December 6, 2000
CONTENTS:
- Re: Cost per square foot (Steve Keller)
- Harvard University Museums PROVENANCE RESEARCH
- U.S. returns stolen masterpiece to Germany
- Greece Snubs British Museum Party Over Marbles
From: IntlArtCop@aol.com
Subject: Re: security Cost per square foot
In a message dated 12/4/00 4:04:24 AM, Jim Barnhart writes:
I am trying to establish a data base for Security, Custodial, and
maintenance cost per square foot for cultural property. The only
information available is for commercial property. If any of the
subscribers has any information on this subject or could point me in
the right direction I would greatly appreciate the information.
Jim:
I've been trying to pin this down for years. It is the most frequently asked question. Let me know if you get an accurate number!! Unfortunately, the number varies by type of museum, the way exhibits are displayed, region, etc. Construction costs for a security system in an art museum range from $2.50 per square foot for a bare bones burglar alarm system to $4.00 per square foot for a modest access control and alarm monitoring system with some, but not total, CCTV coverage. Of course, I have had numerous jobs with a higher per square foot cost but these are rules of thumb. Ongoing costs per square foot for security are harder to pin down in a manner that is useful to us, however.
Steve Keller
Museum Security Consultant
Subject: Harvard University Museums PROVENANCE RESEARCH
www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/Research/provenance/index.html WHAT IS PROVENANCE?
"Provenance" is a list of the previous owners of a work of art, tracing it from its present location and owner back to the hand of the artist. Provenance has many uses: It can help to determine the authenticity of a work, to establish the historical importance of a work by suggesting other artists who might have seen and been influenced by it, and to determine the legitimacy of current ownership.
Provenance information for works of art (with the exception of contemporary art) can vary widely in completeness and accuracy. When a work of art is acquired by a museum or accepted as a loan, the curatorial staff attempts to add to the provenance provided by the donor, dealer, or auction house. Sources for provenance information include exhibition catalogues, catalogues raisonné, and correspondence with other scholars. Information can also be gleaned from labels and other markings on the object itself, which can point to its movement over time. However, even after extensive research, it is not unusual for long periods in the history of an object to remain unaccounted for.
MORE:
www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/Research/provenance/index.html
U.S. returns stolen masterpiece to Germany
The portrait of Christ by Venetian artist Jacopo de' Barbari, valued
at $5 million, was stolen from a German castle more than 50 years ago
December 5, 2000
NEW YORK (CNN) -- U.S. Customs officials returned a stolen 16th- century painting worth $5 million to German officials Tuesday, and marked the act with the formation of a new art fraud investigation center in New York City. U.S. Customs Commissioner Raymond Kelly turned over the masterpiece, a portrait of Christ by Venetian artist Jacopo de' Barbari, to officials of the Weimar Museum during a brief ceremony. The painting was stolen more than 50 years ago. "This small treasure was appraised recently at 5 million dollars," Kelly said. "But it carries a lesson more valuable than that. The lesson is that America is not a safe haven for stolen art. We will help find it." Kelly, a former New York City police commissioner, said the Customs Art Fraud Center, also called the "art recovery team," will not be staffed with new special agents, but will coordinate outreach programs and set up art fraud training and databases. The unit will cost between $600,000 and $800,000 a year to run, Kelly said. Soldiers suspected
The returned painting, "Bust of Christ," was one of 13 works stolen from Schwartzburg Castle in the aftermath of World War II, said Dr. Thomas Foehl of the Weimar Museum. Four paintings have since been recovered in the New York area, including two portraits by German artist Albrecht Durer. During World War II, the castle was used to store artworks from the Weimar Museum to protect them from Allied bombings. The U.S. Army seized the castle at the end of the war. When U.S. troops left, 13 paintings were missing, Foehl said. U.S. soldiers have since been suspected of stealing the works, but an investigation completed in 1950 failed to determined exactly who stole them, a U.S. Customs official said. The painting by de'Barbari then reappeared in 1972 in a Catholic church in Astoria, New York. Monseigneur Thomas Campbell, then pastor of the parish who is now 85, said he cannot remember how he got the painting, Customs officials said. The priest gave it to a nun, who taught art in a grammar school attached to the church. No charges filed In 1998, the nun decided to restore the frame and gave it to a furniture refinishing business in Rockville Centre, New York. Customs officials said in a statement. The owner of that business, Frank Vaccaro, guessed that the painting was stolen and investigated its origin, Customs said. He then asked the Weimar Museum to pay $100,000 for the return of the painting. The museum informed Customs officials, who seized the painting. No charges were filed against Vaccaro, officials said, because the $100,000 he asked for and the painting's real value were wide enough for him to argue that money he wanted was for a finder's fee. The art recovery team will be based in New York City because of the concentration of art dealers there. About 65 percent of all U.S. art imports arrive through the port of New York. This year, the Customs' New York Office of Investigations has seized $10.5 million worth of art, accounting for 80 percent of such seizures nationwide.
photographs: http://www.cnn.com/2000/STYLE/arts/12/05/painting.returned/
Greece Snubs British Museum Party Over Marbles
LONDON (Reuters) - Greece's ambassador to Britain says he will boycott a royal dinner at London's British Museum this week because guests have been invited to dine in a gallery housing the disputed Elgin Marbles. Alexandros Sandis said the decision to use the marbles, removed from Athens 200 years ago, as a backdrop for the dinner on Wednesday was insensitive and risky. The sculptures, known as the Parthenon marbles in Greece, were a symbol of the birth of Western civilization, Sandis said Tuesday. ``We don't think it proper to organize a supper...in rooms where they are exposed,'' he told Reuters. ``And if there is food and wine, you can't exclude an accident.'' Greece has long demanded the return of the marble sculptures, saying Britain's 19th century ambassador Lord Elgin illegally hacked the 2,500-year-old friezes from the Parthenon after bribing ruling Ottoman officials. The British Museum refuses to give them back, saying Elgin had legitimate papers and that the museum saved the marbles from the ravages that damaged other monuments on the Acropolis. The diplomatic snub is the latest problem to beset the opening of a grand new central courtyard at the British Museum by Queen Elizabeth. Contractors supplied the wrong kind of stone to build a new colonnade on the historic building, leaving one section a lighter color than the rest.
See our Elgin Marbles page