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Cualquiera de las imágenes publicadas en este Flickr, están registradas. El uso sin consentimiento por mi parte de ellas, reportará la denuncia al registro de propiedad intelectual.
Any of the images published in this Flickr are registered. Use without consent on my part of it, will report the complaint to the registration of intellectual property
Virginia Beach Oceanfront
Virginia Beach, VA
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My Book The Land of Wizards & Witches: Images of 'The Wizarding World of Harry Potter' on Blurb!!!!
... and eBook Verison (Free!!!)
Pine Barrens Area, Sign is in front of a property on New Gretna - Chatsworth Road South of 72 Highway, Burlington County, New Jersey
Polyamide fabric is well-known for its characteristics. Today, we will discuss the properties and background of the polyamide fabric.
For details, www.beautifulcng.com/polyamide-fabric/
Strawberry Hill Hotel & Restaurant, Irish Town, Jamaica
Strawberry Hill Hotel, Spa & Gardens, a 26-acre mountain top resort, is located in the heart of one of the world's most famous coffee-producing mountain ranges, Jamaica's Blue Mountains. Listed in the New York Times #1 bestselling book, 1,000 Places To See Before You Die, Strawberry Hill is 3100 feet above sea level and features one of the most awe-inspiring views of the Blue Mountains in one direction as well as the city of Kingston in the other. On a clear day, one can see up to 100 miles from the property's infinity-edge pool, and at night the city far below becomes a twinkling mirror of the night sky. The property's 12 Georgian-style cottages, spa, exotic gardens and restaurant offerings underwent an extensive refurbishment in October 2011.
The fortified Mayan city of Tulum sits on an ideal coastal location. It was occupied from about 1200 CE to the late 1400's; a final outpost at the end of the post-classic Mayan era.
- Zona Arqueológica de Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico
{ L } Lightbox view is best
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Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. It undergoes continual changes; it is barbarous, it is civilized, it is christianized, it is rich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration. For every thing that is given something is taken. Society acquires new arts and loses old instincts. What a contrast between the well-clad, reading, writing, thinking American, with a watch, a pencil and a bill of exchange in his pocket, and the naked New Zealander, whose property is a club, a spear, a mat and an undivided twentieth of a shed to sleep under! But compare the health of the two men and you shall see that the white man has lost his aboriginal strength. If the traveller tell us truly, strike the savage with a broad-axe and in a day or two the flesh shall unite and heal as if you struck the blow into soft pitch, and the same blow shall send the white to his grave.
The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. He is supported on crutches, but lacks so much support of muscle. He has a fine Geneva watch, but he fails of the skill to tell the hour by the sun. A Greenwich nautical almanac he has, and so being sure of the information when he wants it, the man in the street does not know a star in the sky. The solstice he does not observe; the equinox he knows a little; and the whole bright calendar of the year is without a dial in his mind. His note-books impair his memory; his libraries overload his wit; the insurance-office increases the number of accidents; and it may be a question whether the machinery does not encumber; whether we have not lost by refinement some energy ... some vigor of wild virtue.
--- Ralph Waldo Emerson
I could be mirroring some of his thoughts on civilization, or he some of mine on the whiz bangs of modern photography. Well either way, it is an interesting couple of paragraphs.
This was taken inside the Venezian casino in Las Vegas on my first trip there. I admit that I was equal parts enthralled, repulsed, impressed, fascinated, and disbelieving. The casinos... nay this whole section of the city is built as to never make you want to leave. To believe that everything worth experiencing is right here, all the while charging you $4 for a bottle of water. It really is a "fascinating" experience in a number of ways.
As for Emerson and photography, well this is why I think photography classes should all be taught with manual, mechanical film cameras and progress up from there. I sometimes wonder if the cameras today (film and digital) which are capable of doing everything short of cooking your breakfast really make you better or worse at photography? I guess in a sense it is possible to be able to actually get worse at photography while being able to take better photos.
I guess.
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County Wexford, Ireland.
