September 20, 2000
CONTENTS:
- Stolen duck statues restored in Moscow
- Monet Painting Stolen From Polish Museum (replaced with forgery)
- China's 2,000-Year-Old Treasures under Threat from Mould
- Antiquities destroyed in City of David
- Re: Theft of Monet's "Pourville Beach"
Stolen duck statues restored in Moscow
September 18, 2000
MOSCOW (AP) -- A mother mallard and three of her ducklings returned to Moscow on Monday, to the joy of Russian children who clambered over the bronze statues to celebrate the restoration of one of their favorite sites. Three of the duck statues were sawn off at the legs and spirited away from Moscow's Novodevichy park last February, while a fourth was stolen in 1991. Russian police said the vandalism appeared to be the work of people looking for metal that could be sold for scrap -- a type of theft that has become endemic in Russia in recent years.
The figures are replicas of statues in the Boston Public Garden and portray the characters from "Make Way for Ducklings," a beloved American children's book.
more:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/09/18/russia.ducks.ap/index.html
Monet Painting Stolen From Polish Museum
WARSAW (Reuters) - Thieves cut a Claude Monet painting worth about $1 million from its frame in the Polish National Museum and replaced it with a forgery, police said on Tuesday.
``The original painting has been cut from its frame and a false one put in instead,'' PAP news agency quoted police spokesman Andrzej Borowiak as saying in the western city of Poznan, home of the museum. Borowiak said the missing picture was ``Pourville Beach,'' painted by the French master in 1882.
The forgery was noticed on Tuesday but it was not known when the swap was carried out. Police had alerted all border crossings about the theft. Local news media often report cases of art objects stolen from private collections and poorly guarded churches, but no major theft has occurred for years in the National Museum, its divisions or other state-run galleries.
China's 2,000-Year-Old Treasures under Threat from Mould
BEIJING, Sept 18 (AFP) - China's army of terracotta warriors - one of the most significant archeological finds of the 20th century - are being threatened by mould after surviving 2,000 years underground. More than 1,400 of the 7,000-odd statues of warriors and horses in China's northern ancient city of Xian are beginning to erode because of an attack by more than 40 species of mould, the China Daily said Monday.
The affected warriors and horses were unearthed in an underground vault containing 1,000 of the statues in 1976, two years after peasants digging a well found the first vault containing 6,000 statues.
Chinese authorities have enlisted the help of Belgium-based Janssen Pharmaceutical NV to rescue the precious cultural relics.
The company and the government last week signed an agreement under which the pharmaceutical giant will come up with a chemical compound to protect the statues.
Janssen, a world leader in anti-fungal treatment research, operates one of the largest joint venture pharamaceutical companies in China - Xian Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd.
Wu Yongqi, curator for the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum, was quoted by China Daily as saying the situtation was under control. "But because of the diversity of the moulds, it is difficult to kill all of the species without professional help from anti-fungal experts," Wu said. The agreement calls for the setting up of a group of experts from China and Belgium.
Chinese experts will provide mould samples and identify the affected terracotta figures and the Janssen experts will be responsible for finding a treatment for the mould and working out a method to prevent similar cases from occurring in the future.
The three-year project will involve Janssen carrying out research for a year and producing and providing 500 kilograms (1,200 pounds) of curative chemicals in the following two years.
Paul Janssen, founder of Janssen, said he was optimistic the statues would be saved.
"Ninety percent of the mould species found on the terracotta warriors can be treated with existing chemicals," Janssen was quoted by the China Daily as saying.
The life-size statues were well-preserved when they were discovered, with the soldiers and horses in battle formation. Every figure has a different facial expression.
It is believed the warriors uncovered so far may be just a part of a larger army still buried underground near the tomb of Qin Shihuang (259-210 BC), who is known as China's first emperor for uniting the country.
Antiquities destroyed in City of David
By Arieh O'Sullivan
JERUSALEM (September 19) - "The Valley of Hinnom... here is the entrance to Hell," Isaiah.
Yesterday was a double day in Hell for Jerusalem archeologists. In the Valley of Kidron, also known as the Valley of Hinnom, archeologists discovered that a contractor destroyed an ancient grave from the Second Temple period.
In the nearby City of David, a resident illegally trying to prepare a site for building seriously damaged a site full of antiquities that may have been from the First and Second Temple periods.
Charges have been filed with police against both men. Archeologists had already known about the 2,000-year-old tomb in the Valley of Kidron, near the neighborhood of Abu Tor, and had informed the contractor not to harm it. In the Second Temple period, the valley became a burial site for the city's wealthy. Today, contractors are eager to develop its upper slopes, which overlook the Old City. However, the law obligates them to first excavate, at their expense, any ancient site found on their land.
In this case, contractor Aharon Cohen of the Li-El Company apparently agreed to preserve the site and even incorporate it into the courtyard of his building project. But then he had his tractors eradicate any trace of the small cave, said officials from the Antiquities Authority.
"He knew about the burial cave. He agreed not to damage it, but he just came in and destroyed it. He didn't want to deal with it," said Jon Seligman, the Jerusalem District archeologist.
Archeologists tried to carry out a salvage excavation and save a few artifacts that had been in the cave, but they too had been destroyed. Further down the valley in the City of David, the Antiquities Authority discovered that a resident had ignored police warnings and started clearing an ancient site so he could build there.
"He went there not once or twice, but three times," said Seligman. "The site had yet to be excavated. It was an open area and he started construction work." It is not clear whether the plot belongs to the man, identified by the Antiquities Authority as Suliman Abbasi.
Abbasi had already been detained by police once before for trying to build on the site, but he was released with a warning, Seligman said. The site is believed to hold ancient buildings from various periods, including remnants from the First and Second Temple periods. "We don't actually know what's there and now the site is severely damaged," Seligman said. "It makes us pretty angry because it is completely illegal. We have taken them to court and filed charges with police, but the punishment is pretty weak." Abbasi could not be reached for comment, and the Li-El Company did not answer repeated telephone calls.
From: Jonathan Sazonoff saz@kwom.com
Organization: SAZ PRODUCTIONS, INC.
Subject: Re: Theft of Monet's "Pourville Beach"
Dear Subscribers,
A further note on Monet's "Pourville Beach" (1882) which was recently stolen from the National Museum in Poznan, Poland. Although I don't read the language, I was able to track down an article and photo of the missing painting for those interested.
From the Polish Press: Głos Wielkopolski
http://www.glos.com/win/public/01-03.php3
The last Monet caper/recovery of interest, "The Customs Officer's Cabin at Pourville" (again an 1882 work from Pourville) turned out to be a California insurance scam. I don't know if anyone could actually hope to sell such a famous painting. Who knows what might have been the rational behind this theft?
As the painting was replaced with a forgery, perhaps a forensic examination of the copy might yield some clues. Maybe the forger has some information which could lead to the thief, and the return of the original painting.
Hope you find this of interest
Jonathan Sazonoff
Saz Productions, Inc.
http://www.saztv.com
Contributing US Ed.
Museum Security Network
http://www.museum-security.org/saz.htm