The live auction industry is vigorous, growing and making
a positive impact on most American consumers, according to
research findings announced recently by the National
Auctioneers Association (NAA). Representing the first time
that the economic impact of the live auction industry has been
charted on the American commercial landscape, the study, compiled
by research firms MORPACE International and Harris Interactive®,
documented that live auctions account for $203.2 billion a year
in sales, including raising $13.4 billion for charities. It also
noted that more than 50 percent of Americans have attended live
auctions, and the reason they do so is because live auctions are
fun and are good places to find favorable purchase prices. The
200-page report states: the biggest business categories are
automobiles ($79 billion) and combined real estate categories
($42 billion); 2003 sales of $203.2 billion represent a strong
four percent jump over the $189.8 billion in 2002 sales; 79
percent of professional auctioneers participated in a charity
auction in 2003. The top reasons Americans attend live auctions
are the excitement of getting a good price (53 percent), they
like to see what types of purchases are available (51 percent)
and they get great purchase value (51 percent). Another
interesting finding was that live-auction buyers spend almost
twice as much as online buyers ($988 versus $475). The study
results were announced on July 17 at the NAA's 55th International
Auctioneers Conference and Show in Madison, Wis.
UK's Oxford University has received a gift from the
Khalili Family Trust worth more than $4 million to
create The Khalili Research Center (KRC) for the Art and
Material Culture of the Middle East and to endow its core
activities in perpetuity. The KRC, which is due to open early in
2005, will be located at the heart of the University, near the
Sackler Library, the Oriental Institute and the Ashmolean Museum.
The gift will allow the renovation, development, furnishing and
equipping of the premises as a gift in kind. This will include
study-tutorial rooms, seminar rooms, a visiting researchers'
room, open plan work area for research students, archival and IT
rooms and self-contained accommodation for visiting scholars. In
addition, the gift will provide the endowment in perpetuity of
running the costs of the KRC and includes administrative support
and the director's fund. The KRC brings together some of the
worlds leading scholars in the fields of Islamic art and material
culture, whose expertise ranges from ceramics and metalwork,
painting and iconography, textiles and carpet studies, to
archaeology, numismatics and monetary history, to the interaction
between Christian and Islamic cultures in the medieval
Mediterranean.
Miami officials are searching for a charcoal sketch by Pablo
Picasso that was stolen from a luxury yacht
undergoing repairs in a Miami River boatyard, Miami-Dade County
police told the Associated Press. The sketch, a partial draft of
Picasso's painting "Les Trois Danseuses,'' was stolen from a
147-foot Trident motor yacht dry-docked at the Jones Boat Yard,
police said. Employees of Fairwinds, Inc., the company that owns
the yacht and sketch, saw a slender bearded man in a turquoise
hat running from the ship with the artwork in his hands. They
chased the man through the boatyard, but he jumped into a waiting
car and escaped, according to a police report. Depicting a nude
woman with outstretched arms, the sketch is worth about $200,000,
officials said.
The Museum of Modern Art will reopen its midtown
Manhattan building on Saturday, November 20, commemorating
the museum's 75th anniversary and heralding the completion of the
most extensive rebuilding and renovation project in MoMA's
history. The new museum nearly doubles the capacity of the former
building, encompassing approximately 630,000 square feet of new
and renovated space on six floors and providing expanded
facilities for special exhibition, public programs, educational
outreach and scholarly research. On opening day, admission to the
museum will be free of charge. The renovated and expanded museum
was designed by Yoshio Taniguchi.
Executive director Patricia Leach of The Hermitage,
Nashville, Tenn., recently stated that "Opening the 'Calico &
Chintz' exhibit formally launches our role as the first
Smithsonian Institution Affiliate Museum in Middle Tennessee
- a goal we have been working towards for over a year." The
Hermitage is one of only four venues in the United States to host
this exhibit.
Following a short test period - May through July - Stella
Show Mgmt. Co. has announced that its online dealer
application system is working well. Dealers reapplying for
shows in which they have participated previously use a short
version of the online form. New applicants must fill in a few
more lines of information with references.
