Artist Cards From Holidays Past ... Redux

Authors' note: I have decided to take a break for the next week or two and asked my Associate, Vince Hickman, who has published my Missives since the beginning, to pick which he thought might be best for the season ...

*originally published Dec 2014

The History Museum in Santa Fe had the wonderful idea to mount a small Christmas card show for this holiday season; “Gustave Baumann and Friends; Artist Cards from Holidays Past” curated by Tom Leech, director of the Palace Press, and guest curator Jean Moss.  Baumann was a German-born artist who came to Santa Fe in 1918.  He was already well known in the U.S. as a print maker when he came here.  The wide distribution of prints throughout time has spread images across time and nations.  So it was with Baumann’s prints of New Mexico making this part of the world better known throughout the states and internationally.

Ann Baumann, Gustave and Jane’s daughter, left to the Fray Angelico Chavez History Library in Santa Fe a collection of original cards that her parents had received and others that they had sent.  There are about 400 cards in the collection and one quarter of them have been chosen for this exhibition.  Here is a photo of Jane and Gustave Baumann with their daughter Ann in 1954 courtesy of the Ann Baumann Trust.

The tradition of Christmas cards started in the times of Charles Dickens and soon were printed en masse by commercial houses.  If you have ever sent out Christmas cards you know it can be an expensive endeavor and artists usually do not have that kind of money to spend frivolously.  Many of them therefore made and printed their own.

The cards in this show are cleverly divided into categories such as, Angels and Madonnas, Santa and the Mailman, and Greeting Irreverent and Belated plus many others.  Of course, since the period of 1918 to 1971 when Baumann died included the Great Depression there is a selection from that time as well.

As said, the show is quite small and in a long narrow gallery but it is dense with gems.  It is a bit like one of those racks of sayings you might find at the Five and Dime and can’t tear yourself away from.  One is continuously surprised by the humor and insights on the cards.

In 1929 the Baumanns received a very appropriate and simple Christmas card from their friends Mary Lou and Oswald Cooper, it says, “We view with frugal disregard; The customary Christmas Fuss; You may have heard that times are hard- This card is all you’ll get from us”. 

The label for the card of mother and child says “Jenny Owens, age 17, linocut, date unknown.  I had a dyslexic moment and read instead of undated, updated, which I thought appropriate for this particular Holy Family. 

Playing on the fact that there is too little rain in New Mexico and water is a continuous source of anguish one of the Baumann greetings says, “The Baumanns send you their best umbrella: Just in case it decides to rain in 1955”.  The printing process was woodcut and marble papered collage and came from the collection of David Carter and Geneva Austin. 

In 1956 the Baumanns came up with a theme that I would love to appropriate considering our interest in the Hopi tribal culture.  It says, “The Hopi are a Peaceful People, Here’s to a Hopi Year for all of us”.

The exhibition also includes audio of the family’s reminiscences and all in all opens a time capsule into the life of an artist, family and friends.

Walatowa

Walatowa means “This is the Place” in the Towa language of the Jemez Indians, and it is the name of their Pueblo, one of the 19 pueblos in New Mexico. The Jemez (Pronounced Hemez) are a group of Tanoan Amerindian peoples who migrated to the area of Northern New Mexico in the 13th century. Today’s village is nestled in a valley of the Jemez mountains off a scenic National Byway, a 45-minute drive from Albuquerque and a bit less than an hour and a half from Santa Fe. We were invited by a Jemez artist to visit on December 12, when they celebrate the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a day with both deep religious and cultural significance. This day is celebrated with the traditional Los Matachines dances, a vibrant Spanish-influenced dance with unique masked dancers and music.

The Matachines dance was first recorded as such in Spain in the first half of the 17th century, when it celebrated the triumph of Christianity over the Moors. It continues to be performed in Mexico and the American Southwest, where it has come to represent the blending of Catholic traditions and Pueblo culture. Jemez preserves two distinct styles of the dance, the Spanish style with violins and a guitar, and the Native version with drums, rattles, and singers. Photography is not allowed on the pueblos, specifically during dances, so this is not my video but one online made several years ago. In some of the footage, you may spot a little girl dressed in white weaving among the lines of costumed dancers. She represents purity and goodness, either Montezuma’s mistress, Malinche, or the Virgin Mary, who must defeat evil in the form of a boy dressed as a bull. In the Spanish version we watched, both children were no more than 5 or 6 years old. The girl selected from the community had to have incredible stamina as she was required to follow the steps of the dance leader for hours. 

