Diocese spokesman Robert Tayek says those and other church items may not be purchased by members of the public but only by Catholic parishes and other institutions, such as hospitals, monasteries and schools.

All sales must be approved by the diocese. It has closed 14 northeast Ohio churches since April and plans to shut down three dozen more because of declining congregations, finances and priest numbers.

As of Tuesday, the sale being conducted by an online liquidator listed nearly 700 items with a total asking price of $939,000. Tayek says the items were priced by appraisers.

___

Information from: The Plain Dealer, http://www.cleveland.com

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-10-21-09 0624EDT

NEW YORK - In the wake of a disappointing auction of American furniture, folk art and prints at Christie's New York on Sept. 30 and the cancellation of Sotheby's fall Americana auction that had been scheduled for last month, collectors, dealers and auctioneers are attempting to make sense of these developments.

A release issued by Sotheby's press office in New York stated, "As a company we are committed to offering tightly edited sales of high-quality works - a strategy that has proved successful in our spring and summer and summer sales. Given the importance of January in New York for Americana collectors, when clients travel from around the country to be here for auctions, shows and other events, we have decided this year to focus our efforts on building a strong sale during that season."

While no one can foresee the future, there's general agreement the state of the Americana market is one of the glass being half empty or half full.

"We've had some weakness and we've had some spectacular prices," said Ronald Pook of Pook & Pook, Downingtown, Pennslyvania.

A Philadelphia Federal satinwood veneered mahogany games table, circa 1795, sold for $76,050, inclusive of the buyer's premium, at their sale Oct. 2-3.

"There was competitive bidding between retail buyers," said Pook, but only for the top items. "Dealers are not buying for inventory. Pieces that you could once count on selling for $5,000 are now selling for $3,000 or $2,500. It's the middle market that's weak," he said.

Pook & Pook's estimate for the Oct. 2-3 auction was $1.2 million to $1.9 million. It grossed $1.5 million with more than 90 percent of the lots selling.

Two days earlier, Christie's sold 86 of 114 lots (75 percent), totaling $801,875. The presale estimate was $1.9 million. The top two items in the auction, a mid-18th-century Massachusetts Chippendale bombé chest of drawers (est. $500,000-$800,000) and a late-19th-century Canada goose decoy ($200,000-$400,000) failed to reach their reserves.

Cowan's Auctions Inc. in Cincinnati also conducted an auction on Oct. 2-3, the second day of which consisted of American furniture, folk art, paintings and decorative arts.

While the auction cracked the $1 million mark, Wes Cowan noted "very spotty" prices in some categories.

"Considering the economic uncertainty, overall I was satisfied with the results," said Cowan. "The top remains healthy and strong. The middle is still viable, but people are readjusting their sights on what they want to pay for it."

The top in Cowan's sale was a coin-silver racing presentation pitcher made by John Kitts & Co., which was in business in Louisville, Ky., from 1859 to 1878. The baluster form pitcher was decorated with a chased and repoussé running horse within a floral wreath on one side. Estimated at $2,500-$5,000, the prize pitcher sold for $25,850, inclusive of premium.

Cowan spoke of the democratization of antiques in the sense they have become available to the masses, largely through eBay.

"What most people think of as being antiques are objects from the third and fourth quarters of the 19th century that were made in factories for the middle-class market," said Cowan, explaining the difference between common pieces and a masterpiece like a mid-18th-century secretary crafted by Rhode Island cabinetmaker John Goddard.

"I don't believe the middle market will show strength anytime soon," said Cowan. "The $150 American brilliant-cut glass bowl doesn't exist anymore."

Michael and Lori Eckles of Showtime Auctions, Woodhaven, Mich., see the same trend in the Americana they sell, which is focused primarily on general store, saloon, advertising and petroleum items.

"The great stuff brings what we call crazy money," said Mike Eckles, citing a mahogany front and back bar made by Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co. that sold at their Oct. 3-4 auction. "Good ones sell for $15,000-$20,000 and better ones for $50,000-$100,000 and the best ones sell for crazy money," he said.

In this instance the winning bidder paid $302,500 including premium. It was only the second time Eckles has sold the top-of-the-line Los Angeles model in 25 years. The bar was 24 feet long and included the matching liquor cabinet. The back bar featured supports between the mirrors in the form of two carved life-size female nudes.