Loftus Hall is a large mansion house on the Hook peninsula, County Wexford, Ireland that is said to have been haunted both by the devil and by the ghost of a young woman.
The Redmond family built the original building in about 1350 during the time of the Black Death. It replaced their original castle at Houseland near Portersgate. The Hall became the property of the Loftus family in the 1650s as a result of the Cromwellian confiscations and this was confirmed after the Restoration of King Charles II of England by the Act of Settlement of 1666.
The building that exists today was built between 1870 and 1871 by the 4th Marquess of Ely. In 1917 Loftus Hall was bought by the Sisters of Providence and turned into a convent and a school for young girls interested in joining the order. In 1983, it was purchased by Michael Deveraux who reopened it as "Loftus Hall Hotel", which was subsequently closed again in the late 1990s.
It was privately owned by Deveraux's surviving family until late 2008, when it was sold to an unnamed buyer, rumoured to be Bono of U2 fame.
The name 'Loftus Hall' is also applied to the townland surrounding the mansion. The entire townland of Loftus Hall, including the building itself, can be overlooked from Hook Lighthouse.
Contents [hide]
In 1642, the future Loftus Hall - then known as Redmond's Hall - was attacked by English soldiers loyal to Charles I of England.
The Irish Confederate Wars had broken out in 1641 and hostilities commenced in Wexford in 1642. An English garrison of around 100 men under the command of Lord Esmonde was based at Duncannon Fort on Waterford Harbour. On 23 February, this garrison was reinforced by a further 200 soldiers under the command of Captain Anthony Weldon and Captain Thomas Aston along with six cannon.
On 19 June a party of these soldiers from the fort were attacked by a group of Irish Confederates under the command of Captain Rossiter and Major James Butler at Shielbaggan while their on way to Tintern. The English were routed and driven back to the fort.
Redmond's Hall was clearly visible to the beleaguered garrison at Duncannon. The Hall's owner, Alexander Redmond, was known to be sympathetic to the rebels. The Hall was known as a place that gave assistance to the rebels. Captain Aston believed it could be easily taken and on 20 July 1642 took ship from Duncannon with around ninety men and two small cannon, landing near the Hall.
Although he was sixty-eight years old, Alexander Redmond barricaded the Hall and prepared to defend it. He was assisted by his sons, Robert and Michael, some of their tenants, two men at arms and an itinerant tailor who happened to be at work in the Hall when the attack took place. The defenders numbered ten in all and were armed with long barrelled fowling pieces.
Captain Aston drew his men up in front of the Hall and demanded admission in the name of the King. Alexander Redmond retorted that Aston was welcome to come in provided only that he left his soldiers and weapons outside. A lengthy gun battle ensued. Aston discovered that his cannon were too small to make much impression on the main door. To add to his troubles about half his men abandoned him to pillage the countryside. As the fight dragged on a heavy sea-mist descended on the Hook Peninsula.
Meanwhile, the Irish Confederates under Captain Rossiter and Captain Thomas Roche were still encamped at Shielbaggan. Hearing of the attack they marched rapidly to the aid of the defenders and surprised the attackers under cover of the fog. About thirty of the English escaped to their boats and back to the fort. Captain Aston himself was one of those killed. Many of the others, including Lord Esmonde's two nephews Lieutenants John and Walter Esmonde were taken prisoner. Several of the English prisoners were hanged the following day on Thomas Roche's orders, probably at Ballyhack. On 20 August eleven others were hanged at New Ross including one of the Esmonde brothers (see also, Siege of Duncannon).
[edit]Dispossession and Change of Ownership
The official Redmond family pedigree (registered in the Ulster Office, Dublin Castle 1763) alleges that Alexander Redmond had to defend the Hall one or even two more times against soldiers of Oliver Cromwell in the autumn of 1649. There is a tradition that the defenders used sacks of wool to block up breaches in the walls created by enemy cannon. These woolsacks and a representation of the Hall can be seen in the coat of arms issued to one of their members in 1763. It is alleged that Alexander Redmond received favourable terms from Cromwell and died in the Hall in 1650 or 1651 after which his surviving family were evicted.
