Antiques

Zhou DE ZHAO, an expert appraiser of Chinese antiquities, looked at the old scroll and what he saw astounded him. He had been called to San Francisco by a man whose father had died recently and left behind some artwork. This particular piece, the man hoped, would fetch about $10,000.

There are at least three great reasons to see "Sicily: Art and Invention Between Greece and Rome," the newly opened antiquities exhibition at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades. A major sculpture anchors each of the show's three rooms, and together they tell an accelerating story of artistic and social power on the ancient Mediterranean island. Chronologically, the first is a straightforward male torso, his finely chiseled marble body quietly brimming with latent energy. Second comes a preening charioteer, physically just larger than life but expressively very much so. And third is a depiction of a minor god with major fertility on his mind, his powerful physicality an embodiment of the contortions of carnal lust, both corporeal and psychological.

Sonora, Calif., the county seat of Tuolumne County, has a charming downtown full of antiques shops, clothing boutiques and restaurants. Start the weekend by heading to the Sonora Farmers Market on Saturday morning. The market, at Theall and Stewart streets, sells not only fresh fruits and veggies, but also pastries, crepes and locally roasted coffee. The bed Gunn House Hotel (286 S. Washington St.; [209] 532-3421, http://www.gunnhousehotel.com , rooms from $84 to $125 a night)

The Musee du Louvre -- the world's most-attended art museum -- has named Jean-Luc Martinez as its new director. Martinez has most recently served as the head of the museum's department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman antiquities. He is expected to succeed Henri Loyrette starting April 15. Martinez's appointment, which the Paris museum announced this week, was made by French President Francois Hollande. He beat out two other candidates -- Sylvie Ramond, director of the Musee des beaux-arts de Lyon, and Laurent le Bon, president of the Centre Pompidou Metz.  FULL COVERAGE: 2013 Spring arts preview The internal hire signals a search for continuity for the famed art institution.

Prayerful angels carved from oak, grinning terra-cotta cherubs and gold pocket watches with time on their hands. All are stacked on the cobblestones of Arezzo's Piazza Grande. Through the shutters of my hotel window, I watch vendors unload a treasure trove of antiques: gleaming wood dining tables, paintings, pottery, jewelry, copper pots and Murano glass. As dusk throws shadows across the square, I go out to reconnoiter, excited by the thrill of the hunt. Tomorrow, when the fair opens, I will buy a memento of my Tuscan travels — something artful, affordable, Italian.

The nuances of collecting and decorating with antiques will be an underlying theme for the Los Angeles Antiques Show tonight through Sunday at Santa Monica Airport's Barkar Hangar. "We're fine-tuning the show every year," said Abby Levy, president of the Women's Guild of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, which joined forces with the Antiques Dealers of California four years ago to sponsor the show for its major fund-raiser.

Old-time parlor stoves, malt machines, big brass weighing scales and hundreds of other items fill the Discovery Shop in Northridge as volunteers convert it into an antique store. Thirty-five volunteers will wear pioneer costumes to recreate a slice of Americana for the shop's single largest collectible sale on Saturday. Marshall F.

Browsing at Back in Tyme Antique Mall gives visitors a look at more than just vintage collectibles. It also offers a glimpse of the city's past. Just west of redeveloped Main Street, resident Pege Poe has transformed a turn-of-the-century building on Walnut Avenue into a business that is winning accolades from residents and city officials.

About 150 armed federal agents descended on a handful of antique stores catering to tourists in San Francisco's Union Square and Fisherman's Wharf areas Thursday, arresting undocumented workers and searching for paperwork related to allegations of illegal ivory importation and other crimes. In a series of daylight raids beginning about 11 a.m., jacketed agents served warrants on eight antique stores and two warehouses.

"Be in the world as you are at home," say the Zen masters. After 14 years spent living two entirely separate lives, I took this advice four years ago and am now living one integrated, and very satisfying, life as the owner of Yoshino Japanese Antiques. In the world, I'd been a first vice president with Security Pacific National Bank, where my duties included bank acquisition, project management in establishing bank operations, product offerings and systems architecture.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court is a place where tradition often trumps modern practicality, and for the press that is making it difficult to cover the two days of gay marriage arguments in the minute-by-minute style to which its television audience and online readers have become accustomed. Reporters are stripped of any cellphones and other modern electronic devices before they enter the courtroom, with its 24 columns of Italian light sienna marble. The justices sit on a raised, curved mahogany bench, in front of a tableau of the Ten Commandments and two figures depicting “majesty of the law” and “power of government.” FULL COVERAGE: Battle over gay marriage Journalists who cover the court regularly sit lined up in two pew-like rows on the edge of the courtroom, others in chairs in a foyer just outside.