"High-end items are looked at as great investments. Quality and condition must be there. If the quality isn't there it's a hard sell these days," said Eckles.

To attract more bidders Eckles has been promoting a “featured collector” who consigns top merchandise to a particular auction. “We feature a collector with the most items to sell, usually an entire collection. They’re often longtime collectors motivated by financial hardship or health problems," he said.

Despite the uncertainty in the market, Showtime will add two phone, absentee and Internet-bid auctions next year in addition to their big spring and fall auctions in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The most recent Americana results came from Dan Morphy Auctions of Denver, Pa., which conducted an Oct. 8-10 auction featuring the Joseph and Lilian Shapiro Americana and folk art collection. "The sale did over $1.5 million (inclusive of buyer's premium), and the usual factors came into play - rarity and condition," said Morphy's owner and CEO, Dan Morphy. "We specialize in genuinely fresh to the market collections that have been held for many years. When the quality is there and the antiques legitimately have not been available to the public for several decades, the collectors don't hold back. They buy."

Antique advertising signs, salesman's samples and an extraordinary collection of decorative 19th-century folk art "bride sticks" (implements once used to push down laundry into washing water) generated tremendous presale interest, said Morphy. "A beautiful 1890s paper sign advertising Soapine Soap, which previously had been displayed in the president's office at Kendall Manufacturing in Providence, Rhode Island, hit the midpoint of its estimate at $17,250. It was a rare and spectacular example."

Morphy said he was especially pleased to see participation from new buyers as well as adventurous activity from well-established collectors. "One man whom I did not know drove up from North Carolina specifically to bid on - and buy - an antique Pepsi-Cola sign," Morphy said. "And a New York buyer who is known for collecting something entirely different apparently took a shine to the collection of antique talcum, spice and other advertising tins in the sale and ended up buying 183 lots. The established collectors for talcum tins, in particular, were blown away by the prices. Some had left bids in the $2,000 to $3,000 range for tins estimated around $600, and even then they didn't get the tins."

Morphy intends to show his appreciation to the New York buyer by personally delivering the tins to him. "It's just another way of keeping the auction business vibrant and strong. I'll personally deliver purchased goods to anyone who spends $100,000 or more in one of my sales."

Catherine Saunders-Watson contributed to this report.

Copyright 2009 Auction Central News International. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

#   #   #

Oak Hill firefighter Jason Gregory said no one was injured after the Carpetbaggers Antique Mall collapsed in flames Wednesday night .

Black smoke was pouring out of the two-story building's first floor when firefighters arrived and flames quickly shot through the roof, he said.

Firefighters from six area fire departments battled the blaze for nearly six hours, and one crew remained on the scene Thursday morning "mopping up," Gregory said.

The building, which housed 90 dealers, was a total loss.

The Fayette County Assessor's Office said the building was assessed for $111,540. The value of the contents was unknown.

The building is owned by National TV & Appliances in Beckley. A call to the company wasn't immediately returned Thursday.

Retired coal miner Dave Bounds said ashes covered his car parked nearly a mile away from the mall and the town was full of smoke. He said he often visited the 18,000-square-foot mall, where he liked to search through old record albums.

"You name it, it was in there," Bounds said. "You could go in there and spend eight hours easily."

The cause of the fire hasn't been determined. The state fire marshal's office is investigating.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-09-03-09 1059EDT

NEW YORK (AP) – A rare, 19th-century hand-carved goose decoy that once plied Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River before being sold in Argentina, and considered by some to be a floating sculpture, is going on the auction block. It could bring in as much as $400,000.

The decoy was originally purchased by an American expatriate living in Argentina and then sold to a native of that country who was unaware of its origins.

The current owner, Maximo Kirton, e-mailed a photo of the Canada Goose decoy to Christie's several weeks ago wondering what it might be worth. It sat on a shelve at the family's sheep ranch in Patagonia, Argentina, for 10 years, and then on the mantel of his parent's Buenos Aires home for another two decades.

To Kirton's surprise, Christie's told him the goose was a very unusual example of a working decoy from the late 19th century that could conservatively fetch between $200,000 to $400,000. Not only that, it was part of an extremely rare decoy rig that usually included at least six birds.

Making the discovery even more interesting was that three other birds from the same rig were found together in the 1920s or 1930s on the Susquehanna River, said Andrew Holter, Christie's American furniture and decorative arts specialist.

