jackson Pollock with his dogs Gyp and Ahab, ca. 1955. Photographer unknown. Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner papers, circa 1905-1984. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
WASHINGTON, D.C.- A special view into the intimate lives of “larger than life” people is given in the exhibition “Little Pictures Big Lives: Snapshots from the Archives of American Art.” This exhibit will be on display from July 1 to Oct. 3 in the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery at the Smithsonian’s Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture. Snapshots—thousands of them—are tucked away among the letters, documents and diaries of artists in the Archives of American Art. Most of these images date from the golden age of snapshot photography—the 1920s through the 1960s—when cameras first became widely owned and were used to document all kinds of occasions, both public and private. In today’s digital age of point-and-shoot, instant playback and Photoshop, snapshots evoke an earlier ... More | | 
Tomma Abts, Tys, 2010, Privatsammlung Köln/Private Collection Cologne.
DUSSELDORF.- Born in 1967, German artist Tomma Abts ranks among the outstanding female painters of her generation. She was awarded the Turner Prize in 2006, and her work has featured in solo exhibitions at such renowned institutions as Kunsthalle Basel, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. The show at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf is the London-based artist's first solo exhibition at an institution in the Rhineland, where she is teaching since summer 2010, having taken up a professorship at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. A slow and rigorous production process is a distinguishing feature of Tomma Abts' work. Although she follows a fixed method in her painting, applying purely geometrical shapes to a classic 48 x 38 cm portrait format in layer after layer of oil and acrylic paint, her painting is far removed from serial production. The individuality of each of her pi ... More | | 
Torn up documents are seen at the education center of the Federal Office for the Stasi Archives in Berlin,Germany. EPA/STEPHANIEPILICK.
By: Sarah Marsh
BERLIN (REUTERS).- Spies from former communist East Germany demonstrate the art of disguise by donning fur wigs, fake mustaches and dark glasses in a Berlin exhibition of recently uncovered and once highly classified photographs. German artist Simon Menner, who put together the exhibition "Pictures from the Secret Stasi Archives," said it should show how something that seems harmless, such as these images that could be shots from a spy film spoof, can harbor danger. "These were used during courses on how to dress up and blend into society," the 33 year-old artist said. "They seem pretty absurd now, but it was meant seriously -- this is evil stuff." Menner says he aims to fuel a debate about the problems inherent to the concept of surveillance, using ... More |
| Mystics or Rationalist? Exhibition at Ingleby Gallery Introduces Principles of Conceptual Art | | Pakistani Art Makes U.S. Debut at Asia Society Museum Amid Political Challenges | | Property Highlighting the Colorful Life of Hollywood Star Tony Curtis to be Offered by Julien's Auctions | 
Katie Paterson, Light bulb to Simulate Moonlight 2008. 289 Light bulbs with halogen filament, frosted coloured shell, 28W, 4500 K, crate and logbook, edition of 9.
EDINBURGH.- It is forty years since Sol LeWitt published his famous Sentences: a sequence of 35 statements that defined personal parameters for the making and understanding of conceptual art. Sentence number one provides the title and inspiration for Ingleby Gallery’s exhibition for the 2011 Edinburgh Art Festival and is still a compelling and instructive introduction to the first principles of conceptual art. The exhibition presents the work of nine artists each of whom make work that invites the viewer to make the leap between an idea and an object. In every case the resulting artwork is a thing of grace and intrigue in itself, but always the story of why it exists in the world raises it to yet another level. “The idea” as LeWitt noted, “is the machine that makes the art”. Four mirrored cubes by Jeremy Millar run down the centre of the main gallery, each sitting on a bed of rock salt. M ... More | | 
Vision of a Buddha Paradise. Pakistan. 4th century CE. Light gray schist. H. 46 7/8 x W. 38 3/16 x D. 11 in. (119 x 97 x 28 cm). Lahore Museum, G-155. Photo by Peter Oszvald, © Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn.
By: Paula Rogo
NEW YORK, NY (REUTERS).- An exhibit of rare Buddhist sculptures, architectural reliefs and works of gold and bronze is opening at the Asia Society Museum on Tuesday after a long and tumultuous journey from Pakistan. The works, many of which have never been shown before in the United States, are from the historically rich Gandharan region of Pakistan. They had originally been scheduled to be shown in March but roadblocks, U.S. visa problems for Pakistani officials accompanying the works and a new Pakistani law delayed the opening until this month. "Bringing the show was a major feat," said Melissa Chiu, the director of the Asia Society's Museum. "Within the political ... More | | 
Andy Warhol “Some Like It Hot Shoe” lithograph on paper, circa 1955, watercolor on paper, signed lower right and inscribed “To Tony Curtis,” “The Some Like It Hot Shoe,” “Andy Warhol.” Est. $20,000/$30,000.
