Best Private Museums & Collections
For four and a half decades, Etta and Claribel Cone roamed artists’ studios and art galleries in Europe, building one of the largest, most important art collections in the world. At one time, these two independently wealthy Jewish women from Baltimore received offers from virtually every prominent art museum in the world, all anxious to house their hitherto private assemblage of modern art. Though it intimately portrays two powerful, influential, ahead-of-their-time women, The Art of Acquiring is more than a tale of two sisters, more than an important addition to art history, and more than a major contribution to the study of women's history. Because it reproduces some of the more famous and important art of Matisse, Picasso, Cézanne, Dégas, and others, The Art of Acquiring enables readers to practically step through the canvas and live in the shocking paintings these two unsung sisters purchased, then gave to the world-at-large. But here Gabriel (Notorious Victoria: The Rise and Fall of Victoria Woodhull) focuses on "the barely recognized link" between modernist masters such as C?zanne, Degas, Picasso and Matisse, and the largely forgotten art collectors Etta and Claribel Cone, wealthyAand stolidly VictorianABaltimore sisters who, starting around the turn of the century, devoted their lives to amassing one of the largest and most remarkable collections of modern art in the world. (June). Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. Heiresses to a family fortune, Etta and Claribel Cone, Jewish sisters from Baltimore, amassed a major collection of modern French artworks.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Recommended for art lovers and those who simply enjoy a good read, The Art of Acquiring tells the fascinating story of two sisters who are unknown by many."
"The story seems like a fantasy that the Cone sisters were able to buy Matisse, Picasso, Degas and many other famous painters work for just pennies."
"This book, which covers the collecting years of the Cone sisters, breathes life into the time period interweaving the stories of Gertrude and Leo Stein, Alice Tolkas, Matisse, & Picasso."
"The book is well written and well researched and really brings to life these two amazing women and the lives they led."
"Did not know anything about the Cone sisters."
"Became interested in the Cone sisters when attending an exhibit of their collection."
"To have read this book after twice visiting the Cone Wing @ BMA makes me desire to return and give a blessed thanks to these incredible collectors."
"This is a thorough and entertaining history of two Amèrican art collectors."
Lucas Brunn has been waiting for a chance to defend his homeland ever since the Nazis aryanized the Vienna Medical School and expelled everyone without a German birth certificate. When the Resistance finally assigns him a mission, however, it isn't what he expects: Lucas is to disguise himself as a priest, steal into a Nazi controlled salt mine where wooden crates are stored, and identify the contents. On April8,1945,heparachutedintotheAltaussee areaandquicklyorganizedalargeforceofAustrian Resistancefighters.Theycapturedanumberofhigh-rankingNaziofficers,including ErnstKaltenbrunner,whowere retreatingtotheiralpineredoubtinthe forest aboveAltaussee. Nazithievesstored theworld'slargest treasuretroveofart masterpiecesinDepotDora , Hitler'scodenameforthesaltmine atAltaussee.HitlerissuedhisNero'sdecree,ordering destructionof the salt mine and its precious contents.GaiswinklerandtheAustrian Resistanceblewupthemine entrance, saving the art inside, including the MonaLisa . Altaussee, AustriaDecember10,1944.HeavilyarmedNaziconvoysdeliveredeight coffin-sizedwoodencratestoDepotDora, Hitler'scodenameforthesaltmineatAltaussee,Austria.Thearduous360-kilometertrip fromNeuschwansteinCastleovermountainous,icyroadshadbeensimplecomparedtothesteepgradeofthesnow-covered mudtrack leadinguptothesaltmine.Oncethere,theWehrmachtsoldiers unloadedthecratesontosmallmotor-drivencartsonanarrow-gaugerailroadthattookthem deep into the multi-chambered mine.The crateswere depositedintotheMineralCabinet, acavernousrock-walledroomline donallsidesby lumber scaffoldingthatheldsmaller cratesofNazi-confiscatedmasterpiecesfrom museums,cathedrals,andmansionsalloverEurope.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I found this book fascinating from start to finish."
"Excellent account of the real story behind the Nazis' theft of the art in WWII."
"Based on a very meaningful piece of history."
"The book goes places in history of which I wasn't aware.So lI learned something."
"Excellent -- exciting and engaging historical novel right from the start."
"A remarkable and riveting book written by a writer and physician, with a gift for both words and the scalpel."
"The majority of people in the USA were not alive to hear of these brave ordinary citizens who made a difference to all of us."
"I can't help but notice the parallels between Depot Dora and the current fractious political climate in the United States."
This beautifully illustrated social history of China highlights various aspects of traditional China as seen through the eyes of foreign visitors and residents from the time of the first trading contacts with China in the mid-sixteenth century to the beginning of World War II. Arthur Hacker was born in England and studied at the Royal College of Art.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"the pictures are interesting and of a good quality, I am disappointed by their small size, especially since my kindle HDX doesn't allow to zoom like an IPad would do."
Best Museum Studies & Museology
At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. (Coincidentally or not, this book appears only briefly after Ilaria Dagnini Brey's The Venus Fixers: The Untold Story of the Allied Soldiers Who Saved Italy's Art During World War II , Reviews, June 1.). Our task, I believe, was truly important - we were restoring to Europe evidence of its own civilization, which the War seemed virtually to have destroyed - and I was lucky to have had a chance to participate. -- Anne Olivier Bell "Highly Readable ... a remarkable history" * Washington Post * "Engaging and inspiring" * Publishers Weekly *.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The book pretty much ensures that a reader will both understand the logistical difficulties (no actual unit, no access to transportation, constantly having to ask other military personnel for help), the danger (booby-trapped caches of loot, dank salt mines filled with art and explosives, German soldier ambush), and the heroic nature of the Monument Men's job (especially those who worked in Germany and had to reconcile risk to life and limb to save cultural heritage sites like Aachen Cathedral after touring devastating places like Dachau). I particularly enjoyed learning about Lincoln Kirstein (my name doppelganger) who I thought mostly of as a ballet guy, but who turned out to be more of a Renaissance man in his abilities and proclivities than I had understood."
"And thereafter during the war, it was their responsibility to locate the five million movable works and cultural artifacts that were stolen by the Nazis, which included works by Leonardo Da Vinci, Jan Vermeer, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, and Donatello and the pieces that were the highlight of Edsel’s book, the Ghent Altar pieces, Bayeaux Tapestry, and painting of Mother and Child. And their training such as Stout’s focused on understanding raw materials, degradation and cause of deterioration, and preparation to prevent deterioration and damage, which would be beneficial once he delved in the race against time to save the artworks. For the Kindle edition, maps may have been helpful and the photographs may have been dispersed within each chapter rather than at the end of the book."
"My major criticism of this book, and the reason why I could not award the fifth star, is the actual writing, both on the sentence level and the paragraph level, even the chapter arrangements. As a retired Professor of English I was frequently reaching for my non-existent red pen (I read the book on Kindle) to make the sentence-level writing clearer, and also frequently looking back to earlier paragraphs to check on dates and events because the chronology had become confusing."