March 7, 2001
CONTENTS:
- Forbes - Great Art Thefts Of The 20th Century (Jonathan Sazonoff)
- query: guidelines for protecting fine arts from earthquake
- SAVE THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF AFGHANISTAN APPEAL BY ICOMOS AND ICOM
- Afghans Reject Appeals to Spare Statues
- Taliban Halts Demolition for Holiday
- Fate of ancient statues in balance as talks with Taliban continue
- Taliban defies calls to halt destruction of rare statues
- Authenticity of Paintings Questioned
- Theft at railroad museum tracked
- Art Museum Evacuated
- Archaeologists head to Albania for cultural rescue mission
From: Jonathan Sazonoff saz@kwom.com
Organization: SAZ PRODUCTIONS, INC.
Subject: Forbes - Great Art Thefts Of The 20th Century
Dear Subscribers,
Forbes magazine ran an interesting article (full of pictures) concerning the past centuries greatest art thefts. Such lists are rather subjective but should be of interest to MSN's readers.
Forbes.com: Great Art Thefts Of The 20th Century
or: http://www.xs4all.nl/~securma/arttheftsforbes.htm
It's an esoteric subject; but one may wonder about other possible candidates for "Art Crimes" of the century. I try to keep a current list of "Major Unsolved Cases" http://www.saztv.com/page7.html but most crimes of the century tend to get solved. Notoriety is not something a thief desires when trying to move stolen goods. For those interested in this field, some other cases that might be considered for Art Crimes of the Century are:
Ireland - Lord Biet's collection at Russborough House (April 1974)
Italy - Gallery of Modern Art (Feb. 1975)
Italy - Gallery of Modern Art (May 1975)
Ireland - Lord Biet's collection at Russborough House (May 1986)
Argentina - Castagnio Fine Art Museum (March 1987)
Brazil - Chacara do Ceu Museum (May 1989)
France - Picasso's granddaughter (Nov. 1989)
Italy - Estense Gallery (Jan 1991)
Sweden - Stockholm Museum of Modern Art (November 1993)
Switzerland - Max Bollag's Picassos (October 1994)
I could describe the aforementioned crimes, but that is a posting for another day. My thanks to the Arts Journal for bringing the Forbes' article to our attention. http://www.artsjournal.com/visual_arts.htm
Hope you find this of interest.
Jonathan Sazonoff
Saz Productions, Inc.
http://www.saztv.com
From: dstraus@chubb.com
Subject: guidelines for protecting fine arts from earthquake
I am looking for written guidelines specific to installation of fine art - for two dimensional and three dimensional objects including fragile objects which can minimize damage in earthquake prone areas. As well as any information regarding materials which are consistent with conservation needs and that have been tested to withstand earthquake movement .
Many thanks
Dorit Straus
SAVE THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF AFGHANISTAN APPEAL BY ICOMOS AND ICOM
ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) and ICOM (International Council of Museums) learned with great shock of the new decree issued by the Taliban leadership of Mullah Mohammad Omar ordering the systematic destruction of all statues in the country. This decision breaks the commitment made by the Taliban leadership in 1999 to protect all cultural heritage in Afghanistan and in particular the giant Buddha figures at Bamiyan. Adding to the dishonour of breaking a commitment to preserve the ancient and diverse heritage of Afghanistan as part of that of the whole of mankind, such an act of destruction would be a total cultural catastrophe. It would remain written in the pages of history next to the most infamous acts of barbarity. For many years, ICOM has alerted the world on illicit trade in cultural objects from Afghanistan. ICOMOS, in its 2000 World Report on monuments and sites in danger (see www.international.icomos.org), pointed out in detail the dangers to cultural heritage in Afghanistan, in particular the pre-islamic figures of the Buddha in Bamiyan. This decree of Mollah Mohammad Omar confirms the imminence of this danger. As world-wide non-governmental organisations, ICOMOS and ICOM call on all people, governments, International Organisations and associations to take immediate action to prevent this cultural catastrophe from happening. A dialogue should be established with the Taliban leaders to ensure adequate protection of all Afghan heritage, whether pre-islamic or islamic. This is a matter of the highest importance and the greatest emergency.
ICOMOS
49-51 rue de la Fédération
75015 Paris, France
Tel. : 33 (0)1 45 67 67 70
Fax : 33 (0)1 45 66 06 22
E-mail : secretariat@icomos.org
www.international.icomos.org
ICOM
Maison de l'UNESCO
1 rue Miollis
75732 Paris Cedex 15, France
Tel. : 33 (0)1 47 34 05 00
Fax : 33 (0)1 43 06 78 62
E-mail : secretariat@icom.org
www.icom.org
Afghans Reject Appeals to Spare Statues
NEW DELHI, March 5 — The leader of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement said today that the world had been making an unnecessary "drama" about the campaign to destroy the country's statues, including two huge and ancient sculptures of Buddha. Mullah Muhammad Omar, the movement's supreme leader, dismissed any notion of selling the "false idols" rather than demolishing them. Among the appeals from around the world to save the statues, many of them priceless antiques dating from Afghanistan's pre-Islamic past, have been offers to buy and remove them rather than see them destroyed. The international outcry has been joined by other Muslim nations, including Pakistan and Iran, which have disputed Mullah Omar's invoking of Islamic law in ordering the smashing of the artifacts last week and have argued for their preservation as part of the region's cultural heritage. The two massive standing Buddhas carved into a cliff at Bamiyan are thought to date from the seventh century, when the site was an important Buddhist center. In ordering the statues destroyed in an edict last Monday, Mullah Omar said, "These idols have been gods of the infidels."
http://www.nytimes.com/
Taliban Halts Demolition for Holiday
By KATHY GANNON, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Taliban troops interrupted demolition of two giant stone Buddhas to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, but will continue destroying the statues when the holiday ends, a Taliban official said Tuesday. Parts of the massive statues - the larger of the two was believed to be the world's tallest standing Buddha - have been destroyed and demolition will continue when Eid ends Thursday, Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban's ambassador to neighboring Pakistan, said in Islamabad. ``We don't know how long it will take to destroy them, but they will be eliminated,'' he said. The Taliban's reclusive leader Mullah Mohammed Omar has ordered all pre-Islamic statues in the country destroyed, including the two towering Buddhas hewn from a cliff face in central Bamiyan in the third and fifth centuries. Their destruction, as well as thousands that of other relics, including a 2,000-year-old seated bodhisattva, has generated international outrage. In Buddhism, bodhisattvas are people of great spiritual awareness who help others reach enlightenment. An eyewitness report earlier said Taliban soldiers were firing anti-aircraft weapons at the giant statues. ``I am being told from Kabul that they are using mainly explosives because the statues are very strong,'' Zaeef said. ``We do not want to spend more money or resources to destroy them. That's why we are using explosives.'' He said troops have demolished 25 percent of the two Buddhas. The Taliban's Information and Culture Minister Qatradullah Jamal said earlier that the legs and feet had already been destroyed. Reporters trying to reach Bamiyan, a valley in the Hindu Kush Mountain range nearly 80 miles from the Afghan capital of Kabul, were turned back by Taliban troops armed with automatic weapons. Most other Buddhist statues in museums throughout Afghanistan have already been destroyed, said Taliban officials who did not want to be quoted. It's not known whether the priceless bodhisattva is among them, but one Afghan source said ``everyone believes it has been demolished. No one believes it is still there.'' Islamic clerics within the Taliban ranks were outraged by the bodhisattva's naked torso when the Kabul Museum was briefly opened last August. The statue was quickly encased in glass. ``It is one of the most beautiful, ethereal Buddha statues. It was in superb condition,'' Carla Grissman, who spent several years in Afghanistan compiling an inventory of the Kabul Museum collection, said in a telephone interview from Britain where she now lives.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/
Fate of ancient statues in balance as talks with Taliban continue
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,446557,00.html
Taliban defies calls to halt destruction of rare statues
By Farhan Bokhair in Islamabad
