diamoNds aNd sNeakers: aN uNusual auctioN

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Errant Monkey Captivates Crowd in Puerto Rico’s Capital

Life in the Caribbean

The Associated Press

With necks craned and eyes shielded from the sun, dozens of people gathered for various days around a towering eucalyptus tree in the heart of Puerto Rico’s bustling capital for a most unusual sight: a rhesus macaque monkey on the loose. It was first spotted clinging to the tree’s branches. Firefighters and other officials struggled to coax the monkey off the tree as the crowd offered suggestions.

“Give it some lunch to make it come down!” one man yelled.

“It’s too fat to come down!” retorted a woman nearby.

“Oh my gosh, it must be scared,” chimed in a third person. When the first call reporting the monkey came, Ramón Luis Marcano, a lieutenant with the island’s Department of Natural Resources, did not believe it.

The caller reported the animal was in a tree on a busy, three-lane street that crosses the Santurce neighborhood in the capital of San Juan. “And I’m like, ‘Where?’”

He went to the scene with doubts, but there it was: a juvenile male rhesus macaque, which is native to south, central and southeast Asia.

“This is not normal,” Marcano said on Wednesday as he observed workers from his agency place a ladder between the tree and the rooftop of a nearby apartment and filled a cage with water, oranges and bananas to lure the monkey.

But the monkey refused to budge further, moving up and down the tree at times to the delight of the crowd below that included students, security guards and waiters.

“Look! Look! It’s moving! There it goes! There it goes!” yelled one woman as she pointed upward. Police directed traffic as drivers slowed down to try to catch a glimpse of the monkey, which remained largely hidden by leaves and branches.

Marcano said he has no idea where the monkey came from. Rhesus macaques, often descended from escapees from research projects, have been found on Puerto Rico’s main island and hundreds of them populate Cayo Santiago, a tiny island off Puerto Rico’s southeast coast, where they are allowed to roam free.

But they’re very rare in urban areas — let alone on busy streets far from fruit trees and other sources of food. The only food available along that stretch of road where the monkey was located is a high-end food truck park and a handful of small, indoor cafeterias.

Rhesus macaques are omnivores and considered one of the least friendly monkeys. They have reddish faces and bottoms and live between 20 to 40 years in captivity. They also can transmit the herpes B virus to humans, who can die from it if they don’t receive immediate treatment.

Marcano said that once the monkey is captured, it will be taken to a veterinarian and later placed with other rhesus macaques at the Dr. Juan A. Rivera Zoo in the western city of Mayagüez. The zoo has been the target of recent complaints and demands that it close following allegations of injuries and inhumane killings. Picture and videos of the monkey filled social media, with the animal drawing ever-more attention while staunchly staying in the tree.

“I feel bad for it, honestly,” said Stephen Hoppe, a 34-year-old business owner who shot a video of the monkey. “I imagine it’s terrified. ... Everyone is wondering where it came from.”

Royal Jewels and Kobe Bryant’s Shoes set for Geneva Auction

Looking for something really special this Christmas?

The Associated Press

GENEVA (AP) — A diamond bracelet that once belonged to France’s Marie Antoinette and a sapphire-and-diamond brooch with matching ear clips that once dangled from a Russian grand duchess are among the featured items in auctions of jewelry and other collectibles in Geneva, Switzerland.

Also going under the hammer in the lakeside Swiss city will be a pair of high-top Nike sneakers from the late NBA star Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard who died in a helicopter crash in California last year.

The blue, white and gold Nike Air Zoom Huarache 2K4 basketball shoes are expected to fetch up to 35,000 Swiss francs (about $38,000) during a Nov. 11 sale at Sotheby’s. Bryant wore the sneakers in a March 17, 2004, victory over the L.A. Clippers, according to the auction house.

But as usual in the Geneva fall auction season, diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, rubies and other prized gems will be the highlights of next week’s sales at Sotheby’s and rival Christie’s.

Christie’s is putting up for auction an eyepopping pair of heavy bracelets from the 18th century that are studded with three rows of small diamonds. The bracelets are billed as one of the last remaining vestiges of Marie Antoinette’s rich jewelry cabinet that are still available for sale.

The auction house said the famed royal and wife of King Louis XVI was known to have carefully wrapped her jewels in cotton herself, hoping to keep them outside revolutionary France - which ultimately took her life via the guillotine. The bracelets, commissioned around 1776, were kept within royal lineage for over 200 years, Christie’s said.

“Despite Marie-Antoinette’s capture in the French Revolution and her unfortunate death in 1793, the bracelets survived and were passed on to her daughter, Madame Royale, and then the Duchess of Parma,” said Max Fawcett, head of Christie’s jewelry department, referring respectively to Marie-Therese of France, the couple’s daughter, and Princess Louise d’Artois, who died in 1864.

“To see them up for auction today is a unique opportunity for collectors around the world to own a piece of French royal history,” Fawcett said.

The pre-sale estimate for the bracelets is up to 4 million Swiss francs ($4.38 million). They each weigh 97 grams (3.42 ounces), and include “old-cut” diamonds as well as silver and gold, Christie’s said.

Among the lots Sotheby’s plans to present is a pair of “perfectly matched” earrings, each set with 25.8-carat diamonds, that is expected to fetch up to 5 million francs ($5.5 million).

It will also showcase a brooch with a 26.8-carat oval sapphire surrounded by diamonds, and matching ear clips that once belonged to Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna and were whisked out of Russia during the country’s 1917 revolution. The trio is expected to garner as much as 480,000 francs ($525,800).

“She was the wife of Grand Duke Vladimir, the son of the tsar, and she was really passionate about jewelry. She had a fantastic collection of jewels,” said Olivier Wagner, the head of Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels sales.

A Christie’s employee displays a pair of diamond bracelets, with approximately 140 to 150 carats and owned by Queen Marie-Antoinette of France, in silver and yellow gold, circa 1776. >Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP

A Sotheby’s employee holds a pair of Nike sneakers of worn in game by former NBA player Kobe Bryant, in Geneva, Switzerland. >Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP A Christie’s employee displays a ruby and diamond first anniversaire bracelet from 1938 signed Cartier and property of a Lady formerly from the collection of the Duchess of Windsor, in Geneva, Switzerland. >Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP