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Monday, 10 February 2014 13:27

The opening date for the Broad, the contemporary art museum that will showcase Eli and Edythe Broad’s comprehensive collection, has been pushed back to 2015. The $140 million museum, which is being designed by the New York City-based studio, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, was initially slated to open at the end of this year but construction delays slowed progress.

The delay has given the museum, which will be located in downtown Los Angeles, time to develop plans for a restaurant and landscaped plaza. Diller Scofidio + Renfro have already finalized plans for the outdoor space while architects for the restaurant, which will be located next to the museum, have not yet been selected.

In 1984, lifelong philanthropists, Eli and Edythe Broad, founded the Broad Art Foundation, a lending library of contemporary artworks that have been loaned over 8,000 times to nearly 500 museums and galleries across the globe. The Broad, which will offer free admission, will serve as the headquarters for the Broad Art Foundation.

Museum officials plan to announce the Broad’s new opening date later this year. 

Monday, 10 February 2014 11:51

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has purchased an early drawing by the Impressionist master Georges Seurat for £2,434,500 ($3,971,643). Regarded as one of the finest drawings ever produced by Seurat, ‘Mendiant hindou’ was expected to fetch between $129,000 and $194,000 at auction. The work comes from the private collection of Jan Krugier, one of the preeminent art dealers and collectors of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Created around 1878-1879 when Seurat was only twenty years old, ‘Mendiant hindou’ illustrates how the artist used light, shadow and gradation to create forms and convey the mood of his subjects. According to Timothy Potts, the director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, the drawing “signifies the beginning of Seurat’s obsession with the effects of light and dark that characterize his mature paintings and drawings.”

In addition to ‘Mendiant hindou,’ the J. Paul Getty Museum holds three masterpieces by Seurat in its collection -- ‘Madame Seurat, the Artist’s Mother,’ ‘Poplars,’ and ‘Woman Strolling.’

Friday, 07 February 2014 18:46

Portugal’s Prime Minister, Pedro Passos Coelho, announced that the sale of 85 works by Spanish artist Joan Miró would go on as planned despite a cancellation at Christie’s London. The auction house halted the sale, which was scheduled to take place on February 4, following a legal dispute in Portugal.

The paintings, which are valued at more than 36 million euros, were acquired by the Portuguese government from a failing bank during the 2008 global banking crisis. Much to the dismay of Portuguese art enthusiasts, the country announced that it would sell the works to bring a much-needed injection of funds. Earlier this week, Portugal’s Socialist party filed a request in court to have the sale halted. Although the request was rejected, Christie’s decided to cancel the sale due to the legal uncertainties surrounding the collection.

Coelho assured that the sale would take place in the “near future” but no date has been set.

Friday, 07 February 2014 18:42

The National Gallery in London will acquire George Bellows’ ‘Men on the Docks’ for $25.5 million from Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia. The masterpiece, which is being purchased with money from a fund established by the late philanthropist John Paul Getty, will be the first major American painting to enter the museum’s collection.

The National Gallery houses one of the most celebrated collections of Western European paintings in the world and plans to expand its holdings to include paintings created outside of Europe but still in the Western European tradition. The Gallery decided to acquire ‘Men on the Docks’ because of its European-influenced technique and handling.

Borned and raised in Columbus, Ohio, George Bellows moved to New York City in 1904 to study with the influential artist and teacher, Robert Henri, and soon became the youngest member of the Ashcan School. Dedicated to chronicling the realities of day-to-day life, Bellows made a name as the boldest of the Ashcan artists. He is best known for his paintings of boxing matches and gritty New York City scenes.

The National Gallery currently has paintings by American-born European artists and a minor, rarely displayed work by the American landscape painter George Inness. 

Thursday, 06 February 2014 16:58

The Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York has received a $10 million gift from the Morton and Barbara Mandel Family Foundation. It is the largest donation in the institution’s history. The generous bequest follows a $5 million donation from the city of New York to help fund the museum’s $79 million renovation. When the Cooper-Hewitt reopens in the fall of 2014, it will have a new third-floor gallery, which will bear the Mandel family name, and 60% more exhibition space, enabling it to present a more significant portion of its collection as well as major design exhibitions.   

