lifestyle SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2014

In this June 30, 2012 file photo, people ride on a sightseeing bus painted with a Hello Kitty character in Tokyo. When she Hello Kitty greets children during an event to celebrate her 40th birthday at Sanrio Puroland theme park in Tokyo yes- came to life in 1974, she was a kitty without a name, sitting sideways in blue overalls and a big red bow, on a coin purse terday. for Japanese girls. Yesterday, fans around the world celebrated the 40th anniversary of this global icon of “cute-cool.” That is, Hello Kitty. — AP Hello Kitty celebrates 40th birthday ello Kitty, Japan’s global icon of cute, marked her opened, she greeted the first wave of customers, many of ing to draw some 25,000 fans. Fans were stunned in August when it emerged that 40th anniversary yesterday with a human-size ver- whom hugged the character and posed for pictures. First released in 1974 and appearing on a coin purse the Kitty is in fact not a cat, but a girl. Sanrio says it has been Hsion of the feline character regaling fans at an Kitty, who adorns everything from pencil cases to pyja- following year, Hello Kitty now features on more than saying all along that she is a “happy little girl with a heart upscale Tokyo department store and a theme park. mas the world over, also celebrated her birthday with fans 50,000 products in 130 countries and territories. of gold”-despite her whiskers and pointy ears. The moon-faced creation, who has spawned a multi-bil- at her creators’ theme park Sanrio Puroland in western Creator Sanrio says cute-loving adults are the main cus- “Kitty was making telephone calls and had a goldfish lion dollar industry, began her birthday by trying her hand Tokyo. Surrounded by hundreds of admirers, she per- tomers driving business. Despite her years, the timeless friend from the very beginning,” a Sanrio spokesman has as manager of the Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo’s formed dances with other characters including her twin character, who insists “you can never have too many said. “It is a 100-percent personified character... Barring her glitzy Ginza district. sister Mimmy. friends”, is still exploring new frontiers. cat face, she does exactly what humans do.” Clad in pink from head to toe with a customary bow on Kitty went on a space mission this year aboard a satel- According to her official biography, Kitty was born in a her head, a human-size Kitty showed up at an in-house Cuddly character lite and Sanrio is launching a line of Kitty products for men London suburb on November 1, 1974 to parents George meeting at the store, drawing cheers and applause from The Keio Plaza Hotel chain, meanwhile, opened Hello next year, possibly before Valentine’s Day. and Mary. She has a cat named Charmmy Kitty. — AFP hordes of employees. Kitty hotel rooms in Tokyo yesterday, decorated floor to She has also appeared on a dress made for eccentric US She bowed to the staff, who bowed back. ceiling with pictures of the cuddly character. pop diva Lady Gaga, while Taiwanese airline EVA Air The mouthless character did not speak but waved and On the other side of the Pacific, a Hello Kitty Convention marked the 40th anniversary by launching a Hello Kitty struck poses, sending many on the floor blurting out in the Little Tokyo district near downtown Los Angeles has plane, complete with Kitty-themed airline food and stew- “kawaii!”, the Japanese word for “cute”. As the store opened for a four-day run through the weekend, expect- ardess uniforms.

