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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45707303#45707303
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Sunday, December 18, 2011
From Napoleon to Liz Taylor: perfect pearl?s $11 million journey
Stan Honda / AFP - Getty Images
"La Peregrina," the pearl, diamond and ruby necklace owned by Elizabeth Taylor on display during a preview of The Collection of Elizabeth Taylor at Christie's in New York on Dec. 1.
By Olga Luna and Eduardo Sunol, Telemundo News
MIAMI?? If there?s any woman in the world envied for her jewels and exceptional beauty, it?s Elizabeth Taylor. And this week the world was reminded of her wealth, her power and her ability to get the best out of men, including love and gems.
Christie?s sold a 55-carat pearl known as ?La Peregrina,? a tear-shaped gem that Richard Burton gave Taylor in early 1969, for $11.8 million at auction on Tuesday evening.
By the time Burton bought it, ?La Peregrina? had already spent centuries traveling from the hands of a slave to Spain, France and the United States in an intense bidding war between Spain?s Royals, France?s emperor?s family and America?s millionaires.
?It has become the most expensive pearl ever sold at auction,? Rahul Kadakia, head of Christie?s New York Jewelry Department, told Telemundo News.
?
From Spanish royalty to Napoleon
La Peregrina was discovered in the early 1500s by an African slave at the Pearl Islands in the Gulf of Panama. Its name means ?rare,? or ?special,? and it was offered to King Phillip II of Spain, becoming part of the crown jewels of the Spanish Crown.
At the time it was valued at 714,000 maraved?, a gold and silver coin currency brought to Spain by the Moorish Almoravids, which would be the equivalent of $8,000 U.S. dollars today.
La Peregrina was inherited by Phillip III of Spain and it passed from generation to generation of Spain?s royals.? But in 1808, when Jose Napoleon was named king of Spain by his brother Emperor Napoleon, the jewels of the Spanish Crown fell into his hands, and La Peregrina was one of them.
Jose Napoleon stole them all and gave La Peregrina to his wife, Julie Clary, who proudly showed it until the day the marriage ended. Napoleon then took the jewel with him to the United States, where he lived in New York City and Philadelphia.
Napoleon bequeathed the jewel onto Napoleon III, the ruler of the second French empire, who, after his deposition in 1815 - and later arrest in France - was sent to England were he sold La Peregrina to James Hamilton, later the Duke of Abercorn.
The late actress's legendary jewelry was auctioned off at Christie's in New York. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
The Duke bought the pearl for his wife, Louisa Hamilton, the Duchess of Abercorn, who lost it twice because the heavy jewel fell out of its necklace?s setting, but on both occasions the pearl was recovered.
According to Christie?s records, La Peregrina remained in the hands of the Abercorn until 1914.
Fast-forward to 1969, when it showed up at auction in Sotheby?s. Richard Burton and Taylor, who had married for the first time five years earlier, were both still enjoying the success of their movie ?Who?s Afraid of Virginia Wolf,? which Taylor won her second Academy Award for.?
Burton, evidently still in love during that first marriage (the pair later divorced in 1974, remarried 16 months later in 1976 and divorced again), went to Parke-Bernet galleries, one of the largest auctioneers of fine art in the U.S, on Jan. 23, 1969. The auctioneer had already acquired by the rare pearl from Sotheby?s, and Burton wanted it for his bride.
But Burton had a strong opponent to bid against: Alfonso de Borb?n Dampierre, an envoy of the Spanish royal family whose mission was to get the jewel back to Madrid?s Royal Palace.
Despite Dampierre?s credentials, he was outbid by Burton, who offered $17,000 over what the royal family was ready to offer and took it home at the final price of $37,000.
An unexpected thief
Burton gave it to his wife on Valentine?s Day, and as had happened a century before, one day the pearl went missing from the couples? suite at Caesar?s Palace in Las Vegas.
?I reached down to touch La Peregrina and it wasn?t there,? Elizabeth Taylor wrote in her book ?Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair With Jewelry.?
?I glanced over at Richard and thank God he wasn?t looking at me, and I went into the bedroom and threw myself on the bed, buried my head into the pillow and screamed. Very slowly and very carefully, I retraced all my steps in the bedroom. I took my slippers off, took my socks off, and got down on my hands and knees, looking everywhere for the pearl. Nothing.?
And then, she thought not her husband but someone else in the suite may have it.
?I just casually opened the puppy?s mouth and inside his mouth was the most perfect pearl in the world. It was ? thank God - not scratched.?
Perfect and not scratched it was, indeed. And today, after years traveling from one continent to another, from slave, to kings, to emperors and millionaires, it lives in the hand of an unknown bidder who at $11.8 million has bought not only a pearl, but history in the shape of a tear.??
?
