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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 2014
PAGE 7
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INTERNATIONAL
Ming Dynasty 'chicken cup' sold for record $36M
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HONG KONG — A Shanghai collector paid a record $36 million Tuesday for a rare Ming Dynasty cup that's touted as the "holy grail" of China's art world.
Sotheby's Deputy Chairman for Asia Nicholas Chow presents the Meiyintang "Chicken Cup" from the Chinese Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) during a press conference in Hong Kong, Tuesday, April 8. The cup sold for a record $36 million.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Several records have been set at Sotheby's spring sales in Hong Kong, continuing a trend of sky-high prices in the art world driven by the newly super-rich buyers in China and developing countries.
The dainty, white cup from the 15th century measures just 8 centimeters (3.1 inches) in diameter and is known as a "chicken cup" because it's decorated with a rooster and hen tending to their chicks. Sotheby's describes the cup as having flawless translucent sides with its lively scene painted continuously around its sides.
four in private hands and the rest in museums.
It was made during the reign of the Ming Dynasty's Chenghua Emperor, who ruled from 1465 to 1487. Sotheby's said only 17 such cups exist, with
"There's no more legendary object in the history of Chinese porcelain," said Nicholas Chow, Sotheby's deputy chairman for Asia. "This is really the holy grail when it comes to Chinese art."
The previous record for Chinese porcelain was set in 2010 when a gourd-shaped Qianlong vase sold for $32.4 million, Sotheby's said.
For such a prized item, bidding was limited to a handful of collectors and when the winning bid was hammered down at HK$250 million ($32.2 million), the standing-room-only crowd applauded. The auction house's commission brought the total to HK$281.2 million ($36.1 million). A pre-sale estimate was a maximum HK$300 million.
sale of modern and contemporary Asian art, Asian collectors bought nine of the top 10 priciest lots.
The auction house's Hong Kong spring sales show the region's super-rich are still spending despite fluctuating economic growth. At Sunday's
"Definitely the mood in
Hong Kong at this moment, in Asia, is buoyant," said Chow. Sotheby's identified the buyer as collector Liu Yiqian, and Chow said the cup would
likely go on display in Liu's Long Museum in Shanghai, which he and his wife, Wang Wei, opened in 2012.
Liu is a middle-school dropout who drove a cab before becoming a multimillionaire. Forbes estimates his fortune at $900 million, making him the 200th richest person in China.
MUSIC
ASSOCIATED PRESS
This framegrab image from video shows soloist Ilya Kaler blinded by glasses while he plays the violin during a test in September 2012. The test proved that violinists prefer to play on newer violins rather than old ones.
Blind test shows soloists prefer new violins over old
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Ten world-class soloists put costly Stradivarius violins and new, cheaper ones to a blind scientific test. The results may seem off-key to musicians and collectors, but the new instruments won handily.
The idea was to unlock "the secrets of Stradivari," the study said.
Of the six old violins tested, five were by made by the famous Stradivari family in the 17th and 18th centuries. The newer violins were about 100 times cheaper, said study co-author Joseph Curtin, a Michigan violin maker. But the Strads and other older Italian violins have long been considered superior, even almost magical.
So the study tries to quantify something that is inherently subjective and personal, the quality of an instrument, said Curtin and lead author Claudia Fritz of Pierre and Marie Curie University in France. A few years earlier, the duo tested violins blind in an Indianapolis hotel room, but this one was more controlled and comprehensive, putting the instruments through their paces in a rehearsal room and concert hall just outside Paris. They even played with an orchestra, the results of which
When the lights were dimmed and the musicians donned dark glasses, the soloists' top choice out of a dozen old and new violins tested was by far a new one. So was the second choice, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
will be part of a future study.
Even Curtin who makes new violins for a living, said he was surprised, adding the study was designed to eliminate bias in favor of either group of violins.
French soloist Solenne Paidassi said "there's a paranoia about new instruments," compared to "a glamour about old instruments."
Canadian soloist Susanne Hou has been playing a rare $6 million 269-year-old Guarneri del Gesu violin and knows what she likes and what she doesn't. During the testing, some of the violins she played for only a few and then held the instrument out at arm's length in noticeable distaste. But, like others, she was drawn to a certain unidentified violin. It was new.
And when the soloists were asked to guess whether the violins they were playing were old or new, the soloists got it wrong 33 times and right 31 times.
But when the lights were turned down, all that could be judged was the sound. Some violins were 300 years old. Some were days old.
"I was surprised that my top choice was new," said American violinist Giora Schmidt. "Studying music and violin in particular, it's almost ingrained in you thinking that the most successful violinists on the concert stage have always played old Italian instruments."
"I remember trying the old violins and the new violins among ourselves just before the testing got going and saying, 'You know maybe the old ones will win'," Curtin said.
"Whatever this is I would like to buy it," she said in video shot during the September 2012 experiment.
Schmidt, who normally plays a new violin with a little more down-to-Earth price tag of $30,000, liked a different new one, calling it extraordinary in a phone interview: "I said kiddingly to them I will write you a check for this fiddle right now."
Curtin said the researchers won't ever reveal which instruments were used to prevent conflict of interests or appear like a marketing campaign.
Hou, whose four-year loan of the classic Italian violin has expired, explained in an interview that finding the right instrument is so personal:
"There are certain things you can't explain when you fall in love."
Classic violins "are still very good, but that when a level playing field is provided for making honest comparisons, the very best of the contemporary instruments stand up remarkably well in their company," Woodhouse wrote in an email.
James Woodhouse, a professor of engineering and expert on musical instruments at the University of Cambridge in England, wasn't part of the study, but praised it as solid "and very tricky to carry out."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
And since Hou is shopping for violins this week, one of the restrictions on the experiment truly bothers her: The scientists wouldn't tell her who made the violin she fell for.
Mickey Rooney leaves estate to stepson, wife in his will
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mickey Rooney, a Hollywood legend whose career spanned more than 80 years, died Sunday. April 6 in his North Hollywood home. He was 93.
LOS ANGELES — Mickey Rooney signed his last will just weeks before death. leaving a modest estate to a stepson who had been his caretaker, but the actor had no intention of ending his Hollywood career anytime soon, his attorney said Tuesday.
Rooney's death Sunday occurred after the actor began to have difficulty breathing during an afternoon nap, attorney Michael Augustine said.
Augustine said Rooney, 93, passed a physical required before he could start filming for an installment of the "Night at the Museum" franchise and his death was due to natural causes.
Rooney's will was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday. It was signed by Rooney on March 11 and called for his stepson Mark Rooney and his wife to be the sole beneficiaries of the actor's estate, which is valued at only $18,000.
The actor designated Augustine to serve as the executor of his estate, stating that he did not want any relative
handling his final affairs. Despite a show business career spanning more than 80 years, Rooney said he had lost most of his fortune because of elder abuse and financial mismanagement by another stepson. Rooney's will disinherited the actor's eight surviving children, as
handling his final affairs.
well as his estranged wife. Jan Rooney will receive her husband's Social Security benefits and some of his pension earnings as a result of a previous agreement; Augustine said Rooney felt that provided adequate care for her.
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