PORTLAND, PR.- The skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex will make its museum debut at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry along the banks of the Willamette River. Museum President Nancy Stueber said the fossilized bones of a 40-foot-long predator dinosaur that weighed 7.5 tons and lived 66 million years ago will be on display beginning Dec. 17 through the end of summer 2010. Scientists haven’t settled on whether the animal was male or female, Stueber said. Known as Samson, the fossil was dug up in the 1990s in South Dakota. It has been in private hands since then, most recently purchased this fall by an anonymous buyer after a failed Las Vegas auction. It is among three T. rex skeletons with more than half the bones remaining, and its skull is well preserved, the museum said in a statement. A similar T. rex fossil sold for $8.3 million in 1997 and is now housed at the Field Museum in Chicago. That dinosaur, named Sue, is 42 feet
The Art Fund Leads Official Campaign to Save Precious Hoard of Anglo-Saxon Gold for the West Midlands
LONDON.- Independent charity The Art Fund today announces that it will be leading a public campaign to save an unparalleled hoard of treasures, dating from Anglo-Saxon times, for the West Midlands. Members of the public can now donate to save the Staffordshire Hoard via www.artfund.org/hoard Comprising in excess 1,500 items, mostly gold and some decorated with precious stones, the Staffordshire Hoard has been valued at almost £3.3million – making it the most valuable treasure find ever recorded. Experts say that due to the high quality of craftsmanship displayed on the items, it is possible that they may have originally been made for royal ownership. They say the find will rewrite the history of the so-called ‘dark ages’. Through its public campaign, The Art Fund aims to raise the sum required for the treasures to be acquired jointly by Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Tren
UGA’s Georgia Museum of Art to Host Decorative Arts Symposium
ATHENS, GA.- The Georgia Museum of Art will host the fifth Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts, “Neighboring Voices: The Decorative Culture of Our Southern Cousins,” January 29-30, 2010, at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel. The symposium will bring together representatives from neighboring states to discuss their own research, collections and decorative-arts history. Topics to be discussed at the symposium include the discovery of Georgia’s early decorative arts, the paint-decorated furniture of Piedmont North Carolina, the influence of Georgia potters on Alabama pottery, the profile of a southern antebellum silversmith, German toys in American childhood, French porcelain in the antebellum South and early Georgians’ migration to Alabama. Featured speakers at this year’s symposium are Mary Audrey Apple, Joey J. Brackner, Daniel Brooks, Charlotte Crabtree, Robert Doares, Robert A. Leath, and
James Logan Abell, FAIA, Honored with the 2010 AIA Edward C. Kemper Award
WASHINGTON, DC.- The AIA Board of Directors elected James Logan Abell, FAIA, as the 2010 recipient of the Edward C. Kemper Award. Named in honor of the AIA’s first executive director, the award recognizes individuals who contribute significantly to the profession of architecture through service to the Institute. Abell will be honored at the 2010 AIA National Convention in Miami. The Tempe, Ariz.-based Abell has spent the last 35 years offering the public a myriad of community design solutions the AIA has to offer through its Regional and Urban Design Assistance Teams (R/UDAT). He has been the public face of what architects and the AIA can do to help people in need of better cities, town, neighborhoods, streets, homes, and businesses. Abell has worked with numerous R/UDAT programs across the nation, assembling diverse groups of design professionals to lead community forums in developing design solutions for changing communities
List of Artists Announced for 75th Whitney Biennial 2010
NEW YORK, NY.- The Whitney Museum of American Art today announced the list of artists participating in the upcoming Whitney Biennial, 2010, which takes over the Museum from February 25 through May 30, 2010. This is the 75th in the ongoing series of Biennials and Annuals presented by the Whitney since 1932, two years after the Museum was founded. The fifty-five artists were selected by curator Francesco Bonami and associate curator Gary Carrion-Murayari. Curators Bonami and Carrion-Murayari noted, “The Whitney Biennial continues to reflect the way in which art is shaped
French Court Hears Tale of French Cosmetics Giant L’Oreal Heiress’ Riches
PARIS (AP).- A French family drama worthy of a soap opera landed in court Friday, as the daughter of France’s richest woman questioned whether her mother has lost her mind and frittered away a fortune on a man known for befriending high-society celebrities. Francoise Bettencourt Meyers’ two-year legal campaign against the man she accuses of taking advantage of Liliane Bettencourt, her 87-year-old mother, has already included a failed attempt to have her mother put under court-ordered
Evocative Pieces of Paris to be Auctioned at French House Drouot
PARIS (AP).- Pieces of old Paris from a lamp post to a park bench go on the auction block next week, with the piece de resistance 40 iron steps from the Eiffel Tower, all 7.8 meters (25.6 feet) of them. “Paris Mon Amour,” the title given to the auction Monday at the famed French house Drouot, brings together an eclectic batch of memories that evoke a bygone era as well as the present. Among the 301 items to be auctioned is a section of glass broken during the construction in 1987 of the glass pyramid now standing at the entrance to the Louvre Museum. Estimated at €500 to €1,000 ($735-$1,470),
Elton John Comes Out of the Closet with Sale of Flamboyant Clothing Collection
LONDON.- On Saturday, December 12, Londoners and visitors will see a dream realised, as the doors of ‘Out the Closet 2009’ in Covent Garden’s Flower Cellars will fling open, and shoppers will have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get their hands on an exclusive array of Elton and David Furnish’s flamboyant clothing collection, direct from their wardrobes. From outfits worn by Elton on stage, to David’s favourite Dior shirts, fans will have the opportunity to step into their shoes for real,
Old Master Paintings Sales Soar Despite Global Woes
NEW YORK, NY (REUTERS).- Sotheby’s hopes that the fervent mood at an auction this week in London of important Old Master paintings will travel overseas when several rare art works will be auctioned next month. The fragile state of the world economy didn’t influence the few deep-pocketed art collectors who vied for rare 17th century masterpieces in the British capital on Wednesday. Sotheby’s sale of Old Master & British Paintings in London saw a new auction record set for Anthony van Dyck when his last self portrait soared above expectations and sold for$13,521,704.
DNA Tests Could Solve Mystery of Baroque Master Caravaggio’s Death
ROME (REUTERS).- The mystery surrounding the death of Baroque master Caravaggio may soon be resolved thanks to new DNA tests — as long as the right body can be found. What caused the death of the painter in 1610 and the whereabouts of his corpse have always been unclear. But a team of Italian anthropologists believe that what is left of Caravaggio’s body may be hidden among dozens of bodies buried in a crypt in Tuscany, thanks to recent historical clues. The team — armed with a CAT scan and kits for carbon dating — plan to study the painter’s exhumed remains to discover how he died.