Celebrity Life
Merriam-Webster, Dictionary.com Proclaim ‘Pandemic’ 2020’s Word of the Year
Second Coronavirus Vaccine Nearly 95 Percent Effective in Preliminary Study
You Can Now Own Part of an Eiffel Tower Staircase
Have you ever dreamed of possessing part of the ultra-famous monument that symbolises Paris throughout the world? A segment of an original staircase from the Eiffel Tower will go under the hammer at an Artcurial auction on December 1, as part of its Parisian Art Deco and Design sale.
This 2.6-metre segment comes from the historic spiral staircase built by Gustave Eiffel and his collaborators for the Universal Exhibition of 1889. A few years later, an elevator replaced the original staircase between the second and third floor of the iconic monument, which is why the staircase was dismantled. It was separated into 24 segments, two of which measure nine metres.
One of these long segments remains on the Tower's first floor, while three others were redistributed to Paris's Musée d'Orsay and Cité des sciences de la Villette and the Musée de l'Histoire du fer (Iron history museum) in Nancy (in the east of France).
The 20 elements left were auctioned off in December 1983, scattering this heritage between cultural institutions and private collections worldwide. Every now and then some resurface on the auction market.
The segment of the staircase being auctioned off in December by Artcurial comes from a private Canadian collection. It is estimated to fetch between 30,000 and 40,000 euros — a rather modest sum compared to segments previously auctioned off.
In 2016, a piece of the same staircase sold for 523,800 euros, far above its original estimate. In 2013, another 3.5-metre high segment went for 220,000 euros during a previous Artcurial sale.
Find out more about the auction here.
(Main and featured image: Anthony Delanoix/ Unsplash)
The post You Can Now Own Part of an Eiffel Tower Staircase appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.
You Can Now Own Part of an Eiffel Tower Staircase
Have you ever dreamed of possessing part of the ultra-famous monument that symbolises Paris throughout the world? A segment of an original staircase from the Eiffel Tower will go under the hammer at an Artcurial auction on December 1, as part of its Parisian Art Deco and Design sale.
This 2.6-metre segment comes from the historic spiral staircase built by Gustave Eiffel and his collaborators for the Universal Exhibition of 1889. A few years later, an elevator replaced the original staircase between the second and third floor of the iconic monument, which is why the staircase was dismantled. It was separated into 24 segments, two of which measure nine metres.
One of these long segments remains on the Tower's first floor, while three others were redistributed to Paris's Musée d'Orsay and Cité des sciences de la Villette and the Musée de l'Histoire du fer (Iron history museum) in Nancy (in the east of France).
The 20 elements left were auctioned off in December 1983, scattering this heritage between cultural institutions and private collections worldwide. Every now and then some resurface on the auction market.
The segment of the staircase being auctioned off in December by Artcurial comes from a private Canadian collection. It is estimated to fetch between 30,000 and 40,000 euros — a rather modest sum compared to segments previously auctioned off.
In 2016, a piece of the same staircase sold for 523,800 euros, far above its original estimate. In 2013, another 3.5-metre high segment went for 220,000 euros during a previous Artcurial sale.
Find out more about the auction here.
(Main and featured image: Anthony Delanoix/ Unsplash)
The post You Can Now Own Part of an Eiffel Tower Staircase appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.
California Governor Again Denies Parole for Manson Family Member Leslie Van Houten
Rolling Stone Staff Help Hearts and Bones Find Forever Homes for Pets in Need
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to Go Virtual During Pandemic
A Collection of Unseen Tolkien Works Will be Published for the First Time in 2021
If you thought you'd read everything there is to read by J.R.R. Tolkien — the legendary wordsmith behind The Lord of the Rings series — think again.
A collection of previously unseen writings by the British author are due to be published for the first time in 2021. The collection will take readers straight to the heart of Middle-earth, exploring the land through its geography, its history and its people.
The collection, titled The Nature of Middle-earth, covers themes including Elvish immortality and reincarnation, and the geography of places where some of Tolkien's most famous epic fantasies were set. The collection may even settle the long-running debate among readers of the British writer about whether dwarf women had beards — a debate that's been raging on Reddit for years.
[caption id="attachment_212456" align="aligncenter" width="425"]
'The Nature of Middle-earth' is a collection of previously unseen writings by Tolkien. It's due to be published June 24, 2021. (Image: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books & Media)[/caption]
Considered one of the founding fathers of modern fantasy, Tolkien is best known for his novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, published in 1937 and from 1954 to 1955 respectively. The works became international best-sellers translated into more than 70 languages, as well as Hollywood trilogies directed by Peter Jackson. However, the British author continued to write about Middle-earth in the following decades, right up until the years preceding his death in 1973.