BEVERLY HILLS, CA.- Julien’s Auctions, the world’s premier entertainment and celebrity auction house will offer a rare glimpse into the life of one of Hollywood’s most colorful stars, Tony Curtis. The rare Hollywood star whose off-screen character was often more sensational than his on-screen one, lived a life that could be its own movie or television series. Curtis’ career spanned six decades with popularity during the 1950s and 1960s enabling him to transpose his good looks into super movie stardom. He acted in over 100 films ranging from light comedy to serious drama and he also made numerous television appearances. Among Curtis’ most memorable films were 1959’s “Some Like It Hot,” 1960’s “Spartacus,” 1953’s “Houdini,” 1952’s “Son of Ali Baba”, 1957’s “Sweet Smell of Success,” 1965’s The Great Race ... More |
| Half Century After It was Built, Berlin Wall Makes a Big Comeback for Tourists | | Our Magic Hour: How Much of the World Can We Know? at the Yokohama Triennale | | Museo De Arte De Ponce Awarded Grant For Innovative Preservation of Three-Dimensional Works | 
Parts of the Berlin Wall stand on a site in Teltow, Germany. EPA/BERND SETTNIK.
By: Erik Kirschbaum
BERLIN (REUTERS).- The Berlin Wall is making a comeback. A half century after it was built and two decades after its demise, a few bits of the Wall that once split Berlin into East and West are being reinstated for posterity to the delight of tourists seeking a glimpse of the city's Cold War history. Almost all of the 160 km (100 miles) of Berlin Wall that encircled West Berlin in the heart of Communist East Germany was hastily torn down or chiseled away in the euphoria after it was breached in 1989. There were only a few withered remnants of the wall left by the time the two Germanys reunited less than a year later on October 3, 1990. Only three of the 302 ominous East German guard towers still stood. "There's a general complaint that the demolition of the Wall was a bit too extensive," said Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit. "That's understandable from today's point of view and it would have probably ... More | | 
Carsten Nicolai, autoR, 2010. Photo: René Zieger. Courtesy Galerie EIGEN + ART, Leipzig/Berlin and The Pace Gallery.
YOKOHAMA.- This yearʼs fourth edition of the Triennale has been designated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs as an incubator project for International Arts Festivals in Japan. The Yokohama Triennale 2011 is therefore poised to carry on the tradition and history of this festival as a project on a national scale. Some of the unique features of this yearʼs Triennale. One of the main venues for the exhibition, with its theme “OUR MAGIC HOUR–How Much of the World Can We Know?”, is the Yokohama Museum of Art. The Museum possesses rich holdings of art dating from the latter half of the 19th century, in addition to a rare and valuable photography collection that befits Yokohamaʼs status as the birthplace of Japanese photography. I have been wanting to make use of this prominent arts institution as a key venue for the Triennale for some time, and I am delighted to be able to say that we have s ... More | | 
A high-density mobile storage unit will store and protect the museums collection of 1,259 three-dimensional art works.
PONCE.- The National Endowment for the Humanities, under its “Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections” program, has approved the Museo de Arte de Ponce’s proposal for the purchase and installation of a high-density mobile storage unit that will store and protect the museums collection of 1,259 three-dimensional art works. The grant is in the amount of $149,800. The Museo de Arte de Ponce, the only institution in Puerto Rico to receive a grant of this kind this year, thus moves to the vanguard in archival systems for three-dimensional objects. This system allows deposit space to be maximized while at the same time offering greater protection against natural phenomena such as earthquakes, since the unit immediately seals itself and thus helps prevent objects from falling and breaking. The museums extensive collection of 1,259 three-dimensional art works includes pieces in wood, ceramics, ... More |
| Thai Filmmaker and 2010 Cannes Palme d'Or Prize Winner Showing at IMMA | | Lou Gehrig Collection Brings Nearly $1 Million to Fuel Record-Setting $4.95+ Million Heritage Sports Auction | | Los Angeles Children's Hospital Gets a Dozen Sketches Drawn and Signed by Michael Jackson | 
Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul attends a press conference after he received the Golden Palm award for his movie "Uncle Boonmee who can recall his past lives" during the 63rd Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, 23 May 2010. EPA/GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO.
