YEAR IN REVIEW 1998: ART-ANTIQUES-AND-COLLECTIBLES

ANTIQUARIAN BOOKS The 1996-97 market for rare books and manuscripts strengthened. Although prices for Americana manuscripts were low, material new to the market performed above estimated values, and colour-plate books of all kinds, including atlases, sold very well. Sotheby's New York sold the Victor and Irene Murr Jacobs collection, which included books and letters by Mark Twain, signed presidential books and portraits, and works of literature, notably Shakespeare's first edition of plays printed in 1623; the latter fetched $225,000. At the California Book Auction Galleries, approximately 270 books from Twain's library were sold as a single lot for over $200,000. Christie's New York sold the "Einstein-Besso" manuscript, an important scientific document from Albert Einstein's early work on relativity, for $350,000, but family correspondence and a parcel of Einstein's love letters brought mixed results. When Sotheby's New York offered the correspondence between cousins Franklin D. Roosevelt and Margaret Suckley, the collection failed to reach its $500,000-$700,000 estimate and was sold privately. Sotheby's London sold 34 extraordinary illuminated manuscripts from the Beck collection for well over 10 million. Christie's New York botanical-book sale brought $6.5 million in sales, with a complete coloured copy of Caspar Barlaeus's Rerum in Octennium in Brasilia (1647) selling for over $330,000. Sotheby's New York offered the library of George M. Pfaumer and fetched a staggering $110,000 for William Birch's early hand-coloured views of Philadelphia. At Sotheby's London a three-volume set of Robert Estienne's Dictionarium (1543) commanded more than $350,000, and Sotheby's New York reached a hammer price of $470,000 for Arthur Conan Doyle's autograph manuscript Sign of Four. Publications by John James Audubon soared in value; the folio Quadrupeds sold for $189,000 (Sotheby's New York), and Christie's New York sold the second edition of the folio Birds of America for $130,000 and an incomplete first edition for $1.5 million. Christie's New York also sold a fine copy of the Kelmscott Chaucer printed on vellum for over $550,000. Following the exhibition "Let There Be Light: William Tyndale and the Making of the English Bible" at the British Library and other locations, the Wrttembergische Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart, Ger., announced that it owned a previously unknown third copy of the 1526 Worms New Testament. KIMBALL HIGGS Art Auctions and Sales In 1997 the auction market celebrated its strongest year since 1991. The improvement was attributed to strength in the financial markets, particularly those in the United States, which gave consumers a perception of having significant disposable income. Although there were many new buyers in the market, seasoned customers remained active as well. Purchasers continued to pay high prices for quality property that came fresh to the market, particularly works from single-owner collections of distinguished provenance, which, in many cases, performed well beyond expectations. Although record prices were paid for jewelry, objects in the decorative arts, American paintings, and Old Master paintings, the driving force seemed to be Impressionist and Modern art, with single-owner sales of collections of John and Frances L. Loeb, Serge Sabarsky, Evelyn Sharp, and Victor and Sally Ganz making headlines. The Impressionist and Modern paintings, drawings, and sculpture sale held at Christie's in May earned a total of $119,862,500, with 10 works selling for $3,000,000 or more. "Jeune femme se baignant" by Pierre-Auguste Renoir sold for $12,432,500. This various-owner sale was preceded by the Loeb collection, which achieved $92,794,500, one of the highest totals in auction history for a single-owner collection. Paul Czanne's "Madame Czanne au fauteuil jaune" was purchased for $23,102,500, the second highest price paid for his work at auction. The same was true for douard Manet, whose "Portrait de Manet par lui-mme, en buste" achieved $18,702,500. Sotheby's May sale of Impressionist and Modern paintings, drawings, and sculpture enjoyed similar success, attaining $81,305,000 in sales. A record was established for the artist Gustav Klimt, whose "Litzlebergerkeller am Attersee" realized $14,742,500. This work was from the Sabarsky single-owner collection, which totaled $19,394,500. A record price for an Edgar Degas pastel was also set at this auction; his "Danseuses" sold for $11,002,500. The November 1997 sales of Impressionist and Modern art confirmed the vitality in this market and brought the year's sales to an exciting conclusion. The Ganz sale established the record for a single-owner collection sold at auction; it brought $206,516,525. Pablo Picasso's "Le Reve," a portrait of his lover Marie-Thrse Walter, sold for $48,402,500, the second highest auction price for the artist. Another Picasso, "Les Femmes d'Alger," one of his renditions of the "Women of Algiers" series by Eugne Delacroix, fetched $31,902,500. The top two works at Sotheby's single-owner sale of works from the Sharp collection were also