By Associated Press
DUBLIN, Ireland -- Police have recovered five stolen paintings -- including two by the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens -- from the attic of a public housing project and arrested three people, they said Saturday. Detectives found the hidden artworks Friday night, nearly three months after they disappeared from Russborough House, the home of the late English art collector and philanthropist Sir Alfred Beit. It was the fourth time thieves had targeted the house south of Dublin, which is open to the public. Police found the paintings -- minus their frames -- when they raided a house in the Clondalkin section of Dublin and said they were in excellent condition. Assistant Commissioner Joe Egan said those arrested -- two women and a man, all in their thirties -- had not been charged, but added that he expected more arrests. He did not release the suspects' names. "This is not the end of the investigation into the disappearance," Egan said. "We would hope at this stage that the people and criminals engaging in this type of activity would at last see the folly of their ways." The stolen works were "Portrait of a Dominican Monk" and "Venus Supplicating Jupiter," both by Rubens, Wilem van der Veld the Younger's "Calm Sea," Adrien van Osade's "Adoration of the Shepherds" and Jacob van Ruisdael's "The Cornfield." Thieves have targeted Russborough House four times. In 1974, an Irish Republican Army gang stole 19 paintings after tying up Beit and his wife. All the paintings were later found in County Cork in southwest Ireland.
In May 1986, 18 paintings -- including "Portrait of a Dominican Monk" and "The Cornfield" -- were stolen by a Dublin gangster. The haul was gradually recovered, mostly through suspicious auction houses in England and Belgium, and only two works are still missing. Two more paintings, Thomas Gainsborough's portrait of Madame Bacelli and Bernardo Bellotto's "View of Florence," were stolen in June 2001 and later found at a house in Dublin. Beit, whose family wealth came from gold mines and diamond dealing in South Africa, inherited the art collection, and in 1952 he bought and restored Russborough House to house it. He died in 1994.
http://www.newsday.com/
Rip in the Rembrandt: A dreaded museum tale
Sophia Kishkovsky The New York Times Saturday, December 21, 2002
MOSCOW In February 2001, Tatiana Potapova received the late-night phone call every museum curator dreads. Somewhere on the way from the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Rembrandt's "Portrait of an Elderly Woman" received a gash nearly 3 by 1.4 inches wide in the bottom right corner.. The two museums had just signed a long-term exchange agreement that continues and is prized by both museums. But the Pushkin Museum's long wrangle with a leading Russian insurer and a Lloyd's underwriter over how much depreciation should be paid for the damage was resolved only on Wednesday.. Nurminen Prima Oy, a Finnish shipping company, handled moving the painting, which dates to the early 1650s and comes from a collection of Lord Walpole that was bought by Catherine the Great. It was packed at the museum, taken to Sheremetyevo 2 Airport, Moscow's main international airport, and sent to Houston via John F. Kennedy International Airport.. Representatives of Masterpiece International, a fine-arts shipper, received it in Houston. The painting was unpacked and the damage was found at the Houston museum, which photographed it.. No one knows exactly how it happened, but Potapova, the deputy director of the Pushkin Museum, and the museum's director, Irina Antonova, said they thought that at some point the cargo was dropped, which knocked the painting off the reinforcing bolts that secured it in a climate-controlled container. The bolts then cut through the canvas.. "If it was badly packed, it would be a different type of damage," Potapova said. "The painting had a double canvas. To rip through several inches of it, there had to be a blow that allowed the picture to fall from the frame." A restorer from Moscow went to Houston to repair the painting. . "The Pushkin Rembrandt has received careful conservation and will be in excellent viewing condition for a long, long time," said Peter Marzio, the Houston museum's director. "Portrait of an Elderly Woman," which was displayed for several months at the Houston museum under the title "Old Woman Seated," is now back on display at the Pushkin with no visible signs of damage, but the case has been widely covered in the Russian press. . In the past, the receiving side had insured artworks lent by Soviet and then Russian museums, which were chronically short of money and virtually uninsured. Culture is, like most things in Russia, still poorly insured. . In June 2000, the Russian Culture Ministry, which oversees all state-run museums, signed an agreement on coverage with six leading Russian insurers. But Russia's fledgling insurance market can cover only 10 percent of the risk for exhibitions abroad. The rest is reinsured by Lloyd's of London. . "Portrait of an Elderly Woman" was insured at an estimated market value of $12 million by the six Russian insurance agencies, including Ingosstrakh, and Lloyd's underwriter, Amlin Underwriting. Under the terms of coverage, a specialist acceptable to the museum and the insurers would be chosen to estimate depreciation in case of damage. . Potapova of the Pushkin said the insurers did not respond to inquiries, so the museum turned to Knut Nicolaus, a German restoration expert. The underwriters turned to Ernst Van de Wetering, head of the Rembrandt Research Project at the University of Amsterdam. Nicolaus estimated the depreciation at 15 percent of the painting's market value, Van de Wetering at 5 percent. . Olga Seravkina, the head of the department of fine arts of Marsh Ltd.'s Moscow office, which brokered the insurance coverage, said that the damage was so small that it had no influence on the visual appreciation of the work. . "It would be much different if it was a clear, bright spot," she said before the dispute was resolved. "The Pushkin Museum wants more money." . Nicolaus said in a telephone interview from his home near Cologne: "It was restored very well, true. Restoration can change after time, though. It depends on the time and the materials. In 20 or 30 years it can change. It's not a Rembrandt there. It's now the restorer." . Both sides recently agreed on a new expert, Karl Schutz, director of the Picture Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. He reported his decision Wednesday, a compromise of 10 percent, Seravkina said. . Despite the damage, the two museums' exchange agreement seems to work well for both sides, and the Pushkin is doing well in other ways also. The number of visitors to the Pushkin has soared since a mid-1990s plunge. Thousands stood in bitter cold for hours last winter to see a Monet exhibition. Corporate donations are growing, although not enough to repair neighboring buildings the state has allocated to the Pushkin. . The Rembrandt was part of an exchange of individual masterpieces. Houston has no Rembrandts, while the Pushkin has six. Houston recently lent Goya's "Still Life With Golden Bream" to the Pushkin, which has no Goya still lifes. . "The Hermitage is very well known in America, but our museum isn't, even though we have wonderful collections," Antonova said. "This road through Houston and Atlanta is one of the ways of familiarizing American art lovers with our museum." . Houston is translating the Pushkin's two-volume catalogue into English. Aglittering exhibition called "African Gold: Selections From the Glassell Collection" visited the Pushkin last winter from Houston. The Pushkin has sent 76 French masterworks, 52 never seen in the United States before, to Houston for a show that opened on Sunday and will go on to Atlanta and Los Angeles. Antonova and Marzio are discussing plans to show American art at the Pushkin. . Vadim Sadkov, head of the Pushkin's European and American art department, said the painting was under observation during loading and unloading everywhere except at Kennedy Airport, which would not allow observers onto the runway. He said he could not prove that the damage occurred in New York, but he added, "We have learned from the sad lesson with this picture." . Artworks will now be sent with a curator by land and sea to Amsterdam, then put on a direct flight to Houston, avoiding a change of planes in New York.
http://www.iht.com/
Ex-Sotheby's Boss Guilty
by Cara Wides
The former American chairman of international auction house Sotheby’s has been convicted of price fixing by a New York court. Self-made millionaire Alfred Taubman faces up to three years in jail, and a fine of more than $1billion, after being found guilty of conspiring with rival auctioneers Christie’s to cheat art sellers out millions of dollars. The 76-year-old from Michigan is due to be sentenced next April. Key prosecution witness Diana D. Brooks, former chief executive at Sotheby’s, told the court how her former boss and Christie’s chairman, Sir Anthony Tennant, hatched the plot to fix prices at a meeting in 1993. Tennant, 71, of Kensington, west London, cannot be extradited because his alleged crime is a civil offence under British law. Chris Tennyson, a close business associate of Taubman’s, described his colleague as “stunned by the verdict”. Taubman made his fortune building shopping centres before becoming the controlling shareholder at the American auction house.
http://www.totallyjewish.com/
Iraq Hands Back Paintings, Gifts Taken from Kuwait
Sun December 22, 2002 08:14 AM ET By Andrew Marshall
KUWAIT (Reuters) - Iraq, which has been trying to improve relations with Gulf War foe Kuwait, returned a batch of its stolen property on Sunday, the United Nations said. The U.N. Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM) said the items, including four paintings and seven gifts from foreign dignitaries to the Kuwaiti royal family, had been handed over on Sunday morning in a large van in an Iraqi border port. "We have the items and the handover went smoothly," a spokesman for the mission told Reuters. Carpets, hunting rifles and other "ancient pieces" were among the load. Iraq's foreign ministry said on Saturday it would return the stolen property, which it said had been seized recently by Iraqi customs authorities. It did not say where the items had found. UNIKOM monitors the cease-fire that ended the 1991 Gulf War in which a U.S.-led coalition drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Iraq has already returned much of the property it took from Kuwait during its 1990-91 occupation, including gold, museum pieces and planes, as required by the Gulf War cease-fire terms. It has now agreed to renew talks next month, after a four-year gap, on the fate of hundreds of people who went missing during its occupation of Kuwait. This month, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein apologized for the invasion of Kuwait in a letter read out on Iraqi television.
He directed his apology to Kuwait's people, rather than government, and urged them to struggle against foreign armies -- seen as a reference to thousands of U.S. soldiers training in Kuwait. Kuwait's government and parliament rejected the apology, saying it was a bid to fracture national unity and incite terrorism in Kuwait. Kuwait is a key ally of Washington in the Gulf region and seen as a major launching pad for any attack on Iraq. The United States has said Iraq is in "material breach" of a U.N. resolution ordering it to declare its weapons of mass destruction, and says it will take military action unless Iraq disarms. Analysts say Saddam has been trying to garner support among the Kuwaiti people and mobilize anti-U.S. sentiment. Although most Kuwaitis are staunchly pro-American, concerns are growing about mounting anti-U.S. sentiment in the country. Last month a Kuwaiti policeman shot and wounded two U.S. soldiers on a highway south of Kuwait City, and in October a U.S. Marine was killed in an attack on a Kuwaiti island. (Additional reporting by Hassan Hafidh in Baghdad)
http://reuters.com/
Answers just out of reach in art hunt
Christie's won't reveal possible holder of painting
By Howard Reich Tribune arts critic Published December 22, 2002
For nearly 60 years, a family of Viennese Holocaust survivors searched for its looted artworks, to no avail. But now that the twin sisters carrying on the family quest have come close to locating one masterpiece, they have been blocked from attempting to recover it by the confidentiality agreements that are intrinsic to the private art business. An appraiser hired by Christie's auction house believes he saw the painting in the home of a client, but Christie's refuses to disclose that person's identity, leaving the sisters frustrated and leading to a court battle. While auction houses and museums have significantly stepped up their efforts to identify stolen art in recent years, this family saga shows how the business practices and legal nuances of the private art community still can make it difficult to get information on a painting with a questionable provenance. For sisters Eva Glaser and Erika Tauber, who live in Lexington, Mass., the issue is simple: The painting was stolen, and they should be able to count on institutions such as Christie's to help them. They have filed a "John Doe" lawsuit against the anonymous holder in U.S. District Court in Boston and subpoenaed Christie's for information on the holder's identity. "If you saw someone stealing something from your neighbor's house, wouldn't you have to say what you saw?" asked Eva Glaser, 70. "Wouldn't you want to?" To Christie's, the issue is not as clear-cut. Its lawyers say the auction house has done all it can to help, including contacting the collector and informing him that the painting's ownership may be at issue. Christie's lawyers also said that the auction house never would knowingly sell looted art and that in this case it never was in possession of the missing painting, an oil by the 18th Century Italian master Michele Marieschi worth close to $1 million.
"While in no way underestimating the seriousness of the claim, we are not in a position, without the consent of the owner, or an order from the court, to disclose his identity or the location of a work of art," Christie's officials said in a statement to the Tribune. "It still seems to us that a balancing of competing interests has to take place in situations such as this, and if agreement cannot be reached, a court of competent jurisdiction will have to adjudicate." Only a side-by-side comparison of the painting and a 65-year-old photograph of the Marieschi would confirm whether it is the same work stolen from the twin sisters' family. Art experts disagreed on whether the Christie's position was ethically sound, though none disputed the legal right of an auction house to withhold the identity of someone who may possess stolen art. "Auction houses and dealers almost never give up that kind of information," said Robert Spiel, a Chicago security consultant who specialized in cultural theft as an FBI agent. "Think about what it would do to the auction houses' ability to get people to come to them for appraisals and to stay in business," Spiel added. "They can't very well tell everyone about what they've seen in people's houses--unless ordered to do so by a court." Others, however, contended that auction houses and art dealers ought to be forthcoming in helping claimants track down art that was stolen. "It's true that when I hire anyone, I tell them that anything they learn here is strictly confidential," said Leslie Hindman, a Chicago gallery owner whose Leslie Hindman Auctioneers was acquired by Sotheby's in 1997. (Hindman also writes a weekly syndicated column for the Tribune.)
