Buddha's left foot offers sole clue to £250,000 antique theft
By Jason Bennetto, Crime Correspondent 08 December 2001
"Cat burglars" who crept across rooftops to steal Far Eastern artefacts worth up to £250,000 from an antiques shop left behind a possible clue – half a foot.
The foot belonged to a 13th-century wooden Buddha, 6ft-tall and valued at £110,000, which was knocked against a window frame in the burglary. As well as the Buddha, five other valuable artefacts including a sandstone statue and a bronze sculpture were lugged over roofs and fire escapes by the thieves, who had broken into the shop on Bond Street, central London. They may have been disturbed or were simply ignorant of the value of the pieces because they left behind many more valuable antiques. The broken left foot of the Cambodian Buddha was discovered on the fire escape at the back of the shop after the break-in at about 6.30pm last Sunday. Details emerged only yesterday. The shop owner, who wants to remain anonymous, has offered a £22,000 reward for information leading to the safe recovery of the items. PC Matt Benjafield, of the Metropolitan Police, who specialises in art and antiques theft, said: "There is an incredibly small market for these goods and unless they were stolen to order the thieves will have difficulty selling them on. "The likelihood is the burglars don't realise the value of the pieces and have probably sold them for a pittance. I think they were opportunists who struck lucky. "They must have been struggling to carry the standing Buddha because it's nearly six-foot tall." The thieves also stole a £115,000, 6th-century sandstone statue of Pingala, an attendant to a sun god, made in India; a 12th-century gilt bronze head of Buddha worth £15,000; a 17th- century Tibetan painted skull cap valued at £11,000; a 14cm £2,000 seated monk made from sandalwood and a portrait of a Tibetan lama valued at £3,000. http://www.independent.co.uk/
Man charged in $2m theft of rare books from Yale
By David Abel, Globe Staff, 12/8/2001
Benjamin Johnson took more from his summer job than most college students, police say.
The 21-year-old from Hamden, Conn., was in court last month on charges he stole $2 million worth of rare books and historic documents from Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, where he held a summer job. After a tip from a suspicious autograph dealer who said he bought a signature by George Washington from Johnson, police in October arrested him in his dormitory at the University of Wisconsin, where he is a sophomore. In his desk, police say, they found a trove of valuable letters, maps, signatures, and early classic American novels. Johnson's cache included signatures from Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, and Benjamin Franklin; a letter dated 1780 from George Washington to the French General Count de Rochambeau; documents from Isaac Newton; and early copies of ''Moby-Dick,'' police say. ''He was really cooperative and he admitted everything,'' said Detective Edward Bardon of the State Capitol Police Department in Madison. ''He said he was planning on selling everything.'' Johnson, who allegedly had $52,000 in a bank account from proceeds of previous sales, was released on $10,000 bail and withdrew from school. When he returned home to Hamden he was arrested again, this time by officers from the Yale University Police Department. On Oct. 9, Yale police searched Johnson's home in Hamden and allegedly found even more items, including a 200-year-old letter from George Washington that was worth about $350,000, an unspecified book by Charles Darwin worth $60,000, and an old copy of Charles Dickens's ''A Christmas Carol'' worth about $10,000. In a sworn statement, Yale detectives said Johnson mutilated some of the materials he stole by using a razor blade to cut out signatures - making the valuable signatures harder to track once they are sold. Library officials at Yale would not comment on the thefts, but a university spokesman said no one in New Haven was aware of the situation until police in Wisconsin called them in October. ''This has been very distressing,'' said Yale spokesman Tom Conroy. ''If someone steals a computer, it can be replaced. If an item can't be replaced, it's part of our heritage that's missing. There is tremendous research, historic, and cultural value in what was taken.'' The robbery echoed two recent thefts at Harvard. In April, 46 books, journals, and pamphlets printed around the time of the French Revolution were stolen from Harvard's Widener Library. Six months before, Harvard revealed that 41 rare Chinese books worth about $1 million had been stolen from a secure area of the Harvard-Yenching Library. The thefts highlight a dilemma for university libraries, Harvard's chief librarian said. ''We're all in the same difficult bind at libraries - and this is devastating news that affects us, too,'' said Nancy Cline, who delivered a paper last year at the Library of Congress on security and access at libraries. She pointed to a growing market for rare documents through the 1990s, fueled by people who want to show off antique documents in their living rooms - and have the money to buy them. ''We all face an increasing challenge to balance access and research,'' Cline said, ''because today more people know about the rare materials and there are more people in higher education who want to use them. But if we don't allow access to them, what would be the point of owning them?'' While officials say they have improved security at Harvard and Yale since the thefts, they say it may be impossible to prevent all thefts - especially in cases such as Johnson's, where the culprit is an employee of the library. Johnson did not return calls to his family's home in Hamden. He was arraigned on Nov. 27 in New Haven and pleaded not guilty, and is scheduled for a hearing in court on Jan. 3.
