January 14, 2000

Antiques, antler pieces seized

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JAN. 12. The officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Chennai unit, today seized deer horn antlers and sandalwood valued at Rs.65 lakhs and also ``priceless'' antique brass metals before they were being smuggled out of Chennai. The Additional Director General of DRI, Mr.P.N. Vittal Dass, told mediapersons that the central investigative agency officials intercepted a container lying at Chennai docks with the documents showing 600 bags of rice bound for Singapore. The container was found with only 50 bags of rice and the rest of the cargo was sandalwood logs weighing 7 tonnes and sawn antlers of deer species. ``We have arrested three persons in this connection, including a manager of a Chennai-based export company and two persons involved in transporting the consignment which was meant to be shipped to Singapore'', Mr.Dass said and added that the ``DRI strongly suspects a gang operation and our detailed probe would throw more light on their possible national and international links''. Detailing about the seizures of antiques, claimed to be over 400 to 500 years old, Mr.Dass said the officials recovered 19 numbers of fibre-wall hangings, 6 brass metal lamps, 1 hanging lamp, 1 metal vessel and 3 metallic elephant heads. Some of the items appeared to be antique and accordingly the Archaeological Survey of India was contacted for detailed examination of the goods. The Expert Advisory Committee of ASI certified the vessel, the hanging lamp with Lord Vinayaka and the 3 elephant heads as antiquities. Mr.Dass said the Commissioner of Museum had requested the DRI to handover the antiquities to the Museum Department for posterity. Pointing out that the coastal stretch of Tuticorin has been declared ``sensitive'' of smuggling of narcotics, Mr. Dass said that all the investigative agencies including the DRI have geared up their machinery. The DRI, he noted, was particularly concentrating on anti- smuggling activities relating to gold, narcotics, electronic goods, foreign currency, besides snake skins, sandalwood and other forest products. Pieces of deer horn seized by DRI officials in Chennai on Wednesday.

Construction may endanger Harvard's historical site

By Nathaniel L. Schwartz
Harvard Crimson
Harvard U.

(U-WIRE) CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Harvard's Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington, D.C., the site of the World War II conference that resulted in the formation of the United Nations, is still widely known for two things: decorative gardens and its research centers on ancient art. Now, in trying to expand one, the University has aroused fears that it will destroy the other--and since the gardens possibly in peril were designed by famous American designer Beatrix Farrand, this construction plan has become a national concern. To create more space for its art library, Harvard hopes to build directly below the manicured gardens, tearing up walls and fountains that they plan to replace once construction is finished. The prospect has mobilized landscape architects, Farrand scholars and neighbors to protect the site from renovation. Harvard's plan calls for the construction of a 25,000-square-foot underground library adjoining the main Dumbarton building. The two-story building will be visible only in scattered ground-level skylights. The library will consolidate all the books from the various collections as well as many of the artifacts themselves, a goal that Harvard has held since the 1940s when it first floated a plan for a library on the site. Dumbarton Oaks consists of a mansion and the surrounding grounds that were donated to Harvard in 1940, along with a large art collection. Since then, Harvard has added to the collection and used the site as a center for a small group of research fellows to study both art and literature about art in an intimate and intensive environment. The purpose of Dumbarton Oaks, according to Dumbarton director, Edward L. Keenan, is to allow its 18 research fellows to "study the museum objects and very specialized libraries that have been built around these objects." The collection includes pieces from pre-Columbian America and the Byzantine Empire. As the center's libraries and collections have grown, officials say, so has the need for a centralized facility. But neighbors' activism led to the demise of Harvard's attempt to build this kind of central facility 25 years ago. James Urban, the landscape architect involved in the current project, says that plan was less carefully planned than the new proposal. Now, Harvard planners say they are attempting a much more sensitive treatment of the garden. However, the project, "still in the early to middle stages of schematic design," according to architect Richard Williams, is already garnering opposition from various neighborhood and architectural fronts.

