U.S. museums who use Mosler as their security system provider or central station monitoring service are advised of the following news (see press release). Those with Mosler branded systems should begin to seek alternate parts and service providers. We know of none at this time but are exploring this for our clients. Those with brands of equipment other than Mosler but who rely upon Mosler for service agreements should have no difficulty finding alternate service. Most critical is the central station operation. We are unsure if it is up and running but were told informally that it will only remain operational for a short period of time. Any museum using Mosler as their central station must IMMEDIATELY find an alternate service. This can be done by calling a local alarm company, preferably a larger compnay providing central station monitoring to jewelry stores and other high risk clients as opposed to residential monitoring.
In response to the question as to who might provide service for Mosler branded equipment, Diebold has issued a press release offering to provide service to Mosler clients. We note that if this means that they will sell you a replacement, you are not limited to Diebold. There are other replacement systems of equal or better quality and value. The press release was unclear as to whether their intent is to service and provide parts for Mosler branded systems. We suggest that you contact Diebold and inquire if you are in this situation and if your needs involve replacement of your system to another product, carefully consider the various alternates.
If you are a museum and a Mosler customer and need phone advice, feel free to call us, preferably Tuesday as I will be out of the office Monday and my staff will be reserching the issue Monday. We will not charge to speak with you on the phone and we are pleased to assist those facing this situation. (904) 673-9973
Steve Keller Museum Security Consultant
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Mosler Inc. to Cease All Operations; Security Firm Enters Into Liquidation Process
HAMILTON, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 3, 2001--Mosler Inc., an integrator of security systems and services, announced today that it has ceased all operations in order to engage in an orderly liquidation of its assets. The company said that it has been operating with a large debt burden for some time. Additionally, Mosler has faced a number of operational challenges related to the unsuccessful implementation of a new computer system and the integration of its acquisitions made over the last several years.
Effective immediately, substantially all of the approximately 1,800 Mosler employees have been terminated. The company has retained only a small core group of employees to assist in the liquidation process.
Mosler said that it explored a number of actions, including a sale of the company and various restructuring alternatives. The company said that despite its best efforts, it has been determined that an orderly liquidation of the business became its only alternative.
In terminating its operations, the management of Mosler expressed its sincere appreciation to the employees of the company for their hard work and dedication and to Mosler customers for their many years of loyalty.
CONTACT: Mosler Inc., Hamilton Al Rabasca, 513/870-1003 www.mosler.com BW2182 AUG 03,2001 9:35 PACIFIC 12:35 EASTERN From: IntlArtCop@aol.com Subject:
When it Rains it Pours--Software House Sold
Sensormatic, the company that owns Software House, American Dynamics, Robot Systems, and Sensormatic EAS systems was sold today to Tyco, the company that owns ADT, Simplex, and SecurityLink. Since Software House is widely used in museums, this is of interest but may not be bad news. American Dynamics and Robot CCTV systems are also widely used in museums.
Software House has been our "system of choice" for many larger museums in recent years. The company has slowly improved its operations and support after being in what we consider to be a slump several years ago. The relationship with Tyco is not seen by us to be a disadvantage and Tyco may improve Sensormatic operations. We are concerned that Tyco often cuts costs to increase profits at companies that they buy and this may be a problem in the short term. But they have, in our opinion, improved ADT since buying them and there is no reason to believe that they won't also improve Sensormatic. On the positive side, this acquisition should add bidders in ech market for Software House products.
There is no need to do anything if you have a Software House system. Things should continue as usual. We don't anticipate any adverse changes with regard to your local service provider except Mosler, which was a large Software House dealer (see related story). We would anticipate that ADT will become more involved in Software House as well.
You may wish to contact your Software House service provider if you are a Software House user and re-affirm your relationship with them and see if they know anything adverse that you should be concerned about but this is unlikely.
