Sunday, October 16, 2011
NAGPRA Changes Effective May 14, 2011
Stolen Art October 2011
1. PARIS - Los Angeles Times October 9, 2011, 8:11 p.m.
Reporting from Paris— A man suspected of hiding precious artwork stolen from the Paris Museum of Modern Art last year claims that in a panic, he
threw the paintings into the garbage. Picasso, Braque, Modigliani, Matisse and Leger paintings stolen in May 2010, and worth about $134 million, may have
been dumped in a garbage bin on a Paris street and destroyed with the rest of that day's trash, according to testimony by one of three suspects connected to the theft. The suspect, a 34-
year-old watch repairman, was identified only as Jonathan B. by the French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche. The paper broke the detailed story on the investigation Sunday.
The other suspects include a 56-year-old antique shop owner, who is accused of commissioning the break-in, and a 43-year-old Serb with the nickname "Spiderman," for allegedly scaling the walls of upscale Paris apartment buildings in search of pricey artwork and other valuables. The Serb is suspected of making off with the five paintings in the early morning of May 20, 2010. According to the Journal report, he said after being detained by police that once inside the museum he intended to take only one painting, by Fernand Leger, "Still Life With Candlestick." But the museum's
alarm didn't sound when the art was removed from the wall, so he wandered around the national museum for more than an hour, helping himself to four
more masterpieces, before driving away in a car parked nearby. Despite several security cameras, three night watchmen didn't notice the masked intruder.
The incident spurred French museums to reevaluate their security systems, amid an uproar after the revelation that the alarm had been out of order for
more than a month before the theft.The case started to crack when the Serb and the antique shop owner were detained by France's special police bandit brigade in May in connection with
other suspected crimes. The Associated Press reported that a third suspect, Jonathan B., was also questioned, but later released. After that brush with authorities he reportedly panicked and trashed the
irreplaceable works of art, Picasso's "Dove With Green Peas," Matisse's "Pastoral," Braque's "The Olive Tree Near Estaque," Modigliani's "Woman With a Fan" and the Leger still life.
The shop owner denies ordering the theft but reportedly admitted that the stolen works were delivered to him, and that he gave them to Jonathan B., whom French reports describe as an expert Parisian watch repairman. The three were questioned and then arrested in mid-September in connection with the museum theft. Investigators are not ruling out the possibility that the paintings may still be recovered.
2. Washington Post - Stolen Confederate regimental flag found By Linda Wheeler The original, battle-worn flag of the 14th Louisiana Infantry Regiment that was stolen from a New Orleans museum 30 years ago will soon be heading home. The flag was found at the home of a Civil War collector in Caroline County, Va., after a tipster’s information reached the FBI's Art Crime Team. According to
the FBI, the man had purchased it in 2004 not knowing it was stolen, and cooperated fully with agents when they contacted him. Agents from the Fredericksburg office of the FBI yesterday handed the
framed flag over to officials at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond who will see that the fragile flag gets back to the Louisiana's Civil War Museum at Confederate Hall in New Orleans.
During the war, the flag was flown in the Virginia battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Spotsyvania Comurthouse, North Anna and Winchester, and other places. The FBI’s national art crime team was formed in 2004 and has recovered more than 2,600 items valued at over $142 million, according to its website . The FBI maintains a national stolen art file online.
3. HOUSTON, TX.- After more than two decades in Houston, the beloved Byzantine frescoes will go back to Cyprus in 2012. While this moment is bittersweet, the story of these frescoes—from their rescue, to their long-term loan to the Menil, and now to their return—very much reflects the essence of the Menil Collection, its focus on the aesthetic and the spiritual, and our responsible stewardship of works from other nations and cultures. In 1983, Dominique de Menil, founder of the Menil Collection, was presented with an extraordinary prospect: to acquire two 13th century frescoes from Cyprus. Mrs. de Menil was struck by their beauty and understood immediately their art historical significance. However, after further research Mrs. de Menil learned that the frescoes had been stolen from their home in a small votive chapel in Lysi, Cyprus. That knowledge led to an act of extraordinary generosity—in fact, a series of generous actions that eventually engaged many other people. First, the frescoes were acquired by the Menil Collection on behalf of the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus. Then, the Menil Foundation supervised the restoration of the frescoes, which had been cut into more than 30 pieces when they were stolen. In gratitude, the Church lent the frescoes to the Menil on a long-term basis, for presentation in a consecrated chapel in Houston. The Byzantine Fresco Chapel opened to the public in 1997, with support for its construction provided by donors in Houston and across the country. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have seen the frescoes and experienced the majesty of Cypriot Byzantine art and religion. Moreover, the
Menil is exploring how best to use it in the future, in ways that carry forward the museum's mission.
4. BALTIMORE (AP).- A presidential historian charged with conspiring to steal documents from U.S. archives — including papers signed by Abraham Lincoln — is seeking court permission to sell an Andy Warhol print, other artworks and inaugural medals to cover his living expenses. Barry Landau, 63, needs cash to pay the $2,700 rent on his New York City apartment, health insurance, food and other expenses, according to a motion filed Friday in U.S. District Court by attorney Andrew White. Landau's terms of release require the court's permission before he can sell or dispose of any assets. Prosecutors expect to file a response to Landau's request soon, but had no immediate comment on the request, U.S. Attorney's Office spokeswoman Marcia Murphy said Monday. Landau and his 24-year-old assistant, Jason Savedoff, are charged with
stealing valuable historical documents from the Maryland Historical Society and conspiring to steal documents from other archives. Both have pleaded not guilty. About 60 of the documents involved in the case were from the Maryland Historical Society, including papers signed by Lincoln worth $300,000 and presidential inaugural ball invitations and programs worth $500,000. Other documents were from the Connecticut Historical Society, Vassar College and the National Archives, according to prosecutors. The men were indicted by a federal grand jury in late July. State prosecutors elected to not pursue theft charges the pair faced in Maryland after they were indicted in federal court. Landau has been allowed to return to his Manhattan apartment with GPS monitoring. Savedoff, who surrendered his American and Canadian passports, was released on $250,000 cash bail to his mother's custody and is staying in a Baltimore-area apartment. White writes in the motion filed last week that Landau may not have much cash to pay his living expenses, but does have items of value that can be sold. "These items were not seized by the FBI in the multiple searches of the defendant's apartment and are unquestionably not related to the charges now
pending in this case," White said. "The defendant seeks to liquidate these items because he is now without funds necessary to pay his everyday expenses." The attorney said the Warhol print "Liz," which depicts the late actress Elizabeth Taylor and was a gift from the artist, is the only piece of significant value that Landau is seeking to sell. An expert has valued it at $40,000 to $60,000, he said. Other items include artworks by Salvador Dali, Francesco Scavullo, Victor Vaserely and LeRoy Neiman, with the Scavullo and Vasarely works each worth about $5,000, White added. The other items Landau is seeking to sell include presidential inaugural medals he has collected since 1961 and political china such as commemorative plates and figurines that were mostly gifts he received since the 1960s. He also seeks permission to sell coin sets, glass vases he inherited from his mother, jewelry and a collection of letters, photographs and books addressed and inscribed to Landau from political, theatrical and Hollywood figures. White suggests that a New York attorney who has been helping with the case handle most of the sales and Christie's auction house handle the sale of the Warhol "Liz" print through a private commission sale or a commissioned
auction. Prosecutors have alleged that the historian used different routines to distract librarians and had sport jackets and overcoats altered to allow him to stash documents inside large pockets. They allege that the men had about 80 documents when they were arrested in the historical society's library in Baltimore in July. Searches of Landau's apartment in July turned up thousands of documents. Prosecutors said in early August that National Archives workers had already determined that 200 documents belong to institutions, including Swarthmore College, the Smithsonian Institution, Yale University, Columbia University, the New York Public Library, Vassar College, Cambridge University, the University of Vermont and the Library of Congress.
5. ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) - Looters stormed Ivory Coast's national museum during the country's bloody political crisis earlier this year, plundering nearly $8.5 million worth of art including the institution's entire gold collection. Five months later, the museum's gates still open and close at the posted hours, but empty display cases gather dust. A lone set of elephant tusks sits in the dark in the museum's main exposition room. And staff member Oumar Gbane now spends his days making a handwritten inventory of what was stolen since his computer was among the items taken. "No tourists can come here. There is nothing to see," he laments. The pillage was the first in the museum's 70-year history. Doran Ross, former director of the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles, says the Abidjan museum used to be "one of the best maintained in Africa." Student groups and tourists once filled the museum's halls to view the corpse-like Senoufo statues depicting armless ghosts of ancestors and the dark
wooden Baoule masks with elongated eyes and narrow mouths.They saw delicate Akan pendants abstractly depicting animals in shiny gold, sacred Yohoure masks of antelopes with a human faces, and Baoule chest ornaments made of beads and golden disks etched with images of fish and crocodiles.Ivorian artist and author Veronique Tadjo, who resides in South Africa, says the collection reflected "the various areas (of the country) that now need to reconcile.""Young people will be deprived of these treasures that are part of our identity- what makes us proud, what makes us a nation," Tadjo says. Museum director Silvie Memel Kassi says the thieves knew which pieces to take: The 17th century gold was stolen but less valuable pieces were not even touched. In normal times, the museum property seems cut off from the billowing
exhaust fumes and endless blocks of high rises outside. Stepping inside the museum walls, one enters a verdant place where tropical hardwoods, palm and banana trees flourish undisturbed.
