January 24, 2002

Nok Statue for Sale in Amsterdam

(ARTCONCERN not concerned about NOK statues?)

In its latest issue the Netherlands magazine 'ORIGINE' for Arts and Antiques published an editorial about the role of international conventions and the struggle against illicit export. It is a real treat to read in a magazine dedicated to the collecting of antiques that:
"....in the antiques world it is common knowledge that NOK art most of the time reaches Europe via looting and illicit trade"...
(Volume 10, issue 6, 2001, p.82).

However, at page 94 there is an advertissement of an Amsterdam art dealer 'Poekelien Lingbeek' offering a NOK statue.

And the name of Poekelien's shop: ARTCONCERN (!)

Provenance: German Private Collection......
Ton Cremers

ConsDisList:
From: Anne-Grethe Slettemoen anne@slettemoen.no

Subject: Fire-damaged manuscripts

A collection of musical scores composed in the 1930's were subjected to heat and water due to a major fire. This resulted in severe damage of the original manuscripts. The spines and covering materials are non-existing and many of the sheets have been fused together, most probably aided by the sizing in the paper. In addition, the brittle and distorted fragments, which are soot laden and charred around the edges, show evidence of mould on the surface.
A project has been initiated to catalogue and re-house these manuscripts. As a paper conservator, I have been asked to investigate whether it would be possible, through a conservation treatment, to separate those sheets which have been fused together. I have searched the conservation literature, but it seems that in general there is not a great deal literature on the conservation of fire-damaged paper.
However, based on the literature which I have found and conversations with other paper conservators, a method or technique, which involves the use of an enzyme bath in a water-solvent medium, might be considered to break the inter-sheet link adhesion between the fused together sheets. The media applied by the composer is water-soluble, hence the mixture of water and solvent.
Does anyone have experience with treating fire-damaged manuscripts where the sheets have been fused together into blocks which, when tapped on, resemble hard blocks of wood?
Also, I would be extremely grateful if anyone could point to relevant literature which could be useful in order to decide on the most suitable conservation treatment.

Anne-Grethe Slettemoen
Nedre Stolen 3
5003 Bergen
Norway
+47 55367486

Britain May 'Own' Elgin Marbles but Greece Wants Loan

By ANTHEE CARASSAVA

THENS, Jan. 23 — As the Olympic Games return to Athens in 2004, so, the Greeks hope, will their most precious marbles. In the Greek view, the long-running dispute over what Britons know as the Elgin Marbles and Greeks as the Parthenon Marbles could end if the trustees of the British Museum in London would just agree to Greece's request to loan the marbles for the time of the Games. In the view of the British Museum, at least, an agreement to return its greatest attraction is not likely. "The British Museum transcends national boundaries," Robert Anderson, the museum's director, wrote last week on the front page of The Times of London. "The idea of cultural restitution is the anathema to this principle." There was no prospect of a loan, he insisted, "where there can be no guarantee of an object being returned."
Not every Briton agrees. Last week more than 90 British lawmakers and actors opened a campaign to have the marbles returned to Greece. The 56 blocks of friezes and 19 statues graced the Acropolis until they were removed at the behest of Thomas Bruce, the seventh earl of Elgin, Britain's envoy to the Ottoman Empire almost 200 years ago.
Elena Korka, an archaeologist advising the Greek Culture Ministry, insisted the marbles would be returned. "We're not talking about a painting like the Mona Lisa that can be hung on any wall," she said. "These marbles were sculpted for the Parthenon, designed to be on the Acropolis, under the natural light of the Attica sky, not a dimly lit gallery off Tottenham Court Road." Greece's strongest backing may come from other European museums that have agreed to loan antiquities for the Games. Last June, for example, the Pergamon Museum in Berlin agreed to send Greece 10 sections of the third century B.C. Phillipeion monument in exchange for an equal number of finds from the same site. But only an act of the British Parliament can reverse what London regards as its ownership of the Elgin Marbles. The idea of a loan to Greece — renewed Monday in a formal diplomatic request from Athens — was most recently outlined in May in a letter from the Greek culture minister, Evangelos Venizelos, to his British counterpart, Tessa Jowell. Greek officials have not made public this week's proposal, presented by Nicos Pandermalis, a prominent archaeologist and director of a new multimillion-dollar museum at the Acropolis.
But an official familiar with the proposal said it essentially offers the British Museum its pick of 32,000 statues and vases dating back to the fifth century B.C., close cooperation with the new Acropolis museum and an engraved sign there stating that the British Museum is sole owner of the marbles. "Should no deal be reached," Mrs. Korka said, "then a huge empty space will be left for the marbles to remind visitors of the British response." The dispute has made for frosty relations between Athens and London for decades, and was revived forcefully when the actress Melina Mercouri became culture minister in the early 1980's. Today the Greeks insist that they have relinquished all claims to ownership, and that they will not open any similar campaign against the Louvre and other notable museums housing priceless Greek antiquities. "We don't want to open a Pandora's box," Mrs. Korka said. "This is a one-off, unique campaign for a unique monument."

http://www.nytimes.com/

'A SOUL-SEARCHING EXPERIENCE'

Inquiry resolves questions over art looted during Nazi occupatio

n By PATRICIA C. JOHNSON Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle

A chapter in the effort to restore art looted by the Nazis to its rightful owners closed Tuesday when the Kann Association, formed by heirs of French collector Alphonse Kann, and the Menil Collection resolved ownership of a 1907 landscape by Henri Matisse.
However, as the heirs claimed, the oil on canvas was among the more than 1,000 artworks plundered from Kann's home in St. Germain-en-Laye, France, in 1940, during the German occupation. "We came to an understanding with the association," said Matthew Drutt, the Menil's senior curator. "We worked together to fill a gap in provenance (the painting's history). We could not answer it to anyone's complete satisfaction, but we did come to an agreement." The terms of the agreement are confidential, Drutt said. "A great part of our success is dependent on the discretion with which these negotiations take place," said Alain Coblence, legal counsel for the Kann estate. The gap in the painting's history falls between 1940 and 1946. What is known is that Paris' Galérie Bernheim-Jeune acquired the painting from Matisse the year he finished it. It was purchased by Kann in 1908. The painting remained in Kann's apartment outside of Paris until 1940, when the collector fled to Britain. Brook with Aloes resurfaced in 1946 when the Hugo Gallery of New York bought it in Paris from an unknown seller. It was purchased in 1950 by John and Dominique de Menil. In the years since, the painting has been lent for exhibitions in the United States and Europe. "When we couldn't find definitive answers, we wanted to settle the question amicably," Drutt said. "Questions of ownership -- especially of something that might have been looted during World War II -- I think we have the responsibility to answer fully. It's a soul-searching experience, especially on the part of the institution, which acquired the work in good faith." The Kann Association was formed in 1997 to reconstruct the history of Alphonse Kann's art collection and to recover works stolen from it. Francis Warin, a relative of Kann's who represents the heirs, relied on German and French documents, archival materials and photographs to assemble a list of missing works. When the Menil was contacted in 1999, the heirs already had recovered two Pablo Picasso oils from French and Swiss collections. Simultaneous inquiries into works at two other American museums -- a Picasso at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and a Fernand Léger at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts -- are ongoing. "We are still doing our homework and continue to discover information," Coblence said.

http://www.chron.com/