Page 8 - JOA August 2020

World Marketplace News

NYT SERVICE – An 8-foot HYPEBEAST.COM – Boba Fett prototype figures remain a rarity
tall wooden crucifix with a within the Star Wars collector’s space. As such, the L-Slot edition of the
wonderful legend has been Boba Fett rocket-firing action figure may currently be one of the most
found to be the oldest expensive on sale. Only a handful of these collectibles are available from
wooden carving in Europe. the 80 to 100 pieces produced, with the last selling for $185,850, outdoing
As the story goes, it had an earlier record of $112,926. An eBay listing for a vintage Boba Fett
been sculpted by a divine figure is being sold for $225,000. The 1979 figure, alongside several
hand and hidden until an other Boba Fett figures at the time, came with a missile-firing jetpack
Italian bishop discovered it deemed to be a choking hazard;
while on a pilgrimage to the the prototypes moved forward in
Holy Land. The crucifix mass without the rocket, making
was put on a ship with no the ones with the accessory
crew and miraculously set highly coveted. In related news,
sail to the Tuscan coast, where an angel helped guide the relic to its final Hasbro Pulse unveiled the latest
home in a cathedral in Lucca. The radiocarbon dating of the relic from edition of figurines for its Star
the end of the seventh century and the middle of the ninth raised fresh Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
questions about its origins and its iconography and would lead to new 40th-anniversary series. Check
areas of research. For 12 centuries untold numbers of pilgrims had come out the latest here: Hasbro Pulse.
“to pray, to touch, to cry, to rejoice in front of this image.”

HONG KONG – The Harry Garner
EDINBURGH NEWS – A vintage shop front Reticulated Vase, a lost masterpiece of
of a once famous Edinburgh dairy company Chinese porcelain, was found in a remote
has been lovingly restored to its former European house almost 60 years since it last
splendour by leading city architects for their new came to market. The vase was rediscovered by
offices. Buttercup Dairy Company had more than Amsterdam-based art consultant Johan Bosch
250 shops all over Scotland and northern England van Rosenthal in the country house of an eld-
at its height in the early 20th century. Previous erly lady who had inherited it. The master-
occupants, The Meadows Lamp Gallery, had piece survived the last 50 years almost
preserved key elements of the Buttercup Dairy’s unblemished, in a lively home surrounded
original frontage, by countless cats and dogs. This masterpiece
including its stained ranks amongst the most complex and exqui-
glass window and site porcelains from the Qianlong period
tiled and hand-painted (1735–96) ever to have emerged on the market. The vase was sold July
mural with the dairy 11 at Sotheby’s Hong Kong.
company’s signature
girl and cow emblem.
According to Architect NYT SERVICE – The Uffizi Gallery in Florence recently posted a
Malcolm Fraser “We video to its TikTok account featuring Botticelli’s Spring. The painting
did some research and depicts Venus and other
discovered this was one mythological figures,
of the best-preserved remnants of the Buttercup Dairy Co. Upon investi- and has been gawked at
gation, we took the old sign board off the front and found the old by tourists and studied
Buttercup Dairy sign underneath, which is rather fabulous looking. It by academics for
was a simple wee job, we weren’t looking to make it more complicated centuries. On TikTok,
than it needed to be.” users were treated to a
new perspective on
this masterpiece of the
Italian Renaissance:
ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS – A new high-resolution scan of The
Last Supper gives a crystal clear look at the famous painting by set to Todrick Hall’s
Leonardo Da Vinci. It was painted as a mural on a wall at a Dominican
club track Nails, Hair,
monastery in 1498, in Milan. The medium used was a then-new sub- Hips, Heels, each time
stance, a combination of egg tempera and oil paint, and it was done on a body part is mentioned—“thin waist, thick thighs”—the video
plaster. It was cutting edge stuff back then, but da Vinci couldn’t have jumps to a corresponding part of the painting. As the song ramps up,
known how quickly the the video is edited so the 15th-century figures dance along in time. The
mural would fade, and irreverent clip is one of several on the Uffizi’s TikTok account poking
soon its edges were fun at its collection of masterpieces, as the museum tries to transform its
diminishing, along with image from a dusty home of Renaissance art to a place Italy’s teenagers
its colors. Two of Da want to explore.
Vinci’s students decided to
ensure the painting’s future
by preserving it in a copy, AFP – Six people have been arrested
painted between 1515 and in France over the theft of an
1520 in traditional oil artwork by street artist Banksy com-
paint on canvas. Google entered the arena with a scan of the painting, memorating the victims of the 2015
done by Google Arts & Culture. The department reproduced the Paris attacks that was stolen from
students’ copy of the masterpiece, and in doing so ensured that more than the Bataclan concert hall. The
a billion pixels make the scan as rich in detail and color as suspects were arrested across France
after the artwork was found in Italy
technologically possible. To see it for yourself, click here: Google Scan of
The Last Supper. earlier in the month.

6 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles