April 28, 2000

The Museum of Modern Art to Maintain Normal Schedule During Strike by United Auto Workers Union Expresses

Profound Regret at Union's Decision to Pursue Disruptive Action; Will Continue to Work towards Amicable Resolution of Contract Talks NEW YORK, April 28 /PRNewswire/ -- The Museum of Modern Art expressed its profound regret and disappointment that, rather resolving the remaining issues in its contract negotiations with MoMA, Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers today declared a strike against the Museum. Local 2110 represents members of the Museum of Modern Art's professional and administrative staff. Glenn D. Lowry, Director of the Museum of Modern Art said, ``The Board of Trustees and I believe very strongly that this strike is unwarranted and we deeply regret that the UAW has chosen to pursue this disruptive action. We are determined not to let the strike interfere with MoMA's mission. The Museum is open today and operating on a normal schedule. We fully intend to maintain the regular hours of operation and provide full access to the galleries and special exhibitions for the duration of the strike. Accordingly, we have made appropriate arrangements to provide for the safety of our visitors without infringing on the rights of the strikers.'' The Museum's contract with Local 2110 expired last fall. Since last August, MoMA's bargaining team had been working with the union to develop a new agreement. ``We believe our final offer is a fair and realistic proposal that balances the needs of our employees with the realities of the non-profit world,'' Mr. Lowry said. Mr. Lowry noted that MoMA has had a congenial working relationship with its staff as well as the various labor organizations that represent most of its employees. ``We are proud of our track record of negotiating contracts for eight different bargaining units in a spirit of respect, cooperation and compromise,'' he said. ``In the past 27 years, we have negotiated more than 50 contracts without any strikes. In this spirit, we will continue to strive for an amicable resolution to this situation.''

The key points of MOMA's current offer are:

* Increased Wages: A 3% increase in both wages and minimum salaries retroactive to November 1, in each year of a three-year contract. The total, because of the compounding factor, is 9.27% for the three years.
* Health Plan: For nearly 30 years management and the union have shared identical, comprehensive benefits. Under the current plan, individual employee health insurance is completely paid by the Museum with no contribution from the employee. Because the UAW objects to having its members in a plan run by the Museum, the money currently spent for the union's health care coverage is proposed to go into a plan to be jointly administered by the Museum and the UAW.
* Improved Dental Coverage. The improved dental plan covers more procedures, pays for two preventive-care visits per year, and allows employees to go in or out of network.
* Improved Pension Plan: In addition to MoMA's existing pension plan, the Museum will begin matching employee contributions to a 403(b) retirement plan, up to 3% of annual income. For employees earning less than $30,000 per year, we will contribute an additional 2% of annual income with no contribution from the employee necessary.
* Job Security: In the event that a union member is laid off due to the upcoming building program, the Museum will recall that individual when the Museum reopens. In addition, that employee will receive one week's severance pay for each year of work with a minimum two weeks severance. Alternatively, any staff member with more than two years seniority may choose a severance package of two weeks pay for every year of work instead of recall. There is no cap on severance. For example, someone with ten years' service who does not want to come back when the new building opens may leave with 20 weeks' severance.

SOURCE: Museum of Modern Art

French Heirs Seek Texas Matisse

HOUSTON (AP) - A Matisse painting acquired a half-century ago by a Texas family may have been among hundreds of works stolen by Nazis from a French art collector. The 11 heirs of Alphonse Kann are tracing the chain of ownership for the 1907 oil-on-canvas landscape, ``La Riviere aux Aloes'' (Brook With Aloes), by Henri Matisse. It has been on display in Houston's Menil Collection since 1993. Francis Warin of Paris, Kann's great-nephew, contacted the museum in a letter last July. ``We are doing research on the piece, as is Warin,'' Menil director Ned Rifkin told the Houston Chronicle for a story published today. ``We want to do what is right and best, and we will.'' Warin has spent several years trying to track more than 1,000 artworks seized by German occupying forces from Kann in a 1940 raid on the collector's home near Paris. The Matisse work, part of the Houston display of 20th-century art, was acquired in 1950 by John and Dominique de Menil. Their private art collection is housed in the museum that bears their name. Paris' Le Monde reported in October that the Houston Matisse oil appeared in photographs of Kann's home taken before World War II. The Kann estate has already recovered two Pablo Picasso oils from French and Swiss collections. The estate also initiated claims to two other Picassos - one at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and another owned by a French regional museum - and has sued to reacquire other works. Efforts to return plundered Nazi art to its rightful owners have intensified recently. Heads of some of the nation's largest museums testified earlier this month before the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets, pledging to inspect and identify artworks suspected of being stolen by the Nazis. The family says Kann's collection was stolen from his home outside Paris in October 1940 after Kann, who was Jewish, moved to London ahead of the Nazi occupation of France for what he thought would be a temporary stay. He never returned and died in 1948.

Statue honoring fallen soldiers stolen from New York park

By The Associated Press

It's like being killed all over again." - Henry Stern, Parks Department commissioner

NEW YORK - A 7-foot-tall, 1,000-pound bronze statue honoring Brooklyn's fallen soldiers of World War I was discovered missing from a park. A blow torch apparently was used to remove "Victory" from its 10-foot-wide by nearly 3-foot-tall base in the middle of Saratoga Square Park. "That statue commemorated the war dead, the people from that neighborhood, the young men who had been killed defending the freedom of that area," Parks Department Commissioner Henry Stern said Friday. "And now in the year 2000 the statue commemorating them and honoring their sacrifice is just stolen. It's like being killed all over again." Police have no suspects, and believe the thieves were going to melt the statue down and sell it. It is believed the statue was snatched either late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. Park employees noticed the statue was gone about 8:30 a.m. Thursday. The statue is valued at about $100,000 and had stood undisturbed since 1921. It depicts a woman with her right arm raised and her left arm holding a shield with "E pluribus unum" - Latin for "Out of many, one."

Russia to Keep Ownership of War-Looted German Artworks

MOSCOW, Apr 28, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Russia insisted Friday that an exchange with Germany of art works lost to their owners during World War II did not affect ownership of priceless art treasures looted from Nazi Germany by the Red Army. "I stress this. Germany is returning to Russia what was taken illegally in Russia during World War II, and Russia, in fact a private citizen, is giving back to the Bremen Museum what was appropriated illegally many years ago in Germany," said Russia's Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoy. German Culture Minister Michael Naumann and the head of the Bremen regional government, Hennig Scherf, flew into Moscow on Thursday for the exchange. On Friday, Shvydkoy was to present his German counterpart with an export license for the so-called Bremen Leaves collection, thereby authorizing the return of 101 drawings, engravings and water-colors to the Hanseatic port city. The Bremen collection, which includes valuable works by Durer, Goya and Manet, was appropriated by a Soviet officer. It was handed back anonymously and has been in the trust of the German embassy in Moscow since 1993. The German delegation is accompanying a commode and a piece of marble mosaic from the legendary Amber Room of the Yekatarin palace of Saint Petersburg, which is to be restored Saturday to its former resting place. "These drawings have never belonged to the Russian Federation," Shvydkoy said of the Bremen collection, interviewed by ORT television. "They belonged to a private person who took the decision to return them to Germany. We had discussions during seven years and all the legal reasons exist to authorize the transfer of the drawings to Germany," he added. Russia's lower house of parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a "trophy art" bill that allows Moscow to keep art treasures looted from Nazi Germany by the Red Army. However, the measure says that countries which fought Germany or were victims of its aggression in World War II "have the right to request the restitution of cultural valuables". At stake are 300,000 works of art, two million books and three kilometers (1.9 miles) of archives looted by the Soviet Red Army. They include about 260 pieces of 5,000-year-old Trojan gold discovered by German archaeologist Heinrich Schleimann; Impressionist paintings by Manet, Renoir and Matisse; paintings by Old Masters; and a rare Johann Gutenberg Bible. Many Russians view the works as just reparation for the millions of lives lost by the Nazi invasion. Shvydkoy said that President-elect Vladimir Putin may attend the ceremony in Saint Petersburg on Saturday, although this was not certain because of his program with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.
((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)