March 8, 2000

Gathering policies re: Theft in Reading Rooms

Dear precious few who responded to my request for information about Reading Room Security policies last year:
Thank you. Thank you.
Armed with your responses, I went to RBMS mid-winter and talked with the Security Committee, but alas it made a rather thin report. We agreed that it would be best to see if I could gather a little more information from a few more institutions -- even anecdotal information is helpful -- so, I'm going to once more send out a request for information on the RBMS listserve and compile my findings for the annual meeting in Chicago.
Before I sent out the request again (a copy is below) I wanted to let you know that I am grateful to you and have not forgotten that you responded the first time. Any additional information since your last response would be helpful, and please feel free to forward my request to anyone (or any list) that you think might be willing to contribute.

Sincerely,
Rachel Howarth
Head of the Reading Room
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
The University of Texas at Austin
P.O. Box 7219 Austin, TX 78713-7219
Phone: (512) 471-9119 Fax: (512) 471-2899

Dear RBMS folks:
I am, once more, requesting information about theft in Reading Rooms on behalf of the RBMS Security Committee and the Public Services Discussion Group. I am particularly interested in the steps for public services staff to follow if they observe a theft in process: call the police? call campus security? press a panic button? have the suspect photographed by a surveillance camera? The RBMS Theft guidelines offer general suggestions about this, but the group(s) felt that a compilation of various specific policies would be useful for librarians/archivists who have not yet developed their own step-by step policies, and for Security Committee members working on the revision of the existing Theft Guidelines. I would very much appreciate your mailing or emailing me at the address below if you have:
1) documented policies covering what public service staff is to do if they observe, or suspect, a theft in progress in the Reading Room;
2) informal policies about this that you are willing to share;
3) a desire for more information about these kinds of policies.
(Response to this last will give me a sense of the demand, beyond my committees, for this kind of information to be made generally available) I will compile the answers that I receive for discussion at the ALA annual meeting in Chicago. If you would like to contribute to this effort, but prefer that your institution's name not be specifically mentioned in my discussion, please know that I will respect your wishes.
If you have questions about this project, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Many thanks,
Rachel Howarth
Head of the Reading Room
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
The University of Texas at Austin
P.O. Box 7219 Austin, TX 78713-7219
Phone: (512) 471-9119 Fax: (512) 471-2899

From: IntlArtCop@aol.com
Subject:

Philadelphia Job Filled

It is my pleasure to announce, on behalf of the Pennsylvania Academy for the Fine Arts, the appointment of Russell F. Jones, Jr. PhD, CPP to the position of Director of Security previously announced on this mailing list. Russell served as Director of Security Services for the Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, Director of Security and Safety for the Hahnemann University Hospital, Philadelphia, Director of Security and Safety for the West Jersey Health System, and Security Administrator for Scott Paper Company, Philadelphia. He is an adjunct professor in the School of Law and Criminal Justice at Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey and Adjunct Professor in the Criminal Justice Department of West Chester University, West Chester, Pennsylvania. He teches courses in security on a part time basis. He has been a Certified Protection Professional since 1989.
I am pleased to have been part of the search team to identfy Russ for this job. We received many resumes from qualified candidates including some with ex tensive museum security experience. The search team was greatly impressed with Russell Jones. While it is rare for me to discuss comments made about a job candidate during reference checks, I want to share one comment about Russell Jones made by a former superior of his because it exemplifies the type of candidate museum administrators seek out and because it separates the successful candidate from all of the other highly qualified applicants who were not selected. Speaking of Russell, his superior said that Russ expanded the definition of security in that hospital. He didn't just provide security, he made it his mission to create an environment where he could help sick people to feel safe and secure while they got well.
Russell holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology/Criminal Justice, a Master of Science in Security Administration, and a PhD in Business Administration. He is a former standing committee chair for ASIS.
Steve Keller, CPP
Security Consultant

From: John jlawrie@aug.com
Subject:

Stolen Tiffany

For your information:

STOLEN ART ALERT PLEASE CIRCULATE

Tiffany watercolor painting of a Mountain Scene
Approximate size: 16" high, 18" wide
Flat-top mountain in center with pine trees in foreground, muted blue-greens, watercolor on paper
Signed: "Louis C. Tiffany" in script in lower left hand corner
Stolen March 3, 2000 from a local museum, reward offered
Contact: Detective Patrick McCaulley St. Augustine Police Department 904/ 825-1094

