These were all over the web two years ago but not everyone is online 22 hours a day like I am. These are Jean-Luc Cornec’s telephone sheep from the Museum of Telecommunication in Frankfurt.

It is an unfortunate thing that many artists don’t become well-known until either very late in their careers or until they die. To be able to support ones self and family off the arts would be a wonderful thing would it not? Or maybe it too would become a boring monotonous job with no end in sight. Maybe one day I will know that answer.

For now however I am left to view this through the stories of others. There are many artists today that have become wealthy off their works, but there are also those who have not. This is a story of the latter.

This story is about Henry Darger. You have probably never heard of him, but that is because until recently he was not dead. Henry Darger spent most of his teenage years at the Lincoln Asylum for Feeble-Minded Children. When he grew up he found himself working an uneventful job for 54 years. I can hardly keep a job for 1 year without leaving for something more exciting, how one does it for 54 years is beyond my comprehension. Darger was said to attend Catholic Mass but for the most part he stayed in his home. Alone.

In 1973 a group of volunteers were cleaning out piles of clutter in the 81 year olds room, when they discovered some amazing things.

Three massive manuscripts, including a 10-volume work (At 15,145 pages, The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion—or the Realms, for short—is the longest known work of fiction ever written), a large collection of watercolors and many collages he had created to illustrate his stories.

It has been 35 years since Darger died, and his works are now selling for up to $80,000 and being hung in galleries across the world. One place where you can see his works is at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, a Chicago gallery.

Most of the stories and illustrations involve young girls, some of them have male genitalia, and are set on other planets with weird monstors and soldiers. Some works show the girls being killed by the soldiers, but no where is there any sexual activity.

“Although Darger was intellectually gifted enough to skip two grades in elementary school, he was hard to control. At age 12 or 13, he was sent downstate to The Lincoln Asylum for Feeble-Minded Children in 1904. He escaped in 1909, took a train as far as Decatur and then walked 180 miles to Chicago. Except for brief military training in 1917, he never left the city again.His manuscripts and the largest body of his collages and watercolors are housed at the American Folk Art Museum in New York. Another major collection is at the Musee de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland.“

While it is a horrible thing for a person to be crazy, depressed and alone most of ones life, it does seem to be a good recipe for great artwork.

Sources: NYTimes MSNBC Village Voice

As reported earlier, 12 pieces of art by Canadian artist Bill Reid had been stolen from the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver. The value was estimated at around $2 million.

On Sunday June 8th, a house in south Burnaby was raided by police in connection with the case according to RCMP Const. Annie Linteau. She did not say if all of the items had been recovered but police are still present at some locations connected with the crime.

Linteau said police hope to release more information today, so I will update this post when more information becomes available.

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Update: All I’ve been able to find so far is a quote from a museum spokesman Scott McRae. He says, “I can confirm that they (the RCMP) told us that at least some of the Bill Reid pieces stolen from the Vancouver museum have been recovered and intact”.

So it sounds like only some of the pieces were found. If anyone knows more post in the comments, and when I find more I’ll update.

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2nd Update: There are still 2 pieces missing according to the National Post and The Globe and Mail.

“After searching both residences extensively, all but two stolen Bill Reid art exhibits were recovered intact. The substantive items, including the most prized, which is the gold box with an eagle, were recovered,” said RCMP Inspector Brendan Fitzpatrick.

Police are still hopeful that the pieces were not melted down for the gold.

“While we are satisfied that we have recovered most of the stolen items, the RCMP would like to seek the public’s assistance in recovering the last two items which we have reason to believe are still in the Lower Mainland area,” Insp. FitzPatrick said. “Our investigation to date indicates those items likely went to a local buyer or stolen property broker.”

“Hardly anyone knows that a secret tunnel runs deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean. In May 2008, more than a century after it was begun, the tunnel has finally been completed. An extraordinary optical device called a Telectroscope has been installed at both ends which miraculously allows people to see right through the Earth from London to New York and vice versa.”

This is the description of the Telectroscope from the artists website, it could also be that it is all done by fiber optics, the first explanation by artist Paul St George is a little more magical though.

One end of the “tunnel” is next to Tower Bridge on the Thames river in London. The opposite end is next to Brooklyn Bridge by New York’s East River.

It is similar to a gigantic webcam, people on one side can look in and see people on the other side. Unlike using a webcam however most of the people on the other end will be wearing clothes.

You can view a video of the piece over at the BBC.

Peter Paul Rubens is a well known baroque style painter from the late 1500’s. One of his projects was a series of nine large panelsfor the ceiling of the Banqueting House at the Palace of Whitehall, most of which was destroyed in a fire in 1698.

Rubens did many sketches before he created the panels, one of which, valued on the open market at just over 11 million pounds, is set to go up on sale after existing in a private collection for over 200 years.

The Tate Britain museum has an agreement with the potential vendor of the sketch to keep it off the market until the end of July. They are looking for donations to aquire the piece for their own collection stating that “It is absolutely unthinkable that this leaves the country”.

According to Reuters, “there [are] plans, if the appeal succeeded, to unite the work with about a dozen other known preparatory sketches for the ceiling in a special exhibition.”

The Tate has secured 1.56 million pounds so far, and donations can be made by visiting artfund.org or tate.org.uk.