YEAR IN REVIEW 1997: ART-ANTIQUES-AND-COLLECTIBLES

ANTIQUARIAN BOOKS Interest in books and manuscripts remained strong in 1996, with private collectors constituting the majority of the buyers and thereby ensuring continuous recirculation of rare and valuable goods. At Christie's, German Florilegium of the 17th Century, a manuscript depicting 398 flowers, was sold for its high estimate of $229,000. Leonhard Baldner's Rechts natrliche Beschreibung und Abmahlung der Wasservgel, Fischen, Vierfissign Thier, Inseckten und Gerwin . . . (1666-67), depicting the natural history of the Strasbourg region, commanded $137,200. Biblia Pauperum, a rediscovered block book forgotten since 1897, sold for 240,000, while a previously unrecorded fragment of an aria by Mozart brought $120,200. A Louisiana Purchase Proclamation from the library of Mrs. Charles W. Englehard sold for $772,000 in a postauction private sale. At Sotheby's the 12-volume Le Grande Atlas of 1667 by Willem and Jan Blaeu of the Netherlands commanded $255,000. The Pierre Joseph Redout "triplets"--Lilaces, 1802-16; Roses, 1817-24; and Choix des plus belle fleurs, 1827-33--fetched $585,000. The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis estate sale contained 3,000 volumes. The most expensive book, John F. Kennedy's copy of a U.S. Government Printing Office printing of Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States, featuring Kennedy's handwritten notations to his own speech, sold for $134,500. Kennedy's copy of the 1961 Encyclopdia Britannica World Atlas with presentation leaf from publisher William Benton, estimated at $400-$600, brought $40,250. Albert Einstein's 1912 autograph manuscript on his theory of relativity, estimated at $4 million to $6 million, sold privately for substantially more than the low estimate. California Book Auctions sold the 1901 first issue of Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit for $42,000. At Pacific Book Auction Galleries, George Catlin's American Indian Portfolio, Hunting Scenes and Amusements of the Rocky Mountains and Prairies fetched $88,000. Felix Paul Wierzbicki's California as It Is, and as It May Be; or A Guide to the Gold Region (1849), the first book in English printed in California, commanded $60,500--more than double its presale estimate. At F. Drlling in Hamburg, Ger., the highest price was reached for the collection of views by Luca Carlevaris, Le fabriche, et vedute di Venezia (1703), which went for $23,300. Among atlases, Neuer Weltatlas (Nrnberg, 1712) sold for $22,000. (REGINA GALGANO KOLBE) ART AUCTIONS AND SALES In 1996 bullish activity and exceedingly high asking prices for works of art concealed the complexities of a market shrouded in crises and transition. The impact of dwindling supplies became apparent as the price of high-quality items soared, leaving behind a trail of unsold works too expensive for most buyers. As a result, several trends emerged, notably a massive transfer of interest. Collectors who had favoured Impressionists shifted to later schools or to Old Masters. In July Dutch master Willem van de Velde the Younger's painting of two boats at anchor brought $2.1 million, exceeding Sotheby's estimate by about 250%. Attention was also lavished on so-called minor masters. In Baden-Baden, Ger., two still lifes painted in the 1760s by Catharina Treu, who was virtually unknown outside her native Germany, commanded 516,000. The success of new auction venues raised speculation that activity at major auction houses might erode. The offerings at both the first Asia Arts Fair in New York City in May and the annual art fair in Maastricht, Neth., were reportedly, for the most part, better than those at the major auction houses. Asian arts also gained in popularity. At Christie's sale of the Junkunc collection, a small bronze T'ang dynasty rhinoceros brought $178,500. Sotheby's best lot, though not the top sale, was a T'ang figure of a "masked foreigner," which commanded $112,500, more than three times the presale estimate. The aggressive activity that characterized the year was most evident at Sotheby's April sale of the estate of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The four-day televised event, which experts predicted would gross $5 million, brought $34.5 million as buyers paid $343,500 for John Wooten's oil "Lord Bateman's Arabian," $167,500 for Martin Drlling's "Portrait of Barthelemy Charles Comte de Dreux Nancr," and $118,000 for Charles-Franois Daubigny's plenair landscape "Les Bords de l'Oise." The contemporary art market, driven by U.S. buyers, fueled sales at the major auction houses. Christie's New York held its most successful sale since 1993, setting the ceiling for the market with "Mailbox," Willem de Kooning's 1948 canvas, which made $3.7 million. "Something of the Past," Jackson Pollock's 1946 colourful nondrip canvas, went for $2.4 million. Sotheby's also held its highest-grossing contemporary sale in six years. Jean Dubuffet's oil, sand, and putty work "Hommes et arbres somnambuliques," c. 1946, fetched $1.3 million. Andy Warhol's portrait icon "Mao," painted in 1972 and estimated to sell for $154,000-$231,000, became