December 30, 2000
CONTENTS:
- Art forgeries held after $12.5m in sales
(Spanish police seize over 1,000 Picasso, Dali forgeries )
- IFCPP news
- Forgery claim bewilders art world
- independent investigation sought of the Terra Foundation for the Arts
- Canadian Galleries release list of suspected Nazi art
- National Gallery disputes Ukraine's claim to drawing;
Museum says artwork stolen by Nazis was acquired in good faith
- Civil rights museum is vandalized
- Vandals ransack Quebec historic church
Art forgeries held after $12.5m in sales
30dec00 SPANISH police have seized more than 1000 forged artworks attributed to masters Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali that were sold in Spain's popular island of Mallorca.
Three people were under investigation, suspected of selling fake engravings and lithographs by the two Spanish painters in two shops of the city of Palma. The suspects, who were not identified, were arrested late last month. The forgeries included 715 works attributed to Picasso and 286 works attributed to Dali. Documents to guarantee their authenticity had fake signatures from the artists, according to police, who had asked experts of the Foundation Gala-Dali to examine the works. Earlier this week, Spanish police also announced they had seized more than 3000 forgeries of works by artists such as Picasso, Dali, Miro, Chagall and Warhol in a crackdown that began nearly two years ago. Eleven people were arrested in Spain and Italy as part of an operation code-named Artist. The works, including engravings, lithographs and serigraphs had fetched more than $12.15 million and had been distributed via galleries and agents in Spain and other countries, including the United States, Germany, Italy and Japan.
http://www.theadvertiser.com.au/ more about this matter from cnn.com/ :
Spanish police seize over 1,000 Picasso, Dali forgeries
MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Spanish Police have seized more than 1,000 forged artworks attributed to Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali. Three people were arrested late last month for allegedly selling forged engravings and lithographs by the two Spanish painters in two shops of the city of Palma on the island of Mallorca, Spanish police said Thursday. The suspects were not identified. The fakes included 715 works attributed to Picasso and 286 works by Dali. Documents guaranteeing their authenticity had forged signatures, police said. Earlier this week, Spanish police announced they had seized some 3,000 forgeries of works by artists such as Picasso, Dali, Miro, Chagall and Warhol in a crackdown that began nearly two years ago. The works in that seizure, included engravings, lithographs and serigraphs worth about $6.7 million. They had been distributed through galleries and agents in Spain, United States, Germany, Italy and Japan.
From: Rob Layne reassurance@earthlink.net
Subject: IFCPP 2001
IFCPP - Reaching Farther and Higher...about 3,500 feet higher! Our 2001 Annual Conference, Seminar and Exhibits will take place November 7-11 at the Keystone Ski Resort, a beautiful year round vacation spot nestled high in the Colorado Rockies adjacent to the Continental Divide. Attendees will stay at the 4 Star Keystone Lodge at the center of the Resort. Our first two conferences are tough to beat, according to those who were able to enjoy both...but we're doing everything possible to make this year's experience even better! The Foundation is here to serve YOU - the institutional protection specialist, manager, or administrator. We're definitely taking that into consideration with a wide assortment of educational programs, as well as area activities. We'll open with our traditional cocktail reception on Wednesday, November 7, looking out on the tall pines and the groomed slopes of Keystone Mountain. Exhibitors will present the latest technology and services available for cultural properties and public institutions. Classes begin bright and early on Thursday, with the nation's finest presenters - leading experts in select fields - offering information you won't get elsewhere! In the afternoon, our special interest group committees will offer breakout sessions on selected subjects. Attendees may opt for a variety of sessions. Friday brings a similar schedule, capped off by a special evening event with fun and enjoyment for all. On Saturday, certification candidates begin special programming which culminates in awarding of the designation, Certified Institutional Protection Manager (CIPM). Attendees who have already attained certification, or choose not to become certified, will have more time to participate in a great selection of area activities, including alpine skiing, nordic skiing, ice skating, hockey, snowshoeing, tennis, historic tours, snowmobiling, or shopping, shopping, shopping at resort stores or a nearby Factory Outlet Center. Several of these activities will be included in your discounted room rate of $99 per night. The IFCPP Annual Conference has quickly become the Cultural Property and Public Institution Protection event of the year! You can meet and greet decision-makers and experienced professionals from every type of institution, public and private, large and small, from throughout the U.S., Canada, and abroad. Plenty of time for networking, between the absolute best in dynamic, professionally presented, cutting edge educational sessions. No one else comes close! And yes, we're cost conscious too. Keystone offers round trip air/ground packages that beat most air fares alone. Door to door pickup from Denver International Airport...right to the main entry of Keystone Lodge. Our special rate ($99/night) extends three days in either direction of the conference, so you can combine business with pleasure, which comes in big packages in the high country! Plus discounted lift tickets, free transportation throughout Summit County (Breckenridge, Frisco, Silverthorne, Dillon), and special group transports to great dining and entertainment. And that's not all. You can bring the whole family, and enjoy exceptional lodging facilities, right on the Keystone plaza, within a few steps from the Lodge...also at discounted rates. We're still looking at other options, such as sleigh rides, gondola rides, and other special attractions. Make 2001 the conference you won't easily forget! This year, we will fill up. Would you believe reservation requests have already started coming in? Don't be left out...you need to start planning to attend now. Watch for registration information, coming to the web site soon (or available by calling the IFCPP office). See you in November, for a real Rocky Mountain high!!!
www.ifcpp.com (303) 377-2176 (800) 257-6717
Forgery claim bewilders art world
By GEOFF MASLEN
Saturday 30 December 2000
Reports that forgers had been copying and selling the work of Broken Hill painter Pro Hart has bemused art experts. "Why would anyone bother when you can pick up his pictures for a few hundred dollars almost anywhere in Australia?" one curator, who asked not to be named, said yesterday. The multi-millionaire artist has denied a report in The Australian newspaper that police were called to investigate the forging and theft of his works over the past 30 years. "That's a load of crap," the crusty 72-year-old said. "After that story appeared, the local police came round to find out what was going on and I told them it was all garbage." But Hart admitted that an internal investigation was being conducted into the possible theft and sale of some of his paintings. He would not provide details until the investigation was completed. "I've got 12 people working for me and I just paint and let others handle that side of things. It was the same with the stuff about (my support for) Pauline Hanson when the media ripped into me. Why don't they pick on some other poor coot?" Painting is what Kevin Charles Hart has been doing for the past 40 years - painting and generating publicity. Dubbed Pro (for Professor) by his mates "because they reckoned I was a know-all", the one-time miner has been churning out hundreds of pictures, prints, graphics and sculptures every year since he began seriously daubing on canvases in the early 1960s. Labelled a tireless self-promoter and the "Ken Done of the outback" by critics, and largely ignored by the art establishment, the self-taught artist has nevertheless attracted a huge body of admirers. His almost fluorescent paintings of stick figures on rural racetracks, of bush landscapes and wildlife hang on the walls of homes across Australia and, for many people, were the first original artworks ever purchased. "Although he's had incredible commercial success, I don't think he even believes himself that he has great artistic merit," said Jon Dwyer, a former art director at Leonard Joel's and now a senior consultant with Christie's. "He doesn't have much support in the auction room and you normally only find his paintings in the smaller sale rooms." The 600 or so Pro Hart oils auctioned over the past 10 years sold for an average price of less than $1800. But that average was boosted by a remarkable record set at Lawson's in Sydney in June, 1999, when a collector paid $82,500 for a large picture of a woolshed. Rory Ryan, recently appointed managing director for the Pro Hart group of companies, said a complete restructuring of Pro Hart's sales and marketing had occurred. One gallery would now be appointed in each capital city to handle all his works and a new process of fitting each of his pictures with an electronic chip to ensure authenticity had been developed. "Pro's traditional system of ship 'em and sell 'em is over," Mr Ryan said. "From here on, they'll all be tracked and anyone buying a Pro Hart will be able to confirm it was painted by him."
