April 20, 2001
CONTENTS:
- Security (theft of precious maps from rare books)
- The Pierpont Morgan Library Makes Amends (Issues of provenance, ownership and
restitution resulting from World War II looting continue to face museums in the United
States and abroad. Now the Pierpont Morgan Library has its first such case)
- Lost Treasure From Tibet
- Mark Rich pardon casts shadow over US Holocaust museum
- When merchants enter the temple (The Guggenheim is changing the rules about how to
market a museum. Traditional museums in America and Europe don’t like the change, but
many will have to go along with it if they want to thrive)
From: Ko van de Watering ko.vandewatering@kb.nl
Subject: Security (theft of precious maps from rare books)
Recently we had a case of theft of precious maps from books in our rare book collection. This has caused curators and library staff to start looking desperately for means of safeguarding the books in the special collections reading room.
Someone has suggested to start weighing the books before and after (use). Is this a viable option and does anybody really employ this system? I was told that the British Library uses such a system but I have been unable to get any information on this. I still would prefer checking the books carefully before and after use.
Ko van de Watering
Koninklijke Bibliotheek
Sectie Conservering
Prins Willem-Alexanderhof 5
2595 BE Den Haag
Nederland
Inside Art: The Pierpont Morgan Library Makes Amends
By CAROL VOGEL
Issues of provenance, ownership and restitution resulting from World War II looting continue to face museums in the United States and abroad. Now the Pierpont Morgan Library has its first such case.
In 1997 the library purchased a 1599 German manuscript containing liturgical music compiled by Johann Schirmer, a cantor at the church school of St. Sebald in Nuremberg. The Morgan, which does not disclose the cost of its acquisitions, bought the manuscript from Maggs Brothers, a London dealer, which had purchased it at an auction at Swann Galleries in Manhattan for $3,910.
When William Voelkle, the Morgan's curator of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, learned that a German scholar, Dr. Volker Schier, was planning to visit the Morgan to look at another manuscript, he told him of the acquisition. Dr. Schier requested a microfilm copy of the manuscript because it documented church music in Nuremberg after the Reformation.
"Once he saw the microfilm," Mr. Voelkle said, "he wrote to me saying that the manuscript was actually property of the Stadtbibliothek in Nuremberg" and had been there until World War II. Documents from the Stadtbibliothek show that on Oct. 20, 1944, the collection was taken to the ballroom of a restaurant in Hohenburg that served as a mess hall for occupying American soldiers. A 1952 inventory by the Stadtbibliothek reported that the manuscript was missing and was thought to have been taken by a G.I.
Mr. Voelkle said he then discovered that the Morgan had also bought a book containing two works written by Joannes Cochlaeus, a theologian connected with the St. Lawrence Church in Nuremberg. "We bought it because of its binding," he said. It was decorated with a coat of arms designed by Albrecht Dürer for his friend Willibald Pirckheimer, a Nuremberg humanist.
The Morgan bought that book from the Manhattan dealer Fred Schreiber, who had purchased it at the same Swann auction for $5,750. The manuscript and the book had identical bookplates, those of Georg Andreas Will, who sold his library to the City of Nuremberg in 1792.
When Dr. Schier notified Stadtbibliothek officials that the Morgan had the book and manuscript, they told the Morgan that both belonged to their library.
"We bought them in good faith, thinking the provenance was clear," said Charles E. Pierce Jr., director of the Morgan. "But when we found out their provenance, there was no question that we had to return them. Clearly they were stolen, and now they're going back where they belong."
http://www.nytimes.com/
Antiques: Lost Treasure From Tibet
By SUZANNE CHARLE
In the wake of the Taliban's destruction of the monumental Buddha statues in Afghanistan, two exhibitions in Manhattan provide glimpses of the art and life of Tibet, a Buddhist country that has been devastated since China invaded it in 1959. Of some 6,000 monasteries there, fewer than 300 remain, and many are essentially museums. Scholars estimate that more than 90 percent of Tibetan art created over a millennium may have been destroyed.
