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Boom! 'John Madden Football' leads Heritage Auctions' video games event to nearly $5 million
DALLAS, TX.- The first copy of John Madden Football - Wata 9.2 A+ Sealed [Cardboard Box], Genesis Electronic Arts 1990 USA ever offered at Heritage Auctions sold for $480,000, setting a world record for the most ever paid for a sports video game, to lead Heritage Auctions' Video Games SignatureÂ® Auction to $4,989,510 in sales January 28-29. This particular copy is especially extraordinary as it comes from the offices of its famous namesake, as noted by the third-party authentication service, Wata Games. The legendary former NFL coach and broadcaster, and video game pioneer, died December 28. Heritage will be donating the buyer's premium of the sale of the game to a charitable foundation created in Madden's honor. "John Madden's impact will be felt forever in football, sports broadcasting and in the video games community," Heritage Auctions ... More

The only known full ticket for Michael Jordan's 1984 NBA debut takes its first shot at Heritage Auctions
DALLAS, TX.- It has been nearly two years since The Last Dance pulled Michael Jordan off the sidelines and back into the spotlight; two years since the documentary series sparked new debates about who's really The Greatest of All Time; two years since old rivalries were rekindled and stale stories were spun into fresh fables. Which means it has been two years since collectors clamored anew for MJ's rookie cards and game-worn sneakers and sweat-stained jerseys. And still, the rush remains. Look no further than the fragment of a keepsake that sold in December a record-shattering $264,000 paid for the stub of a ticket that gave its holder admission to an Oct. 26, 1984, basketball game at Chicago Stadium pitting the Washington Bullets against the hometown Bulls. This was the game in which a 21-year-old Jordan made his NBA ... More

Jean-Jacques Beineix, 'cinema du look' director, dies at 75
NEW YORK, NY.- Jean-Jacques Beineix, a French film director whose debut feature, the eye-popping, droll thriller Diva, was much acclaimed, especially outside France, in the early 1980s and is often credited with starting a genre of French filmmaking known as the cinÃ©ma du look, died on Jan. 13 at his home in Paris. He was 75. His family announced his death to Agence France-Presse, saying Beineix (pronounced Beh-nix) died after a long illness. Unifrance, the organization that promotes French film, issued a statement praising his innovative, intensely visual, iconic cinema. In Diva, a fan surreptitiously tapes the performance of a renowned American soprano who has forbidden any recordings of her singing, setting off a chain of complications, including blackmail. One unusual aspect of the film was that the title character was played ... More

In Miami, climbing ballet's Everest: 'Swan Lake'
MIAMI, FLA.- Will this bird ever land? Lourdes Lopez, artistic director of Miami City Ballet, said in January. The bird she was referring to is Swan Lake. For years, Miami City Ballet has performed a one-act version by George Balanchine, but in 2016, Lopez decided that it was time for the company, which she has led since 2012, to take on the full-length ballet, with all the trimmings. But she would have to wait six years and weather a pandemic before getting her Swan to the stage. The production, the largest and most expensive in Miami City Ballets history, is finally scheduled to have its premiere Feb. 11 at the Arsht Center here. Searching for the right production, Lopez had looked to versions performed around the world, each reflecting the taste of a different choreographer. One night, she clicked on a YouTube video of a production ... More

A writer continues to mine her life
NEW YORK, NY.- In her poignant and imaginative new novel, Pure Colour, Sheila Heti opens with an unusual concept: Humans are bears, fish or birds. Those who care most about their closest relationships are bears. People focused on the common good are fish. And those most preoccupied by beauty and aesthetics are birds. People born from these three different eggs will never completely understand each other, Heti writes, but fish, birds and bears are all equally important in the eye of God. It is an idea she has been turning over in her mind for the better part of 15 years. When she was writing How Should a Person Be? her breakout novel more than a decade ago, she envisioned the possibility that God was three art critics in the sky, she said in a video interview from her home in Toronto last month. Criticism figures prominently ... More

