September 13, 2000
CONTENTS:
- Tourists' dip damages masterpiece
- KESTON Kosovo: Three Orthodox Churches Levelled in August
- U.S. museum buys artwork it concedes was stolen by Nazis (Jewish collector's heirs sell prized painting in first such deal involving)
- British auction houses in merger
- Britain is run by philistines, says Hockney
Tourists' dip damages masterpiece
FROM RICHARD OWEN IN ROME
ONE of the best known works by the Baroque sculptor Bernini, his Triton fountain in Rome, has been damaged. The vandalism of the marble fountain, which shows the sea god Triton blowing a conch shell, supported by four life-size dolphins, is believed to have occurred last month but has been noticed only now. The crest on one dolphin has been snapped off.
Local people said that the fountain was used as an open-air swimming pool by some of the two million young people who attended a week-long Christian youth festival to mark Holy Year. It was based at Rome University on the city outskirts, but participants thronged the streets in the intense August heat, with impromptu singing and dancing.
The pure waters of Rome's famous fountains are regarded as near-sacred, and bylaws forbid touching them, but in summer visitors often plunge in to cool off. Gianni Borgna, assessor of culture for Rome City Council, played down the incident, saying it was "not a major restoration". He said he believed that the damage was not due to deliberate vandalism, but was "an accident due to some tourist innocently trying to cool off in the heat".
The fountain has been drained while restoration is being carried out. Il Messaggero, the Rome daily, said that part of the blame lay with Federico Fellini's 1960s film La Dolce Vita, in which Anita Ekberg wades into the waters of the Trevi Fountain and beckons Marcello Mastroianni to join her. "Even now there are plenty of people who want to imitate her". La Repubblica raised the issue of how to look after Rome's open-air monuments,recalling that Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers was damaged three years ago and cost £5,000 to restore.
read also:
http://museum-security.org/97/august21.html
From: "Bojan" bojani99@ptt.yu
To: securma@xs4all.nl
Subject: KESTON Kosovo: Three Orthodox Churches Levelled in August
Date sent: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 09:10:36 +0200
KESTON NEWS SERVICE
Issue 9, Articles 6-7, 11 September 2000
* * *
1) Kosovo: Three Orthodox Churches Levelled in August
2) Kosovo: Orthodox Cemetery Church Damaged in Grenade Attack
* * *
Kosovo: Three Orthodox Churches Levelled in August
by Branko Bjelajac, Keston News Service
Between 14 and 22 August, three Serbian Orthodox churches were levelled in Kosovo, despite being under KFOR protection. The Serbian Orthodox Church will include these latest attacks in the third edition of its full colour booklet 'Crucified Kosovo', detailing the desecration and destruction of almost 100 churches, monasteries and religious buildings in Kosovo since June 1999.
The local Serbian Orthodox diocese has alleged that in one of the three destructions, troops from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) serving with the international force KFOR allowed the destruction to take place - the second such allegation of UAE collusion in church attacks. Both Major SCOTT SLATEN, spokesman for KFOR, and Lt. Col. SALIM AL- SOOBUSI, spokesman for the UAE Defence Ministry in Dubai, have promised to respond to Keston's enquiry about the alleged role of UAE troops in these church destructions. Keston is awaiting the responses. Representatives of the international agencies administering the province under the United Nations mandate have repeatedly condemned the attacks on Serbian Orthodox sites. SUSAN MANUEL, spokeswoman for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), told Keston on 9 September that the destruction of Orthodox churches remains 'a sickening aspect of life in today's Kosovo'.
In the early hours of 18 August the Church of St Elijah in Vucitrn, central Kosovo, was dynamited. When Bishop ARTEMIJE of Raska and Prizren and his entourage tried to visit the site the following day they were denied entrance to Vucitrn by UAE troops. St Elijah's was built in 1834 on the site of a pre-existing medieval Serbian Orthodox church and was active until June 1999, when it was looted and vandalised by Albanian extremists in the presence of French KFOR troops. At the time of its destruction the church was under the protection of KFOR troops from the UAE. The Orthodox diocese strongly condemned the attack and requested that KFOR conduct an immediate investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice. 'From well-informed sources, the Diocese of Raska and Prizren has learned that the church was "secured" by no fewer than 20 UAE troops who permitted Albanian terrorists to carry out an attack on the Church,' a statement issued by the diocese and the Serbian National Council of Kosovo declared.
The statement alleged that there had also been collusion by UAE troops in the destruction of a church in the nearby village of Banjska on 30 January 2000. 'During the previous destruction of the church of St Nicholas in Banjska,' the statement claimed, 'the Diocese learned from well-informed sources that the attack was coordinated with UAE troops, who withdrew at the decisive moment and permitted the terrorists to destroy the church.'
