February 24, 2001
CONTENTS:
- Re: crisis plan armed robbery
- Judge Rejects Most Claims by Law Firms in Auction Suit
- Malevich sale halted by bribes
- Swede arrested in connection with Rembrandt heist
- Bond for dealer who sold fake art
- Owner sturs furor, razes $12 million historic home
- critic' nabbed in Brooklyn Museum
- Terra's son sues to keep museum from relocating
From: IntlArtCop@aol.com
Subject: Re: crisis plan armed robbery
My advice is to treat the event just like a retail robbery. Banks and stores have many video resources available to them to train employees on dealing with robberies. Comply, don't resist, avoid getting killed, be a good witness, call police only after you can do so safely, jot down your description immediately, refrain from talking with other employees or visitors about what happened or comparing notes on descriptions to avoid legal issues later, etc. Add to this a plan for securing the crime scene, isolating civilian witnesses (museum visitors), quickly obtaining narrative and photographic information on what was stolen, making a controlled statement to the press, contacting someone on your consultant list like Bob Spiel who can advise you on what to do including helping local police make notifications, etc. Often local police and state and federal authorities may not know who best to alert and in what order (Customs, for example, if you are near a border; airport security, etc.)
Above all, avoid a gunfight in your lobby.
Steve Keller
Security Consultant
Judge Rejects Most Claims by Law Firms in Auction Suit
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL and CAROL VOGEL
A federal judge yesterday threw out the claims of 43 of 46 law firms seeking fees for preliminary work on the class action lawsuit by buyers and sellers against the Sotheby's and Christie's auction houses.
In accepting claims for fees by the three firms, the judge, Lewis A. Kaplan of Federal District Court in Manhattan, cut one by 20 percent and refused to grant any of the three a bonus, called a multiplier, for supposedly preparing the way for the large settlement achieved by the firm that eventually led the case. That firm, Boies, Schiller & Flexner, was awarded nearly $27 million by Judge Kaplan on Thursday for winning a $512 million settlement for customers of Sotheby's and Christie's. But taking an auditor's sharp pencil to the fee claims of other firms, Judge Kaplan said: "On January 29, 2000, The New York Times broke the story that Christie's had disclosed to the antitrust division that it had engaged with Sotheby's in the conspiracy that was the subject of this controversy." The first class action lawsuit was filed the next day, the judge said. "Thus," he added, "this was not an antitrust violation ferreted out by industrious counsel who invested substantial time and effort against a chance of success." "This was much more like finding a pot of gold in the middle of the sidewalk," he added. The main fee applications decided yesterday were for $1.4 million in claimed work, excluding expenses, on the case by six firms designated interim counsel before the Boies firm won control of the lawsuit on May 25. It won with a bid that it could obtain at least $405 million for about 130,000 customers who said they were cheated by price-fixing by the auction houses — far above the bids of rivals. Judge Kaplan ruled that three of those interim firms — Lovell & Stewart, Meredith Cohen Greenfogel & Skirnick, and Pomerantz Haudek Block Grossman & Gross — did not submit time records to back up their collective claims of $853,424. He rejected the claims while allowing the firms to resubmit them before March 5. Stanley Grossman of the Pomerantz firm said last night: "I don't have too much to quarrel with. Contingent litigation is always a risk." But he said that a multiplier was warranted. Lawyers from the other two firms declined to comment or said they had not seen the ruling. Of the three firms whose claims were accepted, one, the Furth Firm, had its claim of $243,773 cut by $48,803 after Judge Kaplan found that some of the legal time was spent finding Christie's clients for the lawsuit. "The court cannot justify charging the class for the efforts of counsel anxious to participate in this litigation to find clients, which were the tickets of admission," he wrote. The claims of the other two firms — Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, and Kaplan, Kilsheimer & Fox — were accepted as submitted, for $99,742 and $248,381, respectively, plus expenses.