During the violence, snipers made the property their own sanctuary, using the rooftop of the museum to stage attacks. Many of the bullet-shattered windows in towers across the street have not been replaced yet. When it rains, water leaks through bullet holes in the building's rusted metal roof. In November, former president Laurent Gbagbo refused to leave office following a contested election, and five months later the country was on the brink of civil war. Members of the military, militia men and residents picked up arms in Abidjan. On March 30, the ongoing violence that followed the election intensified around
the museum, Gbane says. Museum workers went home not knowing they wouldn't return for weeks. Like most residents of the city, they locked themselves inside their homes, unable to leave except for perilous trips to find food. No one was there to guard the museum. It was not a safe place to be, situated between the military headquarters and government buildings. When Gbane returned on April 18, he found the thick cement walls were punctured on the front of the building and there was a pile of rubble on the museum's entrance. After the looting Kassi contacted Interpol, and Ivorian customs officials have been ordered to watch for the plundered objects, Kassi says. But Ivory Coast's borders are porous and the pieces could be easily smuggled into neighboring countries without detection. Museum pillages have been a byproduct of war for centuries. In 2003, looters in Iraq plundered 15,000 priceless artifacts that dated from the Stone Age and Babylon to the Assyrians. Afghanistan's museums have been systematically stripped of ancient artifacts for decades. Often stolen art is only discovered when the thieves try to sell the pieces to museums or art collectors, says Ross, the art historian. One danger is the gold could be melted down and disguised. Kassi thinks the thieves are too smart to do such a thing. "It doesn't have the same value. They know," she says. Ross says the gold itself has low karat values and would not even be worth much melted down.
"The real value of the work is the artistic quality," he says. "This is a major loss, not just for Ivory Coast or Africa but for a much larger world," says Ross.
6. Art Theft Central Cairo - The Curse of the Pharaohs
Posted: 22 Sep 2011 11:01 AM PDT
While Egypt's Tourism and Antiquities police continue to break up illicit antiquities smuggling rings and while its Retrieved Antiquities Department at the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) continues to recover objects from foreign states, it appears that the SCA is still experiencing personnel issues since former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass's protracted departure this past summer. Ahram Online reports that Hawass's successor, Mohamed Abdel Fatah, has resigned due to limited authority and inability to put into effect any of his decisions without the approval of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf. According to another Ahram Online article, demonstrators in front of the SCA premises continue to protest asking "for the council to be returned to being the Ministry of State for Antiquities, for salary raises, and the appointment of new graduate archaeologists." As Secretary General of the SCA from 2002-2010 Zahi Hawass had extensive control over the preservation, protection, conservation, and recovery of Egyptian cultural heritage. It has been said by a few sources that Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud had no decision making power when he served as interm Secretary General before Fatah's appointment. Why has Fatah not received power as broad as Hawass's? Certainly, in light of the past few decades of Mubarak rule, the Egyptian government and people must be fearful of granting such sweeping power to any single official. However, for how long will this national paranoia delay or prevent recovery programs, foreign archaeological excavation missions, and traveling exhibitions?
7. U.S. Attorney’s Office September 15, 2011
Central District of California(213) 894-2434
FBI - LOS ANGELES—A Florida man was arrested this morning pursuant to a federal indictment that alleges he sold paintings stolen from a Los Angeles art gallery, and that he had sold forged artworks to a collector with false claims that they had been painted by esteemed artists. Matthew Taylor, 43, of Vero Beach, Florida, was arrested without incident this morning by special agents with the FBI. Taylor, who formerly worked as an art dealer, is expected to make his initial court appearance this afternoon in United States District Court in Fort Pierce, Florida. A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted Taylor last week on seven felony charges related to art theft and a long-running fraud that targeted a Los Angeles art collector. The indictment charges Taylor with defrauding the art collector victim out of millions of dollars by selling him forged art works. Taylor allegedly sold the collector more than 100 paintings—including paintings that he falsely claimed were by artists such as Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Jackson Pollock, and
Mark Rothko—for a total of more than $2 million. The indictment alleges that Taylor altered paintings from unknown artists to make them appear to be the products of famous artists, and then sold the bogus artwork to the victim at prices exponentially higher than their actual worth. To conceal the true nature of the paintings, Taylor allegedly put forged on the paintings and painted over or otherwise concealed signatures from the actual artists. The indictment also alleges that Taylor created and put onto the paintings fake labels which falsely represented that the artworks were once part of prestigious art collections at famous museums, including those of the Museum of Modern Art in the New York and the Guggenheim Museum. Regarding the alleged art heists, the indictment accuses Taylor of stealing a Granville Redmond painting called “Seascape at Twilight” from a gallery in Los Angeles. Taylor later sold that painting to a different gallery for $85,000, falsely claiming that his mother had owned it for several years. The indictment
also alleges that Taylor stole a separate artwork—a painting by Lucien Frank titled “Park Scene, Paris”—from the same gallery in Los Angeles. Taylor was seen several years later in possession of the stolen Lucien Frank painting at a gallery in Vero Beach. The indictment further alleges that Taylor laundered and transferred across state lines some of the proceeds from his fraud on the collector victim specifically, $105,000 that Taylor had taken from the victim by selling him four forged paintings in September 2006. An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in court. The indictment charges Taylor with three counts of wire fraud, two counts of money laundering, one count of interstate transportation of stolen property and one count of possession of stolen property. The mail fraud charges each carry a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, and the remaining counts each carry a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years.
Therefore, if he is convicted of all seven counts in the indictment, Taylor faces a maximum possible sentence of 100 years in federal prison. Based on evidence collected throughout this case, investigators believe there are additional victims of art fraud related to Taylor’s activities. Individuals who purchased art from Taylor and believe they may have been defrauded should contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Los Angeles at (310) 477-6565 or the Los Angeles Police Department’s Art Theft Detail at (213) 486-6940.
The ongoing investigation into Taylor is being conducted by the FBI’s Art Crime Team, the Los Angeles Police Department’s Art Theft Detail, and IRS - Criminal Investigation.
CONTACT:
Assistant United States Attorney James A. Bowman
Major Frauds Section
(213) 894-2213
Assistant United States Attorney Heather C. Gorman
General Crimes Section
(213) 894-0334
Reporting from Paris— A man suspected of hiding precious artwork stolen from the Paris Museum of Modern Art last year claims that in a panic, he
been dumped in a garbage bin on a Paris street and destroyed with the rest of that day's trash, according to testimony by one of three suspects connected to the theft. The suspect, a 34-
year-old watch repairman, was identified only as Jonathan B. by the French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche. The paper broke the detailed story on the investigation Sunday.
The other suspects include a 56-year-old antique shop owner, who is accused of commissioning the break-in, and a 43-year-old Serb with the nickname "Spiderman," for allegedly scaling the walls of upscale Paris apartment buildings in search of pricey artwork and other valuables. The Serb is suspected of making off with the five paintings in the early morning of May 20, 2010. According to the Journal report, he said after being detained by police that once inside the museum he intended to take only one painting, by Fernand Leger, "Still Life With Candlestick." But the museum's
alarm didn't sound when the art was removed from the wall, so he wandered around the national museum for more than an hour, helping himself to four
more masterpieces, before driving away in a car parked nearby. Despite several security cameras, three night watchmen didn't notice the masked intruder.
The incident spurred French museums to reevaluate their security systems, amid an uproar after the revelation that the alarm had been out of order for
more than a month before the theft.The case started to crack when the Serb and the antique shop owner were detained by France's special police bandit brigade in May in connection with
other suspected crimes. The Associated Press reported that a third suspect, Jonathan B., was also questioned, but later released. After that brush with authorities he reportedly panicked and trashed the
irreplaceable works of art, Picasso's "Dove With Green Peas," Matisse's "Pastoral," Braque's "The Olive Tree Near Estaque," Modigliani's "Woman With a Fan" and the Leger still life.
The shop owner denies ordering the theft but reportedly admitted that the stolen works were delivered to him, and that he gave them to Jonathan B., whom French reports describe as an expert Parisian watch repairman. The three were questioned and then arrested in mid-September in connection with the museum theft. Investigators are not ruling out the possibility that the paintings may still be recovered.
2. Washington Post - Stolen Confederate regimental flag found By Linda Wheeler The original, battle-worn flag of the 14th Louisiana Infantry Regiment that was stolen from a New Orleans museum 30 years ago will soon be heading home. The flag was found at the home of a Civil War collector in Caroline County, Va., after a tipster’s information reached the FBI's Art Crime Team. According to
the FBI, the man had purchased it in 2004 not knowing it was stolen, and cooperated fully with agents when they contacted him. Agents from the Fredericksburg office of the FBI yesterday handed the
During the war, the flag was flown in the Virginia battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Spotsyvania Comurthouse, North Anna and Winchester, and other places. The FBI’s national art crime team was formed in 2004 and has recovered more than 2,600 items valued at over $142 million, according to its website . The FBI maintains a national stolen art file online.
