The one-eared bandit

Mon, 14 Aug 2000 19:02:00 +0000

Salesman Finds Artist's Mummified Ear in Nebraska Attic! "Larry Reibater thought an old box in his dead grandmother's attic contained nothing but worthless junkuntil he looked inside and found a priceless treasure: the lost ear of painter Vincent van Gogh!" Now the 45-year-old used furniture salesman is sitting pretty -- the leathery ear is expected to rake in a staggering $1.2 million at auction. Art dealers from around the world are clamoring to bid on the legendary body part. -- The Weekly World News, March 11, 2000.

Though the preceding tale is obviously a joke, there's nothing funny about the mania for van Gogh merchandise. From respectable museum curators to imaginatively crass profiteers, many have learned that the insatiable demand for all things van Gogh means piles and piles of money.

This summer, as art lovers flock to see "Van Gogh: Face to Face," an attendance-breaking exhibit devoted to the full range of the Dutch master's portraiture, the action is hot in the galleries and the gift shop. "We sold 316,000 tickets, which is huge for us," says Barbara Van Vleet, a spokeswoman the Detroit Institute of the Arts, where the traveling exhibition originated on March 12. "And our museum store grossed over $2 million in 13 weeks." The figure, she adds, represents the most money the store has made in DIA's 115-year history.

Hawaiian putsch

Tue, 11 Jul 2000 19:00:00 +0000

In March 1999, Gerard Jervis, a trustee of the Hawaiian philanthropic institution known as the Bishop Estate, was caught having sex in a public bathroom with a woman who happened to be a Bishop Estate lawyer. The next day, the lawyer committed suicide by inhaling fumes from her car in a closed garage. Jervis then attempted suicide a week later by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. He survived.

Thus began yet another tawdry chapter of an ongoing scandal -- once limited to the insular political turf of Hawaii -- that has enveloped the trust and spread a stain that extends from the white gloves of the prestigious investment bank Goldman Sachs to the verdant links of a golf course near the nation's capital. Today, along with stories of suicide, drug use and illicit sex, accusations of theft and political cronyism continue to rock the once-estimable Bishop Estate.

The princess wept

When Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop reigned in Hawaii more than a century ago, it's hard to imagine she could have ever foreseen the likes of "Baywatch" being filmed on the shores of her family's enormous property.

Salon.com > Barry Raine

The one-eared bandit

Hawaiian putsch