Pasadena Art dealer runs for Pomona City Council

Second Collector’s Conference veteran to seek high office

Ron Vander Molen, classic Collector’s Conference speaker and California art dealer who has been involved in the antique business for 25 years, is running for Pomona City Council District 6 (Frank’s! old neighborhood) on November 6th, 2012.

He was crowned the Pontiff of Plein Air in Collector magazine for his loyalty to California painting. He used to run the basement at Robbins Antique Mart as a furniture dealer in the 1990s. His tenure ended there when he and former owner Lisa Orr had a run-in.

He then became a high profile dealer on the second floor at the Pasadena Antique Center. He is also a part of the antique show circuit as a regular dealer at the Golden California Show and the Object Show in Glendale.

He was a regular Collector’s Conference attendee and at the last one under Frank’s! auspices, he won 150 $2 bills (which was also the last sighting of any giving away of any real money at any of Franks! events. They were replaced with the even more prestigious parchment certificates with gold seals. 

Vander Molen opened Art & Antiques on Lake in 2007 in Shauna Novotny’s old stomping grounds. He stocks the store with upscale California and American art, as well as European and Spanish antiques. It is located at 60 N. Lake Avenue in Pasadena.

He is a board member of “Friends of the Fox,” which is the Art Deco theater where Frank! was married. 

Vander Molen helped to fight to downzone Historic neighborhoods, establish a city-wide historic ordinance and establish Historic Districts. He is the past president and board member of Pomona Heritage, a 10+ year member of the Pomona Fairplex Association Member, a member of the Pomona Chamber of Commerce, a former Pomona Planning Commissioner and Chair Appointee of Mayor Norma Torres.

Glass dealer Laura Friedman ran for council

Vander Molen is not the first major political figure who has a strong association with the Classic Collector’s Conference. 

Laura Friedman, modern glass collector and expert, was a veteran speaker who is now the Mayor of Glendale.

jackie’s back, again!

Images of Jackie O. and JFK expected to rise in value after suicide of Mary
top JFK family photographer
The Kennedys are in the news again with the announcement that Mary Richardson Kennedy, the estranged wife of Robert Kennedy Jr., hanged herself on May 16th at the family’s 10-acre estate in suburban New York.

At the Los Angeles Modernism Show, Andrew Wilder offered a number of photographs of John F. Kennedy and Jackie O. taken by the unofficial family photographer Mark Shaw, who started out working at Life Magazine. These images are sure to soar in value now that the Kennedys are back in the news again.
Mary Richardson’s death, at age 52, came as a shock to some friends and family, even though the past two years had been undeniably tough ones. The couple was going through a divorce, and Mary had been charged twice with driving while intoxicated in 2010.

“Andrew Wilder was the photographer who became famous for his black and white images taken at Ianasport, said Wilder, owner of Svenska Mobler Gallery which has a location on La Brea in Los Angeles and in Chicago, Illinois.
After John F. Kennedy’s death, a selection of Shaw’s photographs were published as a best selling book, “The John F. Kennedy’s: A Family Album.” It was republished in 2000 with new additions, including never-before-seen color images.

Most recently, Mark Shaw’s images of the Kennedy’s were widely used in “Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years,” an exhibition of Jackie’s clothing which started at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and traveled around the country to other museums.
Shaw began working for “Life” in 1952. In his 16 years with the magazine, he shot 27 covers, more than 100 stories, which included the magazine’s European fashion collections. As a leading fashion photographer, he also worked for Harper’s Bazaar and Mademoiselle. He was one of the first photographers to use color when shooting the runways and “backstage” at the couture shows.
Wilder had an exhibit of some of Shaw’s images at his Chicago gallery in 2004. The show sold out in less than two weeks. Subsequent exhibitions of these images in New York and Los Angeles were equally successful, and he even brought a few examples of Shaw’s work to the Los Angeles Modernism Show.
Cecil Stoughton was the official White House photographer while John F. Kennedy was in office. He took the only photograph ever published showing John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and Marilyn Monroe together. Stoughton was present at the motorcade at which Kennedy was assassinated, as was subsequently the only photographer on board Air Force One when Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the next President. His famous photograph documenting the event depicts Johnson raising his hand in oath as he stood between his wife Lady Bird Johnson and a still blood-splattered Jacqueline Kennedy.
It was Alan Stanley Tretick, a former Look magazine photographer who captured that great image of John F. Kennedy at the Resolute Desk with John Jr. peaking out of its “secret door.”

For more information on images by Shaw, contact Wilder at (323) 934-4452.

How to bargain with gypsies and get through customs!

Licata offers guided buying trips to Hungary

Members of the Red Hat Society or the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants may want to consider making their next excursion a three-day safari to glamorous Hungary under the tutelage of Larry Licata of Wholesale Antiques in Pico Rivera.