The Cooper-Hewitt is the only museum in the United States devoted to historical and contemporary design. Located in the former home of steel tycoon, Andrew Carnegie, the museum has been closed since 2011 while the building and its surrounding gardens are expanded and restored.

Barbara Mandel joined Cooper-Hewitt’s board in 1997 and she has been a member of the museum’s executive committee since 1998.

Thursday, 06 February 2014 15:17

This May, the Dallas Museum of Art will welcome one of the most comprehensive collections of Islamic art in private hands. The works will be on long-term loan to the museum and will transform the institution’s Islamic art collection into the third largest of its kind in North America. The collection’s signature work, a rock crystal pitcher, will go on view at the Dallas Museum this year, followed by more than 50 works in 2015.

The Keir Collection of Islamic art was assembled over five decades by the late art collector Edmund de Unger. According to museum officials, the collection “is recognized by scholars as one of the world’s most geographically and historically comprehensive, encompassing almost 2,000 works in a range of media that span 13 centuries of Islamic art-making.” The Keir Collection, which is named after the 18th-century British mansion where is was housed, includes textiles, carpets, ceramics, rock crystal, metalwork and works on paper from the western Mediterranean to South Asia.

The lender is covering all costs related to the packing and shipping of the collection to the Dallas Museum of Art, along with any conservation that is required and any print publications the museum plans to produce. The museum was not charged a fee for acquiring the collection, but it will pay to have the works insured as well as any costs relating to the display of the objects.

Thursday, 06 February 2014 11:12

On February 5, Sotheby’s London’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale fetched 163.5 million pounds, significantly more than its pre-sale estimate of 128.4 million pounds. Out of the 89 lots offered, 10 failed to find buyers.

The highlight of the sale was Camille Pissarro’s ‘Boulevard Montmartre, Matinee de Printemps,’ a street scene that sold for a record 19.9 million pounds, nearly five times the previous record for the Impressionist master at auction. The painting, which is widely considered to be one of the most important Impressionist works to appear at auction in the last decade, was originally owned by the Jewish industrialist, Max Silberberg. During World War II, the Nazis forced Silberberg, who perished in a concentration camp, to get rid of his entire collection of 19th and 20th century artworks. ‘Boulevard Montmartre, Matinee de Printemps’ was restituted to Silberberg’s family in 2000.

The auction also saw the highest price for a Vincent Van Gogh painting offered at auction in London when ‘L’Homme est en mer’ sold for 16.9 million pounds. Other highlights included a print by Pablo Picasso titled ‘Composition au Minotaure,’ which sold for a record 10.4 million pounds and a work on paper by Alberto Giacometti titled ‘Homme Traversant une Place par un Matin de Soleil,’ which achieved a record 8.5 million pounds.

Two weeks of London sales kicked off on February 4 at Christie’s where works by Picasso, Rene Magritte and Juan Gris helped an auction reach 177 million pounds, a record for a sale in London. During the sale, Gris’ still-life ‘Nature Morte a la Nappe a Carreaux’ sold for 34.8 million pounds, a world record for the Spanish artist at auction.

Wednesday, 05 February 2014 15:24

This fall, Phillips will sell photographs from the Art Institute of Chicago’s illustrious collection. Works by Robert Frank, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Edward Weston and Irving Penn will be offered during sales in October in New York and in November in London.

The Art Institute of Chicago began organizing photography exhibitions in 1900 and has been building its own collection for nearly 65 years. Ellen Sandor, Chair and Curator of the Art Institute of Chicago’s photography department, said, “In 2014 we celebrate our fortieth anniversary as a separate curatorial department and the fifth anniversary of our dedicated galleries in the Art Institute’s Modern Wing. Those two anniversaries represent continuity and change—both essential to our progress. We have spent three and a half years to assess our holdings, with a view to refining and diversifying the collection as well as better understanding the treasures that we possess. Proceeds from the sale will support future acquisitions, and we are grateful to Phillips for working with such care and consideration on this sale.”

The two sales will be complemented by an online selling exhibition in December. Highlights from the collection will go on view in New York, Chicago and London prior to the sales.

Wednesday, 05 February 2014 14:52

In December 2013, Christie’s London announced that it would auction off 85 works spanning the seven decades of Spanish artist Joan Miró’s career. On Tuesday, February 4, the auction house announced that it had cancelled the sale following a legal dispute in Portugal.

