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Panini’s Museum
Holy cow!
By Pablo Chaterji
Of all the places for a car museum to exist, a dairy farm is probably the last one that you would think of – although the museum in the pilgrimage town of Dharmasthala, close to Mangalore, might come a close second. Still, when you drive into a near-400 hectare piece of farmland, passing by rows of cattle sheds and barns with farm equipment strewn all over, the last thing you expect to see when you pull into the parking lot is a museum dedicated to all things Maserati. Yet there it is, in a lovely old building with steel arches and wrought-iron balconies inside it, and some eclectic pieces of sculpture near the entrance – the Museo Panini.
Situated a few miles outside Modena, Italy, the home of Maserati, the museum is privately owned. It was set up by Umberto Panini, a passionate Maserati man and a former employee of the company. After school, Panini joined the motorcycle division of the company (yes, Maserati used to make motorcycles too), eventually becoming chief test rider. He then went off to Venezuela, where he worked as a mechanic on racing bikes, and when he returned to Italy, he joined the family’s business making collectible stickers. In 1990, the business was sold and the family bought the farm, getting into the cheese-making business – today, they make some of the best cheese in Italy. In between, Panini had been collecting all manner of motorcycles, and in 1997, at an auction, he purchased a collection of vintage Maserati cars that had been rebuilt using left over and reengineered parts, at the behest of former owner Alejandro de Tomaso. The Museo Panini collection had been kick-started.
And what a collection it is! Cars, motorcycles, scooters, tractors – the Museo Panini has the lot, and almost every car here is in full working order. You’ll see the tractors outside the building, including ones made by Lamborghini and Fiat, and when you step through the shiny doors into the main building, your jaw will drop. The first car your eyes will irresistibly be drawn to is the stunning Maserati A6GCS Berlinetta Pinifarina, of which only four examples were ever made. The collection is a little haphazard, to be honest, but it’s terrific nonetheless, with almost all the Maserati models in attendance – the legendary 5000GT, the 3500GT (a car that still attends races), the Khamsin, the Bora, the Merak, the Ghibli (an SS as well as a Spyder), the Mistral and the only examples of the Simun, which was the car that was passed over in favour of what became the Indy, the Merak Turbo, which never made it into production and the Tipo 124, built on the Indy platform and unofficially called the Medici.
Maserati’s glorious racing heritage also has representation (no, the 250F isn’t here, sadly) – the equally special ‘Birdcage’ racing cars, one front and the other rear-engined, are both here, as is the only Tipo 420M/58 ever built, the ‘El Dorado’ (after the ice cream company that sponsored it) that was raced by Sir Stirling Moss. You’ll also find a full-sized static prototype of the Chubasco, a road-going, mid-engined GT that was considered for production in the 1990s. Additionally, you’ll see some mouth-watering non-Maseratis, such as a Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing and some classic American iron from the 1930s and ‘40s.
Motorcycle lovers needn’t feel left out, either, because Panini built up a huge collection of bikes – largely Italian, but with some Brit and American machines thrown in. Rare bikes from Moto Guzzi, Ducati, Maserati, Gilera, MV Agusta, Moto Morini, as well as lesser known names like Moto CM and Rubinelli, are displayed on the museum’s first floor. They sit alongside Harley-Davidsons, Nortons, Triumphs and several other marques from the golden era of motorcycling, making the museum a true delight for anyone remotely interested in classic and vintage cars and bikes.
And what of the farm itself? Well, I can tell you that the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese that they make, in massive 36 kg roundels that sell for 500 euros each, is sensationally tasty – and their fruit preserves, pasta sauces, wines and cuts of meat aren’t half bad either. The combination is, therefore, heady – a fabulous car and bike museum, rounded off by some great cheese, wine and cold cuts!
The Museo Panini isn’t open to the public, in the sense that you have to make a reservation with them in advance for a guided tour.
from bsmotoring.com
Armistice Day and wrought iron gates
Gates restored in time for Armistice Day
By Diana Henderson
A BEAUTIFUL pair of wrought iron gates have been painstakingly restored at a traditional Dorset forge and replaced in time for Armistice Day.
