Category: Новини

A gemstone, billed as one of the largest gem-quality opals in existence, was sold for $143,750 at auction in Alaska on Sunday. 

The opal, dubbed the “Americus Australis,” weighs more than 11,800 carats, according to the auction house Alaska Premier Auctions & Appraisals. It also has a long history.

Most recently, it was kept in a linen closet in a home in Big Lake, north of Anchorage, by Fred von Brandt, who mines for gold in Alaska and whose family has deep roots in the gem and rock business. 

The opal is larger than a brick and is broken into two pieces, which von Brandt said was a practice used decades ago to prove gem quality.

Von Brandt said the stone has been in his family since the late 1950s, when his grandfather bought it from an Australian opal dealer named John Altmann.  

Von Brandt said the opal for decades was in the care of his father, Guy von Brandt, who decided it had been “locked up long enough, that it’s time to put it back out in the world and see what interest it can generate.”

“He entrusted me to figure out which direction we wanted to go to part with the stone,” von Brandt told The Associated Press.  

The family, with roots in California, exhibited the stone at gem shows for years, until the early 1980s, he said. His father then branched out into furniture and displayed it at his shop. Guy von Brandt eventually moved to Oregon and kept the stone “kind of tucked away” for many years, von Brandt said.

Von Brandt said he brought it with him to Alaska over a year ago as he weighed the best approach to a possible sale. He said he went with Alaska Premier Auctions & Appraisals because he thought it would get more attention from the newer company than a larger auction house.  

Nick Cline, a partner and appraisal specialist with Alaska Premier Auctions & Appraisals, said the family has documentation surrounding the provenance of the opal. As part of his research, he contacted Fiona Altmann, granddaughter of John Altmann and general manager of Altmann + Cherny in Sydney, Australia.

Altmann said her grandfather, in his business dealings, made regular trips to Europe and the U.S.  

Altmann said when Cline emailed her, she was skeptical; the name of the stone, in particular, threw her. But she said she started digging and discovered “something with my grandfather’s handwriting with the picture of the opal with the word ‘Americus Australis.'”

“I with 100% certainty know that their provenance information is 100% accurate” because it lines up with information she has, she said.

The auction house said the stone was discovered in the same field in Australia as the opal known as the “Olympic Australis,” which weighs 17,000 carats and is on permanent display in Altmann’s shop. The Olympic had been among the stones that John Altmann and partner Rudi Cherny acquired in 1956, according to Altmann’s company.  

The auction company sought a minimum bid of $125,000 during Sunday’s auction. Cline said it was a “calculated risk,” with the company going with what it sees as a conservative approach in hopes of garnering the most attention.

“We were honored to conduct the auction of this unique, one-of-a-kind specimen,” Cline said after the auction.  

The sale included a smaller piece of the opal that von Brandt said his father cut off to be worn or displayed.
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Africa’s biggest international contemporary art fair has opened its doors to the public for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began. The Investec Cape Town Art Fair went online last year, but this year has nearly 100 artists exhibiting works in-person from 20 countries.

“It’s absolutely a joy to be back to almost real life,” said Laura Vincenti, director of the art fair. “I mean, we have had two years that have been very tough, but the art community have been very supportive. And this city and South Africa needed an event to reconnect people, so we are very grateful to everyone.”

This is the ninth year the fair is being held, but was hosted online last year due to COVID-19.

“It’s been a long journey since the beginning, but now the fair is on an international calendar. We got a lot of exhibitors from overseas. Like many, more than a thousand collectors coming just for this week to Cape Town,” Vincenti said.

Franco-Benin ceramicist King Houndekinkou, speaking from Benin, said he was extremely grateful to have his work shown at the fair, which is held in the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

“Wow, well it’s a blessing to be still here, first of all, and to still be having a career and still be showing and to have people wanting to still show the work after this time that we had where everyone was in lockdown — so yeah, it’s great! I’m happy!” he said.

Nigerian art lover Usen Obot flew in especially to see the show.