The Loftus family were English planters who had owned land in the neighbourhood from around 1590 when Sir Dudley Loftus was granted the lands around Kilcloggan. Nicholas Loftus acquired the Manor of Fethard-on-Sea in 1634 and Fethard Castle became the family residence. After the end of Cromwell's campaign Nicholas Loftus was given extensive lands in the south of County Wexford and purchased the Hall from 'several Adventurers and soldiers', but it was only in 1666 when his son Henry moved to the Hall from Dungulph that it became the principal residence of the Loftus family. To establish the new name of his property he had the following inscription inscribed in stone on the entrance piers at Portersgate: ' Henry Loftus of Loftus Hall Esq. 1680'. Nonetheless, the old name remained in use till the end of the century. In 1684 Henry Loftus carried out extensive repairs to the Hall, which presumably needed repairing after the turbulent events of the previous decades. The Loftus family rose in the peerage over the following centuries. In 1800 the then owner of the Hall, the first Earl of Ely, previously Baron Loftus of Loftus Hall, was created Marquess of Ely.It was his descendant, the 4th Marquess, who demolished the old Hall and built the present house, in about 1870.
The Redmond family had disputed the claim of the Loftus family in court but without success. In 1684 they were compensated with lands in the Barony of Ballaghkeene in the north of County Wexford. Some of their descendants joined the movement of the Wild Geese and served in a number of foreign armies most notably that of France. Others were involved in banking and politics, and became a prominent local political dynasty in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in support of the Irish Party of Isaac Butt and Charles Stuart Parnell. The most famous of these was John Redmond who led the party till his death in 1918.
[edit]The Ghost Story
Charles Tottenham and his family came to live in the mansion in the middle of the 18th century. Charles Tottenham's first wife had been the Honourable Anne Loftus.
Charles came for a long stay in the house with his second wife, and his daughter Anne from his first marriage. During a storm, a ship unexpectedly arrived at the Hook Peninsula, which was not far from the mansion. A young man was welcomed into the mansion. Anne and the young man became very close. Then, one night they were in the parlour; when the young man dropped a card on the floor and Anne went to pick it up she glanced under the table and noticed that the young man had a hoof in place of a foot.
It is said that Anne screamed and the man went up through the roof, leaving behind a large hole in the ceiling. Anne was in shock and was put in her favourite room in the mansion, which was known as the Tapestry Room. She refused food and drink and sat with her knees under her chin until she died in the Tapestry Room in 1775. It is said that when she died, they could not straightin her body as her muscles had seized and she was buried in the same sitting position in which she had died. A rumour states that the hole could never be properly repaired, and it is alleged that even to this day, there is still a certain part of the ceiling which is slightly different from the rest. This, of course, is a myth, since the present house was built more than a century after the events described above. Meanwhile it was believed that the stranger with the cloven hoof returned to the house and caused persistent poltergeist activity. A number of Protestant clergymen apparently tried and failed to put a stop to this. The family, who were themselves Protestants, eventually called on Father Thomas Broaders (a Catholic priest, who was also a tenant on the Loftus Hall estate) to exorcise the house.
The apparent success of Father Broaders' exorcism did not end the ghostly visitations at Loftus Hall. The ghost of a young woman, presumed to be Anne Tottenham, was reported to have made frequent appearances in the old Hall, especially in the Tapestry Room, until the building was finally demolished in 1871.
Although the present Loftus Hall is an entirely new building, interest in the ghost story has remained strong and many aspects of the story seem to have attached themselves to the newer house. Also mentioned in a documentary about the mansion many years later after the last owners had gone had said that there were reports from staff that had previously worked at the mansion, that they have seen annes ghost walk down the stairs, and that horses can be heard around the building.
[edit]The current Loftus Hall
In 1870 or 1871 the old Loftus Hall was levelled to the ground and work commenced immediately on the new building which was largely built on the foundations of the old. Only the circular foundation of one of the towers in the 'Ringfield' and an underground passage survive of the original building.
