Heard On The Street

Nothing bad ever happens. The lesson (s) finally being learned by participants in the gem/art markets is that even though there may be short-term problems, in the end everything will be OK.

DTC Flight 79 – Not Final

Chaim Even-Zohar writes about the 79 Diamond Trading Company (DTC) Sightholders + Best Practice Principles (BPP) issues + setting the standards + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp

Useful link:
www.kroll.com

King Kong

King Kong (1933)
Directed by: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack
Screenplay: Merian C. Cooper, Edgar Wallace (story); James Ashmore Creelman, Ruth Rose
Cast: Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot

(via YouTube): King Kong 1933 movie part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlVZxzvRB-U

King Kong (1933) – colorized
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz77RxYhtoQ

Ray Harryhausen in 1995 talks about King Kong (1933)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkHJ0Yp5IJU

A great movie + the look in his eyes as the planes shoot him off the Empire State building remains the greatest single special effects shot ever made. I enjoyed it.

George W. Bush

Seth Gitell writes about George W. Bush's taste for American Western art + other viewpoints @ http://www.artnewsonline.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=792

Sunshine And Shadow In Spain

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

Art is the mirror of life, and a great part of the fascination of old pictures is that in them are reflected the great upheavals of history. We have seen how Florentine art was affected by the preaching first of St Francis of Assisi and afterwards of Savonarola. Now the most formidable antagonists that the Lutheran Reformers had to face, alike in action and in thought, were the Spaniards. The movement of the counter-Reformation originated and flourished in Spain. As the Spaniards in the Middle Ages had battled against the Moors till they won their land for Christianity, so they fought against the paganism of the Roman Church during the sixteenth century and strove with equal determination later against the Reformers, whom they regarded as heretics. The herald of this last battle was Ignatius Loyola, and he and his creation, the Order of the Jesuits, proved to be the most dangerous and powerful adversary of Protestantism.

El Greco’s picture ‘Christ driving the Traders from the Temple,’ in the National Gallery, may be regarded as symbolizing the purification of the Church by Loyola, but it is by his treatment infinitely more than by his choice of subject that El Greco expresses that vein of ‘convulsed mysticism which was the peculiar attribute of Spanish Catholicism. El Greco as he grew older seemed to take delight in distorting natural forms. There is something savage, brutal even, in his art, and his deep earnestness gives grandeur to terrible things. The generally acknowledged masterpiece and most characteristic work by El Greco is his picture in the church of San Tomé in Toledo, in which the members of a knightly order solemnly attend the funeral of Count Orgaz. The corpse is lowered into the ground by two saints, while Christ, Mary, martyrs, and angels hover in the air, and this ‘abrupt union of actual with transcendental’—as Dr Muther puts it—together with the uncanny, slightly exaggerated forms found in parts of the picture, confess a touch of hysteria.

By a curious coincidence the tercentenary of El Greco was celebrated in 1914, at a moment when the whole of Europe was again in a turmoil and minds were full of hatred and thoughts of violence. To a generation excited by war and rumors of war the suppressed violence in El Greco’s pictures was irresistibly attractive. Some very advanced critics and ultra progressive painters found in his neurotic temperament their ideal Old Master. El Greco was reputed to have held that color was of far more importance than form of drawing, and if this belief was once regarded as ‘curious anticipation of modern ideas,’ these ‘modern ideas’ are themselves now out of date, drawing and design being now generally accepted as the foundation of all good art. El Greco’s pictures are far from being formless. Historically and psychologically the paintings of El Greco are of the highest interest; but they are a dangerous model for the art student.

Another foreign artist, who if he did not succeed in expressing the spirit of the time nevertheless influenced Spanish painting considerably, was Sir Anthony More, who, visited Spain, and during his stay there, about 1551-2, set a style of portraiture which served as a model for Coello (1515-90) and other Spanish court-painters.

Sunshine And Shadow In Spain (continued)

London, And So On: Low Company!