"But I believe it's in an auction house's best interests to share information in that kind of a situation," Hindman said, "because no one in business wants to have anything to do with stolen property. Or they really shouldn't want to."
Settling legal issue
Added Paul Gray, a noted Chicago art dealer, "If I thought that there was any reason to believe that locating the work would help to address some outstanding legal issues, I would share the name of the person who has the art. "But if I believed that locating the work would make no difference, then I might not reveal the identity of the person," Gray said. The Tribune learned of the case of the missing Marieschi while investigating the looted art objects of Peter Glaser, who is Eva Glaser's husband, and obtained court records and private documents to re-create the sequence of events surrounding the family's search for its stolen property. In an interview, the appraiser who may have unlocked the family mystery, Charles Beddington, said the decision by Christie's to invoke confidentiality has left him powerless. "I've done all that I can do," said Beddington, reached by telephone in London, where he runs an art gallery. He is no longer a Christie's employee but remains a freelance consultant to the auction house. Beddington said auction houses are unlikely to volunteer information about possibly stolen art for basic business reasons. "I have no illusions about auction houses being sensitive to a higher cause," he said. The story of the sisters and the lost painting crosses continents and dates to the Nazi annexation of Austria. Heinrich "Henry" Graf and his family, including his twin daughters, Eva and Erika, fled Vienna on Aug. 30, 1938, leaving all their property in Austria with Schenker & Co., a storage firm. The family spent the next three years searching for a permanent residence, traveling through Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, all the while negotiating with the Nazis for the return of the property the Grafs had been forced to leave behind.
By the time the family settled in suburban New York in 1941, the Grafs had given the Nazis thousands of dollars for the safe return of their property, family documents show. The Nazis kept the money but did not return the art, or the family's precious silver, rugs and other valuables and heirlooms.
Seized by the Nazis
Immediately after the war, Graf resumed his attempts to reclaim his property, but Schenker & Co. explained that the Nazis had seized the family's property. "We would like to inform you that the furnishings of Mr. Heinrich Graf, engineer, were confiscated by the Secret State Police [Gestapo] on Nov. 16, 1940," a Schenker official wrote on Feb. 20, 1946. "As far as we know, the furnishings have been sold by public auction." In addition to the Marieschi, the family's paintings included "Oil Portrait of a Man" and "Oil Portrait of a Woman," both by Umberto Veruda. The subjects of these paintings, which were commissioned by the family, were the maternal grandparents of the twins. Henry Graf's search for the Marieschi might have ended with the letter about the Gestapo seizure of the art, if not for the remarkable fact that the gallery that sold him the paintings in December 1937 had made a professional photograph of the Marieschi, and it had survived the war.
Picking up the hunt
Graf continued his pursuit in vain until his death in 1976 at age 84; his twin daughters and their husbands picked up where he left off. The possible identity of the current holder became known to Christie's in 1998, when Beddington, who then worked for Christie's, noticed a photograph of the Marieschi in an ad in the international edition of The Art Newspaper, a publication circulated among art professionals and aficionados. Under the heading "Buyer Beware-- Holocaust Losses," a photograph of Marieschi's "View of Canale Grande and Dogana" (circa 1740) was published, and the caption noted that the family's artworks "were seized by the Gestapo in 1940 and were probably auctioned off." The ad had been placed by the Art Loss Register, a New York- and London-based organization that tracks stolen art and often helps Holocaust survivors locate looted cultural property. Beddington, an acknowledged expert in Marieschi, immediately recognized the painting and believed he had seen it in the French home of a British entrepreneur in the late 1980s. But when Beddington asked Christie's if he could be released from a confidentiality agreement with the auction house and reveal the name of the holder to the Holocaust survivors, Christie's officials told him he could not.
Letter to holder
Beddington told the family that he received the approval of Edward Dolman, the managing director of Christie's London office at the time, to write to the holder of the Marieschi. Dolman now is CEO of Christie's International. Beddington shared with the family the contents of his letter to the holder. "I hope that you will not mind me writing to you and will understand my reason for doing so," wrote Beddington on Aug. 18, 1998. After explaining that he believed he had seen the painting in the collector's apartment in France, Beddington continued, "Two American ladies have given the Art Loss Register convincing evidence that the picture was taken from their father by the Gestapo in 1940. . . . As far as I am aware, you have legal title to the picture and, if so, you need not feel obliged to take any action. However, in the present situation the painting might prove difficult to sell, should you ever wish to do so. The only way to resolve this would be to make some sort of agreement with the American ladies (offering them part of the proceeds might obviously be a solution)." Beddington then met with the two sisters. He told them that because he got no response from the holder, he phoned the man but was brushed off. Beddington advised the sisters to put pressure on Christie's to divulge the holder's name, noting that Christie's is a shareholder in the Art Loss Register and promotes its efforts to help Holocaust survivors reclaim looted art. After the sisters' attorneys, Palmer & Dodge of Boston, wrote to Christie's and asserted that the auction house "has shielded the identity of the current holder of the painting," Christie's attorneys responded that the house would not disclose the holder's name without a court order. Moreover, Christie's asserted that no such order could be made by a U.S. court.
No information
"The information that you are seeking is not in possession of either the Boston office of Christie's, or of anyone at Christie's Inc.," wrote Jo Backer Laird, senior vice president and general counsel of the auction house, in response to the Boston subpoena issued by the sisters' attorneys. "Such information as Christie's has is solely located in the United Kingdom," continued the letter. "Therefore, without waiving any arguments we may have as to jurisdiction, including arguments relating to the service of the subpoena, Christie's Inc.'s response to the subpoena is that we have no responsive documents or information." The sisters estimate they have spent $50,000 on attorney fees in Boston and London, a private investigator in London and a new round of ads featuring the photograph of the Marieschi in The Art Newspaper. But they said they feel stymied by the position of Christie's. "We are sort of trapped by the way the art world seems to work," said Erika Tauber, 70. "Apparently it's OK to keep a secret about a stolen work of art, something that was taken during the Holocaust, while the Nazis were trying to kill us."