3. HOUSTON, TX.- After more than two decades in Houston, the beloved Byzantine frescoes will go back to Cyprus in 2012. While this moment is bittersweet, the story of these frescoes—from their rescue, to their long-term loan to the Menil, and now to their return—very much reflects the essence of the Menil Collection, its focus on the aesthetic and the spiritual, and our responsible stewardship of works from other nations and cultures. In 1983, Dominique de Menil, founder of the Menil Collection, was presented with an extraordinary prospect: to acquire two 13th century frescoes from Cyprus. Mrs. de Menil was struck by their beauty and understood immediately their art historical significance. However, after further research Mrs. de Menil learned that the frescoes had been stolen from their home in a small votive chapel in Lysi, Cyprus. That knowledge led to an act of extraordinary generosity—in fact, a series of generous actions that eventually engaged many other people. First, the frescoes were acquired by the Menil Collection on behalf of the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus. Then, the Menil Foundation supervised the restoration of the frescoes, which had been cut into more than 30 pieces when they were stolen. In gratitude, the Church lent the frescoes to the Menil on a long-term basis, for presentation in a consecrated chapel in Houston. The Byzantine Fresco Chapel opened to the public in 1997, with support for its construction provided by donors in Houston and across the country. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have seen the frescoes and experienced the majesty of Cypriot Byzantine art and religion. Moreover, the
Menil is exploring how best to use it in the future, in ways that carry forward the museum's mission.4. BALTIMORE (AP).- A presidential historian charged with conspiring to steal documents from U.S. archives — including papers signed by Abraham Lincoln — is seeking court permission to sell an Andy Warhol print, other artworks and inaugural medals to cover his living expenses. Barry Landau, 63, needs cash to pay the $2,700 rent on his New York City apartment, health insurance, food and other expenses, according to a motion filed Friday in U.S. District Court by attorney Andrew White. Landau's terms of release require the court's permission before he can sell or dispose of any assets. Prosecutors expect to file a response to Landau's request soon, but had no immediate comment on the request, U.S. Attorney's Office spokeswoman Marcia Murphy said Monday. Landau and his 24-year-old assistant, Jason Savedoff, are charged with
pending in this case," White said. "The defendant seeks to liquidate these items because he is now without funds necessary to pay his everyday expenses." The attorney said the Warhol print "Liz," which depicts the late actress Elizabeth Taylor and was a gift from the artist, is the only piece of significant value that Landau is seeking to sell. An expert has valued it at $40,000 to $60,000, he said. Other items include artworks by Salvador Dali, Francesco Scavullo, Victor Vaserely and LeRoy Neiman, with the Scavullo and Vasarely works each worth about $5,000, White added. The other items Landau is seeking to sell include presidential inaugural medals he has collected since 1961 and political china such as commemorative plates and figurines that were mostly gifts he received since the 1960s. He also seeks permission to sell coin sets, glass vases he inherited from his mother, jewelry and a collection of letters, photographs and books addressed and inscribed to Landau from political, theatrical and Hollywood figures. White suggests that a New York attorney who has been helping with the case handle most of the sales and Christie's auction house handle the sale of the Warhol "Liz" print through a private commission sale or a commissioned
auction. Prosecutors have alleged that the historian used different routines to distract librarians and had sport jackets and overcoats altered to allow him to stash documents inside large pockets. They allege that the men had about 80 documents when they were arrested in the historical society's library in Baltimore in July. Searches of Landau's apartment in July turned up thousands of documents. Prosecutors said in early August that National Archives workers had already determined that 200 documents belong to institutions, including Swarthmore College, the Smithsonian Institution, Yale University, Columbia University, the New York Public Library, Vassar College, Cambridge University, the University of Vermont and the Library of Congress.
5. ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) - Looters stormed Ivory Coast's national museum during the country's bloody political crisis earlier this year, plundering nearly $8.5 million worth of art including the institution's entire gold collection. Five months later, the museum's gates still open and close at the posted hours, but empty display cases gather dust. A lone set of elephant tusks sits in the dark in the museum's main exposition room. And staff member Oumar Gbane now spends his days making a handwritten inventory of what was stolen since his computer was among the items taken. "No tourists can come here. There is nothing to see," he laments. The pillage was the first in the museum's 70-year history. Doran Ross, former director of the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles, says the Abidjan museum used to be "one of the best maintained in Africa." Student groups and tourists once filled the museum's halls to view the corpse-like Senoufo statues depicting armless ghosts of ancestors and the dark
exhaust fumes and endless blocks of high rises outside. Stepping inside the museum walls, one enters a verdant place where tropical hardwoods, palm and banana trees flourish undisturbed.
During the violence, snipers made the property their own sanctuary, using the rooftop of the museum to stage attacks. Many of the bullet-shattered windows in towers across the street have not been replaced yet. When it rains, water leaks through bullet holes in the building's rusted metal roof. In November, former president Laurent Gbagbo refused to leave office following a contested election, and five months later the country was on the brink of civil war. Members of the military, militia men and residents picked up arms in Abidjan. On March 30, the ongoing violence that followed the election intensified around
the museum, Gbane says. Museum workers went home not knowing they wouldn't return for weeks. Like most residents of the city, they locked themselves inside their homes, unable to leave except for perilous trips to find food. No one was there to guard the museum. It was not a safe place to be, situated between the military headquarters and government buildings. When Gbane returned on April 18, he found the thick cement walls were punctured on the front of the building and there was a pile of rubble on the museum's entrance. After the looting Kassi contacted Interpol, and Ivorian customs officials have been ordered to watch for the plundered objects, Kassi says. But Ivory Coast's borders are porous and the pieces could be easily smuggled into neighboring countries without detection. Museum pillages have been a byproduct of war for centuries. In 2003, looters in Iraq plundered 15,000 priceless artifacts that dated from the Stone Age and Babylon to the Assyrians. Afghanistan's museums have been systematically stripped of ancient artifacts for decades. Often stolen art is only discovered when the thieves try to sell the pieces to museums or art collectors, says Ross, the art historian. One danger is the gold could be melted down and disguised. Kassi thinks the thieves are too smart to do such a thing. "It doesn't have the same value. They know," she says. Ross says the gold itself has low karat values and would not even be worth much melted down.
"The real value of the work is the artistic quality," he says. "This is a major loss, not just for Ivory Coast or Africa but for a much larger world," says Ross.
6. Art Theft Central Cairo - The Curse of the Pharaohs
Posted: 22 Sep 2011 11:01 AM PDT
While Egypt's Tourism and Antiquities police continue to break up illicit antiquities smuggling rings and while its Retrieved Antiquities Department at the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) continues to recover objects from foreign states, it appears that the SCA is still experiencing personnel issues since former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass's protracted departure this past summer. Ahram Online reports that Hawass's successor, Mohamed Abdel Fatah, has resigned due to limited authority and inability to put into effect any of his decisions without the approval of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf. According to another Ahram Online article, demonstrators in front of the SCA premises continue to protest asking "for the council to be returned to being the Ministry of State for Antiquities, for salary raises, and the appointment of new graduate archaeologists." As Secretary General of the SCA from 2002-2010 Zahi Hawass had extensive control over the preservation, protection, conservation, and recovery of Egyptian cultural heritage. It has been said by a few sources that Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud had no decision making power when he served as interm Secretary General before Fatah's appointment. Why has Fatah not received power as broad as Hawass's? Certainly, in light of the past few decades of Mubarak rule, the Egyptian government and people must be fearful of granting such sweeping power to any single official. However, for how long will this national paranoia delay or prevent recovery programs, foreign archaeological excavation missions, and traveling exhibitions?7. U.S. Attorney’s Office September 15, 2011
Central District of California(213) 894-2434
FBI - LOS ANGELES—A Florida man was arrested this morning pursuant to a federal indictment that alleges he sold paintings stolen from a Los Angeles art gallery, and that he had sold forged artworks to a collector with false claims that they had been painted by esteemed artists. Matthew Taylor, 43, of Vero Beach, Florida, was arrested without incident this morning by special agents with the FBI. Taylor, who formerly worked as an art dealer, is expected to make his initial court appearance this afternoon in United States District Court in Fort Pierce, Florida. A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted Taylor last week on seven felony charges related to art theft and a long-running fraud that targeted a Los Angeles art collector. The indictment charges Taylor with defrauding the art collector victim out of millions of dollars by selling him forged art works. Taylor allegedly sold the collector more than 100 paintings—including paintings that he falsely claimed were by artists such as Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Jackson Pollock, and
also alleges that Taylor stole a separate artwork—a painting by Lucien Frank titled “Park Scene, Paris”—from the same gallery in Los Angeles. Taylor was seen several years later in possession of the stolen Lucien Frank painting at a gallery in Vero Beach. The indictment further alleges that Taylor laundered and transferred across state lines some of the proceeds from his fraud on the collector victim specifically, $105,000 that Taylor had taken from the victim by selling him four forged paintings in September 2006. An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in court. The indictment charges Taylor with three counts of wire fraud, two counts of money laundering, one count of interstate transportation of stolen property and one count of possession of stolen property. The mail fraud charges each carry a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, and the remaining counts each carry a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years.
Therefore, if he is convicted of all seven counts in the indictment, Taylor faces a maximum possible sentence of 100 years in federal prison. Based on evidence collected throughout this case, investigators believe there are additional victims of art fraud related to Taylor’s activities. Individuals who purchased art from Taylor and believe they may have been defrauded should contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Los Angeles at (310) 477-6565 or the Los Angeles Police Department’s Art Theft Detail at (213) 486-6940.