“I would say it’s like getting back to life because, for me as an artist and a gallery owner, seeing images is OK, but seeing the real thing is the real deal,” Obot said.

Fundraiser Tanya Townsend was there to make connections for a children’s home that runs an art program.

“It’s absolutely amazing. You just realize how starved you’ve been over the last two years. And just to see the buzz here. I didn’t know what to expect and it’s so vast,” Townsend said. “And you know we South Africans just love foreigners and coming to our beautiful city on this gorgeous sunny day. It’s just so thrilling. It’s fantastic.”

Vincetti said the fair is a hybrid event this year, so there is still an online component.

“Of course, with the difficulties of traveling and also the fear for many people especially from Europe and America to travel to South Africa, they have a chance to go online and see the fair online,” she said. “So what we are showing on our digital platform is exactly what you’d find at the fair. The same galleries, the same works. You can purchase or you can browse and see what’s going on.”

The fair ends Feb. 20, 2022.
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Jumping, spinning and landing back on the ice, the young figure skaters at the Fairfax Ice Arena in a Washington, D.C., suburb have big dreams.

“My future goal is to reach the Olympics,” said Sherry Naree Wester. The 8-year-old’s mother is from Thailand, and her father is a white American.

“And I want a scholarship for college,” said Jada Wong, 9. Her mom immigrated from Hong Kong, and her dad was born in a Chinese immigrant family in the United States.

The girls love the sheer beauty of figure skating, the sense of accomplishment that comes from completing challenging movements, and the fact that so many members of the 2022 U.S. Olympic Figure Skating Team are also Asian American.

“My favorite is Karen Chen. I like her combination spin of the layback and haircutter to Biellmann. And for her jump, I really like her triple lutz,” said Wester, rattling off the technical names of moves that make arena audiences gasp, then applaud.

Inspiration is making representation a reality among Asian Americans in figure skating.

Nathan Chen, the first Asian American to win gold in men’s figure skating, said that Michelle Kwan inspired him as a child. A five-time World Champion (1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003) and a nine-time U.S. champion, (1996, 1998–2005), Kwan earned a silver medal at the 1998 Nagano Games and a bronze at the 2002 Salt Lake Games.

“For me, growing up in Salt Lake City and having a face like Michelle Kwan was really inspirational,” said Chen at a victory press conference in Beijing.

“And I know that having athletes that look like you certainly gives you the hope that you can do the same, and Michelle Kwan certainly was that for me.”

For the past two winter Olympics, the USA figure skating team has been dominated by Asian American athletes.

This year, four out of six figure skaters on the U.S. team are Asian American: Karen Chen, Nathan Chen, Alysa Liu and Vincent Zhou. Madison Chock, another Asian American, represents America in ice dancing. At the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, seven of the 14 U.S. figure skaters were Asian American.

Their presence has been decades in the making. Thirty-some years ago, Asian Americans were nearly nonexistent on the ice rink.

Tiffany Chin was the first Asian American to win the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in 1985.

Figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi was the first Asian American woman to win a gold medal in Winter Olympic competition when she finished first in women’s singles at the 1992 winter games in Albertville, France. She also won two World Figure Skating Championships (1991 and 1992).

Susan Brownell, an anthropology professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis who studies Chinese sports, and a former track and field athlete herself, told VOA Mandarin in an email that European American parents often prefer for their children to engage in physically harsher sports, for example football and baseball for boys, and soccer for girls. But Asian American parents don’t value the aggressiveness and competitiveness of these sports.

“They are more concerned about their children facing injury, and they appreciate the aesthetic nature of figure skating. So they are more likely to encourage their children to take up figure skating,” Brownell said.

“Over the last decade, the numbers of Asian Americans – some Japanese, but mostly Chinese – at the grassroots level (have) increased rapidly, and this has been feeding more and more Asian Americans into the development pipeline. All indications are that these numbers will continue to increase rapidly,” she added.

Heidi Grappendorf, an associate professor of sport management at Western Carolina University, suggested that Asian Americans may see figure skating as a way into competitive sports.

