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Abraham Lincoln signed check sold for $35,255 at auction
BOSTON, MASS.- An Abraham Lincoln signed check written one week after being named the Republican presidential candidate sold for $35,255, according to Boston-based RR Auction. The exceptional Springfield Marine & Fire Insurance Company check, filled out and signed by Lincoln, "A. Lincoln," payable to his brother-in-law, C. M. Smith, for $122.75, May 25, 1860. Clark Moulton Smith, who was married to Ann Todd, sister of Mary Todd Lincoln, was a successful Springfield merchant who operated five stores in the city: dry goods, clothing and shoe stores, a pharmacy, and a grocery market. According to the stores' ledgers, the Lincolns regularly bought clothes and dry goods from Smith, along with staples such as sugar and coffee. At the time Lincoln wrote this check, he had just been nominated as his party's candidate for president at the ... More

'Art transcends race': Paris Opera Ballet's first Asian etoile ballerina
SEOUL.- When Sae Eun Park auditioned for the world's oldest ballet institution, her Paris hotel room was so small she could not fully stretch her legs. A decade later the South Korean has become the first Asian ballerina to reach the top "etoile" -- or "star" -- rank in the Paris Opera Ballet's 352-year history. The 31-year-old's promotion came as the world of elite classical ballet faces growing calls for diversity and inclusion. She is one of only two current foreign-born etoiles at the renowned company, defying years of different training, a language barrier, injury and the POB's notorious competitive exams, which determine all but the highest promotions through its rigid five-rank hierarchy. "I believe that art -- not just dance -- transcends nationality and race," Park told AFP. "I became the first Asian ballerina to be an etoile and it's very much become ... More

Young pianists vie for glory in Poland's Chopin competition
WARSAW.- For South Korean pianist Su Yeon Kim, the music of Frederic Chopin is a way of life and competing in the world's most prestigious event bearing the French-Polish composer's name is a dream come true. She says the first piece by the 19th-century composer and piano virtuoso -- who was born in 1810 and died in 1849 -- that she learned to play as a child was his Minute Waltz. "Coming here was my dream because Chopin is my favourite composer. I never tire" of his music, the 27-year-old told AFP in Warsaw where she is hoping to secure a spot in the finals of the 18th Frederic Chopin International Piano Competition later this month. Held every five years since 1927, the Chopin competition would normally have been held last year, but was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic -- a first since World War II. "It was challenging ... More

'The Velvet Underground' review: And me, I'm in a rock 'n' roll band
NEW YORK, NY.- Sometime in the 1960s, John Cale, a classically trained Welsh violist with avant-garde leanings, met Lou Reed, a middle-class Jewish college dropout from Long Island who dreamed of being a rock star. Their creative partnership, encouraged by Andy Warhol and enhanced by the mercurial presence of the German model, actress and singer Nico, was the volatile bedrock of the Velvet Underground, a commercially marginal band that altered the course of popular music. The Velvet Underground story is hardly obscure, and in outline it might fit fairly neatly in the standard music-documentary template. Early struggle gives way to (relative) triumph, and then the whole thing blows up in a squall of battling egos, substance abuse and self-destructive behavior. In the aftermath life goes on, solo careers are pursued, and the survivors fans ... More

Ellen Owens named Director of the Castellani Art Museum at Niagara University
NIAGARA UNIV, NY.- Artist, educator, and arts administrator Ellen Owens has been named director of the Castellani Art Museum at Niagara University. In her new role, which begins Nov. 1, 2021, she will provide dynamic leadership for the museum, which has a permanent collection that includes more than 5,000 pieces of primarily modern and contemporary art. Ellen Owens is a talented, innovative, and collaborative leader with a great passion for the arts and an unwavering commitment to the educational mission of museums, said the Rev. James J. Maher, C.M., Niagara University president. These qualities will serve her well as she develops programs and initiatives to strengthen the presence and impact of the Castellani Art Museum as a vibrant resource for the visual arts on campus, as well as for the entire Western New York region. ... More

Sterling Associates to auction fine art from N.J., Manhattan, Jupiter, Fla., and New Orleans estates
NORWOOD, NJ.- New Jerseys estate specialists, Sterling Associates, will host an October 20 Fine Art and Antiques Auction featuring a carefully vetted selection of goods from estates and elegant residences in the Garden State, as well as Manhattan, New Orleans, and Jupiter, Florida. The boutique auction comprising 205 lots includes an outstanding array of European, American and Asian art; fine jewelry and coins, furniture, clocks and luxury goods. Among the auctions highlights are signed artworks by Marc Chagall and Emilio Grau Sala; a mens 18K gold Rolex Presidential Day/Date Oyster Perpetual wristwatch, and an antique Louis Vuitton steamer trunk. Bid absentee or live online through LiveAuctioneers. Approximately 100 lots are devoted to oil paintings, watercolors and prints, with a number of works by sought-after names of the 18th century through Mid-century ... More

