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News on Youtube May 29 2018

A Revealing Statue of Washington Arrives, but Not Its Champion

Naked George arrived in New York on schedule.

The Italian woman who played a big role in arranging for Naked George to look stately and noble on this side of the Atlantic — specifically, in the Frick Collection, on Fifth Avenue — did not.

Naked George — though that is not its official name — is a 200-year-old plaster statue of the first president in the buff.

The woman is Franca Coin, the president of a small museum in Italy that owns the statue.

Xavier F.

Salomon, the Frick's chief curator, declared flatly: "This never would have happened without her.".

"This" is an exhibition that opened at the Frick last week, a case study of how the sculptor Antonio Canova worked.

"Naked George," a term coined by a friend of Ms.

Coin's, was one of four smallish plaster models that Canova made in preparation for a larger-than-life marble statue.

But Ms.

Coin remained in Italy, missing the opening of the exhibition, which brought the four models and a larger plaster version to the United States for the first time, even though the commission that put Canova to work came from North Carolina in 1816.

"I had the tickets," Ms.

Coin said by phone from Rome.

"I should have been in New York on the fourth of May.

I am the godmother" of the exhibition at the Frick.

But she said that orthopedic problems and a possible knee replacement stopped her.

Mr Salomon called her "a force of nature." Not only is she the president of the Canova museum in tiny Possagno, 350 miles from Rome, she is the president of Friends of Venice Italy, a New York-based group that raises money to support the Venice International Foundation.

She is the president of that group, too.

Under the Venice International Foundation's umbrella is the Civic Museums Foundation of Venice, which runs the museums there.

She and her husband, Piergiorgio Coin — who has produced wine and olive oil since selling his family's department stores — live in a famous Palladian villa on the Grand Canal, Palazzo Barbaro.

Henry James stayed there from time to time, and it inspired the setting for his novel "The Wings of the Dove." (The character Mrs.

Gareth was a reworking of the Boston art collector and museum donor Isabella Stewart Gardner.) James was not the only well-known visitor.

Others included the poet Robert Browning, the painters Claude Monet and William Merritt Chase and the novelist Edith Wharton.

Coin's New York, when she makes the trip, seems to center on the Upper East Side, not far from the Frick.

The choreographer Susan Stroman, a friend from the Friends of Venice board, said one compass point is Sant Ambroeus, a restaurant just up Madison Avenue from the Carlyle Hotel, where Ms.

Coin usually stays.

"I take her to the theater and the ballet, but before we do anything, we have to have that espresso at Saint Ambroeus," Ms.

Stroman said.

"We can't do anything until we have that espresso.".

"She has unbelievable energy," Ms.

Stroman said. "Maybe it's the espresso.".

Another Friends of Venice board member, Jonathan Marder, said that Ms.

Coin "always talks about smoking.".

"She says Venice is a small city and she clearly loves it," he said, "but if she has a cigarette outside, someone calls her husband.

In New York, she says she can smoke all the way from the Carlyle to Uniqlo, which she loves.".

"She says New York is unbelievably free," Mr Marder continued.

"In Europe, there is a desire to cling to the ideas of aristocracy.

That's not her.

She is the least snobbish person I know, and in a way, I think of her as an American.

She believes in artists and accomplishment.

She believes in the superiority of great talent like Canova.

It's as if she's perfectly matched to appreciate George Washington.".

And Ms.

Coin is passionate about the first president.

"I was there" — in Venice, visiting — "when she was trying to make this happen," Ms.

Stroman said, referring to the Frick exhibition.

"She was all excited to tell me about it and wanted it to come to America.

She knew of the excitement about the Revolution because of 'Hamilton' and how Americans seem to have been tapping into it.

The idea that Thomas Jefferson would have been involved with this sculpture of George Washington" — it was Jefferson who suggested Canova for the commission — "seemed to her so exciting that she felt the Americans needed to see it.".

Coin said that when she discovered the Canova museum had the Washington models, she wondered how she could "connect our treasure in Italy with the United States.".

That was before she met Mr Salomon, who already knew the story, including its devastating finale.

Canova's statue — the final, marble version — lasted only 10 years before it was destroyed in a fire in the state house in Raleigh.

The ceiling fell in, smashing the statue into pieces.

"I loved the story" Mr Salomon said.

"I had gone to North Carolina.

I had seen the fragments.

I knew the story and I knew the objects.

I always thought this would be a wonderful story to tell at the Frick.".

A curator is like that.

A writer has a story that sooner or later becomes a novel or a play.

A curator dreams of an exhibition to stage.

So when Mr Salomon met Ms.

Coin and she said she had become the president of the Canova museum, they hit it off.

"She said, 'Why don't we do something together?'" he recalled.

"I said, 'Why don't we do Washington?'".

Canova's Washington looks younger than the wigged statesman of the famous Gilbert Stuart portrait.

In the exhibition, the Frick's own Gilbert Stuart, acquired by Henry Clay Frick in 1918, the year before he died, is across the room from a portrait of Canova.

It was painted, in London, during the time Canova was working on the Washington statue.

But Canova and Washington never met — Washington had been dead for 17 years before Canova received the commission (and, obviously, the body for the statue in the buff was someone else's).

Canova worked from a bust owned by an American diplomat who shipped it to Canova's studio in Rome.

The bust was by Giuseppe Ceracchi, who had visited America and had done busts of Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.

Ceracchi also considered making a Statue of Liberty, nearly a century before France sent one over, but never got around to it.

He did not have time.

He was guillotined in 1801 after he was implicated in an assassination plot against Napoleon Bonaparte.

"People wrote at the time that Ceracchi's Washington was the most lifelike of all," Mr Salomon said.

So what about the Canova? What would Washington have said about it?.

"Washington was shy about images," Mr Salomon said.

"I don't think he'd have been thrilled by this.".

For more infomation >> A Revealing Statue of Washington Arrives, but Not Its Champion - Duration: 12:17.

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100 Washington Street, Stoughton | Memorial Day Weekend - Duration: 13:24.

Hey folks, it's Jonathan Bowen with Hub Edge Realty. How are you? I'm here at

Evergreen Cemetery in Stoughton, Massachusetts. Behind me is Route 138 and

on the other side of Route 138 is Town Spa Pizza; it's pretty famous around

here. So today is the Sunday before we observe Memorial Day and I've kind of

been thinking about Memorial Day, you know, more this year than ever before and

I just wanted to get some of my thoughts out to you. So, you know, first my story...

I was, I served in the, with the Navy Seabees, transferred over to the Army National

Guard, the Massachusetts Army National Guard,

I was with 101st Engineer Battalion in the Chelsea, Bridgewater and

Newburyport armories. Served, I started off as an enlisted person in the Navy as

a Constructionman Apprentice in the Navy Seabees and then I was a Private

First Class in the Army Corps of Engineers and then I went to OCS, Officer

Candidate School, down at Camp Edwards and got my commission, went back to

the 101st Engineers so this was from 1993 until 2000 and, I don't know, I

went on this thing called IRR, Inactive Ready Reserve, so I don't actually know

when my, I forget when my, you know, discharge date was but it was after

September 11th so, so anyway... Why didn't I stay in the service? Because I started

selling real estate in 1999, I had a listing on Antwerp Street in Milton and

I had to go and, go up to Fort Drum for 15 days with the Army National Guard and

I had told my clients, I said "Listen, I know this has been a very difficult sale,

I know that there are a lot of things going on but I have a commitment I have

to leave with the Army National Guard for 15 days".

This was before cell phones were so prevalent, I had one but, you know, the the

coverage and in the woods of, you know, upstate New York, you know, obviously I

didn't have any cell phone coverage so, so, you know, it was very very difficult,

I got back to the office, I worked at Jack Conway in Milton back then, my office

manager, Ron Scott, sat me down, almost fired me because my clients were really

upset and I don't blame them because selling your house is so important, it's

really one of the most important things that'll ever, that you'll ever do in

your life so, so, you know, I had to make a decision at that point what I was going

to do you know, I did commit to doing one weekend a month and 15 days a year, that

one week in a month, I'll never, was on a holiday weekend, so you got to realize

that, you know, if there was a holiday that month it was cutting out two

weekends of open houses for my client so that's really, you know, the reason I got

out of the service, I regret it some days, I don't know, you know, I'm still, still

have a lot of thoughts. So I still have a lot of friends who I served with, Eric

DiNoto is, I believe, I haven't spoken with him in a while, but I believe he's

still in the Massachusetts Army National Guard, we, we went to OCS together, he went

overseas. John Pitt, he's with the Indiana National Guard, I was with him at

Engineer Officer Basic Course out in out in, at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and he,

he's doing great, he's a Lieutenant Colonel in the Indiana National Guard, he

just finished a battalion command so, you know, I, I'm so happy for everybody who

I've served with and people who I've, you know, I don't know what happened, I've

served with so many people over the years, I mean, I don't know what happened

to really any of them. So, so Memorial Day, why, what is

Memorial Day? You know, Memorial Day is not, we're not celebrating anything, although

I'm really happy to talk about the people who I served with, we're not

celebrating anything because Memorial Day is a date of remembrance, we're

remembering the people who have died in service to our country, protecting our

country, so there's no "Happy Memorial Day", it's really nice to have a family

barbecue, maybe people have some drinks, but we're really, you know, people, you

know, the reason for this is a remembrance, okay...

