A collection of resources for programmers to learn how to harness the power of failure.
In amused memory for Frits V. Holm, aka The Duke of Colachine aka The Prince of Colachine; "collector", adventurer, fraud, imposter.
Travelling to China at the dawn of the 20th century, Holm ventured to "purchase" (steal) the famous Nestorian Monolith, an early record of Christianity in China. As the workers Holm hired struggled to move the artifact, the Chinese government reacted by taking it and placing it in one of their museums.
Thwarted in his plans, the Duke of the nonexistent Duchy of Colachine decided instead of create a copy of the item, and ship it to New York, with the plan of selling it to the Metropolitan Museum.
The New York press lauded "Count Fritz Von Holm, a relative of the Danish King" on his triumphal arrival with the two-ton monolith. While, for some reason, the press thought his middle initial stood for Von, it in fact stood for Vilhelm. I don't know how that could have happened. Unfortunately, Sir Purdon Clarke, director of the Metropolitan Museum said that, “the stone has little value as an art object.” In the end Holm had to settle for lending the item to the museum. Source: (Keevak, 2008)
Holm's adventures do end on a happy note, when he married Marguerite MacDonough Green, only child of Warren L. Green, president of the American Bank Note Company, with an estate valued at around $1,000,000. (Pearce, 2020)
He died of pneumonia in 1930 because he refused to wear an overcoat. (NYT, 1930)
References:
- Frits Holm > My Nestorian adventure in China, 1923
- New York Times > F.V. HOLM DEAD; DANISH EXPLORER March 10, 1930
- Michael Keevak > The Story of a Stele: China's Nestorian Monument and Its Reception in the West , 2008
- Nick Pearce > A Nestorian Misadventure: Frits Holm and the Chinese Nestorian Stele, 2020