“I nearly fainted,” said Kirton, a 32-year-old vintage car salesman in Buenos Aires.

Because they were utilitarian in nature, used to attract wild fowl, “their mere survival is extraordinary,” added John Hays, Christie's deputy chairman.

The decoy will be sold on Sept. 30.

Carved from North American white pine, decoy No. 6 is painted at the base of its upright neck and in the groove of the body.

The other three are numbered 1, 2 and 3. No. 3 sold at Sotheby's in 2000 for $233,000; No. 2 at Christie's for $553,600 in 2007; and No. 1 is in private hands. The whereabouts of the others isn't known.

The world auction record for any working or decorative duck decoy is $856,000, for a red-breasted Merganser hen in 2007, Hays said.

The one coming up for sale is known as a slot-neck goose, because the head dovetails into a hollow carved body. An unusual decoy element, the head slides off “because the hunters would travel with them” up and down the eastern flyway “and that would prevent the head and neck from breaking,” Holter said.

“These are highly prized by folk art collectors and working decoy collectors,” he said. “They're a uniquely American art form ... viewed as a floating sculpture.”

The dovetail neck construction was sometimes also seen in Massachusetts shore bird decoys. It was extremely difficult “to make it look seamless.”

The carver, who is not known, in this case was very adept. “It's like a hand in a glove,” he said.

There is a V-shaped groove stamped into the underside of the decoy that accommodated a large brass cross that was inserted or removed for a stick or as a floater. The brass piece is missing.

The carving is similar on all four of the goose decoy. The Kirton piece has an incised floret of feathers at the base of the neck, a nostril on the upper beak and lifelike lips. It also has tack, rather than painted, eyes – a feature collectors look for.

“You don't usually see this kind of detail on working decoy,” Holter said.

The item also has original oil-based paint and is in very good condition.

Kirton said the decoy was part of a package of items his father purchased from the American expatriate that included old English hunting shotguns that his father coveted.

“I knew it was nice. But I didn't really know there were such collectors that would want decoys,” said Kirton, explaining that decoys are not used by hunters in Argentina.

But as soon as Kirton's e-mailed photo hit Christie's computer screen, Hays said he and Holter instantly recognized it for its rarity.

“It was a Roadshow-kind of moment,” he said.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-08-28-09 1628EDT

CLEVELAND (AP) - A cash-strapped Ohio historical society is angering some auto buffs by selling off antique cars to balance its budget.

Cleveland's Western Reserve Historical Society has put up for sale 19 vehicles and one engine from the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum.

The cars include a 1956 Gullwing Mercedes-Benz, a 1930 Belanger Indianapolis Racer and a 1930 Bugatti phaeton touring car that might be the only one of its type in existence. The Mercedes alone could bring in $450,000.

The sale, which also includes some furniture and pottery, is the latest attempt to eliminate the society's $5 million debt. A few months ago about 20 other cars were put up for sale.

The society's finances are so bad that the Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission won't provide the society any more money for renovation without a financially healthy co-signer.

Western Reserve officials say the sales of the cars are designed to restore financial stability to preserve the rest of the collection.

But supporters of the Crawford museum say selling off the gems of its collection will cripple the museum.

"They are basically dismantling the Crawford Auto Aviation museum," said David Sunderhaft, a society board member who resigned in May. "What we have in Cleveland, before the sales that have occurred in the last years, is one of the top auto aviation museums in the country."

Sunderhaft and others say that besides hurting the collection, the sales may keep others from donating rare cars or planes in the future.

The society has struggled with debt for years, and has sold off other holdings in the past, including the only surviving "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" car of novel and movie fame.

Gary Adams, board chairman since 2007, said the decision was made last October to pay off the society's debt by January.

"Every part of the society, all the collections are being looked at," he said.

The executive director of the Ohio Historical Society said museums shouldn't resort to sell-offs in economic downtimes.

"We have to protect the collections first. That's why we were founded," said Bill Laidlaw. "We would never sell anything to cover basic operating costs. Never have, never will. If you lose it, it's gone forever.''

___

Information from: The Plain Dealer, http://www.cleveland.com

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-08-08-09 1539EDT

The Stonebridge Evening News has reported that voters at a Town Meeting on July 28 rejected changing the way emergency services fees are charged to owners of markets that make up the Brimfield Antiques Show.