Chicago Tribune
Couple charged over Irish art theft
Russborough House has been targetted before
A couple have been charged with handling five stolen paintings which were stolen from a stately home in County Wicklow, Ireland in September. Thomas Douglas, 52, and his wife Noeleen, 45, from Clondalkin, west Dublin, will appear before Dublin District Court on Monday.
The five masterpieces were found by police on Friday night, nearly three months after they disappeared from Russborough House, the stately home of the late South African diamond millionaire, Sir Alfred Beit. It was the fourth time thieves had targeted the house, south of Dublin, which is open to the public.
Old Masters
The stolen works included two by Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens, Portrait of A Dominican Monk, and Venus Supplicating Jupiter. The others were Willem van der Velde the Younger's Calm Sea, Adrian van Ostade's Adoration of The Shepherds and Jacob van Ruisdael's The Corn Field. Both The Corn Field and Portrait of A Dominican Monk were stolen previously in 1986 and returned seven years later. Sir Alfred, a former British MP whose wealth came from South African gold mines and diamond dealing, inherited a collection of Old Masters and in 1952 he bought and restored Russborough House to house them. He died in 1994, eight years after donating part of his priceless collection to Ireland's National Gallery.
See also:
30 Sep 02 | Arts Art thieves hit stately home http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/2287441.stm
27 Sep 02 | Arts Stolen paintings found in Dublin http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/2285474.stm
27 Jun 01 | Arts Ram raiders snatch art http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/1410117.stm
08 Aug 02 | Arts Stolen Rubens found in Ireland http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/2180103.stm
When thieves steal art, they steal from all of us
By Sid Smith Tribune arts critic
Enterprising thieves recently managed to slip away with two early works by Vincent van Gogh from the museum in Amsterdam dedicated to his work. What a curious manifestation of human ingenuity. To credit the criminals, pilfering from a modern museum is no easy feat, thanks to technology. (The rogues in question got in through the roof, set off an alarm but still managed to escape.) Nor is such an action as heinous a crime against humanity as genocide or the slaughter of children in the name of drug warfare. And yet, how dare they? Why would they? Van Gogh is so famous, experts argue, the culprits probably will have difficulty selling the works for the millions they're worth. Assuming this isn't the more whimsical scenario of a team of genuine van Gogh fanatics, the audacity of the heist wildly overshadows the practical financial benefit. Yet, such thievery happens. This same museum lost some other van Goghs in 1991, and, though they were later recovered, two were also stolen in Italy as recently as 1998. Joining pickpockets, Internet identity thieves and all the other fraternity members of con men of our time is this elite, artsy swat brigade, this highly daring and, let's admit it, cultured coterie of malefactors who target not jewels, cash, fashions or debit cards, but great art.
Art and ownership
The incident says a lot about the complex interplay between art and ownership in the 21st Century. Visual art, painting and sculpture are somewhat unique in the humanities in that they are physical commodities, and they can actually be owned, items to be traded like food and shelter. We cannot, for instance, similarly own poems, symphonies, novels, movies or TV shows. They belong to everybody. You can buy a paperback copy of "The Great Gatsby" or a video version of the movie for less dinner at a restaurant. Of course, these other arts are protected in terms of intellectual content. We're not allowed to steal each other's artistic ideas, although the Amsterdam thieves may feel a kind of kinship with plagiarists who've lately made news in the fields of history and biography, as well as copyright infringers in certain notorious nations. But we can all own a personal copy of books, films or recordings. Only the rich can buy the likes of an original van Gogh painting, and such purchases signify status, investment and the rights of ownership as much as they do personal enjoyment and private beauty. Enter the modern museum. This institution of communal property flies in the face of the age-old monopoly of private ownership. A van Gogh I hang in my house is on view only to me, loved ones and guests. Museums, for centuries now, take such works and virtually give ownership to us all. Thus, the Amsterdam thieves and their colleagues get worldwide attention not just because they're bold and clever, but because they rob from what used to be quaintly called the commonwealth. That's it, in a nutshell: our common wealth. We're all their victims. I've been to Amsterdam's van Gogh Museum, and it is an unforgettable treasure. Unlike many other museums, it's dedicated mostly to one artist. That he is so distinctive and expressive is a part of its appeal. But more important, unlike the hodgepodge samples of various artists or periods that most museums collect, this one and its nearly 100 van Gogh creations offer a singular, insightful, breathtaking overview of one particular genius. You can literally study, painting by painting, stroke by stroke, how he developed as a great artist and, more sadly, chart the progression of madness in his canvases. To rob this museum, to truncate, however minutely, this fascinating progress is a heartbreaking crime. (The stolen works, "Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen" and "View of the Sea at Scheveningen," are from his early period.) Poor van Gogh, dying in loneliness, poverty and insanity, unaware that a work of his would someday sell for $71 million, the last price paid for a self-portrait sold at auction in 1998. And now this, the jewel-thief equivalent of mass terrorism. No one has managed yet to cart off the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty or the Statue of David. But as Michelangelo's Pieta in the Vatican proved, desecration is an alternative, suggesting the animosity toward public art isn't always fueled by greed and that no public monument is immune.