by Picasso, the highest of which, "Nus," brought $6,052,500. The total collection realized $41,213,200. A various-owner sale the following evening commanded a solid $92,717,500 and was highlighted by Renoir's "Baigneuse," which sold for $20,902,500. Old Master paintings enjoyed one of their strongest years in history. In January Sotheby's in New York offered works from the collection of Saul Steinberg, totaling $10,910.000. One of the highlights was "Plague in an Ancient City" by Michael Sweerts, which set an auction record for the artist, selling for $3,852,500. Paintings from the collection of the British Rail Pension Fund fetched $9,564,625 at auction, with a pair of the works, "Two Views of Venice" by Canaletto, selling together for $4,512,500 and setting an auction record for the artist. Christie's January auction offered El Greco's "Christ on the Cross," which at $3,605,000 set a world record for the artist and for an Old Master picture at auction. Jewelry continued to rank as the second highest achiever at both auction houses. In May Sotheby's realized a world-record price per carat for a yellow diamond after selling the superb fancy-vivid yellow diamond ring for $3,302,500 in a sale that totaled $25,643,522. Christie's magnificent jewelry sale in October amounted to $28,377,188; the star in that lot was a square-cut diamond that brought $1,927,188. In late October Sotheby's held a sale totaling $36,955,918, of which $10,733,625 came from a private collection of extraordinary jewels. Another burgeoning market was American paintings, which attracted new buyers and maintained the loyalties of established purchasers. Both Sotheby's and Christie's established records for the top-selling artists in their June sales. Sotheby's sold Andrew Wyeth's "Christina Olson" for $1,707,500, and Christie's hammered "Home Sweet Home" by Winslow Homer for $2,642,075. Sotheby's also set auction records in this same June sale for Norman Rockwell's "Year After Year Only Fine Beer," which realized $354,500, and Thomas Hart Benton's "Politics, Farming and Law in Missouri," which fetched $299,500. Many of the middle markets were also quite robust, including the furniture and decorative arts categories. There were many world records set in Americana throughout 1997. In January Christie's offered a Chippendale chest-on-chest, which realized $1,212,500 and set a world record for this type of furniture. A Philadelphia high chest of drawers fetched $811,000, setting another world record, and Sotheby's established a record for a Newport highboy, which commanded $910,000. In the October sales of important Americana, Sotheby's achieved a record price for a Massachusetts highboy, which brought $690,000, and a world record price ($233,500) for a Southern open armchair. Christie's set a record with a New York chair that brought $387,500. The estate of U.S. Ambassador Pamela Harriman, which was offered by Sotheby's, commanded $8,700,568. Other distinguished collections that were auctioned included those of Marlene Dietrich and Leonard Bernstein and the Feiertag collection of fine movie posters, which set a record at $1,337,562. Sotheby's also sold "Sue," the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex ever found, to Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History for $8,362,500. The wine cellar of Andrew Lloyd Webber went for $2,308,000. Christie's offered Muhammad Ali memorabilia from the collection of Ron Paloger and sold for $3,258,750 dresses of Diana, princess of Wales, to benefit charities. In October Christie's held its first "Arts of France" sale, which totaled $16,544,435; the top lot was a Louis XIV ormolu-mounted mantel clock that sold for $992,500. Both auction houses were preparing for the millennium by building new facilities in New York City, a sign of their growing confidence in the auction market. Christie's announced plans to move its entire organization from various New York locations into one consolidated space at Rockefeller Center, and Sotheby's planned to unify its operations by adding six new floors to its current space at 72nd St. and York Ave. AMY TODD Art Exhibitions Diversity of theme and work characterized the flavour of art exhibitions in 1997. Shows ranged from knockout blockbusters that included paintings, drawings, and sculptures to those featuring the art of non-Western cultures. Others concentrated on a single artist or a lone painting, and major biographical retrospectives showcased artists in their artistic or cultural niche. Anniversaries, cultural and social phenomena, pop culture, and art itself--all served as themes. Undoubtedly, the most controversial show of the year was mounted in September at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. "Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection" included 110 graphic works by 46 British neoconceptual artists and opened to a storm of protest and criticism from members of the Royal Academy, art critics, and the public at large. Critics voiced outrage and disgust and asserted that the collection was not art but simply second-rate work meant to shock. The show was also criticized for its apparent official "seal of approval" for the collecting taste of Charles Saatchi, who was the most influential private collector and owned the largest collection of contemporary British art. Others argued, however, that the exhibition was stimulating and challenging, provoking questions and thought about the nature of art and its interaction with the real world. It was the first big radical show of contemporary art at the academy in 16 years. Such young artists as Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, and Jake and Dinos Chapman focused on themes that many found repulsive, grisly, and disgusting, including the horror of genetic mutations, disconnected genitalia, and allusions to death and decay. Hirst's piece depicted thousands of flies feeding off the rotting head of a cow. The Chapman brothers' sculpture consisted of representations of dismembered limbs hanging from a tree. Marc Quinn's "Self" was a sculpture of himself made of nine pints of his own frozen blood. Most controversial of all was a portrait by Marcus Harvey of Myra Hindley, a killer of children. The latter, fashioned from palm prints of children, attracted such criticism and outrage that on the opening day it was seriously damaged by vandals, who hurled eggs and ink at the image. As a result, it was temporarily removed for restoration. Other Royal Academy shows were much less controversial. Shown in the spring was "Braque: The Late Works," the first exhibition in Britain to focus on the last 20 years of the artist's life. Georges Braque was credited with, Pablo Picasso, as a creator of Cubism. Many were surprised by evidence of Braque's long and fruitful artistic life, which endured into the middle of the 20th century, and by the variety and extent of his output. His late works were rich in texture and form and concentrated on the spatial relationships between everyday objects. His use of contrasting textures, such as paint and sand, added variety to surfaces. The exhibition focused on the several major series that he produced during this period--birds, interiors, and studios, notably the ateliers he painted between 1949 and 1956. The show also included some late landscapes, a genre that was rare for the artist and again illustrated his ability to work on both large and small scales and to create variety and interest with a limited palette and low-key subject matter. The show later traveled to the Menil Foundation in Houston, Texas. In July through September, landscapes were featured in "Hiroshige: Images of Mist, Rain, Moon and Snow" at the Royal Academy. The show celebrated the bicentenary of the birth of Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), a master of the coloured woodcut and one of the Japanese artists whose work had a seminal influence on Western artists and architects of the late 19th century. His landscapes were full of atmosphere and varying lights and included subjects ranging from birds and flowers to moonlit landscapes and wild coastlines. A number of significant exhibitions were drawn from single collections or explored the collecting activity or philosophy of individuals. The extensive sculpture collection of Raymond D. Nasher of Dallas, Texas, one of the world's finest private collections of 19th- and 20th-century sculpture, was put on view in February and occupied the entire Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. "A Century of Sculpture: The Nasher Collection," comprised about 105 sculptures and showcased works by Constantin Brancusi of Romania, Raymond Duchamp-Villon of France, Alberto Giacometti of Switzerland, Picasso of Spain, and David Smith of the U.S., among others. The show included works that represented major art movements such as Cubism, Constructivism, Surrealism, and minimalism. A slightly different version of the Nasher show was seen at the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts. The collection, started in the 1960s, boasted more than 300 works, many of them very large in scale. The exhibit contrasted the traditions of abstract and figurative art. The earliest work on view was Auguste Rodin's "Age of Bronze" (c. 1876), and Brancusi's "The Kiss" (1907-08) was shown alongside sculptures by Rodin that covered the same subject. There were also seminal works by Picasso, notably "Head" (Fernande, 1909), reportedly the first Cubist sculpture. The James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, probably the largest and finest private collection of Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian art in the United States, was shown at the Art Institute of Chicago from August to October and included about 205 works that had never before been publicly exhibited together. Featured were mainly figurative sculptures, including representations of Hindu and Buddhist deities. Also on view were paintings, jewelry, weapons, and ritual objects. The installation encompassed various themes and included works representing the cultures of Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and India. Asian sculpture was highlighted at the Grand Palais in Paris with the exhibit "Sculpture of Angkor and Ancient Cambodia: Millennium of Glory." The show of Khmer