March 11, 2020

Van Gogh goes for 15 million euro in Maastricht

Filed under: Art,History by Orangemaster @ 4:36 pm

‘Peasant woman in front of a farmhouse’ (‘Paysanne devant une chaumière’ in French), an 1885 work by Vincent van Gogh that was bought back in the 1960s in the UK for about 5 euro, just sold for 15 million euro at the world’s premier art fair TEFAF in Maastricht, Limburg.

It’s one of those stories were someone had left the painting in a cellar for years until a local antique merchant bought it at an auction for next to nothing. One year later, the painting was sold to a journalist for about 53 euro; he showed it the Tate Gallery director and it was deemed to be a Van Gogh. The journalist then auctioned it off in 1970 at Sotheby’s in New York City where it fetched USD 110.000 (97.455 euro).

In 2001 the work was sold for the last time at Sotheby’s for 1.5 million euro. Today, at 15 million euro, it’s the most expensive artwork ever sold at the TEFAF, although not all sales at the annual event are made public.

(Link: ad.nl, image artnet.com)

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March 22, 2018

British blue passport to be made by Franco-Dutch company

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 11:33 am

Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto has won the tender to produce Britain’s post-Brexit blue passports, which has upset Brexiteers. Swapping the EU’s burgundy passport (shown here) for the old blue version is seen by them as a symbol of Britain’s regained independence.

The tender to produce the passport was put out across the EU under single market rules, and Gemalto undercut rival bids by around £50 million (€57 million). Former British cabinet minister Priti Patel said “Putting the job in the hands of the French is simply astonishing. It is a national humiliation.” And she’s also quite wrong to say ‘French’ as Gemalto is Franco-Dutch and headquartered in Amsterdam.

Apparently the Dutch part is not as humiliating to Brexiteers.

(Link: msn.com)

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August 29, 2015

1960s promo of science museum Evoluon (video)

Filed under: Science,Technology by Branko Collin @ 12:38 pm

evoluon-carillon-screenshotThe Eindhoven science museum Evoluon had to close its doors in the 1980s, but a 12-minute-long promotional film made in 1968 provides a fascinating insight into the experience for those who never got to see the real thing.

Visitors would enter a UFO-like building perched on top of a glass frame, pay at turnstiles and take an elevator to the saucer section. There they would be greeted by exhibits about motion, magnetism, engineering, the human body, sound, light, society and more. The basement had a popular electronic speech synthesizer that could be made to say the word ‘koffie’ (‘coffee’) using different inflections.

A lot of the exhibits were operated by the visitors themselves.

The film would find an unexpected audience in the UK as it had been selected by the BBC as one of its 158 colour trade test films which were broadcast during intervals in the regular BBC2 programming. The idea was to give electronics store owners a chance to show off their colour TV sets to shoppers.

The film was produced by Ted de Wit and director Ronny Erends and the music was made by Jaap Hofland and the Moonliners.

See also: Evoluon architect Leo de Bever dies.

(Image: crop of the video)

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