the object of a bidding war before it was claimed for $1 million. Americans unable to acquire name U.S. artists for less than $700,000 looked to underappreciated artists who usually were collected only by Europeans. Paintings by Lucian Freud, Lucio Fontana, and Yves Klein led this mid-priced market. Impressionist and modern art sales reached their highest level since 1990, thanks in large part to the return of Asian buyers. Christie's scored the season's coup when it sold van Gogh's "Interieur d'un restaurant" for $10.3 million, though Paul Gauguin's "Nature morte a l'esperance" failed to sell at $5 million. In May Sotheby's sold Monet's "Les Meules, Giverny, effect du matin" for $7.2 million and Cezanne's "Gran arbres au Jas De Bouffan" for $7.9 million. Other encouragement came from the strength of works in the $300,000-$800,000 range. Picasso's 1912 newspaper collage "Bouteille et guitare sur une table" fetched $574,500. Sales of U.S. paintings were buoyant. U.S. Impressionists remained the liveliest segment of the market, with works by Childe Hassam and Mary Cassatt fetching prices from $800,000 to $4 million. "In the Box" by Cassatt set an auction record for an oil painting by the artist, commanding $4 million. John LaFarge's "Paradise Valley" sold for a record $2.2 million. John Singer Sargent's "Capri Girl" made $4.8 million, and Maxfield Parrish's "Daybreak" sold for $4.3 million. At regional auction houses, works by Southern painters continued to rise in value, with Alexander Drysdale and Alice R.H. Smith leading the way. While Old Masters did not elicit much excitement, "The Fall of Man" by Hendrick Goltzius made $1.5 million, and Canaletto's "A View of the Rialto Bridge" sold for $2 million. Among 19th-century art, Jean-Franois Millet's "La Cardeuse" fetched $3.1 million, and James Tissot's "Preparing for the Gala" brought $1.8 million. Latin-American art sales were lacklustre owing to the dearth of important work and a buyer's market. Frida Kahlo's "Los cuatro habitantes de Mxico," 1937, was a hard sell at $882,500. Rufino Tamayo's "Pjaros" went for $288,500, but the best Tamayo on the market, "Danza de la alegri," failed to sell. Sales of British paintings pointed to signs of a recovery tempered with continuing selectivity. Christie's single-owner collection of the Marquess of Bute marked the summer's high; the sale totaled 10.7 million. At Sotheby's, William Hogarth's "The Jones Family Conversation Piece" was spared the hammer in a private treaty sale to the National Museums and Galleries of Wales for the greatly reduced sum of 425,000. Fine prints saw an active upturn, but prices did not rise across the board, and bargains were still to be found. Cassatt's "Woman Bathing" was the season's star, making $321,500. Among Modernists, Marc Chagall's "Four Tales from the Arabian Nights" brought $376,500. Contemporary prints struggled on, with Jasper John's "Flags1" peaking at $57,000. Swan's in New York reported its strongest photography sale in its history. Two early-20th-century travel albums earned $23,000, more than four times the estimate. Sotheby's played to the high end of the market with a whole-plate daguerreotype portrait of a Boston surgeon, which made $96,000. Christie's sale of Andr Kertesz's "Fork" brought $90,500. For the first six months of the year, Sotheby's reported earnings of $786 million, and Christie's reported $739 million. (REGINA GALGANO KOLBE) ART EXHIBITIONS Several art exhibitions were mounted at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga., as part of the Olympic Arts Festival, which took the unifying spirit of the Olympic movement as its theme. Organizers were faced with the formidable task of harmonizing cultural events with athletic competition. The "blockbuster" show of the Games was "Rings: Five Passions in World Art," which was on view during the summer at Atlanta's High Museum and was named for the five Olympic rings. The exhibit was the centrepiece of the Olympic Arts Festival, and it marked the 100th anniversary of the modern Olympic Games. Designed to attract a broad audience, it featured over 125 works of art and represented 7,500 years of civilization. Included were Greek antiquities, African sculptures, paintings by Monet, Pablo Picasso, and European Old Masters as well as works by Auguste Rodin, Edvard Munch, Thomas Eakins, and Tony Cragg. "Mysteries of Ancient China," which represented artifacts dating from 4500 BC to AD 220, was seen at the British Museum in the autumn and was expected to attract more than 150,000 visitors during its four-month stay in London. The exhibit, on loan from China, was the first showing of the remarkable discoveries made during excavations of Chinese tombs since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. The show was scheduled to travel extensively after it closed in London in January 1997. "Mysteries" featured some of the most spectacular finds of the past 20 years. The discoveries provided new evidence of a previously unknown civilization that dated from about 3000 BC. Aside from the fascination of their archaeological significance, the objects themselves were