"For him, Middle-earth was part of an entire world to be explored, and the writings in The Nature of Middle-earth reveal the journeys that he took as he sought to better understand his unique creation," explains in a statement Deb Brody, vice-president of the American publishing company, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
The Nature of Middle-earth is a collection of writings edited by Carl F. Hostetter, one of the world's leading Tolkien experts and respected head of the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship. This international organisation, founded in 1988, studies the fictitious languages imagined by J.R.R. Tolkien.
The book is due out June 24, 2021, and is published by HarperCollins in the UK and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in North America.
The post A Collection of Unseen Tolkien Works Will be Published for the First Time in 2021 appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.
Going Undercover? KGB Spy Devices Star in an Upcoming Auction
Here's your chance to live out all your James Bond and super spy fantasies.
A gun designed to look like a tube of lipstick, a purse with a hidden camera, and a hotel room listening device are among items used by the KGB Soviet intelligence during the Cold War going up for auction for the first time.
American auction house Julien's will sell the roughly 400 lots online and then in-person from mid-January to February 13, 2021. The items were recently on display at the KGB Espionage Museum in Manhattan, New York — a private museum opened in January 2019 by Lithuanian historian Julius Urbaitis that has closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"We are not aware of any similar auction for this genre. There is going to be a massive follow up on this because people are so fascinated by all this," said Julien's CFO Martin Nolan.
[caption id="attachment_212361" align="alignnone" width="1024"]
A sample of some of the items on display at The KGB Spy Museum in New York in 2019. (Image: Timothy A Clary/ AFP)[/caption]
Estimates for the items range from a few hundred dollars to US$12,000 (HK$93,030), which is the top estimate for a rare Soviet version of the Enigma code cipher machine known as the Fialka. A stone bust of Vladimir Lenin is expected to reach between US$5,000 and US$7,000 (HK$38,800 and HK$54,300), while a steel door from a former KGB prison hospital is estimated at $500 to $700 (HK$3,900 and HK$5,400).
"This is not massively expensive stuff, this is fun stuff that...can trigger a fascinating conversation at a dinner party," said Nolan.
Julien's is also putting under the hammer other memorabilia from the Cold War, including a high school report card for Che Guevara, a signed 1958 letter from Fidel Castro discussing plans to take Havana, and items related to the US-Soviet space race. More details here.
(Main image: Timothy A Clary/ AFP; Featured image: Julien's Auctions)
The post Going Undercover? KGB Spy Devices Star in an Upcoming Auction appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.
Author Kevin Kwan Talks ‘Sex and Vanity’, Lockdown and Luxury
Anyone who relishes in the life of excess and extravagance (and gleefully privy to all the first world problems that come with it) won’t be strangers to works by Kevin Kwan, which started with the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy.
The bestselling series was later adapted into the 2018 film, applauded for bringing Asian representation on a monumental scale to Hollywood. His latest novel, Sex and Vanity, was picked up for a feature film presentation by Sony Pictures — just a week after it hit shelves in June.
Sex and Vanity has been named a breezy update to E. M. Forster’s A Room with a View for 2020. The plot places the lens on Lucie Churchill, a biracial protagonist who, on top of a lifetime of contending with racial microaggressions, is torn with two love interests: The WASP-y fiancé of her family’s dreams or George Zao, a former flame she now can’t stand.
[caption id="attachment_212332" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
Kevin Kwan. (Image: Raen Badua)[/caption]
Kwan has no doubt been keeping busy: Amidst a drama series in development at Amazon with STX Entertainment and numerous film and TV projects in the works, he recently spoke at the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, hosted at the Asia Society.
We caught up with the author ahead of his session at the festival on 14 November, and asked him to fill us in on his latest novel, what he got up to during lockdown, and his own take on the world of luxury going forward.
(Main and featured image: Raen Badua)
The post Author Kevin Kwan Talks ‘Sex and Vanity’, Lockdown and Luxury appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.
These are the Best Art Podcasts to Listen to Right Now
Becoming one of the art world's cognoscenti is no easy task, especially when museums and art galleries across the world are closing under new coronavirus lockdown measures.
But you can still broaden your knowledge and appreciation of art through a growing number of podcasts. Here is a selection of four arty programs worth subscribing to, with one hoping to return "art history to the masses," while another dissects the oddities of the art world.
[caption id="attachment_212279" align="alignnone" width="1024"]
If you won't be able to visit a museum or gallery anytime soon, consider tuning in to our picks of the best art podcasts. (Image: Juja Han)[/caption]
The Modern Art Notes Podcast
This podcast series cannot be listened to with half an ear, it requires all your attention. But these hour-long conversations, hosted by award-winning art critic and historian Tyler Green, are definitely worth the effort. Each week, Green invites multiple artists, curators, authors and conservators to discuss their work, whether it is a new exhibition or the latest biography of Andy Warhol. A recent episode featured an interview with Naima J. Keith on the postponement of the fifth edition of Prospect triennial due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Art History Babes
If you believe art history is just something you learn at college, this podcast will prove you wrong. The four hostesses of "The Art History Babes" talk about visual culture with a conversational and sometimes meandering approach, like you would do with your artsy friends around a glass of wine. A recent episode is dedicated to post-mortem photographs, a mourning tradition popular during the Victorian era that Corrie, Jennifer, Natalie and Ginny describe as "infamously creepy." As the podcast has built up a substantial following since its first episode in 2016, the four friends have published their own book, The Honest Art Dictionary, for all the art history babes out there.