The ongoing investigation into Taylor is being conducted by the FBI’s Art Crime Team, the Los Angeles Police Department’s Art Theft Detail, and IRS - Criminal Investigation.
CONTACT:
Assistant United States Attorney James A. Bowman
Major Frauds Section
(213) 894-2213
Assistant United States Attorney Heather C. Gorman
General Crimes Section
(213) 894-0334
Pre-columbian Mexico October 2011
1. MEXICO CITY (AP).-artdaily.org Archaeologists found a round Aztec ceremonial platform studded with stone carvings of serpent heads at Mexico City's Templo Mayor ruin, raising hopes in the search for an emperor's tomb, authorities said Thursday. No Aztec ruler's tomb has ever been located and researchers have been on a five-year quest to find a royal tomb in the area of the Templo Mayor, a
complex of two huge pyramids and numerous smaller structures that contained the ceremonial and spiritual heart of the pre-Hispanic Aztec empire. Mexico's National Institute of History and Anthropology said the stone platform is about 15 yards (meters) in diameter and probably built around A.D. 1469. The site lies in downtown Mexico City, which was built by Spanish conquerors atop the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. "The historical records say that the rulers were cremated at the foot of the Templo Mayor, and it is believed to be on this same structure — the 'cuauhxicalco' — that the rulers were cremated," said archaeologist Raul Barrera. "That is what the historical sources say," he said, referring to accounts written by Roman Catholic priests who accompanied the Spanish soldiers in the 1521 conquest. "Of course, now we have to find archaeological evidence to corroborate that." He said the platform, which is still being unearthed, was gradually uncovered over the preceding months. It is covered with at least 19 serpent heads, each about a half-yard (meter) long. Barrera said accounts from the 1500s suggested the platform was also used in a colorful ceremony in which an Aztec priest would descend from the nearby pyramid with a snake made of paper and burn it on the platform. Records indicate there were a total of five such platforms in the temple complex. One was found several years ago, but that platform was farther from the ritually important spot at the foot of the pyramid, where the most recent finding was made. In 1997, archaeologists using ground-penetrating radar on a site very close to where the latest stone platform was found detected possible underground
chambers that they believed at the time might contain the remains of Emperor Ahuizotl, who ruled the Aztecs when Columbus landed in the New World. Subsequent excavations turned up a sort of stairway leading down and lots of ritual offerings of shells, animal bones and pots, but no tomb. Archaeologists agree any such find would be very significant. "This would be quite an important find for Aztec archaeology," said Michael Smith, an archaeologist at Arizona State University who is not connected to the dig. "It would be tremendously important because it would be direct information about kingship, burial and the empire that is difficult to come by otherwise." He says the find shows that archaeologists are inching closer and closer to finding an Aztec royal tomb."
2. MEXICO CITY.- Five footprints from human feet, calculated to be between 4,500 and 25,000 years old, were discovered in the Sierra Tarahumara, in Chihuahua. Specialists said that the foot prints could belong to the first men who lived in this region that is today known as northern Mexico.
These are the first human footprints that have been found in Chihuahua and once their age has been found out, they will be added to the few footprints from the first people that lived in the American continent that are preserved in Mexico, particularly in Cuatro Ciénegas, Coahuila and in a ranch in Sonora. The footprints correspond to three adults and a child that probably lived in the caves that are located in the sierra, in the Valle de Ahuatos, eight kilometers from the town of Creel, in Chihuahua.
According to morphoscopic analysis, footprint 1, by its longitude of 26 centimeters, corresponds to the right foot of a male adult, while footprint number 2 belongs to the left foot of another adult, but it being the less defined it has been difficult to identify the sex of the person that made it. Footprint
number 3 was made by an infant 3 or 4 years old and corresponds to the right foot with a longitude of 17 centimeters. Footprints 4 and 5 are from another adult and represent the only pair that corresponds to the same person, which was found two meters away from footprint 1; the fohe left foot print (footprint 4) has a longitude of 23.7 centimeters, while the right (footprint 5) measures 24.5 centimeters, these footprints are significant as they have six toes, which may be due a malformation. Anthropologist José Concepción Jiménez said that the finding of the human footprints was made by an email that a citizen from Chihuahua sent to the Seminario del Hombre Temprano in Mexico, telling about the existence of ancient human fooprints in the Valle de Ahuatos, in the municipality of
Bocoyna. “We explored the surface to verify the information and we couldn´t find the
footprints, it was very hard to find them because they are not easy to identify.
chambers that they believed at the time might contain the remains of Emperor Ahuizotl, who ruled the Aztecs when Columbus landed in the New World. Subsequent excavations turned up a sort of stairway leading down and lots of ritual offerings of shells, animal bones and pots, but no tomb. Archaeologists agree any such find would be very significant. "This would be quite an important find for Aztec archaeology," said Michael Smith, an archaeologist at Arizona State University who is not connected to the dig. "It would be tremendously important because it would be direct information about kingship, burial and the empire that is difficult to come by otherwise." He says the find shows that archaeologists are inching closer and closer to finding an Aztec royal tomb."
2. MEXICO CITY.- Five footprints from human feet, calculated to be between 4,500 and 25,000 years old, were discovered in the Sierra Tarahumara, in Chihuahua. Specialists said that the foot prints could belong to the first men who lived in this region that is today known as northern Mexico.
These are the first human footprints that have been found in Chihuahua and once their age has been found out, they will be added to the few footprints from the first people that lived in the American continent that are preserved in Mexico, particularly in Cuatro Ciénegas, Coahuila and in a ranch in Sonora. The footprints correspond to three adults and a child that probably lived in the caves that are located in the sierra, in the Valle de Ahuatos, eight kilometers from the town of Creel, in Chihuahua.
According to morphoscopic analysis, footprint 1, by its longitude of 26 centimeters, corresponds to the right foot of a male adult, while footprint number 2 belongs to the left foot of another adult, but it being the less defined it has been difficult to identify the sex of the person that made it. Footprint
Bocoyna. “We explored the surface to verify the information and we couldn´t find the
footprints, it was very hard to find them because they are not easy to identify.
The Art Market - October 2011
Editor note: Dealers and auction houses are spinning but the world economy slowdown has impacted even the very wealthy who have less cash to buy art. In China there are funds that still see art as an investment; however, many gallery owners are being cautious in their plans to cater to this market. In short after reading all of this it's clear that nobody really knows where art is going for the next few years. There are certainly forces that see the upcoming months as an opportunity and not a disaster.
1. London. Once again, Frieze Art Fair opens its tent amid global economic uncertainty. The contemporary art fair faces the now familiar pressure of being the market’s first test of health following a summer of discontent. While it isn’t quite the dramatic downturn of 2008, the risk of recession in Europe and a serious slump in the US are unappealing realities. And now there’s a new
problem: a slowdown in China, the country that has been powering the global economy—and propping up confidence in the art market—for the past few years. “Evidence is building [that] the art market could pause… [Wall] Street is discussing a China hard landing,” says David Schick, a market analyst with the US investment bank Stifel Nicolaus.
Cooling the craze
So, what now? The dealers congregating in the tent this week are keeping their chins up. Those with plans in Asia say that these are still on track (although little has progressed). “It’s a new economy that we’re all trying to understand,” says David Maupin of Lehmann Maupin gallery, which is planning a pop-up space in Singapore. Those in China say that, while confidence is still high, a cooling of the contemporary craze may not be such a bad thing. “People don’t want to slow it down, but it’s arguably moving too fast,” says Lu Jie of Beijing’s Long March Space (E20). “There are too many people who think of art just as an investment,” he says (there are believed to be nearly 40 art investment funds in China).Others accept that times are tough, but say China should be approached with a long-term game-plan. “The reality is more exciting than the hype. There is huge potential but it is going to take time and effort to build relationships,” says Magnus Renfrew, the director of Art HK. David Roberts, the property developer and contemporary art collector, says: “While China may take a dip in the short term, it will potentially be a huge market in the future. [The galleries opening in Hong Kong] are shrewd operators.”The art economist Clare McAndrew can also see advantages of a slowdown in
China. “The government will be looking to get people to spend more to help sustain growth. There is only a very small handful of rich Chinese buying art —but bring on the new middle class,” she says.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world remains the immediate cause for concern. “We have a global outlook but our footprint is in the US, so we’re more worried about that economy,” says Courtney Plummer of Lehmann Maupin. ArtTactic’s latest market confidence report, released on Monday, showed a
55% fall in confidence since June and a negative outlook for the US and European contemporary art markets for the first time since autumn 2009. But, says Plummer, “the great thing is that Frieze kick-starts the season”.Amanda Sharp, co-director of Frieze, said yesterday: “We have been blessed
with good weather and there are great shows in the museums, so it feels like the right ingredients are in place.” With art worth an estimated £225m on sale at the fair and a potential total of £110m coming to auction in London this week, many others are hoping the same.
2. Art market jitters over financial turmoil
Nervous investors have rushed to safety in gold and the Swiss franc but art looks more volatile
By Melanie Gerlis | From issue 227, September 2011 Published online 12 Sep 11 (News)
• Is art still a safe bet for investors?