We have attended dances in other pueblos, but this experience was different and seemed more personal. There were fewer Anglos present as Jemez is located further off the beaten path than most other pueblos that are easily accessible from the main north-south artery of Interstate Highway 25. It made us feel that we were seeing something even more special than what we had in the past. Coming from the older demographic of Santa Fe, we had never seen a local crowd with so many infants and pre-primary school-age children. Although this was truly a community event, we felt welcome. Any other pueblo dances we have been to, you had to bring your own folding chair if you needed to sit, but here, there were benches set out in front of homes, and room was made on the front steps for those who were not necessarily Native.

The central plaza where the dances took place was ringed by tables with families selling objects mainly made in the pueblo, along with bread, cookies, and sweets. The food that we saw more of than anything else was popcorn! Some of the older kids even purchased drinks made from popcorn in different flavors.

The drive was worthwhile on its own. Once we got off of I-25, we passed every fast-food restaurant you have ever heard of, before heading out on a 68-mile stretch known as The Jemez Mountain Trail. One of the places I have loved since childhood is the German part of Switzerland with its snowcapped mountains and rugged terrain. This was different but just as inspiring, with a topography of rock formations of deeper and richer red as we progressed. The route continues beyond the Pueblo to Jemez Hot Springs and an extensive nature preserve called the Valles Caldera, and through to Bandelier National Monument. This time, we only went as far as the pueblo, so we missed what are reputed to be even more wonderful views. We were happy not to try to do it all, but rather enjoy what we had seen and learned about a place so near to where we live and yet part of another world.

Encroaching Museums

The National Gallery in London recently announced the Project Domani. Celebrating the museum’s 200th birthday, the Gallery intends to expand both architecturally and in the focus of the collection and programming. An international competition is underway to find a prominent architect to add an additional building on a property acquired 30 years ago. The permanent collection is to enlarge its scope, adding 20th and 21st-century art to its famous and fabulous holdings of European Old Masters.

National Gallery, London

The National Gallery and the Tate Modern are State institutions and have had an understanding that the former would collect art up to 1900 and the latter art after that date. However, this appears to have been a long-term issue of contention, most recently addressed by a 2009 agreement where the Tate conceded that the National Gallery could acquire some early 20th-century works.

Tate Modern

I am wondering why the National Gallery has now decided to change the arrangement. It is not necessary for survival or security, as that is guaranteed by the State. The timing is associated with the announcement of the success of the National Gallery in raising £375 million in private funds for the new building, and they wish to raise more for their expansion of the collection. Additional space would allow it to show more of the collection since roughly only half of it is on view. That would make sense to me, but they want to add generations more art to the collection, and I would guess that in the long run, the percentage on view will probably not change.

Inside the National Gallery

One of the supporting statements from the Gallery is that art is a continuum, which is a truism, but does not explain the incursion into the period to which the Tate Modern is dedicated. There is a great museum in London for sculpture and the decorative arts called the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is not included, though that too is part of the continuum.

In an Art Newspaper article, Bendor Grosvenor points out that this change will create a battle over audience and funds. The appointment of a joint committee can hardly be expected to avoid bad blood between the institutions. There will inevitably be competition for work in the market. Since the National Gallery is considered the more prestigious institution, those who have collections of modern and contemporary art to donate will tend to favor it. The government that supports both museums will also have to recalibrate its funds.

The official statement from the National Gallery reveals that the administration’s ambition in the field of contemporary art is aimed at getting “a larger, more diverse public’’ This follows the worldwide trend among traditional institutions. The Gallery also claims to be motivated by the wish “to elevate the visitor experience”. As has been pointed out before, the museums that want it all, such as the Metropolitan Museum, are all but overrun by crowds of visitors, mostly overwhelmed by the quantity of diverse offerings.

The visitor experience is far better at a museum that does not try to do it all. A stellar example is the Wallace Collection in London, which focuses on the fields for which it was founded. Surely the educational benefit of illustrating the influence of an old master on a modern artist can be answered with inter-museum loans without building parallel permanent collections.

Having it all does not necessarily make it better; it just makes it more.

Words/Expressions Left Behind

Unpacking groceries the other day, I asked if something needed to be put in the “Ice box”. It sounded odd. Does anyone use that expression anymore? My mother used the term for the refrigerator. She told me how in Germany, early in the last century, the Iceman did, indeed, come to fill the “Ice Box”. In 1939, Eugene O’Neill wrote the play, “The Iceman Cometh”.

That led my thoughts to the many words and expressions that are no longer used. I sent a friend in the Midwest my short list, being sure he would say that we use this or that expression all the time, but instead, he sent me a list twice as long as mine of words and expressions left behind. Online, I found more words I had not even heard of in my 81 years.

The most obvious ones relate to technology since that area of life moves on continuously. Once upon a time, I was on the Board of, but not an investor in, a “Laser disk” company. How about the “Video Home System (VHS)” that you can no longer use? “Black and white TV”, “Don’t touch the dial,” “Reel to reel tape,” or “rewind the tape”, all foreign to kids today. I don’t miss the “Floppy disks” or “Pagers” we used to have, but I depend on various Remotes.

Are there still the warnings I remember on New York City buses, “Beware of Pick Pockets”? Today, we worry about cybersecurity and hacking.

I grew up listening to “Radio serials,” but I am now streaming TV series, and good ones are binge-worthy. Do you still play “Records” on your “Record player” or “Phonograph”? No, you play your vinyl on a turntable. Did you leave your “Walkman” or “Gameboy” at home? I could not take my “tape recorder” with me all day. If I keep repeating myself, I will sound like “A broken record”.

What about the telephone: Where can I find the “Pay phone” or “Phone Booth”? Where would Superman go to change? Bet you don’t use the “Phone book” either. Thank goodness I no longer need to “Dial” a number. I remember my fingers getting sore from the metal dials. This is a fun take on Clark Kent’s speedy change to Superman in a phone booth. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHtYBif7Ric

In my office, I no longer have a “Typewriter”, so I don’t need to use “Carbon paper”. My “Inkstand” and “Blotter” are long gone, as is my “Rolodex”, and nowhere are notices sent by the “Pneumatic tube”.

I used to go to the “drug store” for medicine, but now I go to the pharmacy department.

You know the adage “A stitch in time saves nine,” but who does mending these days in our throw-away society?

Maybe we should bring back, “a fool and his money are soon parted” because of all the “monkey business” in the markets, oh that is just “A lot of malarky”.

Now that I have thrown in “Everything but the kitchen sink”, “Mum’s the word”, “Let’s cut to the chase”, “After painting the town red”, I will “Hit the hay” and say “Fare thee well”, or as my wife still says, “See you later alligator.”

I’m Lost; Where Should I Go?

I am always asking for suggestions for a Missive and very rarely get them, but my daughter came up with this one. She sent me an article from the New York Times by Martha Schwendener about what apps there are for a gallery search on the internet.

  

Once upon a time, or as my mother used to say, “In Former Times”, there were not that many art galleries to visit. In the cities that I know well, they have proliferated. Needless to say, estimates always vary widely, but looking at the first replies on the web, London has the most at 1500 galleries, New York City comes in second with 1450, Santa Fe at 250, and, interestingly, Paris has the least with 230. But even with that “few,” you can’t cover them all in one visit, or, in the case of the first two, maybe even a lifetime, and you may not want to. (Image Map Caption: Galleries in Downtown Manhattan)

Galleries in Downtown Manhattan

How to narrow it down? We used to have magazines for that, and Art Associations had their booklets, but today, surprise, surprise, we have the internet and apps for your phone.

The first such app guide came out in 2014, the year I closed my gallery for good. I love the double entendre of the guide’s title, “See Saw”. It covers New York, Berlin, Paris, London, and Los Angeles. After a few years, however, it started to charge the galleries a fee. Not surprisingly, the magazines used to do the same, but it brings into question how objective they can be. Also, are they missing the top galleries that may have felt they don’t need that publicity?

“Showrunner” boldly claims that it “is the most comprehensive app for art discovery in New York City”, boasting “Showrunner makes it easy to explore all the art New York City has to offer”. I doubt it!

“Artwrld” takes a different tack, with “Exhibitions of the Day”, openings, and events as well as listings. That one sounds good to me because, as a gallerist, I would want to know what is going on and where I should show up to be in the know and be known.

What sounds more like the old magazines is “Exhibits in New York,” which has added art criticism. I think I would want to read that after I had seen an exhibition, so I could first make up my own mind.

“ArtRabbit” is London-based but has entered the New York market. It has the innovative idea of allowing galleries, museums, and even users to contribute information that is moderated by staff before being posted. If it is done well, I would like this, with no one individual telling me what to see.

These days, as a retired art dealer and a curator, we go to fewer galleries and more to museums. So, what is out there for us? Some years ago, we discovered “Bloomberg Connects” which covers 1200 “museums, galleries, gardens and cultural spaces”, internationally. As you would expect, that would be only the better-known in each category. The good news is that it is very helpful inside those institutions, as well as being free.

“Smartify” has information on museums and sites, often with audio about specific objects or places. It works with its limited number of supporting museums. If you are travelling, the app will certainly give you guidance on what you might want to see and learn about in a new city. A feature I like is that you can point your phone at an artwork and learn a lot about it. Obviously, however, all 1,500,000 works of art in the Metropolitan Museum will not be included.

“Museumfy” also offers the ability to take a photo and learn about a work of art. It is also multilingual and can learn your interests to supply more information along those lines.

As you might expect, “Google Arts and Culture” makes it sound like they can give it all to you. Obviously, no one site can. Not even all the apps put together can cover all the art in all its locations. But surveying which do exist, and there are certainly more that have been identified here, you can pick a number of free and fee apps that have a great advantage over what was available just a generation ago.

Indian Country/O’Keeffe Country

The actual title of the exhibition currently at the Georgia O’Keeffe museum in Santa Fe is, “Tewa Nangeh/Tewa Country”. As you probably can guess these words have the same meaning, just the first is in the Tewa language. The Tewa are Native Americans who live in the Pueblos of the Southwest, mostly in New Mexico and Arizona and speak the Tewa language.

If you come from the East you may have heard the Southwest referred to as “O’Keeffe Country” in reference to the artist, Georgia O’Keeffe, who lived much of her life in New Mexico. If, however, you have lived for any length of time in the Southwest you know full well that it was, and remains, Indian Country. There are 19 Indian Pueblos with independent governments in New Mexico alone, and they represent 12% of the population of the State. You also learn that Indian Country is not limited to the Southwest, because long before Europeans arrived, Native American nations inhabited all of what is known today as Canada and the United States. The Tewa people are located in this part of the Southwest. It has become customary to read a formal land acknowledgement of what was and remains Native Land before performing arts and other events in Santa Fe.

The O’Keeffe Museum represented by its Director Cody Hartley, PhD. wished to acknowledge the fact that when O’Keeffe adopted this magical place, she did not live in a vacuum but was influenced by her surroundings and culture. Since turnabout is fair play, the curator Dr. Bess Murphy, Luce Curator of Art and Social Practice, asked 12 Tewa artists to explore their reaction to Okeefe’s work. Together with co-curator, artist Jason Garcia (Santa Clara Pueblo) they created an exhibition that that puts the accent on works by the Native Americans and includes a few works by O’Keeffe that illustrate a relationship between them.

O’Keeffe talked about “her” land, and the Pedernal mountain she often painted as “her” mountain. The Tewa have taken her words literally and understandably object. Obviously, she didn’t mean it as literal ownership and I would liken her statements to the common expression, this is my country. What is interesting is that originally the Indians did not believe that anyone owned land but rather were stewards of that land, therefore no one could claim ownership.

Jason Garcia is known for his painted ceramic plaques, including a series in comic book style called Tewa Tales. A key work in the exhibition is his plaque showing O’Keeffe standing beside a sign where Tewa is painted over her name ...

Some artists took their assignment quite literally as did Martha Romero (Nambé Pueblo) who made this ceramic and called it “Tainted Lily” using clay gathered at Ghost Ranch, where O’Keeffe had lived, in response to O’Keeffe’s painting “Calla Lily in Tall Glass -No. 2”.

Clay is very important to the Native Americans. For thousands of years clay has been used to make utilitarian objects, as well as to make Adobe for their structures and ceremonial objects as well. Marita Swazo Hinds (Tesuque Pueblo) has a case to herself in the show with the title “Did Georgia Pray”. She explains her title in the label: “As potters when we gather our clay we pray – with our cornmeal, with our hands, with our hearts. … Every step is a conversation with the land…” She implies that O’Keeffe could not fully understand how sacred the land is to the Tewa people.

