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THE ROYALE// ROYALEPRESS.COM
MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013
Family heirloom fetches $2.7M at auction By JAMIE STENGLE Associated Press DALLAS (AP) — Randy Buttram never gave much thought to the two 4½-foot tall ornate vases that graced the elegant main entrance of his grandparents’ Oklahoma City mansion and later were displayed around a fireplace facade at his parents’ home. The vases, which had been packed away for around a decade, turned out to be rare items from Russia dating back nearly two centuries — to the reign of Nicholas I. They also carried immense value, fetching $2.7 million Thursday in a private sale about a week before they were to be auctioned. Buttram, 66, of Oklahoma City, remembers as a young boy playing at his grandparents’ sprawling Italian Renaissance mansion that included a bowling alley in the basement. He said that the vases were part of the decor in an entryway so grand — complete with twin staircases — that they didn’t particularly stand out. “To me as a child they were just there and that’s all,” he said. “We did a lot of roughhousing in the house. We’re lucky nobody knocked them over.” Officials with Dallas Auction
Gallery were evaluating items inherited by Buttram and his brother at their late parents’ home when they noticed the top portion of one of the vases lying on a bed had the blue marking of Russia’s Imperial Porcelain Factory used during the reign of Nicholas I and the date 1833 printed on it. The pieces of the vases, which are designed to be disassembled for moving and storage, had been mostly stored in cardboard boxes. “We saw that and immediately recognized it as: ‘This is unbelievable,’” said Scott Shuford, president of Dallas Auction Gallery, which conducted the sale. “I think our eyes kind of bulged out a little bit.” Shuford said the vases generated interest from all over the world in the time leading up to the April 17 auction. He said that the buyer wishes to remain anonymous. The pre-auction estimate for the vases was $1 million to $1.5 million. As an adult, Buttram began to suspect the vases likely did have some value, but never did he imagine just how much. Buttram’s grandparents, Frank and Merle Buttram, bought the vases in 1928 from the Bernheimer Gallery in Munich while traveling through Europe. Frank Buttram, an Oklahoma native, founded
Buttram Petroleum Co., which is still in the family and is now called Buttram Energies Inc. After the deaths of his grandparents the estate was split between their five children and the vases were among items that went to Randy Buttram’s father, Dorsey Buttram. When Randy Buttram’s parents moved to a smaller home about a decade ago, the vases were stored. After the death of his mother in November 2011 following his father’s 2006 death, Buttram and his brother began to sort through what might be worthy of auction — including the vases. Buttram said it has been interesting to look through his grandmother’s detailed records of purchases on their travels, which included everything from the vases to two pairs of boys’ silk pajamas bought in China. The auction house consulted with the Russian porcelain curator at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg to confirm that the vases were indeed produced by the Imperial Porcelain Factory, founded in 1744 to produce items for the Russian royal family. The auction house said that that research by the curator showed that one vase features a copy of the “The Concert” by Dutch painter
LM OTERO
Associated Press
This photo made Thursday, April 4, 2013, shows a detail of a rare Russian vase made in 1833 by the Russia’s Imperial Porcelain Factory and on display at the Dallas Auction Gallery in Dallas.
A. Palamedes, an artwork from the 1600s currently on display in the Hermitage. Records show the painting was sent to the porcelain factory in 1832 to make a copy on the vase. Experts were unable to identify the painting that was copied on the second vase. Shuford said they were unable to determine who the vases belonged to in Russia and it’s not known how they ended up at the Munich gallery. He said that after the communists seized power in
Russia in 1917 items like the vases were often sold off by the new Soviet government. Buttram’s grandparents’ mansion located in the Oklahoma City enclave of Nichols Hills was an art museum for a time but is now privately owned again. As for keeping them, Randy Buttram said he never gave that possibility much thought. “I certainly really don’t have any room for them at my house,” he said.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame welcomes inductees By DERRIK J. LANG AP Entertainment Writer
The show will go on By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK (AP) — Danielle de Niese stepped into the Metropolitan Opera’s new staging of Handel’s “Giulio Cesare” on a few hours’ notice as if she knew every detail of the production. That’s because the soprano sang the role of Cleopatra when the David McVicar production premiered at England’s Glyndebourne Festival in 2005 and performed it again when
MARTY SOHL Associated Press In this March 25, 2013 photo provided by the Metropolitan Opera, Natalie Dessay as Cleopatra performs during a rehearsal of Handel’s “Giulio Cesare.”
the staging traveled to the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2007. Natalie Dessay sang the role when the staging arrived at the Met last Thursday night, but was unable to go on Tuesday because of illness. Met general manager Peter Gelb said in an announcement from the stage that de Niese was in the New York area and planned to watch the performance from his box, and that he called her
Tuesday morning and asked her to sing instead. McVicar’s Bollywoodinspired staging includes highly choreographed dancing for Cleopatra, including “Da Tempste” in jodhpurs and “Tu la mia stella sei (Oh star of my desire)” in a flapper dress with an umbrella. De Niese hoofed her way through as if she had been practicing for weeks.
