Andrew Lloyd Webber (above) has been taking advantage of the Hong Kong government's inspired decision to abolish wine duty by auctioning part of his vast collection of vintages here, having run out of cupboard space in his stately piles. It's not the first time the British composer has put his treasured possessions under the hammer. Last year, he made headlines with the US$52 million sale of the Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto, by Pablo Picasso ...
At the Spanish artist's birth, the midwife, believing him to be stillborn, left baby Pablo on a table. It was only when an uncle blew cigar smoke into the infant's face that he began to scream. Picasso, a life-long smoker, became something of a bon vivant, with a number of questionable friends, one of whom was responsible for him being questioned by Paris police in 1911 over the theft of the Mona Lisa ...
Leonardo da Vinci's 16th-century masterpiece, which cannot be insured, is housed in a climate-controlled, US$7.5 million room at the Louvre, Paris. Scholars have alternately put the subject's lack of eyebrows down to da Vinci's perfectionism (he rarely finished his paintings) or a cleaning mishap. Arguably the world's most famous work of art, the Mona Lisa has been parodied in every conceivable way, including a pop-culture version called The Monster Lisa, featuring a cookie-eating character from The Muppet Show ...
First aired in 1974, The Muppet Show was conceived to appeal to adults and children after Sesame Street had made Jim Henson's puppet creations popular with the viewing public. Each episode featured a human guest and the show attracted an impressive list of celebrities, from Roger Moore to Rudolph Nureyev. The only celebrity to die before his show was aired was Zero Mostel ...
Blacklisted by Hollywood for most of the 1950s for 'un-American' (read: communist) behaviour, the comedian became a hero to other artists in the same predicament for the hilarious and provoking testimony he gave to the US government committee investigating the dubious crimes. Having spent the time off indulging his passion and skill for art, Mostel resumed his career with enthusiasm. His last film role was that of a Yiddish-speaking seagull in Watership Down ...
Penguin Books' best-selling title of all time is a dark, pseudo-political tale of a group of rabbits' search for a new home following the loss of their warren. Born from a tale author Richard Adams told his daughters, the story has danger, death and destruction - something for everyone, apart from feminists, who didn't take to the does' representation as baby-making machines. The real Watership Down is a hill located in Hampshire, southern England, close to where the author grew up, and is on land owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