breathtaking in their diversity and artistic merit, showing great sophistication and virtuosity of technique. Media included bronze, jade, lacquerwork, and silk. One magnificent exhibit was a jade burial suit belonging to Prince Liu Sheng, king of Zhongshan from 154 until 113 BC. It comprised 2,498 separate plaques knotted together with 1,100 g of gold wire and was one of the most extraordinary archaeological finds of the 20th century. "Imperial Tombs of China" comprised about 250 funerary objects made for seven dynasties of Chinese royalty between 475 BC and AD 1912. The standouts at the show were life-size terra-cotta warriors from the tomb "army" of the First Emperor. It was the largest exhibition of its kind ever seen in the U.S. and attracted considerable interest. The show, seen first in the summer of 1996 at the Oregon Art Museum in Portland, would later travel to the Museum of Natural History in Denver, Colo., and the Orlando (Fla.) Museum of Art. Other shows devoted to Asian art included "New Art In China, Post-1989," which focused on 84 works created by 30 young Chinese artists since the Tiananmen Square student massacre in 1989. The exhibit opened in 1996 at the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Museum of Art before moving to Kansas City, Mo. It would travel to Chicago and San Jose, Calif., in 1997. A major international exhibition, "Contemporary Art in Asia," included 65 works by 28 Indian, Indonesian, Philippine, Thai, and Korean artists. It was organized by the Asia Society Galleries, opened in late 1996 at three venues in New York City, and would be mounted in Canada, India, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan. The Greek Ministry of Culture organized "The Macedonians: The Northern Greeks and the Era of Alexander the Great." It was a companion show to "Alexander the Great," which was organized by the Fondazione Memmo in Rome. The two shows presented over 500 objects, including sculptures, mosaics, manuscripts, paintings, and precious objects. The exhibit opened in Rome and later traveled to the Florida International Museum in St. Petersburg, where it would stay until the spring of 1997. Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs mounted "Japan's Golden Age: Momoyama," an exhibition devoted to the years in the Azuchi-Momoyama period, between 1574 and 1600. On view in the autumn of 1996, only at the Dallas (Texas) Museum of Art, it included paintings, armour, textiles, and ceramics. Of some 160 objects showcased, more than one-third were registered with the Japanese government as cultural properties and national treasures. The blockbuster "Splendors of Imperial China: Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei" contained about 450 objects from one of the world's greatest collections of Chinese art and was the most comprehensive such show ever mounted in the U.S. Featured were 120 paintings and works of calligraphy as well as jades, bronzes, ceramics, and decorative pieces. The exhibit was organized by the museum in Taipei and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. After its New York stay in the spring, the show traveled to the Art Institute of Chicago, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. "The American Discovery of Ancient Egypt," which opened in late 1995 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and later traveled to St. Louis, Mo., and Indianapolis, Ind., showcased more than 200 artifacts found by U.S. archaeologists in Egypt. A number of notable exhibitions either were devoted to women in art or concentrated on works by female artists. "Women in Ancient Egypt" belonged to the former and was on view at the Cincinnati (Ohio) Art Museum in late 1996 and scheduled to travel to the Brooklyn (N.Y.) Museum in early 1997. The show "Mistress of the House, Mistress of Heaven: Women in Ancient Egypt" featured more than 200 objects that illustrated the roles of women in ancient Egypt, ranging from working women to royalty and goddesses. An exhibition of plaster models and stone sculptures of ancient Egypt was mounted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in late 1996 and celebrated the opening of a new gallery devoted to the Amarna period in Egypt. The featured works in "Queen Nefertiti and the Royal Women" were portrait sculptures from the workshop of master sculptor Thutmose. Greek women were the subject of "Pandora's Box: Women in Classical Greece," organized by the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, Md., and seen there in late 1995 and early 1996 before moving to Dallas and Basel, Switz. The show comprised around 140 works portraying women in Greece in the 5th century BC. Notable were a kore, or standing female figure, from the Acropolis in Athens and diverse items of marble, pottery, bronze, and terra-cotta. One of the most famous examples of feminist art, "The Dinner Party" by artist Judy Chicago, was a vast sculptural installation that made its California debut in the spring at the UCLA Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center in Los Angeles. The controversial British sculptor Rachel Whitehead--perhaps best known for "House," a