Veterans Day is different, people sometimes get Memorial Day and Veterans

Day mixed up. Veterans Day is the day for people like me, people who have served,

you say, "Hey, you know, Happy Veterans Day" or, you know, "Thank you for helping and

thank you for serving". That's the difference between Memorial Day and

Veterans Day. A lot of people get them confused, okay? So, you know, I, my family

has a long history with the military, my father served in Vietnam, he was in the

9th Infantry Division, he was you know at Fort Riley, Kansas for a while he, before,

you know, he was deployed over to Vietnam, he was a heli... helicopter repairmen and

I think about my father because, you know, there were 50,000 plus soldiers and

sailors and basically service members who died over in Vietnam and, you know,

this, I was born in 1973 and, you know, this is, you know, he was over there

before I was even born so I'm lucky to even be alive standing here talking to

you because I'm a miracle, we're all miracles, you know, you know my father

easily could have been killed and he told me a story one time, he was up at

the top of a helicopter fixing the rotor and bullets started whizzing by his head

and he jumped right off the top of the helicopter, I mean that's, you know, that's

15 feet, you know, whatever it is, 20 feet, jumping off the top of the helicopter,

you know, that's serious business. He told me awful stories he, you know, he never

told me these stories until after I served in the military, told me stories

about picking up guys, and I know you don't

want to hear this, picking up guys' guts and putting their brains back in there, you know, I

mean, he, that was part of his job, he had to go into these battlefields and pick

up the wounded and the dead so, I mean, my dad has seen some real real real

terrible, awful stuff. I've had uncles and au.., not aunts, excuse me, uncles and cousins

who have served, I have a cousin who's in the Air Force right now, I've, you know

had family members serve in all the different branches. So, you know, my part

of my story, the closest I've ever gotten personally to war was on September 11th,

obviously, my, you know, 2001, I was a newly commissioned Lieutenant in the

Massachusetts Army National Guard, I was living in Sharon, Massachusetts. I had all

my TA-50 I don't think they call it TA-50 anymore, but I had all my TA-50

and I was ready to go, I was ready to you know go down to Ground Zero, is it was

later called, and I had two things that, you know, I had my heart and my head. My

heart said "Hey, go, go go go go go". My head said, "You know, you're just a First..." you

know, (garbled speech), I forget if I was a Second Lieutenant or a First

Lieutenant at the time, "You're just a Lieutenant..." I mean obviously I had the

the castle on my collar, this was engineering, I mean, this is what

we did, you know, we blew stuff up. I hate to even say it like that,

Jesus, excuse my French, but, you know, you know, this is what we did. We, we, you know, so

anyway, we, I decided, my head said to me "Do not go because they've got plenty of

people down there, you're just going to cause more chaos, there is nothing for

you to do down there". Um, so that was, that was my thinking at

the time. Do I have any right to even go down there because there was no direct

order from anybody telling me to go down there so, could have I even gotten in

trouble for just going down on my own volition? I don't know, I don't, I still

don't know those answers, you know, I, who knows, you know, so that

was the closest I ever came, you know, I of course I you know I know that 101st

Engineers went over to either Iraq or Afghanistan after September 11th but I

had already, you know, I had to make a decision, you know, what am I doing here?

So, so that's my personal story. I have not served overseas, you know, you know, do

I regret that, I don't know, you know, I'm no hero.

I would like to be a hero but, you know, I'm just a regular guy and all these

other guys are regular guys too, guys who have served and guys who have died, you

know, so I guess really the, how has Memorial Day touched me most directly?

Well, my daughter, her great-grandfather on her mother's side is a guy named

Captain Charles E. Higgins and he was in the Army during World War II, and he

went over to northern France a few days after D-Day and he was killed in battle

right outside of Saint-Lô and because of that my significant other's father,

Charles Higgins as well, he's not a "Jr.", he just left today, he's 75-years-old,

he just left back to Cleveland today and he never had his father, you know, he was a very

use of tiny baby and his father had been killed over in, over in France so, you

know, think about that, you know, not having your father or your mother, you know, I

just, you know, breaks my heart when I think about not only him but, you

know, all of these other people who have lost family members throughout,

throughout all of these wars that we've had, you know, and it, it just breaks my heart so,

yeah, and I guess it has directly affected my daughter in some way, she

probably never would have met her great-grandfather but who knows, you know,

who knows? So I just want you to take some time and think about, even if war

has not touched your family directly, most people you see around here, it has,

you know, it has touched their family maybe not this generation, maybe not the

generation before that but most likely war has touched your family and the

people who have helped to defend this country, two or three generations, four

generations, World War I, you know, the Civil War, there are so many, you know,

people who have died trying to help this country. So that's all I would like to

say to you. I appreciate your time, I know I get long-winded, so thank you, okay?

Thank you to all the families who have lost loved ones and, of course, thank you

to the people who have served, although, as we said, this is not the correct, I

don't think it's wrong to say that either but, you know that's all I have to

say. Listen, thank you very much for watching this and enjoy your Memorial

Day Weekend, I hope you have some fun, but you take a few minutes, maybe come by a

cemetery, I mean, like I'm doing here now, you know,

that's it. Thank you so much, have a good day okay. Bye-bye.

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