Best-selling author dreams of Alaskan retreat By MARK THIESSEN Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A bestselling mystery writer from Alaska wants to establish a residency retreat for female writers, hoping to offer women the same help she received more than two decades ago. “It was Dana Stabenow 25 years ago, that’s who I want here,” said Stabenow, the author of 29 novels, including her best-known works, the Kate Shugak mystery series featuring an Aleut private investigator. Stabenow, 61, has started a fundraising campaign to build a main house and six cabins for the Storyknife Writers’ Retreat near her home in scenic Homer, Alaska, and its stunning view of Cook Inlet. The goal is $1 million for construction and then a $20
million endowment for the operations. “If I actually pull this off,” Stabenow says, “this will be the writers’ retreat that Kate Shugak built.” Long before she became famous, Stabenow worked in the rugged Alaska oil fields on the North Slope. She quit the job in 1982, went to graduate school and set a goal to publish something before her savings from the oil patch job ran out. “The first thing my writing ever earned
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me wasn’t an advance on a book, it wasn’t a fee for an article or anything like that. It was, in fact, a residency at Hedgebrook Farm,” she said. Hedgebrook was established on Whidbey Island, Wash., as a retreat for female writers in 1989 by Nancy Nordhoff, a Seattle philanthropist. “I did some really good writing there, but I’ll tell you what the epiphany
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Randy Newman is now a hall of famer. The singer-songwriter kicked off Thursday’s 28th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles with a performance of “I Love L.A.” He was joined by Jackson Browne, John Fogerty and Tom Petty. “I didn’t think it would happen until I died or something,” the 69-yearold said backstage after his induction. Newman is among this year ’s eight inductees, which also includes rockers Heart and Rush, rap group Public Enemy, disco queen Donna Summer, bluesman Albert King, and producers Quincy Jones and Lou Adler. Adler was inducted during Thursday’s extravaganza by Richard “Cheech” Marin and Tommy Chong before being serenaded by Carole King with “So Far Away.” Jack Nicholson was among Adler ’s fans in the crowd who gave the producermogul a standing ovation. With his guitar around his neck, John Mayer inducted the late King into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before
was,” Stabenow said. “It was the first time that anyone acted like writing was a real job.” As her career progressed with mystery, suspense and science fiction novels, Stabenow bought land in Homer with the possible idea of selling it at a profit later in life. Then another thought came to her, why not build something substantial to leave behind? Hedgebrook is currently the only retreat for female writers, and she figured more opportunities, more cottages, were needed for female writers. “Why don’t I build them?” she said. The plan is causing excitement in the Hedgebrook community. “The world definitely needs more writing retreats so writers can go deeper into their work, and we’re absolutely supportive,” said Katie Woodzick, external relations manager at the Whidbey Island retreat. If Storyknife is established, the residency program would provide solitude for six women at a time. The residencies would run anywhere from two to eight weeks, offering women room and board, and silence and solitude to concentrate on their craft. Stabenow envisions Storyknife benefiting “somebody who is broke, who is discouraged, who has seen every manuscript that she has sent to New York returned like a little homing pigeon, who needs just a little encouragement to just hang in there until
DANNY MOLOSHOK
Associated Press
Inductee Randy Newman performs during the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the Nokia Theatre on Thursday, April 18, 2013 in Los Angeles.
joining Gary Clark Jr. for King-tinged jam session. “Albert King is why guitar-face was invented,” said Mayer. The event marks the first time since 1993 that the Cleveland, Ohio, institution has held its induction ceremony on the West Coast. It will be broadcast May 18 on HBO.
her ship comes in,” Stabenow said. It can also be the woman who gets up at 4 a.m. to have an hour to write before her family and life consumes the rest of the day. Phase one kicked off last week — a year to raise $1 million to construct the main building, cottages, roads and septic system. The goal is to break ground next April. “If someone wrote a $1 million check or four $250,000 checks today, the builder could start tomorrow,” Stabenow said. But she’s also realistic. “I don’t know how many people there are with a million dollars who are inclined to give it to a writers’ retreat.” The project is accepting donations at www.storyknife.org. If, after a year, the plan isn’t realized, she says all donations will be returned, minus credit card processing fees. But if the goal is met, the second phase is to set up a $20 million endowment so future fundraising won’t be necessary. She’s also set up a living trust and all her real and intellectual property is given to Storyknife when she dies. Her books will continue to earn money after her death, as will any stage and screen rights. “The board of directors will be able to mine the income of those rights for the benefit of Storyknife in perpetuity, I would hope,” she said. Stabenow has thought a lot about the first woman who might receive a residency at the retreat, maybe someone not very unlike her most famous character. “Kate is an Alaska Native, and she is a woman. I would be ecstatic if the very first writer to step foot in a Storyknife cabin was an Alaska Native woman writer,” Stabenow said.