concrete cast of a condemned East London home that was destroyed after its showing--had the first full-scale survey of her work in autumn at the Tate Gallery in Liverpool. The show included sculptures cast in a variety of media, including resin, plaster, and rubber. British sculptor Damien Hirst, winner of the 1995 Turner Prize, had a new show at the Gagosian Gallery in New York City. (See BIOGRAPHIES.) At the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, works by another controversial artist, Edward Kienholz, were on view. The retrospective included 90 of his works, which served as powerful and sometimes harsh indictments of American society. Especially notable were such assemblages as the antimilitarist piece "The Portable War Memorial" (1968), the sexually provocative "Back Seat Dodge '38" (1961), and the disconcerting "Sollie 17" (1980), featuring the bleak existence of an old man living in a fleabag hotel. In London an exhibition of some 170 works by Paul Czanne arrived at the Tate Gallery after having attracted about 6,000 visitors a day in Paris. The National Gallery mounted the summer blockbuster "Degas: Beyond Impressionism." It was much smaller than the Czanne exhibit at the Tate and displayed the artist's technical expertise with pastels and the manner in which he used wax sculptures as models for drawings and paintings. The show of nearly 100 paintings, drawings, pastels, and sculptures covered the last 30 years of the artist's career, ranging from the last Impressionist exhibition of 1886 to his death in 1917. The blockbuster's only showing in the U.S. was at the Art Institute of Chicago in the autumn. The National Gallery's companion exhibition, "Degas as a Collector," comprised works that belonged to the artist during his lifetime. Shortly after his death, Degas's collection of about 500 paintings and drawings and more than 5,000 prints was sold at auction. It included works by such contemporaries as Paul Gauguin, Czanne, douard Manet, and van Gogh as well as works by such influential artists of the previous generation as Eugne Delacroix and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Included were "Woman with a Mango" by Gauguin, lent by the Baltimore Museum of Art, and 11 works that the National Gallery had purchased. After the Czanne show moved on to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the big autumn exhibition at the Tate was "Grand Tour: The Lure of Italy in the 18th-Century" and included paintings, drawings, and sculptures. The show illustrated the magnetic attraction of 18th-century British travelers to the Italian cities of Venice, Florence, Rome, and Naples. A show dedicated to the work of Peter Paul Rubens was staged at the National Gallery in London in the autumn and was the first such show to focus on his abilities as a landscape painter. Featured as the exhibit's centrepiece was the panoramic "Landscape with Het Steen." The retrospective "Alberto Giacometti 1901-1966," devoted to the work of the Swiss sculptor, was mounted at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh in the summer after having opened at the Kunsthalle in Vienna in February. It was the first important exhibition of his work to be seen in Britain since the 1965 retrospective at the Tate the year before his death. The show comprised 80 sculptures, 30 paintings, and a selection of drawings that included his well-known series of elongated standing male figures. The comprehensive survey of his works moved in the autumn to the Royal Academy in London. On April 16 the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow unveiled 259 priceless items that constituted "Gold of Troy," an exhibit that was on view for the first time since 1941. The objects were secured in 19 bulletproof cases and included pins, pendants, earrings, bracelets, chokers, and beads. The items, dating to the Bronze Age, were unearthed in 1873 in Turkey by Heinrich Schliemann and had formerly been part of the Berlin Museum's collection. During World War II the collection had been housed in bunkers near the Berlin Zoo, but in 1945 Soviet occupation forces removed it to the U.S.S.R. under cloudy circumstances. In 1993 the Pushkin Museum acknowledged its possession of the Schliemann collection--some 8,000 objets d'art and 60,000 documents. Both Germany and Turkey promptly filed claims for it. "Corot 1796-1875" was a huge French-organized bicentenary retrospective that marked the 200th anniversary of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot's birth. It was shown in Paris at the Grand Palais in the spring, at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa in the summer, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in the autumn. The exhibition represented a wide range of work from early oil landscape studies that he painted in Rome when he was in his late 20s and early 30s to large landscapes for exhibition at the Salon. It demonstrated the degree to which Corot linked the past and the future, from the classical tradition of 17th-century French painting to the freedom of Impressionism, with elements of Realism, Symbolism, and Romanticism. Figure studies for