Read this story in Spanish from Telemundo
See more news?from Telemundo
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Saturday, December 17, 2011
Nintendo and the Louvre partner for 3DS-enhanced tours (Digital Trends)
As reported earlier by the?Agence France-Presse news agency, the most popular museum in the world is teaming up with Nintendo to bring 3DS handheld gaming devices to patrons of the Louvre. Nintendo is supplying the museum with 5,000 3DS devices in order to replace?traditional audio-guides by March 2012. While the Paris museum has about 8.5 million annual visitors come through the doors, only four percent utilize the current audio hardware offered by the museum for tours at a cost of approximately six euros ($7.81). The?museum?s head of multimedia believes that the majority of people will be?happier using a touch screen rather than figure out how to work the audio guide.?
The Louvre also has smartphone and iPad applications available to download and use during a tour of the Louvre. The application allows museum visitors to share exhibits they are currently viewing on Facebook as well as read more in-depth information about each piece. While the iPhone version of the application is currently free, the iPad version comes with more high resolution photos and is a premium app purchase. Both versions of the application require at least 800MB and users are encouraged to download the application before visiting the museum.
This article was originally posted on Digital Trends
More from Digital Trends
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Friday, December 16, 2011
Video: Matthews: People want to see the country at its best
Fight club: Most bar brawls start on dance floor
If you shake your booty on the dance floor of a crowded bar, you could be in for a world of hurt. And your lousy dance moves are not to blame. A recent study shows that the dance floor is the most likely place for fights to break out inside a large drinking establishment.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45660817#45660817
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Monday, December 5, 2011
Is Child Sexual Abuse on the Rise? (LiveScience.com)
With the stream of accusations of child sexual abuse not losing any gusto lately, from the ever-growing charges against former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky to allegations of such behaviors by assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine, it'd be easy to assume a real upsurge in such abuse.
But that may not be the case.?
First, Sandusky was accused of sexually molesting at least eight boys over the past 15 years; he has pleaded not guilty to the more than 40 charges against him.
Then last week Fine of Syracuse University was fired amid accusations of sexual abuse. So far three men, including two former Syracuse ball-boys, have come forward stating that Fine molested them as minors.
Neither Sandusky nor Fine has been found guilty of any crime, but these are only the latest in what seems to be a year filled with news reports about sexual harassment and sexual abuse. Earlier this year an ABC News investigation revealed that USA Swimming (the governing body for the sport up to and including the U.S. Olympic team) has banned for life nearly 40 swimming coaches over the last decade because of sexual misconduct. [Child Abuse: Why People Look the Other Way]
So what's going on?
According to the nation's top experts, children are actually safer from physical and sexual abuse than they have been for decades. A National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect issued by the Department of Health and Human Services found that both physical and sexual abuse of children have dropped significantly over the past 20 years: From 2005 to 2006, an estimated 553,000 children suffered physical, sexual or emotional abuse, down 26 percent from the estimated 743,200 abuse victims in 1993. And between 1993 and 2005, the number of sexually abused children dropped 38 percent, while number of children who experienced physical abuse fell by 15 percent and those who were emotionally abused declined by 27 percent.
In fact, incidence of sexual abuse of children began to drop two decades ago, according to Dr. David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.
In his book "Childhood Victimization: Violence, Crime and Abuse in the Lives of Young People" (Oxford 2008), Dr. Finkelhor notes, "The child victimization declines of the 1990s were something new, and not simply the extension of trend lines from the past. For example, available data on child abuse show strong increases in all forms of maltreatment from the mid-1970s into the 1990s. After a short plateau, the sexual abuse decline seemed to start in 1992, and the physical abuse decline gained momentum after 1996. Many analysts did not interpret the earlier rise as necessarily indicative of a real increase in child maltreatment but rather as the result of a new public and professional mobilization to identify and report cases. But some data suggested real increases in the 1980s."
Overall, Dr. Finkelhor told LiveScience.com, "There is very little evidence that child sexual abuse is on the rise in the U.S., and considerable evidence that it is declining, including data from law enforcement, child protection and surveys of victims themselves." He added that though the prevalence of child sexual abuse worldwide is hard to assess, "there are some indicators of decline in other countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom."
Many of the recent accusations of sexual abuse date back many years; just because the public is hearing more about it now doesn't mean that it's on the increase. Thus while the barrage of news reports about sexual abuse of children may make parents fearful, the reality is that kids today are safer than ever.
Causes of the drop in child sexual abuse are complex and not completely understood. Some experts point out that the overall crime rate dropped significantly during the same time, and that child abuse rates fell along with murder and assault rates. Other analyses credit the economic prosperity of the 1980s and 1990s as improving overall social conditions, while still others note that tougher penalties for sex crimes led to higher numbers of offenders being jailed. It's also likely that greater social awareness of child abuse through television news (and even Hollywood films such as "Mystic River") resulted in parents taking more precautions for their children's safety. Like most social problems, there's no simple answer.
Benjamin Radford is deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirer science magazine and author of Media Mythmakers: How Journalists, Activists, and Advertisers Mislead Us. His Web site is www.BenjaminRadford.com.
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