http://www.nytimes.com/
Malevich sale halted by bribes
BY GILES WHITTELL
A PAINTING that helped to define modern art is likely to fetch only a fraction of its true value when it is sold at an auction in Moscow. Black Square by Kazimir Malevich — a black square on a white background — has been valued at up to $20 million (£13.8 million) but is unlikely to go for more than $2 million at a bankruptcy sale to benefit creditors of Inkombank, one of Russia’s largest banks until the crash of 1998. Rumours were gathering strength yesterday that an unnamed Russian entrepreneur planned to buy the painting at a bargain price then bribe customs officials to let him export it at an instant profit of more than $10 million. The low estimate for the auction is because of collectors’ worries that without a bribe the painting would not be allowed out of the country. Inkombank bought Black Square for a reported $250,000. When it imploded in 1998 the painting became a prized asset for creditors seeking to recoup their losses, but the Russian Ministry of Culture and Customs service can still veto its export. The auction was to take place this week, but was postponed.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/
Swede arrested in connection with Rembrandt heist
Swedish police have detained a 36-year-old man in connection with a daring raid on Stockholm's National Museum in December where robbers made off with Rembrandt and Renoir masterpieces.
Police commissioner Sven Malmros says the man is suspected of receiving stolen goods and extortion after trying to sell the paintings back to police, but not of actually taking part in the robbery. Police have so far arrested five people in connection with the heist, which has been described as one of the most audacious in Swedish history. Three masked and armed robbers walked into the National Museum towards closing time and lifted three paintings from the walls, fleeing as members of the public looked on. The masterpieces, a self-portrait by Dutch master Rembrandt, and two paintings by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir valued at up to $30 million, have still not been recovered. The National Museum has offered a reward for information about the robbery.
http://www.abc.net.au/
Bond for dealer who sold fake art
By BRONWYN HURRELL in Sydney
AN Adelaide art dealer who sold fake Dreamtime art purported to be painted by renowned Aboriginal artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri has been given a three-year bond. In the first sentencing over Aboriginal art fraud, John Douglas O'Loughlin, 53, of Lower Mitcham, pleaded guilty to five counts of making a misleading statement with intent to obtain financial advantage. The Penrith Local Court heard yesterday that O'Loughlin misleadingly indicated that traditional-style Aboriginal paintings had been painted by Tjapaltjarri between March, 1997, and February, 1999.
Judge Stephen Norrish said the paintings – for which O'Loughlin stated he was paid more than $62,000 – were of such a standard experts were not able to identify them as not being the work of Tjapaltjarri. O'Loughlin became known to Tjapaltjarri about 12 years ago when he moved to Alice Springs. O'Loughlin handled Tjapaltjarri's work but difficulties arose after a dispute with an art dealer over money paid for his work. Judge Norrish said O'Loughlin "did not take financial advantage of Clifford Possum," and "the artist did not suffer any financial loss."
http://www.theadvertiser.com.au/
Owner sturs furor, razes $12 million historic home
By David Mendell, Tribune Staff Writer. Tribune staff writer Raoul Mowatt contributed to this report.
In a move that historic preservationists fear could be repeated in any number of Chicago- area suburbs, a Winnetka homeowner on Friday demolished one of the few pre-Civil War homes still standing in the north suburb.
The action came about seven months after the man had bought the property for $12 million, reportedly one of the highest prices paid for an area house in recent years. The owner is George Garrick, presumed to be the 48-year-old Internet venture capitalist of the same name. He razed an 11-room, Colonial-style house at 595 N. Sheridan Rd. in order to build another home on the other end of a 3 1/2-acre lakefront lot, a Winnetka preservation official said. On Friday afternoon, all that was left of the handsome, white, two- story home was a huge pile of rubble. "The audacity of someone spending $12 million on a house and then to tear the thing down-- it's just amazing," said David Bahlman, executive director of the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois. "It was a real beauty." The house had no local, state or federal landmark status, so preservationists and village officials were virtually powerless to stop the demolition. The house had been significantly remodeled in the 1920s, with the white-clapboard Colonial constructed around the smaller, 1854 Italianate-style structure. Local preservationists say a piece of local history was lost. "When you look at the sheer age of that wing of the house--almost 150 years--it's a huge loss," said Nan Greenough, a Winnetka resident who had labored for months to save the structure. But even more, preservationists are concerned that other homes of historical merit and architectural beauty could succumb to the wrecking ball because of weak or non-existing landmark preservation laws in many Chicago-area suburbs. Winnetka has a Landmarks Preservation Commission that serves as an advisory board to village officials. But unlike in Chicago and many communities, the commission is not authorized to designate a property as a landmark--thereby prohibiting demolition or significant alteration to the property--without the owner's consent.