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Tyco Agrees to Buy Sensormatic
.c The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - Industrial products and services provider Tyco International Ltd. is buying Sensormatic Electronics Corp., which makes the electronic security tags often used to discourage theft from clothing stores and other retailers, for $2.2 billion in stock. Bermuda-based Tyco said the deal announced Friday would complement its existing fire and security monitoring operations marketed under names like ADT, SimplexGrinnell and Thorn Security. Tyco, a $38 billion company that also makes electrical parts and components, underseas telecommunicatons systems, specialty valves and medical devices, would also assume $116 million of debt in the deal. Tyco is offering $24 a share of its stock for each share of Sensormatic. That is a 60 percent premium over Sensormatic's closing price of $14.94 on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. In trading Friday on the NYSE, Sensormatic climbed 55 percent, or $8.18 a share, to close at $23.12, while Tyco shares rose 51 cents to close at $53.29. The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies but is subject to regulatory approval. The companies expect to complete the deal in September or October. Sensormatic, based in Boca Raton, Fla., generated $1.1 billion in revenue last year and makes a range of electronic security products and systems. In addition to the anti-theft tags used by retailers, it makes video systems and systems to control access to buildings and other sites. L. Dennis Kozlowski, Tyco's chairman and chief executive, said Sensormatic is a good strategic fit for Tyco, saying the combination ``allows us to provide a more complete security system solution to our customers worldwide.'' The announcement did not say if jobs would be cut. But Kozlowski said Tyco anticipates ``significant cost savings and synergistic opportunities in the areas of sales, administration, manufacturing and distribution.'' In a teleconference call, Kozlowski said the companies probably will merge 25 to 30 field offices and combine several distribution centers. The companies also are spending $11 million on duplicative research and development activities, he said. He did not discuss job cuts. Tyco spokeswoman Maryanne Kane said it's too early to say whether there will be any job cuts. Per-Olof Loof, president and CEO of Sensormatic, said the deal would give his company greater opportunities to grow through the Tyco fire and security systems sales and distribution network.
On the Net:
Tyco site: http://www.tyco.com
Sensormatic site: http://www.sensormatic.com
AP-NY-08-03-01 1757EDT From: Dan Chure danchure@easilink.com Subject: Skullduggery among Russia's old bones
Skullduggery among Russia's old bones
Byline: Fred Weir Special to The Christian Science Monitor Date: 07/30/2001 Click here to read this story online: http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/07/30/fp1s3-csm.shtml
(MOSCOW)The faded Gothic building that houses Russia's scandal-ridden Paleontological Institute is a musty labyrinth of dimly lit corridors that sometimes end abruptly or plunge into a murky stairwell. Crowded along the walls, cabinets bulge with fossils and jumbled heaps of ancient rock, assorted skulls, and dinosaur bones. It is the perfect setting for a whodunit.
And there is a mystery here.
Over the past decade hundreds of unique fossils, potentially worth millions of dollars, have vanished from the 200-year-old collection of the institute, which is known by its acronym PIN. A few Russian paleontologists, cautiously backed by a group of Western colleagues, have accused the institute's directors of master minding the heists and using the proceeds to set up private companies. Those same firms, they allege, are now ravaging Russia's fragile natural fossil deposits and collaborating with PIN insiders to fake the "expert certificates" required by Russian law to export scientifically important specimens to lucrative Western fossil markets. "We have foxes guarding the hen house," says Larissa Doguzhayeva, a leading PIN researcher who says she was demoted and had her salary cut after she started investigating the thefts several years ago. "In the past decade, those in power started privatizing the state property under their control and using it to enrich themselves. That's the only explanation for what happened here at PIN." No one denies that massive thefts did take place at PIN, mostly in the chaotic and poverty- stricken 1990s, when scientists' salaries dropped below subsistence level. Many experts left the institute, and some started fossil-exporting businesses. But beyond that, says PIN director Alexei Rozanov, "the allegations are abhorrent, the worst kind of lies." He refuses to talk further, saying only that "the police have not made any charges based on this, nothing at all." In December 1996, a reporter for the science journal Nature asked PIN deputy director Igor Novikov