http://www.theage.com.au/
INDEPENDENT PROBE OF TERRA SOUGHT
By Janan Hanna
Illinois Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan is seeking an independent investigation of the Terra Foundation for the Arts, the organization at the center of an intense legal battle over whether its Michigan Avenue museum might move to Washington, D.C. Faced with a lawsuit accusing the foundation of mismanagement, the Terra board has in effect been permitted to investigate itself, Ryan alleged in a court motion filed for a Wednesday hearing before a Cook County Circuit Court judge. After a judge directed the board to form a committee that would guide the foundation through the litigation, the board appointed two of its members who are not named as defendants. Ryan alleges the litigation committee members are allied with the defendants and, therefore, have a conflict of interest. Thus far, according to Ryan, the committee has approved attorney fees for board members named in the lawsuit and has authorized $100,000 in fees to a public relations firm hired to bolster the foundation's image. "It seemed to us that was an awful expensive, extravagant cost to defend itself against the charges," said assistant Atty. Gen. Floyd Perkins, who is handling the matter for Ryan. Investigating the claims of mismanagement, Perkins said, should have taken priority over any such spending. In addition, the museum's curator has accused one litigation committee member of inappropriate conduct in acquiring art on behalf of the Terra Foundation, Perkins said. Although that person has not been named as a defendant in the pending lawsuit, Perkins said the allegations tarnish the committee member's credibility as an independent investigator. An attorney for the foundation has denied Ryan's allegations and said the board is opposed to the appointment of an independent investigator. The legal battle over the foundation, which pits some board members against others, quickly caught the attention of the Illinois attorney general's office. It involves two issues: a possible relocation of the Terra Museum of American Art and the management of the foundation that oversees it. Because the foundation is a charitable trust, it enjoys special tax status and is subject to state oversight by the attorney general's office. "The Terra museum is a charitable trust for the benefit of the people of the state of Illinois," Perkins said. "The attorney general believes it belongs here in Illinois and any plans to move it are inappropriate." The foundation and individual board members--including Judith Terra, the widow of the man who established the arts organization--were sued by two other board members in September. The lawsuit was brought by Ron Gidwitz, former CEO of Helene Curtis, and Dean Buntrock, a former head of Waste Management Inc. They allege that Terra and board members Paul Hayes Tucker and former U.S. Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.) have mismanaged the $450 million foundation, which operates the art museum in a North Michigan Avenue storefront. Terra, the suit alleges, was engaged in a conscious effort to cause the museum in Chicago to fail, thus justifying its relocation to Washington in a possible merger with the Corcoran Gallery there. As the legal fight continued, Circuit Court Judge Dorothy Kirie Kinnaird ordered the foundation to appoint a litigation committee. Ryan is now alleging those members are tainted. William Conlon, one of the attorneys representing the foundation, said the foundation is prepared to fight Ryan's attempt to bring in an outside investigator. "I think Ryan's court motion is inappropriate," he said. "It makes accusations that are unsubstantiated and simply wrong." He characterized the legal battle as a dispute among board members and said decisions about Terra's future should rest with the board of directors. Attorney William Quinlan, who is representing Gidwitz and Buntrock, said his clients will join in the attorney general's request for an independent investigation. Quinlan suggested that the judge appoint a person without an interest in the foundation, perhaps a retired judge or someone knowledgeable about charitable enterprises.