Garrick could not be reached for comment.
According to Greenough, Winnetka officials offered zoning variances that would accommodate both properties on the parcel, but Garrick declined the offer. She said he also declined one person's offer to help move the house to another site. For most of the last century, the Brach family of candy fame had owned the house. Edwin Brach, who operated the Chicago-based confections firm with his brother Frank, bought the house in 1924. Edwin Brach died in 1965, and his widow, Hazel, moved to Arizona in the 1970s, leaving the house to stand idle, preservationists said. It was uncertain whether Garrick had ever taken up residence in the house since buying it last July from the Brachs. The Brachs had bought the home from Gilbert and Helen Hubbard, who bought it in 1871 after migrating from Chicago in the wake of the Great Chicago Fire, Greenough said. Gilbert Hubbard developed vast parcels of heavily wooded land near the lakeshore in Winnetka that he dubbed Hubbard Woods, a name that stands today. Greenough and Bahlman said they hoped the high-profile demolition will bring to light the weak or non-existent landmark protection laws in Winnetka and many other suburbs. But Greenough lamented that she sees little political will in her village to strengthen such laws. "There is the philosophy here that property rights should be respected, but there is also a contingent that believes Winnetka is not the place for teardowns and rebuilds," Greenough said. "But I am not optimistic the law will change." Indeed, neighbors along Sheridan Road said they were not upset that the house is gone. "Whoever bought it can do whatever they want with it," next-door neighbor Carry Buck said. "This is America." Bahlman said the owner of another "even more magnificent" Winnetka home, designed by acclaimed architect Howard Van Doren Shaw, wants to demolish his structure along Mt. Pleasant Road. "Time is running out for these wonderful places," he said. "I don't know what to do when we start having $12 million teardowns."
http://chicagotribune.com/
'critic' nabbed in Brooklyn Museum
By LEONARD GREENE
If you get arrested in a gallery for displaying a crude portrait of the museum's director, is the painting still art? Scott LoBaido said he was just "expressing" himself when he walked into the Brooklyn Museum yesterday with a 3-foot painting of director Arnold L. Lehman kissing a pig's rear end. LoBaido never said he was protesting the museum's controversial "Yo Mama's Last Supper" photo exhibit, featuring a nude woman as Jesus Christ. But 16 months ago, LoBaido was arrested after he expressed himself by hurling horse manure at the building, which had displayed a controversial portrait of the Virgin Mary. LoBaido's painting portrayed a dead hog on its back with a knife in its belly and a man's lips pressed against its curly tail. LoBaido, who was arrested, was being charged with creating a "public nuisance," police said. "Giuliani's the bad guy, right," LoBaido shouted as his painting was taken away. "But this freak here who runs the museum says I can't bring my art work in here." Meanwhile, museum officials in Chicago have their own Last Supper to defend. The Chicago Athenaeum has received more than 100 calls protesting "The Last Pancake Breakfast," which mocks the famous Leonardo DaVinci painting with a bottle of Mrs. Butterworth's pancake syrup as Jesus at the center of the table, flanked by "disciples" which include Kellogg's Rice Krispies characters "Snap, Crackle and Pop" and "Cap'n Crunch."
http://www.nypost.com/
Terra's son sues to keep museum from relocating
By Robert Becker, Tribune Staff Writer
The legal fray surrounding the fate of the Terra Museum of American Art intensified Friday when the son of museum founder Daniel Terra launched his own court crusade aimed at short- circuiting any efforts to relocate the museum outside of Chicagoland. Attorneys for James Terra filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court against the Terra Foundation for the Arts. It seeks to amend the museum's original articles of incorporation to explicitly state that the museum "should always have a presence in the Chicagoland area." Attorneys for James Terra say the original 1978 documents don't mention Daniel Terra's intention to keep the museum in the Chicago area because of a "mistake or oversight" when the papers were crafted. "James Terra feels that it is very important to the Terra family that the museum stay in Chicago," said Donald Mulack, Terra's attorney. Terra's suit comes nearly five months into a legal firestorm that has rocked the museum and run up hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal and public relations fees.
Full story at Chicago Tribune