In regards to a request for information from Scott Smith
Risk/Loss Control Specialist
Chubb Group of Insurance Companies. May I suggest that he contact Disney World in Fla., I would imagine that they have a program in place, because they do nothing without training, right down to those that push a broom.
Charles E. Quaste', Sr. CIPM Director, Protective Services and Building Operations James A. Michener Art Museum Doylestown, PA (USA) 215-340-9800 x130 www.michenerartmuseum.org cquaste@michenerartmuseum.org
Afghan Sculptor to Rebuild Statues
BAMIYAN, Afghanistan (AP) - Watching his country's turmoil from exile for two decades, Afghan sculptor Amanulah Haiderzad always worried about two soaring statues of Buddha hewn into this barren valley's towering sandstone cliffs.
The ancient monuments escaped damage throughout the 10-year Soviet invasion and Afghanistan's civil war in the 1990s. But they were demolished last year by the former Taliban regime, which said the Buddhas violated Islamic bans on human images and idolatry.
Now Haiderzad is back in Afghanistan for the first time in 23 years, returning at the request of the interim government to organize reconstruction of the statues.
``I had this dream to come back and visit, but not like this,'' the 62-year-old sculptor said on a plateau overlooking the site where the majestic statues once stood.
Carved into a mountainside above the central city of Bamiyan in the 3rd and 5th centuries, the Buddhas were considered cultural treasures. The larger of the two, at 175 feet high, is thought to have been the world's tallest standing Buddha. The smaller statue was 115 feet tall.
Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar's decision to destroy the statues was met with international outrage, but the protests fell on deaf ears. After trying for weeks to obliterate them with anti-aircraft guns and rockets, Taliban troops finally blew up the relics in March 2001, placing explosives into holes bored into the rock.
``It was a very sad day for me,'' said Haiderzad, who saw the images on TV from his home in New York City. ``They didn't understand that these statues don't belong to the Taliban. They belong to Afghanistan, to human history.''
The Buddhas' destruction was only one element of the Taliban assault on Afghan culture.
The Taliban banned music, television, movies and theater, and spent three days smashing statues in the Kabul Museum. A small version of the Bamiyan Buddhas sculpted by Haiderzad, now on display in Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel, also was defaced by the Taliban.
Today, only rubble is left of the tall statues - giant sandstone rocks piled where the Buddhas once stood.
Haiderzad said he visited the Bamiyan statues as a boy, and they inspired him to become a sculptor.
He studied sculpture in Italy for six years, and then established a fine arts department at Kabul University. But when the Soviets invaded in 1979, Haiderzad fled to the United States.
It is unclear whether both mammoth statues will be restored. Haiderzad said authorities may decide to rebuild the larger Buddha and leave the smaller one in ruins as a testament to Taliban ``barbarity.''
Haiderzad estimates it will take four to five years to rebuild the larger statue, and just beginning the project is a huge undertaking.
Interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai's administration has no money for the project, and is now looking for ``anyone, anywhere'' to help out, Haiderzad said.
Karzai, who visited Bamiyan on Tuesday, said his government has been in contact with UNESCO, the U.N. agency responsible for safeguarding the world's cultural heritage.
The sculptor hopes the project will put Afghans to work, including his former students at Kabul University.
``One thing I'm sure of - we are going to use the same materials, the same techniques to do it,'' Haiderzad said, referring to the original builders.
Most Bamiyan residents welcome the government initiative.
``This was our heritage that the stupid Taliban destroyed,'' said one resident, Haji Hussein Ali. ``It's good that they are going to rebuild it.''
But in a poor city that has been a battlefield for years, there are also other priorities.
``We cannot rebuild it on empty stomachs,'' the 55-year-old Ali said, rubbing the tips of his fingers along a set of pink plastic prayer beads.
Germany says it will look for Russian art treasures here amid progress on looted art
Wed Apr 10,11:14 AM ET (AP)
WEIMAR, Germany - Germany said Wednesday it will help Russia try to find any art treasures that may have ended up here after World War II, while Russia's upper house of parliament approved a bill that should see medieval stained-glass windows that were looted by the Red Army return to a German church in June.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has described Russian moves to return the windows from the Marienkirche in Frankfurt an der Oder, on the Polish border, as "a very important signal."
"This law gives us room to maneuver" in the future, German Culture Minister Julian Nida- Ruemelin said after meeting with his Russian counterpart, Mikhail Shvydkoi, in the eastern Germany city of Weimar.
The ministers said the 111 windows likely would be returned in June after being exhibited at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.
Still, while the two countries' culture ministers said at a meeting in the eastern city of Weimar had been constructive, most Russians see art treasures as rightful compensation for the huge human, economic and cultural losses the country suffered in the Nazi invasion.
"We're on the right track," Nida-Ruemelin insisted, noting that "a little patience" would be needed.
Germany pressed its claim at Wednesday's meeting for the return of several more treasures. But it also agreed to see whether any works of art that ended up in German private collections could be returned.
"This is really only about a few things," Shvydkoi said, without offering details.
Also Wednesday, the German government said it would give Russia 1.3 million euros (dlrs 1.1 million) to finance the restoration of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra's concert organ.