full story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/20/arts/20ANTI.html
Rich pardon casts shadow over US Holocaust museum
By Peter Ephross
(April 19) NEW YORK (JTA) - Rabbi Irving "Yitz" Greenberg has built a reputation as a man of letters, but not of the kind that have swirled around him lately. In the latest volley in an escalating war of words, a majority of the US Holocaust Memorial Council is defending Greenberg, the embattled council chair, against a campaign to unseat him over his role in the Marc Rich pardon scandal. Thirty-five members of the 50-plus-member council sent a letter last week backing Greenberg, who is under pressure to resign for lobbying on Rich's behalf. Even his backers admit that Greenberg made a mistake when he sent a letter on museum stationery in December asking president Bill Clinton to pardon the financier. Yet last week's letter went on to say, "We have complete confidence that the museum will continue to flourish under Rabbi Greenberg's leadership." The pro-Greenberg letter came in response to another letter, signed by 18 current and former members of the council, that was made public two week's ago. That letter recognized Greenberg's "long and distinguished career as an educator and as a leading proponent of Jewish thought." But it called on him to resign for his role in the Rich pardon, saying he had unintentionally "entangled the museum in a political controversy inimical to its mission." The scandal is the latest involving the museum, which has drawn close to 16 million visitors and widespread praise since it opened in 1993, but has also made headlines for political squabbles and infighting. Depending on whom you talk to, this latest crisis may or may not be partisan in nature. In any case, it also appears to be driven by other forces, including disagreements over the future direction of the Washington-based museum. But Greenberg's detractors say it is his actions alone in the Rich scandal that led to their campaign. "There is no rationale to involve the museum in the pardon of Marc Rich, the pardon of a fugitive," said Deborah Lipstadt, one of the signatories to last week's anti-Greenberg letter. "This museum was created to commemorate the vision of the Holocaust," and the damage done by Greenberg's lobbying for Rich "can't be repaired" by an apology, said Lipstadt, a professor of modern Jewish and Holocaust studies at Emory University in Atlanta. Lipstadt said Greenberg's actions on behalf of Rich are exacerbated by the fact that Greenberg also directs Michael Steinhardt's charitable foundation, which helped establish Birthright Israel. Rich contributed $5 million to Birthright, which sends North American Jews on free trips to Israel. "No one is suggesting a quid pro quo, but appearances count," Lipstadt said. Judging from the latest letter, most of the council disagrees with Lipstadt's faction. Among the signers of the pro-Greenberg letter are several prominent members of the museum council, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel and two former members of the Clinton administration, Dennis Ross and Stuart Eizenstat. The council oversees the museum. Greenberg "made a mistake on Marc Rich, but for 40 years, he has worked as a teacher and a Jewish leader" to commemorate the Holocaust, Wiesel said. A longtime council member, Greenberg is an Orthodox rabbi best known in the Jewish community for his writings on the Holocaust and his leadership at two organizations that promote Jewish pluralism and learning: the Jewish Life Network and CLAL - The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. The pro-Greenberg faction criticizes the tactics of his critics. Greenberg apologized at a January council meeting, and his apology was accepted by the council and the museum's Executive Committee, his backers say. The matter was not raised at February and March council meetings, they add. In addition, Greenberg was presented with the letter calling on him to resign on April 4, just one day before the letter's contents appeared in the New York Jewish Week. The way in which Greenberg's critics conducted their campaign was "stealth terrorism," said Menachem Rosensaft, a council member and Greenberg supporter. For his part, Greenberg told JTA that he would not quit over his role in the scandal surrounding Rich, who became a major philanthropist to Jewish and Israeli causes after fleeing to Switzerland in 1983 to escape prosecution. "I have no intention of resigning," Greenberg said, adding that he would pursue the museum's goals "vigorously" until his term ends in January. President George W. Bush can then appoint another member of the council to be its chair, and many believe he will appoint someone with closer ties to the Republican Party than Greenberg, who was named to the post by Clinton last year.
(JTA correspondent Sharon Samber in Washington contributed to this report.)
http://www.jpost.com/
When merchants enter the temple
The Guggenheim is changing the rules about how to market a museum. Traditional museums in America and Europe don’t like the change, but many will have to go along with it if they want to thrive
MUSEUMS have never had it so good. New ones are being built all over the place, and existing ones are expanding; fund-raising campaigns have never been so successful, and visitor numbers have never been higher. Last year, for the first time ever, American museums attracted more than a billion visitors.
As they have become more marketable properties, some museums have begun to behave in more commercial ways. And to the consternation of many old-school curators, it is a business strategy that seems to be working. The Tate Modern in London and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, two of the most openly commercial big museums, are doing particularly well.
full story:
http://www.economist.com/business/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=578920&CFID=1992202&CFTOKEN=63357687