May 23, 2002

CONTENTS:




- A very bad waiter! - Strasbourg recovery notes (Jonathan Sazonoff )
- French waiter admits mass art theft
- Strike Threat Looms at London's British Museum

From: Jonathan Sazonoff
Organization: SAZ PRODUCTIONS, INC.

Subject: A very bad waiter! - Strasbourg recovery notes

Dear Subscribers,
I'm sure all of our jaws dropped when reading the recent stories of destroyed art out of Strasbourg, France. Sadly, Stephene "the waiter" Breitwieser had good taste. The Cranach and Corneille de Lyon were among my favorite lost pictures.
Of the 172 artworks stolen, 60 were paintings (and drawings) while another 112 were objects d' art. As of Monday, Le Monde states that 107 of the 112 objects had been recovered. The object d' art tossed into the cannel include many items that probably can be restored. Statuetts, decorative boxes, and the like may be able to retain their value. From my recollection, Antiques World Belgium was running "Wanted Notices" for some of the now recovered objects. http://www.antiques-world.com/Stolen/MuseeRUK.htm
Unfortunately, among the 60 pictures stolen and subsequently destroyed were Lucas Cranach's "Sybil of Cleves"; Pieter Brueghel's "Proverb - Fraud Profits it's Master"; Corneille de Lyon's "Madeleine of France Queen of Scotland"; François Boucher's "Sleeping Shepherd"; David Teniers' "The Monkey's Ball"; Jean-Antoine Watteau's "Two Men"; and Pieter Codde's "Soldier and Young Woman".
Now, this could be a posting about the destruction of art. Henry Ford once claimed that by destroying a rare piece, the remaining stock would become that much more valuable (a silver lining). Or this could be a posting about how people deal with stress. After all Breitwiser's mother was enraged, at her sons behavior, when she dumped and destroyed that precious loot; but instead we'll take another track. As the Late N.Y. columnist Jimmy Cannon wrote, "nobody asked me but..." after doing some basic calculations, I believe the estimated value of the loss could be way off. After all, 1.4 billion euros is a lot of money.
For sake of estimate (w/ 1 euro = $1) of the 60 paintings destroyed, the most valuable was worth $8-9 million. If 50% were worth $9m each and the rest worth $5m each (all very high figures as they were small works) that comes to $520,000,000. Still a more likely guess (still a high estimate) as to the value of these 60 paintings: (10%) 6 paintings @ $8,000,000 each; (20%) 12 paintings @ $5,000,000 each; (20%) 12 paintings @ $2,000,000 each; (20%) 12 paintings @ $1,000,000 each; (30%) 18 paintings @ $500,000 each; and 5 missing objects @ $100,000 each. So my guess at an estimated loss is $153,500,000. That's millions not billions!
Looking at my lists of reported European art thefts, from those that fit Stephane Breitswieser's general MO (one or two 16th or two 17th century artworks) stolen from France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, or Luxembourg from 1995 to November 2001 doesn't yield too many lost paintings in the blockbuster class. FYI - to see European stolen art information: http://www.saztv.com/page47.html Unless these paintings were wisely insured for substantial (investment driven) sums, I don't know how these figures were arrived at. Please keep in mind I've never seen the inventory, but only if record priced works by old masters in the class of Rembrandt are included could one arrive at these figures. http://www.saztv.com/page97.html Then again this could be a classic tale of the English billion being mistaken for US billion or some copywriter moving a decimal point.
Hope you find this of interest.
Jonathan Sazonoff
Saz Productions, Inc.
http://www.saztv.com
Contributing US Editor
Museum Security Network
http://www.museum-security.org/saz.html

French waiter admits mass art theft

Jon Henley in Paris
Thursday May 23, 2002
The Guardian
A 31-year-old French waiter has confessed to stealing 239 art treasures worth tens of millions of pounds from 172 museums and antique shops in seven European countries, prosecutors said yesterday. In the latest twist to a case that has left the art world reeling, Stephane Breitwieser, who was arrested in the Swiss city of Lucerne last November after stealing a bugle from a museum, told police his six-year spree was driven by a love of art rather than a desire to make money, said a public prosecutor, Emil Birchler. Many of the 60-odd 16th, 17th and 18th century canvases stolen, including works by Boucher, Watteau and Breughel, are thought to have been destroyed by his mother Mireille, who told French police that soon after her son was arrested she cut them up into small pieces and threw them out with the rubbish "because the house absolutely had to be wiped clean". Mrs Breitwieser also threw 109 artefacts, including jewellery, statuettes, silverware, bronzes and antique watches, into a nearby canal. Most have since been retrieved by French army engineers. Along with her son's former girlfriend, Anne-Catherine Kleinklauss, Mrs Breitwieser has been placed under formal investigation in France for receiving stolen goods and complicity. Ms Kleinklauss, described as "manifestly under Mr Breitwieser's influence", has admitted accompanying her boyfriend on numerous expeditions, serving as a lookout while he slipped the artworks - all small in size - under his coat. Mr Breitwieser will be tried in Switzerland before being extradited to France. Mr Birchler said investigators did not yet know whether Mr Breitwieser sold any of the works he stole - all of them taken from small museums where security was lax in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Holland, Denmark and Austria. The prosecutor added that it was unclear how much the haul was worth because only 10% of the owners had come forward. Experts believe the most valuable item was Sybille, Princess of Cleves, a 16th century painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder worth £5m-6m.

Strike Threat Looms at London's British Museum

Wed May 22, 5:15 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Workers at the British Museum in London are being balloted over strike action in protest at plans to axe almost 15 percent of staff, a trade union spokesman said on Wednesday. The museum houses one of the greatest collections of ancient art in the world but a financial crisis has left it with a cash shortfall. Alan Leighton, a heritage officer at trade union Prospect, said a 6.5 million pound cost-cutting program -- including 150 job cuts -- announced by the museum last month would cast doubt on its ability to act as a national cultural resource. "The cuts will strike at the heart of the British Museum's activities and strip the country of many of its leading specialists," Leighton said in a statement.

The British Museum was unavailable for comment.

The museum first warned in January it would have to make cuts after a fall in visitors last year to 4.6 million pounds from 5.6 million. Numbers slumped because of a drop in foreign visitors after the September 11 terror attacks and because of bad publicity for Britain from last year's foot-and-mouth epidemic. The cash shortage has already led to partial closures of galleries, with some rooms shut for part of the day. The museum's problems have been compounded by a decade of declining government aid, which has resulted in grants having fallen 30 percent in real terms over the last 10 years, the statement said. If workers vote in favor of a strike, industrial action is likely to take place in mid-June.