The new Loftus Hall was built with no expense spared. The entrance hall and main staircase alone cost £5000 and are considered very fine. The staircase was created by Italian carpenters and took many years to complete. The house was supplied throughout with lighting by gas which was made on the premises and all the apartments heated by hot air pipes.
Loftus Hall was sold privately in September 2008 after it was withdrawn from auction. Much speculation abounds as to who the new owner is, but it is widely rumored to be a Dublin financier of considerable wealth with strong business links to the IFSC.
The starting bid of 1.9 million euro was not met, and the building, land, and private beach were speculated to have been collectively sold to a single party for an amount bellow €1,000,000.
The sale of Loftus Hall fell through and at present has not been sold due in no small part to its state of disrepair and vandalism to its interiors, it would cost several million Euros to restore the house, grounds and estate buildings such as the massive old stables and orangery to its original condition and given its previous use as a hotel was an unprofitable period there is not much chance of it becoming a hotel again. Sadly the Tottenham family, descendants of the 4th Marquess of Ely who built it and now reside in Canada, have neither the financial resources or interest in their former stately home to help save it. Local residents and historians have lobbied local government and heritage bodies in Ireland to buy and restore the property for use as a museum but there is no interest and given the state of the Irish economy at present scant resources for such a project.
Source: Wikipedia.
Property at 52 Eyre Place, Edinburgh
Note the Plaque to the right of the doorway with the Inscription
“On This Site in 1887 Nothing Happened”
Yesterday (Wednesday 11 March 2020), officers from Greater Manchester Police and the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) executed a number of warrants at Great Ducie Street, Manchester.
Officers from GMP and the City of London Police - the national policing lead for fraud – worked alongside UK immigration, meaning a total of 100 officers and staff members were involved in the operation.
The search warrant, which developed from a previous operation that involved the sale and distribution of counterfeit items, saw thousands of labels, computer equipment and cash seized.
Detectives are currently exploring links between the counterfeit operation and Serious Organised Crime, helping to fund criminal activity beyond Greater Manchester.
15 people were arrested, after officers uncovered an estimated £7.5 million worth of branded clothing, shoes and perfume suspected to be counterfeit.
Chief Inspector Kirsten Buggy, of GMP’s North Manchester division, said: “Yesterday’s operation is one of the largest of its kind ever carried out in the area and has taken a meticulous amount of planning and preparation.
“I am thankful to colleagues from the City of London Police, who as the national policing lead for fraud, have worked in partnership with officers from GMP and helped bring about yesterday’s direct action. I am also grateful to those from UK Immigration for their help.
“Such partnerships are absolutely vital when tackling counterfeit operations, as they bring specialisms from across the country together in a bid to make an impactive and real difference. Steps such as yesterday are often only the start when it comes to investigating the scale of these operations and we will continue to work in conjunction with the City of London’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit to tackle this type of offending to its’ very core.
“It is important to recognise the far-reaching and serious impact of sophisticated and large scale counterfeit operations such as this one; and I would like to take this opportunity to remind members of the public of the repercussions of this kind of offending and the link to organised criminal activity. Please be under no illusion- this type of crime is not victimless.”
Police staff investigator Charlotte Beattie, of the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), said:
“The counterfeit goods business is a deceiving one and the key message to be take away from this operation, is that counterfeiting is not a victimless crime.
“An individual may think that when buying counterfeit goods they are only affecting a multi-million pound brand, and won’t matter, when in fact they are helping to fund organised criminal activity. Counterfeit goods also pose a health risk to individuals as they usually are not fit for purpose or have not gone through the legal health and safety checks.
“Working in partnership has ensured that today’s operation has been a success. We will continue to work with Greater Manchester Police and UK Immigration to tackle the scourge of the counterfeit goods problem.”
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.
You can access many of our services online at www.gmp.police.uk.
