BUFORD, Ga. (ACNI) - Steve Slotin will tell you he had no formal background in art, much like the self-taught artists whose works he promotes and sells at Slotin Folk Art. After aceing his own home-study course on folk art in the 1990s, Slotin now recites the names of these once little-known artists with reverence as though they were Dutch masters.

Through hard work and perseverance, he and his wife, Amy, have made their twice-yearly auctions top attractions in this burgeoning field. The Slotins have also helped make obscure artists folk heroes of sorts. Steve Slotin proclaims works by these self-taught artists "the greatest American visual art form ever produced."

Slotin believes Americans' enthusiastic acceptance of folk art was a reaction to the minimalist movement. "It was giving people something they could actually see and relate to without an interpreter explaining why there's a white box in the middle of a white room," he said. "Folk art was so genuine, so true and so wholesome that people really connected to it as soon as they were exposed to it. There was a sense of honesty to it - raw, expressive." 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - The director and CEO of Kansas City's Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art has announced he will retire next year after nearly 30 years at the institution.

Marc Wilson has held the position since 1982. He oversaw major changes at the museum, including its new acclaimed Bloch Building. He will leave the museum on June 1, 2010.

Trustees have launched a search to find his successor.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) - A 61-year-old man paroled in 2007 after serving time for kidnapping now faces charges in a southeast Missouri woman's 1979 slaying.

Max Allen Ellison Jr. was arrested Friday on first-degree murder and robbery charges. He was taken into custody by U.S. marshals in Christian County and was to be transported to Cape Girardeau County.

His bond was set at $10 million cash only.

Ellison used to work as a sheriff's deputy in Stoddard County. But more recently, prosecutors say, he had been an inmate at a federal correctional facility.

Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle told The Associated Press that Ellison was paroled in 2007 after serving about half of a 65-year federal sentence in central Illinois for kidnapping.

Swingle would not comment on the murder investigation and what led authorities to link Ellison to the slaying.

PARIS (AP) - Japanese fashion designer Kenzo Takada will auction off some of the art that inspired his East-meets-West style, as he trades his plush Paris mansion for smaller digs on the Seine River.

From Hopi Kachina dolls to bronze Buddhas, more than 1,000 pieces acquired over the past two decades will be on the block at the June 16-17 sale organized by Aguttes auction house, the designer and his auctioneer said Tuesday.

The catalog isn't finished yet because Kenzo is hesitating about which objects to keep.

But most of the collection will have to go. Kenzo has sold the12,000-square-foot Japanese-style wooden house that he built in 1987 in the courtyard of an apartment building near Paris' Place de la Bastille, and will move into a Left Bank apartment about one-quarter that size this summer.

"After 20 years in this house, I wanted to turn the page and live lighter," Kenzo told The Associated Press in an interview after a guided visit through the sprawling house. "For parties, it was great, but sometimes when I'm here alone, it's far too big."

But not too big for his collection: Every conceivable surface is covered with objects that, displayed just so, give the house a museum quality. Paintings, photographs and engravings cover nearly every wall. Vases, sculptures and curios sprout from tables and chests of drawers.

Most of the pieces are from Asia, but the collection also includes 19th-century Kachina dolls from the American Southwest, masks made by the Punu people of Gabon and a hatchet from a remote Pacific island.

DALLAS - Heritage Auction Galleries has announced that Ed Beardsley, formerly of Bonhams & Butterfields Auctioneers and Appraisers, has joined the company as Vice President of Operations.

In his role, Beardsley will work with Heritage's principals to grow the company and to ensure excellent customer service, operational efficiency, and the strategic addition of new collecting categories at auction. Beardsley will also bring a special focus to Heritage's newer auction categories, including but not limited to fine arts, decorative arts, jewelry, rare books, historical manuscripts, music and entertainment, natural history and special collections.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Johnny Donnels, who won acclaim for his pictures of the people and places in New Orleans' French Quarter, has died. He was 84.

Cheron Brylski, a close friend, said Friday that Donnels fell outside his Desire Street home last week and broke his hip. He died Thursday, March 19.

Donnels had a gallery near Jackson Square for more than 50 years. He lived in the Quarter for most of his life, and was playwright Tennessee Williams' neighbor in the 1940s.

His work, chronicled in a 1999 book, has been exhibited at the Kennedy Center, Harvard University, the Ford Times Collection of American Art, the National Academy of Design, the New Orleans Museum of Art and Historic New Orleans Collection.

Although he was a renowned photographer, Donnels began his career as a painter.

For a time, he worked as a police sketch artist. In the 1960s, Donnels bartered a painting for a camera, and a career change followed.

AP-ES-03-21-09 0723EDT

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

NEW YORK - Bonhams has announced the recent appointment of Deborah Coy as director of European Paintings in its New York gallery. Coy's role is described in a corporate press release as "vital to Bonhams' continued expansion in the U.S. market."

With a career spanning nearly three decades, Deborah Coy is among the most highly respected people in the auction industry. Holding a B.A., Art History from Wellesley College, an M.A., Art History from Williams College, and a J.D. from Villanova University School of Law, Coy was uniquely prepared to take on the role of vice president and director Sotheby's New York's appraisal company in 1984.

