BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., April 17 (UPI) — Starz says it has ordered a second season of its Italian Renaissance-set series “Da Vinci’s Demons,” starring Tom Riley as artist-inventor Leonardo Da Vinci.
From: http://pheed.upi.com/click.phdo?i=7aa62c302afee65c2df9b6e6eff84447
Randy Buttram never gave much thought to the two 4½-foot tall ornate vases that graced the elegant main entrance of his grandparents’ Oklahoma City mansion and later were displayed around a fireplace facade at his parents’ home.
The vases, which had been packed away for around a decade, turned out to be rare items from Russia dating back nearly two centuries — to the reign of Nicholas I.
They also carried immense value, fetching $2.7 million Thursday in a private sale about a week before they were to be auctioned.
Buttram, 66, of Oklahoma City, remembers as a young boy playing at his grandparents’ sprawling Italian Renaissance mansion that included a bowling alley in the basement. He said that the vases were part of the decor in an entryway so grand — complete with twin staircases — that they didn’t particularly stand out.
“To me as a child they were just there and that’s all,” he said. “We did a lot of roughhousing in the house. We’re lucky nobody knocked them over.”
Officials with Dallas Auction Gallery were evaluating items inherited by Buttram and his brother at their late parents’ home when they noticed the top portion of one of the vases lying on a bed had the blue marking of Russia‘s Imperial Porcelain Factory used during the reign of Nicholas I and the date 1833 printed on it.
The pieces of the vases, which are designed to be disassembled for moving and storage, had been mostly stored in cardboard boxes.
“We saw that and immediately recognized it as: ‘This is unbelievable,'” said Scott Shuford, president of Dallas Auction Gallery, which conducted the sale. “I think our eyes kind of bulged out a little bit.”
Shuford said the vases generated interest from all over the world in the time leading up to the April 17 auction. He said that the buyer wishes to remain anonymous. The pre-auction estimate for the vases was $1 million to $1.5 million.
As an adult, Buttram began to suspect the vases likely did have some value, but never did he imagine just how much.
Buttram’s grandparents, Frank and Merle Buttram, bought the vases in 1928 from the Bernheimer Gallery in Munich while traveling through Europe. Frank Buttram, an Oklahoma native, founded Buttram Petroleum Co., which is still in the family and is now called Buttram Energies Inc.
After the deaths of his grandparents the estate was split between their five children and the vases were among items that went to Randy Buttram‘s father, Dorsey Buttram. When Randy Buttram‘s parents moved to a smaller home about a decade ago, the vases were stored. After the death of his mother in November 2011 following his father’s 2006 death, Buttram and his brother began to sort through what might be worthy of auction — including the vases.
Buttram said it has been interesting to look through his grandmother’s detailed records of purchases on their travels, which included everything from the vases to two pairs of boys’ silk pajamas bought in China.
The auction house consulted with the Russian porcelain curator at
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/3n0gIl-VVbE/
The archbishop of Boston, dressed more often in the humble brown robe of his religious order than a cardinal’s regalia, has emerged as an unlikely star amid the drama unfolding in Rome.
Vatican analysts for the leading Italian newspapers have repeatedly listed Cardinal Sean O’Malley as one of the favorite contenders in the conclave starting Tuesday.
As recently as two weeks ago, O’Malley hadn’t appeared on the lists of papabili, or cardinals with papal potential, that church watchers pore over each morning like sports scores, even though only the cardinal-electors know how they will vote. Vatican observers said no American cardinal could win: A superpower pope risked mixing church and U.S. interests. O’Malley is also a Capuchin Franciscan, and few members of religious orders have led the church.
But O’Malley arrived to a country in an anti-establishment mood.
A comedian, Beppe Grillo, had grabbed a quarter of the parliamentary vote, leaving the political leadership of Italy in limbo.
The Vatican central administration, or Curia, had been weathering a string of scandals. Benedict XVI’s own butler had leaked the former pontiff’s private papers, revealing feuding, corruption and cronyism at the highest levels of the bureaucracy. The secretive Vatican bank had recently ousted a president for incompetence and is under pressure for greater financial transparency.
In the cardinal, Italians saw a white knight. The 68-year-old O’Malley has spent his career as a bishop cleaning up dioceses shattered by child sex abuse. From O’Malley’s lengthy track record, one story seems to have captured the most attention: after he arrived in Boston in 2003, then the epicenter of the church scandal, O’Malley decided to sell the Italian Renaissance mansion which had been home to the previous four Boston archbishops. The millions of dollars for the sale would help pay settlements with victims.
The bearded, soft-spoken cardinal has even earned a nickname, a play on his status as a Capuchin: the cappuccino priest.
“Give me the cappuccino priest, not the Italians,” said Giuliana Piaella, 57, a waitress serving lunch at a Rome restaurant. “He’s a clean-looking guy, perfect age, and has a serious face. He has a calm face, full of self-confidence. He wears open sandals which show his humility. Catholics don’t do that anymore. We need someone who’s close to the people.”
It took O’Malley just six …read more
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