Auctions Around The World - Fall 2014

1. DALLAS, TX.- A rare and early working model of Eli Whitney's revolutionary Cotton Gin, a cornerstone of museum exhibits from Michigan to Georgia, is expected to sell for $10,000+ in Heritage Auctions' Nov. 8 Americana & Political Signature Auction in Dallas. From a direct rice paper printing of The Declaration of Independence (est. $12,000+) to an original blueprint for Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece "Fallingwater" (est. $12,000+), the auction spans 200 years of American ingenuity, politics, and culture.
 "The phrase "museum quality" is tossed around quite liberally these days, so we are pleased to present items that have quite literally been displayed in museums for decades," said Tom Slater, Director of Americana for Heritage.
The evocative cotton gin dates to the early 1800s and spent more than 60 years in the Atlanta Museum before appearing in the important exhibition "Slavery on Trial-the Long Road to Freedom" at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan. http://artdaily.com/news/73946/Early-working-model-of-Eli-Whitney-s-cotton-gin-may-sell-for--10-000--at-Heritage-Auctions#.VFafTf50zVk

2. DENVER, PA.- Geological treasures of every imaginable color and origin will take the spotlight on Saturday, November 8, as Morphy’s presents an eye-filling 116-lot auction of rare minerals. In addition to gallery bidding, all forms of remote bidding will be available, including absentee, phone and live via the Internet.
The anticipated top lot of the sale is Lot 10, a spectacular 257-gram Tanzanite crystal. Found in the Merelani Hills region near Arusha, Umba Valley, Tanzania, the intense blue-purple specimen is a true rarity with perfect proportions culminating in a sharp, chiseled determination. Previously in a private collection assembled by a gem broker in Arusha, this crystal was sold to an investor a few years ago.
“Tanzanite crystals only come from one place in the world, a mine complex that is already past the 1.5-

kilometer depth mark,” said Morphy Auctions president, Dan Morphy. “The mine is still going, but there’s a limit, and access to Tanzanite crystals like the one in our sale will eventually end.” Measuring 10.9 by 4.7 by 3.5cm, the crystal is estimated at $100,000-$125,000.
Another geological beauty that’s expected to land in the money is Lot 102, an important, 100-percent natural gold specimen from Boise County, Idaho. It was found with a metal detector in 2008 at the old dumps of Belshazzar Mine. “Crystallized gold from this locality was barely known until this find,” Morphy noted. After this particular specimen’s discovery, the Belshazzar Mine area became known as one of the top US locales for gold in crystal form. The piece has been assayed by specific gravity at 19.35 ounces of pure gold content out of 24.56 ounces of total weight, including the matrix rock. Of investment grade and measuring 10.8 by 7.7 by 6.7cm, it is expected to sell for $80,000-$110,000. ... more  http://artdaily.com/news/73945/Earth-s-most-vibrant-natural-wonders-featured-in-Morphy-s-Nov--8-Mineral-Auction#.VFag0_50zVk

