El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-03-05
Business Side Of Art
MoRGANs ART TREASURES COST 100000

A., scum galleries at Kensington because
| they proved to be worthless.
In 1908 portrait of ArfostO was ac-
| quired by the British government for
! S150,0O0. There are many experts who
say that not only is It not the work
OF Titan, but that it is not even a por-
trait Of Ariosto.
War Over BusI.
A war is now raging between Eng
land and Germany. The causis beIIi is
q certain bust bought in England by
DR.. BOde, the Berlin art expert and
museum director, who is regarded as the
worlds foremost judge of such objects
He paid $4,000 for the bust. No sooner
was il bought than evidence was pro-
duced tending TO show that ii was an
early Victorian work by Lucas, a sec
ond rate English sculptor copied after
painting by Leonardo.
Documentary evidence of its produc-
ton was secured, also proof that il
had stood long neglected in a garden,
and finally it was shown that the wax
was the same as that used by Lucas.
An examination Of the core showed the
presence of a small piece of old fash
Toned British bed cover. But DR.. BOde
and his German compatriots stand pat
and declare the work to be genuine.
popular piece in any of the Berlin
museums today, crowds flocking around
it all the time.
In 1906, the Rokeby Venus, painted
by Valasquez, now hanging in the Ma
tional gallery at London, was bought
for $225,000 1t is now claimed by no
less an authority than Sir W. B. Rich
mond that there are two pigments in
the picture which were not used in the
6aT- rH oil -
canvas answer that even this does not
show lack OF genuineness, since some
restorer might have added these pig
ments
They point out that many of the
known TO be old masters have been re-
stored in the same wa
Artists Detect Fraud.
When DR.. Cook presented the pietures
in his illustrated lecture at least the
artists discovered fraud. After he lee
tured in Baltimore the artists there got
together and discussed their impress
sions- They agreed that the picture OF
Dr.. Cook at the pole was slide made
from a picture faxed by some artist,
but the climax was reached when ne
showed picture of himself and his
two Eskimo attendants in a boat. There
was no other person present with them,
so, asked the artists, who could have
snapped the camera?
In the museum at Algiers there is
one object which Is unique in the
worlds list Of curiosities. 1t is a plas-
ter cast Of the martyr Geronimo, in |
the agony OF death. The Algerians put
him alive into a soft mass of concrete, |
which was presently hardened into |
block and used in the construction OF |
a fort This was in 1863, and about |
40 years later a Spanish writer de- |
scribed the event. and told how that
particular block could be located. After /
800 years the fort was torn down, the |
block opened and the cast made which !
now adorns the Algiers exhibit.
Creator of BiIIikin.
In bowling down to the smiling little /
god. Billikin. millions of people have
the creative genius OF /
Miss Florence Pretz. a Kansas City girl.
Before her creation of BilIik1n she was
a failure as an artist, at. least from a /
bread winning standpoint But BilIikin /
caught the public fancy from the time |
he invaded Chicago, and it was not /
long before orders were coming in from /
everywhere With the funds thus ac- 1
cumulated, Miss Pretz has a studio of /
her own in Chicago. and is afforded |
an opportunity for study under the best
teachers OF that center of art.
While there are many instances
where quick appreciation and good
financial reward have come to the
struggling artist. they are the excep-
ton and not the rule. Literary men
are often dead long years in advance
or true appraisement of their Iabors.
Poe may peddle his Raven for a |
song, and Riley get fired from a
newspaper because his poems are not
worth his salary The works Of Rem
brandt, Michael Angelo. Rubens and
others are valued at millions, but they
received only a small share of the
fruits Of their labors