The Lonely Palette
Imagine you are absentmindedly staring at an artwork in a museum, when an art-historian-turned-radio-producer asks you to describe it in your own words for her podcast. If you were staring at Jan van Eyck's "Arnolfini Portrait," you might be tempted to say that the man on the left looks "a bit like Willy Wonka's shady brother," or even Vladimir Putin. These off-the-cuff descriptions open each episode of "The Lonely Palette," in which host Tamar Avishai fills in listeners about the history and making of an artwork. The result is refreshing, surprising and, still, deeply informative.
ArtCurious Podcast
In this podcast series, curator Jennifer Dasal discusses unexpected, slightly odd and yet fascinating anecdotes about art. While pieces by Claude Monet fetch six-figure prices at auction, did you know that the French Impressionist and his cohort were trailblazing rebels whose works were originally deemed unbelievably ugly and vulgar? Or how about the fact that American crime novelist Patricia Cornwell believes that British painter Walter Sickert was Jack the Ripper? The result is extremely erudite but always accessible, whether you are an art connoisseur or a neophyte.
(Main and featured image: ArtCurious Podcast)
The post These are the Best Art Podcasts to Listen to Right Now appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.
Unsurprisingly, ‘Lockdown’ is the Collins Dictionary Word of the Year
Collins Dictionary said on Tuesday that 'lockdown' is its Word of The Year in 2020 following a dramatic increase in usage during the spread of Covid-19.
Lexicographers said they picked the word because it had become synonymous with the experience of populations across the world as governments look to curb the coronavirus pandemic.
"It is a unifying experience for billions of people across the world, who have had collectively to play their part in combating the spread of COVID-19," publishers Harper Collins said.
Collins registered more than a quarter of a million usages of "lockdown" during 2020, against only 4,000 the previous year. Because of the way the pandemic has affected the daily use of language, six of Collins' 10 words of the year in 2020 are related to the global health crisis.
[caption id="attachment_212208" align="alignnone" width="768"]
A man plays with a football in a near-deserted Chester city centre during the lockdown in England in April. (Image: Oli Scarff/ AFP)[/caption]
"Coronavirus", "social distancing", "self-isolate" and "furlough" as well as "lockdown" and "key worker" were included in the longer list of 10 words of the year. "Key worker" alone has seen a 60-fold increase in usage reflecting the importance attributed this year to professions considered to be essential to society.
"2020 has been dominated by the global pandemic," Helen Newstead, a language consultant at Collins, said. "Lockdown has affected the way we work, study, shop, and socialise.
"With many countries entering a second lockdown, it is not a word of the year to celebrate but it is, perhaps, one that sums up the year for most of the world."
Collins defines "lockdown" as "the imposition of stringent restrictions on travel, social interaction, and access to public spaces". According to the dictionary, coronavirus is: "Any one of a group of RNA-containing viruses that can cause infectious illnesses of the respiratory tract, including COVID-19."
[caption id="attachment_212209" align="alignnone" width="768"]
A deserted 42nd Street is seen in midtown New York in April. (Image: Timothy A Clary/ AFP)[/caption]
Significant social and political developments beyond the virus have also been reflected in the list, which has already made its way into online editions of the English dictionary.
A wave of Black Lives Matter protests, sparked by the death in US police custody of unarmed black man George Floyd, spread around the world and brought a new awareness of the movement.
The abbreviation "BLM", often used as a hashtag on social media, was widely used in conversations and reporting following the protests, registering an increase in usage of 581 percent by Collins.
[caption id="attachment_212210" align="aligncenter" width="710"]
A Black Lives Matter protest in Philadelphia. (Image: Chris Henry/ Unsplash)[/caption]
Social media regularly throws up new words for the dictionary. This year, Collins has included "TikToker", which describes someone who shares content on the TikTok social media platform. "Mukbang", which refers to a South Korean trend of video bloggers eating large quantities of food in videos broadcast to their followers, has also made the list.
The UK royal family influenced the shortlist in 2020. "Megxit", which refers to the withdrawal of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan from royal duties, passed into regular usage.
The word, modelled on "Brexit", which was Collins' word of the year in 2016, illustrates just how firmly established that word now is in the British lexicon.
(Main and featured image: Timothy A Clary/ AFP)
The post Unsurprisingly, ‘Lockdown’ is the Collins Dictionary Word of the Year appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.