The paintings, which are valued at more than 36 million euros, were acquired by the Portuguese government from a failing bank during the 2008 global banking crisis. Much to the dismay of Portuguese art enthusiasts, the country’s cash-strapped government announced that it would sell the works to bring a much-needed injection of funds. Earlier this week, Portugal’s Socialist party filed a request in court to have the sale halted. Although the request was rejected, Christie’s decided to stop the auction, saying, “The legal uncertainties created by this ongoing dispute mean that we are not able to safely offer the works for sale. We have a responsibility to our buyers to be sure that legal title can transfer to them without issue.”  

The works were to be sold during three auctions slated to take place February 4 and 5. The star of the auction was to be ‘Women and Birds,’ which features two of Miró’s recurring subjects. Created in 1968, the canvas was expected fetch between 4 million euros and 7 million euros.

Wednesday, 05 February 2014 12:28

When British collector Martin Lang purchased ‘Nude 1909-10’ in 1992, he thought that he was acquiring an authentic painting attributed to Marc Chagall. However, after recently submitting the work to the Paris-based Chagall Committee for evaluation, Lang learned that the work is a forgery. In addition to the bad news, the Committee stated that the painting should be burned, citing French laws implemented to protect artists’ works. Lang is hoping that the Committee will reconsider their decision to destroy the painting, regardless of its authenticity.

The Chagall Committee is run by the Russian-French artist’s grandchildren with the intent of protecting the modernist master’s legacy. The destruction of counterfeit artworks is routine in France and an artist’s heirs have the right to destroy an object that is officially deemed a forgery under what is known as “the moral law of the artist.”

Lang purchased the watercolor for 100,000 pounds from a London-based art consultant. Although the work was not authenticated, it was said to be a Chagall from around 1909 to 1910.  

Tuesday, 04 February 2014 13:37

The Four Seasons Restaurant on Park Avenue in New York City will remove Pablo Picasso’s ‘Le Tricorne’ from its lobby. The 19-foot-tall tapestry has hung in the Seagram Building, home to the Four Seasons, for over 55 years. The work will be removed so that the wall behind the tapestry can be repaired. However, many experts fear that the masterpiece could be severely damaged in the removal process.

While the Seagram Building is owned by RFR Holding, the Picasso tapestry is owned by the New York Landmarks Conservancy. Peg Breen, the president of the Conservancy, believes that once the painting is removed, RFR Holding’s executive, Aby Rosen, will replace it with a more contemporary work of art. The Museum of Modern Art has offered to keep the tapestry in storage if it does not return to the Four Seasons.

‘Le Tricorne’ is slated to be removed on February 9, 2014.

Tuesday, 04 February 2014 12:59

On March 29, 2014, the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA will present the exhibition ‘California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way.’ The show will include over 250 mid-century modern design objects by pioneering designers such as Charles and Ray Eames, Richard Neutra and Greta Magnusson Grossman. Organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, this exhibition is the first major study of California mid-century modern design and the Peabody Essex Museum will be the show’s only east coast venue.

Works on view, which will include furniture, textiles, graphic design, ceramics, jewelry and architecture, will be contextualized within the creative climate of California and the social and cultural conditions that existed between 1930 and 1965. the exhibition will be divided into four thematic sections--Shaping, Making, Living and Selling--and will explore the origins of modern California design, the materials used, and how the movement proliferated worldwide.  

‘California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way’ will be on view at the Peabody Essex Museum through July 6, 2014.

Tuesday, 04 February 2014 12:02

Asher Edelman, the founder of the art finance company Art Assure, is suing Artmentum, a Swiss company that advises art sales and acquisitions, for breach of contract and fraud. Edelman, a former Wall Street shark who was the real-life inspiration for the character Gordon Gekko in the 1987 film, ‘Wall Street,’ filed a lawsuit along with eight other defendants, claiming that Artmentum tried to swindle Art Assure out of hundreds of millions of euros.    