One of my favorite images is “The Sentinels Have Always Been Watching” by John Garcia, Sr. (Santa Clara Pueblo), father of the show’s co-curator Jason. He explains that the Sentinels are the Mountains and the Stars. The Morning Star is one of the major deities of Tewa Culture and cosmology.

You can enjoy O’Keeffe’s work without ever coming to the Southwest, but you cannot appreciate how she sees the world without coming out here. I always thought her clouds were stylized imagery, but we see them out here often. The same is true of the landscape which can look so barren with its little spots of green vegetation. It is captured in Eliza Naranjo Morse’s (Santa Clara Pueblo) painted installation called “Coming Home” that evokes the landscape as seen from the window of O’Keeffe’s home.

One of the most impactful works in the show is not an object or a painting but rather a series of four handwritten letters by Samuel Villarreal Catanach (Pueblo of Pojoaque). He states on the label that he felt a connection with O’Keeffe so close that it inspired him to write these letters. He continues on the label that in these letters, “I express what is important to me and how I perceive her as a visitor to Tewa Nangeh. If she were alive today, I believe she would be someone I would be eager to engage with and learn from. I wonder how she would respond to my thoughts about her.” This single page sums up my experience of the show.

Double Click on image to enlarge

Bonwit Teller Redux

In frustration and pride, I am reposting a Missive that I first published on November 15, 2020, 40 years after the event. Why? Because the New York Times published its basics on November 8 this year in an article about Trump’s destruction of the East Wing and other architectural ideas he has in tribute to himself around Washington, DC. Details were missing, and the one that was most important to me was my wife’s role in that story. So here is the blog, but first a preview photo:

**********

Missive 11-16-2020


WHAT HAPPENED AT BONWIT TELLER?

When the Biden victory was called that Saturday morning, my wife started crying and for many hours couldn’t stop. I had to explain to one person at the hospital that she was not in pain, but there were tears of joy. I was wrong!

Penelope told me later that when she heard Trump (I will never capitalize his name) was on his way out, she was reliving what he did to her and her institution 40 years earlier.

It was June 5, 1980, and Penelope called me totally frantic, “Get your camera and meet me at the Robert Miller gallery. My colleague’s gallery was right across the street from the Bonwit Teller department store, which was being demolished to make way for Trump Tower.

Built in 1929 by the Stewart Company, it was meant to be the last word in elegance in the French-inspired Art Deco style. Bankrupted following the Wall Street crash, the Stewart store was purchased by Bonwit Teller, who engaged the well-known architect, Eli Jacques Kahn, to redo the building in an updated American style. The entrance was modernized with a 20x30-foot bronze grill, but two 15-foot-tall figural Art Deco relief sculptures remained at the top of the façade. Penelope felt that the two elements were a wonderful illustration of New York’s architectural transition from 1920s Art Deco to what was to become known in the 30’s as the Modern style.

At that time, Penelope was the curator in the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of 20th Century Arts, building the decorative arts (today known as Design) collection. When she learned that Bonwit Teller was going to be torn down by the new owner, Donald Trump, she contacted his staff. Getting him a serious appraisal of $200,000, which could have served as a tax deduction, she also offered great PR for his debut as a developer in Manhattan. She vividly remembers the personal meeting where he agreed to donate the grill and reliefs to the museum, saying, “It will be a great deal!”

The entrance grill disappeared first. Penelope was told that it had gone to a salvage yard in New Jersey, so the Met sent out a truck and registrar’s crew, but the salvage company knew nothing about it. Lately, it has been rumored to be in the Trump Tower dining room, which, at a couple of stories high, could accommodate it.

Then, on June 5, Robert Miller, the art dealer whose gallery looked out directly on the Bonwit Teller reliefs and who had made the appraisal, called Penelope at the Met to say he believed that they were about to jackhammer the stonework. Penelope, 9 months pregnant, (our son was born on June 14) jumped into a cab only to get caught in a typical Fifth Avenue traffic jam. “She “got out and ran, as well as a pregnant woman can, the 10 blocks to the Miller gallery. I joined her at my colleague’s gallery as Penelope declared, “I am going over there,” but Robert cut her off, saying, “They will recognize you. I will go”. Gathering all the cash in the gallery, he rushed down to find the foreman of the crew, offering to pay if they would preserve the reliefs. When he came back fuming, he said, “They won’t do it. The foreman said that the young Donald told him personally that the reliefs must be destroyed because some crazy lady from a museum up town wanted them”.

