Patek Philippe Ref. 96 rose gold, long logo, pink dial with box and original paper from 1945, original rice Guy&Freres bracelet, outstanding condition, untouched dial, 33mm case diameter, manual winding.
Artista unico, caratterizzato da un segno inconfondibile, fu profondamente legato agli eventi storici che coinvolsero l’Italia e l’Europa della sua epoca. Spirito libero e irriverente fu bersaglio di interminabili serie di denunce: oltraggio a capo di Stato, vilipendio alla religione, alla magistratura, denunce per oscenità.
Con ragione Dario Fo così lo ricorda:“In Francia era considerato una delle penne più feroci… dissacrante, anticlericale, anarchico convinto, ha avuto la forza di mantenere la sua posizione di uomo indipendente e incorruttibile. Il suo credo l’ha spinto a essere ‘contro’, sempre, comunque e senza paura”.
Pino Zac fu forse l’unico disegnatore italiano a trovarsi a suo agio tanto su temi internazionali che nazionali e per questo mai come oggi, guardando alla triste fine della nostra satira, ci rendiamo conto quanto la sua figura manchi in un panorama politico incerto e di bassissimo profilo come quello che viviamo.
Una sua vignetta, raffigurante George Pompidoucon al posto del pene un fungo atomico, gli impedì a lungo di poter mettere piede in Francia (e a leggerlo oggi ci vengono i brividi… ndr).
Chi lo conosceva sa che era un artista vulcanico e imprevedibile e tra coloro che lo ricordano sempre con sconfinato affetto c’è l’artista romana Nicoletta Ferrari che ne conserva gelosamente alcuni disegni e bozzetti a lei dedicati che ci offre di pubblicare.
Le immagini di quella casa-studio impolverata, vuota e abbandonata dal 1985 quando il suo proprietario morì è la metafora della vicenda artistica di Pino Zac, nome d’arte del siciliano Giuseppe Zaccaria, maestro della satira dimenticato e rimosso. “Un profugo della matita”, come si definiva, che ha sempre messo alla berlina il potere in tutte le sue forme e i suoi rappresentanti. Non a caso è stato il creatore dell’indimenticabile e cattivissima testata satirica ‘il Male’, nata nel febbraio ’78 sulla scia del movimento del ’77.
Zac-I fiori del male di Massimo Denaro, prodotto dal CSC Scuola nazionale di cinema-sede Abruzzo e presentato nella sezione ‘Il cinema nel giardino”, colma un vuoto e ricostruisce la vicenda artistica di un grande disegnatore, affidata alle testimonianze di compagni di lavoro come Vincino, Jacopo Fo, Vauro Senesi, Vincenzo Sparagna, Riccardo Mannelli, Valter Zarroli, e la ex moglie Drahomira Biligova.
“Io sono un anarchico libertario neofeudale conservatore di estrema sinistra. Insomma, riassumendo, sono un anarchico. Mi sono simpatici gli ecologisti, i movimenti radicali. Mi accusano di essere un qualunquista. E’ un’accusa senza senso, vaga. Che cosa significa? E’ una parola che esiste solo in Italia”, diceva di sé Zac.
Il primo incontro del regista Denaro con la sua figura è alla facoltà di Architettura “Valle Giulia” di Roma dove alcuni studenti e professori ricordano l’indipendenza e l’incorruttibilità dell’artista. Poi nell’inverno 2013 Denaro entra nell’ultima casa di Zac, un castello in abbandono, ora proprietà del Comune aquilano di Fontecchio, e l‘accompagna nella visita, che ritroviamo nel documentario, Zarroli collaboratore di Zac.
Il successivo incontro è al cinema Trevi dove la Cineteca nazionale organizza una serata su Zac. E’ allora che prende corpo l’idea di un film documentario sull’artista dimenticato. Zac è stato oltre che disegnatore satirico per diverse testate – l’Unità, Paese Sera, Mondo Nuovo e la prestigiosa rivista francese Le Canard Enchainé – anche l’autore di cartoon, tra cui L’uomo in grigio, nomination agli Academy Awards, e Il cavaliere inesistente, tratto da Italo Calvino, una produzione importante dell’Istituto Luce nella quale gli attori veri interagiscono e si muovono dentro le scene animate da Zac.
E’ inoltre il fondatore instancabile di testate, tra cui il settimanale satirico ‘il Male’, che segna una svolta nella satira nazionale dopo anni di censura e di sterilizzazione, e di cui Zac fu direttore soltanto dei primi tre numeri, andandosene poi per questioni amorose. Se ne va a Parigi, ma lascia un disegno del leader democristiano Aldo Moro con la faccia trasformata in fallo che sarà la copertina del numero 3 del ‘Male’ in edicola proprio nei giorni in cui l’esponente politico viene rapito dalle Brigate rosse.
E’ la riprova dello stile tagliente e graffiante di Zac che ridicolizza politici, militari, prelati, a cominciare dal Papa, e i potenti di turno.
A closer look at the ‘time machine’ Jaguar headed for Monaco
Bonhams forthcoming Monaco Sale on May 13 will feature the world’s finest as-original, running, long-term preserved ‘time-machine’ Jaguar C-Type, UK road-registered ‘POV 114’.
On January 14, 1955, this outstanding example of Jaguar’s double-Le Mans-winning XK120C design was registered under chassis number ‘XKC 011’, and was sold ex-works to the Dunlop Rubber Company. It survives today in essentially identical specification.
The preceding history of Jaguar’s works team car ‘XKC 011’ embraces the 1952 Le Mans 24-Hours, the 1953 Mille Miglia and Targa Florio, plus a race win at Goodwood, when driven by such Jaguar stalwarts as Sir Stirling Moss, Major Tony Rolt and Peter Walker.
The Jaguar world at large has long accepted a contemporary works team anecdote that a subsequent body swap saw chassis ‘XKC 011’ fitted with the body from sister car ‘XKC 047’, which had itself been campaigned by the Belgian Ecurie Francorchamps team during the 1953 Sports Car World Championship season.
As works prepared, and tended by Jaguar factory team mechanics, ‘XKC 047’ competed in two 1953 24-Hour races – at Le Mans and at Spa-Francorchamps – plus the ADAC 1,000 Kilometres classic at the Nürburgring in Germany. ‘XKC 047’ finished 9th overall in the great French race, co-driven by its formal owner Roger Laurent / Baron Charles de Tornaco. At Spa Laurent shared it with future Ferrari personality Jacques Swaters and at the Nürburgring with Ferrari’s great future three-time Le Mans-winner Olivier Gendebien.
Bonhams’ comprehensive investigation of ‘XKC 011’ (aka ‘POV 114’) to be offered at Monaco, initially revealed evidence identifying its chassis as having been the works team car which substituted at the last moment as the Ecurie Francorchamps entry in the 1954 Le Mans 24-Hour race. After our attention was drawn to other features of the car, further inspection now indicates that such participation is in fact debatable.
It is therefore probable that ‘XKC 011’ as now offered by Bonhams is not really a split-identity car at all. Present opinion is that it is likely the 1953 car, chassis ‘XKC 047’ – still bearing its original, complete ‘K 1047’ body – subsequently re-stamped ‘XKC 011’ at the factory before delivery to Dunlop in 1955.
‘POV 114’ continued to be maintained by the factory when it served as a test car for Dunlop, and during its club-racing days in the hands of owner-drivers Mike Salmon, Gordon Lee and Robin Sturgess into the 1960s.
It was acquired by the Griffiths family in 1963 and it is to be offered at Monaco direct from this self-same ownership, 53 long years later.
Most significantly, it has been preserved virtually untouched in wonderfully well-patinated ‘time machine’ condition to this day.
James Knight, Group Motoring Director of Bonhams, commented, “Bonhams has been assisted in its investigation regarding this famous Jaguar C-Type by a wealth of experts, and tremendous thanks are due to British Jaguar authority Den Carlow, motoring writer Marc Noordeloos, Jaguar enthusiast Jeremy McChesney, Chris Keith-Lucas of CKL Engineering Ltd, Gary Pearson of Pearsons Engineering, Australian Jaguar authorities Les Hughes and Terry McGrath, and Andrew Tart of Andrew Tart Motor Engineering.
“While officially sold by the Jaguar factory as ‘XKC 011′, the histories of ‘011′ and ‘047’ – which became intertwined during the preceding 1954 Le Mans race period – have baffled any number of Jaguar enthusiasts and historians over the years. These recent collective efforts – most notably with the total support of the long-term owner – are getting closer to unlocking this exciting mystery in this gloriously-preserved old war-horse’s very early life.”
Bonhams inaugural Monaco Sale will present an exclusive auction of just 40 hand-picked, exceptional motor cars. Timed to coincide with the Monaco Grand Prix Historique, the Sale will take place on 13 May 2016. The venue for this grandest of motoring auctions is the prestigious Fairmont Monte Carlo hotel, overlooking the Grand Prix circuit’s famous ‘Station’ hairpin, scene of so much motor sporting drama.
For further information on Bonhams motor car department visit: www.bonhams.com/cars
Spesso e volentieri molti orologi sono associati con eventi sportivi od imprese sportive. E’ il caso del Rolex Explorer (direttamente collegabile alla prima scalata dell Everest) piuttosto che del Longines Lindbergh (indirettamente collegato alla traversata aerea, senza scali, dell’Atlantico).
Alcuni orologi, poi, si legano direttamente alle Olimpiadi. Pensiamo alla bellissima serie Omega commemorativa delle Olimpiadi di Melbourne 1956.
Abbiamo ora in vendita su meridianaeshop.com un Longines commemorativo delle (tragiche) Olimpiadi di Monaco 1972.
Bella cassa in acciaio in due corpi, waterproof, diametro 36,5mm. Movimento sviluppato sul celebre Valjoux 23, modificato con la soppressione del contatore dei secondi continui e ripunzonatocalibro 334.
Quadrante blu elettrico con scala tachimetrica esterna. Ultimo, ma non affatto irrilevante, ancora con il suo bracciale originale in acciaio.
Many watches are associated with sporting events or sporting achievements. For example the Rolex Explorer (directly connected to the first ascent of Everest) rather than the Longines Lindbergh (indirectly connected to the Atlantic Ocean enterprise).
Some watches are, connected to the Olympics Games. Such the Omega series commemorating the 1956 Olympics Games in Melbourne.
For sale on meridianaeshop.com a very interesting Longines: the one related to 1972 Monaco Olympics Games.
Beautiful stainless steel case in two bodies, waterproof, diameter 36,5mm. Movement developed on the famous Valjoux 23, amended by the deletion of the continuous seconds counter and repunched caliber 334.
Electric blue dial with tachymeter scale outside. Last but no least, with its original steel bracelet.
Bonhams announces The Monaco Sale 2016, taking place 13 May 2016
Driven by racing legend, Sir Stirling Moss, the ex-Works Team 1952 Jaguar C-Type ‘XKC 011’ is an early major consignment
In 2016, Bonhams will return to Monaco to present an exclusive sale of just 40 hand-picked, exceptional motor cars. Timed to coincide with the Monaco Grand Prix Historique, the sale will take place on 13 May 2016.
“Already renowned in motorsport circles for its annual Monaco Grand Prix and Monte Carlo Rally, the glittering Mediterranean Principality is now to host the Bonhams Monaco Sale,” said James Knight, Bonhams Group Motoring Director. “The auction will be carefully curated, tailored to offer only the most desirable models to the market.
“We are delighted to confirm that we already have several incredible consignments for the sale, led by the fantastic 1952 Jaguar C-Type ‘XKC 011’. This very special sports-racing car is not only an ex-Stirling Moss ex-Works team entry, it is also in wonderfully original condition, and is offered direct from the family that has owned it for 52 years. Research indicates the car is fully original, remaining un-restored since the day it left the Works team in 1955.”
Jaguar C-Type ‘XKC 011’ was built new for the Jaguar Works racing team early in 1952. After making its racing debut at Silverstone in May of that year, driven by one-time pre-war Brooklands star Peter Walker, it was fitted with special longnose/longtail aerodynamic bodywork for the Le Mans 24-Hour race. There it was co-driven by Stirling Moss and Peter Walker, but failed to finish.