Artists as co-conspirators
Perversely, artists themselves sometimes function as co-conspirators in terms of their sympathy for thievery. Shakespeare's Prince Hal masquerades as a highwayman in what plays as a sportly prelude to great leadership, for instance. "Bonnie and Clyde," a band outwitting the Istanbul museum in the delightful 1964 caper "Topkapi" and even the recent remake of "The Thomas Crown Affair" (with Pierce Brosnan heisting art, not money, as in the original) all glorify theft. The endlessness of the list suggests its pervasiveness, from "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" to "The Thief of Baghdad," "To Catch a Thief," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "Ocean's 11," "Snatch" and, a personal favorite, Robert Benton's quirky 1972 movie "Bad Company." Our sympathies go to the robber much more than the robber baron: Consider the Robin Hood myth. With cunning perversity, the Amsterdam thieves turned the myth back onto us and stole from the not-so-rich in a way that will only punish the poor. A quixotic suggestion to these evildoers, wherever they may be: Give the paintings back. You can't sell them, ransom is tricky and what's the fun of a prized possession you have to keep secret? Turn yourselves in, endure the sentences that will no doubt be light given your change of heart and then write your book, sell your movie rights, go on "Jerry Springer" and the rest and win fame and fortune a couple of obscure paintings could never otherwise net. You'll be rich beyond your wildest dreams, your memoirs will be (ironically) protected by copyright laws and you will have restored to art lovers everywhere something, in the end, that is more priceless than ownership: Access.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Reassembling Sundered Antiquities
By LEE ROSENBAUM
It's the latest flare-up in the longstanding dispute over the Parthenon marbles — removed from Greece to Britain in the early 19th century under controversial circumstances. Greece is lobbying hard to have the so-called Elgin marbles, Britain's portion of the Parthenon frieze, returned to Athens in time for the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. The British Museum's director says the marbles are "indispensable" and "cannot be lent to any museum." The contretemps reportedly prompted the recent statement by 18 prominent museum directors defending the right of museums to retain long-held foreign antiquities. Such works, the directors said, have become "part of the heritage of the nations which house them," even if they were acquired by "partage" — a polite word for pillage and other forms of expropriation. But the statement overlooks a crucial fact. Several disputed sculptures and monuments — most notably, the Parthenon frieze — are sundered, with fragments residing in separate museums. Rather than fighting over the Parthenon marbles, Greece and Britain should work to reunite the fragments and take turns displaying the reassembled ancient masterpiece. In so doing, they would be honoring the museological imperative to put the highest priority on the integrity of the art work. Designed in the fifth century B.C. to depict the procession of the Panathenaic festival, Athens' quadrennial celebration, the Parthenon marbles were pried apart by the acquisitive Lord Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, who removed much of the temple's decoration to England with the acquiescence of the occupying Turks. Reassembling the marbles would require some creative diplomatic and practical maneuvers. But there are smaller-scale precedents for reassembling sundered art. Twenty- eight years ago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Louvre in Paris reunited the head and torso of a rare neo-Sumerian statue dating from 2100 B.C., agreeing to take turns displaying the restored work. Earlier this year, the 15th-century panels from a triptych by Fra Angelico, owned separately by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, were reunited. And at an exhibition last spring at the Onassis Cultural Center in New York, the head and torso were reassembled from an early Cycladic marble dating from the third millennium B.C. These pieces are separately owned by the Getty museum and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Admittedly, shipping tons of marble across Europe is a heftier proposition. The elegant, energetic Parthenon frieze is now split among the British Museum in London, which has more than half of the surviving slabs; the Acropolis Museum in Athens, which has most of the rest; the Louvre in Paris, which has one slab; and five other European museums, which have fragments. In several cases, pieces of a single slab are split between London and Athens. In a symbolic gesture last week, Italy announced a long-term loan to Greece of a small fragment of the frieze, depicting the foot of Peitho, goddess of persuasion. Sadly, even the most concerted efforts at cultural diplomacy and art restoration will never make the frieze whole. Portions were lost in various upheavals, including the conversion of the temple into a church in about 450 A.D. and a direct hit by a shell during a Venetian siege in 1687, when the structure was used by the Turks for military purposes. Moreover, the marbles long ago lost their pigments and the pieces of metal that were affixed to depict weapons and horses' trappings. They suffered further indignities in the 20th century: They were eroded and discolored in Athens by some of Europe's worst pollution and in London by a misguidedly harsh scrubbing in the late 1930's. Darkened and weathered in Greece, whitened in England, the ancient celebrants might look more like distant cousins than siblings were they to meet up at a family reunion. Still, art lovers and scholars would rejoice at the chance to see one of the world's most celebrated monumental artworks at least partially reassembled and, at last, well cared for. The Greeks are now trying to sweeten their pitch for the marbles in the British Museum. They have offered Britain major exhibitions of other ancient art. They have also stopped asserting ownership of the expatriate slabs, asking instead for the panels to be returned as a long-term loan. The reunited pieces would take their place in a new glass- enclosed Parthenon Gallery, which would crown a new museum to be built below the ancient temple. There is considerable doubt, however, that this museum-building project, some 25 years in discussion, will be completed in time for the 2004 Olympics. And this delay could provide Greece with an opportunity to sweeten its offer further. The Greeks should now agree to lend their signature treasure to the British Museum until the inadequate old Acropolis Museum is finally replaced by one that meets modern standards. Arrangements could then be made to continue long-term displays of the reunited marbles at each venue — the British Museum in London and the new museum in Athens.
In the meantime, the British Museum could certainly use the increased drawing power that would be generated by a display of the entire set of marbles. With its attendance down and its finances in disarray, the museum has suffered staff cuts and was recently rebuffed by the British government in its urgent appeal for a substantially larger subsidy. A Parthenon frieze reassembled in time for the museum's 250th anniversary in 2003 would draw hordes of visitors to a celebratory reunion.
If ever there were a case for putting the integrity of an artwork above ownership interests, this is it.
Lee Rosenbaum is a contributing editor of Art in America magazine.
http://www.nytimes.com/
Copying the Marbles
Re "Reassembling Sundered Antiquities," by Lee Rosenbaum (Op-Ed, Dec. 19):
It seems clear that none of the parties involved in the dispute over the Elgin marbles is going to willingly surrender antiquities in its possession.
While I appreciate the difference between an original and a copy, I believe that we should use the sophistication of reproduction science today to create a full set of the Elgin marbles for all parties.