sculpture surveyed works dating between the 6th and 16th century. The magnificent large-scale objects of stone and bronze were drawn primarily from the collection of the Muse Guimet in Paris and included 66 rarely seen works lent by the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh. The exhibit later traveled to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and became the first show ever in the U.S. devoted to ancient Khmer art. After leaving the U.S., the exhibit traveled to the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Osaka. A blockbuster exhibition mounted at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, "The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, AD 843-1261" covered the art of the Byzantine empire's second Golden Age. The show, which boasted more than 350 works from 117 collections in 24 countries, served as a sequel to the 1977 "Age of Spirituality" exhibit, which dealt with late antiquity and early Byzantium. "The Glory of Byzantium"--four years in the planning--was a triumph of organization. Some 107 couriers and foreign dignitaries accompanied national treasures provided by institutions that never before had lent abroad, including the Orthodox monasteries of Iveron on Mt. Athos in Greece and St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai in Egypt. The treasure trove included icons, religious manuscripts, mosaics, carved and inlaid precious objects, textiles, monumental reliefs, and frescoes borrowed from collections throughout the world. Particularly notable were icons lent by the Monastery of St. John the Evangelist on Patmos, Greece, and ivories from the Louvre in Paris and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, Eng. The Hermitage in St. Petersburg provided a remarkable diptych, and the Danish government approved the loan of a small enamel Dagmar Cross. Another blockbuster was devoted to 19th-century English art. The National Gallery of Art mounted "The Victorians: British Painting in the Reign of Queen Victoria, 1837-1901" in an effort to dispel prejudices against Victorian paintings, which were often characterized as repressive and hypocritical. The movement itself was often perceived by "modern" artists as one against which they had to rebel. The 70 paintings, representing 34 artists, included a wide range of works and were not simply defined by the period of Queen Victoria's reign. The centrepiece of the show was devoted to the Pre-Raphaelite period and its immediate aftermath and included such well-known works as Sir John Everett Millais's "Ophelia" and William Holman Hunt's "The Scapegoat." Works by George Frederic Watts, Edward Burne-Jones, and Ford Madox Brown demonstrated the vast impact of this group of artists. The show also depicted many other strands of artistic activity and included works by James Whistler, James Tissot, Edwin Landseer, and J.M.W. Turner. To mark its 20th anniversary, the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Conn., mounted a show with a British theme. "The Human Form Divine" consisted of paintings, watercolours, prints, and books illustrated by William Blake. A complementary show, "The Visionary Company," displayed works by artists closely associated with Blake, such as John Flaxman, Henry Fuseli, and Samuel Palmer. The tercentenary of the birth (Nov. 10, 1697) of William Hogarth, the so-called father of British art, was commemorated in the spring with "Hogarth the Painter," which opened at the Tate Gallery in London and included some notable borrowed items. Included were "Garrick and His Muse," which was lent by the Royal Collection, as well as important works from the Tate's own collection and some new discoveries. Other exhibits included a special showing of "The Rake's Progress" (The Orgy); at Sir John Soane's Museum in London, patrons were able to examine the series of paintings alongside the engravings, the first time that the two had been together since they left Hogarth's atelier. Companion Hogarth shows were held in London at the National Portrait Gallery, the British Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum and in Manchester at the Whitworth Art Gallery. A major exhibition at the Muse d'Art Moderne in Brussels was devoted to the work of Paul Delvaux (1897-1994) and presented a wide-ranging selection of paintings, watercolours, drawings, sketchbooks, and documents. The show commemorated the centenary of his birth and was the first retrospective of his work in that city. The exhibit highlighted both his affinity with the Surrealists, with whom he was usually associated, and the differences he had with that group. Included were early works showing the progression of his strongly independent style. Some early work clearly bordered on Impressionism, and it was only after 1925 that figures began to play an important part. By the late 1930s he had begun placing figures in frequently idealized and disconnected landscapes, as was typified in the "Spitzner Museum" of 1943, in which a self-portrait appears. The contrast between everyday realism and dreamlike unreality rife with symbolism and impact was characteristic of Delvaux's work. The art connection between