why the institute had reported almost none of the fossil thefts from its inventory to police. Novikov said there was little point in doing so, since "we cannot expect much help in such cases from the police, either Russian or Interpol." One case that was reported remains unsolved, although police concluded it was an inside job. Arkady Zakharov, a former PIN scientist who founded a company called Russian Fossils, says the issue of thefts is a red herring launched by political forces who want to discredit capitalism. "The main issue is not a few items that were stolen years ago," he says. "It's about private property that is gathered and restored by companies that work in a normal way. Scientists like Doguzhayeva think our property should be expropriated." Countries around the world regulate paleontological finds in a number of ways. In the US, rules vary according to who owns the land where the item is found. In Canada, the state has the right to buy any fossil determined to be scientifically valuable. Ms. Doguzhayeva, a top expert on ammonites, or prehistoric mollusks, says she became alarmed one day in 1996 when Mr. Zakharov brought a German fossil dealer named Joachim Wordemann to see her. "They offered to buy a big collection of ammonites I had just gathered in field work," she says. "I told them it was state property, and asked them to leave my office." A few weeks later, upon returning from a conference abroad, she found the collection had been stolen. "There is no doubt it was an inside job," she says. PIN director Rozanov showed no interest in the disappearance, she says, and refused to report it to the police. Zakharov, the scientist-turned-merchant, denies that the visit to Doguzhayeva's office ever took place. In a separate incident, Mr. Wordemann, the German fossil dealer, was arrested by Russian authorities in St. Petersburg in 1999 and charged with trying to transport a truckload of partially undocumented fossils into Finland. By the mid-'90s, some Western paleontologists began to notice valuable specimens from the world-famous PIN inventory turning up on private markets in Europe and the US. One day in 1994, Rupert Wild, curator of the State Museum for Natural History in Stuttgart, Germany, was amazed to see a unique 240-million-year-old amphibian skull available for private sale. So he asked the dealer - the same Wordemann - if he could borrow it. Back in his office, under special lighting, Dr. Wild found a partially erased Soviet catalog number from PIN stencilled on the piece. The skull was later returned to Russia. An informal working group of seven Western paleontologists, including Dr. Wild, was created to help identify and recover stolen Russian fossils from crooked dealers. It compiled an extensive list of missing items that included rare dinosaur skeletons, mammoth tusks, remains of the extinct cave bear, and Doguzhayeva's ammonites. But the group ran up against a brick wall after asking PIN directors to confirm other suspected thefts. "Numerous lines of evidence point to an organized group operating within PIN, with direct access to PIN collections, well developed contacts with foreign commercial dealers, and the facility to move stolen items through Russian customs," said the group's 1998 report. Without cooperation from PIN, the Western scientists have been able to do little since. "We were met with such opposition by the Institute in Moscow, which we were naively trying to help," says Prof. Michael Benton of Bristol University, one of the group's members. "That in itself is interesting." Even Doguzhayeva, the whistle-blower, says the pillaging of PIN's collections has probably ended. The same people have moved from burglary to business, she alleges. Russia's rich fossil grounds are being ruined by ruthless predators, working in league with rogue scientists, who smash the sedimentary strata with machinery and cart fossils away by the truckload. "The last time I went to search for ammonites, near Shilovka on the Volga River, I was stunned by the destruction," she says. "I wept for days." Last January the Ministry of Culture, which has authority over art and antiquities in Russia, asked Doguzhayeva to examine a collection of 12,000 ammonites recently dug up in the Volga region by Mr. Zakharov's Russian Fossils company. An expert from PIN had already certified the batch, potentially worth tens of thousands of dollars, as "scientifically worthless" and therefore eligible for export. "I was flabbergasted," Doguzhayeva says. "You could have written several papers about some of those specimens." But Zakharov tells a very different story. He says all excavations are carried out with the participation of scientists, who are given free access to any really interesting finds. "Maybe some fossils are unique, and should be in a museum, but how many examples of a particular type of ammonite does Doguzhayeva need?," he says. "According to her, they should all belong to science, as in Soviet days. She cannot get used to