Afghanistan's hardline Taliban rulers on Sunday night appeared to have defiantly ignored international calls to halt the destruction of all statues dating back to the pre-Islamic era, including the world's tallest statues of Buddha. In an indication that the prospect of further international isolation was of little consequence to one of the world's most fanatical regimes, eyewitness accounts from the central town of Bamiyan reported that anti-aircraft weapons had been used to destroy the two statues. Elsewhere in Afghanistan, smaller statues including hundreds believed to be stored in Kabul museum were also "in the firing line", said a western diplomat in Pakistan. The Taliban militiamen followed an edict from Mullah Omar, their reclusive leader, who decreed last Monday that all statues must be destroyed to prevent the worship of idols, which is forbidden by Islamic law. Governments around the world and the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organisation (Unesco) have expressed horror and dismay after their calls for the preservation of the statues were rejected. Criticism from Islamic countries has now become particularly strong. Qatar, the Gulf state that currently chairs the Organisation of Islamic Conference, said it "believes that these ancient monuments, regardless of their nature, belong to a common human heritage which must be protected, and appeals to [Muslim] brothers in Afghanistan to reconsider their decision". These calls appeared to fallen upon deaf ears. Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, the Taliban foreign minister, told a Unesco envoy that there was no prospect for a reversal of the decision. "This is an issue of Shariah [Islamic law], and a religious decree. To change that is beyond the power of anyone," he said. The Taliban also ignored calls to reverse the decision from Pakistan, which has been its main backer, and Iran, which offered to buy the two Buddha statues. "We told Iran that it is our duty to preserve our heritage, but it was a religious obligation to destroy idols," Mr Muttawakil said. But senior Muslim leaders have thrown doubt on the religious basis for the destruction. Nasr Farid Wasel, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, said the statues were "just a recording of history and don't have any negative impact on Muslims' beliefs". As a sign of the breadth of disagreement with the Taliban among Muslims, a Shia Muslim leader in Pakistan said that in Shia Iran since its 1979 Islamic revolution "there are no precedents of smashing any representations of history. Islam forbids idol worshipping, but there is no conflict with historical record". There has been little consensus among analysts over what has prompted the Taliban to order the destruction. However, Pakistani officials pointed out that Mullah Omar's order came just weeks after unconfirmed reports that the Taliban might be considering handing over Osama Bin Laden. The Saudi militant, who has been living under Taliban protection since 1996, is wanted in the US. The US accuses him of masterminding the bombing of two of its embassies in Africa in 1998. While the Taliban regime has refused to meet demands for his extradition to the US, the possibility has been raised among analysts that he may be handed over for trial in another Islamic country. The destruction of the statues has been seen by some as a mark of defiance of western opinion by hardliners determined to prevent the surrender of Mr Bin Laden even if it leads to increased isolation. "Is this a case of the hardliners fighting back in response to those who want a settlement with Washington?" asked a senior Pakistan official. He added that the only certainty from the latest destruction was that "Pakistan, the next door neighbour, would be the first to feel the pinch if less humanitarian aid means more Afghan refugees arriving in the next few months". Aid officials said that up to 170,000 Afghan refugees had arrived in Pakistan, driven by last year's drought. This number is likely to soar if the humanitarian situation deteriorates. UN officials in Pakistan said that the snubbing of world opinion could increase foreign donor reluctance to make more aid commitments. "There are fears that countries such as Japan and the Europeans would just turn away from what many must now see as a country ruled by the world's ugliest regime," said one western diplomat.
http://news.ft.com/
Picasso's Fuzzy Period
Authenticity of Paintings Questioned
By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, March 6, 2001; Page C01
In a world hungry for good art, there simply aren't enough Picassos. Unless, of course, you consider the case of Turkey, where unclaimed paintings supposedly by the renowned Spanish master are popping up all over the place.
