By CAROL VOGEL
Published: January 11, 2008
In the coda to a long tug of war, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is
bidding goodbye to the Euphronios krater, a 2,500-year-old vessel
that has been a showpiece of its collection for more than three
decades. Sunday is the last viewing day.

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Sunday is the last chance to see the Euphronios krater at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The krater, a Greek bowl for mixing water and wine, will be sent to
Italy as part of an agreement reached nearly two years ago with that
country's government, which has long contended that the artifact was
illegally excavated from a tomb in Cerveteri, near Rome. The Met
bought the krater in 1972 for $1 million from Robert Hecht, an
antiquities dealer who is now on trial in Rome on charges of
conspiring to traffic in looted artifacts. (Mr. Hecht denies the
charges.)

Under the terms of the pact, the Met is returning 21 objects that
Italy said were looted, and the Italian government is lending the
Met a series of rare ceramic antiquities. The first arrived in late
2006, and three more are to be installed by Wednesday in the Met's
Greek and Roman galleries.

Two of the newly lent pieces have direct connections to the krater,
which was painted by the Greek artisan Euphronios. A 26-inch-wide
terra-cotta cup depicting an assembly of the Greek gods on Mount
Olympus is signed by Euxitheos, a potter who also signed the
Euphronios krater. A jug shaped like a woman's head was made by the
potter Charinos, who is believed to have worked in Euphronios'
workshop.

The third piece of ceramic art going on display next week, a krater
made in southern Italy during the fourth century B.C., is decorated
with a spoof of one of the most serious episodes in Greek drama:
Oedipus solving the riddle of the Sphinx.

The departing krater is to go on view later this month at the
Quirinale, the presidential palace in Rome, where a show of other
objects repatriated from foreign museums opened last month.

In a telephone interview on Thursday, Philippe de Montebello, the
Met's director, praised the quality of the loan to the Met. "At the
time during which the negotiations were under way, I brought a list
prepared by the curators of the kinds of things we considered
equivalents," he said. "We expected one object, but got three very
beautiful objects. It shows on what a firm footing our future
collaborations with Italy will be."

Mr. Montebello, who on Tuesday announced his retirement later this
year, was asked whether he felt particularly emotional about the
krater's departure.

Speaking from a cellphone, he said, "I can't hear you anymore" — a
response he has occasionally deployed by land line to questions he
would rather not answer.

A RARE PRAYER BOOK

The only known copy of the first Book of Hours printed in France, a
tiny volume nearly 5 inches tall and 3 inches wide, has been
acquired by the Morgan Library & Museum. Designed to fit into the
palm of a woman's hand, the book of prayers and devotional readings
is illustrated by more than 40 woodcuts depicting religious figures
and the life of Jesus.

"They are less sophisticated illustrations than later examples of
Books of Hours," John Bidwell, the Morgan's curator of printed books
and bindings, said.

At the Morgan it joins one of America's most notable collections of
such prayer books: 240 manuscripts and about 130 printed versions of
the Book of Hours. The title reflects the organization of the
devotional readings, chosen for different times of day.

This volume is the first known book to have been produced by the
French publisher Antoine Vérard, and it helped establish Paris as a
leading publishing center.

"The French eventually made these medieval best sellers," Mr.
Bidwell said.

The Morgan paid $471,304 for the Book of Hours in November at
Sotheby's in London, where a German library was auctioning it. A
grant from the B. H. Breslauer Foundation, established after the
death of the New York antiquarian bookseller Bernard H. Breslauer in
2004, covered the cost.

Mr. Breslauer once owned this very volume, having discovered it at a
Christie's auction in 1966. "Breslauer was the first to recognize
its importance," Mr. Bidwell said. "At the time there had been no
scholarship whatsoever on this Book of Hours."

Scholars realized it was from 1485, about five decades after
Gutenberg invented movable type. But it was Mr. Breslauer who, by
sorting through bibliographies, determined that it was the first
Book of Hours printed in France.

"Every few months the Morgan rotates its holdings of rare books and
manuscripts," Mr. Bidwell said, "and this one will be on display in
April for about three months."

EXTRA ART AT THE ARMORY

When the Art Dealers Association of America sets up its annual Art
Show in February, there will be more to see at the Park Avenue
Armory than the paintings, drawings and sculptures being sold by the
organization's members.

Three site-specific projects by emerging artists are planned for the
historic first-floor rooms of the landmark building, on Park Avenue
between 66th and 67th Streets.

The contemporary projects fit in with the armory's effort to attract
a new and younger audience, and they will be on view to the public
at no charge. (It costs $20 to enter the Art Show, which runs from
Feb. 21 to 25 and benefits the Henry Street Settlement.)

"We thought it would be nice to enhance the initiatives at the
armory and broaden the perspective of the Art Show," said Roland
Augustine, a Chelsea dealer who is president of the Art Dealers
Association of America.

Mr. Augustine is also a trustee of Bard College in Annandale-on-
Hudson, N.Y., where Tom Eccles, the armory's artistic adviser, is
director of the Center for Curatorial Studies. The three artists
chosen for the armory project all have Bard affiliations..

Spencer Finch, an artist who explores relationships between light
and color, is collaborating on an installation with Trevor Smith,
the center's curator in residence. Lisi Raskin, an artist in
residence at Bard, plans to create a militarylike installation,
centered on the idea of surveillance. Pietro Roccasalva, an Italian
artist from Milan, is collaborating with a Bard student to present a
performance-based piece.

Art students in Bard's graduate program will contribute as well,
creating a video installation for the armory's first-floor hallways.

RECRUITING AUCTION STARS

Spring may seem far away, but the clock is ticking fast for the New
York auction-house experts assembling the May auctions of important
fine art.

Christie's has secured a small collection of Abstract Expressionist
works for its May 13 sale. The top work is a Mark Rothko painting
from 1952 with rich reds and yellows, titled "No. 15" and estimated
at around $50 million.

"This is exactly what the market is desperate for," said Brett Gorvy
of Christie's postwar and contemporary art department worldwide.
Describing what is most desirable in a Rothko, Mr. Gorvy said, "It's
the best year and perfect scale: 90 inches by 77 inches."

Dealers and collectors who follow the Rothko market will recognize
the image. Sotheby's sold it in November 1999 to an unidentified
telephone bidder for $11 million, then a record price. Christie's
will not name its current seller, but experts say it is Roger Evans,
a San Francisco collector.

Mr. Evans, a loyal Christie's client, has sold other works at
auction recently, including Andy Warhol's "Orange Marilyn," which he
parted with in November 2006 for $16.2 million. And Christie's is
offering two other works from Mr. Evans's collection in May: Sam
Francis's "Black," from 1955, expected to bring $4 million to $6
million, and an untitled Adolph Gottlieb painting from 1960,
estimated at $1.5 million to $2 million.

To secure the property, Christie's gave Mr. Evans a guarantee — an
undisclosed sum that it will pay him regardless of the sale's
outcome — that is believed to be around $50 million.

The three paintings will be on view at Christie's Rockefeller Center
galleries on Monday and Tuesday, alongside selected works from the
auction house's February sales in London.