JOUSTING OVER THE PARTHENON MARBLES

conference this past winter focusing on the condition of the Elgin Marbles following their 1937-1938 cleaning by the British Museum produced little consensus. The two-day colloquium was ordered by British culture secretary Chris Smith following 1998 disclosures by William St. Clair, a former treasury official and now a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, that the British Museum concealed damage to the sculptures following an unauthorized cleaning with copper chisels and carborundum. Hosted by the British Museum, the conference featured reports by St. Clair, a team of Greek specialists who have studied the marbles, and Ian Jenkins, the museum's assistant keeper and Parthenon specialist.
The specialists largely disagreed over the extent of damage to the sculptures, with St. Clair and the Greeks claiming that important surface layers had been scraped off. The Greek report characterized the damage as being "even more serious than had originally been surmised," that "the consequences of this intervention...are incalculable and irreversible..." and that "the excessive friction and scraping applied to the sculptures caused in certain cases a partial alteration and even distortion to their form." Jenkins conceded that his museum was wrong to clean the marbles and then conceal its actions, but downplayed the extent of the damage: "Many people have expressed to me the sentiment that with their disfiguring coatings removed the sculptures look better than ever." There was also disagreement over the extent of the cleaning, with St. Clair and the Greeks claiming that more of the marbles had been scrubbed than Jenkins was willing to admit. Taking the offensive, Jenkins made one of the more inflammatory remarks of the meeting, criticizing Greek stewardship of the sculptures that remain on the Parthenon: "The continued deterioration of the west frieze still on the building until 1993, and the spoiling of all the Acropolis sculptures exposed to acid rain until the recent removal of some, but not all, to the shelter of the Acropolis Museum, is the greatest of all tragedies.... South metope 1 and north metope 32, two of the finest that ever there were, still rot on the Parthenon as I speak." The conference was haunted by the debate (largely not discussed by participants) over restitution of the marbles to Greece.
Publicly both British and Greek authorities appear as intransigent as ever on the repatriation issue. Sir Hugh Leggett, Britain's former Museums and Galleries Commissioner, recently expressed irritation over continuing Greek efforts to secure return of the marbles, noting that "the cream of British heritage" had been exported to America. "We're not screaming and crying over spilt milk.... For the Greeks to start is silly. They must shut up." Privately, however, Greek and British authorities have entertained settlement proposals. The British Museum recently declassified documents revealing that in 1994 the Greeks had asked for the return of pediment sculptures in exchange for dropping their claim for the entire collection. British Museum trustees discussed the proposal at July 23 meeting, deciding "there was nothing in the offer to cause them to change their existing position."
Meanwhile, the notion that Ottoman authorities granted Elgin legal title to the Parthenon sculptures, which has been the main British argument for keeping them, was recently challenged in a detailed study by Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law professor David Rudenstine in the International Journal of Cultural Property. Rudenstine concludes that the premise that Elgin obtained legal title to the marbles, which he then transferred to the British government, "is certainly not established and may well be false." Both Prince Charles and President Clifton have come out in favor of returning the sculptures to Greece, as has Turkish Foreign Minister Dismal Em. Ankara is also seeking the return of antiquities from classical sites in Turkey now in the British Museum's collection.--SPENCER P.M. HARRINGTON
© 2000 by the Archaeological Institute of America
http://www.archaeology.org/0003/newsbriefs/parthenon.html

Date sent: Wed, 8 Mar 2000 07:06:20 -0500 (EST)
From: Clifford Scheiner cjscheiner@pol.net
To: exlibris@library.berkeley.edu, securma@xs4all.nl
Subject:

U.S. to delete electronic records

From C.J. Scheiner:
"The legal battle to stop federal agencies from deleting electronic records is over, and the agencies have won".
You read this story at IDG.net:
http://www.idg.net/gomail.cgi?id=146933

Israeli experts propose museums keep looted art

JERUSALEM -- (AP) -- A proposal by Israeli Holocaust and art experts would allow museums exhibiting art stolen by Nazi looters to keep the items as long as they explained how they were stolen from Jews. Displaying a history of the theft alongside the work would educate museum-goers about the Holocaust, the directors of the Israel Holocaust Memorial and the Israel Museum said Wednesday in separate interviews. It would avoid costly legal battles that the rightful owners might lose in any case, the two said. ``The label would say that the original ownership was in the hands of a Jew murdered during the Holocaust,'' said Avner Shalev, the director of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. ``It gives a moral dimension to the whole thing, even though the painting still stands there.'' James Snyder, director of the Israel Museum, said the precedent his museum set with a work by Camille Pisarro The credit label for ``Boulevard Montmartre: Spring'' now lists the original owner of the painting, Max Silberberg, and explains that the Nazis stole it from him. Silberberg's sole heir, his daughter-in-law Gerta, agreed to a long-term loan once the museum offered to post the painting's history. Snyder predicted his museum's approach would catch on. ``Museums generally are moving in the direction of suggesting that whenever a claim arises, it should be dealt with as quickly, as simply as possible, and without litigation, all the while looking at moral and ethical issues,'' he said. Elan Steinberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress in New York, rejected the directors' idea. Steinberg said museums should work to try to return stolen art to its rightful owners. ``Museums need to hang signs that say they don't accept stolen goods,'' he said. The Israeli proposals came after British museum directors posted on the Internet a list of 350 works from British museums that might have been stolen by the Nazis. By posting the suspect treasures on the Internet, British authorities joined more than 40 countries in trying to track the heirs of the owners of looted works. Authorities set up a tribunal last month to mediate ownership disputes. Officials and legal experts pointed out that the new tribunal's decisions will not be legally binding, and court claims may be thrown out if the art was acquired in good faith at least six years ago. Furthermore, British law bars museums from disposing of art held in trust for the nation. Shalev said that whether or not the museum purchased the art in good faith should be a factor in deciding if it should keep the work. ``There are cases, in France and Austria especially, in which museums knew it was looted -- they knew very well the art was stolen,'' he said. Both Shalev and Snyder emphasized that each case had to be treated on its own merits -- and that the moral principle that the works belonged to their owners should always be upheld through agreements that the works were on loan from the heirs. ``There are cases, in France and Austria especially, in which museums knew it was looted -- they knew very well the art was stolen,'' he said, adding that in those case the art should be returned to its owner.
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