Fears are growing about the potential impact of this summer’s renewed global economic turmoil on the art market. The 2008 financial crisis sharply hit art sales across all sectors, but the market bounced back quicker than many others, particularly for blue-chip works. At issue now are two diverging
premises: that art is a luxury brand, as sensitive to stock markets as high-end fashion and first-class flights (this is the view of those looking at the art market from the outside); or that it represents a safe investment, sought after in troubled times much like gold and the Swiss franc (the view of those with more vested interests). Dark clouds Since art market professionals went on their summer break, the widening European sovereign debt crises and Standard & Poor’s downgraded opinion of the US debt triggered fears of a “double dip” recession, which saw stock markets fall worldwide.The wealthy, especially in cities such as London and New York which rely heavily on their financial centres, all now have less to spend. The hedge fund SAC Capital, run by the art collector Steve Cohen, was down 4% for the first week of August alone. In the luxury goods sector in Europe, share prices are down between 15% and 30%. “We see significant potential downside if the crisis mimics 2008,” said
Julian Easthope, a research analyst at Barclays Capital in London. He looks closely at stocks, including France’s PPR, founded by Christie’s owner François Pinault.
Sotheby’s stock has certainly felt the pinch: since 7 July, it has lost 37% of its value (falling from $47.8 to under $30, as we went to press), wiping over $1.2 billion off the value of the company. This reduces the money available to it at a time when competition with Christie’s is already eating into its profits. In the fight for the best works, both auction houses need to offer increasingly attractive terms to consignors, which is reducing Sotheby’s profit margins (see p59).Safe as houses?
Others say that some of the lessons learned since the 2008 financial crisis are reasons to be more confident in the art market. “There was much more of a shock when the banks started collapsing. Then the [art] market reconfigured as the rain washed out some of the speculators and short-term engagers,” said art advisor Allan Schwartzman. “What has been validated in the last few rounds of uncertainty is that art is a genuine form of capital,” he added, comparing it to traditionally safer investments such as gold. This, he said, is reinforced by the near-zero interest rates in the US.In a reaction to the financial crises, gold has hit a new record price, nearing $1,830 an ounce as we went to press, with silver and other precious metals up in concert. The Swiss franc, seen as one of the most reliable currencies,
reached an exchange rate high of $1.28 and nearly equalled the euro for the first time. All agree, however, that one key factor underpinning the potential health of the art market is whether or not the emerging economies, such as China, could pick up any slack should the more traditional markets falter.
Bets on China. The major commercial players are certainly banking on the potential: Sotheby’s chief executive Bill Ruprecht said on the auction house’s most recent conference call to Wall Street analysts that it was cutting back investment in Europe in favour of initiatives in China (see p59). White Cube has become the latest big-name western gallery to open in Hong Kong, its first overseas venture.
But on 9 August, the day after stock markets in Europe and the US collapsed, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell nearly 6% with other Asian stocks (most notably in South Korea). Many economic commentators are also concerned about China’s unsustainable trade surplus. “If there is a market dislocation as in 2008, even sectors of the art economy driven by relatively healthy economies such as China and Brazil could be impacted. But the emphasis is on the severity of a downturn,” said Artvest’s Michael Plummer.
3.Lacklustre mood at Sotheby’s - The Art Newspaper
Most lots sold for under or around low estimates By Melanie Gerlis | From Frieze daily edition, 14 Oct 11Published online 14 Oct 11 London. Credit must be given to Sotheby’s (and its fast-paced auctioneer Oliver Barker) who managed to sell an uneven selection of works at last night’s
contemporary art sale. The mood was lacklustre as most of the lots sold for under or around their low
estimates, after bidding from only one or two parties—but sometimes that is all it takes.
One of the higher quality lots, Lucian Freud’s finely painted 1952 Boy’s Head portrait of his young neighbour Charlie Lumley, sold on its second bid for a hammer price of £2.8m, under its £3m-£4m estimate that dealers felt was “punchy”. Of the 47 lots on offer, 11 went unsold, a respectable sell through rate of 77%. The sale total was £17.8m (once premium was added), just below its £19.1m-
£26.6m pre-sale estimate.
4. LONDON (REUTERS).- Walk into the giant marquee in Regent's Park, London, venue of this year's Frieze Art Fair, and enter a parallel universe. Impeccably dressed men and women, and a healthy smattering of Bohemian types in garish trousers and expensive, thick-rimmed glasses, saunter down the aisles and between the stands of more than 170 exhibiting galleries. There the "new aristocracy" browses the cutting edge of contemporary art, from a grotesque Madonna and Child by the Chapman Brothers to a golf bag full of cement and a section of wooden fence hanging on a wall.
Elle Macpherson and designer Valentino joined commercial gallery A-listers like Jay Jopling in assessing what was hot and what was not at a VIP preview this week. The fair opened to the public on Thursday and runs until Sunday. Prices range widely, but generally works on show go for between five and seven figures, the sort of money most people spend on their house, often by way of a 25-year mortgage. Not so at Frieze, which has become a magnet for the world's biggest contemporary art collectors who think little of writing a check for a few hundred thousand dollars or more. The disconnect with the world outside, where markets are jittery and volatile, people fret over their jobs and countries are weighed down by crippling debt, is striking. Whether that disparity can last is the question on every gallery owner's lips. While there will always be ultra-wealthy buyers snapping up the rarest and finest works, supporting the million-plus market, there are concerns that
"lesser" art will fail to sell. The contemporary art market contracted sharply in late 2008 and early 2009 in the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse before recovering strongly in 2010 and 2011.
Market surveys suggest confidence in all but the top lots -- viewed as an alternative investment at a time when so many markets look risky -- is evaporating fast, raising the prospect of another correction.
MIXED SIGNALS
At Frieze, David Zwirner sold a Neo Rauch painting for $1.35 million, and the overall value of art on show is estimated at around $350 million, down from $375 million in 2010. At the nearby Pavilion of Art & Design, an offshoot of Frieze featuring mainly older works, the Van de Weghe Fine Art gallery sold an Alexander Calder for $1.5 million and Sladmore Gallery raised 500,000 pounds for a cast bronze by Rodin. But not all the signs are good. While fairs do not publicize their revenues, and most dealers keep their business to themselves, auction houses also hold a series of sales during Frieze
week which give some indication as to the strength of prices. Sotheby's had its main auction on Thursday evening followed by Christie's on Friday, but Phillips de Pury held its big sale on Wednesday and the results were described by one specialist art website as "tepid." The auction tally of 8.2 million pounds fell comfortably short of the pre-sale low estimate of 10.1 million (and high estimate of 14.6 million), and a third of the works on offer failed to sell. Jeff Koons' "Seal Walrus Trashcans" fetched 2.1 million pounds, at the bottom end of expectations, and Damien Hirst and Richard Prince were among the familiar names featuring in the top 10. "The sale showed there is still an appetite for good quality works from blue-chip artists," said Peter Sumner, head of contemporary sales, London Phillips de Pury & Company. Of course, many artists dismiss talk of markets and prices. In most cases they stand to gain little even if their works sell for millions at auction, and money, they argue, is not the point.
Some, however, actively engage in the concept of art as a commodity. The artistic partnership called Claire Fontaine has a work at Frieze which reads: "This neon sign was made by Vladimir Ustinov for the remuneration of one hundred and sixty-nine thousand rubles." For those less confident in their economic future, artist Michael Landy may have the answer with his outlandish "Credit Card Destroying Machine." (Editing by Steve Addison)
1. London. Once again, Frieze Art Fair opens its tent amid global economic uncertainty. The contemporary art fair faces the now familiar pressure of being the market’s first test of health following a summer of discontent. While it isn’t quite the dramatic downturn of 2008, the risk of recession in Europe and a serious slump in the US are unappealing realities. And now there’s a new
problem: a slowdown in China, the country that has been powering the global economy—and propping up confidence in the art market—for the past few years. “Evidence is building [that] the art market could pause… [Wall] Street is discussing a China hard landing,” says David Schick, a market analyst with the US investment bank Stifel Nicolaus.
So, what now? The dealers congregating in the tent this week are keeping their chins up. Those with plans in Asia say that these are still on track (although little has progressed). “It’s a new economy that we’re all trying to understand,” says David Maupin of Lehmann Maupin gallery, which is planning a pop-up space in Singapore. Those in China say that, while confidence is still high, a cooling of the contemporary craze may not be such a bad thing. “People don’t want to slow it down, but it’s arguably moving too fast,” says Lu Jie of Beijing’s Long March Space (E20). “There are too many people who think of art just as an investment,” he says (there are believed to be nearly 40 art investment funds in China).Others accept that times are tough, but say China should be approached with a long-term game-plan. “The reality is more exciting than the hype. There is huge potential but it is going to take time and effort to build relationships,” says Magnus Renfrew, the director of Art HK. David Roberts, the property developer and contemporary art collector, says: “While China may take a dip in the short term, it will potentially be a huge market in the future. [The galleries opening in Hong Kong] are shrewd operators.”The art economist Clare McAndrew can also see advantages of a slowdown in
China. “The government will be looking to get people to spend more to help sustain growth. There is only a very small handful of rich Chinese buying art —but bring on the new middle class,” she says.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world remains the immediate cause for concern. “We have a global outlook but our footprint is in the US, so we’re more worried about that economy,” says Courtney Plummer of Lehmann Maupin. ArtTactic’s latest market confidence report, released on Monday, showed a
55% fall in confidence since June and a negative outlook for the US and European contemporary art markets for the first time since autumn 2009. But, says Plummer, “the great thing is that Frieze kick-starts the season”.Amanda Sharp, co-director of Frieze, said yesterday: “We have been blessed
with good weather and there are great shows in the museums, so it feels like the right ingredients are in place.” With art worth an estimated £225m on sale at the fair and a potential total of £110m coming to auction in London this week, many others are hoping the same.