The story received several articles in the New York Times and on television at the time. A photograph I took was panned over by ABC, making it look like a video, but Robert Miller’s gallery director, got most of the photographic play!

The story is included in a book by Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher called “Trump Revealed,” published by Scribner in 2016. It was revived in the NY Times and Washington Post and even made it to our local paper, the New Mexican, when Trump posed as a defender of history and culture after Charlottesville.

Back in 1980 Trump, using a technique we have unfortunately come to know well, contacted the press as a “Mr. Baron” of the Trump organization, making up stories that ranged from their having had had the sculptures appraised by three art experts who had found they had no artistic merit, to it would have cost too much to take down the reliefs, to someone on the street below might have been hurt during their removal.

Today, it is just more of the same!

Losses to Our Culture

I am sure that some of my readers have not been happy with some of my political commentary. However, when politics obstruct our culture and the arts, left or right, we should care!

The most obvious case was highlighted in an article in The Guardian with the headline “Kennedy Center Ticket Sales Fall to Lowest in Years after Trump Takeover”. The Washington Post was cited on many of the details including the fact that 43% of ticket sales between September 3 and October 19 remained unsold! A year ago, over the same period 93% of tickets were sold or given on a complimentary basis. To be fair the fact that the President had called in the National Guard to Washington, DC. did not make people feel more secure, but Kennedy Center staff told the Post reporters that the week after Trump declared himself Chair and replaced the Board, sales had dropped by roughly 50%. We also know that some performers have bowed out of scheduled performances in protest. It becomes a downward spiral. With subscriptions way down, it discourages additional donations.

The administration’s directives to the National Smithsonian Institutions on what should be shown and emphasized and what not, has put pressure to fall in line on all 22,000 U.S. museums who have previously received grants for everything from exhibitions to updating their records.

Think about what it means to defund PBS (The Public Broadcasting Service). Some of the larger stations may find ways to survive but not those in smaller towns and rural areas. Children will miss out on PBS programs that provide free pre-school education. The beloved Sesame Street is just one of the PBS programs teaching basics like numbers and the alphabet, as well as social skills.

I am mystified by this war on Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI). Maybe for once we should not be just using the letter abbreviations but rather what they stand for. What is left if you leave those words out of your life? Maybe the Left has gone to extremes with their wokeness but that is not a reason to censor plays, movies, books, and museum exhibitions, denying the foundation on which society is based and from which it learns. Happily, many arts organizations do not rely heavily on government funding, but even those will be strained to find private donations to cover any losses.

The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency to fund the arts and arts education nationwide and act as a catalyst for public and private support. It is the only organization that does so in all 50 states. Just one example is the Creative Writing Fellowship, created In 1966, which awarded up to $50,000 to published writers of prose and poetry. It was cancelled this past August. Many well-known writers, such as Louise Erdrich, Joys carol Oates and Isaac Bshevis Singer took advantage of the Fellowship early in their career and we are the richer for it.

The Greater Pittsburgh Art’s Council last month published an Art Blog on Cultural Policy reported, “On October 1, NPR reported on 550 celebrities who relaunched The Committee for the First Amendment a group first organized during the post-World War II Red Scare.” In the letter shared by NPR, the authors wrote: "This Committee was initially created during the McCarthy Era, a dark time when the federal government repressed and persecuted American citizens for their political beliefs. They targeted elected officials, government employees, academics, and artists. They were blacklisted, harassed, silenced, and even imprisoned. The McCarthy Era ended when Americans from across the political spectrum finally came together and stood up for the principles in the Constitution against the forces of repression."

As I have often said, history repeats itself …

The Heist

Need I say more? You already knew that I was going to write about the theft of the Napoleon III Jewels at the Louvre. I decided to write about it with the first announcement and then I could not avoid it, looking at French, U.S., British, and German press.

Everyone loves to read about art thefts, as I do. They seem to happen on a regular basis. Probably the most famous one being the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911, which was, obviously, eventually recovered. There have been a number of less serious burglaries that have happened there since, the most recent being the theft of a small landscape by Corot in 1998.

Seizing on some interesting details by putting many of these articles together:

The value of the jewels was put at one hundred and two million dollars immediately after the robbery though they were not insured since the Louvre like many other major museums are self-insured since values of their collections would be too great for any commercial insurer.

One camera outside the Louvre was facing in the wrong direction. Does that mean there was help from the inside by either reporting this fact to the thieves beforehand or, actually moving it before the robbery?

The perpetrators wore yellow vests looking like construction workers reached the second floor using an electric ladder from a truck, though they had brought kerosene to burn the truck with any evidence, in their rush they neglected to do so.

They broke through a glass panel in the door into the Apollo Gallery, threatened visitors and two guards to clear the gallery, broke into the case got out with 8 pieces and escaped on motorcycles, in case you are interested they were Yamaha TMASX models.

In the process they dropped a crown during their escape. It was created in 1855 for Princess Eugénie, Napoleon III’s wife with nearly 1,400 diamonds and 56 emeralds. which I would guess, though damaged, was both the most important, identifiable and valuable piece taken. The three other thieves were probably not happy with their colleague who dropped it!

The remaining pieces are so well known they would be most difficult to sell so there is the fear that the jewels will be removed and then still difficult to move as they have been cut in the manner of the 19th century. An expert diamond cutter would have to be found to make them look like modern cutting. Of course, any such desecration will erase some royal French history. Adding my two cents there are collectors with hidden collections who may have paid the thieves in advance. In that case how much less would they pay without the missing crown?

Immediately after the robbery occurred the excuses and blame commenced. The government had not funded enough guards; the cases for the jewels were new and not equipped with enough security devices; dysfunctional alarms (which has been contradicted by French officials); too few perimeter cameras as well as the afore mentioned misfocused camera. The Louvre Director, Laurence des Cars, then submitted her resignation but, refreshingly, it was not accepted. Because of the notoriety and it was, after all, the Louvre a government enquiry has naturally begun.

The police had taken 150 DNA samples and within days one suspect who had a record was apprehended at the airport, then another was arrested and shortly after another 5, though there was no sign of the missing jewels. One of the 5 was believed to be the third of the four thieves and, ostensibly the others were those behind the theft. According to the Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, the first two “partially confessed” with no explanation. I had to ask myself whether that was like being a little bit pregnant!

As of the end of last week she added, “Brick by brick, the investigation is taking shape and closing in on those who may be involved”. Interpret that as you may but there is no doubt we will be hearing more as the days and weeks go by.

Buried Treasure

I am fascinated by stories of works of art, objects, and literature discovered in unlikely places and works sold for a few dollars because the owner did not recognize them for what they were. They have been discovered in kitchens, barns, and basements, but buried in a garden is something else again!

This story seems unique in that the object was found in the ground and came from another country. You may have already read about the couple in New Orleans who were clearing the underbrush in their backyard when they came upon a gravestone. What was most unusual was that its inscription was in Latin. It began “To the spirits of the dead from Sextus Congenius Versus” and continued to say that he had served in the military for 22 years and died at age 42.

The couple were naturally curious and consulted with a professor at Tulane University, who contacted other scholars in Louisiana and abroad to solve the mystery. They were able to figure out part of the puzzle and learned that the gravestone had been laid some 1,900 years ago in Civitavecchia, a port about 100 miles north of Rome. They knew it was discovered in the 1860s, and in 1910 was in a municipal library. Then, in 1918, it was recorded in the Museo Civico in Civitavecchia, which was destroyed during the bombing in World War II.

How did it get to New Orleans, of all places? This is where modern technology can help in historical research. The story went viral, and a couple who read it remembered that the woman’s grandfather had brought it back after the war and had it on display in a case in his home. It was passed on through the family, and the granddaughter and her husband put it in their backyard, planted a tree behind it, but forgot about it when they moved. It will eventually be returned to Italy. Obviously, I have shortened this story, but for all the details, just Google it!

The above seems to be a unique story in the sense that the object was found in the ground and from a foreign country. But there are many stories more closely related to the United States that are exciting to read about, and we might even learn history from these discoveries.

For instance, just last year at the Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico, civil engineers discovered under over 6 feet of sand about 70 items, including skeletal remains, an early ground stone, and a series of community campsites with remnants of mesquite charcoal dating from over 8,000 years ago.