A SACRED PLACE

"What you have to understand is that, for landscape architects, Dumbarton Oaks is a very sacred place--a sacred landscape," explains Clarissa Rowe, a Boston architect and president of Historic Massachusetts Inc., who grew up playing in Dumbarton Oak's Farrand gardens. Rowe says that even when she was young, the garden inspired her. Since then, she has learned more about Farrand's work and believes strongly in its preservation. Farrand, who designed the garden when the site was still privately owned in the 1920s and '30s, was the only female founding member of the American Society of Landscape Architecture. She also worked on the Princeton and Yale campuses, but many consider Dumbarton Oaks to be her seminal work. "If Frederick Law Olmstead is the father of landscape architecture, Beatrix Farrand is the mother," Rowe says. Keenan, says he agrees that the garden must be preserved as a place that is "simply beautiful." But he says focusing on the garden simply because it was created by Farrand, can create a undesirable impulse to freeze the site in time. "There are all sorts of places where famous people have trodden, but you can't make all of these places into Jerusalem," Keenan says. Some people adopt a "quasi-religious attitude, which makes us forget that Dumbarton Oaks is a living changing place," Keenan says. Both Urban and Williams, the team that Harvard has hired to design the library, say that they are completely aware of the need to protect the Dumbarton Oaks garden intact. Indeed, at the urgings of the D.C. community boards who have reviewed their work so far, the architects have made plans to add a 'cultural landscape historian' to their team. They will also commission a major cultural landscape report in order to determine Farrand's exact wishes for the site and how they can build without harming her garden. "As we see it, our intervention into the historic fabric of the garden, in terms of the final result, will be as minimal as possible," Urban says.

THE PLAN

Although the architects hope to build an entire building below Farrand's garden, under the section of the lawns known as the North Vista, they say that their project will only force the removal of four mature trees from the site, two of them not even planted by Farrand. As for the lawn and walls and paths that the project will force construction crews to tear up, the architects say that these will not sustain any permanent damage. The walls and paths will simply be removed temporarily, stored, and replaced. The grass can be replanted, and the architects say they envision Dumbarton Oaks looking almost unchanged. But this optimism is not shared by some of the architects who have reviewed the plan. Rowe, who is presently working on the Big Dig in Boston, says that although she believes the intentions are good, such projects are rarely successful. "All our good intentions for preservation go somewhat out the window when you work with a construction crew," Rowe says. "These are very delicate materials--things will get broken." The scale and history of the project means that, before building, Harvard will need approval from the Historic Preservation Review Board, and the Board of Zoning and Adjustment as well as some measure of neighborhood approval. To halt Harvard's plans, a Web site has been created that includes a petition against the project, which opponents will eventually send to the planning boards. Votes against Harvard by any of these boards would most likely force a lengthy appeals process and some change of building plans. However, the one board that Harvard has already presented its plans to, the Advisory Neighborhood Committee, voted unanimously to endorse the proposal. According to Keenan, most of the people who actually sit down with the plans believe that Harvard is acting conscientiously. But opposition will always remain. "Even if we get all the licenses and the permits, there will just be some people who think it is too precious a territory to touch at all," Keenan says.
(C) 2000 Harvard Crimson via U-WIRE
http://news.excite.com/news/uw/000110/politics-21

Would you buy an Old Master online?

By Margaret Kane, ZDNet News
If Van Gogh were alive today, would he sell his art online? And if he did, would anyone buy it?
It's questions like these that Web sites such as ArtStar.com and NextMonet.com must answer.
These sites, and others like them, are aiming their brushes at both traditional art buyers and those who may never have hung anything on their walls besides a travel poster, but who have the discretionary income to lay out $3,000 for a work by an up-and-coming artist. "The market for art extends from the college student who goes and buys a poster of a Matisse for $14, up to the collector who can buy an original for $95,000," said David Udow, vice president of Internet marketing at ArtStar.com, a division of ShowStar Online, an Internet content developer. "I can't think of a person in North America who doesn't have something on their walls. We see the market as being all encompassing."

A Web Renaissance?

Buying fine art online might seem like a stretch, and indeed, most e-commerce analysts have paid little attention to the fledgling field. But one analyst who has, thinks it has great potential. "So many consumers simply don't have access to the channels," said Mike May, an analyst at Jupiter Communications in New York. "This is one category where the Internet can incrementally grow the entire industry." It hasn't happened yet, but the nascent business has scored some early wins.
At Guild.com -- launched by art sourcebook publisher The Guild -- one customer placed an order for 13 paintings and one photograph, worth $53,000 (Guild.com's average order: $425). The site won't give sales figures, but said orders in December were 2 1/2 times higher than in September. In December, ArtStar.com auctioned off portions of the Chapman S. Root collection of Coca-Cola memorabilia and general Americana. In the first phase of the auction, which comprised 600 lots, roughly half were sold, bringing in nearly $100,000.

More comfortable than galleries?