2. Art market jitters over financial turmoil
Nervous investors have rushed to safety in gold and the Swiss franc but art looks more volatile
By Melanie Gerlis | From issue 227, September 2011 Published online 12 Sep 11 (News)
• Is art still a safe bet for investors?
Fears are growing about the potential impact of this summer’s renewed global economic turmoil on the art market. The 2008 financial crisis sharply hit art sales across all sectors, but the market bounced back quicker than many others, particularly for blue-chip works. At issue now are two diverging
premises: that art is a luxury brand, as sensitive to stock markets as high-end fashion and first-class flights (this is the view of those looking at the art market from the outside); or that it represents a safe investment, sought after in troubled times much like gold and the Swiss franc (the view of those with more vested interests). Dark clouds Since art market professionals went on their summer break, the widening European sovereign debt crises and Standard & Poor’s downgraded opinion of the US debt triggered fears of a “double dip” recession, which saw stock markets fall worldwide.The wealthy, especially in cities such as London and New York which rely heavily on their financial centres, all now have less to spend. The hedge fund SAC Capital, run by the art collector Steve Cohen, was down 4% for the first week of August alone. In the luxury goods sector in Europe, share prices are down between 15% and 30%. “We see significant potential downside if the crisis mimics 2008,” said
Julian Easthope, a research analyst at Barclays Capital in London. He looks closely at stocks, including France’s PPR, founded by Christie’s owner François Pinault.
Sotheby’s stock has certainly felt the pinch: since 7 July, it has lost 37% of its value (falling from $47.8 to under $30, as we went to press), wiping over $1.2 billion off the value of the company. This reduces the money available to it at a time when competition with Christie’s is already eating into its profits. In the fight for the best works, both auction houses need to offer increasingly attractive terms to consignors, which is reducing Sotheby’s profit margins (see p59).Safe as houses?
Others say that some of the lessons learned since the 2008 financial crisis are reasons to be more confident in the art market. “There was much more of a shock when the banks started collapsing. Then the [art] market reconfigured as the rain washed out some of the speculators and short-term engagers,” said art advisor Allan Schwartzman. “What has been validated in the last few rounds of uncertainty is that art is a genuine form of capital,” he added, comparing it to traditionally safer investments such as gold. This, he said, is reinforced by the near-zero interest rates in the US.In a reaction to the financial crises, gold has hit a new record price, nearing $1,830 an ounce as we went to press, with silver and other precious metals up in concert. The Swiss franc, seen as one of the most reliable currencies,
reached an exchange rate high of $1.28 and nearly equalled the euro for the first time. All agree, however, that one key factor underpinning the potential health of the art market is whether or not the emerging economies, such as China, could pick up any slack should the more traditional markets falter.
Bets on China. The major commercial players are certainly banking on the potential: Sotheby’s chief executive Bill Ruprecht said on the auction house’s most recent conference call to Wall Street analysts that it was cutting back investment in Europe in favour of initiatives in China (see p59). White Cube has become the latest big-name western gallery to open in Hong Kong, its first overseas venture.
But on 9 August, the day after stock markets in Europe and the US collapsed, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell nearly 6% with other Asian stocks (most notably in South Korea). Many economic commentators are also concerned about China’s unsustainable trade surplus. “If there is a market dislocation as in 2008, even sectors of the art economy driven by relatively healthy economies such as China and Brazil could be impacted. But the emphasis is on the severity of a downturn,” said Artvest’s Michael Plummer.
3.Lacklustre mood at Sotheby’s - The Art Newspaper
Most lots sold for under or around low estimates By Melanie Gerlis | From Frieze daily edition, 14 Oct 11Published online 14 Oct 11 London. Credit must be given to Sotheby’s (and its fast-paced auctioneer Oliver Barker) who managed to sell an uneven selection of works at last night’s
contemporary art sale. The mood was lacklustre as most of the lots sold for under or around their low
estimates, after bidding from only one or two parties—but sometimes that is all it takes.
One of the higher quality lots, Lucian Freud’s finely painted 1952 Boy’s Head portrait of his young neighbour Charlie Lumley, sold on its second bid for a hammer price of £2.8m, under its £3m-£4m estimate that dealers felt was “punchy”. Of the 47 lots on offer, 11 went unsold, a respectable sell through rate of 77%. The sale total was £17.8m (once premium was added), just below its £19.1m-
£26.6m pre-sale estimate.
4. LONDON (REUTERS).- Walk into the giant marquee in Regent's Park, London, venue of this year's Frieze Art Fair, and enter a parallel universe. Impeccably dressed men and women, and a healthy smattering of Bohemian types in garish trousers and expensive, thick-rimmed glasses, saunter down the aisles and between the stands of more than 170 exhibiting galleries. There the "new aristocracy" browses the cutting edge of contemporary art, from a grotesque Madonna and Child by the Chapman Brothers to a golf bag full of cement and a section of wooden fence hanging on a wall.
Elle Macpherson and designer Valentino joined commercial gallery A-listers like Jay Jopling in assessing what was hot and what was not at a VIP preview this week. The fair opened to the public on Thursday and runs until Sunday. Prices range widely, but generally works on show go for between five and seven figures, the sort of money most people spend on their house, often by way of a 25-year mortgage. Not so at Frieze, which has become a magnet for the world's biggest contemporary art collectors who think little of writing a check for a few hundred thousand dollars or more. The disconnect with the world outside, where markets are jittery and volatile, people fret over their jobs and countries are weighed down by crippling debt, is striking. Whether that disparity can last is the question on every gallery owner's lips. While there will always be ultra-wealthy buyers snapping up the rarest and finest works, supporting the million-plus market, there are concerns that
"lesser" art will fail to sell. The contemporary art market contracted sharply in late 2008 and early 2009 in the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse before recovering strongly in 2010 and 2011. Market surveys suggest confidence in all but the top lots -- viewed as an alternative investment at a time when so many markets look risky -- is evaporating fast, raising the prospect of another correction.
MIXED SIGNALS
At Frieze, David Zwirner sold a Neo Rauch painting for $1.35 million, and the overall value of art on show is estimated at around $350 million, down from $375 million in 2010. At the nearby Pavilion of Art & Design, an offshoot of Frieze featuring mainly older works, the Van de Weghe Fine Art gallery sold an Alexander Calder for $1.5 million and Sladmore Gallery raised 500,000 pounds for a cast bronze by Rodin. But not all the signs are good. While fairs do not publicize their revenues, and most dealers keep their business to themselves, auction houses also hold a series of sales during Frieze
week which give some indication as to the strength of prices. Sotheby's had its main auction on Thursday evening followed by Christie's on Friday, but Phillips de Pury held its big sale on Wednesday and the results were described by one specialist art website as "tepid." The auction tally of 8.2 million pounds fell comfortably short of the pre-sale low estimate of 10.1 million (and high estimate of 14.6 million), and a third of the works on offer failed to sell. Jeff Koons' "Seal Walrus Trashcans" fetched 2.1 million pounds, at the bottom end of expectations, and Damien Hirst and Richard Prince were among the familiar names featuring in the top 10. "The sale showed there is still an appetite for good quality works from blue-chip artists," said Peter Sumner, head of contemporary sales, London Phillips de Pury & Company. Of course, many artists dismiss talk of markets and prices. In most cases they stand to gain little even if their works sell for millions at auction, and money, they argue, is not the point.
Some, however, actively engage in the concept of art as a commodity. The artistic partnership called Claire Fontaine has a work at Frieze which reads: "This neon sign was made by Vladimir Ustinov for the remuneration of one hundred and sixty-nine thousand rubles." For those less confident in their economic future, artist Michael Landy may have the answer with his outlandish "Credit Card Destroying Machine." (Editing by Steve Addison)
What's Happening in the Museums - October 2011
1. NEW YORK, N.Y.- artdaily.org - "Picasso's Drawings, 1890-1921:
Reinventing Tradition" traveling exhibition at The Frick Collection Pablo Picasso was one of the world’s greatest draftsmen. Drawing was his primary medium for thinking, problem solving, invention, and personal expression. It was the link that connected his work in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, printmaking, theater design, and ceramics, and was a direct tie to his predecessors. Picasso’s diverse body of original work on paper broke new ground, while also consciously incorporating aspects of the tradition from which it sprang. This autumn, The Frick Collection presents an exhibition of more than sixty drawings (works in pencil, ink, watercolor, gouache, pastel, and chalk) spanning the first thirty years of Picasso’s career, from his first signed
drawing to works from the early 1920s.
2. SAN ANTONIO, TX.- The San Antonio Museum of Art presents the exhibition 5,000 Years of Chinese Jade Featuring Selections from the National Museum of History, Taiwan and the Arthur M. Sackler Collection, Smithsonian Institution. This major international exhibition organized by SAMA opened in the Museum’s Cowden Gallery on October 1, 2011...... Most of the jades from Taiwan,
including the National Treasures, will be on view in America for the first time. Another prestigious lender to 5,000 Years of Chinese Jade is the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution. Twenty-four jades from the celebrated Sackler Collection complement the jade objects from Taiwan.