the idea that we have a market economy now, and these fossils are my private property." Zakharov concedes that his company pays experts from PIN to evaluate fossils and certify them for export, but denies any conflict of interest. "The experts would be paid whether they certify the fossils or not," he says. "We have to pay them because the Ministry of Culture can't afford to." At least one top PIN official remains a "good friend," says Zakharov, though "there is emphatically no business relationship." And he acknowledges that his main foreign partner is Wordemann, but he insists that the German dealer's legal misadventures were "all his own doing." For Zakharov, the case of the stolen PIN materials is a police matter and none of his affair. The real problem today, he says, is the Soviet mind-set of government officials who cannot tolerate the idea of modern commerce in fossils. Doguzhayeva, whose angry resistance has prompted the Ministry of Culture to block the export of his ammonite collection, is "totally subjective." He says, "She is against business. How can she be allowed to have so much influence?". Doguzhayeva has a different view. "A few people enriched themselves by looting our nation's heritage," she says. "They want us to forget the past, accept them as normal businessmen, and agree that all is right with the world. I can't reconcile myself to that."
(c) Copyright 2001 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.
Giuliani's Panel on Decency Focuses on Finances Instead
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
Four months after Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani appointed a panel to set decency standards for city cultural institutions, the effort is beginning to show some movement. But a draft set of recommendations has little to do with elephant dung or naked female Christ figures or the art exhibitions that angered the mayor and led him to create the 22- member panel. Instead, the preliminary recommendations drafted by one of the panel's members urges that 10 percent of the budget for the city's major art institutions be given to other groups instead. It also accuses the city's Department of Cultural Affairs of failing to audit how museums spend their city money. The recommendations, a copy of which was provided to The New York Times, also include removing the suggested donation signs from the entryway of museums, and requiring that institutions adopt a "code of ethics," similar to those written by the American Association of Museums last summer. The decency panel, officially known as the Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission, was appointed by Mr. Giuliani, who, outraged over a 1999 exhibition including a painting depicting the Virgin Mary with a dollop of elephant dung on one breast and other graphic imagery, attempted to shut down the Brooklyn Museum, where the exhibition was held. The mayor lost a court battle over the issue. This year, incensed by a depiction of the Last Supper with a nude, black female Christ figure, the mayor vowed to establish criteria for museum art. As such, he reconstituted the dormant commission, which became more popularly known as the decency commission, to develop standards for museums that receive city money, which is nearly all of them. The full panel has not had a meeting yet. The preliminary recommendations were written by Martin Bergman, a freelance journalist, who said yesterday that he had been assigned to write them by Leonard Garment, a Washington lawyer who is chairman of the subcommittee charged with coming up with the recommendations. They have yet to be approved by the full subcommittee; indeed, few of its members have seen or heard about the draft, since some of them have not been contacted since the commission was appointed in April. It is unclear whether these recommendations will be accepted, formalized, or ever come close to being adopted. The commission has no independent authority and is totally reliant on the mayor's acquiescence. Mr. Garment is out of town and did not return calls to his office. But the subcommittee of about a dozen members was formed to write the standards meant to address, as the mayor said last spring, "whether or not there should be a different assessment made when public dollars are being used than when private dollars are being used" in city museums. That group is expected to review the three-page letter containing the recommendations, which was sent to Lawrence Herbert, chairman of the entire commission, yesterday, Mr. Bergman said. Mr. Herbert would not comment yesterday. "I think the idea is to open the debate," said Mr. Bergman, who added that he did not think that the exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, "Sensation," would have been displayed under the national association's suggested code of ethics. He is suggesting that city museums accept some version of those guidelines, which include promotion of programs that "respect pluralistic values, traditions and