Louis Kornitzer's book, Gem Trader, is partly autobiographical and partly woven round the lore of pearls. It's educational + explains the distribution chain of gems, as they pass from hand to hand, from miner to cutter, from merchant to millionaire, from courtesan to receiver of stolen goods, shaping human lives as they go + the unique characters in the gem industry.

(via Gem Trader) Louis Kornitzer writes:

But it must not be thought that the London police, with their widespread net of ‘information received’ and who are famed for their astuteness, did not from time to time gather in the fish whose predatory boldness had outgrown their caution. It is in the public interest that the police should often tolerate the existence of meeting places frequented by known ‘bad hats’. For where men walk in the twilight of the law, valuable information is liable to leak out from within, and what is more, many a suspect is steadily kept under observation until his cup of iniquity is full and he is duly gathered in.

But it is only the unthinking man who draws a thick line between the criminal and the honest classes, or who imagines that even a notorious breaker of the law is devoid of all good qualities, or per contra that he who is known as a good man and a law-abiding citizen has no criminal tendencies whatsoever. Just as we all carry millions of germs waiting for their opportunity in our moments of physical weakness, so do criminal tendencies lurk in the best of men. I have discovered from my own experience )and I am a more or less normal type) that nothing short of constant vigilance will keep a man from succumbing to temptations of one kind or another. Unchecked passions, the gradual and almost unperceived acquisition of expensive habits or tastes, the desire to shine or to go one better than one’s neighbor, any of those factors may bring an otherwise well-intentioned man into conflict with the law and so to social ruin. Half the impulses of mankind are honest and law-abiding; that is why we have police. But half are concerned with short cuts to getting what one wants; that is why we need police.

There occurs to me the case of I B (the initials were misleading. He was mild-mannered, quiet-living teacher in an elementary school whose only diversion was the study of the classics and who denied himself the smallest luxury in order to assist those poorer than himself. He had come to the notice of a diamond merchant who took him into his employ. Eventually he set up in business on his own account, and his industry, marked ability and reputation for straightforwardness gained him unlimited credit in the trade.

Then after twenty years of unremitting labor he one day called his creditors and informed them that whilst on a journey he had been robbed of the wallets containing his whole valuable stock, which was only partly insured. Some of the creditors, knowing his reputation, were ready to believe this story and were prepared to accept a composition of two shillings and sixpence in the pound to save him from bankruptcy. They were even willing to help give him a fresh start. But there were others less prepared to forgo their just claims without further probing. They applied for a search-warrant, as a consequence of which the whole of the missing stock was discovered hidden beneath the brick floor of his wine cellar. It was a clumsy bit of work, and the penalty, though not a gaol sentence, since his creditors refused to prosecute, was an ostracism so severe that the offender dared never again show his face amongst reputable traders in any of the great gem centers of the world.

When many years after I ran up against him in San Francisco, I asked him point-blank what had possessed him to do such a thing, as he had been perfectly solvent at the time. He said simply, and I believe truthfully, that having devoted so many years to business, he thought the time had come for him to retire on a sufficient competency in order to devote the rest of his life to social and charitable works.

Another public benefactor was H F (again the initials betray nothing of the man), whose genius for organization was so great that had he been in the army he might have risen to be quartermaster-general. Instead, having started as a mere working jeweler with practically no means of his own, his peculiar gift only began to shine forth when he first made contact with a master criminal for whom the police of two continents had lain in wait for years. He was the reality of which the writer of ‘thrillers’ dreams, the human spider in the midst of a worldwide web of crime.

Master thief and organizing genius together, they built up a perfect organization in which every international jewel thief had membership and drew his pay in accordance with services rendered. So much for the member who furnished valuable information or who carefully prepared diagrams of chosen localities. So much for the snatch-thief, the car-burglar, the safe-breaker, terms more generous than the average ‘fence’ would pay; a liberal allowance to those who could be trusted to follow a dealer in gems half-way round the world before, at an opportune moment, relieving him of his goods without violence. H F disliked violence, and was prejudiced against murder.

To cover their tracks the astute heads of this gang had in their pay in every important center experts who could rapidly remove gems from their settings, smelt down the precious metal into bars, alter the size of stones by recutting them and of pearls by reducing their weights. Everywhere there were others, too, brokers who were not squeamish about handling ‘cheap’ goods and asked no questions. ‘Ask no questions and you will be told no lies’ was a saying as constantly on the lips of H F as on those of a nursemaid. It was a motto that appeared to pay him as well as honesty in another wise saw, for H F died in his own bed and left a handsome estate to his children. It might have been even larger but for the fact that H F was a known philanthropist, whose hand was as often in his pocket as the hands of his underlings were in the pockets of other men.

London, And So On: Low Company! (continued)

Gold

According to the World Gold Council gold offers good protection against exchange rate fluctuations, particularly the US dollar + industry analysts believe gold will break the magical figure of US$1000 an ounce in 2008 due to uncertainities in the financial markets + India and China is also playing its role putting upward pressure on gold.

London, And So On: Low Company!

Louis Kornitzer's book, Gem Trader, is partly autobiographical and partly woven round the lore of pearls. It's educational + explains the distribution chain of gems, as they pass from hand to hand, from miner to cutter, from merchant to millionaire, from courtesan to receiver of stolen goods, shaping human lives as they go + the unique characters in the gem industry.

(via Gem Trader) Louis Kornitzer writes:

I had not provided myself with letter of introduction to influential people as I might well have done. Being young, foolish and self-reliant, I thought these were superfluous. I know now that it was a mistake, for a single letter might well have saved me, as it turned out, years of drudgery, heartache and futile groping for that first rung of ladder which is most elusive of all.

As in Paris, the legitimate gem trade was a closed circle jealously guarded, but there was in London then no Diamond Club such as I had known on the Continent, where the dealers in gems could forgather daily and govern the trade for the good of them all. True, there was a meeting place of sorts for traders in gems in Hatton Garden which occupied the site facing the present sub post office in that thoroughfare. But this place was frequented by many shady characters and was as much visited by Scotland Yard men as by the ‘merchants’ themselves.

I visited the ‘African Café’ perhaps once or twice out of curiosity in all the years I knew of it before it was summarily closed down. It was a cramped basement parlor which let no sunlight in, and the traders who went there had to come up from the depths to inspect goods in the narrow entrance.

On the second occasion on which curiosity drew me there, I stood hesitating for a brief moment with one foot on the pavement and the other on the first worn flag of the steps, uncertain whether to venture down into those unsavory depths. Two foreign-looking bearded men scrutinized me closely and shouted out a warning to those below, but at that moment two gentlewomen came along the street, stopped close by me, and one of them said: ‘Is this the place where the diamond merchants meet?’

I said rather dubiously that it was. ‘Are you a diamond merchant, then?’ queried the other lady.

I hesitated in my answer, but before I could speak her companion save me from the temptation to lie and said smilingly: ‘Of course he is, dear, or he wouldn’t be here.’

Heaven knew that I was in sore need of turning an honest shilling. I did not deny the statement. I was not long left in doubt of the kind of service the ladies expected. They wished to dispose of some odds and ends of old-fashioned jewelry which had been left to them by a relative. Being somewhat strong-minded and not desiring to hawk the things about, they had come straight to Hatton Garden. I did not let them down. The next day I called on them in company of a well-to-do kerb merchant of good reputation who paid them a hundred and fifty pounds. I got a very welcome five pounds out of the transaction. But I had no illusions. Five pound notes do not fall out of the sky every day, even in London, city of marvels.

Although I never chose to have much to do with the habitués of the African Café, I nevertheless learned much of their doings and had pointed out to me many a fellow whom the Paris Service de Sûreté and London Scotland Yard would have given much to get into their hands. But they were such cunning devils that for many years they managed to evade the clutches of the law while living in great luxury on the proceeds of their interesting activities. Although most of these men have since gone to their long reckoning, it would be doing a disservice to their families to mention them by name. I know several professional men of good repute and sterling character who owed their first chances in life to a father with a mistaken idea of taking ‘desperate chances’ for the sake of his offspring.

London, And So On: Low Company! (continued)