In a case that has baffled the art world, at least five oils attributed to Pablo Picasso
(1881-1973), considered the most influential artist of the 20th century, have been seized by Turkey's anti-smuggling police since last June. Since no one has claimed them, all were bequeathed for safekeeping to the State Painting and Sculpture Museum, where space is now being made for a sixth painting found near Istanbul three weeks ago.
For the museum, it's been a bonanza. "This is incredible," said museum director Vural Yurdakul, who described a dream-come-true scenario of curious visitors flocking to his otherwise unremarkable museum to marvel at what cultural officials say are the first Picassos ever publicly exhibited in Turkey. Yurdakul estimates a 30 percent increase in attendance. All of the canvases are believed to have been stolen by Iraqi soldiers from museums and palaces in Kuwait during their 1990 invasion, he said.
But Yurdakul's delight is not shared by Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the famed Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Piotrovsky has seen photographs of the Turkish canvases. He said in a telephone interview that two of the paintings are "crude" forgeries of originals that have been hanging in the Hermitage for decades. And he said he told this to Turkish officials and investigators from the international police agency Interpol more than five months ago.
"Even an ordinary person would understand that these are not the real pictures but very bad copies that look like they were made from postcards," he said. "Why they are insisting that they have the originals, I don't know. Even the signature of Picasso on the back [of one] is a copy of a signature from another period."
Police investigators, who recovered the paintings by posing as shady art dealers willing to pay millions for a stolen Picasso, said the question of authenticity is up to art experts. They said it is unclear whether the 32 smugglers arrested in seven undercover sting operations are connected, and if so, whether they are part of a forgery or theft ring.
At stake is more than just the question of who has the real Picassos. In a business where success breeds more success, museums and their directors battle constantly and furiously to expand their collections. Being duped by forgers means scandal and disgrace. But having the savvy, luck and money to beat out your rivals for prized works -- especially masterpieces by celebrated painters -- brings prestige, fame, increased attendance and, ultimately, more money and more art.
For now, Turkey's Ministry of Culture is unswayed by the Hermitage's claim and unrepentant about hanging paintings of questionable authenticity. The ministry's confidence in its own paintings stems principally from a list of owners -- including museums, art galleries and Kuwaiti royalty -- written on the backs of its canvases.
"Academics from university [art] departments and our experts at the ministry examined the Picasso paintings and proved their authenticity," Nafiz Sahin, a spokesman for the Culture Ministry, said in a written statement. "There is absolutely no doubt on this matter."
Yurdakul, whose museum has an annual budget of about $150,000 for new acquisitions, said he believes the paintings on display are originals. But he conceded that the decision to keep exhibiting the paintings was based more on emotions than certainty about their authenticity.
"Honestly, at the moment we are experiencing the joy of having Picassos," he said with a beatific smile. "I don't want to stir that up and lose the paintings," eituher to their rightful owners or to the trash heap, he suggested.
Yrdakul said he has not done all that he can to confirm the authenticity of the paintings in his possession. He has not, for instance, scientifically tested their ages because he does not have the legal authority to do so without the permission of their owners, he said.
Nor has he called the Hermitage to compare the works or to ask about the legitimacy of Hermitage stamps on the backs of two of the canvases -- "The Farmer's Wife" (1908) and "Portrait of a Young Woman" (1903). Those are the two works that the Hermitage -- considered one of the world's great museums, on par with the Louvre in Paris and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art -- says it has had on display since the 1930s.
"It's possible the paintings in the Hermitage are the false ones," Yurdakul said. "After the Russian state collapsed, they lost a lot of paintings, especially to Europe, and it's possible they don't want to lose their customers by saying the ones they have are not the originals."
Piotrovsky said no paintings were lost or stolen from the Hermitage, which he said has not sold any paintings to the West since the 1920s.