portraits revealed his interest in costume and character. The huge show was the first full-scale European retrospective of Corot's work in 60 years and the first U.S. retrospective in 35 years devoted to his work. A summer exhibition at the National Gallery in Washington, "In the Light of Italy: Corot and Early Open-Air Painting," focused on artists working in Rome and southern Italy at the end of the 18th century and the early part of the 19th century. On view were about 130 paintings, including a selection of 20 of the best Italian sketches and small landscapes by Corot. The show would also travel to the Brooklyn Museum and the St. Louis Art Museum. A major Picasso exhibition was organized by the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City with the Muse Picasso in Paris. A large show, "Picasso and Portraiture: Representation and Transformation," was seen in New York in the summer, while a smaller representation of works traveled to the Grand Palais in the autumn. The show concentrated on the artist's work as a portraitist, showing in detail via drawings and paintings the artist's relations with those important in his life: family, friends, and lovers. Included were about 100 paintings and 50 works on paper. Masterpieces and lesser-known works were juxtaposed, which created a visual biography of the artist's life as his style changed along with his relationships. The final drawing was the searching crayon self-portrait of 1972, created a few months before his death. Venice was the first venue for a major retrospective devoted to the artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and organized to commemorate the 300th anniversary of his birth. The show included paintings, drawings, and prints and was on view in the latter half of 1996 at the Ca' Rezzonico. It would later travel to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In Venice some frescoes not normally shown to the public were unveiled as part of a walking tour linked to the show. The largest Winslow Homer show in over 30 years was seen in late 1995 at the National Gallery in Washington, before moving in 1996 to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Included was a selection of about 75 paintings and 95 watercolours representing the artist's career. A separate section of the show demonstrated the working methods he employed. "By the Light of the Crescent Moon: The Near East in Nineteenth-Century Danish Art and Literature" was devoted to perceptions and depictions of Middle Eastern themes by 19th-century Danish artists and included drawings and travel journals by Hans Christian Andersen. The show was staged at the David Collection in Copenhagen in the summer. A summer exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, was devoted to the work of English landscape painter Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851). It included about 60 paintings and watercolours lent by private and public collections in Europe and the U.S. The Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide showed the "William Paley Collection of Post-Impressionism and Early Modernism," a display of works that illustrated the transition from late Impressionism to Modernism, with works by Czanne, Pierre Bonnard, Manet, and Picasso. The exhibit was on loan from the MOMA. (SANDRA MILLIKIN) COLLECTIBLES The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis sale was the antiques and collectibles media event of the year. Costume jewelry worn by Onassis sold for 80-90 times the presale estimates. A faux diamond and coloured-stone necklace and earrings estimated at $1,000-$1,500 brought $90,500. Her signature faux pearls sold for $211,500, while her sterling silver Tiffany tape measure fetched $48,875. The golf clubs and bag belonging to her first husband, Pres. John F. Kennedy, brought $772,500. Other presidential memorabilia sold at high, but not unexpected, prices. The desk used when the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty was signed realized $1.4 million. The president's two oak rocking chairs brought $442,500 and $453,500. (See Art Auctions and Sales.) These prices fell in the same range as presidential items sold at other auctions during the year. Pres. George Washington's upholstered walnut chair from Mt. Vernon sold for $341,000, and his cut velvet jacket and vest coat brought $577,500. Trade cards (advertising cards) from the 19th and early 20th centuries continued to rise in price, many selling for over $50 each. Designer-made furniture from the 1960s and '70s sold well in the U.S. and Europe, and American "fantasy" silver continued to sell at higher-than-expected prices. Although there was major collector interest in high-style Victorian, Western, Art Deco, and 1950s-style furniture, most record prices were realized for 18th-century and Arts and Crafts pieces. A record $3.6 million was paid for a Queen Anne block and shell-carved mahogany kneehole desk (c. 1780). A mahogany bonnet-topped secretary bookcase by Edward Jackson of Boston (c. 1740) brought $1.4 million. A slant-front desk made by John Shearer of Virginia (c. 1816) sold for a record $110,000, and a