LEGAL NOTICE © protected work • All Rights reserved © Egger photographer retains ownership and all copyrights in this work.
No use of this image is allowed without photographer’s express prior permission and subject to compensation • no work-for-hire
► licence | please contact me before to obtain prior a license and to buy the rights to use and publish this photo. A licensing usage agreed upon with Bernard Egger is the only usage granted. more..
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Fine Art photography | alpine & mediterranean landscapes
AUSTRIA - one of the most beautiful countries - Styria
C'est formidable de pouvoir montrer ma belle patrie...
location | Pürgg, Stainach-Pürgg, Styria 💚 AT
📷 | Chapel of St John, Cultural Property :: rumoto images # 5961
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We are dedicated to helping our clients establish a value for their intellectual property. Contact our intellectual property valuation consultants at 800.454.9091 or visit www.consor.com.
In the real estate business, there are so many options can be availed. There are different types of rental properties such as #single-family homes, #multifamily apartments, commercial property etc. It is better to start with one type of rental property and extend it with time, but it is not necessary to keep up with the same thing forever. Other types of rental properties can be bought after gaining experience by reading books and talking to the investors. There are types of investments that should be avoided because eventually they will prove to be more of a headache than a profitable agreement. If interested in a deal, the math should be done immediately, after that negotiate with the seller and get the teams do their work.
Buying real estate out of state
Buying a real estate property in a faraway place can cause a lot of problems. it is difficult to find out of state investors and property dealers in the faraway place is also difficult.
Finding a Good team in a distant place
The importance of a good team in the real estate business place cannot be neglected. The property manager and its team are the one who take care of the property. It is not easy to find such an efficient team out of state. The investor should try to invest in his own state because they know the real estate environment of that estate more than any other place. The famous #property #management companies out of state are not that reliable. Even if their reputation is very good, one cannot predict their performance with hundred percent confidence. The investor cannot manage the property by himself in another state and a very trusted real estate agent is required. Finding such a person may not be an easy task. A property manager can make or break deals. He can significantly impact the business of the investor. If the property is managed properly, it can lead to substantial loss. It may also effect the future deals.
Getting the best deals
Out of all other good things about real estate business, having limitless options is the most attractive one. Such as buying and selling in a big or small town, investing in or out of state. Buying a rental property is a very successful and profitable business. One rental leads to another and then to another and so on. This is an ever-growing business that leads into a lot of cash if managed properly. But buying a property out of state can be very tricky. The investor might not be able to find the best deals worthy of the property.
State law in other states
The most important thing is the #real_estate law, that is usually different in different states. It is difficult of navigate the state laws in a particular state. The laws in two neighbouring states can be opposite to each other. Adjusting with them can be a challenge. The legal structure for real estate can affect the management of the property specially when it is out of state. There are different tax laws, eviction standpoints and rights of the tenants and the landlord are also different. Adjusting to different laws in the same business can be very challenging. It may lead to awkward situations for the investor.
Conclusion
These reasons might not be true for everyone, but for some people these can be on point. Investing in a place which is out of access due to the distance is not a preferable option. The investor should be able to visit the property every now and then.
My wife and I have purchased a small piece of land in central Texas. It's about 30 minutes north of Lampasas. Over the next few years we hope to convert it to a new place to live and a place where I can establish blinds to photograph wildlife, especially birds.
Hemos comprado un terreno en el área central de Texas. Se ubica unos treinta minutos al norte del municipio de Lampasas Durante los próximos años, planeamos establecer no sólo un lugar nuevo para vivir sino también crear escondites para poder fotografiar la fauna silvestre espcialmente las aves.
After hiking for an hour or so, we reached the boundary line of the private property the hike started on and the BLM land adjacent to the park.
the lakefront property at the yard area is at the for around at the area of at the nature and of the scenery is more sunlight from outdoors is more stunned and amazing of the scenery is looking sharp of the warm temperature weather
Wait! Before you sell your #property are you sure you are getting your money’s worth? At Urban Chic we help our clients achieve even more than their money’s worth using our skill and knowledge. For property styling & staging, Come and try us today. bit.ly/1BLf84G
Steeped in history
The Samuel Murrell House eight miles northeast of Bowling Green on U.S. 31-W has once again been recognized as a historical site. Already on the National Register of Historical Places the house recently was added to the Kentucky Historical Highway Marker Program. The markee at the right of the picture specifies that the house, built in 1841 by Murrell was a well known inn and stagecoach stop on the Louisville-Nashville Road until the L & N Railroad was completed in 1859. The property once belonged to Susannah Henry Madison, wife of General Thomas Madison and sister of Patrick Henry.
The text:
Nedko Solakov, Discussion (Property)
“Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense”
52nd International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia
curator: Robert Storr
Discussion (Property)
I came across this story in the summer of 2006. A newspaper article described the decade-long dispute - to put it mildly - between Russia and Bulgaria over Russia’s claim that Bulgaria’s continued manufacturing and selling of the AK-47 assault rifle was illegal. This notorious masterpiece of automatic weaponry was conceived by Mikhail Kalashnikov in the late 1940s, and in the socialist era the Soviet Union freely gave its permission, as well as all related technical documentation, to the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, so that the small satellite state could churn out AK-47s to satisfy intense Eastern Bloc demand.
Years later, socialism collapsed and capitalism took over. However, the AK-47 had never been the subject of an international patent application or legal transfer as an intellectual product. If it had been, M. Kalashnikov would have long ago become a billionaire as, according to available statistics to date, somewhere between 50,000,000 and 100,000,000 AK-47s have been marketed worldwide. So, when tough talks on the issue kicked off between Russia and Bulgaria in the 1990s, it was obvious things could not be settled in an international court.
It is now difficult to retrace the twists and turns of the negotiations and other related developments that followed. On the one hand, all meetings of the intergovernmental commissions were secret, and on the other, people like myself don’t usually go to gun show and so have not directly witnessed some of the more embarrassing rows, with Russians publicly telling Bulgarians off for exhibiting and selling stuff that belonged to them. However, during the last few years especially, Bulgarian manufacturers started to claim that they had switched production over to a different assault rifle named the AR that, despite its slight similarity to the AK-47, was entirely modernized in line with NATO standards and was selling very well indeed. For example, according to the Bulgarian press, a couple of years ago the American Central Command for Iraq decided to purchase 40,000 Bulgarian AR assault rifles to arm the new democratic Iraqi army.
That was more or less what I knew when I decided to approach the two sides and try to have them talk in front of the camera. As a first step I focused on the Bulgarian “A…l” factory, a producer of the rifles situated in the picturesque city of K. As an artist unconnected to the military who also lacks any contacts whatsoever with arms dealers, I asked the deputy minister of culture (a nice lady) to help put me in touch with the director-general of “A…l”, Mr. N.I. She phoned the deputy minister of defense (another nice lady) and I was promised a meeting. Since I am paranoid by nature, I also asked a well-known reporter (again a woman) to help.
So, on December 1, 2006, when I appeared before Mr. I. in his office, he started by saying: “The prime minister was the only one who didn’t call about you coming!” Nevertheless, it took me almost three hours to convince the director-general to say a few words on camera. Why? The main problem was that my attempt to get both sides to talk was simultaneously being pursued right in the middle of the last round of heavy negotiations between representatives of Russia and Bulgaria on the intellectual property of military items. Obviously Mr. I., a reasonable middle-aged man, didn’t want to jeopardize the entangled disputes by talking to an artist who, to his question: “But why do you - not a journalist - have an interest in this matter?!” gave a rather peculiar answer: “Because I’m used to reading about intellectual property disputes over a book or a musical score, but never over a weapon, reportedly the most popular of all time”. Eventually, Mr. I. agreed to my request and gave a one-minute interview. Then, off the record, he spoke for more than an hour about how he had studied in the Soviet Union and how he admired the quality of Russian military production. He also spoke about having worked in that “A…l” factory for decades, first as an engineer and later as director-general. His main concern now was how to sustain the jobs of his 5,500 employees, who also produce many civilian products such as CNC equipment.