Beyond the Hermitage challenge, however, other evidence also weighs against the Turkish claim, beginning with the insistence of the Kuwaiti government that it has no records of any Picassos being stolen from its palaces or museums during the Persian Gulf War. And police say they are suspicious that the only paintings being smuggled are Picassos with Kuwaiti markings on the backs, and that all have been seized in Turkey in the last nine months after supposedly being taken from Kuwait 10 years ago. None of the paintings had been listed as stolen, they said.
Furthermore, a seventh canvas, which also had ownership stamps on the back and was originally thought to be by Picasso, was recovered in January but declared to be a fraud after further investigation. However, it was a duplicate of a painting seized by the gendarme rural security force in February. Atagul Dalgic, an official with the gendarme anti-smuggling and organized crime unit, said experts were "80 percent certain" the one his group recovered is an original Picasso, brought into Turkey by an Iraqi refugee. Other canvases apparently have been smuggled into Turkey through Syria, police say.
Yurdakul suggested that Kuwaiti officials have not claimed the paintings because they were not the rightful owners to begin with, and officials of the oil-rich Gulf kingdom do not want to admit that they were trafficking in stolen art.
An official at the Kuwait Embassy in Ankara denied the charge.
The disputed paintings all show signs of rough treatment, with deep creases and lines in the canvases and cracked, peeled and faded paint, as if they were improperly folded and rolled during a hasty theft and smuggling process. One of the paintings, "Two People at a Table Holding Wine Glasses" (1920s), has several holes in it.
All of the canvases have detailed provenances stamped and written on their backs, listing previous owners. Yurdakul said the histories were particularly convincing because "it's impossible for a forger to create these sort of conditions on paintings that have been stored in museums."
But Malcolm Kenwood, an investigator with Art Loss Register, which keeps a database of stolen art, said that duplicating a provenance is a common practice among forgers.
"If I'm going to spend $5 million on a stolen painting, I want to know what its history is," he said, explaining that forgers sometimes use specialists when printing provenances and go to great lengths researching them.
Kenwood said that Picasso is one of the most frequently copied painters because of his worldwide name recognition, the high price his paintings fetch, his huge body of work and his modernistic style, "which can be faked fairly easily and quickly." Art Loss Register currently lists more than 300 stolen Picasso pieces, officials said.
"I am fascinated by this Turkish case," Kenwood said. "I still can't believe that authorities have not brought in a renowned Picasso expert to say whether they're genuine or fakes. It's truly amazing, given that real Picassos are worth millions of dollars."
But Yurdakul says he's in no rush to find out.
"Even if they turn out to be fakes, up to that point it was a beautiful experience to live with all this excitement," he said. "I am enjoying being the owner of these paintings so much. This sort of thing doesn't happen often in real life."
photo:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27110-2001Mar5.html
Theft at railroad museum tracked
GALVESTON -- The district attorney's office is investigating whether the railroad museum was bilked by a former employee.
John Dundee, the museum's executive director, alerted investigators to his suspicions regarding the former employee, who has not yet been charged with a crime, said First Assistant District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk.
The museum provided investigators with financial documents and with an audit undertaken in the wake of the theft allegations.
The district attorney's office has yet to sift through all the documents, Sistrunk said. Any charges would depend on the amount of money in question. "At first glance, it looks like we could be investigating a theft of over $100,000, which would put it in the second degree felony range," he said. The case will be presented to a grand jury, perhaps this month, Sistrunk said. Railroad museum officials have been silent on the situation. Neither Dundee nor Doug Matthews, the chairman of the museum's board of directors, have returned numerous calls. Yet another museum official declined to comment. "At this point I don't think it's appropriate for me to comment," said board member W. Daniel Vaughn. He said the museum in the near future would respond to requests for information from The Daily News. The newspaper on Thursday asked for the audit under the Texas Open Records Act. On Feb. 19, The Daily News asked the museum for a resignation letter submitted by former board member John Ford. Ford, also a Galveston Independent School District trustee, said his resignation came at about the same time the museum uncovered the suspected theft by an employee. "I had management issues with the executive director and time constraints as a trustee with the school board," Ford said. Ford said he did not know whether the aspects of the museum's management with which he was concerned played a role in the suspected theft. The records sought by the newspaper are subject to public access law because the museum is partially funded with hotel-occupancy tax, said Charles Daughtry, attorney for the newspaper. Dundee on Feb. 20 said neither he nor his office had a copy of the resignation letter. Days earlier, he had said Matthews had the letter.
