August 17, 2000
CONTENTS:
- Re: Security strips and special collections? (Steve Keller)
- Cousins receive GBP.265,000 for Roman pennies find
- Celebrities Support MOMA Strike
- IFAR (the International Foundation for Art Research)
From: IntlArtCop@aol.com
Subject: Re: Security strips and special collections?
In a message dated 8/15/00 11:30:28 PM, Barbara Theisen writes:
Do you/should you put security strips in books in special collections? If you do use security strips, where do you put them?
This is an issue best left to the library conservation people as it has been raging for decades. It is an extenstion of the question, "Should we stamp rare books with ink indicating our ownership?"
If you asked us security people, we generally would say, in answer to your question, "Do anything that you can and are willing to do that adds to security, and using electronic article surveillance tags certainly improves security." Put them where you can. This will depend upon the specific book as to whether the tags can be hidden in the spine or elsewhere. Hidden EAS tags are better than exposed ones which can be peeled off. But not all special collection books, especially rare ones, can be so equipped without "damage", if only theoretical damage. Thus the relationship to the philosophical issue of stamping rare books with ink. It "damages" them but if they are going to remain in the special collection forever, this is theoretical damage in some points of view.
First, decide if hiding an EAS tag is acceptable. If it is, I doubt you will find an argument frommany security people about their use.
Steve Keller
Security Consultant
Cousins receive GBP.265,000 for Roman pennies find
TWO treasure-hunting cousins who found Britain's largest hoard of Roman silver denarius coins received GBP.265,000 for their find from a museum yesterday. The 9,213 coins were discovered by Kevin Elliott, 33, in a field of barley stubble in Somerset nearly two years ago, minutes after his cousin Martin, also 33, had shown him how to use a metal detector. Last November Michael Rose, the Somerset Coroner, ruled at an inquest in Taunton that the haul found at Shapwick, near Glastonbury, was treasure and belonged to the finders. Kevin, whose family bought the farm where the coins were found in January 1998 after renting it for 36 years, said that he found the first coin in a gateway, three or four minutes after his cousin showed him how to use the metal detector. Thirty minutes later, after discovering a scattering of other coins, they turned up thousands of similar coins just under the surface. The funding to enable Somerset County Museum to buy the coins came from Somerset County Council, the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the National Art Collections Fund and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Stephen Minnitt, from the museum, said that he was still trying to raise GBP.3,000 to pay for a display case for the coins, dating from 31 BC to AD 224. The hoard included two coins of Manlia Scantilla, wife of the Emperor Didius Julianus, who ruled for a few weeks in AD 193 during a period of civil war.
These were the first known coins of this type from a British hoard. The previous largest hoard of denarii was about 3,000 coins found near Colchester in Essex in the 1890s.
Celebrities Support MOMA Strike
By KATHERINE ROTH, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - Strikers at the Museum of Modern Art drew support this week from celebrities, including artists Robert Rauschenberg and Art Spiegelman, filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese and performers Laurie Anderson and David Byrne. The first strike in 27 years by museum employees - including archivists, conservators, curators, librarians and other professionals - has dragged on for more than three months. It's the longest strike in the museum's history, yet neither side seems willing to budge and each accuses the other of bargaining in bad faith. Points of contention include salaries as well as union demands for compulsory membership of professional staff. The artists' names were listed under a brief open letter published in The Village Voice and Time Out New York this week asking the public to respect the picket line in front of the museum and expressing concern with what they called MoMA's refusal to negotiate. A total of 131 names appear in the letter. Reached by phone on Wednesday, Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker illustrator, said he had signed the letter partly because a work of his would soon go on display at MoMA. ``I'm very upset. I'm going to feel very awkward if I have to cross a picket line to see my work,'' he said. Other signers include filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, performing artist Bill T. Jones, writers John Ashbery and Susan Sontag, filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Bertrand Tavernier and jazz musician John Zorn. The president of the union did not immediately return calls Wednesday seeking comment, but MoMA lawyer Robert Batterman said the letter stems from a false assumption that the museum has refused to negotiate. ``There were nine months of negotiations before the strike began and numerous conversations through the mediators. I think signing such an open letter based on the unilateral representation of the union is inappropriate and will be recognized as such for people of good faith who read it carefully,'' he said. The Professional and Administrative Staff Association, Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers union, started the strike on April 28 after working for six months without a contract. There have been no face-to-face negotiations since April 27 and none are scheduled.
The union represents 255 of the 650 museum employees.
IFAR (the International Foundation for Art Research)
For 30 years IFAR has focussed on subjects of interest to MSN's audience: art authenticity, fakes, forgeries; art theft; World War II restitution issues; cultural property issues, etc. IFAR published books/ newsletters/journals since 1977, and organized lectures and symposia since 1980. These are open to the public (for a small fee), and are generally free to IFAR members/ supporters.
In the past year alone, several talks were offered on fakes and forgeries; a panel on art insurance; a lecture on "art, law, and ethics" and so on.
IFAR also offers an Art Authentication Service that is rare, if not unique, in the United States. Art object are rsearched to help determine its authenticity. To do this, IFAR draws upon the expertise of their eminent Art Advisory Council as well as a network of international scholars. Over the years, hundreds of art objects have been researched. Sometimes IFAR publishes this research.
IFAR also has a Law Advisory Council, very well known for it's work in art law.
IFAR is perhaps best known for our pioneering work in art theft. In the 1970s, it undertook the first research project to determine the scope of art theft -- particularly in the U.S. and Canada, and then created the Archive of Stolen Art, which served as a clearinghouse for information on stolen art. When that Archive, later a database became too large for a small not-for-profit organization to support financially, IFAR licensed it (in 1991) to a new, commercial organization that they helped create: the Art Loss Register. (IFAR still owns the database pre-1991 and co-own it post 1991). IFAR managed the ALR's operations in the United States for the next few years and still works closely with the ALR, particularly in publishing the Stolen Art Alert section of IFAR's Journal.
IFAR, as mentioned above, is a not-for-profit organization, and like all not-for-profits in the United States, IFAR must raise operating funds from individuals, foundations, etc. In addition to supporters, IFAR has subscribers to the Journal in 18 countries.
for additional information:
http://www.ifar.org/