Collectors

Collaboration between McDaniel professor Sue Bloom, Westminster physician Dr. Dean Griffin and McDaniel College will bring a special talk on the western art of E. William Gollings to the college's Peterson Hall on Thursday, Oct. 13, at 7 p.m. The premier authority on Gollings' work, Dr. William Ward, will speak. The event is free and open to all. "The lecturer is a friend of mine from Wyoming," said Griffin said in an email interview. "Last year I traveled to Wyoming to hear him give this lecture to a group from the Cowboy Hall of Fame Museum in Oklahoma City.

Art collectors take note: There's an Andy Warhol about to hit the market. Federal prosecutors in Baltimore have approved the sale of a Liz Taylor print — aptly titled "Liz" — and several other artifacts from the private collection of Barry H. Landau, who's accused of stealing historic documents from museums on both sides of the Atlantic. It's still up to a judge to sign off on the deal, however. Landau's lawyers had asked last month that their client be allowed to liquidate some of his prized assets to pay for "living expenses" — including $2,700 per month in rent for his Manhattan apartment — while he's out on bail awaiting trial in the city's U.S. District Court.

That unfamiliar incoming call to your cellphone soon might be from a debt collector. Cellphones are largely off-limits to collection agencies, but proposals by the White House and Congress could change that. Supporters say regulations have not kept up with technology and the fact that many consumers have replaced traditional landlines with cellphones. But consumer advocates warn that cellphone users could be bombarded with "nuisance" calls if debt collectors gain another avenue to reach — or hound — consumers.

I find it most amusing to read about the super rich paying their fare share. Fine. I hope that when measures to that end are finally taken, the tax collectors won't neglect to soak such luminaries as, say, Barbara Streisand, Oprah, Michael Moore, Alec Baldwin and George Soros, to name just a few. Paul C. Shugrue, Baltimore

In one of the largest gifts ever received by Baltimore's Walters Art Museum , a New Mexico collector is donating some 300 pieces and promising a $4 million bequest to shine a spotlight on the art of the ancient Americas. "This is a huge development for us," said Walters director Gary Vikan, noting that the soon-to-be-created center for the study of the arts of the ancient Americas should prove especially alluring to the area's "very vibrant" Latino community. "This is a huge new ingredient in building audience for us," he said.

Frank J. Gach, a master carpenter whose expertly constructed bookcases and shelves were highly prized by bibliophiles and college libraries, died Aug. 13 of complications from dementia at Keswick Multi-Care Center. The former longtime Randallstown resident was 94. The son of a coal miner and a homemaker, Mr. Gach was born and raised in Glen Campbell, Pa., where he graduated from high school. Mr. Gach's expertise in carpentry began at an early age. When he was 16, he built a barn on his family's property that stood for 50 years, family members said.

It's been called the largest and most important art and antiques exhibition of the summer. I can't confirm that, but I can tell you that the Baltimore Summer Antiques Show is huge, beautifully designed and features the widest range of high-quality vintage and antique items for sale that I've seen anywhere. For me, attending the show is like going to a museum, but better — the items on display have been curated by hundreds of top specialists from around the world. And unlike museums, which house mostly "permanent" collections established over the course of decades or longer, the merchandise at the show represents the most current trends in art and antiques.

In recent weeks, at least one local television station has referred to Barry H. Landau, the New York man arrested with an accomplice and charged with stealing documents from the Maryland Historical Society, as a "presidential historian. " The TV station, WJZ-Channel 13, had it wrong. Mr. Landau is not a "historian"; he is a professional collector of presidential memorabilia, and has befriended several former chief executives in the process. As a professional historian who was trained within the academic field and has taught history at the college level for 20 years, I can sadly say that the terms "historian" and "history" have been, particularly in recent years, distorted, unduly inflated, and diminished.