Obituaries - Aug. 23, 1999

Prince Faisal; Son of Saudi King Fahd

Prince Faisal ibn Fahd, 54, the eldest son of Saudi King Fahd. Prince Faisal, the equivalent of minister of sports in Saudi Arabia, had returned last week from Amman, Jordan, where he attended the Arab Games. The prince headed the Arab Sports Federation, which organized the games for 21 countries and the Palestinian territories. While in Amman, Faisal donated $1 million to an orphanage, Dar al-Baraaem, or House of Blossoms, favored by the late King Hussein of Jordan. Faisal, who was not in line to the Saudi throne, was admitted to the intensive care unit of King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh early Saturday and died there of a heart attack. He will be buried today in a city cemetery in Riyadh after a funeral service that is expected to draw leaders from throughout the Arab world.

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* Vera Krasovskaya; Ballet Historian

Vera Krasovskaya, 83, a Russian dancer who later became a renowned ballet historian. She began her career in the 1930s as a dancer at the Kirov Ballet at the Mariinsky Theater in what was then Leningrad. She later studied at the city’s Theater Institute and earned a doctorate of art criticism in 1955. She wrote extensively on ballet issues for Soviet and foreign publications and published a number of books, including the multivolume “Ballet Theater in Russia” and “Western European Ballet Theater.” Her biography of Vaslav Nijinsky, “Nijinsky,” was the only book of hers published in the United States and it received mixed reviews due to what many reviewers called a stilted translation. However, Mikhail Baryshnikov told the Washington Post that he regards the book as the truest guide to Nijinsky’s work. In January, she received Russia’s Triumph Prize, the first time that the art and literature award was given for work in dance. On Aug. 15 in St. Petersburg after a prolonged illness.

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* Donald L. Mason; FBI Agent Investigated Art Thefts

Donald Louis Mason, 74, an FBI agent whose interest in art led to the creation of a unit to investigate art theft. Mason’s investigations included a widely publicized case in 1976, when film director Otto Preminger reported the theft of a Kandinsky painting “Leise Deutung (Soft Interpretations)” from his New York office. Mason traced the painting from New York to Philadelphia, back to New York, and then to Basel, Switzerland, where it was seized and returned to Preminger. An advertising salesman was charged in connection with the theft. After solving the case, Mason retired from the FBI and became a private consultant on art security. His clients included the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Newberry Library in Chicago and the Art Institute of Chicago. Although Mason, a 25-year FBI veteran, had no formal art training, he frequented museums and had a lifelong fascination with art. On Aug. 10 in Haworth, N.J., of cancer.

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* Peter Nooteboom; Daico Industries President

Peter Nooteboom, 76, president and chief executive officer of Daico Industries. Nooteboom, who lived for many years in Manhattan Beach, graduated from UCLA and served in the Coast Guard during World War II. He made Daico a major supplier of electronic products to aerospace manufacturers, first from its headquarters in Compton and since last year in Rancho Dominguez. On Tuesday in Escondido.