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Yours with acrimony and a lot of lacrimony

Article Abstract:

Correspondence between Marlene Dietrich and her manager Michael Benedict is for sale at Sotheby's in Jul 1992, expected to sell at 1,200-1,500 pounds sterling. Benedict was a Sorbonne language graduate from Hungary who worked for the film producer Joe Pasternak before Marlene Dietrich. He was devoted to her but failed to organise contracts to her specifications and lost his job and his assets. The first tour he arranged caused Dietrich to fall from the stage through exhaustion and she had to use a wheelchair.

Records and correspondence, Letters, Letters (Correspondence), Dietrich, Marlene, Benedict, Michael

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No scramble for dinosaur eggs

Article Abstract:

Fossilised dinosaur eggs, which have been smuggled out of China via Hong Kong since the early 1990s, are now selling at very low prices, having reached a peak in 1994. They are particularly popular in the US, and it is rumoured that large numbers will be illegally shipped from Hong Kong to the US and Australia before Hong Kong reverts to Chinese sovereignty in Jun 1997. The most expensive eggs are those which have real embryo inside, but these tend to be the least decorative.

Dinosaurs, Fossil eggs

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Don't trip over the price tag

Article Abstract:

The International Oriental Carpet Centre (IOCC) is the largest bonded carpet warehouse in the world, with up to 100,000 hand-made carpets. Sale or return is the usual practice for auction organisers. About six carpet brokers have access to the IOCC. Provincial auctions often use stooges who 'seed' the bidding, raising the price to equal or above retail price. Merchants are mainly courteous Armenian Jews of financial integrity.

Rug and carpet industry, Rugs, Oriental, International Oriental Carpet Centre

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