Unusually, the gates, which stand in Upton Country Park, Poole commemorate two soldiers who survived the carnage of the First World War.
Made in 1919 they were originally erected by William Llewellin, owner of Upton House until 1957, in gratitude at the return of both of his sons from the Great War.
An inscription on a small metal plaque fixed to the gate reads: “In thankfulness to God for the safe return from the Great War of his sons William Wigan Capt. 4th Battn. Dorset Regt. from India and Mesopotamia and John Jestyn M.C. Major 52nd Siege Battery from France. These Gates were erected by William Llewellin, Sheriff of Dorset. August 1919.”
Major Llewellin won his MC in 1917, became MP for Uxbridge in 1929 and was a Minister in Winston Churchill’s Second World War government before becoming Baron Llewellin in 1945.
The ornate scrolled gates stand at the north-west corner of the walled garden and took five weeks skilled work to restore.
“We stripped them back to the bare metal, coated them to prevent them rusting, completely redecorated and hung them,” said Giles. “I had to replace one or two of the scrolls.”
These are the oldest gates on the estate and he is also renovating some of the others. “I have done a few memorial benches, including one for the Rifle Brigade at Chepstow, at Verwood and Winton. They are commemorating the loss of someone,” he said.
“It’s quite nice to see something written where they survived.”
York Street : wrought iron fence
City installing fence on York Street
Jeff Heuchert
York Street business owners are getting the decorative fence along the commercial block’s green space they had petitioned for.
Stratford’s manager of parks and forestry Quin Malott said the fence, 42 inches high and made of a black heavy-duty aluminum – not wrought iron as the merchants had wanted – will be installed along the north edge of the green space that divides the street and parking lot sometime in November.
The push for the fence was led by former York Street business owner Susan Murar, who first suggested the idea to the city in the mid ’80s and then again in 2009, when she made a presentation to the city’s parks board.
At that time, Malott said the request was referred to city staff for review for future budgets, and that “it was just a matter of time before we had basically saved up enough money that we could honour the request.”
In addition to its aesthetic value, Murar and the more than 30 merchants who signed the petition this past summer, including some on Ontario Street, believe the fence addresses a serious safety hazard. She noted several of the owners have witnessed people almost falling off the north side of the space on more than one occasion.
Malott agreed the drop off on the green space could pose a problem.
“The three and a half foot drop at the back of the green space does warrant us to put a physical barrier there to (stop) anyone from falling.”
Murar said she has informed the merchants the fence is coming and they are all thrilled and believe their action, namely the petition, was the key factor in the fence getting approved.
“Everybody feels a real strong part of (the project). We definitely made it happen.”
Along with the fence, the work will also include rehabilitation of the west end of the green space, including levelling the ground and installing a small retaining wall. Total cost of the project is approximately $8,000.
from stratfordgazette.com
Lakeview park with wrought iron lights
Group wants to put up wrought-iron lights in Lakeview park
Mike Hoss
As dusk quickly turns to night, Celeste Toups is running around New Basin Canal Park with her boyfriend, but she says if he couldn’t have made it, she wouldn’t have come either.
“Getting off of school after work, I have to run home, see if I can get a quick run before it gets dark because the lighting’s really bad, and it’s just not safe running by yourself,” she said.
But that may not be a problem down the road, as the Friends of Lakeview organization hopes to put wrought-iron lights around and inside the park.
If you’re not familiar with the name “New Basin Canal Park,” you likely are familiar with the area. It’s the huge neutral ground space between West End Boulevard and Pontchartrain Boulevard, with Veterans and Robert E. Lee marking the top and bottom.
The $450,000 to $500,000 Light up Lakeview design is the first capital project for the non-profit, and all money will be raised privately to pay for it.
“It can be a beacon, to use that comparison,” said Glenn Stoudt, chairman of Friends of Lakeview. “I think it’s important. The reason it came to the top is because even though it’s in Lakeview, it can be used by people from all around the metro area, actually.”
After Hurricane Katrina, this park housed a pile of debris five stories high. Over the last three years the Friends of Lakeview have planted 500 trees here, and now it hope the lights will be the next stage in this parks symbolic turnaround.