May's Antique Market Inc. filed suit against the town in 2006, claiming that the emergency services fees the town has collected from the 20 show owners every year have been more than $100,000 higher than the cost of police, fire and ambulance protection actually provided at the shows.

In recent months Brimfield's town counsel, Jonathan M. Silverstein, and May's lawyer, Edmond A. Neal III, negotiated a proposed change in the town bylaws that based fees on the size of each show owner's field rather than on the number of vendors that rent space.

The Springfield Republican reported that Neal indicated the May family would drop the suit if the change was approved at the Town Meeting. The newspaper also reported that opposition to the proposed change was led by owners of other antique shows who argued that basing fees on square footage of their fields would require expensive land surveys every time they modified their selling area.

In March, owners of Mahogany Ridge, Shelton Antiques, The Meadows and New England Motel & Antique Market filed a second lawsuit seeking to overturn the emergency services fees.

In addition to the emergency services fees, show owners pay the town a $50 annual license fee and collects a $20 fee for the town from every dealer for each week they are set up at the shows, which are held three times a year.

The week-long Brimfield Antiques Show is held three times a year, in close proximity to the Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day weekends. The final Brimfield Antiques Show session of the 2009 season will take place Sept. 8-13.

The trial will be held in Hampden County Superior Court in Springfield, Mass., but as of Aug. 6, no trial date had been set.

Copyright 2009 Auction Central News International. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

But while their business may be sparse, the two dozen or so antique shops in the Iraqi capital boast treasures of museum quality. Like Baghdad, a city of mosques with turquoise tiled domes and streets divided by barbed war and blast walls, the shops' contents speak of both Iraq's recent dark days and its more gloried past.

"The story of Iraq is here if you care to look closely," Abdul-Kareem Yahya, a 51-year-old father of five, said from behind a desk at his downtown antique shop. Behind him sat Ottoman-era swords, engraved silver trays and a tea set bearing the image of Iraq's last king.

The antique dealers themselves - some retired security officers, military veterans or ex-government employees - are also proof of the resilience of Baghdad's people in surviving decades of hardship from war, U.N. sanctions and occupation by a U.S.-led international force.

Yahya said the lack of business for antique shops reflects Iraq's isolation from the rest of the world and the still tenuous security situation. While he and other dealers say the pullout of U.S. soldiers from Baghdad under an agreement with Iraq's government removes one magnet for insurgent attacks, they concede they're not soon likely to see a rush of tourists to buy their wares.

Recent history provides rich sources for Baghdad's antique market. After Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, goods from the neighboring country's wealthy homes and its national museum - famed for Islamic art and Quranic manuscripts - were hauled back here. More treasures came with the looting of Iraq's own national museum and Saddam Hussein's palaces in the lawless days after the American-led invasion of 2003.

Antique dealers said some looted items had been sold in Baghdad, but they all denied handling any suspect goods themselves. They said Iraq itself - with a population once among the wealthiest and best educated in the Middle East - provides many early 20th century antiques from families who fell on hard times during 13 years of U.N. sanctions slapped on Iraq for invading Kuwait in 1990.

Some of the best evidence of better days can be found by climbing the shaky stairs to al-Khafaf's shop on a street along the River Tigris in Baghdad's old quarter.

Sitting under a coat of dust on the shop's floor are silver-plated brass boxes in which wealthy women kept their toiletries and engraved water pitchers that the rich used to wash guests' hands after feasts.

Also on offer are floral-shaped silver candlesticks fashioned by Baghdad's renowned Jewish craftsmen, members of a religious community that went back more than two millennia and numbered upwards of 100,000 in the 1930s. Now it has been reduced to just a few people by the discrimination of ultra-nationalist governments and the lure of living in Israel.

"The Jewish craftsmen of Baghdad were at their best with silver and gold," said al-Khafaf, explaining a one-time informal division of specialization among artisans of different religious communities. "Muslims, on the other hand, were best with brass," said the 48-year-old, who has a day job as a veterinarian.

In the downtown antique shops, there also are fine china tea sets bearing images of Faisal II, the last of Iraq's kings who was murdered along with close family members in a 1958 military coup that heralded the start of years of political instability, genocide and human rights abuses. Complete sets can sell for $1,000.

