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I N T R O D U C T I O N

Michelangelo made small clay and wax models from which he carved his statues. The "David" 18 feet high is said to have been carved from a model 12 inches high. Most of his models have been lost to time. The clay model for the David was given to Cosmo I (a Medici) by Michelangelo. In 1690, it was lost after a fire in Cosmo's III palace.        While most sculptures look stiff, wooden, like they were pieced together. Whereas, Michelangelo's sculptures look like they are alive. In reality Michelangelo did a lot of piecing to make his sculptures. This makes Michelangelo a even more amazing sculptor: he pieced but made it lifelike.        The proof exists in the models that have survived. The right hand appearing in the Lorenzo de Medici statue also is the left hand in reverse image. The same hand also appears in his other sculptures and paintings.        The major objection to Michelangelo using small models is the method used today to carve models today uses small models not large models. Most modern sculptors sculpt by number. Using a pointing machine thay take refrerce points on the model than transfer those points to the block of marble. The using the machine drill down to the desired depth in the model. Than the sculptor chips away the pooints. The bigger the models the easier it is to transfer the points. If you use a smaller model mistakes could occur in the ezact measurements. Mt. Rushmore statues were carved by unsilled labrors using a pointing machine.        However, the pointing machines were not invented untill the late 1700's. Michelangelo lived between 1475-1554). He free carved direclly from the ckay model to the stone, Only, less skilleld scul;ptors that Michelangelo hired to finish his projects required full sized nideks ti work from. .        Michelangelo is recorded to have destroyed his work two weeks before he died so no one would know his methods. He is also known to have sometimes cast the wax models into bronze and given them away to admirers. He also gave away his clay models too. It is also recorded that a thief broke into his studio and stole some of his models.        Then there are the models that Michelangelo gave to his student, Mini, who took to France. Some of the models were returned to Italy but many were not. It is probably where the 40 models in the Von Praun Collection originated.        This web page is dedicated to finding Michelangelo's lost models and liberating from their private safe deposit boxes (the fat cats probably have them prominently displayed in their homes so they can brag what they got to their rich friends) and putting them in public museums where everyone can enjoy their beauty. A secondary mission is to get museums to attribute the models as by Michelangelo.        Specifically, I am loking for the models sold at the Christie's auction in 1938. The provenrnce on these models is excellent. There were 33 models sold. Today 12 of those models locations are unaccounted for.Christie's knows who the models were sold to in 1938. However, they do no reveal their clients.        This can be accomplished by getting their owners to donate them to their local Museum or selling them to a fat cat who for a tax break will then donate the models to a museums where everyone can view them.        A major problem is convincing the museums that they really are by Michelangelo. The Santa Barbara, CA model, A terracotta plaque , is unlabeled and displayed next to a sharks tooth. This is ridiculous since it was part of the well documented Von Praun Collection and was sold at the Christie's auction in 1938. The paper trail or provenance        There were SEVEN buyers. Percival Wolfe, was a Montreal mining promoter.bought 18 odels. He bequeathed the models to his twin sons, Peter and Paul LeBrooy, both of whom later moved to Vancouver. The Vancouver museum (MoV) in Vancouver Canada which laterr acuired them..        r> The remaining 15 models were sold to 6 different buyers. Ten of these models are now lost and these are the models I am looking for.        This may be a 100 year search. Realistically, at this point in time, only two of the models may be locatable:        1) The bronze Day made from the clay model in 1850. This model was last seen in Vancouver, Canada in 1972 in the private collection of Edward Halprin 1972.        Any information about the last owner would be appreciate so s/he can be contacted about selling it to the Vancouver Museum or a local Museum so the public can view it. Update(5/2012):The Halprin bronze day model is in a private collection in Canada. Update(12/2018):The "Day foot" model is in a private collection in the USA.        2) One of the 10 lost models sold at the 1938 Christie's auction is said to have been resold to a museum in Australia. Any M lovers in Australia?        Computer copies, using CAT scans, also need to be made and of all the models and distributed to other museums so you don't have to travel all over the planet to see the models. For example, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, in Houston, Texas, only has one. (The Museum of Fine arts in Texas, also claims that iats model is not by Michelangelo. This is ridiculos, since it well documented to be part of the Von Praun Collection that was sold at the Christies auction in 1938.) model a teracotta of the "Day" It would be nice if the Museum displayed the computer generated copies of the other models with its model.