The Iceberg is the most expensive American painting in history, but it is also the center of an art-world mystery with a trail leading from an English boys’ school to a Dallas millionaire.
April 1980

Features
Being autistic nearly ruined Michael Shipley’s life, but his parents sent him to a state mental hospital. Then Michael’s life was ruined for good.
Bob Bullock, in his flamboyant style, built a powerful state agency. Then Bob Bullock, in his flamboyant style, was seduced by its power.
Burns roamed Texas doing odd jobs. One day he ambled into a museum carrying drawings he’s made along the way - and ended up a celebrity.
For hundreds of years man—from the Comanche to the backpacker—has tried to conquer Big Bend. Still, it remains wild, stark, and pristine.
Miscellany
Nebraska scoundrels are absconding with West Texas water; adding grist to the Murdoch rumor mill; the old Dallas City Council was never like this.
Columns
While the Pyramid Room in Dallas relies on pomp, two of its rivals in French dining are putting foot before pretension.
You do? There are some people right off Dallas’s Central Expressway waiting to help.
One man’s lifelong quest for the perfect recording of Mozart’s masterpiece.
Adventurous Methodists try the case against the Church; pallid Seventh-day Adventists try the worshiper’s patience.
Forgetting free trade, scrapping our factories, and other modest solutions to our economic troubles.
Roadside Geology of Texas makes traveling a rocky road fun. In the Shining Mountains finds nature tarnished, but The Spawning Run shows it unspoiled.
Filmmaker Les Blank focuses on foot-tapping music, down-home cooking, and the vanishing art of having a good time.
As a doctor, Tony Seidenberg has become accustomed to death. Only this time it is different: he is the one who is dying.
Reporter
Rice University is up in arms; God is indicted for murder; Blackboard Jungle becomes a political thicket; the golden arm of Nolan Ryan.