Among other goods that were in wealthy Iraqi families for generations but went on the market during the years of crippling U.N. sanctions are fine carpets, U.S.-made 19th century clocks, dinner sets and old paintings.

"The antiques sold by families during sanctions were mostly bought by Iraqis who had not been affected by the sanctions," said Issam Hassan, a dealer in Baghdad's old quarter.

"Some are coming to buy back what they sold, but they don't find them and they look for similar items," said Hassan, who said he had survived by selling canned goods on the sidewalk outside his home while his store was closed for two of the past six years because of security fears.

Hassan, al-Khafaf and Yahya say Baghdad's "antique reserves" could still grow as the country slowly opens up to its traditional visitors from Iran, the Indian subcontinent and Azerbaijan, an oil-rich Central Asian nation whose majority Shiites once came in large numbers as pilgrims to Iraq's religious sites.

Many rich items still in the homes of old Baghdad families could eventually reach the market, they said. But the dealers acknowledge it will be many years before Baghdad can rival the vibrancy of more established Middle Eastern antique markets such as the Syrian capital Damascus and Isfahan in Iran. And, they complained, it is largely because potential visitors are scared off by Iraq's persistent violence.

"We used to be open for business until midnight before the war," said Tawfeeq al-Shikhli, a 63-year-old antique dealer. "Now, we close by early afternoon because of security."

Al-Shikhli, clad in a beige Arab robe, sat outside his vast shop which looked deceptively small from the outside. On the second floor, hundreds of unsold carpets from Iran, India and Afghanistan were piled on shelves nearly ceiling high.

"I can sell all this if tourists were coming to Iraq," al-Shikhli's 29-year-old son Waleed said as he gestured toward the rugs. "The prices are very reasonable, but people don't have money to spare."

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-07-14-09 1059EDT

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - Officers from the Puyallup Tribe and the Bureau of Indian Affairs seized scores of artifacts from an antique dealer in Tacoma on Thursday, suspecting the items were stolen.

Tribal police have a suspect, who was expected to turn himself in to tribal authorities, said Lt. Lt. Todd Wescott of the Puyallup tribal police.

"I have his number and I'll be in contact with him tomorrow," Wescott said on July 16. "The guy said he will come forth."

The items had been scheduled to be auctioned by Sanford & Son Antiques in Tacoma. The dealer's owner Alan Gorsuch said earlier this week that he believed he bought the baskets, photographs and other Native-American items from a representative of the owner, 88-year-old Ramona Hawthorne, who is the daughter of a Puyallup tribal leader from a century ago.

Gorsuch has been "very cooperative with the whole procedure," said John Weymer, a spokesman for the tribe.

Scrutiny on the items in the auction ramped up after an article in the newspaper. Hawthorne's neighbors began calling the police and putting up posters alerting people the items were stolen.

"I'm trying to get everyone in on this," said neighbor Brenda Hall. "I'd like to stand up and say it's a shame this is being sold. Mona has nobody. She has no one looking out for her."

The items seized include a rare Coast Salish woven basket, tribal photographs and other items.

"The tribe is extremely pleased that the items have been recovered. The security of tribal elders is of the utmost importance to the tribal council," Weymer said.

___

Information from: The News Tribune,
http://www.thenewstribune.com

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WS-07-17-09 2056EDT

Gov. Jennifer Granholm issued an executive order Monday closing the Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries and splitting its functions among seven other departments and some outside groups, including possibly Michigan State University.

At a Wednesday hearing, Paul Tarr of the Friends of Michigan History told senators he prefers that HAL's duties be transferred to the Department of State, which oversaw those functions before HAL was created in 2001.

Republican Sen. Cameron Brown of Sturgis has introduced a package of bills that would move HAL's duties to the Department of State.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-07-15-09 1028EDT

LONDON - The venerable Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair, which has symbolized the highest standards of excellence in fine art and antiques for 75 years, has ceased operations. The 2010 edition of the fair, which had been slated for June 10-16, will not take place.

Held annually at the elegant five-star Grosvenor House hotel on Park Lane in London, the Grosvenor House fair has consistently attracted the crème de la crème of antiques dealers since its launch in September of 1934, and has enjoyed the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra.

Grosvenor House management made the announcement of the fair's dissolution through a media release, stating: "It is with great regret that The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair and Grosvenor House announce that The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair will no longer be continued.'

