By KATHERINE ROTH
NEW YORK (AP) - A group claiming responsibility for the recent theft of a Marc Chagall painting from the Jewish Museum says the work will not be returned until there is peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The demand was in a letter postmarked June 12 and signed by the International Committee for Art and Peace, an organization not familiar to authorities. Authorities said they weren't sure whether the theft actually was politically motivated, but they were confident the letter was not a hoax. The writers had information about the painting that could only come from someone who had it in their possession, The New York Times reported Monday. Museum officials discovered the painting missing June 8, the morning after a party at the museum. Police found no sign of forced entry. The roughly 8-by-10-inch oil painting, ``Study for 'Over Vitebsk,''' has an estimated value of $1 million. The 1914 work shows an old man carrying a walking stick and beggar's sack, floating in the sky above a village.
Anne Scher, a museum spokeswoman, said it was unclear whether the letter writer's sympathies were with the Israelis or the Palestinians. The author apologized for embarrassing the museum and said the painting was ``being taken care of.'' The letter was kept secret while undergoing forensic testing. ``The letter gives us hope for the possibility of recovering the work,'' Scher said. ``It was a relief when we received it.'' Anna Kisluk, director of art services for the Art Loss Register, which maintains a database of more than 100,000 pieces of stolen art, said the motive for art theft is almost always economic. ``This kind of broad-ranging political demand is unrealistic, to say the least,'' she said. Kisluk recalled only two cases in which art was stolen and political demands were made. In 1974, a number of famous paintings including works by Johannes Vermeer and Francisco de Goya were stolen from a private collection in Britain. She said the Irish Republican Army demanded a large sum of money and the release of political prisoners in exchange for the works. The works were later found and most of those involved were apprehended, she said.
In the other case, Edvard Munch's ``The Scream'' was stolen from Norway's National Gallery in Oslo on the opening day of the 1994 Winter Olympics. Five days later, a Norwegian anti-abortion activist hinted that the painting might be returned if the national television station agreed to broadcast an anti-abortion film. Later that year, the painting was recovered - and it turned out the abortion opponent was not involved in the theft. The Jewish Museum has offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the painting.
On the Net: http://www.thejewishmuseum.org
Report: Nazis Seized Top Violins
CHICAGO (AP) - During the Holocaust, the Nazis seized top-quality violins in a secret operation to collect the world's best musical instruments, according to declassified U.S. military documents and other records. The centuries-old violins include dozens of priceless Stradivari, Guarneri and Amati, as well as lesser-known models prized by collectors, dealers, musicians and investors. In its Sunday editions, the Chicago Tribune reported its research into the seizure through documents including declassified U.S. military records, German documents and post- Holocaust claims at the National Archives. The coveted violins taken by the Nazis could be the next area of inquiry by those seeking reparations for Holocaust-era losses. ``This is right now in the earliest phase of our work, but it may be one of the most fascinating areas of exploration,'' said Elan Steinberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress, a New York-based organization to protect Jewish lives and property during the Holocaust. The group has been at the forefront of negotiations regarding Holocaust-era lootings.
But attempts to recover the stolen instruments or their value will be complicated by museums slow to acknowledge works procured under questionable circumstances, the Tribune reported. Violins are also more difficult to identify than works of art, which have titles, dates and subjects. But in recent years art museums from Chicago to Berlin have created Web sites detailing the history of works that may have been looted during the Holocaust. The details of the Nazis' thefts of antique violins were buried in classified documents for decades. Adolf Hitler's chief ideologue, Alfred Rosenberg, created a task force in 1940 to collect the best musical instruments and scores. The campaign ran for five years. Musicologists followed the Nazis as they invaded Europe, cataloging and preparing the instruments for transport to the Music Office in Berlin. ``I used to play a wonderful Italian Gagliano violin,'' said Chicago Symphony Orchestra violinist Francis Akos, who in 1939 won use of the instrument in a competition. With the outbreak of WWII, Akos, who is Jewish, was sent to a Nazi concentration camp. ``When I came back ... I tried to find my friends,'' said Akos, 79, referring to the benefactors who had provided him with the violin. ``None of them survived the war. And their instruments disappeared somewhere, too. Everything was gone.'' http://dailynews.yahoo.com/ From: newsletter@theartnewspaper.com Subject:
ST PETERSBURG. A Russian-German archaeological team has announced the discovery of an untouched Scythian tomb containing a five kilogramme hoard of the earliest ever recovered Scythian gold preceding Greek influence. The discovery, made in the Siberian republic of Tuva, a subject of the Russian Federation, is being hailed by scholars as one of the most significant finds in the study of the fierce nomadic Scythian tribes. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=7174
BRONZE FORGER SENT TO PRISON FOR FOUR YEARS
BESANCON, FRANCE. The bronze founder Guy Hain has failed in his appeal against a guilty verdict, handed down 1997, for producing some 6,000 forged bronzes of 39 different sculptors, inlduing Rodin, Claudel, Barye, Bourdelle, Renoir, Daumier and Bugatti. He was sentenced to four years in prison and a fine of FFr2 million (£200,000; $280,000). http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=7171
NEW MUSEUM FOR ARTS PREMIERS
PARIS. It used to be called “tribal” or “primitive” art, but now the correct word in French for non-European art is "premier" (meaning "first"). While the name is not yet definite, the Musée des Arts Premiers will probably be the official title of the new museum, slated to open in 2004. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=7170
AUSTRIA MAY BE SUED IN THE US IN CLAIM THAT IT FORCED JEW TO GIVE KLIMTS AFTER WORLD WAR II LOS
ANGLES. A federal court has ruled that Austria can be sued in California for return of six Gustav Klimt paintings stolen by Nazis from a Jew, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, and now in the collection of the Austrian National Gallery (ANG). The paintings in question are “Adele Bloch-Bauer I”, “Adele Bloch-Bauer II”, “Beechwood”, “Apple Tree I”, “Houses in Unterach am Attersee”, and “Amalie Zuckerkandl”. They are valued at roughly $150 million. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=7151
WILD WEST WATERCOLOUR RIDES TO A NEW PRICE RECORD
NEW YORK. With thousands laid off on Wall Street and dealers nationwide fretting over an impending recession, Western art is striking stratospheric prices. The latest example is the Charles M. Russell (1864-1926) watercolour, "A disputed trail" (est. $600,000-900,000), which reaped $2.4 million on 28 July at the Coeur d'Alene Art Auction held in Reno, Nevada. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=7132
REWARD OFFERED FOR PAINTINGS STOLEN FROM SPANISH MILLIONAIRESS
MADRID. A reward of $400,000 has been offered for information leading to the recovery of three of the paintings stolen in Spain’s largest art heist. Goya’s “The Swing”, Foujita’s “Girl with a hat” and “Gitana” by Isidre Nonell were among 14 paintings and 6 sculptures stolen from the Madrid apartment of Esther Koplowitz on 8 August. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=7131
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