Newport, R.I., mahogany dressing table with carved shell (c. 1750) and attributed to John Goddard brought $310,500. Records were set for 20th-century furniture, including $9,350 for a Roycroft bookshelf, $12,100 for a flat-armed Morris chair by Gustav Stickley, and $8,625 for an L. & J.G. Stickley paddle-arm Morris chair. Other important furniture sales included $140,000 for a red-orange painted Shaker blanket box (c. 1848) and $96,800 for a David Wood Federal shelf clock made in Newburyport, Mass. Art pottery sales remained strong. An unusual collection of Van Briggle pottery made before 1920 brought high prices for damaged as well as perfect pieces. A blue "Birds in Flight" vase sold for $4,070, while a brown "Two Bears" vase realized $4,675. A North Dakota School of Mines vase with a decoration of tepees in a landscape brought $3,080. A Rockwood iris vase by Carl Schmidt fetched $41,800, and a 69-cm (27-in) Weller glossy Hudson vase sold for $21,850. A rare 12-cm (5-in) Losanti vase brought $12,100. Mettlach steins sold well at auction; No. 2494 brought $3,630, No. 2074 realized $3,080, and No. 2824 commanded $7,150. Several pieces of Nippon set records, notably a 47-cm (18 1/2-in) green and gold urn and a cobalt and gold tankard decorated with roses at $7,700 and $2,420, respectively. Lamps with glass shades continued to climb in value. A Handel Poppy lamp brought $55,000. Three Pairpoint "puffies" sold well: a begonia lamp for $35,200, a lilac tree lamp for $55,000, and a rose bonnet lamp for $44,000. Prices for rare 19th-century bottles remained high; a record $40,250 was paid for a sapphire blue Taylor-Cornstalk portrait flask by Baltimore Glass Works. One of the high-priced metal pieces was a Dirk Van Erp red warty vase, which went for $9,350, while a Roycroft hammered copper cylindrical vase brought $2,310. The baseball card market remained stagnant, but old or rare cards and memorabilia still sold. A postal worker won the famous Honus Wagner card and auctioned it for a record $640,500. A U.S.-made Willie Dunn's Stars and Stripes gutty golf ball sold for $28,600. Toys and dolls continued their 30-year escalation in price. Mickey Mouse, Popeye, celebrity-related, and space toys and dolls all sold well. A tin lithographed Mickey Mouse mechanical bank set a record at $36,850. A 1930s Shirley Temple doll in a Texas Ranger costume, made by Ideal Toy, fetched $5,880, and a plastic Madame Alexander 1957 Infant of Prague doll sold for $56,100. The Calamity iron mechanical bank showing three football players brought $44,000. (RALPH AND TERRY KOVEL) This article updates coin; painting, history of; photography; sculpture, history of. NUMISMATICS On March 25, 1996, the U.S. Federal Reserve System began issuing series 1996 100-dollar notes that featured the most sweeping design changes in U.S. paper money since 1929. Among other distinctions, each new note included a watermark, colour-shifting ink, and an enlarged, off-centre portrait, elements expected to make greenbacks more difficult to counterfeit. Although U.S. Treasury officials made reassurances that older 100-dollar notes would not be demonetized, fears of a recall were widespread in Russia, where some traders charged extra to handle them. Federal Reserve notes were the world's best-known currency, with up to $140 billion circulating inside the U.S. and about $250 billion abroad. The Swiss National Bank unveiled a 20-franc note, the second denomination in a series of high-tech designs. The ultramodern note carried more than 20 security features and had an embossed square at one end to aid the blind. The coin-auction market set records in 1996 as some of the world's greatest rarities were sold. In May a Kansas City, Mo., dealer paid $1,485,000 for a 1913 Liberty nickel--one of five known--the highest price ever realized for a U.S. coin at public auction. The sale also included a unique 1873 Carson City, Nev., silver dime without arrows at the date, which brought $550,000, a record for a U.S. dime, and a 1796 "no pole" half cent for $506,000, a record for a U.S. copper coin. In other sales at auction, a 1943 Lincoln cent made in Denver, Colo., on a bronze planchet brought $82,500 in May, a record for a U.S. Lincoln cent, and an ancient Roman coin--a gold aureus of Saturninus--brought 264,000 in a July London sale, possibly a record for a coin of ancient Rome. Meanwhile, the city of Omaha, Neb., sold part of its Byron Reed collection for $6.1 million in October. The proceeds would be used to renovate the museum that housed the remainder of the collection. At year's end a 1907 U.S. Saint-Gaudens 20-dollar piece--with Roman numerals and ultrahigh relief--sold for $825,000, a record auction price for a gold coin. The U.S. economy generated heavy demand for hard money, and 1996 coin production was expected to exceed the record 19.8 billion pieces made in 1995. Experts predicted that the Bureau of Engraving and Printing would create about 10 billion Federal Reserve notes during the year, a total that included the first two-dollar bills printed since the late 1970s. Among other items, the U.S. Mint sold to collectors 16 coin types commemorating