JK Rowling has joined the billionaire’s club. “Once an unemployed single mother, she has now sold more than 250 million books around the world. Rowling was ranked at number 552 out of a record number of 587 billionaires in the Forbes list. The writer said last year that the enormous wealth the Harry Potter books have brought her made her feel guilty.”
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Royal Academy Buys Menuhin Archive
The Royal Academy of Music has bought the archive of papers, photos and memorabilia of the late Yehudi Menuhin. “The archive contains important musical manuscripts by many of the composers who worked with Menuhin, including music from his collaborations with Ravi Shankar and Stephane Grappelli. In addition to detailed correspondence with Edward Elgar, Bela Bartok and Benjamin Britten, the archive includes letters from such non-musical figures as Einstein and Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.”
Does America Exist Because We Shop?
America often gets criticized for being consumerist and driven by its appetite for consumption of goods. Yet, writes one historian, it may be precisely this talent for shopping that allowed America to break from Britain back in the 1700s and create a modern nation that works.
SF Public Library To Convert To RFIDs
The San Francisco Public Library intends to change its book tracking system from bar codes to RFIDs. “Several consumer and public interest groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, oppose the widespread introduction of RFID without careful limitations on how and where it is used.”
Some Rights Reserved
A few years ago it was rare to hear authors and publishers talking about alternative copyrights. But thanks to success stories and the efforts of copyright reform groups like the Creative Commons organization, the publishing industry is beginning to warm to the idea of some rights reserved.”
Dancin’ In Miami At The Winter Music Conference
Miami Beach is hosting the 19th Winter Music Conference for thousands of dance music fans. “More than 3,000 deejays and musicians perform at some 250 events – some tied to the official event, but most of them not.”
Daniel Boorstin, 89, Former Librarian of Congress
Daniel Boorstin was Librarian of Congress, won a Pulitzer, and wrote “two dozen books, which were translated into at least 30 languages. Millions of copies have been sold around the world. The best known include a trilogy on American history, a trilogy on world history and a 1962 social and cultural commentary titled The Image.”
The Getty’s $70 Million Titian?
The Getty doesn’t report how much it paid for art. But the London Telegraph last week reported that the Getty paid $70 million for a Titian in November. “If the report was accurate, the Titian is also the second most expensive Old Master painting ever sold, topped only by Rubens’ ‘The Massacre of the Innocents,’ sold to Lord Thomson of Fleet for $76.7 million at a 2002 auction.”
A Stolen Cezanne No One Knew About?
John Opit says art worth $67 million was stolen from his home in New South Wales. And he says one of the paintings stolen was a Cezanne worth $50 million. “None were insured. The claim has sent the art world into an understandably cynical spin. Some of the nation’s leading art experts say there is no record of the Cezanne painting and question its authenticity. They claim there are only five known Cezannes in the country and it is not one of them.”
On The Search For A… Cezanne?
“Art experts have been unable to find a record of the missing Cezanne, but Mr Opit defended the painting’s authenticity to the Murwillumbah-based Daily News, saying it had been examined under ultraviolet light and had the artist’s signature all over it. He said the painting had been in a private London collection before coming to Australia.”