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By Bill Bleyer
Staff Writer

	Künstler signs a print of Old Glory

After Cove Neck artist Mort Künstler had prints made of one of his paintings depicting the American flag for an art exposition last year, he didn't know what to do with the leftovers. Until September 11.

Now Künstler's Old Glory has become a fund-raising tool for the American Red Cross' effort to aid the families of the terrorist attack victims.

Künstler, one of the country's most respected painters of Civil War and other historical themes, has been signing prints and shipping them at his own expense to anyone who writes a check for $25 to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. After a second printing, so far he has sold 2,000 prints and turned over $50,000 to the relief agency, and if all of the 6,800 prints sell, he will have raised $170,000, all of it earmarked for victims of the terror attacks.

"It's just an incredible donation," said Maryann Slutsky, director of financial development for the American Red Cross in Nassau County, "It's a very creative way to do it."

Künstler painted Old Glory in 1986 and it adorned the cover of his book The American Spirit - The Paintings of Mort Künstler published that year.

New prints were made last year and most distributed as a promotion at an art expo in Atlanta. But there were 800 left over. And after September 11, Chris Brooks of Vermont, a friend of Künstler who works in art publishing, suggested they be sold to benefit the Red Cross.

Künstler decided to sign each print and ship them at his own expense - about $10,000 so far - to those who wrote a check to the Red Cross. When the initial prints sold out quickly, Brooks volunteered to pay for an additional 6,000 prints.

"Not a dime is made by me or the publisher," Künstler said. "My time is the biggest sacrifice. Every morning I start out signing a couple of hundred before I go to work. My hand is pretty tired by now," he said with a laugh.

With details about the Old Glory offer posted on the artist's website, www.mortkunstler.com, orders have come in from around the world. Jeff Barley in England sent a check for two of the 18" x 10 1/2" prints and wrote that he was "appreciative of your personal support in…donating the proceeds to the just cause."

Künstler - who has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years for Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the Cedar Creek Battlefield in Virginia, Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument in Montana and other sites - also has done live signings of the flag prints at the Oyster Bay and Rockville Centre post offices and at museums and galleries in Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The prints are available by mail from Künstler Enterprises, P.O. Box 311, Oyster Bay, NY, 11771.

"The money I've spent on shipping and handling is small, " Künstler said, "but it is wonderful to feel that you can make ten times what you put in for a good cause."  

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