July 9, 2001

ART STOLEN FROM WICKFORD ART FESTIVAL

(North Kingstown-AP) -- Police say thieves slashed canvas tents at the Wickford Art Festival and stole about 30 paintings over the weekend. The artwork is valued at about 87- hundred dollars. The thefts come two weeks after several pieces of art were stolen from the Narragansett Art Festival. Police have not linked the two incidents.
http://www.wpri.com/

Christie's boss buys art at his own auctions

Richard Brooks, Arts Editor
THE billionaire owner of the auction house Christie's has been buying art at the firm's own auctions, sparking concerns of a conflict of interest.
Critics point out that, although not illegal, his bids could have driven up the price of particular lots, forcing others to bid more than they might otherwise have had to. François Pinault, who bought Christie's in 1998 for £721m, is one of France's richest and most powerful businessmen. He owns works by Picasso, Warhol, Rothko, Mondrian, Miro, Modigliani and Henry Moore as well as more recent work by the American Jeff Koons and by Damien Hirst, Britain's most costly young artist. He also either owns or has big stakes in numerous businesses including Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Chateau Latour and the French football team Rennes.
ful story: http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/07/08/stinwenws02031.html

Museum files suit over use of name

Ohio's Center of Science and Industry has accused a chain of sandwich shops of trying to butter its bread with the museum's good name. Before Cosi (pronounced coh- SEE) has seated its first diner in Ohio, COSI this week served up a federal trademark-infringement lawsuit. Cosi is OK elsewhere, but hold the name in Ohio and neighboring states, says the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Columbus.
full story: http://www.dispatch.com/news/news01/july01/758397.html

Destruction In Mesopotamia: Ancient Mysteries Fall Prey To Looters In Iraq

In the northern Iraqi town of Khorsabad four years ago, looters sawed the massive stone head from a statue, sliced it to bits, then tried to spirit the remains to cash-heavy Western collectors. Unlike most of Iraq's rapidly disappearing artifacts, the Khorsabad head was recovered, and 10 of a dozen perpetrators were executed in 1999, a feature in the 6 July issue of Science reveals. Though archaeological looting in Iraq is slowly being brought under control, the case of the Khorsabad head underscores the dangers confronting scientists there, and the heavy toll thieves take on the world's understanding of human history. "Iraq is an enormous storehouse of information on the earliest civilizations," said Andrew Lawler, Boston correspondent for Science. "Unfortunately, it's being picked clean by looters, and damaged by canal and dam construction. Now, scientists are beginning to speak out about what has gone on in Iraq for the past 10 years, ever since the Gulf War." Throughout Iraq, archaeological sites spanning the past 10,000 years hold clues to the world's first great cities and empires, the origins of writing, and many religious traditions, Lawler reports. But, in the war's aftermath, "machine-gun-wielding intruders plundered ancient sites with impunity, and the country's once well-funded and proud team of scholars was scattered around the globe," the Science article notes. Today, looting continues at key dig sites, driven by the poverty that followed sanctions, plus a strong Western demand for stolen antiquities. Meanwhile, the Iraqi tradition of "rebuilding" historical sites, rather than preserving them, has compromised a number of archaeological ruins. Scientists from around the world, and particularly Germany, are beginning to venture back into Iraq. But, laws in the United States and the United Kingdom continue to bar archeologists in those countries from entering Iraq. Iraq's own archaeologists, meanwhile, encounter "Indiana Jones-style adventures" during the morning commute. Donny George, research director of the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities, struggled before the war to safeguard valuable objects, such as the bronze head of an Akkadian king and the gold jewelry found in Nimrud. Despite such efforts, rioting mobs looted 11 of Iraq's 13 regional museums in the war's aftermath. In Amara, a museum director's son was killed on the spot when he tried to block thieves who burned the building after grabbing precious artifacts.
"Most of the stolen objects will never be recovered," Lawler noted. "When they're lost, they're gone forever, and they take with them the answer to many ancient questions about our origins."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/

Smithsonian chief's Amazon art faces probe

Imperiled species' feathers are issue

By Eric Rosenberg
Hearst Newspapers
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to examine the extensive private collection of Amazon tribal art owned by the head of the Smithsonian Institution to determine whether it contains illegal items culled from endangered species, according to an agency investigator. Lawrence Small, 59, secretary of the Smithsonian, owns about 1,000 pieces of tribal art, most of which he keeps in a suite of apartments he and his wife have converted into a 2,500- square-foot private gallery near their home in the District of Columbia. The collection includes elaborate headdresses fashioned from the feathers of exotic birds. Small, who denies that his collection contains any illegal items, has agreed to open his collection for inspection, his lawyer said. Allen Hundley, a special agent with the Fish and Wildlife Service, initiated the investigation after examining photographs of Small's collection that appeared in an article in Smithsonian magazine, a monthly glossy sponsored by the Smithsonian. Small also writes a monthly column for the magazine. "The photos depicted feathers from various protected species of birds," Hundley wrote in his investigation report, which was obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. After examining the pictures in the magazine and in other publications, Hundley also was concerned that the collection might contain teeth from endangered cats, his report said. The article in the January 2000 issue of the magazine described Small's collection as containing headdresses, capes, masks and nosepieces "all festooned with feathers of every conceivable color and size, from foot long macaw feather to fingernail size hummingbird feathers." The collection is so extensive that the magazine called it "a museum of Amazonian tribal art." The Fish and Wildlife Service, an agency of the Interior Department, opened its investigation last November. After receiving copies of import permits and written assurances from Small and his attorney that the collection didn't contain products from endangered species, Hundley ended the probe in March. But the Fish and Wildlife Service later reopened the investigation, based on unspecified additional information, and now wants to inspect the collection. "I was probably a little bit too rash in trusting their information. I think I made a premature decision," Hundley said in a brief interview from his office in Fredericksburg, Va. "I am going to ask again to allow an ornithologist and a mammologist from Fish and Wildlife Service to examine his collection." Hundley said "a complete and thorough review" of Small's collection "makes sense, especially when you are in a high-profile position like that. It would seem that the way to answer all the questions is to let the agency take a gander."

Small said his collection complies with the law.

"To my knowledge, there is nothing in there that violates any laws," he said, adding, "There's nothing that I'm hiding in any way. I'm an open book on this." A former president of Fannie Mae and a one-time Citicorp/Citibank executive, Small said he acquired most of the collection in 1998 from a private dealer. He said that at the time "my lawyers wrote up a contract which had the seller warrant that all of the articles in the collection were fine from the standpoint of all legalities, including the Endangered Species Act."
http://chicagotribune.com/