Along with being the birth of our nation, in my family, the forth of July has always been the celebration of my sculptor uncle, Octavio Mastrovito, better known as the man who built the golden statue of Prometheus at Rockefeller Center in New York. He also named me Gretchen. And I have always felt the kinship that artists share. He was a spectacularly talented, tall, dark, handsome and generous gentleman. We were very close in my formative years. Yet, he left the east to pursue his career in the west when I was 5. Probably why I discovered Sherlock Holmes the next year. He would have been 110 today. And also lives on as one of the main characters in my Novel, These Scattered Houses.
The sculpture was installed in 1934. Paul Manship is the sculptor. But my uncle built it for him and cast it in bronze, gilded by hand in 24K gold leaf. So we feel it’s ours.
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Published by Gretchen Altabef
I author Sherlock Holmes Novels and emulate Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s and Dr. John Watson’s literary styles. MX Publishing Author of Sherlock Holmes: THESE SCATTERED HOUSES. A breakthrough novel for Holmes and for me, an historical murder mystery solved as only Holmes can. The sequel, Sherlock Holmes: REMARKABLE POWER OF STIMULUS is a Sherlock Holmes novel with heart. I am both contributor of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Holmes history, and an editor of JEREMY BRETT – PLAYING A PART and JEREMY BRETT IS SHERLOCK HOLMES by Maureen Whittaker. A member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, The John H. Watson Society, and the Sherlock Holmes Society of India. "I could not wish anything better than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular adventures which were the normal condition of his existence." - Dr. Watson (TWIS).
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