3. LONDON.- Christie’s announces a new approach to buying: Christie’s Buy or Bid. This November, alongside the usual auction calendar, Christie’s South Kensington presents a hand selected group of items that will be available to purchase at a fixed price for a fixed period. Shoppers have the opportunity to acquire their Christmas presents in the Old Brompton Road saleroom or online between 14 November and 3 December. Anything which is not snapped up during this initial period will go into the 9 December Interiors auction where they will be priced with auction estimates. Christie’s Buy or Bid will showcase a unique and eclectic collection of 42 lots, handpicked by our specialists to make for personal presents or simply a new addition to the home. Fixed prices for the Christie’s Buy or Bid selection start at £1,040, ranging up to £13,000, and items bought ahead of the auction can be specially gift- wrapped for buyers to take home ready for the holidays. The wide range of gifts includes everything from paintings and sculpture, to jewellery, to an Art Deco chromium plated coffee machine and a 1962 pinball machine.
CHRISTIE’S BUY OR BID HIGHLIGHTS
A Group of Papua New Guinea Chloromelanite Ceremonial Stone Adze Blades or Obligation Stones Buy Purchase Price: £6,500 Bid Auction Estimate: £4,000-5,000
• An Art Deco Chromium plated Coffee Machine by Victoria Arduino Buy Purchase Price: £13,000 Bid Auction Estimate: £8,000-10,000
• An Electro-Mechanical Star Jet Pinball Machine made by Bally, 1962 Buy Purchase Price: £10,400 Bid Auction Estimate: £6,000-8,000
• An 18ct white gold and diamond 'Possession' ring, by Piaget Buy Purchase Price: £3,900 Bid Auction Estimate: £2,500-£3,000
• A pair of Tamil Nadu gold earrings, South India, 19th century Buy Purchase Price: £3,250 Bid Auction Estimate: £2,000-2,500
• A 'Tubogas' quartz wristwatch, by Bulgari Buy Purchase Price: £5,200 Bid Auction Estimate: £3,000-£4,000
• A Large Moroccan Ammonite from the cretaceous (145-65 MYA) Buy Purchase Price: £2,080 Bid Auction Estimate: £1,200-1,600
• A pair of fossilised giant deer or 'Irish elk' antlers circa 10,500-5,700 B.C. Buy Purchase Price: £10,400 Bid Auction Estimate: £6,000-8,000
• A Swiss gilt-brass Atmos clock, Jaeger Lecoultre, Switzerland Second half 20th century Buy Purchase Price: £1,040 Bid Auction Estimate: £500-800
More..http://artdaily.com/news/73930/A-new-way-to-buy-unique-gifts-at-Christie-s--Explore-Christie-s-Buy-or-Bid#.VFah8f50zVk

4. NEW YORK, NY.- The History of Science auction at Bonhams New York ended with the sale of the Apple-1 computer, which sold for $905,000, almost twice its high estimate, making it the world’s most valuable relic from the computer age.
The winning bid went to a smiling representative from the Henry Ford Museum who triumphantly raised the paddle after battling it out with another interested party on the phone.
Cassandra Hatton, the senior specialist in charge of the auction comments on the success of the sale of the Apple-1, “The provenance on the Apple-1 is excellent and the condition is outstanding, so it was not surprising that it did so well. We are thrilled to have broken the world record for its sale, and are even more thrilled that it is going to a wonderful new home at the Henry Ford Museum.”
In addition to the beautifully intact motherboard, this Apple-1 comes with a vintage keyboard with pre-7400 series military spec chips, a vintage Sanyo monitor, a custom vintage power supply in wooden box, as well as two vintage tape-decks. The lot additionally includes ephemera from the Cincinnati AppleSiders such as their first newsletter “Poke-Apple” from February of 1979 and a video recording of Steve Wozniak’s

keynote speech at the 1980 “Applevention.”
The Apple-1 is widely acknowledged as the herald of the personal computer revolution, being the first pre-assembled personal computer ever sold. This example is one of 50 hand-built for the ByteShop by Steve Wozniak in the summer of 1976 in Steve Jobs’ garage (or possibly his sister’s bedroom). At the time, only a handful of people could conceive of how a personal computer might be considered useful, let alone desirable. Now, not even 40 years later, it boggles the imagination to think of life without them.
http://artdaily.com/news/73851/Bonhams-in-New-York-breaks-world-record-for-most-expensive-Apple-computer-ever-sold#.VFa-jf50zVk

5. DALLAS, TX.- A San Ildefonso Polychrome Plate, by famed potter Maria Martinez and her son, Popovi Da, circa 1966, may sell for $20,000+ in Heritage Auctions' Nov. 14 American Indian Art , Pre-Columbian, & Tribal Art Signature Auction in Dallas.
"The work of Maria Martinez and Popovi Da is the most sought after of all San Ildefonso pottery," said Delia E. Sullivan, Director of American Indian Art at Heritage. "That this plate is a polychrome example, rather than the usual black-on-black, sends the value soaring. It’s really something quite special. Like this plate, the fall auction is filled with finds that stand out for their artistic merit as well as for their historical interest."
The auction holds fine American Indian art objects from every corner of North America. A brilliant Sioux Beaded Hide Dress, circa 1900 (est. $6,000+), fashioned from two skins and embellished with glass beads, is offered with provenance relating to a noteworthy Winnebago Appliqued Ribbon-work Outfit (est.