the 1996 Atlanta Centennial Olympic Games and gold and silver pieces honouring the 150th anniversary of the Smithsonian Institution. The U.S. Congress approved legislation that would replace the Washington quarter with 50 circulating commemorative coins, one for each state. The treasury secretary had to conduct a feasibility study and approve the program before coins could be made. In February Canada began replacing its two-dollar note with a bimetallic coin made with a core of aluminum and bronze and an outer ring of nickel. The Royal Canadian Mint received reports that the core had fallen out of several coins, but mint officials reported that the separated coins they examined had been mutilated. Canada expected to save Can$250 million in production costs over 20 years because coins would last much longer in circulation than bills. The U.K. issued a five-pound coin commemorating the 70th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II on April 21. Australia circulated a 100-dollar note made of plastic, completing a series of five plastic notes that were more durable and harder to counterfeit than paper money. (ROGER BOYE) This article updates coin. PHILATELY During 1996 stamp collectors and enthusiasts were offered several chances to view outstanding displays of philatelic items. Collectors attending the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga., were treated to a free exhibit, OLYMPHILEX '96, which showcased more than 17,000 pages of Olympic and sports stamps offered since 1896. The event, also known as the World Olympic and Sports Stamp Exhibition, was held July 19-August 3. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II gave permission for selections of the Royal Philatelic Collection--which was started by King George V and remained the personal property of the monarchy--to be shown in public other than at major international philatelic exhibitions. In addition to the customary display at the first meeting of the Royal Philatelic Society, London, over 100 pages of the 1837 Treasury Essays were seen at the autumn STAMPEX in London. A major portion of the Mauritius issues in the Royal Collection from the major 1847 "Post Office" rarities were on view at London's National Postal Museum. Active buying by senior collectors ensured a healthy market for rare stamps and postal history items. A Hawaii 1852 13-cent blue on cover sold for $286,000, while a Portugal 1853 100-reis lilac, mint pair commanded $235,580. A France 1869 five-franc gray-violet "Laureated," mint block of 30 fetched $118,500, and British stamps, overprinted with a swastika and the date "1940" but not issued by German occupation forces in Jersey, Channel Islands, made 19,900 for a set of 15 different values. The high point of the year came in November with the sale of the Treskilling Yellow. The tiny Swedish stamp, originally issued in the 1850s, sold at auction in Zrich for Sw F 2.9 million ($2.3 million). It was the most ever paid for a stamp and was $1 million more than its previous sale price, in 1990. The Marshall Islands offered a set of stamps to mark the 50th anniversary of U.S. atomic weapons testing on Bikini atoll. The U.S. Postal Service introduced a number of souvenir stamps to commemorate the Centennial Olympic Games. Also issued in the U.S. were commemorative stamps honouring the Smithsonian Institution's 150th anniversary, Utah's 100-year statehood, and Hollywood legend James Dean. Some 32-cent memorial stamps featuring Pres. Richard Nixon were found inverted; the first one auctioned went for $16,675. Philatelic history was made in June when the 127-year-old Royal Philatelic Society elected Jane Moubray its first woman president. (KENNETH F. CHAPMAN) PHOTOGRAPHY In 1996 the long-predicted age of the electronic image established itself on a much broader base than ever before. Increasing numbers of archives, museums, libraries, picture agencies, publishers, and galleries digitized their visual images for storage and access. Linked to these sources by an explosively growing Internet, millions could bring incredible riches of photography to their computer screens--e.g., classic Civil War scenes from the U.S. Library of Congress, historically organized selections from Life magazine's archives, spectacular views of space from NASA, and a growing number of smaller, specialized collections from such sources as galleries and auction houses. Major exhibitions included large retrospectives by two of the U.S.'s most distinguished living photographers: Roy DeCarava (see BIOGRAPHIES), 77, and Harry Callahan, 83. New York City's Museum of Modern Art displayed nearly 200 black-and-white prints encompassing DeCarava's notable career from the 1940s to the present, during which he recorded Harlem street life, civil rights protests, and famous jazz musicians. His ability to recognize and capture peak, densely packed fragments of time produced a memorable, moving visual record. The National Gallery in Washington, D.C., honoured Callahan with a comprehensive overview of his long, influential career. Best known as a formalist and an advocate of straight photography and much admired for the