BOCA RATON, Fla. - Heritage Auction Galleries has opened its new buying and auction-consignment office in South Florida, and has appointed Diedre Buchmoyer to head the operation. Heritage Galleries of Florida LLC is located at 5295 Town Center Road, Suite 301, in Boca Raton.

Under Managing Director Diedre Buchmoyer, Florida clients can obtain expert advice in the orderly and confidential liquidation of estates involving rare coins, fine jewelry, paper money, medals and tokens, rare stamps and timepieces. The range of services offered includes collection evaluation, consignments to upcoming Heritage auctions, or private treaty sales.

Buchmoyer was born into a coin family. By the age of 12, she was working weekends at her family's retail shop and regularly attending coin shows. An avid traveler, she has lived in Manhattan, Japan, Belize, and Hawaii. She earned a B.A. in Art History with honors from Hood College, with a double minor in business management and studio art. Buchmoyer also has a keen interest in archaeology.

Working as a professional numismatist for six years, buying and selling rare coins, Buchmoyer assisted in several prestigious auctions, including the sale of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection. She is a member of the ANA, FUN, and ICTA, a Young Benefactor of the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, and a member of the Renaissance Society of America.

To discuss consigning coins or currency to an upcoming auction, call Diedre Buchmoyer at 214-409-1794 or 800-872-6467 ext. 1794, or call the Heritage consignor hotlines at 800-872-6467 ext. 1000 (coins) or ext. 1001 (currency).

Heritage Auction Galleries is the world's third largest auction house, and by far the largest auctioneer of rare collectibles, with annual sales of more than $600 million, and 375,000+ registered online bidder members. For more information about Heritage's auctions, visit www.HA.com.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Two executives from The Andy Warhol Museum have been picked to oversee Pittsburgh's annual Three Rivers Arts Festival.

Colleen Russell Criste, the Warhol's deputy director, will be acting director of the festival, which celebrates its 50th anniversary next year. Ben Harrison, the museum's curator of performances, will perform the same function for the arts festival. Both officials will retain their duties at the Warhol museum, one of four museums operated by Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.

Carnegie Museums officials say they are taking over the festival because of the event's financial health and other concerns. The festival organizers are also responsible for the city's annual First Night celebration each New Year's.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-09-12-08 0726EDT

CLEVELAND – Ralph M. Kovel, nationally known antiques author and expert who ran a multimedia empire together with his wife Terry, died on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008, at Euclid Hospital in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. The cause of death was complications from a previously performed hip surgery.

In the early 1950s, Kovel came up with the idea of publishing a book that indexed antiques by the factory-specific marks found on the bottom of the pottery. He and Terry became nationally known with the publication of their first book, Dictionary of Marks: Pottery & Porcelain, published in 1953. The book led to a weekly question-and-answer column, Kovels: Antiques & Collecting, syndicated in 1954, which still runs in more than 150 newspapers. It was also the first of 97 books that the couple would co-author.

NEW YORK (AP) - The Museum of Modern Art has appointed one of its own curators as the new head of its department of painting and sculpture. The museum's director says Ann Temkin was chosen after a six-month search and from a field of candidates from many parts of the world.

The position is widely perceived as one of the most influential in Modern art. Temkin will be responsible for special exhibitions and will advise on museum acquisitions.

She tells The New York Times in Sept. 3, 2008 editions that she plans to "take a broader, more international view."

The 48-year-old has worked since 2003 at the Modern, and earned her doctorate in art history at Yale University. She succeeds John Elderfield, who retired in July.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-09-03-08 0200EDT

Former antiques editor Noah Fleisher will soon be relocating to Dallas to assume a position as copywriter with Heritage Auction Galleries, the world's third-largest auction house. Fleisher has spent the past decade covering the antiques, art and auction businesses. He previously served as editor at Northeast Antiques Journal, New England Antiques Journal and Antique Trader, and also has covered music, theater and sports for various magazines and newspapers.

Daniel Agnew, a familiar name to buyers of fine toys, dolls, teddy bears and other antique and vintage juvenilia, has set off on his own and established a new Web site: www.danielagnew.com. As an independent agent, Agnew now privately advises clients and sells both at antique shows and through his new Web site.

VINELAND, N.J. – Family-owned Bertoia Auctions has added a new link to its legacy. Michael P. Bertoia, 22-year-old son of co-founders Jeanne Bertoia and the late William S. “Bill” Bertoia, has joined the internationally known auction house, where he hopes to build a fulfilling career based on interests he has had since early childhood. In his associate’s role, Michael will implement new technologies while also serving as house photographer in the catalog-production area. Michael said that as his duties expand, he looks forward to being able to travel extensively as a representative of Bertoia’s.