Tag Archives: British Museum

History

NYT hightlights N-Y Historical Society's "Civil War in 50 Objects"

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By hnn

Tracing history through objects is popular these days. Neil McGregor, the director of the British Museum, did it in 700 best-selling pages, and for the last couple of months, the New-York Historical Society has had an exhibition called “The Civil War in 50 Objects.”

Finding the 50 objects involves something of a scavenger hunt — they are on display in different places at the society, at 170 Central Park West, at West 77th Street. All 50 came from the society’s collection of about 1 million Civil War-era items, “a definitive record of slavery, secession, rebellion and reunion from the time these movements first roiled the city and the nation,” according to the Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer. He made the final decisions on which 50 objects were chosen, and which were not, after members of the museum’s staff had winnowed the possibilities to 75….

Source:
NYT

Source URL:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/revisiting-history-through-objects-and-a-long-gone-game-show/

Date:
7-22-13

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at History News Network – George Mason University

News, Politics, Government

Bowl bought for $3 sells for more than $2 million at NY auction

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A New York family scored a huge payday when a small bowl, which they bought at a garage sale for $3, turned out to be a 1,000-year old Chinese piece that sold for $2.2 million at Sotheby’s yesterday. The family bought the rare bowl at the secondhand sale in 2007, and kept it sitting on their mantle for years, the auction house said.

After becoming curious, the bargain hunters began consulting experts about the bowl. They finally brought the piece to Sotheby’s, which estimated it would sell for somewhere in the $200,000 to $300,000 range.

But yesterday, London art dealer Giuseppe Eskenazi blew away those figures when he plunked down $2.2 million for the museum-quality piece.

He beat four other bidders for the Northern Song dynasty bowl — known as a Ding bowl — which dates back to the 10th or 11th century.

There is only one other bowl like it in the world, and it is in the British Museum.

Click for more from the New York Post.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News