Police recover seven more priceless paintings, ending major art heist
Mon Sep 9,11:32 AM ET
MADRID, Spain - Spanish police have recovered seven priceless paintings and some 20 statuettes that were stolen from a billionaire heiress last summer, wrapping up one of the biggest art heists in decades, officials said Monday. The seven paintings were among 17 stolen last August from the Madrid penthouse of construction tycoon Esther Koplowitz while she was abroad on vacation. Ten were recovered in June and three people were arrested in a sting operation in which an FBI agent posed as an art expert. One of those arrested was a security guard at Koplowitz's apartment building. The final seven paintings were found in an apartment in the town of Playa d'Aro in northeastern Spain. They included Francisco de Goya's "The Donkey's Fall," "Guitar on a Chair" by Juan Gris and "L'Avenue du Bois de Bologne" by Loir Luigi, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said. He said no arrests have been made, and declined to give details of the operation.
The new recovery came with help from Colombian, Swiss and British police, Acebes said, adding that the thieves may have been preparing to take the paintings out of Spain. Officials have declined to place an exact value on the treasure trove of art, saying only they were worth millions of dollars. http://story.news.yahoo.com/
UNESCO CALLS FOR UNIVERSAL RATIFICATION OF THE 1970 CONVENTION, FOLLOWING THE EXAMPLE SET BY KEY ART MARKET COUNTRIES
Paris, September 9 - UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura today congratulated Japan for its ratification of the 1970 Convention on the Prevention of the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. Japan follows the United Kingdom and precedes Switzerland, which is expected to follow suit in 2003, and which, like the other two is an important ally in the struggle against illicit traffic. "The ratification of countries like Great Britain, Japan, and Switzerland is fundamental, given their leading role on the world art market. I would further call on all States to follow these examples and ratify, in turn, this essential text," declared Mr Matsuura. "The example of Afghanistan reminds us that each work of art contains part of a nation's soul and that the renaissance of a country also requires the restitution of its stolen art."
The Japanese government will deposit its instrument of ratification at UNESCO Headquarters today at 3pm. The Convention will go into effect in Japan in three months time, on December 9, 2002. The Convention, adopted by UNESCO's General Conference in November 1970, was the first global legal instrument for the protection of cultural property against pillage and illegal sales, and which recognized that such goods could not be considered as ordinary merchandise. The United Kingdom, which deposited its instrument of acceptance on July 31, 2002, Japan and, in the near future, Switzerland - three key countries in the international art trade - join 93 other States Parties to the Convention. Within the framework of the current UN Year for Cultural Heritage (2002) UNESCO has launched a campaign to encourage all countries to ratify all of the Organization's conventions dealing with cultural heritage, especially the convention of 1970. Theft, illegal export and trafficking in cultural property is today in the hands of criminal gangs whose reach and financial means extend well beyond national borders. This traffic is an international problem which touches all States, and eradicating it will require a global effort. The more countries that join the Convention, the more efficient it will be.
Interpol, the international police organization, which works with UNESCO in the struggle against this problem, says that illicit trafficking of art works is as lucrative as trafficking in arms and drugs. Although it is difficult to measure the scope of art trafficking, annual losses have been estimated at around five billion dollars, not to mention the "cultural" loss of works by masters such as by Breughel, Vlaminck, Goya, Titian and Turner. In 2000, for example, Interpol recorded more than 27,000 art thefts in Italy, 3,000 in Russia and 1,000 in Greece, amongst others. Such crimes also occur in developing countries, with 122 thefts in Mexico in that year, 221 in Ecuador, and 59 in Argentina. To be most effective, the struggle against illicit traffic of cultural property cannot be limited to the restitution of stolen or illicitly exported objects that have been recovered. Adequate measures to prevent such traffic must also be put into place: illegal excavations, for example, are common-place, and States should adopt legislation to prevent such activities, along with the illegal import and export of cultural goods. Thorough inventories also need to be established and efficient security systems installed, to facilitate the work of customs officers and police.
UNESCO is not alone in the battle. Apart from Interpol, it also collaborates with the International Council of Museums (ICOM), the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) and the World Customs Organisation (WCO).
****
For more information see www.unesco.org/culture/legalprotection
Contact: Lucía Iglesias Kuntz, Bureau of Public Information, Editorial Section Tel: (+33) (0) 1 4568-1702 l.iglesias@unesco.org
Moon Dust Stolen From Sweden Museum
Sat Sep 7, 8:23 AM ET
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Four grains of moon dust brought to Earth by the first manned lunar mission were stolen from a space exhibit in Sweden, a museum official said Saturday. The dust was collected by astronauts during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 and presented to Sweden as a gift by President Nixon a year later. The Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm displayed the four .04-inch particles in a coin-sized capsule inside a stainless steel cylinder capped with a glass plate, museum spokesman Goeran Adenskog said. Museum staff noticed Tuesday morning that someone had smashed the glass plate and removed the capsule, Adenskog said. "We don't think it has any commercial value when the moon dust has been taken out of its context. Without documentation it is very difficult for a layman to determine whether its moon dust or earth dust," Adenskog said.
Police were notified but had dropped the investigation for lack of clues, he said. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969. http://story.news.yahoo.com/
Now You See Art, Now You Don't
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) NEWS September 8, 2002 Posted to the web September 7, 2002
By Andrew Donaldson Johannesburg
A PAINTING by South African artist Lynette ten Krooden has been stolen from a London gallery - while she was standing in front of it. Ancient Fireland No 3, a fiery Karoo landscape, was the centrepiece of the Pretoria-based artist's exhibition, Impressions, at the Crypt Gallery at St Martin-in-the-Fields, off Trafalgar Square. It was featured on all the posters and promotional material for the exhibition, which ran from July 29 to August 3. It has been suggested that the theft, on July 29, could have been carried out by professional art thieves. The painting was priced at a modest £600 (about R10 000), but could have cost more at a commercial gallery. "It all happened so suddenly," Ten Krooden said. "I was standing at the front entrance of the gallery discussing this painting with an interested party. On turning round to point it out, I realised to my horror it was gone.
"Due to its prime positioning, it was clearly the principal piece of the exhibition." Ten Krooden said she was astonished that the thieves had had the presence of mind to remove the name card and price tag from the wall next to the painting as well - which prompted members of London's National Gallery to suggest its removal was by organised criminal art dealers. According to gallery director Pietro Paradisi, pilfering is quite common - Ten Krooden's work was the third taken in July.
Despite the theft, 40 of her other works were sold. http://allafrica.com/