Marilyn Monroe’s Golden Globe sells for USD 250,000 at auction
NEW YORK: Marilyn Monroe’s Golden Globe Award sold for a record-breaking $250,000 at Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills, California, auction officials said on Saturday. The 1961 award statue for World Film Favorite Female from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association made history as the highest selling Golden Globe sold at auction. Monroe’s raven black two-seater, 1956 Ford Thunderbird, which was auctioned for the first time, fetched $490,000 at Icons & Idols: Hollywood, which took place on Friday and Saturday. Monroe, one of the most collectible celebrities, was pictured driving in the car with her husband, playwright Arthur Miller, shortly after their June 1956 wedding. The movie star owned the vehicle for six years until shortly before her death in 1962. Darren Julien, president of Julien’s Auctions, said the car was “not only part of automotive history but comes with an aura of glamour, romance and tragedy of a true Hollywood legend.” Monroe gifted the Thunderbird to the son of her acting coach, Lee Strasberg, in 1962. The current owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, tracked the vehicle down through registration and other documents. The car has undergone restoration but retains many original parts. Monroe’s copy of Playboy’s first issue with her on the cover, signed by publisher Hugh Hefner, sold for $32,000 along with almost a dozen other items owned by the iconic actress. The auction also included items from other celebrities including pop stars Tina Turner and Cher. (Reuters)
Missing Argentine submarine found a year after it vanished
Buenos Aires: A missing Argentine naval submarine has been found, a year and a day after it vanished in the South Atlantic with 44 crew members on board, authorities said. The wreckage of the ARA San Juan, which “suffered an implosion”, was found about 870 metres below the ocean floor, Argentine naval Capt. Gabriel Attis told the media on Saturday. Family members at the navy headquarters were shown three images of the remains of the San Juan’s “sail”, or tower, and bow sections. Hours before the wreckage was positively identified, the Argentine navy tweeted an image of a point of interest on the seabed, suggesting that a 60-meter-long object might be the missing vessel. An American company contracted by Argentina located the submarine. The vessel’s condition remains unclear. Defence Minister Oscar Aguad told the media that Argentina does not have the capability of recovering the sunken submarine. “No, we don’t have the means to go down to that depth of the sea,” he said, adding that authorities “do not have the equipment to bring the submarine out from such a depth”. The ARA San Juan disappeared on November 15, 2017, off Argentina’s coast, about midway on its journey from Ushuaia in the country’s south to Mar del Plata. The Argentine navy said in the following days that the vessel’s captain had reported a short circuit in the vessel’s battery system shortly before the last known contact. The hunt for the vessel — which at its height involved 28 ships and nine airplanes from 11 nations, including the US and UK – centered on an area roughly 900 km off the Argentine coast. Among the victims was Eliana Maria Krawczyk, Argentina’s first female submarine officer. (IANS)
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Missing St Mark mosaic finally returns to Cyprus
The Hague: One of the last missing pieces of Byzantine art stolen from Cyprus in the 1970s was handed back this week by a renowned, and proud Dutch art investigator. Arthur Brand said on Friday he handed back the sixth century depiction of Saint Mark during a private ceremony at the Cypriot embassy in The Hague. For Brand, dubbed the “Indiana Jones of the art world” because of his exploits to recover stolen works, the handover was a high point in his life-long interest in the Byzantine saint — and the result of a nearly two-year chase across Europe. He showed AFP the mosaic hours before it was handed back. A week ago, Brand – who was working with the Church of Cyprus – returned to Monaco to collect the treasure, said to be worth five to 10 million euros (USD 5.7-USD 11 million). (AFP)