"For 75 years the hotel and the art and antiques trade have enjoyed a happy and productive relationship, but it has been decided in consultation with the British Antique Dealers' Association and The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair Executive Committee that the Fair is no longer financially viable. The closure of this much-loved fair, however, presents an opportunity for the trade to mount a new event commensurate with maintaining London as the centre of the art market."

Simon Phillips, chairman of the fair, remarked that the 2009 edition, held last month, had been a great success, stating, "It is a great disappointment to me that The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair has come to an end. I quite understand that it no longer makes financial sense to continue the fair. It has been a very long and happy partnership, but most great events have a lifespan and a diamond anniversary is a fitting point on which to end on a positive note."

Ironically, the annual event debuted during the Great Depression with the intention of giving the antiques trade an economic boost. It was an instant success with both collectors and the smart set, and ran for a full three weeks. Echoing the past, the 2009 75th-anniversary event took place in the worst recession of recent times, but, promoters said, sales throughout the event confirmed the strength of the art market even in times of economic downturn.

The 2009 fair started well, with record visitor figures on preview day, Wednesday, June 10. Despite the Tube strike, which undoubtedly affected visitor figures at the beginning of the fair, the overall visitor numbers showed an increase of 2% at 19,537 visitors. Traditional categories of antiques, like English furniture and silver, were reportedly very much in demand.

Insiders believe the J.W. Marriott hotel group, which owns Grosvenor House, scuttled the tradition-rich antiques fair because of its 22-day time requirement from setup to knockdown. Compared to the revenue that might be generated by consecutive individual events held at the venue during a similar timeframe, the fair's profits could not compete.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (ACNI, AP) - As the pressure heightens to repatriate national treasures to their nations of origin, auction houses are increasingly in the position of having to assure potential bidders of their adherence to the law governing the sale of such items. Isadore M. Chait, president of I.M. Chait Gallery & Auctioneers, Beverly Hills, has issued a statement guaranteeing the legality of Chinese artifacts in his company's July 12 sale that are affected by the 2008 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

The most useful tool in tracking the background of an Asian antique is provenance and an auction house's own prior experience with a given object. Chait said that in the case of his next auction, for instance, many of the items were purchased from his gallery in previous years. Others came from documented private collections or estates, or were previously the property of reputable institutions, such as the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

By issuing assurances of legality, Chait hopes to mitigate what he views as the "potentially destructive impact of the MOU on the American market for Chinese art and antiquities."

The MOU covers Chinese items dating from Paleolithic Period (75,000 B.C.) through the end of the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 907). It also applies to wall art and monumental sculptures that are at least 250 years old.

The agreement, which became effective in the waning days of the Bush Administration, allows such works to be legally imported only if Chinese officials issue a valid certificate of export or if they left China before January 16, 2009.

The MOU was created in an attempt to stop illicit trafficking in Chinese art, but only the United States participated in the accord. This could have "potentially damaging effects on legitimate collectors, scholars and dealers (in the U.S.A.)," Chait said. "It could also send prices on banned periods skyrocketing."

The list of Dynasties falling with the guidelines of the MOU are:

Some would argue that politics and the greater landscape of Chinese-U.S. commerce were behind the Bush Administration's 11th-hour compliance to the MOU. But where the United States led, none were to follow, as became evident in Christie's Feb. 23-25, 2009 auction in Paris of the Yves St. Laurent & Pierre Bergé collection. Beijing demanded that Christie's remove two 18th-century animal fountain heads from the sale and to return them to their country of origin, China.

The sculptures - a rabbit and a rat - were part of a dozen animal heads from the Chinese zodiac that formed an elaborate water-clock fountain designed by Jesuit missionaries for the Old Summer Palace on the outskirts of Beijing. The two animal heads in Christie's sale had disappeared when French and British forces sacked and burned it at the close of the second Opium War in 1860. Chinese view the devastation of the palace, the country residence of emperors which was full of art treasures, as a national disgrace.

A group representing Beijing went to court in an attempt to stop the auction of the imperial fountain heads, but a French judge ruled against them and even ordered them to pay euro1,000 ($1,275) in fines to both the auction house and to the firm of Pierre Bergé.