Highlights of the Sackler jades include the famous Han dynasty Bear (220 BC – AD 221) and Song dynasty Hound (960-1279). Two additional lenders also provide exquisite jades: the Springfield Museums in Springfield, Massachusetts, lent a number of large 18th-century jades, including a lovely
Elephant Vase from the Qianlong period (1735-1796). An anonymous private American collector contributes a dozen superb jades, several of which were carved in Imperial workshops, including an elegant bird carving with Emperor Qianlong’s seal mark. The San Antonio Museum of Art contributes two jades to the exhibition, both acquired within the last two years.
3. PHILADELPHIA, PA. (AP).- A judge has upheld his controversial decision allowing the Barnes Foundation to move its multibillion-dollar art collection to Philadelphia. Montgomery County Orphans Court Judge Stanley Ott ruled Thursday that there is no new evidence to consider. Petitioners had asked Ott to re-examine his 2004 decision allowing the Barnes to leave its suburban home. They contend the 2009 documentary "The Art of the Steal" includes new evidence that he didn't have when he originally ruled. But Ott disagrees. The Barnes is moving because leaders say the institution is not financially viable at its original home in Lower Merion, about five miles from Philadelphia. The collection includes dozens of Renoirs, Matisses and Picassos. Its new building in Philadelphia is slated to open May 19, 2012.
4. NEW YORK, metmuseum.org. An ambitious exhibition—sweeping in scope and challenging conventional perceptions of African art—opened at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Bringing together more than 100 masterpieces drawn from the premier collections in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Portugal, France, and the United States, Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures considers eight landmark sculptural traditions that flourished in West and Central Africa between the 12th and the early 20th century. These works were created by some of the regions’ most gifted artists, who were charged with producing enduring visual monuments dedicated to the legacies of revered leaders.
The artistic tributes that are featured are among the only tangible surviving vestiges of generations of leaders that shaped Africa’s past before colonialism among the Akan of Ghana, ancient Ife civilization, and the Kingdom of Benin of Nigeria, Bangwa and Kom chiefdoms of the Cameroon Grassfields, the Chokwe of Angola and Zambia, and the Luluwa, Hemba, and Kuba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Harnessing materials ranging from humble clay, ubiquitous wood, precious ivory, and costly metal alloys, sculptors from these regions captured evocative, idealized likenesses of their influential patrons, whose identities were otherwise recorded in ephemeral oral traditions. While for the most part the works presented pre-date the use of photography in Africa, photographic likenesses of successive generations of leaders from these centers—ranging in date from the late 19th century to contemporary portraits by the American photographer Phyllis Galembo—are woven into the presentation.
For the first time a museum considers iconic sculptural tributes from Africa in terms of the specific celebrated figures that they were once intimately tied to. Among those subjects who were famous in their own time but whose significance in connection to their depictions has largely been lost to viewers are: Queen Mother Idia and Oba Akenzua I of Benin (Nigeria), Nana Attabra of Nkwanta (Ghana), Chief Nkwain of Kom (Cameroon),Chief Chibwabwa Ilunga of the Luluwa (Democratic Republic of the Congo), King Mbó Mbóósh of the Kuba (D.R.C), and Chief Kalala Lea of the Hemba (D.R.C.).
Heroic Africans presents an unparalleled opportunity to bring to life oral history in visual terms and put a face on the major protagonists of Africa’s pre-colonial history for the first time. The exhibition opens by posing a question: who are the individuals that the most gifted artists of their respective times and cultures depicted for the ages? Over the centuries across sub-Saharan Africa, artists memorialized for posterity eminent individuals of their societies in an astonishingly diverse repertory of regional sculptural idioms, both naturalistic and abstract, that commemorate their subjects through culturally customized aesthetic formulations. The original patrons of such depictions intended for them to act as concrete points of reference to specific elite members of a given community. Over the past century, however, isolation of those creations from the sites, oral traditions, and socio-cultural contexts in which they were conceived, has led them to be seen as timeless abstractions of generic archetypes. Since that time few have recognized that these works were produced in honor of admired individuals. While information about those figures has been touched upon in the academic literature of African studies, such a body of work has never before been assembled in an exhibition. Through providing key cultural context, this exhibition affords appreciation of the significance of such representations and the ability to relate them to their historical subjects as living, breathing men and women. “Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures” remains through Jan. 29 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org.
5. PINAR DEL RIO, CUBA (AP).- A traveling exhibition of art donated by a U.S. philanthropist is giving Cubans outside the capital a rare chance to see works from masters such as Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol that would normally hang in world-class galleries instead of sleepy provincial cities.
Selections from the 120-piece collection have already toured Camaguey and Holguin in the island's far-flung east and recently went on display in the western city of Pinar del Rio, known more for tobacco farms than art museums. More than a dozen works by Joan Miro, Marcel Duchamp, Camille Pissarro,
Georges Rouault, Roy Lichtenstein and others went up in the glassed lobby of a local TV station, watched over by just a few police and guards and prompting curious passers-by to pop in to see what all the fuss was about. The show was nearing the end of its tour as officials prepared this week to
dismantle it and return the works to Havana. Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
6. KABUL (REUTERS).- While everyone else is worrying about Afghanistan's future, a dedicated band of men and women is gathering up its past, hoping that a growing museum collection will show the world Afghan culture is more sophisticated than the tide of news reports suggest. Kabul's rebuilt National Museum, near the haunting remains the bombed-out royal palace, is running out of secure rooms to house centuries-old Buddhas, gold and silver coins from antiquity and other rare artefacts.
Many of the museum's original pieces were broken, destroyed or stolen during the Taliban era or the civil war that preceded it in the 1990s, but some have been pieced back together and a series of archaeological digs have also unearthed new treasures. Among the fresh discoveries are a wooden Buddha dating back to the fifth century and Buddha heads made of clay and plaster. They are helping a whole nation slowly rediscover a classical past as a confluence of cultures from India to China and from Iran and central Asia to the East. The United States this year committed $5 million to building a new museum with state-of-the-art security systems and climate control features next to the
old one, so that the Hidden Treasures exhibition can finally return home. "Restoring such artefacts is essential to both Afghan identity, and the identity of our collective human experience," said Rahim B.Kanani, a U.S.-based columnist who has written extensively on Afghanistan. (Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison and Yoko Nishikawa) © Thomson Reuters 2011. All rights reserved.
7. Cooperstown - Fenimore Art Museum - Inspired Traditions: Selections From The Jane Katcher Collection Of Americana Sep 27th, 2011 Jane Katcher, a retired physician who lives in Florida, collected for nearly three decades before going public with her passion for American folk art. Her
debut coincided with the Fenimore Art Museum's 2005–2007 traveling exhibition "A Deaf Artist in Early America: The Worlds of John Brewster Jr." Katcher lent to the show the 1799 painting "Comfort Starr Mygatt and Lucy Mygatt," the solemnly tender portrait of a Danbury, Conn., man and his
daughter that set an auction record for American folk art in 1988. Katcher and her husband, Gerald, who later acquired the picture privately, have since donated the work to Yale University Art Gallery.
The Brewster exhibition and "Made for Love: Selections from the Jane Katcher Collection of Americana," a small exhibit at Yale in 2007, coincided with the publication of Expressions of Innocence and Eloquence: Selections from the Jane Katcher Collection of Americana (Marquand Press, 2006). Commissioned by Katcher, the catalog of her collection contained 203 entries,
plus essays by 11 scholars. Five of the original authors plus five additional contributors recently collaborated on a follow-up catalog , Expressions of Innocence and Eloquence: Selections from the Jane Katcher Collection, Volume II. To be published by Marquand in November, it contains 91 additional entries, most of them new acquisitions. In conjunction with the second volume, "Inspired Traditions: The Jane Katcher Collection of Americana" is on view at the New York State Historical
Association's (NYSHA) Fenimore Art Museum between October 1 and December 31. "Jane Katcher is drawn to pieces that speak not just to her eye, but to her keen sense of the people who made and owned them," said Dr Paul S. D'Ambrosio, NYSHA's president and chief executive officer. "Time and time again, she acquires works that make connections on many levels. These pieces are
windows into the lives of earlier Americans. That is really what inspired me to do the exhibition," he added. The Fenimore Art Museum is at 5798 State Highway 80, one mile north of the
village of Cooperstown on the west side of Otsego Lake. For information, 607-547-1400 or www.fenimoreartmuseum.org .
Antiques and the Arts Editorial Content
8. BALTIMORE, MD.-artdaily.org - The Walters Art Museum announces today a major gift from John Bourne of Santa Fe, N.M, including 70 artworks from the Ancient Americas and approximately 230 additional planned gifts. He will also provide a $4 million bequest from his estate to help endow a center for the study, conservation, interpretation and display of the arts of the Ancient Americas.