Janet Mead, nun whose pop-rock hymn reached the top of the charts, dies
NEW YORK, NY.- Sister Janet Mead, an Australian nun whose crystalline voice carried her to the upper reaches of the charts in the 1970s with a pop-rock version of The Lords Prayer, died Jan. 26 in Adelaide, Australia. She was in her early 80s. Her death was confirmed by the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide, which provided no further information. Media reports said she had been treated for cancer. Meads recording of The Lords Prayer, which featured her pure solo vocal over a driving drumbeat she had a three-octave range and perfect pitch became an instant hit in Australia, Canada and the United States. It soared to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 during Easter time in 1974, and she became one of the few Australian recording artists to have a gold record in the United States. The record sold more than 3 million copies worldwide, 2 ... More

'The Tap Dance Kid,' still out of step with the times
NEW YORK, NY.- When 8:30 p.m. was a typical curtain time for Broadway musicals, the main characters biggest number, crystallizing the crisis and ensuring an ovation think Roses Turn in Gypsy often came at 11. The curtain for Wednesday nights opening of the Encores! revival of The Tap Dance Kid went up at 7:30, so the so-called 11 oclock number came closer to 10, but it was still recognizably the main event. Thats when Joshua Henry, playing William Sheridan, the conservative father of a Black family thrown into chaos by a son who wants to be a dancer, let loose with a tirade that ripped the fabric of the rest of the show to pieces, expressing with fury and unbridled terror the characters disdain for what he sees as the performative Blackness of tap. I keep on smilin through the worst of times, he snarls while shucking ... More

Exhibition at Lunds konsthall outlines the history of playgrounds
LUND.- The Playground Project is about play and children in designed urban environments. The focus is on the development of play sculptures in Europe, the US and Japan. The exhibition outlines the history of playgrounds from the turn of the last century until the 1980s, reflecting the changing societal status of children and its impact on urban planning, architecture and art. The first playgrounds were built at the end of the 19th century, when child labor was being outlawed and childrens leisure and security became a concern. The emergence of the welfare state brought childrens creativity into focus. Play activities were designed for public spaces and with childrens own needs in mind. The first adventure playground opened in Denmark in 1943, and other activist initiatives and methods to encourage childrens play became widespread ... More

Heritage Auctions brings rarities-filled U.S. coins auction to Long Beach event
DALLAS, TX.- Continuing the momentum from its record-setting FUN US Coins Auction, Heritage Auctions again will serve as the official auctioneer for the Long Beach Expo US Coins SignatureÂ® Auction February 24-27. The event will be held in one week after the Long Beach Expo event. The US Coins auction at the January FUN US Coins SignatureÂ® Auction soared to $65,422,650 in total sales, part of the combined $74 million for the event. The record-setting event brought new auction records for 88 of 211 lots that changed hands for $50,000 or more. The new year started with an extraordinary result at the FUN Auctions, a reflection of the strong demand for elite coins, Heritage Auctions President Greg Rohan said. This auction is a fitting sequel, stocked with rarities that continue to train the spotlight for top U.S. coin collectors on Heritage ... More

Jason Epstein, editor and publishing innovator, is dead at 93
NEW YORK, NY.- Jason Epstein, the editor, author and publishing visionary who introduced the quality paperback to American readers and who, over dinner and in the midst of a newspaper strike, planted the seed for what would become one of the countrys leading intellectual journals, The New York Review of Books, died Friday at his home in Sag Harbor, New York, on Long Island. He was 93. His daughter, Helen Epstein, confirmed the death. Epstein could be described as a man of letters with a feel for commerce or as a man of business with a taste for fine literature, and both would be correct. His major publishing achievements owed much to an uncommon mix of literary and marketing instincts. They came together momentously in the winter of 1962-63, when he and his first wife, editor Barbara Epstein, had poet Robert Lowell and his wife, critic Elizabeth ... More

Portland Museum of Art announces the hire of Ramey Mize as Assistant Curator of American Art
PORTLAND, ME.- The Portland Museum of Art announced the hire of Ramey Mize as the museums Assistant Curator of American Art. Mize will begin her role at the PMA in March, and immediately support the museums Art for All mission to provide a strong artistic vision that drives conversation, creativity, cultural vitality, and economic impact. Before joining the PMA, Mize was the Lois and Arthur Stainman Research Assistant in The Metropolitan Museum of Arts American Wing, where she supported the forthcoming exhibition, Winslow Homer: Crosscurrents. Mize is also a Ph.D. candidate in Art History at the University of Pennsylvania, where she specializes in nineteenth-century visual culture of the United States, with a focus on intersections with Native and Latin American art. Mizes commitment to the PMAs values of courage, ... More