At the time, a defiant Bergé told the media he had no intention of "giving these heads to the Chinese government ... Rather, I would recommend that the Chinese, instead of getting worked up over the heads, worry about human rights."

The fountain heads were sold at auction to a telephone bidder for $36 million. Later it was determined the buyer was a sham bidder whom some suggested had been acting on behalf of Beijing. The Chinese government denied any involvement with the sham bidding but moved swiftly to punish Christie's with tightened customs rules. After the Paris auction, China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage announced it would order tighter inspections of all cultural relics that Christie's sought to remove from or ship to mainland China going forward, requiring certificates of legal ownership and documented details of ownership history. Items lacking sufficient documentation would be denied entry or export, the State's spokesperson said.

Beijing vows to continue its efforts to recover similarly looted Chinese relics through "all necessary channels."

"People in government, academia and even on a local level have long been trying to get all these items back," said Tracey Lie Dan Lu, director of the Centre for Cultural Heritage Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "Now the Chinese government is making it more clear, sending the message out to the world so that people will pay more attention to this issue."

Catherine Saunders-Watson (Auction Central News International) and Associated Press contributed to this report.

Katrina McClintock, a spokeswoman at the National Archives, said Thursday that a researcher accidentally discovered the "Dunlap print," named after a printer, several months ago. The find was announced only after it could be properly catalogued.

Edward Hampshire, the National Archives' specialist in colonial materials, said the find was "incredibly exciting."

"It is likely that only around 200 of these were ever printed, so uncovering a new one nearly 250 years later is extremely rare, especially one in such good condition," he said.

He said the declaration is one of the most important documents in history because it marks the birth of the United States.

The last Dunlap print to be found was sold at an auction for $8.14 million in 2000.

National Archives officials said they weren't sure how the Declaration of Independence copy ended up there.

Archives spokeswoman Frances McDarby said it was "possible that an American coastal vessel was intercepted by the British navy and that is how the document was able to come into our possession."

The prints, known collectively as the Dunlap Broadside, were the first copies of the Declaration of Independence. They were printed by John Dunlap of Philadelphia and distributed to political and military leaders, including George Washington, and dispatched throughout the colonies to be read to the public.

___

Associated Press writer Michael Bushnell in London contributed to this report.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-07-02-09 1231EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) - National Archives visitors know they'll find the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights in the main building's magnificent rotunda in Washington. But they won't find the patent file for the Wright Brothers' Flying Machine or the maps for the first atomic bomb missions anywhere in the Archives inventory.

Many historical items the Archives once possessed are missing, including:

• Civil War telegrams from Abraham Lincoln.
• Original signatures of Andrew Jackson.
• Presidential portraits of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
• NASA photographs from space and on the moon.
• Presidential pardons.

Some were stolen by researchers or Archives employees. Others simply disappeared without a trace.

And there's more gone from the nation's record keeper.

The Archives' inspector general, Paul Brachfeld, is conducting a criminal investigation into a missing external hard drive with copies of sensitive records from the Clinton administration. On the hard drive were Social Security numbers, including one for one of former Vice President Al Gore's daughters.

Because the equipment also may include classified information, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, calls it a a major national security breach.

Brachfeld has documented thousands of electronic storage devices, including computers and servers, that have gone missing over the past decade from the National Archives and Records Administration.

Grassley, who has demanded an accounting of all missing items, said the loss of historical documents "robs our nation of its history and is completely unacceptable."

The Archives' stewardship of the nation's records has been questioned before. In a well-publicized incident, former President Bill Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, took documents from the Archives in the fall of 2003 while preparing, along with other ex-Clinton administration officials, for testimony to the Sept. 11 commission.

In September 2005, Berger was sentenced to two years of probation, 100 hours of community service, a $50,000 fine and loss of his security clearance for three years.

Some records have been missing for decades from the Archives' 44 facilities in 20 states and the capital, including 13 presidential libraries.

"When I came here nine years ago, there was no acknowledgment that we had a problem," Brachfeld said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Since then, he has started a recovery team that attends trade shows and Civil War re-enactments, and enlists the help of dealers and researchers to recover historical items that belong to the government.

The agency has two missions that sometimes are in conflict: preserving documents and making them available to the public in monitored research rooms with surveillance cameras.

"We do not have item-by-item control," said Archives spokeswoman Susan Cooper. "We can't. We have 9 billion documents. We don't know exactly what's in each of those boxes. There's no point in preserving materials that cannot be used."

