Displaying items by tag: document

Any Andy Warhol fan with money to spare can bid on the official lease of Andy Warhol’s first New York City studio, outside of his own house on 159 East 87th street next week.

The lease, which over the years has seen some wear and tear, is up for auction at Sotheby’s inaugural New York Sale on April 1. It is estimated to sell for anywhere between $8,000 and $12,000.

Signed by Warhol, the document shows that he agreed to lease the obsolete fire house for $150 through the month of January in 1963.

Adrien Legendre, Assistant Vice President and Specialist of Books & Manuscript said the short lease suggests Warhol was most likely trying out the studio space for size.

A Spanish court sentenced a man on Wednesday to 10 years in prison for crimes including the theft of a priceless medieval document considered the first guidebook to Spain's Saint James pilgrimage trail.

Police recovered the unique 12th-century manuscript in July 2012, a year after it was found to have gone missing from a safe in the famous cathedral of the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela.

Judges in a court in the nearby city of La Coruna said in a written ruling that they "consider it proven" that an electrician who worked for years at the cathedral, Manuel Fernandez Castineiras, stole the manuscript.

Just days after four Magna Cartas were united for the first time in 800 years at the British Library in London, another ancient version of the document has been discovered by chance in a medieval coastal town in England.

Mark Bateson, an archivist in Sandwich, southern England, found the previously unknown version of the Magna Carta -- which established the principle that everybody, including the king, was subject to the law -- after historian Nicholas Vincent had asked him to look for a separate document dealing with a local forest that he was researching.

A piece of French history was acquired by Paris’s Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits this weekend. On Sunday, 21 September, the museum bought Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine Beauharnais’s marriage contract for €437,500 at auction, including buyer’s premium. The sale was held by Osenat, the Fontainebleau-based specialist in Napoleonic memorabilia, in the grounds of the Chateau de Malmaison, Josephine’s favourite retreat a few miles west of Paris.

Dated 9 March 1796, the four-page document was signed by the couple the day before their nuptials.

While James Douthat, the recently retired president of Pennsylvania’s Lycoming College, was cleaning out a closet in his office, he uncovered a rare document signed by former president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. The historical certificate dates back to 1863 and names the college’s founder, Benjamin Crever, a Civil War chaplain. Preserved in a black frame, the document is in good condition and Lincoln’s signature is clearly visible. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton also signed the document.

Douthat, who has worked at Lycoming College for 24 years, had vaguely remember hearing about the document but was shocked to find it in his own closet. While no one is sure how the certificate got misplaced, they are pleased to have it back. An early appraisal estimated the document to be worth in excess of $6,000. The piece is significant for the small college because it adds some distinction to its name. Located in central Pennsylvania, Lycoming only has about 1,400 students.

Crever was one of 500 Union hospital chaplains. He served at a military hospital in Frederick, MD between July 1862 and August 1865, a period that included the battle of Gettysburg. The document is being kept in the archives of the college’s library for the time being.

The New York Public Library announced that it will put its original copy of the Bill of Rights on public display for the first time in decades. The document, which has been in the library’s collection since 1896, will go on view during the fall of 2014, commemorating the 225^th anniversary of the document being drafted and proposed by Congress. The Bill of Rights will go on display alternately at the New York Public Library and in Pennsylvania at the National Constitution Center.

The document was previously unable to be displayed for extensive periods of time due to preservation issues. A special case, which was constructed by the National Institute for Standards and Technology, will ensure the document’s safety while it travels. The state-of-the-art preservation device, which cost an estimated $600,000 to create, was made possible by a generous gift from Ed Wachenheim III, a Trustee of the Library, and his wife, Sue.

The document is one of at least 14 original copies of the Bill of Rights, which was sent by the First Congress of the United States to the 13 colonies, 11 of which had already become states, and to the Federal government in 1789. Four of the states, including New York and Pennsylvania, no longer have their copies of the Bill.

Beginning in 2014, the document will be displayed alternately by the Library and the Constitution Center equally for the first six year. After that, the Library will display the document 60% of the time.