This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 12/8/2001. http://www.boston.com/
Bronzes at heart of tussle for African art
BY DALYA ALBERGE, ARTS CORRESPONDENT
THE British Museum will face renewed calls for the return of the Benin bronzes to Nigeria at a Unesco conference in London this weekend. Folarin Shyllon, a Nigerian lawyer, will claim that the 16th-century bronzes are among “the best and most sensitive of Africa’s cultural heritage objects”. Leading archaeologists, academics and lawyers are among more than 200 delegates attending the event at University College London, organised by the Institute of Art and Law with Unesco. The conference, which will explore the moral arguments for the restitution of works of art to their country of origin, will be chaired by Professor Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at Cambridge University, and by Norman Palmer, a barrister and Professor of Art and Cultural Heritage Law at University College London. Gough Whitlam, QC, former Prime Minister of Australia, will give the keynote address. Professor Shyllon, who specialises in cultural property law at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, will lament the loss of the bronzes, which were discovered in 1897 when British forces entered Benin City in southwestern Nigeria. The technological sophistication of the cast brass objects challenged 19th-century Western assumptions about Africa. The British Museum has about 700 examples, including decorative plaques that once adorned the pillars of a palace. By the end of the 19th century they had been abandoned in a storehouse. Professor Shyllon’s call for the return of the bronzes extends to examples in public collections in Oxford and Liverpool. Although he concedes that they might not have survived if they had remained in Nigeria, he says that the time is right for their return. Museum conditions in Nigeria have improved greatly in the past five years, Professor Shyllon will argue, adding that a request in 1977 by Nigeria for the loan of the Benin ivory mask in the British Museum for a cultural festival in Lagos was not granted. Robert Anderson, director of the British Museum, who is hoping to attend, said that there was no chance of a loan, as visitors “expect to see these things on display in the British Museum”. History could not be unravelled, he added. One observer said: “The so-called colonials were the only ones to take an interest in the culture of these countries. If not for them, these treasures would not have survived.” Professor Frank Willett, a specialist in Benin art, said the bronzes could not go back to Nigeria while there were allegations of corruption and museum staff selling items. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/
USA Today fires writer, editors for damaging sculpture
WASHINGTON (December 5, 2001 02:56 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - USA Today fired a sports writer and two sports editors for damaging a $100,000 sculpture by scrawling words in what they thought was dust on the surface. The substance turned out to be pigment, and their actions were caught on security tape. The three women have retained Washington lawyer Steve Hoffman. "We can't rule out litigation at this point," Hoffman said before meeting with the women. USA Today spokesman Steven Anderson confirmed Wednesday that the three employees -sportswriter Karen Allen, projects editor Denise Tom and database editor Cheryl Phillips - had been fired after their Nov. 27 visit to "Aperture." The sculpture sits near the new executive offices of Gannett executives in the Virginia suburbs. After noticing fingerprints and scrawls in what appeared to be dust covering the sphere, they touched the surface. Phillips and Allen traced the words, "Kilroy was here" and Tom's name. The "dust" was actually pigment that had not yet been treated with sealant. USA Today President and Publisher Tom Curley considered filing criminal charges and called the firings irreversible, Anderson said. "People came to a conclusion and made recommendations to me, and after hearing them, the decision was made," Curley said.
Museum roof costs could hit £1.5m
Dec 7 2001
By Paul Dale, Birmingham Post
Emergency repairs to the roof of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery could cost £1.5 million, city councillors have been warned. Engineers have been investigating the roof, which dates from 1912, for several months. Part of the art gallery was closed to the public in October after hairline cracks were detected in metal stanchions. There is no danger to people using the museum but a major replacement programme is required, according to Graham Allen, senior assistant director at the council's leisure and culture department. Members of the council cabinet are expected to approve a tendering exercise, asking specialist companies to bid for a contract to provide a new roof. Mr Allen said the problems were confined to the part of the museum and art gallery known as the Council House Extension. The roof covering the rest of the museum area was replaced ten years ago. He said: "The advice we have received suggests there are significant issues about the pitched roof covering. It is in a condition where we really need to be into major repairs and replacements. "The cabinet must understand the full extent of the financial commitment they will be asked to make. "There are long term issues about the rest of the roof which we will be investigating." Mr Allen said exhibition space in galleries 12 and 13 and the 18th and 19th Century British art galleries 21 and 22 will remain closed until the work is completed in the summer. "It is just a precautionary measure because of the scaffolding. There is no question of danger to the public," he stressed. http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/
State wants local man stopped from exploring shipwreck
By Beth Blake Staff Writer
BEAUFORT - The state will ask the courts on Monday to issue a preliminary injunction against a local man for conducting archeological investigations on a shipwreck offshore here in state waters. N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper filed a motion in civil superior court on Tuesday against Alan R. Riebe of 203 Ronnie Road. Mr. Riebe could not be reached for comment by this morning. According to state records, Mr. Riebe has been investigating an abandoned 18th century shipwreck in the Cape Lookout-Shackleford Banks vicinity. The state has title to all bottoms of navigable waters within three geological miles out and title to all shipwrecks, vessels, cargoes, tackle and underwater archaeological artifacts that have been abandoned, according to Mr. Cooper's action. Mr. Riebe has filed written statements with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina that establish that since September 1998 and up to now and within three miles of the Atlantic coast of the state, Mr. Riebe has conducted random magnetometer surveys in an attempt to uncover artifacts the state says belongs to North Carolina. He has used a prop wash to blast holes in the ocean floor that have allegedly resulted in the destruction of numerous artifacts the state says it owns. And he has displaced and removed artifacts from one or more shipwrecks, according to the civil action. His actions allegedly "caused the irreversible and irreparable destruction of the archaeological setting where the artifacts belonging to the state of North Carolina had been situated," the attorney general states in the complaint. That alleged destruction "has resulted in the permanent loss of the archaeological historical information that, but for the defendant's actions, would be available to the people of the state of North Carolina." The state further alleges that the activities have been done without a license or compliance with the requirements of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources." The state alleges the Mr. Riebe intends to continue to trespass and dive on the shipwrecks within the territorial waters of the state unless he is enjoined from so doing. The state wants the court to issue a preliminary injunction stopping Mr. Riebe from further violating state law, then a permanent injunction. The order would be enforceable through the contempt powers of the court. Court will convene at 10 a.m. in the superior courtroom. http://www.carteretnewstimes.com/