January 1, 2000

- Moderator's message (What I really want is that all of you accept your
personal responsibility for this list and send your thoughts about MSN and it's
present and future role. The MSN service is and will remain free for everyone.
The mere fact that there is no money involved does not mean that I do not have
the right to challenge you and let you know that the quality of our list
depends on it's participants (subscribers) and not just on me........)
- Cezanne Painting Stolen in Oxford
- query: art vault
- Call for Help on the Website: Culturalheritagewatch (The Museum Security Organization has decided to support this endeavor. Soon there will be a website at: http:///www.culturalheritagewatch.org/ which will be financially take care of by MSN for two years)
- Blaze Damages Historic Hudson Home
- New System (Francisco de la Fuente)

Moderator's message:

HAPPY NEW YEAR, to all our Museum Security Mailinglist subscribers. MSN has been on line now for three years. At the moment we have 1100 + subscribers. The website contains some 25 megs of information. I really would like all of you to reflect on the direction this list and website is going. The original intention was to create a WWW forum offering information about all aspects of cultural property protection. Gradually the MSN endeavor has grown to be a source of information about information related to art theft, forgery, looting, and illicit trade in art. The original core business has been forced to the background: information about museum security matters have become only a part of the information exchange. As moderator of this list and website I do appreciate it's natural development. Still I would like to be able to forward much more information about museum security related matters. This is not something I can do by myself. Your help is needed. Some of our subscribers have been impressively active. I do not want to mention any names at this point (for fear that I might forget anybody). I will continue to do the job I have been doing this far. In 1999 I attended (and spoke at) conferences in Los Angeles, London, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Mexico City. Plans for 2000 are conferences in Washington, Rome, and Athens. The help offered by Mosler Inc. and the Netherlands Museums Organization is not only very much appreciated but of utmost importance for the survival of this organization. Next week we will open a new website in the USA with 100MB of diskspace. This will lead, together with our other providers, to over 170MB diskspace. Please do not hesitate to send your ideas, suggestions, files, criticism, complaints, creativity to securma@xs4all.nl.
The past three years I have made many friends in the museum security field. Many of those have impressed me a lot. Many people are performing a great job. Keep doing this and do help MSN to offer high quality information. MSN is yours; my role is just the modest one of a very enthusiastic intermediate with lots of energy!
What I really want is that all of you accept your personal responsibility for this list and send your thoughts about MSN and it's present and future role. The MSN service is and will remain free for everyone. The mere fact that there is no money involved does not mean that I do not have the right to challenge you and let you know that the quality of our list depends on it's participants (subscribers) and not just on me.
Once again: HAPPY NEW YEAR, and please do stay alert.
Ton Cremers

Cezanne Painting Stolen in Oxford

OXFORD, England (AP) - Art thieves broke into an Oxford museum and made off with a painting by the French artist Paul Cezanne early Saturday, authorities said. The thieves broke through the glass roof of the Ashmolean Museum, housing one of Britain's finest art collections, and grabbed the painting valued at about $3.2 million, before escaping unnoticed, the museum's director Roger Hobby told the British Broadcasting Corp.
He said the theft probably happened around 1:30 a.m. while the streets of Oxford were crowded with noisy millennium revelers. ``Officers are currently liaising with museum staff to ascertain exactly what has happened,'' said a spokesman for Thames Valley Police, speaking with a customary policy of anonymity. The museum, in a 17th-century building, houses paintings by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Pablo Picasso. The stolen Cezanne work, ``Auvers-Sur-Oise,'' was painted between 1879 and 1882. Last month, another Cezanne painting - stolen from a Massachusetts' home in 1978 and recovered last October - was sold at a Sotheby's auction in London for $30 million.

From: Djn763@aol.com
Subject:

query: art vault

We are building a new art vault and I would appreciate any information regarding specs. In particular I need the minimum industry standards for the thickness of the walls & ceilings and the pattern of debar that would be used.