More:
DOCUMENTS SHOW MUSEUM'S GROWTH
By Diana Strzalka
Three months ago, when a legal battle began to brew over the future of the Terra Museum of American Art, some board members contended the museum was struggling in its Michigan Avenue location and should be moved to Washington, D.C. But court documents presented Wednesday suggest the museum experienced record growth, an increase in gift store sales and a doubling of its membership in 1999. The rosy outlook was included in a report dated May 28, 1999, by Terra's director and curator, John Neff. The apparent contradiction was raised by Assistant Atty. Gen. Floyd Perkins in court Wednesday as he summed up allegations that the museum board mismanaged its $450 million foundation, which operates the museum. Illinois Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan, whose office is charged with oversight of charities and foundations in Illinois, recently joined the legal fight to protect the foundation's assets and prevent the museum from moving out of state. The lawsuit against the board members was initiated by two museum board members, Dean Buntrock and Ronald Gidwitz, who accused other board members, including Judith Terra, the widow of the museum's founder, of plotting to move the museum to Washington. The move would help her advance socially in the city, they said. The defendants have denied any mismanagement. Circuit Judge Dorothy Kirie Kinnaird said she will rule Friday on whether a special litigation committee established by the Terra Museum board has the independence to investigate claims of conflicts of interest and illegal payments of legal fees raised in the lawsuit. She also will decide whether the museum's law firm ought to be excluded from overseeing the investigation of its own activities and board members. Attorney William Quinlan, who represents Buntrock and Gidwitz, is seeking a temporary injunction to stop the work of the special litigation committee. He charged there was a conflict of interest in having the law firm, Sidley & Austin, represent both the museum board and the special litigation committee in charge of the investigation. The committee must be independent, Quinlan said. "They can't be counsels for both at the same time. They are not impartial," he said. The attorney general's office also contends that one of the special litigation committee members, Ted Stebbins, who is also a museum board member, acted inappropriately in his dealings as a curator for the Terra Museum.
http://chicagotribune.com/
Galleries release list of suspected Nazi art
OTTAWA - Two of Canada's most prominent galleries have listed more than 120 works of art in their collections that may have been stolen from their original owners by the Nazis during the Second World War.
The National Gallery and the Art Gallery of Ontario posted images of the art on the Web, so people around the world, especially European Jews and their descendants, can examine and possibly claim the works.
Pierre Theberge, the director of the National Gallery, says the list doesn't mean all of the art was pilfered. Rather, he says the museum needs more information on the art's ownership histories. The paintings and sculptures all have gaps in their history, from 1933 to 1945. The gap coincides with the Nazi era, so the galleries wonder if invading German or Soviet troops stole the art from museums and private collections. The two galleries' lists include: * Bouquet of Flowers by Jan Breughel the Elder * Woman at Her Bath by French painter Edgar Degas * Le Salon de Madame Aron by French painter Edouard Vuillard * St. John the Baptist by Spanish painter Jusepe Leonardo * The Lean Kitchen by Dutch painter Jan Steen. Theberge noted no one has made a claim so far or asked the National Gallery to look for a work. The galleries' move is part of a growing effort by institutions around the world to re-examine their collections and return Nazi-stolen art to its original owners and their descendants.
This fall, the Canadian Art Museum Directors Organization and its U.S. counterpart introduced new guidelines requiring major galleries and museums to post their collections' Holocaust-era provenance, a piece's origin or history, on Web sites. Last year, the Montreal Museum of Fine Art returned Marriage Feast at Cana, an oil painting by Italian master Giorgio Vasari, to the government of Hungary. In 1996, five drawings lost during the war were found in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario and were voluntary returned to the Berlin Museum.
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National Gallery disputes Ukraine's claim to drawing;
Museum says artwork stolen by Nazis was acquired in good faith
Jim Bronskill; Southam Newspapers
A list of National Gallery of Canada pieces with questionable histories will not include an Albrecht Durer drawing that was looted by the Nazis and whose ownership is contested by Ukrainian officials. Gallery spokesperson Joanne Charette said Thursday that Durer's Nude Woman with a Staff is not among the works with uncertain provenance, or ownership history, to be publicized today. The list will include more than 100 pieces about which there are questions between 1933 and 1945, the era when the Nazis stole many works of art from Jewish families -- criteria that apparently exclude the Durer drawing. "That one's not on the list," Charette said. "There's no gap in the provenance for that one." The gallery plans to post images of the works of art on its Web site so people around the world, especially European Jews and their descendants, can examine and possibly lay claim