According to Edelman’s complaint, Artmentum offered him a large collection of masterworks, including pieces by Pablo Picasso, Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse and Claude Monet, said to be owned by Hiroshima Bank, which was described as being owned primarily by the Japanese government. Artmentum claimed that for confidentiality purposes, Art Assure would have to purchase the collection through them rather than from the Japanese government. The lot was being offered for the shockingly low price of 350 million euros with the intention of later re-selling the works to make a profit. According to Artmentum, they had arrived at the asking price after Sotheby’s offered the company 315 million euros for the collection. However, a letter of financial capability was never presented and the transaction failed to reach completion. According to the complaint, Sotheby’s had tried to circumvent Artmentum and acquire the works directly from Hiroshima Bank, but were told that the collection was not for sale.

While this raised some red flags, Art Assure and Artmentum had signed a binding memorandum that stated that the Swiss company had the exclusive right to sell the collection and that a number of third party buyers had signed on to purchase a portion of the works, while Art Assure would help finance the deal, quelling any concerns. According to the agreement, Art Assure would provide a formal letter of interest and confirmation of financial capability and then the two parties would enter into a working agreement that would lead to the introduction of prospective buyers. However, in order to transport the works from Japan to Switzerland, Art Assure was asked to deposit the full cost of the collection to a bank in Switzerland.

After Artmentum and Art Assure signed the memorandum, Artmentum failed to provide proof of its exclusive agreement to sell the works, never provided Art Assure with official authorizations related to the export of the collection, never initiated a working agreement related to the introduction of prospective buyers, and never permitted Art Assure to perform due diligence. In addition, although the signed agreement forbade Artmentum from entering into negotiations with other parties, the company allegedly approached another party, as well as Christie’s, with a letter proposing a similar offer as the one made to Art Assure.

Upon further investigation, Art Assure discovered that Hiroshima Bank did not own the collection, the works are not, in fact, for sale, and the Japanese government does not own a large stake in the bank, nor does it have the power to sell the collection. Edelman’s complaint claims that Artmentum never had the authority to sell the works and that the collection was never appraised by Sotheby’s. In addition, Art Assure discovered that no third parties had signed on to acquire the paintings from the company once the transaction was complete.

Art Assure is asking for $204 million in damages due to lost profits from the sale. The company also wants punitive damages, in an amount that will be determined by the court.

Monday, 03 February 2014 12:49

Christie’s Old Masters Week, which took place in New York from January 28 through January 30, garnered $68 million. The top lot was ‘The Rothschild Prayerbook,’ a masterpiece from the Flemish Renaissance that sold for $13.6 million, a record for an illuminated manuscript at auction.

‘The Rothschild Prayerbook’ is comprised of lavish and intricate illustrations by the most celebrated court artists of the Renaissance, including Gerard Horenbout and Alexander Bening. The book was most likely made around 1505 for someone connected to the imperial court in the Netherlands. Kay Sutton, the Director of Books and Manuscripts at Christie’s, said, “The Rothschild Prayerbook is a fabulous work of art and it has been an enormous pleasure and honour for us to be able to show it so widely and to such universal admiration -- an admiration recognized by the price it achieved at auction.”

Other highlights from Christie’s Old Masters Week included Francisco de Goya’s ‘Los Caprichos’, a set of 80 etchings that sold for $1.4 million; Tiepolo’s ‘I Cani Sapienti,’ which garnered $3.6 million, a record for a single work by the artist at auction; and a drawing by Peter Paul Rubens titled ‘Saint Ildefonso receiving the Chasuble from the Virgin,’ which netted $233,000.

Monday, 03 February 2014 12:14

Since September 2013, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. has acquired a number of important works from the 15th through 20th centuries including tempera-and-gold drawings on vellum from the Middle Ages and works on paper by Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet and Paul Gauguin. Earl A. Powell III, the director of the National Gallery of Art, said, “These acquisitions are masterworks from the Middle Ages to the current moment that represent the highest levels of creativity in media ranging from printmaking and manuscript illumination to easel painting and photography. We are delighted that they can be shared with the public as part of our permanent collection.”

Among the museum’s recent acquisitions are a woodcut-illustrated book of Giovanni Boccaccio’s ‘Seminal History of Famous Women’, the Gallery’s earliest German woodcut book; ‘Still Life with Peacock Pie,’ a banquet piece measuring more than four feet across by the Dutch Golden Age painter Pieter Claesz; one of Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s finest versions of ‘Avenue of Cypresses at Villa d’Este’; a watercolor by Cézanne titled ‘A Stand of Trees Along a River Bank’; an early drawing by Gauguin titled ‘Seated Nude Seen from Above’; a pastel of Waterloo Bridge by Monet; and Pop artist Jim Dine’s ‘Name Painting.’ The National Gallery of Art also received works by artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Marc Chagall, Jasper Johns and Robert Motherwell from the celebrated Herbert and Dorothy Vogel Collection. 