“This extraordinary gift will vault the Walters into a position of leadership among American museums in this new and exciting area of collecting and research,” said Walters Board President Douglas W. Hamilton, Jr. “It will provide the Walters with an extraordinary opportunity to expand its engagement with Maryland’s rapidly growing Hispanic community.” “More than a century ago, museum founder Henry Walters pioneered the collecting of the arts of the Ancient Americas. Now, his small collection will be greatly augmented by this generous gift from John Bourne,” said Walters Director Gary Vikan. “It has long been my dream to be able to tell the story of art and culture in the western hemisphere in a way that complements the story we tell through our extraordinary holdings of ancient and medieval art of the Mediterranean and Europe.” The Bourne gift complements a gift in 2009 from the Ziff family of New York City. With that earlier gift, the museum was able to endow the position of curator of the arts of the Ancient Americas and partially endow a conservation position and an exhibition fund. In all, the new center will include three endowed staff positions—a curator, a conservator and an educator—as well as an endowed exhibition fund, an endowed acquisition fund and a fund for the
creation of a gallery devoted to the arts of the Ancient Americas. To share these new acquisitions with the public, the Walters will present the special exhibition Exploring Art of the Ancient Americas: The John Bourne Collection Gift from February 12 through May 20, 2012. Drawn from the
collection that Bourne began in 1940, this exhibition will present approximately 129 works from the collection of ancient Mesoamerican, Central American and Andean South American art, spanning more than 2,500 years from 1200 b.c. to a.d. 1530. The exhibition will travel to the Albuquerque
Museum of Art & History in New Mexico from June 10 through August 26, 2012.
Editor note: As an appraiser this article attracted my attention. Donation of Pre-Columbian works to museums have become quite difficult as a result of AAM's guidelines to not accept any objects that can not be documented in the U.S. prior to 1970. Apparently Mr. Bourne began collecting in the 1940's. Collectors that can document their collection history prio to 1970 will see increased values in their Pre-Columbian art.
drawing to works from the early 1920s.
2. SAN ANTONIO, TX.- The San Antonio Museum of Art presents the exhibition 5,000 Years of Chinese Jade Featuring Selections from the National Museum of History, Taiwan and the Arthur M. Sackler Collection, Smithsonian Institution. This major international exhibition organized by SAMA opened in the Museum’s Cowden Gallery on October 1, 2011...... Most of the jades from Taiwan,
Highlights of the Sackler jades include the famous Han dynasty Bear (220 BC – AD 221) and Song dynasty Hound (960-1279). Two additional lenders also provide exquisite jades: the Springfield Museums in Springfield, Massachusetts, lent a number of large 18th-century jades, including a lovely
Elephant Vase from the Qianlong period (1735-1796). An anonymous private American collector contributes a dozen superb jades, several of which were carved in Imperial workshops, including an elegant bird carving with Emperor Qianlong’s seal mark. The San Antonio Museum of Art contributes two jades to the exhibition, both acquired within the last two years.
4. NEW YORK, metmuseum.org. An ambitious exhibition—sweeping in scope and challenging conventional perceptions of African art—opened at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Bringing together more than 100 masterpieces drawn from the premier collections in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Portugal, France, and the United States, Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures considers eight landmark sculptural traditions that flourished in West and Central Africa between the 12th and the early 20th century. These works were created by some of the regions’ most gifted artists, who were charged with producing enduring visual monuments dedicated to the legacies of revered leaders.
For the first time a museum considers iconic sculptural tributes from Africa in terms of the specific celebrated figures that they were once intimately tied to. Among those subjects who were famous in their own time but whose significance in connection to their depictions has largely been lost to viewers are: Queen Mother Idia and Oba Akenzua I of Benin (Nigeria), Nana Attabra of Nkwanta (Ghana), Chief Nkwain of Kom (Cameroon),Chief Chibwabwa Ilunga of the Luluwa (Democratic Republic of the Congo), King Mbó Mbóósh of the Kuba (D.R.C), and Chief Kalala Lea of the Hemba (D.R.C.).
Heroic Africans presents an unparalleled opportunity to bring to life oral history in visual terms and put a face on the major protagonists of Africa’s pre-colonial history for the first time. The exhibition opens by posing a question: who are the individuals that the most gifted artists of their respective times and cultures depicted for the ages? Over the centuries across sub-Saharan Africa, artists memorialized for posterity eminent individuals of their societies in an astonishingly diverse repertory of regional sculptural idioms, both naturalistic and abstract, that commemorate their subjects through culturally customized aesthetic formulations. The original patrons of such depictions intended for them to act as concrete points of reference to specific elite members of a given community. Over the past century, however, isolation of those creations from the sites, oral traditions, and socio-cultural contexts in which they were conceived, has led them to be seen as timeless abstractions of generic archetypes. Since that time few have recognized that these works were produced in honor of admired individuals. While information about those figures has been touched upon in the academic literature of African studies, such a body of work has never before been assembled in an exhibition. Through providing key cultural context, this exhibition affords appreciation of the significance of such representations and the ability to relate them to their historical subjects as living, breathing men and women. “Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures” remains through Jan. 29 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org.
5. PINAR DEL RIO, CUBA (AP).- A traveling exhibition of art donated by a U.S. philanthropist is giving Cubans outside the capital a rare chance to see works from masters such as Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol that would normally hang in world-class galleries instead of sleepy provincial cities.
Georges Rouault, Roy Lichtenstein and others went up in the glassed lobby of a local TV station, watched over by just a few police and guards and prompting curious passers-by to pop in to see what all the fuss was about. The show was nearing the end of its tour as officials prepared this week to
dismantle it and return the works to Havana. Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
Many of the museum's original pieces were broken, destroyed or stolen during the Taliban era or the civil war that preceded it in the 1990s, but some have been pieced back together and a series of archaeological digs have also unearthed new treasures. Among the fresh discoveries are a wooden Buddha dating back to the fifth century and Buddha heads made of clay and plaster. They are helping a whole nation slowly rediscover a classical past as a confluence of cultures from India to China and from Iran and central Asia to the East. The United States this year committed $5 million to building a new museum with state-of-the-art security systems and climate control features next to the
old one, so that the Hidden Treasures exhibition can finally return home. "Restoring such artefacts is essential to both Afghan identity, and the identity of our collective human experience," said Rahim B.Kanani, a U.S.-based columnist who has written extensively on Afghanistan. (Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison and Yoko Nishikawa) © Thomson Reuters 2011. All rights reserved.
7. Cooperstown - Fenimore Art Museum - Inspired Traditions: Selections From The Jane Katcher Collection Of Americana Sep 27th, 2011 Jane Katcher, a retired physician who lives in Florida, collected for nearly three decades before going public with her passion for American folk art. Her
debut coincided with the Fenimore Art Museum's 2005–2007 traveling exhibition "A Deaf Artist in Early America: The Worlds of John Brewster Jr." Katcher lent to the show the 1799 painting "Comfort Starr Mygatt and Lucy Mygatt," the solemnly tender portrait of a Danbury, Conn., man and his
The Brewster exhibition and "Made for Love: Selections from the Jane Katcher Collection of Americana," a small exhibit at Yale in 2007, coincided with the publication of Expressions of Innocence and Eloquence: Selections from the Jane Katcher Collection of Americana (Marquand Press, 2006). Commissioned by Katcher, the catalog of her collection contained 203 entries,
plus essays by 11 scholars. Five of the original authors plus five additional contributors recently collaborated on a follow-up catalog , Expressions of Innocence and Eloquence: Selections from the Jane Katcher Collection, Volume II. To be published by Marquand in November, it contains 91 additional entries, most of them new acquisitions. In conjunction with the second volume, "Inspired Traditions: The Jane Katcher Collection of Americana" is on view at the New York State Historical
Association's (NYSHA) Fenimore Art Museum between October 1 and December 31. "Jane Katcher is drawn to pieces that speak not just to her eye, but to her keen sense of the people who made and owned them," said Dr Paul S. D'Ambrosio, NYSHA's president and chief executive officer. "Time and time again, she acquires works that make connections on many levels. These pieces are
windows into the lives of earlier Americans. That is really what inspired me to do the exhibition," he added. The Fenimore Art Museum is at 5798 State Highway 80, one mile north of the
village of Cooperstown on the west side of Otsego Lake. For information, 607-547-1400 or www.fenimoreartmuseum.org .
Antiques and the Arts Editorial Content
8. BALTIMORE, MD.-artdaily.org - The Walters Art Museum announces today a major gift from John Bourne of Santa Fe, N.M, including 70 artworks from the Ancient Americas and approximately 230 additional planned gifts. He will also provide a $4 million bequest from his estate to help endow a center for the study, conservation, interpretation and display of the arts of the Ancient Americas.
creation of a gallery devoted to the arts of the Ancient Americas. To share these new acquisitions with the public, the Walters will present the special exhibition Exploring Art of the Ancient Americas: The John Bourne Collection Gift from February 12 through May 20, 2012. Drawn from the
collection that Bourne began in 1940, this exhibition will present approximately 129 works from the collection of ancient Mesoamerican, Central American and Andean South American art, spanning more than 2,500 years from 1200 b.c. to a.d. 1530. The exhibition will travel to the Albuquerque
Museum of Art & History in New Mexico from June 10 through August 26, 2012.
Editor note: As an appraiser this article attracted my attention. Donation of Pre-Columbian works to museums have become quite difficult as a result of AAM's guidelines to not accept any objects that can not be documented in the U.S. prior to 1970. Apparently Mr. Bourne began collecting in the 1940's. Collectors that can document their collection history prio to 1970 will see increased values in their Pre-Columbian art.
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