Al Sharpton pained by James Brown's death
NEW YORK, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- James Brown's death may have affected most of America in some way but few people were touched as much as the Rev. Al Sharpton.
"He knew that I came out of a one-parent home, and he became my father and I became like his son," Sharpton told the New York Daily News, speaking through tears.
The crowd at the National Action Network's House of Justice wept along with Sharpton while he spoke of the impact that the original Godfather of Soul had on his life and how he got news of his death, the newspaper said.
Sharpton said he knew Brown was in the hospital but after he got the call about the singer's death early Christmas Day, he went back to sleep, "because I wanted to tell myself I was dreaming."
Sharpton said he last talked to Brown a week ago when the singer told Sharpton he was proud of the work Sharpton was doing in New York.
Memphis to get Rock Hall of Fame exhibit
MEMPHIS, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- Memphis is scheduled to become the new home of a satellite exhibition from Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Planned for Memphis' Gibson Beale Street Showcase facility, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame On Tour will open as soon as major renovations can be completed, possibly by next fall, the Memphis Commercial-Appeal said.
A former competitor for the original Hall of Fame, Memphis will now feature the two constant exhibits of "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll" and "50 years of Rock and Roll."
Also set to be added to the locale is regular live entertainment and a new format of dinner theater.
To honor the new musical locale, the newspaper said, a free concert will be held Jan. 13 featuring performances from Amy Lavere, William Lee Ellis and William Lee Ellis.
British collectors worry about art prices
LONDON, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- Contemporary art is being sold for very high prices at auctions in London and New York but some are worried that the pieces will decay and lose value.
The chairman of the Hiscox group, Robert Hiscox, said that iconic works such as Damien Hirst's "shark" or Tracey Emin's "My Bed" could lose most of their value as they decompose, The Times of London reported Tuesday.
Hiscox said that the decomposition of pieces is on the mind of many art insurers and collectors who own some of the movement's best-known works, which are steadily moving into their second decade.
"You're buying a concept, but who wants a work of art that 100 years later has to be continually repaired?" he said. "I looked at the Saatchi collection and you could see that the condoms on Tracey Emin's bed had become brittle -- of course they have, it's almost 10 years old. This raises the question: can these things be replaced? Will any old condoms do or do they have to be Tracey's?"
Mural of Genghis Khan's funeral found
SHANGHAI, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- A painting of a Mongolian funeral ceremony in the Arjai caves in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region might depict Genghis Khan's funeral.
The mural in one of the caves at the Arjai Grotto is about 20 inches long and 14 inches wide, the Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday.
The painting depicts a Mongolian funeral where a man is held above a funeral pit by white cranes, said Pan Zhaodong, a researcher from the Social Science Academy of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
One well-dressed onlooker could very well be the prince who accompanied Genghis Khan to take over the Western Xia regime, while the other two are monks, Zhaodong told Xinhua. One of the monks is on his knees and appears to be praying, said the researcher.