Call for Help on the Website: Culturalheritagewatch (The Museum Security Organization has decided to support this endeavor. Soon there will be a website at: http:///www.culturalheritagewatch.org/ which will be financially take care of by MSN for two years)
"Cultural Heritage Watch" is an association, intended to become an independent, non-government organization in the near future, engaged in the protection of cultural heritage, founded in Beijing at the end of 1998. Professors, lawyers, archaeologists and museum directors are members of the association. The founder and the director is Mr. He Shuzhong, a cultural heritage lawyer and the deputy director of the law and treaties department, National Administration of Cultural Heritage, PRC. So far the association has done much towards protection, including presentations in universities and middle schools, a national competition on knowledge of the cultural heritage and the related law and conventions, training of professionals, drafting the related laws and regulations, giving suggestions to the authorities, collecting information on damaged cultural heritage. The government finds all of this work helpful for the protection of the cultural heritage. And the association has a good relationship with the appropriate Chinese authorities and some of the relevant international organizations.
All of the members from the association think the work they are doing is very important and there is still so much more to be done. They believe it will be very helpful for the protection of cultural heritage if they can establish the Website Culturalheritagewatch in Chinese, traditional Chinese (for Chinese people abroad) and English. The contents of the Website will include:
1. Law and international conventions;
2. Cultural properties in China;
3. Museums and exhibitions
4. Illicit excavation and illicit traffic;
5. Modernization, industrialization, urbanization and the protection of cultural properties;
6. Environmental pollution and the protection of cultural properties;
7. Promoting the return of cultural properties;
8. Intangible heritage and its loss in China;
9. World Cultural Heritage;
10. Cultural heritage and the development;
11. Cultural rights and wrongs;
12. Education plans for young people;
13. Training plans for the professionals;
14. Cultural tourism;
15. News and events;
All of the members are sure that the Website will be important and necessary for the education, training and exchanging the information on the protection of the heritage. And it will also put pressure on the related authorities.
We are facing big financial difficulties now. It is necessary to cooperate with interested companies, organizations or/and get possible support for establishing the Website from related funds, organizations, companies and people. Please contact us: hsuzhong@public2.east.cn.net

From: Jack Sullivan jacksull@mindspring.com
Subject: [Fire Safe Heritage]:

Blaze Damages Historic Hudson Home

Blaze Damages Historic Hudson Home - (HUDSON, Ohio) -- A piece of 19th century history has gone up in flames in Hudson. Fire investigators say the third floor of a Queen Anne Victorian home is gone after fire raced through the structure on South Main Street. It took firefighters several hours to control yesterday's blaze. There were NO injuries. Damage is estimated at half-a-Million dollars. The home has been featured in architectural magazines and books across the country.

From: "Francisco de la Fuente" ffuente@museothyssen.org

Subject:

New System

Dear Ton,
Because of the interest produced by the E-mail sent to the Security Network talking about a new security system due to protect works of art, here I send you more information to all suscribers.

Thak you and Merry Christmas for all

For three years approximately, are applicable to the most important museums in Spain the concepts reflected in the Study of Public's Behaviour at the Museums published in the web page of the Museum Security Network. As soon as this concepts became known, my colleagues of the Prado Museum, the Reina Sofía Museum, the Guggenheim Museum and others, modified their security structures to deal with the problem of the contacts and excessive approaches to the works of art, keeping in mind that security personnel also participates preserving the works of art.
With regard to the system mentioned some days ago, is very easy to install and it's not necessary to embed any device to the works of art. The Museums Curators and Restorers are opposed to embed any object to the later part of the frame or the canvas, fact that was in our mind when thinking of a new system.
The system is based on the strategical placement of some special CCTV cameras that eliminate the false alarms that could be produced by the interference of visitors or their shadows between the works of art and them, in addition to a three-dimensional analysis of the received images. This way, contacts and excessive approaches are detected with an enormous reliability in addition to any robbery or attack intent (including the procedure of cutting the canvas).
The system requires the preparing of a special security procedure so that its perfomance would be the correct one and the reply of the security personnel is the appropiate one in every situation. No special means are needed; simply it has to exist a correct coordination between the Control Center operators and the guards of the museum.
The fact that the exposed works of art could be changed or substituted to lend them to temporal exhibitions doesn't imply the modification of the system at the rooms. That is to say, IT IS NOT NECESSARY to replace the cameras again. Everything would be solved from the Control Center, fact that is extremely operative and comfortable because the operator would have modified the system in a relative short time to adapt it to the new exposed works. The system has been tested in our Museum during 25.000 hours approximately and false alarms have not existed. It is planned to be installed the next expansion of our building.
The only interest of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation is the protection of the works of art and we work daily on that sense. If anything here exposed is interesting for any institution, our security department is at your disposal to analyze your necessities and, in case of deciding to install the system, to serve as connection with the company in charge of the installation and the supply of the material, company on the other hand absolutely reliable since it's a multinational placed in numerous countries and a pioneer one in CCTV systems.
Our department would supervise the whole process (form the design to the installation) to check that the installation is the correct one, keeping in mind the economic means of each institution. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation ( http://www.museothyssen.org ), has no economic interests in the project, although the company in charge has the responsibility of the installation. We simply want the system to be dedicated to the correct conservation of the works of art. Because of this we only request when anybody makes a reference to the system, makes also an appointment to our security department like promoters of the same one.