Licata offers expert guided buying trips to Hungary and despite taking care of most of the details, there are still plenty of bureaucratic concerns especially regarding customs in both Hungary and the United States. That makes the price he charges of 15% off the top (of the total inventory) plus his travel and lodging expenses seem like quite a bargain, since he has personally filled over 150 containers and knows just where to go every step of the way.

“I take care of all the details…flight arrangements, airport transfers, currency conversion, van rental, logistics, loading, Hungarian customs, shipping, etc.,” he said. “You just show up and buy.”

While it might seem a little overwhelming for one, Licata recommends getting a little group together to share a container, which will reduce expenses and result in lots of inventory.

For those who follow the foreign currency market and are aware of the plummeting Euro, do not expect a great bargain because Hungary uses the Forint. 

“The dollar is quite strong now against the forint, but please check a currency converter on the internet,” said Licata.

All the buying is done in forints, so you can wire American dollars over to a local bank and exchange them for forints, bring cash and convert it at a local Hungary bank, or do what Licata does, bring cash and exchange it with a local money changer.

 

He starts by picking you up at the Budapest Airport and taking you to a good, clean hotel in the city. After breakfast, he picks you up on the rental van and the shopping starts right away. 

“We will be traveling in a clockwise direction from Budapest, passing through Vacs, Eger, Debrecen, Doboz and back to Budapest,” he explained. “We will be on the road for three days, sleeping in local hotels along the way.”

They don’t use the star system over there, but there are plenty of four-and-a-half goat rated hotels.

As they hit the cities, they will be stopping at vetted local dealers, farmers and gypsies to buy.

“These are the contacts that I have cultivated over the past decade and all are able to supply a variety of products at very inexpensive prices,” he said.

Airfare varies from $600 to $1,200 depending on which part of the United States you depart from, but the bulk of your money will be spent of the merchandise, shipping the container to the U.S., as well as things relating to Hungarian customs, which he estimates at about $2,000 (although this price is very high, please don’t misinterpret this to mean bribing government officials). This includes arranging for an empty container to be delivered to Licata’s central warehouse, Hungarian customs fees, documentation, permits, invoices, logistics and paperwork.

 

One thing the traveler will be responsible for is finding a local U.S. broker to handle U.S. customs. 

 

“If you have never done this, there is a lot of paperwork involved,” explained Licata. “We have been using Fedex and they seem to be the easiest.”

He added that customs expenses back here can vary. Although Licata’s last container only cost $700 to get through customs, it can be much higher depending on if they demand several “inspections,” all of which are done at the owner’s expense.

Shipping costs vary depending on the size and destination of the container. The range is from $6,000 for a 40’ container to the west coast to $3,000 for a 20’ container to the east coast. Licata will make sure the container is safely on its way; it takes between four and six weeks to arrive.

One of the big questions prospective travelers have is how much to spend on the merchandise for their container. Licata has spent as little as $11,000 on a 20’ container to a much as $45,000 on a 40’ container.

“I have personally filled over 150 containers and would not have done so if there was not a good profit to be made,” he said. However, he recommends that interested parties need to become very familiar with the type of items available and what they will sell for in their area back in the United States.  

“Spring and Summer is a great time to buy and the dollar is the strongest in Hungary that is has been in years,” said Licata.

For more information, contact Licata at (562) 301-2724.

evernote test

testing to see how well it works

The calculator

The first computer

foxfile blog 2

The most sought-after item in the collection was her pair of famed Luxor No.6 flying goggles. Worn by Earhart when she experienced her first crash in July 1921 while learning to fly with Neta Snook, the goggles still evidenced a cracked lens. The bidding opened at $10,000 and escalated to a final sales price of $17,775.
Also featured in the collection were 20 never-seen-before unpublished gelatin silver prints that were sold individually. The two photos in particular which captured the hearts of collectors were a silver gelatin print of Earhart, signed and inscribed by her and dated 1937. The photo snapped for $2,100. The second photo that tripled its high estimate was another photo of Earhart, signed and inscribed “To my friends of the radio audience.”

This image sold for $3,200.
Bidding for Clars auctions is available in person, by phone, absentee and live online at www.clars.com. To register to bid, call Clars at (888) 339-7600.

Trunk Show in April

I hope all is well with you. We loved the Mad Men coverage in the December issue of the Collector.

I wanted to find out the protocol for listing an event in the Collector Magazine.

We have a ‘trunk show’ coming up in April, and I think your reader would like to hear about it.

This will be our 8th annual Trunk Show at the Wooden Duck Furniture Store in Berkeley, April 16-18, 2010. The event features our collection of over 1,000 original posters from Europe and the US. PLUS all of our new acquisitions hit the table there first, before we take them to Hillsborough or Modernism. We offer custom framing by museum framer Glenn Young of Artscapes Framing, as well as conservation consulting for posters.

