Two men were being questioned by police today in connection with an attempted theft at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum. They were arrested after a high-speed car chase in south-west London on Saturday, just 24 hours after the attempt to steal priceless exhibits from a glass case in the Farrar Gallery. Oxford detectives were today travelling to the capital to interview the two men. Would-be thieves struck at about noon on Friday, using a hammer or axe to try to smash a glass display case containing 17th century European gold boxes. The glass was reinforced, and the noise of it being hit alerted staff who raised the alarm. The men ran off and fled in a stolen Subaru car. Security at the Ashmolean has been stepped up after a £3m painting by Cezanne was stolen on Millennium Eve. The burglar lowered himself on a rope from a skylight. To avoid being caught on CCTV, he dropped a smoke grenade and used a hand-held electric fan to fill the gallery with dense smoke. Other items stolen from the museum over the years include old master drawings, Greek and Roman antiquities, and works by Leonardo da Vinci, Picasso, Turner and the pre- Raphaelites. In 1997, three thieves tried to steal the Alfred Jewel, which was made for Alfred the Great more than 1,000 years ago. But they were foiled when they triggered the alarm. http://www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/
ICOM Discusion List:
From: Boylan P P.Boylan@CITY.AC.UK Subject:
DEATH OF NORMAN PEGDEN, FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR- GENERAL OF ICOM
I am very sorry to have to report the death in Brazil of Norman Pegden on 7 July, after several months' very painful and distressing illness.
Born in England in 1934, Norman trained originally as an artist and then as an art teacher. He first joined the staff of the the newly built Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry, but soon moved to become Director of the Bradford Museums and Art Gallery, Yorkshire, while still in his early thirties.
It was the success of his work there, particularly with international contemporary art and community relations work, that brought Norman to the notice of the then ICOM Director-General, Hugues de Varine, during the 1969 Museums Association annual conference. As a result ICOM appointed Norman as deputy to Hugues' in the ICOM Secretariat, taking up the appointment at the beginning of 1970. His contract was initially for three years, but was later extended, so that he worked for ICOM until the end of the 1974 General Conference in Copenhagen.
Within ICOM he shared very closely with Hugues much of the work on the extensive reforms of ICOM policies and operations during that critical period in ICOM's history, which included major reforms in the definition of a museum, in ICOM's membership, structure and policy. During these few years ICOM changed from a delegate body of just a few hundred nominated representatives of national museums, ministries and associations, into an membership organisation open to every member of the museum profession.
ICOM also became far more international in its operations and the period also saw such other reforms as the establishment of the ICOM Training Unit and the ICOM Basic Syllabus. Through all this Hugues was closely supported by Norman, who amongst other things saw to the effective running of the Secretariat during Hugues many operational and consultative missions.
On leaving the Secretariat in 1974, Norman went back to England, this time to the newly established Leicestershire Museums, Arts and Records Service as Assistant Director, Arts, (later Arts & History). There he contributed to major expansion, reforms and improvements, particularly the re-construction of the New Walk Museum's art galleries, the creation and running of the Leicester Arts Council and Festival, and later the planning for the Snibston Discovery Park. He also became very active in ICOM at the member level, especially with the establishment and development of the International Committee for Museum Security (ICMS) and in particular its advisory publications and standards.
He took early retirement from Leicestershire in 1987 and moved to Brazil, where he and Cristina Mendez, (also an ICMS member) married.
Patrick Boylan (Director, Leicestershire Museums & Galleries, 1972 - 1990)
Congress bill would protect Temple Mount
By Melissa Radler
NEW YORK (July 22) - In a bipartisan bid to stop the destruction of ancient Jewish artifacts located under the Temple Mount, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) introduced legislation into Congress on Thursday that would eliminate aid to the Palestinian Authority should it continue to authorize the removal of archeological antiquities from Judaism's holiest site.
more: http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/07/22/News/News.30888.html