Each missing historical item has its own story.

From 1969 to 1980, the patent file for the Wright Brothers Flyer was passed around multiple Archives offices, the Patents and Trademarks Office and the National Air and Space Museum. It was returned to the Archives in 1979, and was last seen in 1980.

In 1962, military representatives checked out the target maps for the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The maps have been missing ever since.

In May 2004, one of FDR's grandsons asked to see a portrait of his grandfather at the Roosevelt presidential library in Hyde Park, N.Y. It couldn't be found, and hasn't been seen since 2001.

Shaun Aubitz, a former employee at the Archives' facility in Philadelphia, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 21 months in prison in 2002 for stealing - among other items - 71 pardons signed by Presidents James Madison, James Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes and Lincoln. The Archives recovered 59 of the records that had been sold to manuscript dealers and collectors.

In 2005, researcher Howard Harner was sentenced to two years in prison, two years probation, and a $10,000 fine after pleading guilty to stealing more than 100 Civil War-era documents from the Archives between 1996 and 2002. Fewer than half were recovered.

A 40-year-old National Archives intern in Philadelphia stole 160 Civil War documents. About half were sold on eBay. The documents included telegrams about the troops' weaponry, the War Department's announcement of Lincoln's death sent to soldiers, and a letter from famed Confederate cavalryman James Ewell Brown Stuart. A financially strapped Denning McTague was sentenced in the case to 15 months in prison in 2007. He had told a psychiatrist that he was angry that his internship was unpaid.

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On the Web:

List of missing items: http://tinyurl.com/kvmmd2

Archives home page: www.archives.gov

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-07-01-09 1206EDT

RALEIGH, N.C. - On Saturday, June 27, 2009, Antiques Roadshow taped the highest-value appraisal in its 13-year history. Four pieces of Chinese carved jade and celadon from the Chien Lung Dynasty (1736-1795), including a large bowl crafted for the Emperor, was given a conservative auction estimate of as much as $1.07M.

The owner inherited the collection from her father, who bought the objects in the 1930s and 1940s, while stationed in China as a military liaison. Asian arts appraiser James Callahan of Skinner Inc., noted the fine quality of the pieces, evidence that they were not made simply for the tourist trade. It was determined that a mark on the bottom of the jade bowl translates as "by Imperial order."

This appraisal, and others taped at the Raleigh Convention Center on the 27th, will be considered for broadcast in Antiques Roadshow's 2010 season (its 14th), premiering Monday, Jan. 4 on PBS Television.

The jade collection now tops the list of high-value Antiques Roadshow appraisals. Moving to second place is a 1937 painting by American Abstract Expressionist artist Clyfford Still, evaluated in Palm Springs, Calif., in 2008. The painting had been given a retail estimate of $500,000.

"For thirteen years, we've been hoping to feature a million-dollar appraisal on Antiques Roadshow; it's been our ‘Great White Whale,'" said Roadshow Executive Producer Marsha Bemko. "We're thrilled that, despite this year's slow economy, Roadshow finally captured this elusive trophy."

Raleigh was the second stop in Antiques Roadshow's 2009 production tour, after Atlantic City on June 6. PBS's most-watched series continues on to Madison, Wis.; Denver, Phoenix, and San Jose, California. The 2009 tour features a series of local events at which top appraisers offer the public free evaluations of antiques and collectibles, revealing the often surprising history and value of these items.

WINCHESTER, Va. (AP) - A mid-1800s weather vane valued by Sotheby's New York at $3 million to $5 million has found a temporary home after failing to sell at auction.

The 6-foot-tall copper weather vane known as "Old Jake" will be on display at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley for three years beginning July 3.

"Old Jake" has topped the Rouss Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company's fire houses in Winchester since around 1860.

The fire company decided to sell "Old Jake" at Sotheby's New York's Americana auction in January. But the highest bid, $2.1 million, did not meet the undisclosed reserve price.

President Tim Clark says the fire company decided several weeks ago to loan "Old Jake" to the museum.
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On the Net:

Museum of the Shenandoah Valley: www.shenandoahmuseum.org

Rouss Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company:
www.roussfirecompany.com

___

Information from: The Winchester Star,
http://www.winchesterstar.com

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-06-23-09 1145EDT