If you wonder how the French got all that stuff for the Louvre, have you ever thought about the British Museum? Or, the Vatican Museum! Both are loaded with artifacts from "other places" than where they are on display. All those explorers were busy carting stuff back home! The trick to seeing the Mona Lisa (in the Louvre) up close without a crowd is to have a museum pass. About 30 minutes before closing, go straight in and head to the Mona lisa. Everyone else is on their way out and you get the painting mostly to yourself. Then, go back the next day to see everything else. Cameron

please check my list here, I would love to do a big trade with you. thanks kathleen

Just wanted to add that where I suspect there was a scam (in fact I might even call it fraud) is in regard to Greyhound and insurance. He insurred each chair for $300 and from the sound of it, was assuming I'd make a claim through Greyhound and get reimbursed for the cost of the chair plus have one functional chair. He did not bet on my taking it to a antique furniture restoration store (which I might not have except that I needed to get my dining room chair fixed) and that person telling me that he saw these types of things all the time in insurance claims and said and put in writing that it was clearly not shipping related damage. When I spoke to Paypal they said this is the type of information they look for when handling a dispute. Now my other issue is if I send it back do I insure it (it's my understanding that Greyhound will insure for $300 for no additional cost). There is a page where the cost of the item is declared. For the damaged chair, I want to declare a cost of $0 since I want to prevent him from filing a Greyhound claim on return. FOr the other chair DH and I were discussing 1/2 the cost I paid--about $100.

hehe! No, I don't think it's all that obvious. Or at least I had never heard of it before finding it in the art dictionary, ArtLex, that I mentioned here before. Here's what they said: bricolage - Something made from whatever materials happen to be available. From the French bricole, meaning a trifle, and which the French used even earlier to mean catapault. Bricolage may be related to bric-a-brac. Quote: ".... Bricolage is a French word. It means to build it yourself." Tom Sachs (contemporary) American artist Don'tcha love it?! :-D Since we go looking for specific items for assemblage, I suppose it's not exactly the same. I guess the Watt's Tower would be a good example of bricolage. But since you "build" or "assemble" these 3D collages, I think that describes it pretty well.