While it may seem that selling art online would be inherently more difficult than selling it in person -- after all, you don't get to see the work in person --these sites argue that the Internet is a perfect fit for consumers who may be uncomfortable at galleries. "A lot of those people are individuals who have the disposable income, but they don't necessarily have an art background and so may be intimated and puzzled by what's available to them," said Myrna Nickelson, CEO of NextMonet.com, which is funded by CMGI Inc.'s @Ventures fund. "That makes it more valuable to go online, because the demographics are obviously there. The market has always existed and been there, but they haven't been served adequately by the traditional way of doing things." Making newcomers to art comfortable buying online is the reason many of the new sites are focusing almost as heavily on education as on the art. At ArtStar.com, for example, consumers can look up terms and techniques in a glossary, read stories about new museum exhibits, or research artists and periods through online articles.

Does it match the couch?

"It's a complicated subject matter -- there's a small number of people who are educated about it," said ArtStar.com's Udow. "Many, many people are afraid and intimidated to walk into a gallery, because they don't know what to say and what to ask. "What we're doing is providing education and information about making purchases. We (want) everyone from a serious art collector to high school student to use it as their starting point." The sites have also arranged their art in ways that might seem a bit avant-garde -- or just plain odd -- to traditional galleries. At Guild.com, consumers can search for art using categories like "fish" or "seascape." NextMonet.com offers a "See It In My Room" feature that allows consumers to create a virtual living room to see how well that painting goes with their couch. And unlike gallery exhibitions that tend to focus on a style of art or a particular artist, the sites can display a wide variety of art, which may help pull in more customers.

Converting the art-haters

"You'll often find people who say, 'I don't like modern art.' They've gone to a few galleries where they see works of art that they don't get or understand," said NextMonet's Nickelson. "But what they may be reacting to is that particular style by those artists at those galleries. They walk away presuming they don't like contemporary art because they've only seen a few examples." Putting the art online allows consumers to view works they may not have been able to see in the real world -- whether it's because they were intimidated by the gallery world or because they simply don't live nearby. One such convert is Maureen Gupta of Greenwich, Conn., who regularly buys paintings and ethnic art, but had never purchased a work she hadn't seen in person. Until, that is, she saw an ad for Guild.com, and went to the site. "There was a particular artist where I kept saving the items to review. And I ended up buying three things," she said.

Making art more accessible

The artists who sell through these sites say it gives them a chance to display their work to an audience they might not have previously reached. "In some ways it's more exciting, just because it's new technology -- I was very interested to see that it worked," said David Collins, a New York-based artist whose abstract oils have been exhibited on NextMonet. "I thought it would be great chance for exposure. However, he said, "I was a little skeptical that people would buy things online. For me as a painter, (buying art is) about developing a relationship and falling in love with a work. "Instead, I (realized) that thousands of people would be able to see that work that wouldn't (see it) ordinarily. Next thing you know, pieces are selling. Now I would say it's a major part of sales for me." Collins' point about developing a relationship with the work was echoed by other artists who sell through these sites, and by some buyers.

Would you buy a Picasso online?

A few, like Gupta, said that while they would be willing to buy small items through the Internet, they would be hesitant about paintings and larger pieces. But that's a fear the sites hope to conquer with education and customer service. And they're banking upon the fact that art is something that virtually everyone has an interest in -- whatever their taste.
Who knows? Online art aficionados just might discover the next Monet ... or Van Gogh http://news.excite.com/news/zd/000109/16/would-you-buy

'Stolen' Cézanne was landlord's own work

By Maurice Weaver

A PUBLICAN was interviewed by police after painting a copy of a stolen Cézanne valued at £2 million "to show that a chimpanzee could do it". Nigel Ashby, 43, copied Cézanne's Auvers-Sur-Oise and hung it in his pub to amuse his customers. One of them called police after seeing Mr Ashby's work, his version of the painting stolen from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford on New Year's Eve. Cézanne painted his landscape in oils in the French town between 1879 and 1882. Mr Ashby created his version above The Malt Shovel in Spon End, Coventry in half an hour after looking up the work on the internet. Mr Ashby said: "I thought, a chimpanzee could paint that! So I set about painting my own version. It had only been on view for a few hours when, to my amazement, the police called." The painting had a sign under it saying: "One previous careless owner. No reserve. All reasonable offers considered." It was signed Paul Cezanne in the bottom corner but, as Mr Ashby pointed out to detectives: "The paint was still wet." Coventry police said its officers had been asked to visit the pub by the Thames Valley force, which is investigating the theft. A spokesman for Coventry police said: " Frankly, we never thought there would be anything in it. It was a case of having to be sure. We accept that it was just the landlord's little joke."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000540194043784&rtmo=Q09aaS0R&atmo=KKKKKKHM&pg=/et/00/1/14/ncez14.html