Another antiquities auction has turned into another international art dispute. This time it's the sale , scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Sotheby's in Paris, of the Barbier-Mueller Collection of Pre-Columbian art from Mexico and Central and South America. The Mexican government's National Institute of Anthropology and History is demanding a halt to the sale of 51 of the 313 works in the auction, according to the Associated Press, saying they are Mexican national property.

People tend to think of heart disease as a scourge of modern life, brought on by vices such as greasy fast food, smoking and the tendency to be a couch potato. But 21st century CT scans of 137 antique mummies gathered from three continents show that hardened arteries have probably plagued mankind for thousands of years - even in places like the Aleutian Islands, where hunter-gatherers subsisted on a heart-healthy marine diet and occasional snacks of berries. Fully a third of the mummies examined - who lived in the American Southwest and Alaska as well as Egypt and Peru as much as 5,000 years ago - appeared to have the same vascular blockages that cause heart attacks and strokes in Americans today.

Just One Eye is more than meets the ... well never mind, no cliche could do it justice. Part luxury boutique, part art gallery, part bricks-and-mortar manifestation of a digital storefront, it stocks the cream of the eclectic crop - including $65 GoFast Inc. T-shirts and $46,400 Jitrois mink hoodies, a century-old Carlo Bugatti throne chair and brand new Blackman Cruz beanbag chairs (each priced well north of $20,000). Uber-luxe destination retail is certainly not a new concept in the City of Angels.

KYAN KHINN SU, Myanmar - No matter what anyone else says, antique-aircraft buff David Cundall remains adamant about finding valuable World War II Spitfires buried somewhere in Myanmar. The 63-year-old English farmer and aviation fan told reporters in Yangon this week that he would continue his search even though his main sponsor had backed out. Cundall has already led a 21-member team digging and surveying for several weeks this year near Yangon's international airport in Mingaladon, convinced that dozens of the planes were buried unassembled in wooden crates at the end of the war in 1945.

One of L.A.'s most active apartment developers has purchased the site of the Wertz Brothers Antique Mart in Santa Monica as dramatic changes are planned for properties near a future stop on the light rail Expo Line. Wertz Realty Investments sold the antique store building and parking lot at 1613 Lincoln Blvd. to Century West Partners for more than $11 million, public documents indicate. Century West plans to incorporate the site into its proposed Lincoln Boulevard Collection, which is to be comprised of four apartment buildings on Lincoln Boulevard with a combined total of 421 units.

If you're looking for a terrific mementos of turn-of-the-century antiques, head for this friendly industrial city about 75 miles northwest of Chicago. Rockford's population of roughly 148,000 supports two sizable antiques malls with nearly 200 dealers, two Saturday and Sunday antiques flea markets with dozens of dealers and more than a dozen individual antique shops. They sell all sorts of American antiques, including furniture, farm equipment, kitchen utensils, gadgets, books, prints, toys, clothing and personal accessories.

When Eric Bakker owned a restaurant in Sunset Beach, his customers frequently pleaded with him to sell them the nautical antiques that gave his establishment an authentic atmosphere. "I got tired of saying, 'It's not for sale, it's not for sale,' " he said. "It only seemed to make them want it more. Eventually they'd wear me down and I'd go get a screwdriver from the back room and take whatever it was they wanted off the wall and sell it to them. I made some pretty good deals."

In the wake of a scandal over its acquisition of looted antiquities, the J. Paul Getty Museum is trying to verify the ownership histories of 45,000 antiquities and publish the results in the museum's online collections database. The study, part of the museum's efforts to be more transparent about the origins of ancient art in its collection, began last summer, said Getty spokesman Ron Hartwig. "In this effort, and in all our work, when we identify objects that warrant further discussion and research, we conduct the necessary research to determine whether an item should be returned," Hartwig said in a statement to The Times.

Remember when Vegas was cheap? It can be again, except it's not Vegas, it's Reno. There are better reasons to come here than its reputation for quickie divorces might have you believe. For instance, big casinos just like in Vegas but not as pricey and definitely not as raucous. The bed We chose the Tuscany-flavored Peppermill (2707 S. Virginia St., [866] 821-9996, http://www.peppermillreno.com ) and had a price flashback. Even though it was a holiday weekend, our small suite at this AAA four-diamond property was $130 for Friday night and $160 for Saturday.