After being turned away from Vucitrn, the delegation visited the village of Velika Reka where they learned that the Church of Ss Peter and Paul, built in 1998, had been completely levelled a few days earlier. 'It is obvious that the church was professionally mined, and KFOR did not protect this church despite numerous requests,' a further statement from the SNC declared. The church building had been looted and then dynamited on 19 July 1999 despite the presence nearby of German KFOR troops. The remaining walls and the bell tower were awaiting reconstruction when this latest attack occurred.
Also destroyed was the Church of the Holy Trinity in Velika Reka, which was levelled to the ground on 19 August, the Orthodox feast of the Transfiguration. First attacked on 20 June 1999, it had been attacked on five subsequent occasions before being levelled in August. Erected in 1995 with funds donated by an individual Serb and consecrated by Patriarch PAVLE in 1996, the church served the recently settled Serbian refugee community from Bosnia and Croatia. 'It was supposed to serve as a point of gathering to the refugees who have lost most of their possessions and loved ones in the previous war,' SRDJAN JABLANOVIC, head of the diocesan office in Belgrade told Keston by telephone from Soko Banja.
'Almost all the churches in the neighbourhood of Vucitrn, seven of them, are now levelled,' Jablanovic noted sadly. (END)
* * *
Kosovo: Orthodox Cemetery Church Damaged in Grenade Attack
by Branko Bjelajac, Keston News Service
Late on 1 September, unknown attackers damaged and desecrated the Church of St Nicholas at the Orthodox cemetery in the village of Musnikovo, Sredacka Zupa, 10 miles south of Prizren. An explosion caused by a hand grenade destroyed the church roof and damaged the interior of the building, including a seventeenth-century icon of the Mother of God. It also damaged the wall of the nearby cemetery. Since June hundreds of gravestones have been defaced or destroyed in other attacks on Orthodox cemeteries.
The Musnikovo church is located in the German KFOR zone and KFOR troops immediately investigated the incident. 'A KFOR Task Force [Multinational Brigade South] Prizren patrol responded to the scene,' a KFOR statement of 3 September reported, 'and discovered that the wall of the cemetery, the roof of the chapel and a picture of the holy Madonna had been damaged in the blast. The investigation is still ongoing.'
The Church of St Nicholas was built and decorated in the second half of the sixteenth century, with several icons dating back to the seventeenth century. The parish priest Father ILIJA SMIGIC visited the site on 5 September to assess the damage and to report to the diocese. 'The diocese most strongly condemns this barbarian terrorist attack,' the diocese declared in a statement, 'which once again confirms that Albanian extremism in Kosovo is increasingly openly anti-Christian by nature.'
The Serbian National Council believes this attack to be tied to the plans of 58 Serbs to return to their homes in Musnikovo after spending a year as refugees. 'The group of Serbs visited their houses under the protection of KFOR only ten days ago. They are planning to return to their village soon,' SRDJAN JABLANOVIC, head of the diocesan office in Belgrade, told Keston on 6 September. 'We strongly believe that this attack and others like it are aimed at discouraging the Serbian population from returning to their homes. Whenever Albanian extremists see individual returnees or groups of people planning to return they try to discourage them. Recently we had so many attacks on churches and also on children at the playground, on cemeteries and such like.'
In its statement on the Musnikovo cemetery attack, the diocese noted with concern that attacks on Serbian cemeteries have recently become 'commonplace'. 'The Orthodox clergy in Pec, Decani and Prizren are constantly sending in information that Albanians are pouring rubbish and waste from the cities into Orthodox cemeteries or destroying and desecrating them by demolishing gravestones and crosses marking the graves.'
In addition to the three churches demolished in August (see separate KNS article) and the cemetery chapel damaged in September, gravestones in two locations have been desecrated recently. The Belgrade-based news agency Beta reported on 14 August that 120 Serbs under KFOR protection visited a graveyard in the southern part of Kosovska Mitrovica for the first time since June. They found approximately 500 gravestones destroyed or desecrated, a sharp increase since June when 200 gravestones were damaged mainly by removing the lettering from individual inscriptions. The Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren strongly condemned yet another attack. 'To date the Church and the [Serbian National] Council have received a multitude of information, especially from Metohija, regarding the systematic destruction and desecration of graves. In many locations our cemeteries are filled with great quantities of rubbish,' a statement complained.
On 22 August, the Belgrade daily Glas javnosti reported that a Serbian Orthodox graveyard in the village of Gornji Livoc near Gnjilane had been looted and burned. Many of the gravestones were damaged, engravings erased or carved out, and several family graves looted. The nearby KFOR troops managed to save the small chapel that the Serbs had been building over the last five years with hopes to open it as a church one day.
In early September Bishop ARTEMIJE of the Serbian Orthodox Church Diocese of Raska and Prizren and President of the Serbian National Council in Kosovo renewed his criticism of the attackers. 'The aim of the Albanian extremists is not only the biological extinction of Serbs in Kosovo or their exile from their centuries-old homes, but to cut their spiritual roots in the desire to wipe out every trace of our existence in Kosovo,' he claimed in a statement given to Keston on 6 September in Belgrade. 'This lies behind the church and cemetery destructions. However, we hope that, if God permits, and the Serbian church continues to work, we will remain in Kosovo.' (END)
Copyright (c) 2000 Keston Institute. All rights reserved.