Giacometti sculpture set to fetch $100m at NY auction bronze sculpture by Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti valued at more than $100 million and 20 works by Apop art icon Andy Warhol headline New York’s fall art auction season next week. Art worth at least $1.7 billion from impressionist and modern; post-war and contemporary go under the ham- mer at Christie’s and Sotheby’s at combined evening and day sales from November 4 to 12. The most expensive lot under the hammer is Giacometti’s 1950 “Chariot,” the highlight of Sotheby’s impressionist sale on Tuesday. The auction house calls it one of the seminal achievements of modern art and val- ues it at more than $100 million. “The market is rediscov- ering sculpture and they are now among the most desir- able works of art,” said Simon Shaw, co-head of impres- sionist and modern art at Sotheby’s. “This is really what collectors from Brazil, Asia, Russia are dreaming of.” It is incredibly rare. Of Giacometti’s six chariots, four are in museums and the fifth is with a pri- vate owner who has no intention of selling. The Sotheby’s “Chariot,” which depicts a goddess frozen in motion and considered a beacon of hope for the post-World War gen- eration, has been in the same private collection for four decades. “Given the $104.3 million achieved at Sotheby’s by Giacometti’s ‘Homme qui marche I’ in 2010, we believe that ‘Chariot’ could sell for in excess of $100 million,” said Shaw. Sotheby’s also offers Amedeo Modigliani’s “Tete,” which like “Chariot” is coming up for auction for the first Dressed as Mr. Halloween, Rolando Vega takes part in the Village Halloween Parade in New York Friday Oct. 31, 2014. time. Dating from 1911-12, it is one in a series of rare sculp- tures carved from blocks of stone scavenged from con- struction sites across Paris and valued at $45 million. Superheroes, hazmat suits in NY Tuesday’s third stand-out is Vincent van Gogh’s “Still Life, Vase with Daisies and Poppies,” which the artist paint- ed three months before his death and valued at $30-50 million. The highlight of Christie’s impressionist sale on Wednesday is “Le Printemps,” by French painter Edouard Halloween parade Manet. Valued at $25-30 million, it has been owned by one family for more than a century. Depicting a famous actress of the day, it was painted in 1881 and exhibited in 1882 to critical acclaim while Manet was at the height of his powers and one of the most loody zombies lumbered alongside superheroes, cow- donned a hazmat suit. As usual, the mood along the parade about this and wanted to be a part of it,” Cassandra Dmello said. famous living artists. boys shared the road with villains and marchers in haz- route was Carnival-esque, with eruptions of loud music and col- The parade, which is open to anyone in a costume, prides Bardous-materials garb evoked the Ebola crisis as the lective cheers. People backed up for blocks waiting to enter the itself on being an anything-goes spectacle. It started in 1973 Insatiable demand for Warhol Greenwich Village Halloween Parade made its freewheeling way route, while throngs of spectators snapped photos and took in with a puppeteer marching with his family and grew into a tele- For the last 20 years, it has been on loan to the through downtown Manhattan on Friday. costumes that included Ghostbusters and Teenage Mutant Ninja vised extravaganza that draws thousands of spectators. National Gallery of Art in Washington and Brooke Creativity was on display and current events were on Turtles, Pocahontas, Marilyn Monroe, assorted fruits, a 1980s- But it’s had a bit of a rocky road in recent years. The 2012 Lampley, head of the impressionist and modern art marchers’ minds as a costumed crowd of thousands flowed up themed float and more. parade was canceled because of Superstorm Sandy. Last year, an department for Christie’s Americas. Its estimate is based Sixth Avenue on a windy Halloween night. Ben Goodkin folded his arms solemnly as he described why emergency online funding campaign raised more than $50,000 closely on the artist’s record, with $33 million set for a self- Dr. Jane Testa sported a “hammer out Ebola” costume featur- he chose to dress as Pope Francis. “He’s an inspiration to many to revive it. portrait in 2010 by Sotheby’s in London. ing a hazmat suit, flashing lights, a large version of the virus - people around the world,” Goodkin said. “And it’s humorous.” The Jordi Sole, of Barcelona, Spain, and Jose Manuel, of Madrid, The second most expensive offering from Christie’s is made of balloons - and a sign with a biohazard symbol and the 18-year-old, a first-year student at New York University, had nev- looked pleasantly stunned as they took pictures of the parade “Les constructeurs avec arbre” by French cubist painter message “Quarantine: Ebola outbreak. Deadly force may be er been to the parade before. Friday. Sole, 47, and Manuel, 51, are in town for Sunday’s New Fernand Leger, valued at $16-22 million. used.” “Don’t get too close!” Testa warned, holding a balloon “I love it,” he said. York City Marathon. “It’s crazy,” said Sole. “We knew it was Cubist canvases have been long undervalued and hammer with a red cross. Stressing that her heart goes out to Not far away, the ancient Egyptian monarchs Ramses and Halloween, but it’s absolutely different than Europe.”— AP Christie’s is looking to capitalize on interest in a major those infected, she said she spent several days making the cos- Cleopatra - also known as Erwin and Cassandra Dmello of cubism exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of tume “to raise awareness.” Connecticut - were celebrating Halloween for the first time. The Art featuring the private collection of billionaire philan- “And laughter,” added her friend Dawn Sickles, who also Dmellos, both 30, are originally from Bombay, India. “We heard thropist Leonard Lauder. On November 11 and 12, it is the turn of postwar and contemporary art, dominated by 20 works by Warhol, including portraits of 20th century icons and British figu- rative painter Francis Bacon. Christie’s is offering Warhol’s “Triple Elvis” and “Four Marlons” for an estimated $60 mil- lion each, acquired from a German casino company and in storage for the last couple of years. “They’re so sexy, so masculine,” Sara Friedlander, head of evening sale for post-war and contemporary art, told AFP. In all, Christie’s is offering 11 Warhols and Sotheby’s nine, the highlight of which is a portrait of Elizabeth Taylor “Liz #3 (Early Colored Liz),” for an estimated $50 million. “There’s a lot of Andy Warhol on the market, I think that speaks to a real insatiable demand on the part of the global marketplace to acquire works by Andy Warhol,” Friedlander said.—AFP

Dressed as witches, Debbie Allbritton, center, and her two friends wait for the train at the Dressed for Halloween, Emma Burton, left, and Ben Cownie ride the subway Friday Oct. Union Square subway station after going to the Village Halloween Parade Friday Oct. 31, 31, 2014 in New York. Cownie said he had attended the Village Halloween parade earlier. 2014 in New York. Allbritton and her friends are visiiting from Arizona. —AP photos