“Figure skating provides a more welcoming and accepting atmosphere and culture without potential stereotypes than, for example, American football or even basketball,” she said in an email to VOA Mandarin. Grappendorf added, “Stating that Asians are good at figure skating because of their body type is ridiculous and racist.”

For every skater aiming high, the sport can punish a family budget. Brownell, who figure skates recreationally, told VOA Mandarin that costs for ambitious athletes add up with rink practice, coaching, clothing and equipment, club dues, competition entry fees and travel expenses quickly soaring to thousands of dollars annually.

Only a handful of top figure skaters have sponsorships, she added, and those competing internationally and nationally can apply for stipends from U.S. Figure Skating, the sport’s national governing body. The organization provides a total of $750,000 annually, with stipends ranging from a few thousand dollars to as much as $40,000, according to Brownell’s estimate.

And while Grappendorf suggested that because “Asian Americans’ access to resources and income may be greater,” costs are less likely to thwart aspirations, Brownell said that at her skating club, many working-class parents supported their children in the sport by holding down multiple jobs.

Wendy Zhai-Brown, whose 8-year-old daughter, Bethany Brown, takes pride in landing her jumps and finishing her spins correctly, said “Skating is indeed expensive, but it’s not like Asians can afford it easily. We need to consider and balance different aspects of life.”

She added, “I think, in general, Asians … consider education as investment. Education is not just about what you learn from the textbooks in the classroom. Sports are a long-term investment in children’s physical and mental well-being.”

And any family with a figure skater in mix makes a significant time commitment to encourage their athletes, said Zhai-Brown, who left a job in commercial insurance to become a real estate agent so she could have a flexible schedule to meet her daughter’s training timetable.

“I get up at 5:45 a.m. every day, prepare her breakfast and pack her lunch,” said Zhai-Brown of her daily routine in suburban Virginia. “I wake Bethany up at 6:15, get to the ice rink at 7:20, and then she will do two practice sessions from 7:30 to 8:50. Then we basically run to the car and I’ll drive her to school. Usually we will get there at 9:15, and 9:20 is the latest arrival time.”

“So, it’s a war every morning,”

Some kids, such as Sherry Naree Wester, return to the Fairfax Ice Arena to practice after school. They train every morning and afternoon, six days a week.

That practice, practice, and more practice attitude is the biggest determinant of success in figure skating, said Adriana DeSanctis, a coach at the Fairfax rink.

“The kids that are really succeeding are the kids that are on the ice all the time regardless of their race or ethnicity.”

 

 
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Who says you have to be born in Italy to make excellent pizza? Ibrahim Songne, a West African now living in northern Italy, has successfully challenged that assumption. VOA’s Betty Ayoub has the story.
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Victory, of sorts, for Eritrea’s sole Winter Olympian — one of just six athletes competing for African countries at the Games in China — was achieved even before his feat of surviving two runs in blizzard conditions down a hazardous course aptly named The Ice River.

Before flying to China for his Olympic ski race in the mountains northwest of Beijing, Shannon-Ogbnai Abeda learned of a cross-country skier living in Germany who has been so inspired by Abeda’s trailblazing that he’s aiming to qualify for their East African nation at the next Winter Games in 2026.

“It was because of all the interviews that I did and, you know, me coming and doing this again,” Abeda, who also raced at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, said after his 39th-place finish in the giant slalom that only 46 of 87 starters completed in Sunday’s snowstorm.

“He wants to now carry the torch,” Abeda said.

So just imagine: How many other enthused young wannabes could emerge from the African continent of 1.3 billion people, and from the African diaspora spread around the world, if they only had more than a handful of Olympic pioneers leading the way, showing that barriers of racial prejudice, inequality and geography are surmountable?

That question is more pertinent than ever at the Beijing Games, because African representation has shrivelled since a record eight African nations, fielding twice as many athletes as in Beijing, competed in 2018. Eritrea, Ghana, Morocco, Madagascar and Nigeria are back; Kenya, South Africa and Togo are not.