France and Belgium in the 19th century was illustrated by a number of exhibitions. The most notable, "Paris-Bruxelles/Brussel-Parijs--An Artistic Dialogue Between France and Belgium, 1848-1914," opened at the Grand Palais in Paris and was later shown at the Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent, Belg. The show examined various artistic themes ranging from realism to Art Nouveau and demonstrated that French and Belgian painters were strongly influenced by such themes as Impressionism and pointillism as well as the landscapes of the Barbizon painters. The show highlighted decorative arts and included a powerful display of Art Nouveau objects. An important exhibition devoted to the works of Sir Anthony Van Dyck was mounted at the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, Italy, and concentrated on the work he did while living in that city. His sumptuous and elegant Genoese portraits, together with those by his predecessors and disciples, including other Flemish artists in Genoa at that time, formed a rich centrepiece. At the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the major summer exhibition was devoted to portraits by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and included 65 works, many of them commissioned, from the 1860s to the end of the artist's life. The show later moved to Chicago and Fort Worth, Texas. Early in the year a series of exhibitions in New York City concentrated on work by Venetian painter Giambattista Tiepolo to commemorate the 300th anniversary of his birth. The Metropolitan Museum of Art displayed 80 of his paintings and oil sketches and 33 etchings and drawings, while the Pierpont Morgan Library showcased his works along with those of his followers and sons Domenico and Lorenzo. Both shows concentrated on placing the artists in context and categorizing their works as characteristic examples of Venetian graphic arts of the 18th century. The first retrospective devoted to the work of Jasper Johns since 1977 was mounted by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City at the end of 1996. The work of this influential American artist was marked by complexity and personal vision and various shifts in focus. During the '50s he used realistic images, but he turned to abstraction in the '60s before reverting to images in the '70s. The show, which included 225 paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures, traveled to the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Ger., and to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. A comprehensive retrospective of the work of Ellsworth Kelly was mounted from October 1996 to January 1997 at the Guggenheim Museum and then in Los Angeles at the Museum of Contemporary Art before traveling in the summer to the Tate Gallery and the Haus der Kunst in Munich, Ger., in the fall. Gallerygoers could detect in Kelly's earliest work a tendency toward abstraction, beginning with his 1949 self-portrait. The show contained a wide selection of abstract paintings and sculptures dating from the 1950s as well as some drawings, photographs, and humorous tiny collages. Many of the paintings juxtaposed different painted panels, creating abstract and geometric forms. Although Kelly's work was less varied than that of Johns, it was full of joy and style. Another thematic exhibition, "Grand Tour: The Lure of Italy in the 18th Century," was seen at the end of 1996 at the Tate Gallery and later in Rome at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni. The charming and wide-ranging exhibition demonstrated the crosscurrents between Italian and English art and culture. The diffuse subject was organized around topics such as "travellers and the journey" and "the Antique." Included were maps and guidebooks as well as drawings, portraits, and landscapes, particularly of Rome. Finally, "It's Only Rock and Roll," an exhibition at the Phoenix (Ariz.) Art Museum, surveyed American art dating from the 1950s to the present and featured works that bore influences of the music. Artists featured included Peter Blake, Andy Warhol, and Robert Rauschenberg. SANDRA MILLIKIN Collectibles The Pamela Harriman estate auction was the celebrity event of 1997. ( See OBITUARIES.) Everything was sold, ranging from a worn velvet pillow with ostrich crest ($2,415) to a John Singer Sargent painting, "Staircase in Capri" ($1.4 million). A six-piece suite of Louis XV beechwood furniture fetched $101,500, while a canceled check signed by Winston Churchill brought $9,200. Dresses worn by Diana, princess of Wales, were sold for charity in June. The highest price, a record $222,500, was paid for the dress she wore while dancing at the White House with John Travolta. Her death on August 31 sent collectors hunting for memorabilia such as commemorative wedding plates ($25-$100), Royal Doulton figurines ($800), and tin biscuit boxes picturing her wedding ($15-$25). Toy sales also remained strong. At a late 1996 auction of 1950s toy robots, Machine Man went for a record $42,550, Radicon Robot for $21,850, and Musical Drummer Robot R57 for $17,250. An astounding $88,000 was paid in June 1997 for a 24-cm (9-in) Tipp & Co. (c. 1930) Mickey and Minnie Mouse toy motorcycle. Items related to advertising continued to bring top prices. At a sale of Hires Root Beer memorabilia in Colorado, a record $106,700 was paid for a Mettlach urn dispenser, $15,125 for a straw holder, and $22,000 for a die-cut sign of the Hires boy. At another sale a 1910 tin Coca-Cola sign picturing Hilda Clark brought $82,250. The only record prices for formal antiques were for Gustav Stickley furniture; a two-door bookcase went for $34,650 and a lady's desk no. 724 for $29,900. An Early American glass Amelung tumbler made about 1788 fetched a record $83,900. A Tiffany Favrile glass and bronze lotus lamp on a mosaic lily-pad base auctioned at $1.1 million, while a Tiffany window made for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and picturing parakeets and goldfish commanded $1,047,500. Prices continued to climb for unusual pieces of pottery and porcelain. A four-tile Grueby frieze of palm trees auctioned for $24,150, and a Marblehead Pottery tile frieze of a lake scene earned $21,850. Rookwood's 1929 vellum glaze plaque showing Venice and ships sold for $49,500, while a Weller vase over 1.8 m (6 ft) high commanded a monumental $112,500. A 122-cm (48-in)-high Mettlach vase with a knight and maiden, signed C. Spindler, brought $46,000. Very important French silver pieces sold well; in late 1996 $10,287,500 was the price paid for a 1733 Louis XV tureen with vegetables, fish, birds, and reeds, while a pair of wine coolers by Claude Ballin II brought $3,962,500. In April 1997 a record $13,500 was paid for an enameled silver porringer and spoon made by Potter Studios of Cleveland, Ohio, in the early 20th century. An important sale of American Indian pieces brought six new record prices. Sold were an 18th-century Nootka face mask, $525,000; a wooden spoon carved with a human figure on the handle, $101,500; a Chilkat Tlingit ceremonial coat, $497,500; a Northwest Coast carved wooden pipe with abalone shells, $134,500; a Northwest Coast "bent corner" bowl, $79,500; and a Saltillo (Mex.) serape, $57,500. Rare sports memorabilia commanded higher prices. A Babe Ruth 1914 rookie card brought $27,114, while a Christy Mathewson signed baseball sold for $21,916. An 1820 brass bait casting reel by George Snyder of Paris, Ky., set a new auction record at $31,350. RALPH AND TERRY KOVEL Numismatics In April 1997 the "king of American coins"--an 1804 U.S. silver dollar--commanded $1,815,000, a record price for a single coin at public auction. The dollar, one of 15 known, was part of a complete collection of U.S. coins that had been assembled by the late Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr., of Baltimore, Md. Eliasberg's 1885 trade dollar sold for $907,500, a record for the series. In all, his collection had brought nearly $44 million at auction since 1982. Numismatic News reported that despite record-setting bids for the most valuable old coins, the overall rare-coin market had edged up just over 4% in the 12-month period that ended September 9. Interest in coin collecting was expected to rebound in 1999, when the U.S. government was scheduled to launch a 10-year program to circulate 50 commemorative quarters, one for each state. The coins would feature state designs on the reverse side, with George Washington's bust remaining on the front. The U.S. Mint introduced four commemorative coin programs in 1997 amid ongoing complaints that the market for such items was saturated. One of the more popular new coins was a silver dollar honouring Jackie Robinson, who in 1947 became the first African-American to play major league baseball. Many collectors cheered a new law that limited the number of commemorative coin programs to two per year beginning in 1999 and placed caps on mintages. The U.S. Mint was expected to produce about 14 billion coins for circulation in 1997, down from 19.5 billion in 1996 and the record 19.8 billion in 1995. On December 1 U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton signed legislation authorizing production of a gold-coloured dollar coin that eventually would replace the Susan B. Anthony dollar. In October the U.S. Federal Reserve System began issuing redesigned 50-dollar Federal Reserve notes. Like the 100-dollar notes that made their debut in 1996, they featured several new anticounterfeiting devices, including a watermark and colour-shifting ink. The bills also sported an enlarged numeral 50 on the back to help sight-impaired people, the first U.S. currency to feature such a design element. Several nations, including Australia, Brunei, and Thailand, circulated plastic notes in 1997, and Russia unveiled a 500,000-ruble bill with a variety of anticounterfeiting devices. Finland put a hologram on its 20-markka note, and Turkey, suffering from high inflation, issued a five million-lira bill to keep up with rising prices. U.S. Mint workers made the country's first-ever platinum coins, which complemented the American Eagle series of gold and silver pieces sold primarily to precious-metal investors. The new Eagles competed with platinum bullion coins issued by Australia and Canada, among other nations, and