$1,500+). The current owner's step-mother danced in the Winnebago outfit at the Wisconsin Dells, while the Sioux dress was owned by an elder member of the family. A stunning Acoma Polychrome Jar, circa 1890, has provenance from the collection of Earl and Ann Morris, who were early anthropologists in the Southwest (est. $5,000+). A beautifully-composed Alaskan Eskimo Carved Wood Mask, probably from King Island (est. $1,000+), is also on offer.
An exceptional Pre-Columbian Shark Pendant/Brooch, circa 600-1100 AD (est. $10,000+) was cast in solid gold using the ancient lost wax process. The realistic and fine shark form — quite rare among Pre-Columbian gold figures — highlights a gold collection that also includes a Prancing Canine; a Composite Creature, each circa 400-1100 AD; and a large Veraguas Standing Figure, circa 900-1100 AD (all est. $5,000+ each). Among the Pre-Columbian pottery, an Expressive Maya Stucco Head, circa 600-800 AD (est. $8,000+), is a stand out.
http://artdaily.com/news/74135/San-Ildefonso-polychrome-plate-may-bring--20-000--at-Heritage-Auctions-#.VFzkIP50zVk

6. NEW YORK - Wall Street Journal - It may be autumn, but Christie’s got a dose of “Spring” when it sold Édouard Manet’s wispy view of a woman sporting a bonnet and parasol for $65.1 million in New York on Wednesday—nearly doubling its high estimate and breaking the artist’s auction record.
Manet unveiled the 1881 work to great acclaim at Paris’s taste-making Salon in 1882. He intended the work to form part of a four-part series on the seasons, but the artist died two years later, before he could finish “Autumn.” He was 51 years old.
Stories often help sell paintings, and “Spring” enjoyed a colorful afterlife, bought in 1909 by Col. Oliver Payne, an Ohio oil magnate who famously owned a 300-foot-long steam yacht named Aphrodite. The colonel’s heirs sold the Manet on Wednesday; the buyer, a young man with a faux-hawk hairdo and a red necktie, works for Otto Naumann, an old-masters dealer in New York. The gallery was bidding on behalf of an anonymous client.
  An employee stands by Fernand Leger's painting "The Constructors, with Tree" on Oct. 14 at Christie's Auction House in London.  Luke MacGregor/Reuters
Sizzling provenance couldn’t save Fernand Leger’s scene of a construction crew working beside an aloe plant, however. Christie’s failed to find a buyer for “The Constructors, with Tree,” despite its $16 million low estimate. The 1949-50 work’s prior owners included casino magnate  Steve Wynn  and Chicago’s Sara Lee Corp., but when the Leger went up for bid on Wednesday, the house’s Rockefeller Center salesroom fell still. Before the sale, Christie’s had offered the work a guarantee, a financial mechanism in which it pledges to buy a work if no one else does... more
http://online.wsj.com/articles/christies-sale-boosted-by-65-1-million-manet-leger-flops-1415246090

7. NEW YORK - Wall Street Journal - Sotheby’s  got New York’s fall auctions off to a rollicking start with a sale of Impressionist and modern art on Tuesday that totaled $422.1 million, the highest in the 270-year-old company’s history.
Leading the charge was Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti’s 1951-52 bronze “Chariot”—depicting a finger-thin woman riding atop a chariot—that sold to a telephone bidder for $101 million.
Collectors and dealers in Sotheby’s York Avenue salesroom gasped when auctioneer Henry Wyndham kicked off the bidding for the work at $80 million,?and quiet pervaded the early moments of the bidding. Sotheby’s had staked its own money to guarantee that the work would sell, a risky strategy, but it paid off when a telephone bidder swooped in at the last minute and placed a single, winning bid. The work had been

estimated to sell for $90 million or more.
The “Chariot” now ranks with Edvard Munch’s $120 million “The Scream” as one of the most expensive artworks ever sold at auction, but the record for a Giacometti still belongs to the artist’s “Walking Man I,” which sold for $104.3 million four years ago. The “Chariot” buyer remains anonymous, but the specialist handling the winning bid typically represents American collectors.
Elsewhere in the sale, three bidders chased hard after Amedeo Modigliani’s “Head,” a 2-foot-tall stone bust of a woman with the artist’s signature elongated face. The winning telephone bidder paid $70.7 million, a record high for the artist. The dozen sculptures in Sotheby’s sale claimed nearly half the sale’s overall total—a sign that Impressionist and modern collectors continue to elevate the value of three-dimensional objects to the blue-chip status of paintings.... more
http://online.wsj.com/articles/sothebys-auction-led-by-101-million-sale-of-giacomettis-chariot-1415160275

