November 17, 2000

Museum trustees blamed for fiasco

By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent
THE trustees of the British Museum have been accused of "dereliction of duty" for allowing the wrong stone to be used for part of its Ł100 million lottery-aided Great Court development. English Heritage made the damning indictment, which could force the resignation of the trustees' chairman, yesterday. It has been investigating why a spectacular new portico was built with inferior French limestone instead of Portland stone from Dorset. English Heritage pulled back from demanding that the South Portico be demolished and rebuilt but said it "let down" the remainder of the museum's redevelopment. The new section of the Grade I listed museum, designed by Lord Foster, is to be opened by the Queen on Dec 6. English Heritage, the Government's heritage watchdog, has advised the Heritage Lottery Fund to reduce the Ł15.7 million it gave for the project. A second report by accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers, ordered by the Government to look into whether the museum was complicit in using inferior stone, is expected to be published in the next few weeks. It too is expected to be critical of the museum, but also of English Heritage's role. The reports will put heavy pressure on Graham Greene, chairman of the museum's trustees, to resign. Sir Jocelyn Stevens, the recently retired chairman of English Heritage, has said Chris Smith, the Culture Secretary, should sack him if he did not go willingly. The row, which is threatening private donations, began when it was discovered that a contractor substituted the French Anstrude stone, which is said to be softer and less able to hold carved details and joints, for the Portland stone. The museum has withheld part of the payment. But critics claim that it covered up the change in stone for many months. Yesterday's English Heritage report praised the Great Court project but said it was let down by the South Portico. "The trustees and the management have allowed the South Portico to fall short of [the highest possible] standard. This is a dereliction of their duty of the building which we do not condone." The report said the remedial works had achieved "worthwhile improvements" and added: "It would not now be possible to improve the quality of the portico further except by demolishing the structure and rebuilding it." The museum said yesterday that it had made "every effort" to comply with listed building rules and it was "pleased" that English Heritage had judged the remedial work successful.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Booming Global Trade Fueling Thefts in Cultural Relics

BEIJING, Nov 16, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) A booming trade in stolen Chinese cultural relics is fueling further thefts of the precious antiques from China, a state media report said Thursday. The China Daily said stealing cultural relics continued to be common despite stepped-up protection efforts in recent years. Liu Qifu, an official with the State Bureau of Cultural Relics quoted in the report, blamed the crimes on the willingness of foreigners to buy and sell the items. "Lured by large profits, many international traders and organizations ignore international conventions banning the purchase of important stolen items," the report said. Difficulties in preventing smuggling had also contributed to more thefts, Liu said. Customs officials in Shanghai recently discovered a foreigner allegedly trying to take 798 pieces of cultural relics in 45 pieces of luggage out of a Shanghai airport during a routine inspection, according to the China Daily. The relics included porcelain and ceramic vases and bowls as well as coin collections. No further details on the case were available. Last year, 148 relics were reported stolen from China in 37 separate cases. The figure has been significantly reduced this year because more museums have begun adopting better anti- theft measures and equipment. But it remains difficult to protect relics in the field, Liu said. For example, when an important tomb is discovered -- which often happens on construction sites -- workers grab the items before relics protection experts get there, the report said. Liu called for cooperation between customs departments and cultural relics departments and for police to stop relics being taken out of the country. Chinese citizens have become more sensitive to the issue following a row in May in which China tried to block auctioneers in Hong Kong from selling four stolen cultural treasures. The three bronze heads of an ox, a monkey and a tiger, and a vase were looted by invading British and French troops in 1860 after they sacked the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyan), located on the outskirts of Beijing. International auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's refused to cancel the auction. A military-linked mainland company later bought the items for USD 4 million to salvage national pride