to the works. Gallery officials have maintained that the early 16th-century piece by Durer was acquired in good faith and has never been the subject of a formal claim. However, Ukrainian officials signalled their intention last year to approach Canada about the work, one of two dozen pieces by the German master that once hung in a museum established by Prince Henry Lubomirski in what is now Lviv, Ukraine. Adolf Hitler, an ardent admirer of Durer, ordered the drawings seized during the Second World War. They hung in Hitler's field headquarters and were later stashed in an Austrian salt mine with other booty. After the war, ownership of the drawings was awarded to Prince George Lubomirski, the family heir. He sold most of the drawings, including Nude Woman with a Staff, to a London dealer. In 1956, a Toronto businessperson bought Nude Woman and donated it to the National Gallery of Canada. However, Ukrainian officials argue that Prince Henry intended the works to remain in Lviv. Representatives of Lviv's Stefanyk Scientific Library, a successor to the original museum, have approached officials in the Netherlands and Britain about the return of other Durer drawings. Charette said officials were feverishly working Thursday to prepare the list of works with ownership gaps. Pieces likely to be included are Les deux chats, by French artist Jean-Baptiste Oudry; Le Salon de Madame Aron, by fellow Frenchman Edouard Vuillard; The Lean Kitchen, by Dutch painter Jan Steen; Augustus and Cleopatra, by French painter Nicolas Poussin; and St. John the Baptist, by Spanish artist Jusepe Leonardo. Paintings with a less certain fate include Venus, by Germany's Lucas Cranach the Elder, and The Virgin and Child with Saints, by Italian artist Benozzo Gozzoli, as well as various works by Edgar Degas. Internal memos obtained from the gallery under the Access to Information Act show the pieces in question by Oudry, Vuillard, Cranach and Gozzoli have been the subject of considerable inquiry by gallery officials in recent years. A confidential January 1998 memo indicates gallery director Pierre Theberge asked then-chief curator Colin Bailey to "alert him to any works whose provenance might cause questions to arise regarding Nazi confiscation." In September 1999 a senior gallery official alerted Bailey that the 1725 Oudry painting of two cats appeared to be included in the reference volume List of property removed from France during the war 1939-1945. "Certainly there has been no query about the painting in the 12-year period since the publication of our catalogue in 1987 but, given all the recent publicity concerning things that were confiscated at the time, the onus is on us to make a thorough inquiry about the circumstances," wrote the official. As of late October, the gallery was still probing the Oudry painting's history. The Nazis seized the Vuillard painting during their wartime occupation of France. The national gallery acquired it from a European collector in 1956.
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more on this matter
Civil rights museum is vandalized
SELMA, Ala. (AP) -- Someone broke into the National Voting Rights Museum and destroyed more than 30 photographs of the 1965 Bloody Sunday clash. It was second break-in in less than two weeks at the museum, which President Clinton visited earlier this year to mark the 35th anniversary of the landmark civil rights confrontation. Police Chief E.L. Tate discounted the possibility that the vandalism was racially motivated and said he suspects juveniles in both cases. "We'll have something in a few days," he said Friday. "We've got a good lead." Thirty to 40 photographs were ripped up late Wednesday or early Thursday, museum administrator Felicia Pettway said. The photographs, donated by the state, were shot during the 1965 confrontation, when troopers beat marchers as they attempted to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge for a voting rights march to Montgomery. The violence galvanized the civil rights movement and helped lead to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. "You really can't put a monetary value on the pictures. They were the original pictures from the march," Pettway said. Tate said there were no signs of forced entry at the museum. About 10 days ago, someone entered the museum overnight and took a Ku Klux Klan hood that was on display, Tate said. Tate said investigators believe the thief walked in though a door that had been left unlocked
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Vandals ransack Quebec church
LA MALBAIE, QUE - Shocked parishioners in a small town in northern Quebec are assessing the damage after thieves ransacked their historic church. Vandals decapitated figures in the nativity scene and statues of saints at the church in La Malbaie. The crucifix was smashed, and half of Christ's body was left on the floor among pages ripped from the Bible and songbooks. Other items, including a chalice, were stolen. The vandals targeted items with religious symbolism, and left the church's structure and furniture largely untouched. Church caretaker Francoise Maltais says the items are full of sentimental value and are irreplaceable. "Thankfully, they didn't burn down the church," Maltais said. Police believe the attack took place Christmas Day. It wasn't discovered until two days later. It's the third time in three years that someone has broken into the chapel. Maltais said the community is now concentrating on trying to fix the church up in time for New Year's celebrations.
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