Reverting to handsome standard body form, it was again co-driven by Moss and Walker in the 1952 Goodwood 9-Hours race, finishing 5th, before Walker set best times in both the Shelsley Walsh and Prescott hill-climbs. World War Two hero Major Tony Rolt drove it to victory in the September Goodwood Meeting.
In 1953 ‘XKC 011’ was then campaigned by Stirling Moss and ‘Mort’ Morris-Goodall in the 1,000-mile round-Italy Mille Miglia, and by veteran driver/journalist Tommy Wisdom in the Sicilian Targa Florio. This great car’s Works Team career concluded with Moss finishing 2nd in heat, and 4th in the final of the 1953 British Empire Trophy race which took place at Douglas, Isle of Man.
The Fairmont Hotel, Monte Carlo
The Fairmont Hotel, Monte Carlo
The following year the car achieved further success, when it was loaned from Jaguar Cars Ltd to Belgian team, Ecurie Francorchamps.
After it was sold from the Works, the car became one of the most raced and best-known of all C-Types on the British club-racing scene, owned and driven by Michael Salmon, Gordon Lee and Robin Sturgess. It finally passed into the current vendor’s family ownership in March 1963, and it has been maintained in active yet incredibly un-spoiled order ever since.
Bonhams’ sale of Jaguar C-Type ‘XKC 011’ in Monaco, 2016, will provide a truly incredible opportunity to acquire the cream of the historic car collecting world.
The venue for this grandest of motoring auctions is the prestigious Fairmont Monte Carlo Hotel, overlooking the Grand Prix circuit’s famous ‘Station’ hairpin, scene of so much motor sporting drama.
For further information on Bonhams motor car department visit: www.bonhams.com
The defining masterpiece of Modigliani’s art, this life-affirming work is a lesson in erotic education — offered as part of the curated sale The Artist’s Muse on Monday 9 November at Christie’s New York
Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu couché is one of the great, undisputed facts of his extraordinary life and tragically brief, but brilliant, artistic career. It is one of the defining masterpieces of his work: a seamless fusion of classical idealism, sensual realism and modernist invention. It is a work that reaches the lofty heights of Modigliani’s long-held ambition to create a sublime sculptural icon in the form of a woman – what he called a ‘column of tenderness’ – while acknowledging the gritty reality of his bohemian life as an impoverished émigré eking out an existence in a poor district of Paris.
View Catalogue
Realistic enough to seduce, yet stylized to the point that it stands as an idealized vision, Nu couché is no portrait, but rather a great artist’s paean to idea of the beauty of life itself. It is one of the finest and most admired of an extraordinary series of joyous, sensual, erotic and life-affirming nudes. Modigliani painted Nu Couché in an intense spate of creativity from the winter of 1917 onwards. It was, by all accounts, the product of several hours of intense, feverish work painting ‘orgasmically’, according to the painter Tsuguharu Foujita, in a small, poorly furnished room, alone with his model, two chairs, a couch and a bottle of brandy during what was probably the worst year of the Great War. It is a defiant life-affirming ‘yes-saying’ to life made directly in the face of great personal adversity during one of the darkest and most traumatic periods of the 20th century.
