15 Of The 26 Pieces Loaned For Erte Exhibition Are Missing Museo Del Corso Blames American Incompetence For Theft Erte Was Russian-Born 1920s Fashion Illustrator, Costume Designer
ROME, July 24, 2001
(AP) When workers at the Museo del Corso opened the box from New York that was supposed to hold rare and precious pieces of jewelry by Art Deco master Erte, they found lots of wrapping paper and very few jewels. Fifteen of the 26 pieces loaned by private collectors for an Erte exhibition in Rome are missing, curator Francesco Maria Messina announced at a news conference Tuesday. "The external packaging of the box we received was intact. But when we opened it, we saw that a smaller package inside had been tampered with and almost all the jewelry was missing," Messina said, according to the ANSA news agency. He said investigators believe the theft took place before the package reached Italian customs. Judging from the way the wrapping was torn, it appeared the thief was in a hurry, Messina said. Anna Santi, a museum spokeswoman for the museum, later said it is unclear exactly what happened, but insisted the problem was on the other side of the Atlantic, where the jewelry was packed. "It's a matter of American competence," she said. The exhibit, which opens to the public on Wednesday, features 180 pieces, including furniture, gouache and sculpture, by the Russian-born fashion illustrator and costume designer Romain de Tirtoff. De Tirtoff, who was known as Erte, enjoyed his heyday in Paris in the 1920s. He died in 1990 at the age of 98. Among the pieces that are missing, "Foxes," a delicate gold necklace with stylized fox heads, encrusted diamonds and other precious jewels, and many pins, rings and earrings. The remaining items going on display at Tuesday's opening include "Soleil Noir," a pearl and diamond ring, and golden earrings known as "Cascade III." Museum officials gave no estimate on the value of the stolen jewelry. http://cbsnews.com/
Warhol's Portrait of Lenin Stolen
By The Associated Press,
BERLIN (AP) - A portrait by Andy Warhol of Vladimir Lenin has been stolen from a warehouse in the German city of Cologne. The blue portrait - one of series of Lenin portraits by the Pop Art pioneer dating from 1987 - was packed and ready for shipment at the warehouse, owned by an art transportation firm. Employees noticed last Friday that it was missing, police said Tuesday. It was unclear how the theft occurred. The work was valued at $652,000. It had been sold to a private collector by a gallery owner in Munich, Germany. From: LayneCnslt@cs.com Subject:
IFCPP 3rd Annual Conference
The IFCPP Third Annual Conference, Seminar, and Exhibits is just over 4 months away, and quickly filling up. This year's theme is "Reaching Farther and Higher," which is definitely the case as we take our professional Foundation programs to Keystone Resort, a four star year-round conference resort at 9,500 feet in the spectacular Colorado Rockies. We're excited about the outstanding quality of this year's program sessions, introducing concepts that definitely do reach farther and higher. In areas barely touched by previous conferences, The American Institute on Domestic Violence will present critical information about how institutions are affected both financially and operationally when the institution fails to identify or work with victims. Founders Colleen Widdell and Rick Naylor offer valuable tips for reducing the institution's exposure to both loss and liability. Speaking of liability, a leading labor-law attorney, Joanne Mullen, Esq. will share her views on screening, hiring, firing, and dealing with removal of violators from public institutions. Our laws are constantly changing, and managers don't want to miss this update from a recognized specialist. One of the country's leading experts on pre-employment screening and integrity interviewing, Stan Slowik, shares his knowledge and extensive experience in one of the special sessions. You'll be amazed at the information available from face to face interviews, when the proper skills are applied. Special events are often the bread and butter of our cultural properties....but not when protection planning leaves out the necessary elements to assure of a smooth running event. Tim Donaldson, CIPM, security director for Colorado's Ocean Journey shares his expertise in managing high profile activities, as his institution hosts events almost nightly. And there's more, including Erroll Southers, CIPM, with critical information on Emergency Preparedness, Steve Layne, CPP, CIPM on Violence Prevention, Mark Peterson, CIPT on the latest Technolgy and some extra special surprises. This conference includes the complete program presentation, examination, and certification for Certified Institutional Protection Manager (CIPM).. the only annual opportunity for cultural property professional managers to obtain this coveted designation. Candidates for CIPM need to apply early in order to present qualification information and enter the advanced study portion. Leading service and equipment providers will exhibit the very latest in system development and special services. Plus, you can't beat Summit County (Colorado's Playground) for the best in amenities, the finest skiing and winter sports opportunities in the country, and quality family entertainment. As always, IFCPP offers significant savings on lodging, special activities, and a program jam-packed with the best in professional educational sessions. Don't be late...register now and take advantage of the extended early-bird discount program. For registration/program information visit www.IFCPP.com, or e-mail Rob@IFCPP.com, or call toll free 1-800-257-6717. We look forward to seeing you in November....and don't forget your mittens!