A manuscript of an unpublished short story called “Temperature” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, written in 1939, was found in plain sight in the rare book archive at Princeton University. Have you ever had a document you felt should be kept, but just did not know where to file it? I imagine the owner, in this case, thought leaving it in the library made it more likely to be discovered when the time was right.

Sunken cargo ships and World War II planes that crashed have been found in the Great Lakes. The most unusual discovery in those cold waters is probably the two-story house that a moving company in Minnesota attempted to transport across the ice of Lake Superior, but the ice did not hold, and the truck and house sank! When the ice melted, a salvage team brought them up from the water. Imagine reporting that one to your insurance company!

The strange life of objects is always worth following.

What Goes Round Comes Around

I love following how taste changes, how the younger generation looks at things differently than we did. No matter what age you are, you look at the younger people and don’t understand. I can give you an analogy that pertains to many areas of life: My mother took some medicine that had been declared bad for her at one time, and then later was told to take it. She said, “If I live long enough, what was bad for me is good for me again”!

Which brings me to this headline that I so enjoyed reading in an article by Vivienne Chow in the October 6 issue of Artnet, “Why are Young Collectors Buying Old Art?”. Needless to say, young people usually like the art of their day. Young collectors are dazzled by the hype that accompanies record prices; that same press attention is one reason some mega millionaires and billionaires compete to set records and bask in the publicity.

This article focuses on the Frieze Masters Fair for art before the 21st century. Started in 2012 by the organizers of the annual Frieze fair for contemporary art, which has been a fixture in the London art scene since 2003, the “Masters” Fair is now run by Emanuela Tarizzo. She was formerly director of the Tomasso Gallery in London, which sold European sculpture, old master paintings, and ancient art, with a specialty in Renaissance bronzes. Ms. Tarizzo speaks of the common language of art, how it can bring together various cultures and tell “the broader story of humanity”. The 2009 graduate of the Courtauld Institute looks forward to a “dialogue with contemporary audiences”. 

Tarizzo is hoping to bring knowledge and rigour to strengthen the fair's position as a bridge between the past and present.

Photo by Elaine YJ Zheng

The article points out that auction sales of Old Masters have grown by 24% globally during the first half of this year. What do you know, it says this is partly due to the material that is being offered! This is not to say that now the younger generation of collectors will suddenly abandon the contemporary and focus on collecting the old, but, as they are being introduced to it they are open to mixing older work in with their contemporary acquisitions.

In this respect, art fairs are so valuable as they present a broad range of available works without the pressure. If you visit an art gallery, you will see what the dealer specializes in. Auctions are organized around special areas of art. You have to understand what you are looking at, the context and condition of the work, whether the estimate is in line with similar work, and finally, what you are willing to pay for it. Here are illustrations of a gallery, which was once mine, an auction, and a Frieze fair.

I was trained that it was best to specialize, even in our private collection. When we bought our first Native American work of art by a Hopi Indian and I said to my wife, "Now we can start a collection of Indian art." She practically yelled at me, “NO”, we cannot learn about all Native American art. We need to focus on one of the many different cultures. We chose to stick with collecting Hopi, deepening our understanding by visiting the Reservation. Years later, we broke that rule but still concentrated on the Southwest Indians. Would it have been so bad to learn about the Indians of the Plains as well?

At an art fair such as TEFAF in Maastricht and FRIEZE in London, you can compare and contrast, seeing what the art dealers are showing and learn about various kinds of art. You will encounter serious collectors who have come to add to their collections. You will find that dealers are eager to talk to you, not just to sell but also to cultivate possibly a future client. One of my clients used to talk about being able to learn from dealers and getting an education in art and the market for free. The truth is that the best art dealers are passionate about what they deal in and love telling people why.

To be fair, it is intimidating to walk into a gallery if you are not well-versed in its specialty, and we never want to embarrass ourselves. But the dealers and auction houses now have a new ally, the internet. You can preview from home the offerings of auction sales and dealers’ stocks. Excellent images are available, and Google or Reddit may provide answers to questions. Today’s generation can go to a fair, a dealer, or an auction house with a new degree of confidence, better prepared to evaluate what they are looking at from eras and places that would previously have been foreign to them.

With 120 dealers from 26 countries, I will finish with three examples from a recent Frieze Masters Fair.