Holabird Western Americana Collections announces 5-day Autumn Splendor Western Americana Auction
RENO, NEV.- Holabird Western Americana Collections five-day Autumn Splendor Western Americana Auction, October 28th-November 1st, is packed with over 3,200 lots of Americana, railroadiana, mining collectibles, numismatics, stock certificates, rare books, art and more, online and live in the Reno gallery at 3555 Airway Drive, starting at 8 am Pacific time all five days. The massive sale will feature several important collections, beginning with the Stuart Scotty MacKenzie Montana collection. Stuart was a lawyer, inveterate collector and dealer. He scoured the backroads of northern Montana looking for documents, archives, company files, libraries, correspondence most anything historical except bottles and tokens. After Stuarts death, we brought back two 28-foot trucks and a large, tall van full of goods, probably 18-19 tons of collectible material, ... More

Rebecca and Paul Nagy first to contribute to Harn Museum's expansion
GAINESVILLE, FL.- Rebecca Nagy watched over UFs Harn Museum of Art for 16 years as its director. She is now retired and living in Tampa, where her husband Paul is Vice President for Strategic Planning and Analysis at Hillsborough Community College. The Nagys are still looking after the campus treasure. This month, the couple committed $1 million toward the museums planned expansion, which will be designed by globally renowned architects Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners. The Nagys are the first donors to the museums exciting expansion project. Their gift will help fund construction of an approximately 20,000-square-foot multi-purpose wing that will permanently display selections from the 1,200 Florida-themed works of art donated to UF last winter by Jacksonville couple Samuel and Roberta Vickers. Additional areas will include a print ... More

Chrysler Museum of Art welcomes new school and teacher programs coordinator
NORFOLK, VA.- The Chrysler Museum of Art welcomed Emily Cayton as the school and teacher programs coordinator. She holds more than a decade of museum and classroom experience and is eager to use the Chryslers permanent collection and changing exhibitions to help students and teachers discover new things about art and expression through tours, field trips, curriculum guides, interactive gallery materials and programs. A robust program of educational offerings is the heart of the Chrysler Museums mission. Emily Cayton brings energy, experience and the ideas to help us fulfill that mission, said Museum Director Erik Neil. Before joining the Chrysler, Cayton was the associate director of education at The Contemporary Austin. Her career also includes positions in Austin at Mindpop, the Visual Arts Center, Texas Performing Arts and the Blanton ... More

Review: In 'The Lehman Trilogy,' a vivid tale of profit and pain
NEW YORK, NY.- Much of what happens in The Lehman Trilogy is invisible, which is not the way prestige drama usually works onstage. Directed by Sam Mendes, this British import, which reaches across 164 years of American history to trace the family saga behind the fallen financial powerhouse Lehman Brothers, was a scalding-hot ticket during a brief pre-pandemic run at the Park Avenue Armory. Yet it offers almost nothing in the way of spectacle and only the slightest of costume changes: a top hat here, a pair of glasses there. In the captivating production that opened Thursday night at the Nederlander Theater, it relies largely on an unspoken agreement between actors and audience to imagine together and let fancy crowd out fact. Sort of the way that heedless investors looked right past all warning signs in the faith-based run-up to the ... More

Gary Paulsen, author of young adult adventures, dies at 82
NEW YORK, NY.- Gary Paulsen, a prolific writer whose young adult novels such as Hatchet and Dogsong inspired generations of would-be adventurers with tales of survival, exploration and nature red in tooth and claw, died Wednesday at his home in Tularosa, New Mexico. He was 82. His son, Jim, said the cause was cardiac arrest. The author of some 200 books, Paulsen was frequently compared to Ernest Hemingway, as much for his sparse, efficient prose as for his subject matter: mankinds violent collision with nature, often in situations in which a character, typically a teenage boy raised in urban comfort, has to learn to fend for himself in the wild. In Hatchet (1987), perhaps his best-known book, a 13-year-old named Brian is the sole passenger on a small propeller plane headed from his home in New York City to visit his father in northern ... More

Mike Renzi, a jazz singer's best friend, dies at 80
NEW YORK, NY.- The list of performers with whom pianist and arranger Mike Renzi worked is amazingly long. And varied. Mel TormÃ© and Lena Horne are on it. Peggy Lee and Maureen McGovern are on it. Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett are on it. Big Bird is on it. Renzi, who for decades was one of the most sought-after accompanists in the music business, especially in jazz circles, died Sept. 28 in Newport, Rhode Island. He was 80. Memorial Funeral Homes of Rhode Island posted news of his death but did not give a cause. Renzi lived in Middletown, Rhode Island, and in Boca Raton, Florida. Renzi began drawing notice in the 1960s with his trio, which played clubs in his native Rhode Island; by the mid-1970s, it was also accompanying singers such as Sylvia Syms. In 1976, he relocated to New York, and soon he was in demand as an accompanist, playing ... More

Smutty Smiff gets his bass back
NEW YORK, NY.- The bass is back. For a story that was 40 years in the making, the mystery of Smutty Smiffs stolen rockabilly bass had a lightning-fast resolution this week. To recap: On a freezing winter night in 1982, a tour van with all the instruments of the Rockats, the preeminent rockabilly band of the downtown New York music scene, was stolen outside a diner near the Holland Tunnel. Among the missing gear was a very distinctive fiberglass bass with a giant SMUTTY printed on the body. This past summer, a musician noticed it on display in a Jersey City pawnshop and posted a picture on Facebook. And then, after decades of peace at least for Manny Vidal, owner of H. Schoenberg Pawn Shop in Jersey City, New Jersey all hell broke loose. After the story of its discovery appeared in The New York Times, Vidal faced a wave of online ... More