Skiing — Alpine and cross-country — was the only sport Africans qualified for. There was just one African woman: Mialitiana Clerc, born in Madagascar and adopted by a French couple as a baby, is now a two-time Olympian. Having broken through in Pyeongchang, she raced in Beijing to 41st place, out of 80 starters, in giant slalom and 43rd, out of 88, in slalom.

Elsewhere, at the skating rinks, snow parks and sliding track, there was no African representation at all. African sliders were thwarted by less inclusive qualifying rules, despite making history in Pyeongchang. There, Nigeria fielded Africa’s first-ever bobsled team; Simidele Adeagbo, also Nigerian, became the first African and Black woman in skeleton; and Ghana’s Akwasi Frimpong blazed trails on the men’s side.

Adeagbo, frustrated to have been left on the sidelines for Beijing, says the plunge in African representation requires an Olympic response. The movement’s five rings are meant to symbolize the five inhabited continents. But in Beijing, Africa’s presence feels barely bigger than a dot. Adeagbo notes that the Summer Olympics “see a rainbow of nations represented” and wonders why that’s less the case in winter, given that “sport is supposed to be democratic for all.”

“Is this the European Olympics or is this an Olympics that reflects the world?” she asked in a video interview with The Associated Press. “So hopefully this will be a catalyzing moment to help everybody kind of regroup and think about a different way forward.”

“We’re talking about the Olympics; we shouldn’t have complete exclusion,” Adeagbo said. “Given the resources and support, Africans are just as capable.”

Looking ahead to 2026, the International Olympic Committee says it will reexamine qualification rules and quotas, which African Olympians want used to carve more space for them. But there’s no sign of IOC dismay about Africa’s retreat in Beijing.

“There are five continents represented here,” said James Macleod, head of an IOC sponsorship program that helped fund athletes on their Beijing journeys.

The IOC gave individual scholarships to 429 athletes. Europe, with 295 beneficiaries, got the lion’s share. Africa, with 16, got the least. Five African recipients qualified for Beijing. The Americas (50), Asia (47), and Oceania (21) got the remainder. The IOC says its aim is Winter Games that are more competitive, rather than “artificially” more universal.

African recipients say the funding was vital for them. They argue that increased financing for African winter athletes would see more qualify. Abeda — born in Canada, where his parents resettled in the 1990s, fleeing war in Eritrea — said US$1,500 per month in IOC funding helped cover his living, training, coaching and equipment costs. He wants private businesses “to step up,” too.

“At Pyeongchang, it was really great to see more Africans,” he said. “At these Games, there’s very little. So I am disappointed.”

Adeagbo said her bobsled alone, cost $40,000.

“I don’t think any sport should be just for the privileged and these are the things that we need to have real conversations about,” she said. “Sport is not meant to be just for one group.”

The IOC says COVID-19 disruptions that played havoc with athlete preparations could partially explain Africa’s slump. Frimpong’s hopes of qualifying again for Ghana in skeleton were dashed by coronavirus positives that forced him out of races ahead of Beijing. South Africa also likely would have sent athletes had it not been for the pandemic, says Cobus Rademeyer, head of social sciences at South Africa’s Sol Plaatje University, who has written on Africa’s history at the Winter Games.

“The pandemic has definitely broken the momentum,” Rademeyer said by email to The AP. He expects Africa to bounce back for 2026, writing: “Although some people see the participation of African athletes at the Winter Olympics as ‘glory-hunters,’ it has been an inspiration for many others.”

Skier Carlos Maeder, born in Ghana and adopted by Swiss parents, says he’s been amazed by a flood of messages from supportive Ghanaians. Also an IOC scholarship recipient, he raced in the snow-hit giant slalom but skied out in the first run.

At 43, he’d like to find other Ghanaians to follow in his footsteps and “will ski as long as it’s necessary to find some.”

“I hope that these games will be a door opener,” he said. “It’s not just about the African continent: We are spread around the world. So that makes it important that our continent is represented.”
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