Repatriation Fall 2014

1. NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s announced its support for the return of the Codex Chimalpahin to Mexico, where it went on public display at the Museo Nacional de Antropología beginning today, September 18. The three volumes of hand-written, indigenous accounts vividly document the history of Aztec Mexico in Pre-Hispanic and 16th Century New Spain. It was returned to Mexico in a private sale facilitated by Christie’s earlier this year.
The Codex will remain on public view at the Museo Nacional de Antropologia in Mexico City until January 11, 2015 as part of the exhibition Códices de México, Memorias y Saberes. The Codex takes its place among the most important archives in the Biblioteca Nacional de Antropología e Historia and in the future will be made available for further study by scholars.
Steven Murphy, Christie’s Chief Executive Officer, commented: “This is a superb outcome and we are proud to have assisted in securing the long term future of this important historic manuscript. Christie’s welcomes the opportunity to discuss matters relating to cultural property and while this is often a highly complex area, we have successfully found solutions which have resulted in the return of important objects. We are working increasingly regularly with clients, cultural organizations and governments on such matters.”
INAH (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia) contacted Christie’s in May of this year, prior to the London auction in which the Codex was originally consigned, to make a private offer. The manuscripts had been long part of the archives of the British and Foreign Bible Society who were very supportive in helping facilitate the return of this historic object to Mexico. The negotiations were coordinated by Martin Wilson, Chairman of Christie’s Cultural Property Committee, Gabriela Lobo, Christie’s Managing Director in Mexico, and Margaret Ford, Christie’s International Head of Books.
The manuscripts contain largely unpublished, original indigenous accounts written in the hands of two of the great figures of the time – Chimalpahin Cuauhtlehuanitzin (also known as “runs Swiftly with a Shield / Rises Like an Eagle”) and Fernando de Alva Ixtlixochitl – concerning native life, society and politics in pre-Hispanic and 16th century New Spain. Written in Nahuatl (Aztec) and Spanish, they were part of the famed library of Don Carlos Sigüenza y Góngora, historian, poet and cartographer and one of the first great intellectuals born in the Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain.
The Codex Chimalpahin was officially welcomed back to Mexico as part of a ceremony on September 17 that also celebrated the 75th anniversary of the INAH and the 50th anniversary of the Museo Nacional de Antropología. The ceremony, which included an unveiling and celebration of the Codex’s return, was attended by public officials representing the President of the Republic. The acquisition increases Mexican bibliographic heritage and represents the first repatriation of a founding document of the nation.
 http://artdaily.com/news/72958/Manuscript-detailing-early-history-of-Aztec-nation-makes-a-celebrated-return-to-Mexico#.VF01Of50zVk

2. BOGOTA (AFP).- Spain on Monday returned to Colombia a huge and priceless find -- almost 700 pieces of pre-Columbian art that Spanish authorities siezed in over a decade ago in a drug bust. The

catalogue of museum-worthy artefacts includes vases decorated with human faces, ceramic bowls decorated with geometric designs in ochre tones, musical instruments, necklaces and even small figures of people -- dating from 1400 BC up to the 16th century.
"Recovering for our nation these 691 archaeological treasures has a value that is really difficult to put any price on. They are from many of our (indigenous) cultures, and getting them home took years," Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin said at a briefing, presenting 50 of the remarkable pieces.
The artefacts -- from Calima, Narino, San Agustin, Quimbaya, Sinu and other groups -- had been spirited out of Colombia in 2001 before being seized from drug traffickers by Spanish authorities in 2003.
http://artdaily.com/news/72562/Spain-returns-priceless-trove-of-pre-Columbian-art-to-Colombia-#.VF1Tdv50zVk