Stevan P. Layne, CPP, CIPM Layne Consultants International LayneCnslt@cs.com Steve@IFCPP.com IFCPP - Founding Director
Robert N. Layne, CIPM IFCPP - Executive Director Rob@IFCPP.com www.IFCPP.com
Museums Return Artifacts to Alaska
By PEGGY ANDERSEN, Associated Press Writer
SEATTLE (AP) - More than a century ago, railroad magnate Edward H. Harriman led a survey of Alaska's coast, steaming home with totem poles, an entire chief's house and other treasures from a Tlingit village in southeast Alaska.
Now five leading museums are returning the take.
A party was planned Monday near Ketchikan, Alaska, to celebrate the return of the artifacts, said Diane Palmer of Cape Fox Corp., which represents the village's three Tlingit clans. The Cape Fox village of Gaash was empty in June 1899 when the S.S. George Elder anchored there with 126 scientists, artists and Harriman family members on board. ``It was evident that the village had not been occupied in seven or eight years,'' wrote nature writer John Burroughs, who was with the group. ``Why not, therefore, secure some of these totem poles for the museums of the various colleges?'' Irene Dundas, repatriation director for Cape Fox Corp., said the village clans are pleased to be getting the articles back and appreciative of the museums' respect for their arts. ``A long time ago when they'd taken the things, we might have been upset,'' she said. ``But if they weren't taken, they wouldn't be here with us today.'' The totem poles all feature the stylized painted symbols that distinguish the art of the Tlingit people and other Pacific Northwest and Alaska coastal tribes. The largest is coming from the Smithsonian Institution (news - web sites)'s National Museum of the American Indian: a 45-foot totem pole depicting three bears and a loon. Dundas said most of the totem poles are mortuary poles with clan crests, like eagles, beavers or halibut. Others tell stories or were carved as memorials. Being Tlingit (pronounced KLINK'-it) and knowing the symbols of the different clans, ``I could look at a pole and know whose clan that pole belongs to,'' she said. Members of the Harriman Expedition, including photographer Edward Curtis and naturalist John Muir, believed they were seeing an untouched world on the brink of cataclysmic change. In fact, Alaska natives had already had 125 years of contact with white explorers and fur traders, and Gaash had been decimated by smallpox. The disease left 177 of about 1,000 people alive in the Cape Fox village, Dundas said. Survivors moved to Saxman, just outside modern-day Ketchikan, where missionaries had built a church and school. The treasures taken by the Harriman Expedition wound up in the collections of the Smithsonian, the Field Museum in Chicago, the University of Washington's Burke Museum, and Harvard and Cornell universities. They are being returned under the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act at the request of Cape Fox Corp. Monday's ceremony is being billed as ``100 years of healing,'' to mark the ongoing effort to recover songs, dances, arts, even Tlingit names, after the chaotic past century, Dundas said.
``All the artifacts tell stories of their clans' beginnings,'' she said.
Cape Fox has offered cedar trees to the museums in return. The Peabody, the Burke and the Smithsonian have accepted, and Nathan Jackson, a master carver in southeast Alaska, has begun work on a pole for the Peabody, Palmer said. The Harriman Expedition was credited with documenting previously unknown species and fossils and mapping the coastal region. It left Seattle on May 31, 1899, followed the Inside Passage, and traced the Alaska Peninsula to the Aleutians and to the Bering Strait before returning to Seattle.
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Highlights of the 150th issue of Invaluable & Trace magazine
As it celebrates its 150th issue, Trace is delighted to have recorded over £400,000 of art and antiques recovered this month, including National Trust clocks valued at £350,000, stolen from Lyme Park in Cheshire and a 15th century Rhineland tapestry stolen from the Burrell Collection, Glasgow.
Features include
The Lady Vanishes...again
Inside story on the third raid on the unfortunate Russborough House, Co Wicklow, Ireland. Targeted by organised criminals, the IRA and now, it would appear, amateur opportunists, Russborough House is yet again missing some of its finest art works, including the alluring portrait of Madame Giovanna Bacelli by Thomas Gainsborough. Report by Sarah Jane Checkland.