elegance and clarity of his style, Callahan also experimented with high-contrast printing, colour, multiple exposures, montages, and collages. Other retrospectives were "Julia Margaret Cameron: The Creative Process" at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, Calif., and Nan Goldin's "I'll Be Your Mirror" at the Whitney Museum of Art, New York City. The Cameron show included 38 prints by this impassioned Victorian Englishwoman, who took up photography as an amateur in midlife and, with her tightly cropped portraits of famous contemporaries and sentimental Pre-Raphaelite compositions, became one of the medium's first stylists. In striking contrast to Victorian sensibilities, the Whitney show was a retrospective of work by photographer-diarist Nan Goldin, whose book The Ballad of Sexual Dependency and slide show had provoked considerable attention 10 years earlier. Her gritty, unsparing images documented urban life on the margin with portraits of friends, lovers, prostitutes, drug addicts, dying victims of AIDS, and herself as a battered woman. Also at the Whitney, a historical group exhibition, "Perpetual Mirage: Photographic Narratives of the Desert West," explored the camera's crucial role during more than 150 years in shaping varied perceptions of the Great American Desert, especially through photographic books. The images ranged from the grandiloquent to the starkly minimal, and the photographers from 19th-century Timothy O'Sullivan and Carleton Watkins to contemporary Robert Adams and Richard Misrach. For photojournalists and documentary photographers, 1996 was a year of decreasing markets and shrinking space for their work. The eighth International Festival of Photojournalism in Perpignan, Fr., founded by Jean-Franois Leroy as an alternative to the long-established Arles festival of photography, provided a forum for discussion among photographers, picture agents, and editors on the topic and an opportunity to display serious photo reportage neglected by mainstream media. "In Times of War and Peace" at the International Center of Photography Midtown, New York City, was an overwhelming retrospective of photojournalism by twins David and Peter Turnley. Paul Outerbridge, Jr., emerged as an auction superstar. During his lifetime he had achieved considerable fame for the precise, cubist geometry of the colour still lifes that he created in both commercial and personal work. Although his reputation waned after his death in 1958, it had recently revived, and at a 1996 Christie's photographic auction, Outerbridge prints dramatically soared in value. A 1922 "Saltine Box," originally estimated at $60,000 to $80,000, sold for $200,500, more than double his previous auction record, while the total for 36 Outerbridge prints came to about $1 million. The 1996 Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography was awarded to freelancer Charles Porter IV for his picture of a rescue worker holding a fatally injured baby after the Oklahoma City, Okla., bombing. The Pulitzer for feature photography went to freelancer Stephanie Welsh for a picture story on a female circumcision rite in Kenya. At the 53rd Annual Pictures of the Year Competition, sponsored by the National Press Photographers Association and the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism, freelancer Eugene Richards took the title of Magazine Photographer of the Year and Torsten Kjellstrand of the Jasper (Ind.) Herald was named Newspaper Photographer of the Year. At the 39th Annual World Press Photo Contest, the World Press Photo of the Year award went to Lucian Perkins of the Washington (D.C.) Post. The primary W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography was awarded to South African photographer Gideon Mendel for continuing documentation of the spread of AIDS in Africa. A secondary award went to Dutch photographer Ad van Dendeven for photo reportage on the rising power of Eastern Jews in Israel. The first Howard Chapnick Grant for Leadership in Photojournalism was given to freelance picture editor Colin Jacobson for research into sources for photojournalism outside publications. (ARTHUR GOLDSMITH) SPECIAL REPORT Blockbuster Art Exhibitions BY SANDRA MILLIKIN Blockbuster, a highly explosive word not usually associated with art, has now entered the lexicon as a term applied to art exhibitions. By 1996 so-called blockbuster exhibitions--big, popular, moneymaking showcases that delivered a powerful impact--had become important sources of direct and indirect revenue, visibility, and prestige for museums worldwide. After publicly funded museums suffered financial cutbacks in the 1980s and '90s, they were compelled to seek alternative sources of revenue. Sales from museum shops, revenue from entry fees, grants from commercial sponsors, and, especially, exhibitions became increasingly important. The more popular and "blockbusting" an exhibition, the more revenue it might generate. Sponsors preferred shows that attracted wide interest, and the largest blockbusters were notable for attendant (and often sponsor-funded) publicity. Books and catalogs linked to an exhibition could also help increa