Who Dunnit?- An art caper of the highest order!

It was  August 21, 1911 and "The Mona Lisa",  Leonardo De Vinci's most famous painting, was stolen right off the wall of The Louvre in France.   

It was not noticed to be missing until the next day.   The museum officials spent that morning checking all throughout the museum to see if it was being photographed or cleaned.  There was no way they could believe it could have been stolen.

  It was gone alright.   Sixty Paris police investigators were summoned to the Louvre to scour the museum for clues.

The museum  closed for a week while the search was on.   After it reopened scores of people stood in line to look at the empty space where the painting once hung.

With few clues to go on  public speculation was rampant.   The French blamed the Germans.    The Germans blamed the French.

Months went by and still no luck. 

Was the Mona Lisa lost forever? 

Finally two years later in 1913 the thief resurfaced.

A well known antique dealer, Mr. Geri,  placed a newspaper ad in several Italian newspapers soliciting art and antiquities.     Someone named "Leonardo" sent him a letter saying he had the Mona Lisa.

 He wanted to sell the painting for 500,000 lire and a promise the painting would not leave Italy.  He wished to restore to Italy what had been stolen by Napolean  Mr. Geri was skeptical but met with the this man after informing the authorities.

Geri watched in amazement as Leonard opened an old suitcase and removed the contents of old clothes.   He then lifted the false bottom.

There lay the Mona Lisa!

The official seal of the Louvre was spotted on the back of the painting.  

"Leonardo",  was actually Vincenzo Peruggia, who had once worked at the Louvre and new his way around.

The public went wild when the painting was found !  It went on display throughout Italy until was returned to France with great fanfare in December of 1913.

The Art of William Aiken Walker 1839-1921

William Aiken Walker was born into aristocracy as the son of a  prominent cotton agent in Charleston, SC.  

 He served in the Confederate Army under General Wade Hampton's South Carolina Brigade until he was wounded. 


 (Wade Hampton happens to be the name of Scarlett O'Hara's son in Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind--there must be a link there but I digress!)

After the war Walker sold postcard studies and small works to tourists up and down and across the Southeast.   A true genre painter of plantation life, his work was in great demand.
  
He charged between .50-$3.00 for works that today might bring $25,000.00

He  sold many paintings on the street corners of in the Vieux Carre.

Extremely talented, Walker sang and played both the violin and piano.   

Walker had a great personality and was invited to all the plantations throughout the south.  He became friends the plantation workers and they loved to have him paint them at their daily work.




He travled from New Orleans to the Blue Ridge mountains, down to Charleston, and along the coast southwards to Florida.

 Walker had a brisk business at each resort stop selling small paintings to tourists depicting scenes of rural cabins, cotton pickers, and palmetto-lined beaches.  

A shrewd businessman, Walker sold to galleries and photo shops what he did nto sell on th streets.


 During his time in time in New Orleans: "Cotton Plantation on the Mississippi" and "The Levee, New Orleans," both of which were probably commissioned by wealthy patrons.


 

Walker's dock scenes  and his paintings of black sharecroppers and plantation life  have always been the most popular.

Walker died in Charleston when he was 91,

WHAT IT'S WORTH: Walker's work has been considered collectible since the 1930s.  The demand for art of the
African-American culture is increasing. Thus his work continues to rise in value each year.

The brass roundel originally estimated at $15-20,000 ended with a sale price of $44,062.50 after a spirited round of bidding at a recent auction.

Mockingbird Celebrates 50th

Atticus, Scout, Jem, Dil,Calpurnia, Boo Radley and Tom Robison are all the wonderful characters in the book that has become a classic: To Kill A Mockingbird.


Set in the fictitious town of Macomb, AL, the story is about racial injustice and growing up in a small southern town.   Published fifty years ago, it has never been out of print and sold over thirty million copies. Gregory Peck played the immortalized Atticus Finch in the Oscar winning movie.   


Harper Lee based Scout on herself and Macomb on her hometown of Monroeville, Al.    Dill is based on Truman Capote, Lee's childhood next door neighbor in Monroeville.     He was the famous author of In Cold Blood.   Atticus was based on Lee's father.    


The courtroom in the movie is identical to the old Monroeville courtroom.


A first edition signed copy of the book has gone for $25,000.00 on Ebay.   After learning about the sales  Lee has stopped signing.


To Kill A Mockingbird has always been one of my all time favorite stories.   The humorous Dill and Scout, the widsom of Atticus, the innocence of Boo Radley and Tom Robinson, Calpurnia's relationship to the family--all make for a great story.
It is scary in parts but also poignant, sad, funny,  and uplifting. 


How can Atticus be so wise?  
The world needs more Atticus Finches!!!

Scout:

"I told Calpurnia to just wait, I'd fix her: one of these days when she wasn't looking I'd go off and drown myself in Barker's Eddy and then she'd be sorry. Besides, I added, she'd already gotten me in trouble once today: she had taught me to write and it was all her fault." 

Atticus:  "'Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.'" 

More Atticus-isms

"'The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.'" 

Last but not least: the  extraordinary Christian Benevolence of Atticus Finch-  

Atticus goes out of his way to be polite and kind to Mrs. Dubose.  she is suffering from morphine addiction withdrawals and in severe agony.

She is mean to Atticus' children and says horrible things about him.  However,  he chooses to be kind  and intstructs Scout and Jem to do the same. 


 He  knows she's in pain and requires Jem to read to her every day- thus teaching acceptance and compassion rather than vengeance.


Atticus:
"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew."
- spoken by Atticus Finch to Jem,