Picasso, Warhol, Balthus...Prince Charles

Picasso, Warhol, Balthus...Prince Charles

Is this about design or painting or what? No matter, because it's interesting any way you look at it. From the site BarKeeper, which Alissa usually reads religiously because she likes finding exciting new ways to make Irish Car Bombs, we learned that Prince Charles has been chosen to design this next year's label for the Chateu Mouton-Rothschild bottles. Ordinarily, you'd see this as a publicity stunt, which surely it is, but it's also kind of a big one, given the wine's label legacy:

The Prince -- a well-known watercolourist who delights in capturing rural scenes around the royal residences of Balmoral, Sandringham and other retreats both at home and abroad -- now adds his name to a list which includes Braque, Picasso, Miro, Chagall, Henry Moore, Warhol, Francis Bacon and Balthus.

...The chateau is famous for its labels, which since 1945 have each year been designed by a different contemporary artist. The tradition began with the iconic 1945 'V' for Victory bottle designed by Philippe Jullian. All are exhibited in the wine museum located at the Pauillac estate.

Prince Charles is joining the greatest artists of the 20th century as he becomes the latest painter to feature on Chateau Mouton-Rothschild's label.

The Prince – a well-known watercolourist who delights in capturing rural scenes around the royal residences of Balmoral, Sandringham and other retreats both at home and abroad – now adds his name to a list which includes Braque, Picasso, Miró, Chagall, Henry Moore, Warhol, Francis Bacon and Balthus.

The chosen watercolour, of pine trees at Cap d'Antibes on the Cote d'Azur, was not painted specially for the chateau, but was selected personally by Baroness Philippine de Rothschild.

A spokesman for Mouton told decanter.com the choice of the Prince was intended to mark the anniversary of the Entente Cordial between France and England, which was celebrated in 2004.

It is inscribed, 'To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale, Charles 2004'.

The 2004 vintage of Mouton Rothschild has just been bottled and is launched this week, at around £80 (€120) per bottle.

The chateau is famous for its labels, which since 1945 have each year been designed by a different contemporary artist. The tradition began with the iconic 1945 'V' for Victory bottle designed by Philippe Jullian. All are exhibited in the wine museum located at the Pauillac estate.

Prince Charles has a history of exhibiting in the area. In 2001, a selection of lithographs based on his paintings, each one signed and dated, were displayed in the Cave d'Ulysses in Margaux village, a wine shop owned by John Kolasa of Chateau Rauzan Segla.

Decanter.com

Prince Charles to design Wine Label - Hospitality News on Barkeeper.ie

Balthus

Balthus
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Theft Notices & Recoveries (If this helps anyone, i've highlighted my reward. thank you.) - William Kingsland Collection - Federal Bureau of Investigation

Theft Notices & Recoveries-William Kingsland Collection

Some of the below works of art, recovered in 2006 from a New York City apartment after the death of its occupant William Kingsland, are believed to have been stolen during the 1960s and 1970s. If you have information on any of these works—or if you want to make a claim—contact Special Agent James Wynne at (718) 286-7302 or by e-mail at James.Wynne@ic.fbi.gov.

Gallery 1
Henry Aiken Riders in a Landscape, circa 1840	William Aikman Sir John Henderson of Fordell, 1719	American School 19th Cent. Portrait of a Woman in Brown Dress/Lace Collar
American School 19th Cent. Portrait of a Woman in a Black Lace Shawl	American School 19th Cent. Portrait of Andrew Jackson	American School 19th Cent. Portrait of George Washington
Torello Ancillotti Monk with a Violin	Lennart Anderson Self Portrait of the Artist	Louis Leopold Boilly Portrait of a Standing Male
Balthus Auto Portrait, 1942	Charles Baskerville Still Life with Two Glass Lemons	Claude Alexandre Belin Portrait of a Boy Profile
Ralph Albert Blakelock Landscape	Oscar Bluemner Monteville, N.J.	Oscar Bluemner Patterson, NJ
Georges A. L. Boisselier Portrait of a Male Subject with Mustache & Glasses, 1911	Giovanni Boldini Portrait of a Young Girl	Jean-Baptiste Bosschaert Christ in Niche, with Flower Surround
Jean-Baptiste Bosschaert The Madonna	Eugene Boudin Trouville, Les Jetées, Marées Haute	Jacques Bouysson Ocean Scene with Lighthouse in Distance; Trouville, 1968
Heinrich Breling Military Figures	Louis George Brillouin Soldiers with Knights at Celebration	James Wells Champney Portrait of a Young Girl in Profile
Joseph Cummings Chase Professor Arthur Huntington Nason	Arnold Chiarrochi August Clouds, 1973	(Frederick) Childe Hassam Old Tidal Mildam, Cos Cob
Jacopo Chimenti (Da Empoli) Study of Jacob's Dream	Continental School, 18th Century Portrait of a Man	Continental School, 18th/19th Century Horse Carriages and Figures in Landscape

Federal Bureau of Investigation - Theft Notices & Recoveries-William Kingsland Collection

John Dillinger Lesson Learned by FBI at Little Bohemia

Seventy-five years ago, a shoot-out with John Dillinger and "Baby Face" Nelson in the woods of Wisconsin went horribly wrong.

Dr. John Fox, FBI Historian:

Through a series of spectacular bank robberies and jailbreaks, John Dillinger had become a nationally known criminal. Law enforcement across the country were looking for him. We had been tracking him for a while. Had a couple of near misses where we had almost had him but he got out just in time.

Our Chicago office received a call about 10 o’clock on the Sunday morning of April 22 nd that John Dillinger and several of his confederates were hiding out at a small vacation lodge in Northern Wisconsin, a place called Little Bohemia in a town near Manitowish.

We immediately began to rally our forces. Special Agent in Charge Purvis called Washington and Headquarters agreed that the lead sounded legitimate. By 6 o’clock that night our agents had arrived from St. Paul and Chicago in a couple of planes. They talked to Henry Voss, who was the man who had called them earlier that morning and told them that Dillinger was in Northern Wisconsin. Voss gave them a short map of the Little Bohemia Lodge and its layout.

Little Bohemia was a vacation lodge. Basically it was a two-story building, had several out-cabins and a large garage. Behind it there was a fair-sized lake and people could canoe or boat on it. The sign outside the front, on Highway 51 there at the entrance to the lodge, said that it had fine dining and dancing and basically a good time to be had.

Special Agent Purvis began to contact local car dealers to see if he could borrow a couple of cars to get his men and Hugh Clegg’s men up to the lodge. As they looked down the road they could just barely see the lights from the lodge and they would have been approaching in pine trees. Melvin Purvis described the atmosphere as “chilly.” It was very cold, of course, at the time, being night and the end of winter.

And so they began heading down the road, lights off, very quietly, very softly, agents hanging on the outside of the car because they couldn’t fit everybody in. And as they approached the lodge dogs began to bark.

Immediately, the agents got out of the cars and began to reconnoiter around the parking lot to try and make sure they hadn’t been discovered yet when several men came out of the lodge. Three of them got into a car and turned on the radio and began to drive off. Agents yelled “Stop! Federal Agents! Police! Stop!” But the men had been inside drinking, having a good time. They didn’t hear the agents. And because they seemed to be coming at them in a threatening manner, our agents opened up fire on the car. The driver was killed. It turned out he was a civilian Conservation Corps worker.

Dillinger and his confederates were upstairs in the lodge on the second floor began firing out one of those windows there. While our agents ducked for cover—and to try and get and better place to defend themselves and fire back—Dillinger and his men got out the back of the lodge.

They were able to do down towards the back of the lodge to the Southdown a little hill towards the lake, and using the escarpment of the hill were able to get out of the area very quietly.

The evening had even more tragedy. As we were trying to figure out who was still in the lodge, whether or not any of the gangsters were still around, and of course trying to track those who already fled. Baby Face Nelson arrived and stole a car and ended up confronting our agents, killing one of them, injuring the other and seriously wounding the local police officer who was with them.

In the aftermath of the failed raid on Little Bohemia we received a lot of criticism from press and the politicians and even other law enforcement who thought they should have been better included.

But for the Bureau it really was a learning lesson. We learned that we had to have better training and better preparation for raids, and they became integral parts of the training of new agents and the continuing training of agents. We learned that we needed to develop plans ahead of time for getting information out, for contacting. In order for a raid to be successful you have to have that planning. So it became an integral part of how we dealt with these kinds of dangerous situations. So for the FBI it really became part and parcel of more advanced training, more advanced tactics, that we developed over the years.

101-Year-Old FBI Agent Walter Walsh Honored

Michael Jackson’s lovechild on front row at funeral | The Sun |News - i just realized they all wore a glove

Farewell 'Dad' ... Omer (circled) sits beside Jacko's sisters Rebbie and Janet, and brothers Randy, Tito, Marlon, Jackie and Jermaine at the service on July 7

Michael Jackson’s lovechild on front row at funeral | The Sun |News

Jermaine Jackson’s promise to Michael's ‘son’ Omer | The Sun |News

'Lovechild' ... Omer Bhatti was at memorial

Frode Hansen / VG / SCANPIX/Scanpix/Press

'He wasn't gay'

MICHAEL Jackson was NOT gay, his family insisted last night.

Dr Hoefflin, speaking on behalf of the Jacksons, said they were "outraged" at unofficial biographer Ian Halperin's claims the star met male building workers for sex sessions.

He said: "This man has caused huge upset and hurt to Michael's family, particularly to his mother Katherine at her time of grieving."

Dr Hoefflin also said he took the singer to the Playboy mansion, adding: "I know Michael Jackson was not gay. The truth is he lusted after beautiful women.

"I knew he was not gay because in all the time that I knew him that we were best friends - and i was his confidante and doctor - I never had any information that he was anything but straight.

"Also, I talked with all his security and they tell me there is no way he could ever have slipped out for sex with a construction worker. They said that it was impossible for Michael to have left the hotel and house without them around.

"Since Michael's children were born, he was always with them. It was very rare that he would go out without children. It was very rare that he would go out at all.

"We would also spend time together over the years going through books and magazines. Michael would always look at magazines of pretty girls, never boys.

"And finally, I know factually he had sexually relationships with women."

Dr Hoefflin, 63, said: "Michael loved beautiful women.

"After Thriller came out he asked me to take him to the Playboy mansion to see the stunning girls.

"I was friends with Hugh Heffner, made those arrangments and was with him when he decribed how beautiful and desirable all the women were.

"All the time I was ever with him - whether it was on tour or off tour - he would always comment to me and others about pretty girls he would see.

"Never once, did he comment about attractive men."

Dr Hoefflin said that he personally dispelled the rumours that Michael was gay in a 1984 press conference after it was also rumoured that the star had been taking female hormones.

He said: "These rumours were abolished and the issue didn't come up again."

The surgeon - who is speaking at the request and authorisation of Jackson's grief-stricken mother Katherine - yesterday furiously hit out at the star's unofficial autobiographer Ian Halperin.

He said: "It is my opinion that this man is stalking on the grave of Michael Jackson by trying to sell books. The family request a boycott of that book.

"It is my opinion that this man is telling lies when Michael cannot defend himself."

Jermaine Jackson’s promise to Michael's ‘son’ Omer | The Sun |News