TOP TEN RESULTS | THE ARTIST’S MUSE: AN EVENING SALE | NEW YORK | NOVEMBER 9, 2015
The Artist’s Muse: A Curated Evening Sale
New York, 9 November 2015, Sale #3789
[All sold prices include buyer’s premium]
24 lots sold
Total: $491,352,000/ £325,830,239/ €455,184,844
71% sold by lot
34 lots offered
£0.66= $1 / €0.93=$1
87% sold by value
Lot
Description
Estimate ($)
Price Realized
Buyer
8A
Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), Nu couché, oil on canvas, Painted in 1917-1918
WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST
Estimate on request
$170,405,000
£113,000,663
€157,861,926
Anonymous
13A
Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997), Nurse, oil and Magna on canvas, Painted in 1964
WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST
Estimate on request
$95,365,000
£63,239,390
€88,345,428
Anonymous
5A
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), Thérèse, carved miro wood, gold gilding and copper nails, Executed circa 1902-1903; unique
WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR A SCULPTURE BY THE ARTIST
$18,000,000 – $25,000,000
$30,965,000
£20,533,820
€28,685,746
Anonymous
20A
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Homme à l’épée, oil on panel
Painted on 25 July 1969
Estimate on request
$22,565,000
£14,963,528
€20,904,048
Anonymous
7A
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), L’homme à la pipe(Étude pour un joueur de cartes) (recto); Père…, watercolor on paper (recto); pencil on paper (verso), Painted in 1892-1896 (recto); Drawn in 1890-1892 (verso)
$18,000,000 – $25,000,000
$20,885,000
£13,849,469
€19,347,709
Anonymous
19A
Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966), James Lord, oil on canvas, Painted in 1964
$22,000,000 – $30,000,000
$20,885,000
£13,849,469
$19,347,709
Anonymous
10A
Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), Femme nue couchée, oil on canvas, Painted in 1862
WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST
$15,000,000 – $25,000,000
$15,285,000
£10,135,942
€14,159,910
Anonymous
3A
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), Im See badende Mädchen, Moritzburg, oil on canvas, Painted in Moritzburg, 1909
$10,000,000 – $15,000,000
$13,605,000
£9,021,883
€12,603,571
Anonymous
6A
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), Jeune homme à la fleur, oil on canvas, Painted in Tahiti, 1891
$12,000,000 – $18,000,000
$13,605,000
£9,021,883
€12,603,571
Anonymous
22A
Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997), Crying Girl, porcelain enamel on steel, Executed in 1964
$7,000,000 – $9,000,000
$13,381,000
£8,873,342
€12,396,059
Anonymous
Estimates do not include buyer’s premium.
Sales totals are hammer price plus buyer’s premium and do not reflect costs, financing fees or application of buyer’s or seller’s credits.
Related Sale Sale 3789 The Artist’s Muse
November 9, 2015
New York, Rockefeller Plaza
Christie’s presents its second annual online auction of historically important meteorites. Rare lunar and Martian meteorites, along with a series of stunning asteroidal meteorites and renowned meteorites from notable falls are on offer to both seasoned collectors and those exploring this unique category for the first time. From dramatic jewel-like polished slices and spheres to raw natural shapes resembling abstract sculpture, this is your chance to own a piece of another world.
An expert’s guide to meteorites
Research Geochemist Dr. Alan Rubin offers his insights into the origins and composition of these fascinating extraterrestrial rocks
Meteorites are our principal source of extraterrestrial material. They are sometimes called the ‘poor man’s space probe’ because they land on Earth for free. These rocks hail from approximately a hundred different asteroids as well as from the Moon and Mars, and they provide key information about our origins. Asteroidal meteorites are also the oldest rocks around – a few hundred million years older than the oldest existing Earth rocks and perhaps one hundred million years older than the Moon itself.
There are three main varieties of meteorites:
Stones (95 per cent of meteorite falls): These are silicate rocks (some resembling terrestrial volcanic rocks) derived from melted and unmelted asteroids, the Moon, and Mars.
Irons (4 per cent of falls): These are metallic iron-nickel masses, predominantly from the cores of melted asteroids.
Stony irons (1 per cent of falls): These half-stone, half-metal samples are formed on or within melted asteroids by the mixing of metal core material with silicate rocks.
Meteorites have been pelting the Earth throughout geological history. Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid (essentially a giant meteorite) slammed into the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, causing a mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs. Had that meteorite missed, there would be no cows, cats, pigs or people on this planet right now. Much older ‘fossil’ meteorites have been preserved in 470-million-year old limestone in Sweden; these rocks are impact debris from a major collision in the asteroid belt. Each year, samples from that disrupted body still land on Earth.
Although there are more than 60,000 meteorites in the world’s collections, two-thirds of these are from Antarctica and will never be available to the general public. And the resource is barely growing; each year there are only five or six fresh falls and two hundred or so ‘finds’ (most of which weigh less than 200 grams and are appreciably weathered). For scientists to classify a meteorite into the proper category, the rock must be broken or cut; only then can well-characterized samples be offered for sale. Meteorite hunters, meteorite researchers, and meteorite dealers work together in a worldwide enterprise to discover new specimens, uncover details about the origin of the solar system, and make samples available to the discerning collector.