“With the future plans we’ve got, we’ll transform what was a one-time symbol of devastation into a totally brand new park for our neighborhood,” said Al Petrie, president of Friends of Lakeview.
And one that highlights safety as well. “I think more people would want to walk later at night than now,” said Brittany James. “It would help a lot.” The lights, like the funding, will likely come in stages.
This Saturday there will be the first fundraiser for the light and lampposts. It will be from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Vicksburg Street.
from wwltv.com
Oslo Vigeland Museum
Vigeland Museum revitalized
Tucked away on the south side of Oslo’s famed Frogner Park is a large historic building that in many ways made the park itself possible. The Vigeland Museum, named for the artist behind the park’s enormous collection of sculptures, is where Gustav Vigeland lived and worked for nearly two decades. It reopened earlier this year and a visit can make a tour of the park much more meaningful.
There actually are two historic homes and museums on the park’s south side, both of which led to creation of the park, and this guide already has visited the Oslo City Museum (Bymuseet) and Frogner Hovedgård. Now visitors are welcome once again at the Vigeland Museum across the street, after a major if somewhat unnoticeable renovation. It included installation of a new roof and restoration of plumbing and electrical systems that mostly dated back to the building’s construction in the early 1920s. The need for basic refurbishment was acute.
“Sometimes we had to have buckets standing on the floors of the exhibition rooms, because the roof was leaking,” museum conservator Guri Skuggen told newspaper Aftenposten earlier this year. Now the roof’s new copper gleams in the late autumn sunshine, and the exhibition areas are shined up as well, without any jarring, major changes.
“We actually tried to make the changes as unnoticeable as possible,” Skuggen said. That’s in part because the building itself is in the process of becoming fredet (preserved and protected), so major change was decidedly not on the agenda. The priority was instead to keep the building and its inventory, considered a prime example of Norwegian neo-classicism from the 1920s, as intact as possible.
It was built to be a new studio and home for Gustav Vigeland, who already had a contract to create the fountain that’s a highlight of the Vigeland Park within the Frogner Park. Vigeland, whose production was enormous, had outgrown another city-owned property where he’d been living and working. The city offered him new accommodation and reimbursement for all his materials, and Vigeland moved into his large new quarters in 1924, next to the site of the sculpture park that kept growing in size and scope.
On Sunday, museum officials hosted they called a “great activity day,” opening up Vigeland’s living quarters as well as exhibition rooms and even a place where children could make Christmas cards and ornaments. The residential portion is otherwise only open by special appointment. More about it in a later story, with photos.
The museum itself, with its permanent collections and changing exhibitions, documents Vigeland’s life and work processes and offers insight into the enormity of his project. Plaster models of his famous statues also place them in a whole new light, allowing closer inspection especially of Vigeland’s famous Monolith, arguably the highlight of the Frogner Park. It was carved from one single piece of granite (hence its name) and contains 120 figures, created over a 14-year period from 1929 to 1944. Vigeland, who died in 1943, didn’t live to see its completion.
His models for it, divided into three separate plaster entities inside the museum, offer a different perspective on the Monolith and allow closer inspection at eye-level without having to battle the elements of bad weather or glaring sunshine. While it’s great to see the Monolith outdoors in the park, a look at its models inside the museum is highly recommended. Printed brochures in both Norwegian and English also explain how the massive sculpture was made.
Models of many of the granite groups placed around the Monolith are also on exhibit, along with the model of the fountain and many other works in the park, including his bronze, marble and wrought iron statues, fences, gates and light fixtures.
The museum also contains many works not connected to the park, including sculptures of famous and not-so-famous Norwegians of his time, from his housemaid to Frithjof Nansen. Vigeland also made woodcuts and drawings.
A special exhibit featuring the works of 29 scuptors is also running at the museum through February 5. It’s a cooperation between Norway’s national scultors’ association (Norsk Billedhoggerforening) and the museum, and aims to portray various industrial and artistic processes.
In the summer the museum hosts classical concerts in its large atrium. At this time of year, it provides an excellent way to explore the life and work of one of Norway’s most famous artists, while staying warm and dry.
from newsinenglish.no