came in four sizes ranging from 1 oz ($100 face value) to 0.10 oz ($10 face value). The Austrian Philharmonic was the world's best-selling gold bullion coin in 1995 and 1996, capturing about 40% of the world market both years. Meanwhile, Mexico withdrew ringed bimetallic coins with a .925 fine silver centre that were first issued in 1993. They were believed to be the only circulating silver coins still in use in the world. Canada changed the composition of its one-cent coin from copper to copper-plated zinc and also sold to collectors a one-dollar coin commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Loon dollar in circulation. The British Royal Mint introduced a five-pound coin commemorating the 50th wedding anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on November 20. The return of Hong Kong to China generated several numismatic issues, including a seven-coin set struck by the British Royal Mint and a $1,000 gold commemorative by the Royal Canadian Mint. ROGER BOYE This article updates coin. PAINTING AND SCULPTURE In 1997 contemporary art was distinguished by a plurality of styles and by a blurring of the boundaries of traditional artistic media so that the realms of painting and sculpture were expanded and transgressed, displaced and transformed. Foremost among those challenging traditional definitions were young artists, who satisfied an insatiable fascination with the new and were featured internationally in an increasing number of museum and commercial exhibitions. Geographically, artists continued to gravitate to such established international art centres as New York City and London, but an increasing number of new artists were found in Los Angeles and Germany. In Los Angeles such leaders in the field as Mike Kelley, Chris Burden, Charles Ray, and Lari Pittman trained a new generation of artists, and in Germany painter Gerhard Richter and conceptional photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher trained a new generation of conceptual artists. The contemporary scene in Great Britain was distinguished by the meteoric rise of the so-called young British artists. Among them, Jake and Dinos Chapman established a beachhead in September at the Gagosian Gallery in New York City with their highly controversial sculptures of mutative mannequins. Another significant worldwide development was the move by young artists to include photography as one medium among many in their repertoires. For some, photography substituted for painting, notably in the strangely futuristic self-portraits of Mariko Mori of Japan, a staged photographic tableau by Sharon Lockhart of the U.S., and photographs by Thomas Demand of Germany of his cardboard reconstructions of images from the media; the photographs revealed a montage of performance art, sculpture, and the formal preoccupations of traditional painting. Sculpture moved away from the pedestal, and architectural metaphors captured centre stage. Joep van Lieshout of The Netherlands and Stephen Craig of Northern Ireland made their presence felt internationally at such German exhibitions as the Mnster Sculpture Project and Documenta in Kassel. Craig's architectural rooms and pavilions were both sculptures in themselves and spaces in which to exhibit other work, while van Lieshout's Pop art-inspired trailers and caravans provided people with living and working environments and thereby redefined the role of the sculptor in society. This blurring of the boundaries of performance art, architecture, and sculpture also was seen in the community-activated sculpture of Rirkrit Tiravanija of Thailand and the U.S., the photos and objects of Gabriel Orozco of Mexico, and the sculptures of Charles Long of the U.S., which doubled as pop music listening stations. Sculpture also was pushed beyond its traditional definition with the arrivals of film and video as significant sculptural modes. A continuing series of Cremaster films by Matthew Barney of the U.S. combined the artist's unique mythological constructions with Busby Berkeley-like dance numbers, operatic narratives, and sculptural installations. Other noteworthy works included video installations by Diana Thater of the U.S. in which a trained chimpanzee performs on a film set, the projection at the Venice Biennale of a couple breaking off their relationship by Sam Taylor-Wood of Great Britain, and a dissonant slow-motion projection of artist Pipilotti Rist of Switzerland happily smashing car windows in Zrich while humming a melody. Often considered the founder of video art, Korean-born Nam June Paik continued his long and productive career, winning a Gold Lion award at the Venice Biennale. (See BIOGRAPHIES.) Also significant during the year was a return to narrative in contemporary art. Kara Walker's disturbing yet beautiful paper silhouette installations of antebellum psychodramas made her one of the most sought-after new artists of the year. Using an 18th-century technique, Walker assembled convoluted visual stories that provided profound and subversive indictments of race relations in the U.S. She also was selected for a MacArthur fellowship in 1997. Narrative characterized the work of such