January 14 and 15, 2001

Sweden art theft go-between says he did no wrong

STOCKHOLM, Jan 13 (Reuters) - A lawyer who acted as a go-between for robbers trying to ransom stolen paintings for $30 million said in remarks published on Saturday he had done no wrong and was just trying to help return the masterpieces.
A Rembrandt and two Renoirs were seized on December 22 in a spectacular raid by an armed gang who used exploding cars, spikes on a road and a boat to make their getaway.
Five days after Sweden's biggest art theft in eight years, visitors arrived unannounced at the lawyer's office, saying they wanted to return the paintings -- at a price.
"They wanted help with a contact," he said. "My condition before I did anything at all was that no money would be made from it. No tip-off money, no finder's fee, nothing."
The lawyer, who has not been named, spoke in an interview with Svenska Dagbladet newspaper of his dismay at becoming a suspect himself when his code of conduct forbade him from giving the thieves' names to detectives.
The gang stole the three pictures, a self portrait by Dutch master Rembrandt and two works by French impressionist Pierre-August Renoir, "A Young Parisienne" and "Conversation," by entering the museum on Stockholm's waterfront just before closing time.
While one gangster brandished a submachine gun in the lobby, two others seized the paintings on the second floor.
As they escaped, scattering spikes on the road to delay pursuers, two cars exploded nearby, creating a diversion. The men then made off in a small boat which was later recovered.
The subsequent meeting between the lawyer and the gang lasted half an hour, and left the lawyer in a dilemma over whether he should play safe and do nothing at all, or try to speed up the return of the paintings by starting a dialogue with the authorities.
"It felt like I was the only person outside the police who could see to it that the paintings were returned," the lawyer said. So he followed his life's rule: "If it asks little of you and gives a lot to others, then do it."
Why did he not go straight to the police? "That would have broken my professional secrecy as a lawyer," he said.
Fifteen minutes after his visitors left, he telephoned Justice Minister Thomas Bodstrom, who was on holiday. Bodstrom's office told him the following day to call the officer in charge of the police enquiry, Leif Jennekvist.
The lawyer told Jennekvist that he was anxious not to implicate himself in any crime but that the visitors had put a price tag of $10 million on each painting.
At Jennekvist's request, the laywer supplied photographs of the paintings, which showed them to be genuine. The police immediately interviewed the lawyer and told him to identify his visitors.
"Confidentiality obliged me to say no," the lawyer said.
Eight men have been arrested and a warrant is outstanding for a ninth, but the paintings have not been recovered. Police say they believe the masterpieces are still in Sweden and they remain confident they will be recovered.
The lawyer has not been arrested but has been treated as a suspect. Partly due to the secrecy surrounding the investigation, his situation remains unclear.
The lawyer insisted he had respected the law and done what he felt to be right, in line with the first rule in the Swedish code of ethics for lawyers: "A lawyer must not do wrong."
"I have worked within the judicial system and I have done what the police asked me to, arranged the photographs and helped them on the way. So I do not think I have done anything wrong."

Auction Houses Sweeten Deal

By CAROL VOGEL and RALPH BLUMENTHAL
As they wait for a federal judge to give final approval to a $512 million class-action antitrust settlement, Sotheby's and Christie's have sweetened part of the deal they had agreed to in October. Under the original plan, the two auction houses charged with price fixing have the option of paying $100 million of the settlement in the form of discount certificates to future sellers toward commission fees and other charges. But lawyers for some auction customers argued that such coupons were intrinsically worth less than cash and that it would take coupons with more than a face value of $100 million to equal the same amount of cash. With Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the Federal Court for the Southern District of New York scheduled to receive a report from court-appointed economic experts on the issue on Tuesday, the lead law firm representing the class of about 100,000 auction customers told the judge by letter on Thursday that Sotheby's and Christie's had proposed "a significant change" in the certificate plan. The firm, Boies, Schiller & Flexner, said that the auction houses agreed that all unredeemed certificates would be redeemable for cash at their full face value when they expired five years after their issuance. The sweetening of the offer was reported by The Wall Street Journal yesterday. "We continue to think the coupons are worth their face value and this is another way to make that point," said Steven A. Reiss, a partner at Weil Gotshal & Manges, Sotheby's lawyers. "They're really the same as money." Scott T. Kragie, a lawyer representing the auction customers Fataihi Company and Swicorp S.A., which have been critical of the settlement, called the new proposal "clearly a substantial improvement in the certificates." Yet, he said yesterday, "they remain far from $100 million in fair market value."
http://www.nytimes.com/

Row over parliament art 'insult'

JIM McLEAN
THE director of the National Galleries of Scotland claimed yesterday that the Scottish Executive had shunned professional art historians in shaping arts policy for the new showpiece parliament. Timothy Clifford says he has been ignored and insulted by MSPs charged with making Holyrood a cultural jewel. The building's future is overseen by the parliamentary corporate body and a special progress group of three MSPs. This week, Lewis Macdonald, Labour chairman of the progress group, Lib Dem Jamie Stone, and the SNP's Linda Fabiani, are expected to announce plans to hire external art consultants experienced in finding corporate art for large offices. An arts co-ordinator will be asked to identify art worthy of the Scottish parliament - including everything from furniture and cutlery to floor coverings, sculpture, and paintings.
More

Nationalisation of museums claim rejected

VICKY COLLINS REPORTS that Glasgow's museums and art galleries are to be nationalised were yesterday denied by the city council and the Scottish Executive, which insisted that the responsibility for the collection would continue to lie with Glasgow. Although the council has admitted that funding problems are to be discussed during an interview with Sam Galbraith, the environment minister, on Friday, it maintained that turning over the financial and administrative responsibility for the city's 13 institutions was out of the question.
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Woman Still Protesting MLK Museum

By WOODY BAIRD, Associated Press Writer
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Walking the sidewalk or sitting on a sofa outside the National Civil Rights Museum, Jacqueline Smith quietly urges passers-by to boycott the exhibit. Smith launched her one-woman protest at the site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination when work to create the museum began. She's still at it 13 years later - and bracing for another struggle. ``I just have to stand my ground,'' she said. She tells all who will listen that the museum - the former Lorraine Motel - should be a homeless shelter, a medical clinic for the poor or a senior citizens center. While the museum is widely considered a jewel for downtown Memphis, Smith calls it a tourist trap that distorts King's legacy. The museum draws more than 125,000 visitors a year and is packed each January on the national holiday honoring King. More

Czech ministry sets up Internet site for lost art

By Yair Sheleg
Ha'aretz Correspondent
The Czech Cultural Ministry has launched a special Internet site to help locate art treasures plundered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. The site ( http://www.restitution-art.cz) displays a detailed list of 2,620 works of art looted during World War Two, together with color illustrations of the paintings to aid in finding them.
The site was launched following the work of a special commission of inquiry set up by the Czech government, headed by Justice Minister Pavel Rychetsky. The committee, the first of its kind in a former communist country, investigated the whereabouts of gold, real estate and art, and recently published some of its findings.
"The Czech authorities have promised that anyone providing proof of ownership of the works of art or other items by his or her family can get them back, even if they are currently on display in museums," Dr. Avi Becker, the international director of the World Jewish Congress and a member of the committee, told Ha'aretz.
http://www3.haaretz.co.il/