This way, each of the eight museums with a portion of the Parthenon frieze could have a full "set," and visitors could appreciate this treasure better than they can now at any of the individual museums. KEVIN CRONIN Playa del Rey, Calif., Dec. 20, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/
L.A. Man Sues for Picasso Stolen by Nazis
The Associated Press Wednesday, December 25, 2002; 12:10 AM
LOS ANGELES –– The grandson of a Jewish woman who fled Germany during World War II has asked a judge to order an art collector to return a Pablo Picasso painting allegedly stolen by the Nazis or pay $10 million to keep it. Thomas Bennigson received a call earlier this year from an international art registry, notifying him that the painting had been located, said his attorney, E. Randol Schoenberg. The 1922 Picasso painting, known as "Femme en blanc" or "Femme assise," was found in a Los Angeles art gallery, where it was up for sale. The painting was returned to owner Marilyn Alsdorf in Chicago without being sold. Schoenberg said a new state law extends the statute of limitations for all claims against museums and galleries over Nazi- looted artworks to Dec. 31, 2010. A judge ruled Dec. 20 that the painting should be returned to Los Angeles until a scheduled Jan. 10 preliminary hearing. Another hearing was scheduled for Friday, Schoenberg said. Schoenberg said he and Alsdorf's lawyer agreed Monday that the painting could remain in Chicago for the time being. Alsdorf's attorney, David Rownd, said his client knew nothing about the painting's apparent history. Alsdorf's late husband, James, bought the painting from a New York gallery in 1975 for $357,000, according to a court declaration filed by Sarah Jackson, of the Art Loss Register in London. Jackson said the register – the world's largest private international database of lost and stolen art, antiques and collectibles – learned about the Nazi theft after a French art dealer who had been considering buying the painting requested an investigation. Before Bennigson's grandmother escaped Nazi Germany, she sent the painting to a Parisian art dealer for safekeeping. Nazis looted the painting and other valuables in 1940, according to a 1958 letter from the dealer. Bennigson, a law student at the University of California, Berkeley, said his grandmother unsuccessfully searched for the painting before her death in 1994.
Art treasures may be Nazi loot
By RICK WALLACE 26dec02
SOME of the National Gallery's most famous and valuable artworks are on a risk list of art possibly stolen by the Nazis. Paintings by Picasso, Monet, Matisse and Rubens are on a list of 86 suspect art works released by the gallery. An internal gallery audit found the works have suspicious gaps in their ownership between 1933 and 1945, the years of Nazi rule. Gallery director Brian Kennedy believes it is likely that one or more of the works will turn out to be Nazi plunder. This could see the original owners or their heirs, often Jewish families in Europe, able to repossess the stolen works. Monet's Waterlilies, Rubens' Self-portrait and Picasso's Still-life With Mask – each worth millions of dollars – are among those at risk. They are among the gallery's best-loved works. Waterlilies and another suspect Monet painting, Haystacks, Midday, were among the centrepieces of the gallery's recent blockbuster Monet and Japan exhibition. The list also includes several priceless sculptures, along with paintings and sketches by major European artists from the 14th century to 1937. Dr Kennedy said last year most major galleries or museums probably have some works looted by Hitler's forces. The Nazis are estimated to have snatched more than a fifth of the world's Western art, much of it earmarked for the private museum the German dictator was planning at his Austrian birthplace, Linz. After Hitler's defeat, many of the paintings were returned to their owners, a process aided by the meticulous records the Nazis kept. But others were sold to unsuspecting buyers by unscrupulous dealers. It is believed some of the 86 works on the gallery's list passed through the hands of European dealers suspected of trading with Nazis.
The National Gallery was unable to respond to inquiries from the Herald Sun, but documents accompanying the list issued recently said there had been no claims yet on any of its works. "Gaps in the provenance (ownership history) do not imply that any work was stolen, merely that it is not known for certain who held it in the years 1933 to 1945," the documents say. Australian galleries began scouring their collections after a stolen masterpiece was found in the Queensland Art Gallery. The priceless oil painting Virgin and Child, by an artist known as the Master of Frankfurt, was stolen from a Jewish family in 1939. It will stay in the gallery because it was returned to the family after the war and sold. Many European galleries and even governments have surrendered looted art works to the heirs of the original owners after discovering the dark secret in their histories. The scale of the looting was so great that international art experts have warned no major gallery is immune from risk. The National Gallery of Victoria has been checking the background of 24 works in its collections,
A full list of the National Gallery's 86 suspect works can be found at its website http://www.nga.gov.au under "Provenance Research Project" on the collections menu.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/
Art treasures alert as Paris faces floods
CATHERINE BREMER IN PARIS
A FAVOURITE haunt of romantics in drier times, the river Seine has turned into a raging torrent that is forcing Paris to move precious artworks from gallery basements and to line up a fleet of rescue boats in preparation for catastrophic floods. Weeks of rain soaking into waterlogged subsoil have set alarm bells ringing. Experts say it is only a matter of time before the Seine bursts its banks and spills into underground stations, cellars and sewers - as it did almost a century ago. "It will happen. If not this year then next year. We are not far from the first alert level, and we’re getting a lot of rain," said Paris environmental official Alain Pialat. Dreading being caught unawares by the kind of floods that swamped central European cities in August, Paris city planners have advised riverside museums like the Louvre to pack up valuables kept in basement rooms and move them to safety. Hospitals are emptying their basements of equipment and drawing up contingency plans in case electricity and heating is cut off by flooding and they have to evacuate patients. The RATP metro and bus authority is also working out how to seal up underground stations. Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe has even ordered a fleet of flat- bottomed boats in case police and rescue workers need to paddle through flooded city streets. For the bars and restaurants strung along the river’s edge, there is little to do but wait. "It’s very worrying. The authorities are helping the Louvre with its paintings but nothing is being done for us," said Frank, a chef whose kitchen is in the basement of an Irish pub. "Whenever we get heavy rain it floods here because water runs down from higher up. We’ve had half a metre of water in the kitchen before." Paris’s 1,300-mile-long sewer system could not cope if the Seine reached street level. Damage could run to billions of pounds. "If the Seine flooded today like it did in 1910, there would be problems. It would be a huge headache. Our pumps are just not designed to cope with floods that big," a sewage worker said. Mindful of the huge cost of a clean- up, the authorities are keeping a watchful eye on the famous toes of the "Zouave" - a 146-year- old statue of a soldier standing against a pillar of the Pont d’Alma bridge and a historic river marker. If the Zouave’s toes get wet, Paris will be on flood alert. If his ankles go under, riverside roads will be closed. If his hips get wet - not so far-fetched given that his knees went underwater last year - the city will put into action an emergency flood plan it has been planning for a year. "Experts say sooner or later flooding on the level seen in 1910 could happen. It could be a year, five years or ten years," Paris police chief Jean-Paul Proust told a news conference. The flood plan, which outlines measures to limit potential damage, should be finalised in the coming weeks, Proust said. Few in Paris would remember the flood of 1910, but newspapers have been printing faded sepia photos of bemused-looking people boating around the city centre. A witness then, when the Seine swirled round the Zouave’s neck, wrote of "thick black slime, abject shivering misery, and great lakes of yellow water, with here and there the upper story of a house rising like an island from the desolate waste".