DUBLIN.- The Irish Museum of Modern Art is presenting the first Irish exhibition by the internationally acclaimed Thai artist and film-maker Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Opening to the public on Wednesday, 27 July 2011, For Tomorrow For Tonight features new work that explores the theme of night through video, photographs and installation. Weerasethakul is the winner of the prestigious 2010 Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or prize for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. He is the director of Tropical Malady, winner of a jury prize at Cannes and Blissfully Yours, winner of the top prize in the Un Certain Regard program at Cannes in 2002; and at the 63rd ... More | | 
The lead lot of the group was Gehrig's previously-unknown 1934 Tour of Japan game worn uniform, which realized $507,875.
DALLAS, TX.- A grouping of six items, known as The Lou Gehrig Collection, brought to auction by the son of a woman who was left the trove by Gehrig's mother, Christina, brought almost $1 million altogether as the emotional centerpiece of Heritage Auctions' Aug. 4 Signature(r) Vintage Sports Collectibles Platinum Auction. The lead lot of the group was Gehrig's previously-unknown 1934 Tour of Japan game worn uniform, which realized $507,875. All prices include 19.5% Buyer's Premium. "The chances of a group of material like this, so intimately related to one of the greatest sportsmen to ever live, turning up together all at once," said Chris Ivy, Director of Sports Auctions at Heritage, "is akin in the sports collecting world to finding a stack of Picasso paintings in the art world."Overall, the ... More | | 
Members of the Jackson family, left to right, Blanket Jackson, Prince Jackson and Paris Jackson. AP Photo/Nick Ut.
LOS ANGELES, CA (AP).- Sketches by Michael Jackson as well as a signed portrait of the entertainer will decorate the walls of Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Jackson's three children — Prince, Paris and Blanket — were on hand Monday to unveil the donated artwork. They include a dozen sketches drawn and signed by Jackson and a photographed portrait of him. The works depicting Mickey Mouse, furniture and other objects were donated by Brett Livingstone-Strong, an artist and friend of Jackson's. Former "Entertainment Tonight" host Mary Hart, a hospital trustee, arranged the donation. She says the sketches show a different side of Jackson. The singer's sister, La Toya Jackson, says she believes the art will bring joy to children at the hospital. ... More |
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 Aspen Art Museum's ArtCrush Raises Record-Breaking $1.7 Million ASPEN, CO.- On Friday, August 5, 2011, the Aspen Art Museum hosted its seventh annual ArtCrush summer benefit, raising an all time best of $1.7 million in support of the museum’s contemporary art programming. ArtCrush honoree and recipient of the AAM’s 2011 Aspen Award for Art Roni Horn was celebrated as guests from New York to LA and beyond witnessed the artist’s Clowd and Cloun (Gray) (2000/2001) auction for a record-breaking $420K—the highest raised by a single work of art in the 7-year history of the ArtCrush benefit. Other results from the evening’s live auction conducted by Sotheby’s Deputy Chairman, Principal Auctioneer and Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art Tobias Meyer, included Rashid Johnson’s Alternator (2011) sold at $52K; Julian Opie’s Christine Swimming (2003) at $42K; Damián Ortega’s Supermodernismo IV (2009) at $63K; James Surls’s Stem Cells 1 (2011) a ... More Unabomber Auction's $232K Proceeds Paid to Victims SACRAMENTO, CA (AP).- A federal judge in Sacramento has approved the payment of $232,000 to the victims and survivors of Theodore Kaczynski, a sum raised through a court-ordered auction of the Unabomber's tools and other possessions. The Sacramento Bee reported Monday that U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell last week ordered the funds dispersed among two widows of men killed by Kaczynski, the wife of a man severely injured and an injured computer store worker. The U.S. Marshals Service and the General Services Administration conducted the online auction of Kaczynski's typewriter, sweat shirt and other belongings in June. Most of the money went to the widow of New Jersey advertising executive Thomas Mosser. Kaczynski pleaded guilty in 1994 to killing three people and injuring 23 with a bomb-planting spree that spanned nearly two decades. He is serving a life sentence ... More Mellon Foundation Grant to Fund Yearlong Celebration of Landmark Ballet Score CHAPEL HILL, NC.- Creating and presenting new works by and for internationally renowned artists – including Bill T. Jones, Anne Bogart, Magdalena Kožená, Yefim Bronfman and Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble – will be part of Carolina Performing Arts’ (CPA) 2012-13 celebration of a landmark ballet. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in New York has awarded CPA, the performing arts presenter at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a $750,000 grant for the classical music portion of “The Rite of Spring at 100,” a project marking the centennial of the 1913 Paris premiere of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.” CPA has asked artists to re-imagine “The Rite of Spring” and commissioned 12 new works by 20 choreographers, composers, directors and visual artists, many in collaboration. Their own ... More Stephen Sutcliffe Presents Major New Exhibition Commissioned by Stills in Edinburgh EDINBURGH.- Stephen Sutcliffe mines cultural history of the last fifty years, pulling out the awkwardness of the archives of culture with a tender heart. Obsessively cutting statements from literature, theatre, film and television, the artist hoards material to re-present it in juddering, cut-up videos that shine with the brightness of glimpsed moments caught unexpectedly on a late night television. Runaway, Success is a major new exhibition commission by Stills, curated by Lisa Le Feuvre, on the occasion of the 2011 Edinburgh Arts Festival. New work by the artist is shown alongside ten of his videos made over the last eight years and, invited by Sutcliffe, a selection of rarely seen, but much referenced, films by the American filmmaker Gary Conklin. This Festival exhibition launches a new Stills exhibition programme strand where artists are commissioned to both make a new work and to invite points of reference i ... MoreWorkers Cut Gettysburg Oak, Find Civil War BulletsGETTYSBURG (AP).- Workers cutting up a fallen tree at Gettysburg National Military Park came across some Civil War artifacts when their chain saw struck bullets buried in the tree trunk. The bullets were discovered last week while a crew was cutting through the oak tree on Culp's Hill, the site of intense fighting on July 2-3, 1863, Park Superintendent Bob Kirby said Tuesday. It was common to find bullets there 100 years ago, but such discoveries are a rarity these days, Kirby said. Two sections of the tree's trunk were removed and will be treated to clean out insects and mold before they will be added to the park's museum collection, officials said. The tree was estimated to have been about a century old at the time of the battle, meaning it was about 250 years old when it fell recently, park spokeswoman Katie Lawhon said. She said there are at least two visible bullets. One appears to be a Minie ball, a type of ammunition used extensively during the Civil War. ... More Japanese and Italian Motorcycles Join the Line Up at Bonhams Stafford AuctionSTAFFORD.- A wonderful selection of classic Italian and Japanese motorcycles are among the highlights of Bonhams annual sale at the Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show in Stafford on 16th October 2011. The 1979 Ducati 864cc Mike Hailwood Replica in the auction is offered for sale by its original owner and has covered fewer than 23,000 miles from new. A landmark model that kept Ducati afloat during the 1980s, the Hailwood Replica owes its existence to Mike’s legendary Isle of Man TT comeback victory in the 1978 Production Race riding an ex-works NCR bike entered and prepared by Manchester-based Ducati dealer, Sports Motor Cycles. Unrestored, the Ducati comes with full history from new (estimate £7,000 – 10,000). Another Italian thoroughbred, but even rarer, the 250cc Villa V4 on offer is a faithful replica of Francesco Villa’s doomed Grand Prix racer of 1969, which was rendered obsolete by the FIM’s rule chan ... More UK Rhino Horn Heist Highlights EU-Wide Crime TrendLONDON (REUTERS).- Wedged between a woolly mammoth and a giraffe, Rosie the stuffed rhino may seem an unlikely target for crime. But, like the fate that threatens many of her living relatives, the 100-year-old creature has had her horn stolen in a wave of rhino horn heists that is spreading across Europe. Thieves broke into the Ipswich Museum in Essex, a southern English county, just after midnight and took off with Rosie's horn and a black rhino skull displayed nearby. "They wrenched the horn off Rosie - it probably only took them five minutes to take it and leave. They knew exactly what they wanted, and nothing was else was taken," Max Stocker at Ipswich Council told Reuters. Thefts of rhino horns, highly prized in the Far East for their decorative and purported medicinal purposes, have been reported by museums across Britain and Europe. Many of the thefts are the work of an organised crime group who are diversifying ... More |
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