The four Raphael tapestries I mentioned last August (CLICK) arrived yesterday at the V&A Museum in London. BBC News filmed the tapestries being unrolled and hung (title link). Raphael: Cartoons and Tapestries for the Sistine Chapel opens on 8 September and runs until 17 October. Admission is free, but timed. You must book tickets in advance.
BBC News was even more confused about The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection than I thought. The news story on which I based last Thursday’s post (title link) had vanished with a 404 message when I went back to check it. So I emailed BBC News to query its disappearance. Reply today: the item dates from 2003 and was republished in error! As soon as the mistake was spotted, the story was removed. No wonder I couldn’t find this exhibition on the RA website!
This comfortable lounge chair was created by american designer Kyle Buckner. He made it made from 152 layers of pine wood, which has been carved and finished with a red mahogany stain and cushioned leather upholstery pads. Simple line of this lounge chair and its beauty will surely attract your attention.
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Puma is German industrial company specializing in producing sports shoes, clothing, tools and perfume has updated the collection of bikes – Puma Urban Bike. Urban two-wheeled bikes with flying puma on the frame were created in collaboration with famous company Biomega. At the company’s website you can choose the colour of frames and a presence of additional accessories: with basket or without it. All bikes are designed for a young audience, which wants to quick, stylish and eco-friendly move through the concrete jungle. The average price for the updated model is about 700 euros.
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The exhibition A Century of Olympic Posters I previewed on Wednesday (scroll down or CLICK) has prompted the Telegraph to post a slide show of posters online (CLICK). However, I found a better website: Colour Lovers has a page devoted to Design and Branding Trends: Olympic Games (title link). When you look at these design trends, you can’t help noticing how they have deteriorated in recent years. The one for London 2012 is the pits. I hate to admit this, but Germany’s poster for the 1936 games in Berlin – “the Nazi Olympics” – is the most powerful, with the Brandenburg Gate clearly and dramatically identifying the host city.
I’m still puzzling over the unbelievable loss of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot’s Portrait of a Girl, which vanished after it was taken to a Manhattan hotel so that a potential buyer from London could appraise it. This part sounds more like an FBI sting than a genuine attempt at a sale, but it gets worse. After the London dealer declined the offer, art courier James Haggerty knocked back a few consoling drinks too many in the hotel bar before leaving. CCTV supposedly shows him carrying the painting. Why wasn’t it wrapped to hide it? Despite being sozzled, Haggerty refused a taxi and drove himself home. When he arrived, the painting had vanished! He is now being sued in a New York court for the cost of the lost painting, estimated to be worth £840,000 ($1.3m). But the person suing him owns only a share of the painting! The lawyers will have a field day with this one.
If you like to travel and do not like to travel by sea this luxury motorhome Futuria is for you. The latest in the highest quality motorhomes is Futuria’s sports+spa caravan that was recently unveiled at the Caravan Salon 2010 in Dusseldorf, Germany. This mansion on wheels contains everything for luxury traveling: bathroom, bedroom, 11-foot roof terrace with Jacuzzi and even sports car garage. With many other additional features this luxurious caravan will cost you only $840,000.
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Thanks to the generosity of local residents Michael and Dorothy Hintze, who pledged £2m to this project, the new Wandsworth Museum opens to the public tomorrow 3 September. The official opening took place yesterday with London Mayor Bouncy Boris doing his thing. Ignore photos of the old museum, which the council closed three years ago. The new museum is in the former West Hill library building in West Hill. The museum’s website is currently under construction.
The Royal Academy of Arts in London has been forced to cancel an exhibition of Egyptian art, due to “political instability in the Middle East”. So instead it will be showing composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s private art collection from 20 September to 12 December. Ignore BBC News’ nonsense about this collection going on show for the first time. It was originally shown at the RA in 2003, but not as The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection. It was shown as Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters Exhibition. (That fooled the BBC.) Andrew Lloyd Webber has demonstrated both excellent artistic taste and sound financial sense in collecting works by unfashionable Victorian artists. His collection includes works by Rossetti, Millais, Waterhouse, Burne-Jones, Tissot, Holman Hunt, Alma-Tadema, Joshua Reynolds and Edwin Landseer. He also bought the Canaletto posted above: The Old Horse Guards, London, from St James’s Park (c.1749). What a collector! (Click the title link for his website.)
Today we’ll show you lamp with very unusual design created by Estelle Sauvage. This lamp can be used as a kettle to heat water for a cup of tea with the help of small light bulb. Light bulb on a wooden base can heat water up to 90°C. At the same time the glass jug has a recess to house the bulb close to but separate from the water. Simple and creative idea. But how long should we wait for cup of tea?
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