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A mh CRUISING BACK TO SEA: 'LA NORMANDIE' STATUE LEAVES BEACH HOTEL 06/16/2001
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 2001, The Miami Herald
DATE: Saturday, June 16, 2001 EDITION: Final
SECTION: Front PAGE: 4A LENGTH: 67 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Thomas Walters holds 'La Normandie' as Steve Tucker and
Clarence Martin move the statue for Demetrios Kaparis of Celebrity Cruises
(a)
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: BY DIANE KOLYER, dkolyer@herald.com
CRUISING BACK TO SEA: 'LA NORMANDIE' STATUE LEAVES BEACH HOTEL
An Art Deco statue created for the 1935 French ocean liner Normandie - a
decorative fixture at the Fontainebleau Hilton for 47 years - is going back to
sea.
The eight-foot-high, 1,000-pound bronze of a French maiden, called La
Normandie, was removed from the Miami Beach hotel Friday by its new owner,
Celebrity Cruises. The statue will be placed on the company's newest ship, the
Summit, which begins Caribbean cruises from Port Everglades in October.
Demetrios Kaparis, senior vice president for Celebrity's newbuildings
division, said he has been negotiating to buy the statue for several months.
On June 8, he said, with the deal sealed, he went to the hotel with a check
for $170,000 and a list of cruises and other services totaling about $250,000,
and walked out owning La Normandie.
Lisa Cole, the hotel's public relations director, said the sale was
approved by hotel owner Stephen Muss and his top executives.
"This seemed to make so much sense, a tribute to everything she was
about, " Cole said. "It just seemed to fit. "
The statue, by Leon-Georges Baudry, and other Art Deco artwork and
furnishings were removed from the Normandie in New York in 1941 so the ship
could be refitted as a World War II troop carrier.
Thirteen years later, Fontainebleau architect Morris Lapidus went to New
York to buy decorative objects for the new hotel. He found La Normandie in a
scrap-metal yard, paid $1,200 for it and trucked it to Miami Beach, where he
had it placed at the huge poolside fountain.
The statue was later moved into the main lobby. Most recently, it has been
in a small, out-of-the-way lobby in the spa building.
Lapidus, who died in January at age 98, wanted the hotel to give it more
prominence or donate it to a museum.
Celebrity's Kaparis said the statue will be sent to Italy for cleaning and
a three-foot-high marble base and then to the shipyard in France. It will be
placed at the bottom of a two-deck-high double staircase in the Summit's main
dining room.
On the Normandie, it was at the top of a grand staircase to the ship's
first-class smoking room.
Celebrity's two other new ships also have an ocean liner theme. The
Millennium, which
The eight-foot-high, 1,000-pound bronze of a French maiden was removed from
the Fontainebleau Hilton Friday by its new owner, Celebrity Cruises.
began service last September, has a specialty restaurant with wood paneling
from the 1910 steamship Olympic, the Titanic's older sister.
The Olympic was scrapped in 1935, and the paneling was installed in a home
in Southport, England. Kaparis said he bought the panels at auction, but ended
up having to buy the whole house to get the paneling out.
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He said the total cost was more than $300,000 by the time the panels were
reassembled on the Millennium.
The Infinity, which went into service in February, is dedicated to the
1952-built SS United States, the world's fastest ocean liner.
Kaparis acquired six glass panels from the ship's first-class dining room
for the Infinity's specialty restaurant, along with other memorabilia and
photographs.
The Summit will be dedicated to the Normandie. Kaparis also acquired two
sets of four Art Deco gold-lacquer panels by Jean Dunand, some menus,
silverware and other objects from the legendary ship. And now La Normandie.
CAPTION: PETER ANDREW BOSCH/HERALD STAFF BRONZE BEAUTY: Thomas Walters holds
'La Normandie' as Steve Tucker, bottom, and Clarence Martin move the statue
for Demetrios Kaparis of Celebrity Cruises, right.
KEYWORDS: LA NORMANDI STATUE
TAG: 0106190166