Archaeology Around the World

1. ATHENS (AFP).- An imposing mosaic of a man driving a chariot has been uncovered in the largest antique tomb ever found in Greece, in Amphipolis in northern Macedonia, the culture ministry said Sunday.
Tiny pieces of white, black, blue, red, yellow and grey create a picture of a chariot drawn by two white horses, driven by a bearded man wearing a crown of laurel leaves. Hermes, the messenger of the gods in ancient Greece, stands in front of the chariot.  "This mosaic, the largest on the site, measures 4.5 metres by three metres (14.8 by 9.8 feet) and is not completely uncovered," a statement said. The mosaic dates from the fourth century BC.  Archaeologists unearthed the enormous tomb dating to the time of Alexander the Great of Macedonia in early August.
There is widespread speculation over who was buried at the site: from Roxana, Alexandra's Persian wife, to Olympias, the king's mother, to one of his generals. http://artdaily.com/news/73572/Giant-mosaic-unearthed-in-mysterious-tomb-in-Amphipolis-in-northern-Macedonia#.VFab4f50zVk

2. LINARES (AFP).- Archaeologists say they have found one of the earliest pictures ever of Jesus Christ, sporting an unusual clean-shaven, short-haired look, on an old glass plate unearthed in southern Spain.
The team found numerous fragments of glass during a three-year dig in the ruined ancient city of Castulo and in July dug up some bigger bits with designs that caught their eye. When pieced together, the shards formed a plate dating to the fourth century AD, with an engraving of Christ in a Roman-style toga, neatly groomed. The researchers identified it as a paten, a plate for holding the bread for communion. They pieced together more than 80 percent of the plate, which measured 22 centimetres (about eight and a half inches) in

diameter. It went on display this month in a museum in the southeastern Spanish town of Linares. The leader of the dig, Marcelo Castro, hailed the finding as "an exceptional archaeological document". Three haloed figures are engraved on it, with Christ himself in the middle, holding a cross and a Bible, flanked by two men thought to be the apostles Peter and Paul. Experts say Christ's lack of beard and short curly hair in the engraving are very rare traits in historic depictions of him. Castro said it was a relic of a key early period in church history, just after the Roman Emperor Constantine embraced Christianity.
Previously Christians had worshipped in secret and produced few sacred images for fear of persecution under the Romans... More.. http://artdaily.com/news/73435/Image-of-a-Christ-without-a-beard--short-hair-and-wearing-a-toga-unearthed-in-Spain-#.VFac-P50zVk

3. MEXICO CITY (AFP).- Mexico's largest exhibit of Mesoamerican manuscripts features a codex made of fig tree bark suggesting that Aztec emperor Moctezuma was slain by a Spanish conquistador with a sword.
The piece is among 44 codices made by several pre-Columbian populations -- including the Mayas, Purepechas and Zapotecos -- on display at the National Museum of Anthropology.
Some of the pieces in the temporary exhibit, titled "Codices of Mexico: Memories and Wisdom," are as large as 10 square meters (108 square feet). One cost the government $1 million to buy from the Bible Society in Britain. "It's the biggest codex exhibit (in Mexico)," curator Baltazar Brito, director of the National

Anthropology and History Library, told AFP.
The codices were written by tlacuilos, which in Mayan means a person who carves stones.
The ancient manuscripts present a vision of history from the point of view of "the people who were subdued after the conquest," Brito said. "They are a very important demonstration of the knowledge acquired by Mesoamerican peoples throughout their history."
The collection's centerpiece is the Chimalpahin codex, which the government bought in May from the Bible Society to stop it from being auctioned off. The manuscript was made by indigenous historians Domingo Chimalpahin (1579-1660) and Alva Ixtlilxochitl (1578-1650).
The piece recounts the daily life of Mexican society in the country's central regions as well as during colonial times under New Spain. Moctezuma's death Another jewel in the museum's treasure trove is the Moctezuma codex, a two-meter (two-yard) long and 25-centimeter (10-inch) wide piece made with the bark of a fig tree. Ancient chronicles say Moctezuma was stoned to death in 1520 by his own people, who considered him a traitor for surrendering to the Spaniards.
But the small drawings in the Moctezuma codex tell a different story of the final days of one of the last Aztec emperors. "This codex shows us how he was captured by a Spaniard and then he is seen dead, bloodied with a sword," Brito said. "This is another version of history that has a lot of value because the codices were considered works done by the people, for the people."
There are some 650 Mexican codices in museums around the world, and a third belong to Mexico's Museum of Anthropology.
The current exhibit, which runs through January, includes manuscripts describing plants and recipes that the Spanish crown forced the indigenous populations to elaborate after learning about their medicinal value.
The indigenous populations also used these manuscripts to appeal for their rights before the crown.
One codex was drawn on a nopal cactus to depict the family tree of the elite who lived in the ancient city of Tenochtitlan, where Mexico City lies today.
"The messages of the codices have yet to be completely deciphered," Brito said.
http://artdaily.com/news/73759/In-Mexico-s-National-Museum-of-Anthropology--codex-exhibit-rethinks-Moctezuma-s-death#.VF0Guf50zVk

Restoration and Conservation Fall 2014

1. VATICAN CITY (AFP).- High above the altar in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel, the halo around Jesus Christ's head in Michelangelo's famous frescoes shines with a brighter glow, thanks to a revolutionary new lighting system. Angels, sybils and prophets in blues, pinks and golds, once lost in the gloom, are brought into sharp relief by 7,000 LED lamps designed specifically for the prized chapel, where red-hatted cardinals have elected new popes since the 15th century. A state of the art ventilation system has also been installed to protect the frescoes from humidity, enabling up to 2,000 people at a time to safely visit one of the world's top tourist attractions, which draws over six million people a year. The entire project cost some three million euros ($3.77 million) -- with 1.9 million euros spent on the lighting alone. The venture was funded in part by European Union funds, with the rest donated ... More
http://artdaily.com/news/73964/The-Vatican-s-Sistine-Chapel-dazzles-thanks-to-a-revolutionary-new-lighting-system#.VFabC_50zVk

1.VATICAN CITY (AFP).- High above the altar in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel, the halo around Jesus Christ's head in Michelangelo's famous frescoes shines with a brighter glow, thanks to a revolutionary new lighting system.
Angels, sybils and prophets in blues, pinks and golds, once lost in the gloom, are brought into sharp relief by 7,000 LED lamps designed specifically for the prized chapel, where red-hatted cardinals have elected new popes since the 15th century.
A state of the art ventilation system has also been installed to protect the frescoes from humidity, enabling up to 2,000 people at a time to safely visit one of the world's top tourist attractions, which draws over six million people a year.
The entire project cost some three million euros ($3.77 million) -- with 1.9 million euros spent on the lighting alone. The venture was funded in part by European Union funds, with the rest donated to the Vatican in expertise, technology and man hours by the various companies taking part.
"The LEDs have a colour spectrum specifically designed with the pigmentation of the frescos in mind to ensure the light faithfully reflects the original colours, as the artists intended," said Marco Frascarolo, who works for Fabertechnica, one of the companies behind the new system.
"As each LED can be tuned to a different colour, we spent long nights in the chapel with the Vatican Museum curators, trying out different mixes of red, blues, whites... trying to get it just right," he said during a private tour for journalists of the chapel late Wednesday.
While eight colour samples are usually taken in an environment to create a LED system, 276 areas of the Renaissance paintings were analysed, he said.
The sunlight which had streamed through the windows for centuries was shut out in the 1980s, when conservators realised ultraviolet radiation was damaging the masterpieces, causing the Last Judgement and other frescoes which cover the chapel's ceiling and walls to fade. ... more
http://artdaily.com/news/73964/The-Vatican-s-Sistine-Chapel-dazzles-thanks-to-a-revolutionary-new-lighting-system#.VFz82v50zVk

What's Happening In Museums Around the World

1.DALLAS, TX.- The art collective known as Slavs and Tatars will for the first time present the complete series of Love Letters carpets—10 in all—together with a new audio piece produced
specifically for their exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art. Concentrations 57: Slavs and Tatars, opening July 18 (Late Night Friday) and on view through December 14, 2014, will also include
three additional works of sculpture from their current thematic series, Long Legged Linguistics. This installation is the latest in the Museum’s Concentrations series of project-based solo
exhibitions by international emerging and under-represented artists. Concentrations began in 1981 as part of the DMA’s commitment to showing the work of living artists, while preserving the
excitement of the work. ... more
Slavs and Tatars, founded in 2006, is an art collective whose installations, lecture-performances, sculptures and publications contemplate otherwise little-known affinities, syncretic ideas,
belief systems and rituals among peoples of the Caucasus, Central Asia and Eastern Europe.
http://artdaily.com/news/71581/Dallas-Museum-of-Art-first-to-present-Slavs-and-Tatars--complete-Love-Letters-Carpet-series#.U9qbL7Hb4Sk