mid-career artists as Robert Gober of the U.S., whose site-specific installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles combined ideas of baptism, nostalgia, and the theatricality of the Roman Catholic tradition. Figurative painting was reinvigorated by the large-scale allegorical works of Kerry James Marshall of the U.S., which reflected on the African-American experience during the urban-renewal programs in Chicago in the 1960s. While traditional media were challenged, painting continued to stave off its reported death as artists like Sigmar Polke of Germany, Luc Tuymans of Belgium, and Sue Williams, Elizabeth Peyton, and John Currin of the U.S. made strong showings in worldwide exhibitions. Two towering art figures died during the year, Abstract Expressionist Willem de Kooning and Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. (See OBITUARIES.) DOUGLAS FOGLE This article updates painting, history of. Philately Two highly successful stamp exhibitions were held in 1997. In February a huge crowd waited hours in line for admittance to the HONG KONG '97 international exhibition, and in May 170,000 visitors attended PACIFIC '97, an international show held in San Francisco to mark the 150th anniversary of the first U.S. postage stamps. The International Federation of Philately also sponsored exhibitions in Oslo, Moscow, and New Delhi. In an effort to broaden the public appeal of postage stamps, a number of unusual offerings were made. To publicize PACIFIC '97 the U.S. issued two triangle stamps, the first of that shape in its history. The decision by the U.S. to produce a stamp depicting cartoon character Bugs Bunny, also an official "stamp ambassador," elicited criticism from many traditional collectors but was an immediate hit with the public. New Zealand showcased its most unusual mailboxes in a booklet of six. On the 100th anniversary of the publication of the horror tale bearing his name, Dracula was honoured with images on stamps in Great Britain, Ireland, the U.S., and, of course, Romania. Australia implemented a major change of policy by depicting persons deemed to be living legends. In January Donald Bradman, a famous cricket batsman, became the first Australian so honoured. Only one new state joined the ranks of stamp-issuing nations in 1997. Mayotte, a French dependency in the Comoros archipelago, resumed issuing stamps on January 1, after having used French stamps since 1975. In Hong Kong, which reverted to Chinese control on July 1, new stamps with pictures of the waterfront were issued to replace the Queen Elizabeth definitives, which were withdrawn from sale on Jan. 25, 1997, but were valid for postage until the handover. Scott Publishing Co. of Sidney, Ohio, the world's leading producer of stamp catalogs and albums, introduced several changes to its product line. In its 1998 worldwide catalog, the British Commonwealth countries were included--the first time in 65 years that they had not been listed in a separate volume. Scott also began positioning itself for electronic publishing by taking steps in January to prohibit licensees from using its catalog numbers in certain electronic media. The expected CD-ROM version of the Scott Catalog did not appear during the year, however, owing to production difficulties. Krause Publications of Iola, Wis., pursued an aggressive program of philatelic acquisitions and restructuring after purchasing Stamp Collector and Stamp Wholesaler in 1996. In January 1997 the company announced that Stamp Wholesaler, the world's largest dealer publication, would appear monthly after 60 years as a biweekly. In August Krause announced the purchase of the Minkus line of catalogs and albums. There was also more experimentation with stamp production. Self-adhesives grew in popularity at a surprising pace in the U.S. The United States Postal Service (USPS) reported that some 60% of the stamps sold in 1996 were self-adhesives, and it estimated that the number would near 80% for 1997. In March the USPS issued two linerless self-adhesive 32-cent coils. Addressing the need for greater printing security, the USPS added a scrambled image of the letters "USAF" across the design of the U.S. Air Force commemorative issued in September. The image could be seen by collectors with the help of a special plastic lens sold through the Philatelic Fulfillment Service Center. Perhaps the most novel philatelic innovation of the year was a sheet of Dutch greeting stamps that featured a hidden message of friendship that could be viewed when a protective coating was scraped away. Stamp prices showed a steady, though modest, rise during the year. In June, Ivy & Mader of New York City fetched $322,000 for an American Bank Note Co. proof book crammed with rare and valuable proof sheets, including the first two U.S. issues. A unique 1851 unused Baden colour error commanded more than $600,000. A registered 1908 cover with three U.S. 4-cent Grant stamps with perforations from the Joseph Agris private collection was sold by Charles Shreve in September for $220,000, a record for a 20th-century cover. ROBERT E. LAMB Photography A diversity of notable exhibitions enriched the photo