YorksPast

YorksPast posts were written in advance and scheduled for posting prior to a recently completed 12-day trip to Nevada and California.  I was delighted that this posting feature worked flawlessly.  One stop during this trip was the 4-day National Genealogical Society 2013 Family History Conference in Las Vegas.

This is my photo of York County native Jeff Koons’ Tulips, which are on display in the Wynn Theater rotunda in Las Vegas.  The 3-ton Tulips sculpture was installed earlier this year after being acquired at Christie’s in New York for $33,682,500.  These Tulips were put up for auction by the German bank Nord/LB.

Related posts include:

• NYC Exhibition of over 120 Artistic Works by Jeff Koons
• Will Stone Fence Acres be the next Lauxmont Farms?

Continue reading for more on the journey of these Tulips and my promotion of the YorksPast Blog at the National Genealogical Society 2013 Family History Conference.

 

The Tulips sculpture is part of Jeff Koons’ Celebration series.  Each of the 20 different sculpture subjects in the series comes in five differently colored unique versions.  The five Tulips versions were created between 1995 and 2004.  This explains the 1995-2004 notation on the plaque identifying the sculpture.

The five versions of the Tulips sculpture have been displayed around the world in Museums, at Corporations, and by private Foundations.  One version is currently displayed in front of the United States Embassy in Beijing, China.

In 2002, Nord/LB acquired the Tulips version, now on display at Wynn Las Vegas, from Jeff Koons for $2.5 Million.  This sculpture was on display in the courtyard of the bank headquarters in Hanover, Germany for nearly a decade.  In 2012, the bank decided to put the Tulips up for auction and use the proceeds to fund a cultural foundation.

Steve Wynn was the winning bidder at $33,682,500 in the auction held last November.  He had this 3-ton sculpture installed in his Wynn Las Vegas luxury Hotel and Casino resort in January.  The Tulips are displayed on a round mirror platform, which enhances the visual display of colors.

My promotion of the YorksPast Blog at the National Genealogical Society 2013 Family History Conference was a huge success.  I went with a box of 500 hand-out cards and could have easily used another box of cards.  There were 1,981 members attending the 45 lectures by some of the top speakers in family history research, plus many more visiting the free exhibit hall in the Convention Center.

I promoted putting more historical pieces in family history books and asked them to look at a few YorksPast posts for examples.  Nearly every time I walked around the free WiFi Hotspot at the conference, I saw someone with a YorksPast blog page open.

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