http://galvestondailynews.com/
Art Museum Evacuated
Ameren Investigates Power Outage
The St. Louis Art Museum was evacuated Fiday night because of a power outage. Visitors hoping to see the Vincent Van Gogh exhibit were told to leave the building around 6:30p.m. The power was back on later that night and the Museum will be open as usual Saturday morning. A cable problem at the Ameren U-E substation at highway 40 and McCausland is to blame.
http://www.ksdk.com/
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 6 MARCH 2001
Contact: Marianne Kunnen-Jones
marianne.kunnen-jones@uc.edu
513-556-1826
University of Cincinnati
Archaeologists head to Albania for cultural rescue mission
The chaos that was once Albania could become tomorrow's hotspot for development. Before that commercialization begins, University of Cincinnati archaeologists want to identify ancient sites that should be studied or preserved. Jack L. Davis, UC's Carl W. Blegen Professor of Greek Archaeology, and classics doctoral student Sharon Stocker are leading a UC team that will be heading to Durres, Albania, March 10-April 4. Their urgent mission will be funded by the Packard Center in Tirana. The UC archaeologists will collaborate with Albanian peers, led by Iris Pojani and Afrim Hoti of the Institute of Archaeology, also in Tirana. The international team plans to do an archaeological survey of the coastal region where an ancient Greek colony once flourished. Located in western Albania along the Adriatic Sea, the site is about 40 minutes northwest of Tirana by car. Although the turmoil and anarchy of 1997 has subsided, the U.S. State Department still views travel to Albania, Europe's poorest and least developed nation, as potentially dangerous. During the earlier unrest, many weapons were looted from government arms depots. Armed crime, especially at night, runs high. The pressing mission of surveying the region will be conducted using field surface survey, an archaeological technique that is cheaper than excavation. Davis has been one of the pioneers of this approach in the Mediterranean region. Field surface survey involves teams of archaeologists walking across the terrain in rows, observing and taking notes on ancient features, artifacts, vegetation and other surface characteristics. One of the advantages of this strategy is that observations can be made regarding a variety of historical periods before a major dig gets under way. The information gathered by the archaeologists, who will be joined in Albania by Adam Gutteridge of Cambridge University, England, will be reported to Albanian local authorities and to a Cambridge team that plans to open an archaeological project at Durres this summer. Henry Hurst will head the Cambridge project. According to Aaron Wolpert, UC doctoral student in classics and the field director for this month's project, the exact location of the original Greek colony, Epidamnos, remains unknown. "It would be tremendous if we could pinpoint it," adds Stocker. Established in 627 B.C. by Corinthian colonists living on the island of Korfu, Epidamnos held a strategic position in the Greek and Roman world. It was located just across the Adriatic Sea from present-day Italy. The city also became one of the points of disagreement between Sparta and Athens during the Peloponnesian War. In the Roman era, it bore the name of Dyrrachium and was the western starting point of the Via Egnatia, a road that ran all the way to Istanbul. The city also holds significance in that Pompey had a base there during his civil war with Julius Caesar. According to Davis, looting of archaeological sites throughout Albania makes this mission an urgent one. Since the communist fall, few resources have been available for Albanians to do archaeological work.
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Davis also co-directs a team that has been surveying the Mallakastra region of central Albania - the site of the Greek colony of Apollonia - since 1998. In addition to Davis, Stocker and Wolpert, the UC team in Durres will include: John Wallrodt, computer specialist; Phoebe Acheson, field surface survey team leader and classics doctoral student; Rodney Fitzsimons, classics doctoral student; and Siriol Davies, a post-doctoral fellow from Great Britain.
http://www.eurekalert.org/