2.  Association of Art Museum Directors sanctions Delaware Art Museum for sale of work of art
NEW YORK, NY.- The Association of Art Museum Directors released the following statement: The Association of Art Museum Directors is deeply troubled and saddened that the Delaware Art
Museum has deaccessioned and sold a work of art from its collection to pay outstanding debt and build its operating endowment. Art museums collect works of art for the benefit of present

and future generations. Responsible stewardship of a museum’s collection and the conservation, exhibition, and study of these works are the heart of a museum’s commitment to its
community and to the public. It is therefore a fundamental professional principle that works can only be deaccessioned to provide funds to acquire works of art and enhance a museum’s
collection.... more
More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/70895/Association-of-Art-Museum-Directors-sanctions-Delaware-Art-Museum-for-sale-of-work-of-art#.U8A3V1fb4Sk

3. NORTHAMPTON, UK - Two museums have lost their accreditation status after the controversial sale of a 4,000-year-old Egyptian statue to a private collector.

Northampton Borough Council sold the Sekhemka limestone statue for nearly £16m at auction to help fund an extension to the town's museum.
Arts Council England ruled the sale breached the accredited standards for how museums manage their collections.
The council is now ineligible for a range of arts grants and funding.
Scott Furlong, from the Arts Council, said: "It is always hugely regrettable when we have to exclude a museum from the Accreditation Scheme.

"However, it is equally important that we are robust in upholding the standards and principles which underpin the scheme and are shared by the vast majority of museums."
Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, which is set to benefit from the sale of the statue, and the council-run Abington Park Museum have been removed from the Accreditation Scheme with immediate effect and excluded from future participation until at least August 2019.
The scheme sets nationally agreed standards for museums in the UK, demonstrating their commitment to managing collections effectively for the enjoyment and benefit of users. It also has strict criteria for the disposal of cultural objects.Sekhemka was gifted to Northampton's museums by the 4th Marquis of Northampton in 1880...more
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-28602849


4. ABOUT.COM An exciting line-up of of museum exhibits and installations is on tap for 2014. Must-see exhibits will be on display not just in our museum capitals of New York, Chicago, DC, etc., but also in St. Petersburg (FL), Milwaukee, Richmond, and Charlotte. Adding to the variety of destinations is the wide range of subject matter, from post-war art to nature photography to a living exhibit of octopi.

The following list is far from exhaustive--it is but a taste of some of the bigger shows on view this year. To find information on other exhibits, browse this list of top 10 museums in the USA. Further, if you use Twitter, you can follow my extensive list of U.S. Museums on Twitter.

Renaissance to Goya: Prints and Drawings from Spain is a blockbuster collaboration between the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe and the British Museum in London. Through March 9, 2014.

Warhol: Art. Fame. Mortality is a show of more than 100 Andy Warhol works at the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL. January 18-April 27, 2014.

Miró: The Experience of Seeing at the Seattle Museum of Art will include 50 paintings, drawings, and sculptures culled from Madrid's Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. February 13-May 25, 2014.

The Essential Robert Indiana, featuring the works of visual artist and LOVE sculptor, "will premiere in the state whose name he adopted as his own." Head to the Indianapolis Museum of Art from February 16-May 4, 2014.

Degas/Cassatt will explore the connections between these two well-known Impressionists with 70 works at the National Gallery in Washington, DC. May 11-October 5, 2014.

Kandinsky: A Retrospective will showcase the works of Modern Art pioneer Wassily Kandinsky at the Milwaukee Museum of Art. June 5-September 1, 2014.

Modernism from the National Gallery of Art: The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection gives the West Coast a chance to see 50 works by the likes of Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Frank Stella. On view at San Francisco's de Young Museum June 7-October 12, 2014.

Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926-1938. This exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago will be the "first major museum exhibition to focus exclusively on the breakthrough years of René Magritte, creator of some of the 20th century’s most extraordinary imageswill be the first major survey of the artist's work in an American museum." June 24-October 13, 2014.

Jeff Koons: A Retrospective will be the last major show at NYC's Whitney Museum before it moves to a new space in the Meatpacking District. Koons' works, which are among some of the most famous of the late 20th century, will take up almost the entirety of the Whitney. June 27-October 19, 2014.

http://usatravel.about.com/od/MuseumExhibits/tp/Exhibits-2014-Top-Museum-Shows-for-2014.htm
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