July 25, 2000
CONTENTS:
- Press release:
MADONNA AND CHILD PAINTING TO RETURN TO NORTH CAROLINA
- RE: Security questions (Peter Ruefli)
- RE: Security questions (Rob Green)
- RE: Security questions (Reid Bailey)
- RE: Security questions (Adalberto Biasiotti)
For Immediate Release Media Information:
Rebecca Moore, (919) 839-6262, ext. 2140
MADONNA AND CHILD PAINTING TO RETURN TO NORTH CAROLINA
NC Museum of Art To Purchase Cranach Painting After Returning Ownership to Austrian Family
RALEIGH, N.C. - The North Carolina Museum of Art will purchase an important 16th-century German painting, which earlier this year was returned to an Austrian family after it was proven to have been stolen by the Nazis during World War II. The painting, Madonna and Child in a Landscape, is a small devotional image attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), one of the leading painters of the German Renaissance. In a rare instance of an American museum returning without litigation a work of art seized during the Holocaust era, the Museum in February acknowledged the claim of Marianne and Cornelia Hainisch as the heirs of Dr. Philipp Gomperz, a wealthy Viennese collector from whom the Cranach painting was confiscated by the Gestapo in 1940. Under the terms of the agreement between the Museum and the Hainisch family, Cranach's Madonna and Child will now return to Raleigh as a partial purchase by the Museum and partial gift of the family. In appreciation of the Museum's earlier return of the painting, the family will sell the work for $600,000-substantially below the painting's appraised value of $800,000-$1.2 million. In their letter to Museum Director Dr. Lawrence J. Wheeler, the Hainisch sisters asked that the concession on the sale price be treated as a "partial donation because in our opinion the public should know that the heirs of Philipp Gomperz appreciate the sense of justice shown by the [Museum's] decision to restitute the painting."
The agreement was
unanimously approved last week by the Works of Art Committee of the Board of Trustees and will be presented to the full board for final approval at its quarterly meeting later this month. "The people of North Carolina are most grateful to the Hainisch sisters for this generous gesture," said North Carolina Governor James B. Hunt, Jr. "Current and future generations of North Carolinians will know and enjoy this beautiful painting and its poignant history." The Cranach painting had been displayed in the Museum's European galleries since its receipt in 1984 as the bequest of Marianne (Mrs. George) Khuner of Beverly Hills, California. However, last March the Museum was notified that the painting had been identified by researchers as having been confiscated in 1940 by the Gestapo and illegally sold to the Nazi Governor of Vienna. After exhaustive research, assisted by staff of the Holocaust Claims Processing Office of the New York State Banking Department, the Museum concluded that the claim was valid and that the painting was stolen property. On February 3, Wheeler and Secretary Betty Ray McCain of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources formally acknowledged the claim of the Hainisch sisters as the legal owners of the painting. Several weeks later the painting was entrusted to representatives of the Hainisch family. Wheeler and other Museum officials immediately initiated discussions with the Hainisch family in the hope of finding a way to restore the painting to the Museum's collection. During the ensuing negotiations, the Hainisch sisters expressed their "deep satisfaction about the [Museum's] cooperative spirit" and indicated their willingness to discuss the return of the painting to Raleigh. Further negotiations resulted in the agreement announced today. "We are so delighted that the painting will be returning to North Carolina," said Wheeler. "We are humbled by the generosity of the Hainisch sisters and by their recognition that their beautiful painting has a home here at the North Carolina Museum of Art."
In celebration of the painting's return, the Museum will give it a prominent position in the European gallery. In the future, the Museum's curators and educators plan to develop a special section on the Museum's Web site as well as a small documentary exhibition focusing both on the aesthetic importance of the painting and on its unsettling history. The exhibition may be offered to other museums in North Carolina. "It is important for us to provide the widest exposure for this painting and to tell its complex, compelling story," Wheeler said. In describing the importance of the painting, John Coffey, chair of the Museum's Curitorial department, cited the work as one of the finest examples of Renaissance painting in the Museum's collection. "The painting teaches a great deal about the life and imagination of early modern Europe," Coffey said. "Within this small picture, one can witness the transformation of medieval piety to Renaissance humanism. "It teaches about our own times. The dramatic story - the painting's theft by the Nazis, the subsequent succession of 'owners' (both guilty and innocent) and the search for, discovery, and return of the painting to its rightful owners - endows this object with extraordinary fascination." The Museum plans a special celebration when the painting returns later this month. "We are so pleased the Gomperz heirs have accepted our offer, said McCain. "It will be a privilege to welcome the Madonna and Child in a Landscape back to North Carolina."
From: "Peter Ruefli" peter.ruefli@practel.com.au
Subject: RE: Security questions
Pest control,
There is a company in Australia called Shu-Roo, they manufacture high pitch frequency devices that drives away Kangaroos and others.
Might be worth while contacting on shuroo@one.net.au
Regards
Peter Ruefli
Practel International
Experts in VMD
From: Rob Green rob@isis.co.uk
Subject: Wireless Alarms
Dear Sir,
I read your response to the enquiry concerning radio tags. ISIS has a system called Aspects ARTS that uses the latest "fully supervised" long range RF tags. The tags have a range of 14 meters, are credit card sized (5mm deep), can be programmed to send up to 3 messages a second (at a transmit rate of once every second the tags have a shelf life of 5 years!), true motion sensors are incorporated (not mercury tilt switches that are orientation specific) and the system works in the 433MHz bandwidth. The readers are half the size of a mobile phone, are networked, have an anti-tamper facility, and wireless repeaters are used in areas where a wiring run is difficult. Tags cost £16 and readers are £140. The whole system talks to our intuitive software called Aspects which: * records the exact position of a tagged item every second * displays real-time alarms when an artefact/painting is moved, or contact is lost * tracks an object when moved from display to storage or cleaning * uses the latest "buddying" facility to link art handlers to ART tags authorising movement and recording
Please look at our website and contact us for more details.
Regards,
Rob Green
Director
ISIS Ltd.
Suite 7
Blandel Bridge House
56 Sloane Square
London SW1W 8AX
Telephone: +44 20 7259 9212
Facsimile: +44 20 7259 9213
Email: rob@isis.co.uk
Web Address: www.isis.co.uk
From: "Reid Bailey" reid_write@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Security questions
I personally don't recommend the sonic pest control devices. Although they are supposed to be beyond the range of human hearing there are people, yours truly included, who can hear these things and it's a quick way to get me out of your museum. Also I don't know if these devices would raise issues for seeing eye dogs and the like.
As far as the battery operated sensors go, I have spent too many years in the high-tech field to be willing to rely on batteries for anything more than fail-safe backups. Batteries die, more quickly than you may plan on. To conserve battery power, you can switch devices off after hours, but then you have to remember to switch them back on. Handling the devices to change batteries or to switch them on can knock them out of alignment, especially if you are trying to focus them to tight tolerances. Generally, battery operated devices are more susceptible to interference. And if budget constraints require you buying inexpensive devices from Radio Shack, you are probably not buying the most reliable batteries.
Hope it helps,
Reid
From: "Adalberto Biasiotti" securcomp@mclink.it
Subject: security questions
Europe has now a fully certified wireless system, that I use within Pomeii acrahaeologica site, for ease of installation and lack of damage to ancient walls. Try on Internet search for DAITEM.
adalberto biasiotti
p.s. Ton Cremers:
http://www.daitem.com/export_en/installers/index.htm