Large Slab of an Important Martian Meteorite (NWA 7397). Learn more about this and other Martian meteorites in the Deep Impact online auction.
Martian Meteorites
Mars’ heavily cratered southern hemisphere attests to its bombardment by asteroids; the relatively low surface gravity of the Red Planet (only 38 per cent as strong as the Earth’s) suggests it would be feasible to launch rocks during a giant impact. But there was no proof that Martian meteorites had actually landed on Earth until 1983, when NASA scientists analyzed the gas bubbles trapped inside impact-melted glass within a basaltic meteorite found in Antarctica. The chemical and isotopic composition of those bubbles precisely matched that of the atmosphere measured on the surface of Mars by the Viking spacecraft lander in 1976. The putative Martian basalts have relatively young crystallization ages (180 million to about 2 billion years before present); this shows that these rocks cannot be from asteroids because those small bodies had cooled completely more than four billion years ago. The case of the Martian origin of these rocks is essentially closed, since even the most skeptical meteorite scientists would likely admit there is at least a 95 per cent probability that these samples are from Mars.
Although there are currently about 160 Martian meteorites in collections worldwide, many of the specimens are actually different pieces of the same rock. A good estimate of the number of separate Martian meteorites is 110, which provide scientists unparalleled access to evidence bearing on the geological history of the Martian crust. These rocks are scientifically important, commercially valuable, and a key component of fine collections.
A Complete Slice of a Lunar Meteorite (NWA 8022). Learn more about this and other Lunar meteorites in the Deep Impact online auction.
Lunar Meteorites
The light-colored, heavily cratered regions of the Moon are called the ‘lunar highlands’; they are made up mainly of anorthosite – a light gray rock rich in calcium-aluminum silicate. The dark regions of the Moon are the ‘maria’ – impact basins that have been flooded with dark gray basalt. The basalt is similar in composition and texture to the dark igneous rocks found in Hawaii, Iceland, and on the floors of the Earth’s ocean basins. Together the highlands and maria make up the features of the Man in the Moon, the ‘face’ that stares down at Northern Hemisphere observers squinting up at the heavens. But these two rock types (along with impact melt rocks) are also found in lunar meteorites – samples from major impacts that have blasted off the surface of the Moon.
Lunar meteorites are ‘breccias’ — stones made up of broken rock fragments, glass shards and glass spherules cemented together by interstitial impact melt. They are derived from the near-surface regions of the Moon known as the lunar regolith, which is the layer of impact-fragmented and pulverized rock and mineral grains that overlie lunar bedrock. The regolith has also been subjected to intense solar radiation and bombardment by cosmic rays and micrometeorites. Although about 235 lunar meteorites are currently known, many specimens are actually different pieces of the same meteorite; the number of separate lunar meteorites is probably closer to 125. From the existing samples on Earth, only about 0.4 per cent of known meteorites are lunar; they are so scarce that, to date, none have been found in Europe, Asia, North America or South America. In fact, about 15 per cent of recovered lunar meteorites are from Antarctica, and will likely never be available to the general public.
Dr. Alan Rubin is a Research Geochemist in the Department of Earth and Space, UCLA.
Click hereto view Christie’s latest meteorite auction, which takes place online from 27 October to 10 November 2015.
Steve Jobs was an American pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s. Shortly after his death, Jobs’ official biographer, Walter Isaacson described him as the “creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.”
I read a blog entry by Cliff Kuang, editor of Co.Design, in which he discusses the 6 Pillars of Steve Jobs’ Design Philosophy. I have always had a great deal of respect for Steve Jobs and began thinking about how his 6 pillars of design might apply in Facilitation.
The 6 Pillars of Design
Cliff Kuang described the 6 Pillars of Steve Jobs’ Design Philosophy as:
Craft above all
Empathy
Focus
Impute
Friendliness
Find Simplicity for future in metaphors from the past.
Steve Jobs designed products that everyone had to have – they became accessible and now…
A closer look at the ‘time machine’ Jaguar headed for Monaco
Steve Jobs 