June 17, 2003
CONTENTS:
- The Art Newspaper: This week's top stories
- Anger mounts after second sculpture theft
- Difficult to deter vandalism to public art
- Self-styled art vigilantes threaten to destroy public sculptures they detest
- Russian President Calls for Protection of Nation's Cultural Treasures
IRAQ
- Staff revolt at Baghdad museum
The Art Newspaper: This week's top stories
http://www.theartnewspaper.com
WARKA VASE RETURNED TO BAGHDAD MUSEUM - WHILE NIMRUD GOLD IS UNPACKED IN BANK VAULT
The Warka Vase, the greatest loss from the National Museum in Baghdad, has been recovered. Three men unexpectedly turned up at the museum on 12 June, with the sacred vessel of 3200 BC on the back seat of their car. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11155
FIRST SURVEY OF IRAQI ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES REVEALS INTENSIVE LOOTING IN THE SOUTH
Iraq’s archaeological sites have been largely ignored by the international media, which has been more concerned with looting at the Baghdad museum, but the first initial survey has now been conducted by a team of specialists organised by the US National Geographic Society. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11154
DRASTIC CUTS AT BOSTON/NAGOYA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
The Japanese branch of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Nagoya marked its fourth anniversary in April, but, instead of celebrating, its Japanese sources of funding are drying up. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11153
TOO MANY READY-MADES
As the exhibition of Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani opens in the austere elegance of Mies van der Rohe’s Neue Nationalgalerie (until 13 July), there are rumblings of discontent over the contemporary art policy of that gallery and the other State- administered space, the Hamburger Bahnhof. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11152
PENNIES FROM HEAVEN
A silent auction of works by Britain’s leading contemporary artists made almost £500,000 here on 7 June. The money will be used to set up an international branch of Artangel, the not-for-profit institution that funds “exceptional art for exceptional places.” http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11151
Anna Somers Cocks, Editor
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Anger mounts after second sculpture theft
The Associated Press
June 16, 2003
GRANTS PASS — Otters are not faring well in this mountain community on the Rogue River — otters made out of bronze, that is.
For the second time in a month, one of sculptor Peter Sedlow’s bronze otters has been stolen from its mounting at Tussing Park. “The second time, I just let out a yell,” Sedlow said. “We are just so sad about this whole thing. People are going to be outraged.” Outrage certainly described the feelings of First Evergreen Bank President Brady Adams, who raised $10,000 in reward money, took out full-page ads in a local newspaper and paid for 350 radio commercials after the second theft. “I’m not a person who gets mad really easily, but there comes a point where you have to take a stand,” said Adams. “This is too good a community for this to happen.” The vertical sculpture, titled “Wotter Follies,” depicts a pair of frolicking otters twining around an underwater tree limb.
Just last month, Adams paid $2,000 to replace the 2-foot-tall, 25- pound sculpture. Adams says he will replace this one as well. “I’m going to dedicate a lot of energy and effort to bring this person to justice,” Adams said. About eight months ago, another of Sedlow’s sculptures was stolen from Tussing Park near the pedestrian bridge that crosses the Rogue River.
http://news.statesmanjournal.com/
Difficult to deter vandalism to public art
By Robert Sanchez Daily Herald Staff Writer
Art lovers aren't the only ones checking out the bear and balloon sculptures dotting Naperville and Lisle this summer.
Police officers in both towns also are keeping tabs on the public art exhibits to protect the fragile pieces from theft and vandalism. "You would like to think Naperville is a safe community where people don't do stupid things," Sgt. Joel Truemper said. "But due to human nature, there's always going to be a couple of bad apples out there." This is the third summer police are monitoring a Naperville United Way fund- raising art project as part of their regular patrols through Labor Day. Each year has illustrated how tough the task can be. When decorated baby giraffe statues dotted Naperville streets two years ago, several had their heads bashed in or were decapitated. And last year, several horses in the "Carousel of Fun" display had their tails snapped off.
In Lisle, vandals last year damaged three decorated birdhouses and stole another. It didn't take long for would-be thieves and vandals to strike this year, authorities say. Two Northwest suburban men were charged over Memorial Day weekend with stealing a bear sculpture, named Ursa Major, from the intersection of Chicago Avenue and Washington Street. A week later, two decorated balloon sculptures disappeared from Main Street in Lisle. The pieces, dubbed Fire in the Sky and Dancing on Air, haven't been recovered. "It hurts a lot of people," said Diane Tuscher-Ancede, coordinator of the Lisle Balloon Skies project. "Now we have fewer balloons that can be auctioned at the end of the summer for (the charity) Sharing Connections. And two artists are upset they don't have their work on display anymore." While theft and vandalism is frustrating, Susan Fritz of the Naperville United Way said organizers understand it's going to happen.