Even the Eiffel Tower had its feet in the water, and the palatial Orsay railway station, now the Musee d’Orsay art gallery, resembled a giant indoor swimming pool with steam engines parked on its bottom, eyewitness accounts say. Such flooding today would be devastating in a museum that houses works by Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir and Cezanne, valued sculptures and stunning decorative arts and furniture. The culture ministry plans to rent a massive warehouse where endangered artworks can be stored for the winter months. "We are shifting a whole load of exhibits, either to higher floors or to storage points. It’s going to take some time before we’re finished," said a spokeswoman at the Musee d’Orsay. Over the river the Louvre, home to the Mona Lisa, is doing the same, horrified at the idea its treasures could be subjected to a last- minute rescue, as in the Zwinger palace gallery in Dresden, which was swamped by the flooded river Elbe in August.
Yet some Parisians refuse to be rattled.
"I’m not worried. In 1910 the flood stopped three doors down from here," said bartender Yves Thierry. "I know how to swim - and a little bit of water never stopped anybody drinking."
http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/
Breakages and bungling at British Museum
Will Iredale and Jonathan Calvert
PRICELESS artefacts from ancient Greece and Rome are being mislaid, broken and poorly protected in the cash-strapped British Museum, a Sunday Times investigation has found. Chaotic scenes at the museum — custodian of some of the world’s greatest antiquities — were witnessed by an undercover reporter posing as a work experience trainee. During his three weeks in the museum’s department of Greek and Roman antiquities he found that: o Pieces from the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, were among hundreds of artefacts that had gone missing in storerooms. o Two-thousand-year-old pots and glass artefacts were accidentally broken. Some staff secretly glued smashed items back together so that the museum authorities would not know. o Security was so lax that the reporter was able to walk out of the museum carrying the foot of a 3rd-century BC Greek statue, valued at £20,000, without being noticed. The British Museum — home of the Elgin marbles and the Rosetta stone — holds for the nation collections from around the world covering 10,000 years of human history. A key tenet of its argument for keeping the Elgin marbles rather than return them to Greece is the quality of its care. The museum’s collections are housed, says its website, “in safety, conserved, curated, researched and exhibited”. For the 4.8m people who visit the museum each year, such a statement may be reassuring. But beneath the calm exterior the museum is in trouble, as are its collections of antiquities. When the museum realised the depth of its financial crisis earlier this year — predicting a loss of £5m by 2004 — the Treasury blocked a bail-out because it did not wish to reward bad management. Over the past 10 years the museum’s government grants — which now total £36m a year — have declined by 30% in real terms. A third of its galleries are now closed at any one time, more than 150 of the 1,100 employees face redundancy and last summer the staff called their first strike. “All the world’s big museums have their problems, but the British Museum has been particularly badly run over the years. It is such a shame because it is a national treasure,” said one insider.
When a Sunday Times reporter applied for work experience at the museum, he was taken on without any checks on his references. But, as he was soon to find, security is not a high priority. It was not just that the galleries are only sparsely guarded by a handful of security personnel but also that few have closed-circuit television cameras, despite calls for their introduction after a small Greek head worth £25,000 was stolen last summer. There were no cameras in the Greek and Roman department where the reporter began work last month. On his first day he was left alone in a vault full of 2,000-year-old objects. To test security he smuggled a 3rd-century BC Greek marble foot out of the museum, walking through the main hall and security before returning unchallenged. But far from beefing up security, this is one area where the museum is looking to make cuts. The lack of money has also brought disillusionment among staff. Curators with years of experience get as little as £12,000 a year and many complain they cannot afford to live in London. Some museum assistants have to take second jobs. One appeared to have given up, spending much of the day reading a book on the Rolling Stones. The stocktaking — a crucial job in an institution that contains artefacts worth hundreds of millions of pounds in its vaults — was undertaken by part-time volunteers. The reporter worked alongside one who expressed his frustration that hundreds of pieces appeared to have been mislaid. Probably the most significant losses were parts of the 2,358- year-old Temple of Artemis, which was built at the time of Alexander the Great. Some of the marble artefacts — from fragments of pillars to pieces of statues — were last catalogued a century ago. Dr Peter Higgs, one of the curators, said he was confident that they would be found but admitted: “It’s chaos down here.” Indeed, the room where many of the classical treasures were stored was cramped and unsuitable, with Roman and Greek statues standing under a large red water pipe. According to Higgs, any leak could be a catastrophe, damaging artefacts worth millions. There is also concern about the location of artefacts in some of the galleries. Sculptures from the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos, another of the Seven Wonders of the World, are situated in a gallery that is sometimes used as a kitchen for corporate guests.
Such corporate events are a financial lifeline, but they are not without their dangers. Tipsy partygoers carry hot food and wine near works of art. One museum assistant said: “We have functions in the sculpture rooms, which is deadly because these people just want to get drunk in nice surroundings.” One big donor threatened to withdraw her funding from the museum when she was told that she could not drink red wine in one of the galleries during a party. At another function, a catering trolley rammed into a glass case and damaged a valuable artefact. Although the incident happened five years ago, the artefact is still being repaired. Downstairs in the vaults there are more breakages. The staff want to use a laser machine favoured by other top museums to clean objects without touching them. But it will cost too much money. One assistant said glass vases dating from the 3rd-century BC were often broken while work was being carried out on them. “You either admit to it or you go down to ceramics conservation and ask them to do (fix) it for you on the sly. Most of the curators have a little tube of glue with them and try to do it themselves. Once I was mounting two glass vases on perspex and they shattered when I was trying to put a clamp on them.” Even Higgs told the reporter: “I have had a Greek marble face crumble in my hand. It is a horrible feeling as you have to try to catch all the bits.” Last year a visiting academic, who was supposed to be supervised, broke five ancient Greek terracotta carvings in less than an hour. “He just picked them up and they broke,” an assistant said. Last Monday the department of Greek and Roman antiquities was due to get £260,000 to refurbish and reopen some of its galleries, but that morning the museum’s accountants told staff that the money had been diverted elsewhere.
The lack of funds means that gallery 22 — containing many of the best Greek and Roman works — will remain shut in the afternoons.
