Work to start on new hot air balloon museum in Albuquerque

ALBUQUERQUE -- A groundbreaking ceremony for a museum dedicated to the history and high points of ballooning will coincide with this year's Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

The Maxie Anderson Foundation plans to break ground for the new museum on Friday.

Construction on the 50,000 square-foot museum, on the south side of Fiesta Park, will begin in November with completion expected in time for the October 2004 fiesta.

The two-story museum will have interactive displays covering ballooning history from its earliest days. It will also highlight the first Atlantic Ocean crossing in Double Eagle II and the first Pacific Ocean crossing in Double Eagle V.

"It's a state-of-the-art museum that's definitely going to put Albuquerque on the map," says Jane Dixon, executive director of the Maxie Anderson Foundation.

The museum will be named for Albuquerque balloonists Maxie Anderson and Ben Abruzzo. The pair, along with Larry Newman, completed the first trans-Atlantic balloon flight in 1978.

Funding for the $10 million museum came from state, city and corporate donations. The foundation hopes to raise money for operating costs through museum memberships, Dixon says.

French art show to draw 200,000 to Atlanta museum

ATLANTA -- An upcoming exhibition of French Impressionist works from a Paris museum is creating excitement not only at the High Museum of Art but in Atlanta's tourism industry as well.

The exhibit, "Paris in the Age of Impressionism: Masterworks from The Musee d'Orsay" opens to the public on Nov. 23.

The Paris museum is the second-largest in France and is known for its collection from the late 19th century when the Impressionists were active. It will send about 100 works to Atlanta, including paintings, sculptures, photographs and decorative art.

High Museum director Michael Shapiro expects the show to have a much broader affect than giving people a chance to see works by such artists as Monet, Degas and Rodin that rarely are displayed outside Paris.

The exhibition, he says, "is going to take us well beyond the walls of the museum and provide an invitation and an opportunity to Atlantans and visitors to sample the best that the city has to offer."

Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau President Spurgeon Richardson says he expects the show to attract more than 200,000 patrons during its four-month run.

While conventioneers have a reputation for spending freely, Richardson says cultural tourists, on average, spend more. "The economic impact is tremendous," he says.

Several hotels and restaurants are offering deals that include tickets to the exhibition. The Atlanta Symphony and local theater groups are also planning programs related to the show.

R.M.S. Titanic will give up salvage rights to famous ship

NORFOLK, Va. -- The world's most famous shipwreck is up for grabs again.

R.M.S. Titanic Inc., the Atlanta company that has salvaged the Titanic since 1987 but has suffered recent setbacks, has announced it will give up its rights to the project and will conduct no more expeditions.

That could prompt a race among salvors to get to the Titanic first, perhaps as early as next summer. The wreck can be salvaged only during summer months because of weather in the North Atlantic, where the luxury liner sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.

The company announced its plans in papers filed in Norfolk's federal court and with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Federal judges in Norfolk have overseen the salvage since 1992, when the original salvage claim was made. The court awarded sole salvage rights to R.M.S. Titanic in 1994.

R.M.S. Titanic conducted six salvage expeditions, the last in 2000, at a cost of $11 million.

Many of the 6,000 artifacts recovered are at public exhibitions around the country.

The company's stock peaked around $4 a share in 1999. Late that year, a new group assumed management, fired the directors and moved the headquarters from Florida to Atlanta. The company has steadily lost money since then, and stock value plummeted.

In April, a dissident shareholder sued the company and its leaders, contending they had committed fraud and enriched themselves at stockholders' expense. The case is pending.

A Richmond appeals court recently ruled that R.M.S. Titanic does not own the artifacts it recovered but is temporary custodian. The company has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

--From wire reports