Bojan Indjic
bojani99@ptt.yu
Hvjezdoslavova 131
22300 Stara Pazova
Yugoslavia
http://woundedearth.4t.com
U.S. museum buys artwork it concedes was stolen by Nazis
Jewish collector's heirs sell prized painting in first such deal involving Holocaust loot
YONAT SHIMRON
Scripps Howard News Service
Monday, September 11, 2000
RALEIGH, N.C. -- It was conceived as an object of religious devotion. It then became a work of art, a trophy of war, a commodity in the art market, a prized piece in a northern European collection and, finally, a testament to the North Carolina Museum of Art's willingness to do justice.
In a short ceremony last week, workers wearing white gloves remounted Madonna and Child in a Landscape on a prominent wall outside the museum's European gallery and celebrated its latest reincarnation.
The ceremony ended the international travails of a small painting by the German master Lucas Cranach the Elder.
Last year, two elderly Austrian sisters claimed that the 1518 painting hanging in the state's collection belonged to their great-uncle, a wealthy Jew who was forced to turn over his art collection to Nazi police during the Second World War.
After a months-long investigation, the museum concluded the sisters were right, and gave up its claim to the painting.
The museum then struck an extraordinary agreement, persuading the sisters to sell the artwork below its market price as a tribute to the museum's sense of fair play, as well as its commitment to educating the public about the evils of the Nazi era.
"We're proud to set an example of conduct and procedure for other museums to emulate," Betty Ray McCain, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, said at the ceremony. "And yet, all of us know what we accomplished was simply dictated by basic human dignity and a sense of what was right."
In remounting the painting -- four months after it was taken down and sent to Sotheby's auction house in New York for appraisal -- curators thanked community members who had written letters in support of the museum during transatlantic negotiations with the sisters, Cornelia and Marianne Hainisch. Some of those letters were written by Jewish survivors of the Holocaust who urged the sisters to consider allowing the museum to keep the painting. At a reception after the ceremony, many spoke of how gratified they were that the museum avoided the negative publicity plaguing other museums confronting claims that paintings in their collections are looted art.
In June, the Hainisch sisters sold the painting to the museum for $600,000 (U.S.). The painting, which measures 40 by 25 centimetres, was valued at between $800,000 and $1.2 million.
Curators say they may never know how the painting landed in the collection of Philipp von Gomperz, an avid art collector whose father was an industrialist. But John Coffey, the museum's chief curator, suggested that Madonna and Child was the star of Mr. Gomperz's collection. When the Gestapo raided his home, it was the Cranach they were after. Top Nazi officials lionized Cranach as the quintessential Aryan painter, and they may have wanted to show the work to Adolf Hitler.
By the early 1950s, Madonna and Child had ended up in Beverly Hills, Calif., where it was bought by an unsuspecting collector who later bequeathed it to the museum.
Next year, the museum plans to mount a travelling exhibition exploring the painting's history.
British auction houses in merger
By Will Bennett, Art Sales Correspondent
TWO British auction houses, Bonhams and Brooks, announced a merger yesterday that will turn them into the world's fourth largest auctioneers. Brooks, an auction house specialising in classic cars which was founded only in 1989, is financing the merger and will be the majority shareholder. The deal will provide a much-needed cash injection for Bonhams, founded in 1793.
The new Bonhams and Brooks auction house will be based at the Bonhams current headquarters in Knightsbridge. The aim is to combine the Bonhams name and headquarters with the network of six overseas offices set up by Brooks to give the new company more international muscle.
full story:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=002691129943794&rtmo=pIUlBhbe&atmo=lllllljx&pg=/et/00/9/13/nauc13.html
Britain is run by philistines, says Hockney
By Sandra Laville
DAVID HOCKNEY, the artist exile who never uses his vote, has joined a long line of luminaries from the arts to accuse Tony Blair's Government of being "a bunch of philistines". Hockney, who lives in Los Angeles, follows Sir Vidia Naipaul and Doris Lessing, the novelists, who both used the "p" word about New Labour. In an interview for October's Tatler magazine Hockney, 63, who claims he has always been a defender of civil liberties, accuses Mr Blair of turning him into a foxhunting supporter because of his plan to ban the sport. This, Hockney says, is "absolutely bonkers".
Hockney, who recently exhibited a series of paintings at the National Gallery's Millennium show which were based on the use of a camera lucida, told the magazine that he was serious about high culture and concerned by its lack of appreciation in Britain.
full story:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=002691129943794&rtmo=pIUlBhbe&atmo=lllllljx&pg=/et/00/9/13/nhock13.html