Collectors LOVE this show because admission and parking are free. Also, because the Wodden Duck is HUGE, we get to spread out and feature our oversized posters, as well as some very special framed things, NONE of which fits into our typical 10 x 20 foot booth at shows. So, what can we do to get in the collector calendar for April?

Of course, as always, I have loads of high res photos if you feel like this warrants something more than a calendar listing.

www.thewoodenduck.com
www.vepca.com

Thanks for your help Frank!

Will we see you at the new show in San Francisco in March? The www.artinternationalfair.com show?

All the best-

Elizabeth Norris

VINTAGE EUROPEAN POSTERS
4200 Park Blvd., Suite 301
Oakland, CA 94602
510.530.3353
www.vepca.com
facebook vep ca

Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London, Wednesday, February 10, 2010 — This evening, Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale brought the
exceptionally strong total of £54,074,450 / $84,761,700 / €61,461,160 – well in excess of pre-sale
expectations (Estimate: £32,157,000-44,986,000), establishing the second highest total for a February Sale of
Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s. The auction achieved remarkable sell-through rates: 96.1% by lot and 98.4% by
value – the second highest by lot and the highest by value for a various owners sale of Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s
London. Overall, 21 new artist records were set.
Discussing the results, Cheyenne Westphal, Sotheby’s Chairman of Contemporary Art Europe, said: “The
outstanding sell-through rates, depth of bidding across the sale – particularly for Lenz – and strong prices we achieved this
evening are a clear sign of renewed confidence in this market and build on the positive and strong results of our New York
2
sale in November. The result for ZERO Art: Property from the Sammlung Lenz Schönberg is affirmation of the market’s
hunger and thirst for coherent private collections of visual and fresh to the market works with exceptional provenance.
Having been widely exhibited in museums across the world, ZERO Art has now also conquered the art market.”
Sotheby’s Senior Director and Senior International Specialist in Contemporary Art, Oliver Barker, continued:
“We’ve witnessed this evening that there’s an intelligent marketplace which is keen to buy the very best of its type from
masterworks at the very top end of the market, such as the De Kooning, Freud, Kleins, Fontanas, Manzoni, Doig and Ofili
– our top lots tonight – to exceptional works by artists such Heinz Mack and Otto Piene at the middle-market level, the
bellwether, which sold well in excess of their pre-sale estimates and set new records for the artists at auction.”
ZERO Art: Property from the Sammlung Lenz Schönberg
ZERO Art: Property from the Sammlung Lenz Schönberg – a 600-strong collection of ZERO movement Art
assembled by Gerhard and Anna Lenz over a period of 50 years – which represented the first 47 lots of this evening’s
77-lot Contemporary Art Sale generated tremendous excitement. The first four works in the sale – by Heinz Mack,
Otto Piene, Jan Schoonhoven and Gunther Uecker – set the pace for the auction as each piece saw competition from
multiple bidders both on the telephone and in the saleroom and set records for the artists at auction. The entire
collection soared well above pre-sale expectations and realised the remarkable total of £23,213,050 /
$36,386,456 / €26,384,013 (est. £11.1-15.1 / $17.4-23.8 / €12.6-17.2 million). Works of art by Yves Klein and
Lucio Fontana led the collection which established an outstanding 19 new artist records and saw 93.5% of the sold
lots (only one lot failed to find a buyer) realise prices above their high estimates.

Gina's painting believed to be from William Buckley's estate

A painting believed to be from the estate of conservative commentator William Buckley was appraised by David Brownlee of ANA at the January Rose Bowl.Entitled “The Blue Cavalier,” the Picasso-esque image shows a svelte figure of a blue rider and horse against a yellow background. It was purchased by algebra teacher, Gina, at a past Rose Bowl. The painting could have considerable value, once Brownlee is able to authenticate its provenance; it has a card on the back indicating that it was from the estate of Buckley, but that’s not certain.Buckley founded the political magazine “National Review” in 1955, and hosted 1,429 episodes of the television show “Firing Line” from 1966 until 1999. With the death of the show “Firing Line,” came the death of all intellectual programming.George H. Nash, a historian of the modern American conservative movement, believed that Buckley was “arguably the most important public intellectual in the United States in the past half century.”The syndicated newspaper columnist’s writing style was known for its erudition, wit, and use of uncommon words; he pushed the English language to its uncomfortable limits.In addition to his intellectual political pursuits, he also had an entire career as a spy novelist. He was inspired by Frederick Forsyth’s “The Day of the Jackal.”

Trio of game-changing artists

“Pop!” the whodunnit Andy Warhol murder mystery musical, which ran last month at the Yale Repertory Theatre has once again brought the “last true great artist” into the limelight. As a result, screenprints and artwork by the Campbell Soup can genius are selling for more money than ever.Press notes for POP! read: “Who shot Andy Warhol? The fabulous drag queen Candy Darling hosts a happening whodunit musical in which the famous