The National Gallery of Art was established in 1937 for the people of the United States by a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress. Financier and art collector, Andrew W. Mellon, donated a portion of his sizeable art collection to the museum, forming its core holdings. The National Gallery of Art’s collection of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculptures and decorative arts spans from the Middle Ages to the present and includes the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas as well as the largest mobile ever created by Alexander Calder.

Monday, 03 February 2014 11:07

This spring, Christie’s will sell approximately 400 items from the collection of Huguette Clark, a reclusive copper heiress. The auction house has revealed that the trove includes Claude Monet’s ‘Water Lilies’, which has not been exhibited publicly since 1926 and is expected to fetch between $25 million and $35 million, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s ‘Young Women Playing Badminton,’ which is expected to bring between $10 million and $15 million.

Clark’s collection also includes musical instruments, Gilded Age furniture and rare books. The trove will be divided among two sales -- one on May 6 that will include the Monet and Renoir paintings, and another on June 18. The entire collection is expected to fetch more than $50 million. Before the sales, highlights from Clark’s holdings will go on view at Christie’s London and then at various locations throughout Asia.

Clark was the daughter of U.S. senator and copper tycoon, William A. Clark. Beginning in 1930, she led a largely reclusive life and when she passed away in 2011, she left behind an estate worth nearly $300 million. The proceeds from the upcoming sales will go to the estate, which will most likely be distributed between art institutions and distant relatives.

Saturday, 01 February 2014 13:29

On January 26th, Keno Auctions of New York City sold a highly important and historically significant document entitled ‘Letter from the Twelve United States Colonies, by their delegates in Congress to the Inhabitants of Great Britain. After heated competition between several phone bidders in a packed salesroom, the gavel dropped at $912,500 (including Buyer’s Premium), well above its presale auction estimate of $100,000 to $400,000.

The winning bid of $912,500 was by private collector Brian Hendelson who, shortly after the auction, said "I am very excited about adding this amazing piece of history to my collection.  To be able to buy any original manuscript written relating to our independence is an extremely rare opportunity. To have the opportunity to own the original draft of the final plea to Great Britain is even more extraordinary. The only thing I can compare this to would be to own the original draft of the Declaration of Independence”. The price is the highest for any lot sold at auction during Americana Week 2014 in New York.

This document was long thought to be lost, but in July 2013 archivist Emilie Gruchow discovered it in the attic of the Morris-Jumel Mansion inside a folder of colonial doctor’s bills tucked away in a drawer. The document, penned by Robert R. Livingston, was a final plea for peace by the Continental Congress to the people of Great Britain to avoid the Revolutionary War. It was also a prelude to the Declaration of Independence, which Livingston helped draft with Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin less than a year later. This working draft fundamentally changes our understanding of the final document which was printed in July 1775 and is complete with fascinating edits, including entire paragraphs crossed out and rewritten in the margins.  Scholar Michael Hattem of Yale University stated, the document is “…the missing piece from the culminating moments in which the colonists began to think of themselves not as British subjects, but as American citizens.”

Leigh Keno, President of Keno Auctions, said, “I am elated that the manuscript did so well.  All of the proceeds benefit one of the finest house museums in New York City.” Carol Ward, President of The Morris-Jumel Mansion, said after the sale, “I am still in a state of shock. It was so beyond our expectations. This auction quadruples the size of our endowment and ensures that the mansion can serve the public for generations to come.”

For more information visit www.kenoauctions.com

Friday, 31 January 2014 14:24

Sotheby’s announced that it has named Alexander Rotter and Cheyenne Westphal the new Global Heads of Contemporary Art. Tobias Meyer, the auction house’s former Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art, stepped down at the end of November 2013. Rotter and Westphal have both been with Sotheby’s for many years -- Rotter was behind the recent sale of Andy Warhol’s ‘Silver Car Crash,’ which brought a record $104 million, and Westphal helped launch Sotheby’s new contemporary art galleries in London.