“It is a real shame,” said a curator, “but it is out of our hands.”
The musuem said yesterday that it was addressing concerns over damage, theft, staffing levels, surveillance and inventory checks in a security review. “All museums open to the public have to balance constantly the right of public access with the safety of the objects and their vulnerability to wilful damage or theft,” said a spokesman.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
Product info. The Museum Security Network disclaims all responsibillity for information about security products.
From: "Clive Stevens" clive@euronova.co.uk To: securma@xs4all.nl
Subject: Euronova museum security systems
The GalleryMaster™ (http://www.euronova.co.uk/GalleryMasterWebPresentation/index.htm) system enables you to select from a whole range of wirefree sensors (conservator friendly) to suit different exhibits. For example: A short range infra red means the sensor need not touch the exhibit and an EBS sensor alerts when someone gets too close. Each sensor is uniquely identifiable and signals back through a receiver (max 32) to the control box and software. From this you can configure relays (max 640), SMS messages or modems to communicate with other systems. Also GalleryNetwork™ utilizing the same range of sensors as GalleryMaster™, enables 48 sensors to communicate wirefree to a stand-alone control box. This is programmable remotely and can also communicate using GSM, SMS or landline. European systems are installed in some 20 locations. A USA version will be available in 2003. - Euronova Ltd (http://www.euronova.co.uk/museum1.htm)
The art of deception
They are the detectives of the art world, employing their knowledge of history and familiarity with artists' idiosyncrasies to determine if a work is a forgery. The "Sherlock Holmes of Shanghai" is a 72-year-old "sleuth" named Zhong Yinlan, a renowned expert on master ink-wash painter Badashanren. Zhong also possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of the lives and works of China's most famous painters, writes Wang Jie.
Forgery is an accepted part of our daily lives. Every time one makes a purchase with a 100-yuan (US$12) note, the cashier slips the bill under an ultraviolet light before handing over the change. But when it comes to distinguishing fine art from exquisitely rendered forgeries, even the experts have been duped. When a painting by a Chinese master suddenly surfaces after being presumed lost or destroyed, the job of authenticating the work often lands on the desk of Zhong Yinlan - the leading foil of fine art forgers on the Chinese mainland. In a career that has spanned more than half a century, the 72-year-old Shanghai Museum employee has scrutinized and appraised tens of thousands of ancient ink-wash paintings. Zhong was given the monumental task of culling the finest examples of Chinese painting and calligraphy from the Shanghai Museum, the Palace Museum in Beijing and the Liaoning Museum for an exhibit currently running at the Shanghai Museum through January 6. The job, says Zhong, was all-consuming, and she says she hasn't even seen the exhibit due to "exhaustion." But it was a labor of love. "My joy came from spending so much time with these exquisite works of art. I treasured every moment I spent with them," she says, as if speaking about cherished grandchildren and not inanimate works of art. When she joined the museum at 20, Zhong's only ambition was to earn money to support her family. At first, the job was overwhelming. "There were so many artists and paintings to remember," she recalls. Over time, her work ethic and talent paid off, and in 1967, she was assigned to a team charged with cataloguing all the paintings that were confiscated during the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976).
"I was assessing and recording about a 1,000 paintings a day at the time," she says. "To be frank, it was a tedious job, and I was bored at first. But over time, those profound brushstrokes and simple, elegant hues captured my imagination." Back then, she lived in the museum's warehouse with two other staff members, working day and night. The sheer volume and detailed nature of the work soon turned her into something of an expert, and before long, she was able to discern an original from a forgery. "Sometimes it was exceedingly difficult to judge: An artist's style can change over time. Any number of factors, such as health, emotional state, or age, can affect the work, so one can't leap to conclusions based on seeming inconsistencies. But in a genuine piece, there is always something that defies duplication," Zhong says. That something could be a telltale brushstroke, the positioning or composition of a signature or chop, or even an intangible quality that only someone intimately familiar with the artist can detect. Acquiring the knowledge necessary to assess paintings takes years. The best appraisers are also art historians, and the prevailing social, literary and economic conditions during an epoch is essential when judging the veracity of a painting. Zhong still puts in long hours, absorbing as much information as possible to lessen the chance that a very good fake might get by her. "This is definitely not a get-rich-quick profession," she says. "An appraiser may be good at evaluating the work of a particular artist or school of painting, but the goal of a truly accomplished detective is to attain a broad, detailed understanding of a great many artists and work for an institution that houses such works." The key, she insists, is experience. "In some ways, my mind is akin to a computer database, storing information in different folders," she jokes. But computers are not infallible, particularly when it comes to assessing emotions which underlay every work of fine art. "Of course, it would be the height of arrogance for an expert to claim that he or she could never be duped by a faked artwork. Some forgeries have hoodwinked the best of the best. It's like a duel," she says. "you're not going to survive every time. But you learn from the experience, and perhaps the next time, you won't fall into the same trap."
Zhong advises art buyers that it's still possible to find genuine paintings at auctions around Shanghai, but buyers beware: fakes abound. "Sometimes they (original works) sell for incredibly low prices because the seller is unaware of its actual value," she adds. Zhong has an expansive knowledge of Chinese artists, and like many connoisseurs, she has her favorites - artists whose work she could assess in a dark room with a blindfold on. Known to her colleagues as "Badashanren," due to her uncanny ability to determine to date a painting by Ba, one of China's great artists, after a quick glance. Zhong leads a simple, frugal life - much like the artists that inspire her.
"Perhaps I've been in the museum too long," she muses. "The more I learned about the ancient masters, the more I admired them. My favorite artist, Badashanren (1626-1705), also known as Zhu Da, was a tortured soul, but he never gave up painting. Unlike many of today's artists, fame and money were not what these old masters pursued. They were driven by passion and not a payday for their art." Zhong, who tried unsuccessfully to retire a decade ago, says that she will retire after this show, citing her age. "It will be a very meaningful end for my career. I feel fortunate to have spent most of my lifetime at the museum and 'lived' with these ancient masters in their art world," she adds with a touch of remorse. Such a tremendous talent and intellect will be sorely missed.
"Selected Paintings and Calligraphy from Jin, Song, Tang and Yuan Dynasties"
Time: 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Sunday-Friday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m., Saturday, through January 6
Venue: Shanghai Museum, 210 People's Ave.
http://english.eastday.com/