Portlander pleads guilty to stealing Chinese antiques

The FBI catches Roland Yazhari taking a prized snuff bottle from a museum

Thursday, November 16, 2000
By Mark Larabee of The Oregonian staff
Roland Yazhari pretended to be a scholar when he went to the Princeton University Art Museum on June 26, 1998, to view a large and historically important collection of antique Chinese snuff bottles. But the curators at Princeton were suspicious. And rightly so. Yazhari, a Portland resident, recently pleaded guilty to theft, ending an FBI investigation begun after museum curators discovered in 1997 that two of the university's valuable bottles had been stolen. Three years earlier -- in March and September of 1994 -- Yazhari sought access to the museum's collection of 570 snuff bottles, and was the last person to view the bottles before the theft was discovered. The missing bottles were from the Ch'ien Lung period, which went from 1736 to 1795. They were valued at $142,500.
Agents eventually discovered that the bottles had been sold at auctions in Hong Kong, one at Christie's in April 1996 and the other at Sotheby's a month later, and that Yazhari consigned both bottles to the auction houses. He was arrested in Portland in December 1998. An Iranian immigrant who came to the United States with his parents, Yazhari is a graduate of Beaverton High School and holds a master's degree in education from Harvard University, according to the FBI.
The snuff bottles are popular in international art circles and the major auction houses have specialty shows dedicated solely to them. The Chinese began making the tiny, painstakingly crafted bottles in the mid-17th century to hold snuff, a combination of spices and powdered tobacco, which they inhaled through the nose for medicinal purposes. They were fashioned from jade, ivory, glass and porcelain and carved in relief, set with gems or hand painted on the inside. "They became a very popular collectors item," said Cary Liu, associate curator of Asian art at Princeton. "It's a fascinating cultural phenomenon, the spread of these things."
The rich and the royal of China built up vast collections of bottles as snuff's popularity rose. Bottles once owned by emperors -- marked with a seal from the imperial court -- are the most valued today. Most prized bottles
The two Princeton bottles -- painted enamels on metal -- were made by imperial craftsmen, said Robert Chasin of Los Angeles, second vice president of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, a group of about 500 collectors and dealers. A similar bottle sold for more than $200,000 in a Hong Kong auction Nov. 1, he said. "If those bottles came up for auction today, they would be getting the same money for them," he said. "Those types of bottles are probably the most prized." Yazhari aspired to become a part of the collectors' circle, though it's unclear whether he formally joined the international society. In 1995, he was quoted by the Xinhua News Agency in a story on China's art auctions as someone who runs an art gallery in New York. He was the only Westerner who placed a bid that day in Beijing, according to the story. Chasin said he remembers meeting Yazhari in the early 1990s at one of his group's annual conventions. Soon after the meeting, he said Yazhari tried to sell him the Princeton snuff bottles. "I and other people in the society received a letter and two photographs from this guy," Chasin said. "Quite frankly, I had no idea they were missing from Princeton." When the thefts came to light years later, Chasin said the news made quite a stir in the small group of serious collectors and dealers. But he thought the case had slipped away. In reality, the FBI was waiting for Yazhari to make his next move.

Video cameras ready

When Yazhari made the June 1998 appointment to see Princeton's bottle collection for a third time, the curators in New Jersey were ready. They called the FBI, which set up video cameras. The sting caught Yazhari stashing a $75,000 snuff bottle into his pants pocket, and he was arrested as he left the building, according to court records. A federal grand jury in New Jersey indicted him for the thefts the following December, charging interstate transport of stolen property and theft of major artwork. That same month in Portland, the FBI arrested Yazhari on the New Jersey warrant. Nearly two years after the arrest, Yazhari, 35, has pleaded guilty to the thefts and has agreed to pay restitution. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison on each of three theft counts, said Barry Sheldahl, an assistant U.S. attorney in Portland. Sentencing is set for Jan. 8 in U.S. District Court. Yazhari's attorney, Ruben Iniguez, said he will seek probation given that Yazhari served two months in jail after his initial arrest. "This gentleman has no prior record," he said. "This is out of character for him. There are some issues of diminished capacity." The stolen snuff bottles have been recovered -- coincidentally the same person bought both -- and returned to Princeton. They will be among about 400 featured next year in a book on the Princeton collection by the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, Chasin said. "The Princeton collection is one of the finest collections held by a university or museum in the world," Chasin said. "They are very important bottles in a very important collection." The book will not mention the thefts, he said.

100 GET AXED AT SOTHEBY'S

Thursday,November 16,2000
By PAUL THARP
On top of its legal woes, Sotheby's is laying off as many as 100 employees in a cost-savings move. The auction house yesterday said it would cut back on staffing of its online auction site and trim staff when it moves all its operations into its soon-to-be finished York Avenue headquarters in February. Sotheby's CEO William Ruprecht said the restructuring isn't a direct result of the firm's costs for settling allegations that Sotheby's and archrival Christie's conspired to overcharge customers by millions in fees. The scandal also led to the departure of former Chairman Alfred Taubman.
http://www.nypost.com/11162000/business/16046.htm

Domain extension 'museum'

Icann (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) board members voted for the names from an original choice of almost 200 to extend the crowded .com field, currently numbering around 20 million addresses. Other newly approved names are .info, .pro, .museum, .aero and .coop.