Helena Newman and Simon Shaw will helm the auction house’s department of Impressionist and Modern Art. Newman, who joined Sotheby’s in 1988, was instrumental in the February 2010 auction that netted $263.6 million, a record for a European sale. Shaw, who has worked at Sotheby’s outposts in Stockholm, Paris and London, orchestrated the 2012 sale of Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream,’ which sold for an historic price of $119.9 million, a record for a modern work of art at auction.

Daniel Loeb, a hedge fund manager who is Sotheby’s largest shareholder, recently commented on the auction house’s need to establish new leadership and more efficient operations.

Friday, 31 January 2014 12:28

The Milwaukee Art Museum is currently hosting ‘Uncommon Folk: Traditions in American Art,’ a comprehensive exhibition that celebrates the power, beauty, whimsy and wonder of American folk art. The show presents nearly 600 works by folk and self-taught artists who created art that was influenced by their communities and cultural traditions, rather than established art movements.

‘Uncommon Folk’ includes American paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography, textiles, furniture, and decorative arts by folk art luminaries such as Grandma Moses, Howard Finster and Sister Gertrude Morgan. All of the works on view belong to the Milwaukee Art Museum’s collection. The institution began collecting the work of folk and self-taught artists in the early 1950s after receiving two paintings by the Wisconsin-based artist, Anna Louisa Miller. During the 1960s and 1970s, when very few American museums were acquiring folk art, the Milwaukee Art Museum continued to acquire non-academic art through purchases and generous bequests.

Daniel Keegan, the director of the Milwaukee Art Museum, said, “The exhibition highlights the breadth and depth of the Museum’s world-class collection of American folk and self-taught art, from paintings and photographs to walking sticks and quilts. This eclectic grouping of American folk and self-taught art is a demonstration of the Museum’s long history of collecting works by untrained creators.”

‘Uncommon Folk: Traditions in American Art’ will be on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum through May 4, 2014. 

Friday, 31 January 2014 10:13

Piers Wedgwood, who devoted his working life to the ceramic and decorative arts of the Wedgwood Brand as its international ambassador and keeper of the legacy of his fifth great-grandfather, Josiah Wedgwood, died yesterday of cardiac failure at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He was 59 and a long time resident of the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, PA.

In a career spanning four decades, Lord Wedgwood helped navigate the fortunes of a 255 year old luxury goods company in its struggles to remain viable amidst the changing life styles of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. A veteran of two major reorganizations of the firm, Lord Wedgwood remained positive and excited as it grew in the modern age, with Wedgwood now opening major new markets in India, China and Russia as well as new product lines such as Wedgwood Tea.

Piers Anthony Weymouth Wedgwood, Fourth Baron Wedgwood was born September 20, 1954 in Nakuru, Kenya outside Nairobi on his family’s farm. He assumed the Wedgwood peerage at age 16 upon the death of his father in 1970. Educated in England at Marlborough and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Lord Wedgwood was commissioned in the Royal Scots Regiment in 1973 seeing action in Cypress and retiring as a captain in 1980.

Lord Wedgwood did not view his peerage as an honorific, instead acting as a working member of the House of Lords with more than 25 years service on the Defense and Heritage Parliamentary Groups.

An active sportsman, Lord Wedgwood was a member of the Royal Automobile Club of England, the London Racquet Club and the Philadelphia Club.

Above all however, the Wedgwood Brand was Lord Wedgwood’s passion, beginning in the business in his teens cleaning the pottery kilns and learning production methods. It was soon clear, however, that his charm, speaking ability and uncanny resemblance to his ancestor Josiah made him the ideal and nearly irreplaceable spokesman for Wedgwood. For many years, Lord Wedgwood was closely identified with Wedgwood museums in England and Birmingham, Alabama, which includes the Buten Collection, formerly of Philadelphia.

In a reprise of another Philadelphia fairy tale, Lord Wedgwood met his wife, the former Mary Regina Quinn of the Fairmount section of Philadelphia, when he was presenting Wedgwood at the Marshall Field Company in Chicago where she ran the store’s public relations. The ‘old English lord’ she expected turned out to be both a dashing 26 year old and the start of a 34 year love affair. Lady Wedgwood, and a daughter, The Hon. Alexandra Mary Kavanaugh Wedgwood and two sisters survive.

Funeral arrangements are incomplete.

 

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