After the interview, I went to the firm’s website and found a complete list of the assault rifles they were producing with photographs of each one. I requested a few better quality images to use in my project and, after a careful selection, the factory’s design department sent me a CD on December 19, 2006, with a dozen high-resolution samples partially covering their output of AR assault rifles. Unfortunately, the ones I most wanted were deemed “too controversial” to be used in the way I suggested, despite the fact they were publicly shown on the website. “We don’t want to piss the Russians off with your project, right?” said Mr. I. and I had to agree with him. I then hired two skilful young artists to make twelve life-size drawings of the AR rifles, using the less controversial images as a reference. It took the girls two months to finish the job.
Mr. I. was also kind enough to help me illustrate my point even better by arranging for me to buy two real but inoperative 1960s vintage AK-47s (one of them with a folded metal butt) at one of the biggest arms shops in Sofia. Unfortunately, the disarming technique carried out on these rifles - precisely described in the official certificate that came with them - was found unacceptable by the Italian authorities who mandated other disarming procedures for assault rifles. I had to then give up the idea of exporting the AK-47s and decided to buy one in Italy. Consequently here you see a Romanian made AK-47 that comes from an Italian shop and which has a weird additional handle, all of which I can live with.
Parallel to all this Bulgarian activity, I was desperately trying to make contact with the Russian side. On November 21, 2006, the same deputy minister of culture wrote an official letter to the Russian embassy in Sofia, requesting an appointment for me to discuss the issue with a government representative. I was in Miami when I got the bad news from the deputy minister that in a letter dated December 5, 2006, the Russian embassy had declined to set up a meeting for me. Later, back in Sofia, I addressed the same request to a high-ranking person (a lady again) from the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also soliciting the help of a curator (yet another lady) working for the ministry. Politely and diplomatically, I was told about negotiations going on right then on the same subject and how such a letter focused on my own project would be deemed entirely inappropriate by the Russian embassy. “Can I mention in my story that you are anxious to approach the Russians?” I asked the Foreign Office lady. “I’d rather you didn’t”, was the answer.
I was then introduced to a successful businesswoman who was seriously involved with Russia and, in fact, had the right connections. She kindly took up my cause and finally managed to talk with the Russian ambassador about my project. Even though he didn’t refuse outright to help me, it was still not quite clear if I could really meet someone from their side. At last, thanks to a native Russian (another woman, of a quarter-Armenian descent who, as it happens, is also an international curator based in Bulgaria), the Armenian ambassador in Sofia had a word with the Russian ambassador whereupon a meeting with Mr. P. and Mr. V. from the Russian embassy took place at the latter’s premises on January 24, 2007.
Mr. P. and Mr. V. were both very kind and promised to supply me with a copy of a film broadcast on Russian TV in 2006 that addressed ‘the-Bulgarians-and-our-own-Russian-weapons’ subject. The two gentlemen also promised to try and arrange a meeting with a representative of the Russian “R…t” - the organization authorized to sell weapons internationally - who hopefully would not mind a chat with me about my project.
A few days ago, while standing-by in hope such a meeting, I read in the papers that the negotiations were apparently taking a turn for the better and that new terms that would please both parties were almost agreed.
I don’t know what arguments the two sides had offered to clear all the hurdles. If I can make an educated guess, they were probably more serious than: “Did the Russians ever obtain a license for using our Cyrillic alphabet over the centuries, which as everybody knows, was invented by the Bulgarian brothers Cyril and Methodius back in the ninth century, or for eating Lactobacillus Bulgaricus, the tiny bacteria that makes the best yoghurt?” So, after all those years of wrangling over property rights, I feel personally satisfied that, at least in the assault rifle sector of the international arms trade, there will finally be relative peace.
Nedko Solakov
February 2007
Edited by Charles Esche
[Source.]