Guardians of Italy's heritage
David Fanning's in-depth profile of the Carabinieri's art squad, led by General Conforti, 'the most feared and famous enemy of art thieves.' In charge of 'one of the best funded and most heavily manned art theft units in the world', Conforti complains that British art market attitudes hinder his work - 'We often come up against a brick wall.'
Trade not Traffic
A special report on Invaluable & Trace's recent Due Diligence seminar, including:
Malcolm Hord of LAPADA on the Kent Act; Ken Monckton and Dan Murphy of Kent County Constabulary on the enforcement of the forthcoming legislation; CoPAT's Mark Dalrymple on the origins of Due Diligence; Ex-knocker Paul Hendry calls for a new approach to tackling antique theft; Andrew Smith of Euclidian gives the insures stance on Due Diligence
Subscription requests, letters, and emails to: Katrina Burroughs Managing Editor Invaluable Group Ltd
Ph +44 (0) 20 7224 6012 ext 123 Fax +44 (0) 20 7224 6019 work email: katrina.burroughs@invaluable.com website: www.invaluable.com
From: newsletter@theartnewspaper.com Subject:
VENICE. Coinciding with the G8 meeting of heads of State in Genoa and the discussions in Bonn on how to rescue the Kyoto Protocol, the mayor of Venice, Paolo Costa, has launched an appeal, supported by over 30 mayors of cities on water, for President George W. Bush to reconsider his oppposition to this international agreement to cut greenhouse gases. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=6859
BIDDING FOR THE BEST
LONDON. Condition, provenance and rarity were once again the key factors affecting the prices paid for Old Master paintings in Sotheby’s and Christie’s sales on 11 and 12 July. Anything with real wall power continued the year-long trend of fetching meteoric prices and it seems demand for the best commercial pictures is till insatiable. Once again Dutch and Flemish pictures led the way and if you are newly entering the Old Master market with big money this would be the most obvious area to start in. Anything of questionable quality or condition remained unsold. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=6857
FRENCH LUXURY-GOODS MOGUL RETREATS FROM THE INTERNET
LONDON. In 1999 the French luxury-goods mogul Bernard Arnault made a massive plunge into the then oh-so-fashionable internet sector, pouring over E500 million ($437 million; £308 million) into his privately owned investment fund, Europ@web. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=6856
GEHRY DESIGNED MUSEUM PLANNED FOR BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI
LONDON. The model for a 25,000 square-foot museum designed by Frank Gehry was unveiled on 12 July. This museum is not Guggenheim collaboration, but a privately funded campaign in Biloxi, Mississipi. The main gallery of the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art will be dedicated to the work of the 19th-century US potter, George Ohr. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=6855
THE FORTUNES OF ABORIGINAL ART OUTSIDE AUSTRALIA: ETHNOGRAPHICA OR ART?
SYDNEY. When Australians with even the most glancing interest in art meet overseas visitors, Aboriginal art is invariably a pressing topic. Tourists routinely buy Aboriginal work from all sorts of vendors, ranging from airport shops to Aboriginal-owned cooperatives. But many Australians are deluded about the health of the international market for Aboriginal art, according to some experts. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=6853
HUMAN TRAFFIC AS ART
BARCELONA. Slowly crossing back and forth across one of Barcelona’s busiest stretches of port is a cargo ship that contains people posing as illegal immigrants in its hold. Paid Pts 4,000 (£15.00) per day, they occupy the cramped airless space for the daily three-hour run of this latest intervention by Spanish artist Santiago Sierra. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=6852
NATIONAL GALLERY, CANBERRA: TROUBLE FOR THE IRISH DIRECTOR
CANBERRA. In 1997 Brian Kennedy started as director of Australia’s National Gallery in Canberra (NGA) amid high expectations and at the end of a search that dragged on for several years and forced his predecessor, Betty Churcher, to stay on an extra year. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=6851
ROBERT HUGHES, AN AUSTRALIAN TRAGEDY
LONDON. Feeling that a movie version of Oedipus Rex suffered for lack of a singalong tune, Tom Lehrer wrote a snappy little number about a boy who loved his mother. We need Lehrer back on the job, since it would require all his musical talents—and black humour—to rescue something from the latter-day tragedy of Robert Hughes. Perhaps something along the lines of “I still call Australia home… despite pending lawsuits”. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=6850
Anna Somers Cocks, Editor contact@theartnewspaper.com
The Art Newspaper 70 South Lambeth Road London SW8 1RL UK tel +44(0)207 735 3331 fax +44(0)207 735 3332 http://www.theartnewspaper.com