concerns," and that "promote the public good rather than individual financial gain," which Mr. Bergman said would keep art that is potentially for sale off museum walls. He said that others on the commission might opt for stronger language about the content of art. He interprets those guidelines, particularly the section on respect of pluralistic values, to mean that "Sensation" would have been rejected because, in his words, it was "offensive to Christians." A Brooklyn Museum spokeswoman would not comment yesterday. Mr. Bergman said that his objection to signs in museums that suggest donations is that they are often unclear that the fees are not mandatory and are therefore "prohibitive to the poor." The advisory commission has never held a meeting since the mayor pulled a group of friends, artists and legal experts into a room 20 minutes before a press conference last spring to tell them of their new duties, said several of the members contacted. "We all sat around as he explained it to us, nodding our heads," said Bud Konheim, chief executive of the Nicole Miller fashion company. "And the second he left the room, we all said, `How are we going to do this?' I think we are all happy it went away." Some members of the subcommittee, however, have talked among themselves, in one meeting and subsequent telephone conversations, said Mr. Bergman and others. Mr. Konheim said he was never too thrilled to be brought in to begin with. "There are some things you do for your friends," he said. For the 2002 fiscal year, which began last month, the entire city budget for cultural affairs is $138 million, $110.5 million of which is earmarked for 34 of the city's major art institutions. Mr. Bergman has suggested that 10 percent of the money for those museums be reallocated to "other projects and to enhance the Department of Cultural Affairs audit compliance functions," according to the letter. Of particular interest to him, he said, would be apprentice programs for young New Yorkers in the arts. Better auditing is needed, Mr. Bergman said, adding that he had learned in a meeting with the Department of Cultural Affairs that it had not audited the museums that received funds in "almost 30 years." The draft letter said that the department "has not conducted on-site inspections of any of these institutions to see how funds are being used." Schuyler G. Chapin, the commissioner of the department, vehemently denied that he had told anyone from the commission that his agency did not monitor the museums that receive city financing. "I have never said any such thing in my life," said Mr. Chapin, who has an ex officio part on the commission. "We always look through every penny." The budget for cultural institutions is presented each year by the mayor, who in the past few years has attempted to cut it, and then is approved by the City Council, which has ultimately restored the funds. But how much each institution receives is decided by the mayor's office, with recommendations from the Department of Cultural Affairs, which in turn is responsible for allocating the money. The chances of any major shifts in the way the money is spent before Mayor Giuliani leaves office, should these recommendations reach his desk and be approved, are fairly slim. He could attempt to move the money around during the budget modification process in November, but taking money away from major art museums and funneling it to other groups has no precedent that Staci Emanuel, the assistant director in the finance division of the City Council, could recall. As for content and adopting new guidelines, Mr. Chapin said he did not know how the national association's standards could be codified. But, he said: "I would presume there is nothing in there that would violate the process we have. Generally speaking, it is a good organization." http://www.nytimes.com/
Signature Forged on Monroe Photos
NEW YORK (AP) - The photographer of a set of Marilyn Monroe photographs up for auction said the pictures are authentic but his signature on the prints was forged, the Daily News reported Thursday. ``The prints are real, I'm familiar with them, but the signature is not mine,'' fashion photographer Bert Stern said Wednesday. Stern shot the color photos - one of which shows Monroe topless - for Vogue magazine in July 1962 at the Hotel Bel-Air in Beverly Hills. It was Monroe's last photo shoot before she died of an apparent drug overdose. Alan Reid, 75, of Lido Beach, said he had 10 of the photographs sitting under his bed for years before he decided to put them up for auction. Reid said Monroe's ex-husband, Joe DiMaggio, gave him the photos as a gift in 1982. Reid worked for DiMaggio as his photo representative.
The prints will be sold Aug. 16 and 17 on the Leland's Auction Web site. ``We should have checked with Stern,'' said Mike Heffner, president of Leland's. ``We didn't, but the prints are real, and we stand by that,''
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On the Net: http://www.lelands.com