Re: Sprinkler systems (and haunted museums...)

Nazi art website upsets galleries

THE German Government stumbled into controversy yesterday over the launch of a new website cataloguing more than 2,000 paintings stolen or bought by the Nazis to furnish Adolf Hitler's planned art gallery in the Austrian town of Linz. The pictures listed by the Government - http://www.lostart.de/- are supposed to be of "uncertain" origin and in search of a legitimate owner. Bernhard Schnackenburg, however, was only one of several gallery directors to question the criteria used for the cataloguing. "I cannot understand why Tintoretto's Lot and his Daughters is on such a list," Dr Schnackenburg told The Times. The director of the regional galleries in Kassel, where the Tintoretto has been hanging since 1966, added: "We have precise information about the ownership history of the work." Other directors were less ready to be quoted until they see how strong is the demand for the 2,242 works featured on the Internet. However, most expect tough legal battles when claims start to flood in from abroad; the site is in English and Russian as well as German. Claimants will have to prove ownership and that could, given the chaos of the Second World War years, turn out to be a long, emotionally charged process. What is certain is that the Linz list's works are worth tens of millions of pounds. There are 13 by Rubens alone, scattered among German museums and galleries, which have, since 1966, been allowed to display unclaimed paintings. Most, it is assumed, were looted from Jewish collections and households. However, each painting has its own history. The Tintoretto was bought by the Nazi collectors in what could be described as a fair, rather than forced, sale. It is not clear that the state gallery should have to give it back. Such disputes will be settled only by sophisticated historical detective work. Most of the remaining works have, in the view of the government co-ordinators, defied decades of research. The Internet is regarded as the last chance to reunite the paintings with their owners.

Re: Ghosts

Ghosts

• 1. Is the ghost part of the inherent vice of the building or space?
• 2. Should it be invited to leave, how will it be documented should a history be discovered about the ghost at a later date.
• 3. Is the ghost directly connected to a museum object and will removal of the ghost be equivalent to destruction of a part of the object. Would a ritual removal be called for? (African masks are pierced to set the spirit free, and ritual objects from the North American cultures are treated in specific ways according to the cultural practices. Either of these steps requires a formal process for deaccessioning or for permanently altering the object.)
• 4. Would an invitation using onions (as the example above described) be acceptable for museum use? Does onion gas pass conservation guidelines for the treatment of objects in a museum collection?

Papal Skull Taken From Spain Museum

Faking a Face

A Smuggler Disguised an Egyptian Treasure to Masquerade as a Trinket A 10-year-old crime involving the 3,200-year-old sculpted head of a fabled Egyptian queen was recently solved by the British Museum. A sculpture of Nefertari - principal queen of Rameses II - had been disguised by smugglers to look like a cheap souvenir to get it out of Egypt in the early 1990s. British Museum scientists exposed the head to ultraviolet light, and modern modifications burst into view as glowing lines. The smuggler had changed the profile by packing tiny stones around its features. The new face was built like a mask over the ancient one, then artificially weathered. Nefertari's ancient face has been returned to Egypt. LP

Museums Step Up Holocaust Art Search

NEW YORK (AP) - The heads of some of America's top museums pledged Wednesday to escalate their efforts to solve a Holocaust mystery by inspecting thousands of artworks and identifying those that are suspected of being looted by the Nazis. ``The burden of research is absolutely enormous. But this is a national priority,'' said Malcolm Rogers, director of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. He and other museum directors testified Wednesday before the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets, which acts as a national body examining what Holocaust assets exist in the United States. ``It's our responsibility to make recommendations to the president about how to achieve a measure of justice for Holocaust victims and their families, whose assets may have come into the United States,'' committee chairman William Singer said. Lawrence Wheeler of the North Carolina Museum of Art said some of the 20,000 European artworks in America ``might be possibly suspect.'' The museum agreed in February to return the painting ``Madonna and Child in a Landscape'' by Lucas Cranach to heirs of a Holocaust victim, from whom the work was plundered. The museum directors told the commission that their institutions are posting any questionable holdings on the Internet so their provenance can be traced. ``It's a flashpoint when works of art become visible,'' said Glenn Lowry of New York's Museum of Modern Art. ``And we intend to continue drilling away.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art is researching almost 400 of its pieces to make sure they were not plundered by Nazis, director Philippe de Montebello said.

Chicago Museum Puts Holocaust Art Questions on Web