A mere four years later, she was named vice president, senior specialist, Old Master Paintings at Christie's London, thus beginning a 20-year career with the auctioneers. During her time with Christie's, Coy became integral to the organization, going on to take the role of vice president, senior fine arts appraiser, Estates and Appraisals department; and, ultimately, senior vice president, head of department, 19th Century European Art; and senior director, 19th Century European Art, the Americas.

LOS ANGELES - Barbara Franchi, who co-existed with comfort in the worlds of collectible movie ephemera and murder mystery reviews, died on Feb. 28 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 73 years old. According to her husband, Rudy Franchi, the cause of death was cancer related.

Barbara Franchi was founder of the mystery fiction review Web site www.reviewingtheevidence.com, which, within a few short years of its launch, became a major force in the rarefied world of cozies, procedurals, hard-boiled, noir and all the other sub-genres of whodunits. Blurbed on book jackets and quoted extensively, the site was a labor of love for Barbara, who funded it through her career in movie poster sales.

Together with her husband, Barbara operated The Nostalgia Factory, a collectibles shop founded in Montreal in 1969. Its base  was moved to Newport, R.I., and in the mid-1980s to Boston.

During the early 1990s, Barbara transferred the inventory of the shop electronically to the Web site www.nostalgia.com. As an early participant in the world of Internet commerce, the site eventually became a top online vendor of original vintage movie, introducing many innovations that later became common practices in the industry.

Barbara was also co-author of Miller's Movie Collectibles, which has become a standard text on valuable vintage-cinema paper.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Leonore Annenberg, who as the widow of billionaire publisher Walter Annenberg continued his tradition of philanthropy and patronage of the arts, died Thursday. She was 91.

Annenberg died of natural causes at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California, said family spokeswoman Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Annenberg was chairwoman and president of the foundation, which is based in the Philadelphia suburb of Radnor and has a mission "to advance the public well-being through improved communication." She had led the institution since her husband's death in October 2002.

Annenberg was a trustee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a member of the acquisitions committee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. She also served on the Trustee's Council of The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Longtime friend Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corp. of New York, described Annenberg as "a very classy person with a deep sense of civic commitment and an unparalleled social conscience."

"It is unlikely we will ever know the full extent of the Annenbergs' philanthropy because they did not seek publicity for their gifts and gave many anonymously," Gregorian wrote in a statement Thursday.

LONDON (AP and ACNI) - Michael Jackson has kept out of the spotlight for the last eight years, a period of time that has been marked more by scandal than by song. Now he's back in the public eye. On Wednesday, Jackson launched a lawsuit against an auction house to stop the scheduled sale of more than 2,000 personal items from his California property, Neverland Ranch, including platinum and gold records, a customized Harley-Davidson and a Rolls-Royce limousine.

A report appearing on e! online says that a complaint filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court on Jackson's behalf alleges Julien's has "effectively stolen Michael Jackson's personal property" and has refused to return any of it "despite repeated demands."

Julien's is planning its "King of Pop: Once in a Lifetime" sale for April 22-25 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. According to Julien's Web site, the five-day event contains 2,000 items from Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch, ranging from Michael Jackson's iconic white-jeweled glove to "the grandiose entry gates to Neverland..." A five-volume boxed set of auction catalogs featuring fine and decorative art, furniture, memorabilia, arcade games, Disneyana and garden statuary will be available after March 15 at a cost of $100.

Darren Julien, owner of Julien's Auctions, is presently out of the country but has been in contact with Auction Central News and will be participating in an interview on March 7.

In another matter, Jackson told a crowd of screaming fans that he would play a series of London engagements - his first concerts since 2001.

Wearing his trademark sunglasses and a silver-embroidered black military-style jacket, the King of Pop said his series of shows in July will be his "final curtain call" in the British capital.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Singer Phil Collins says his new "main thing" is the Alamo.

The 58-year-old British singer is in San Antonio this week for the anniversary of the March 1836 Battle of the Alamo, in which defenders of the mission-turned-fort held off the Mexican army for nearly two weeks.

Collins says he has "hundreds" of cannonballs, documents and other artifacts from the Alamo.

The collector and history buff's most prized item is a receipt signed by Alamo commander William Barret Travis for 32 head of cattle used to feed the Alamo defenders.

"Basically, now I've stopped being Phil Collins the singer. This has become what I do," he said in an online story Tuesday for the San Antonio Express-News.

His interest began in his youth when he saw actor Fess Parker portray Davy Crockett.

The 58-year-old singer, whose hits include In the Air Tonight and One More Night, said he has passed on his appreciation for the Alamo lore to his five children, especially his youngest sons, ages 4 and 7.

"My youngest two, they can identify Travis, Crockett and Santa Ana when they see their pictures," he said.

Collins narrated the introduction of a 13-minute Alamo diorama light and sound show at the History Shop by the Alamo.

He is scheduled to speak to the Alamo Defenders Descendants Association on Saturday.

AP-CS-03-04-09 0953EST

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

DALLAS - Heritage Auction Galleries has announced that Christina Japp has joined the company as director of 20th Century Design in its Fine Arts Department. Japp brings with her 15 years of international experience in all aspects of 20th Century design.

"Heritage is the perfect auction company for 20th Century design," she said. "Heritage is a relatively young auction company with tremendous room for growth and a willingness to change and succeed. It's an exciting time to be working at such a refreshing place."