"We realize that's the nature of this type of event and we anticipate it," she said. "Unfortunately, we have to." Organizers of Naperville's animal parade did try to take precautions this year by placing the sculptures in well-lighted areas. They say they appreciate the efforts of the police. "We realize they can't watch it all at once," Fritz said. "Things are going to happen." Truemper said police hope damage to the bears will be kept to a minimum. And if someone does tamper with a piece, police hope there will be witnesses. That's what happened, police say, when they nabbed Ursa's would-be thieves within minutes after they ripped the Fiberglas bear from its base. Authorities were investigating the sculpture's disappearance about 2:33 a.m. May 25 when they saw the suspects drive past the crime scene, police said. Officers caught up with the vehicle at Hillside Road and Webster Street and recovered Ursa.
The 21-year-old driver from Des Plaines was charged with theft and illegal transportation of alcohol. Both are misdemeanors. His 22-year- old passenger, from Elk Grove Village, was charged with the same misdemeanor charges. Truemper said the arrest is an example of officers being in the right place at the right time. "Say the officer that spotted them was tied up, or we didn't have that many people responding at that time," he said. "Then, maybe, they would have gotten away. They would have had this bear in their apartment."
Naperville simply doesn't have the staff or resources to assign officers full-time to guard the bears, officials said. "What we are banking on is that they are out in public areas where other people might see things going on," Truemper said. "And if something were to happen, we hope witnesses call the police." While police officers keep an eye out for vandalism, Naperville artist Carolyn Lauing- Finzer said she hopes parents do their part to stop accidental damage that occurs when kids play on the statues. "Some parents seem to think it's McDonald's Playland and you are supposed to crawl on them," said Lauing-Finzer, whose Elvis tribute bear has been damaged three times. Lauing-Finzer said she loves watching families take pictures with the bears or seeing children hug the sculptures. "This is public, and we want everyone to enjoy it," Lauing-Finzer said. "But when a child begins to climb on a bear, then you know they've gone beyond their limits. That's when we have broken bears." When Tuscher-Ancede announced this year's Lisle art project would be decorated plastic hot-air balloon molds, one of the first questions she was asked was how she would stop thieves from taking the pieces, which measure 29 inches tall and 18 inches in diameter. "We probably could surround it with stuff that people wouldn't want to go near, but you can't," Tuscher-Ancede said.
The organizers and artists involved with Naperville's bears agree. They say they simply will do what they can to repair any damaged bears before the pieces are auctioned for charity in September. "We will see this through to the end," Lauing-Finzer said. "All of us will go back and continue to repair and do what we can to keep these in one piece so that somebody will find them desirable to buy."
http://www.dailyherald.com/
Self-styled art vigilantes threaten to destroy public sculptures they detest
By Kathy Marks in Sydney
17 June 2003
Public artworks are often loathed by the public, but a sculpture in Sydney has aroused an unusual degree of antipathy. A group of self- styled art vigilantes is threatening to destroy the work unless the council dismantles it.
The group, which calls itself the Revolutionary Council for the Removal of Bad Art in Public Places, has set a three-month deadline for the offending sculpture to be whisked away. If the deadline is not met, it says, the work will be defaced or destroyed. "We have blowtorches, angle grinders and bolt cutters, and we will use them if necessary," said a spokesman, Dave Jarvoo. The work, Stones Against The Sky, is made up of seven steel poles crowned by large artificial stones. Sydneysiders call the work, in a plaza in front of an apartment block in King's Cross, the city's red-light district, "Poo on Sticks". The group, formed two years ago, is believed to comprise teachers and students from two nearby art colleges. Mr Jarvoo said members had written letters of complaint to the local council and submitted a petition against the sculpture, but with no success. "We are being forced to consider taking matters into our own hands," he told The Australian newspaper.
Mr Jarvoo said other works would be vandalised unless they were removed. "The mission of the council is to eradicate the disease and discomfort that bad art inflicts on the general psyche," he said. Ken Unsworth, the artist paid about £14,000 for Stones Against the Sky, said he was unmoved by the group's threat. "The self-appointed judges of good taste should devote their energies to their own artworks," said Mr Unsworth. "But if they want to have their fun and games, that's fine with me, as long as they enjoy themselves." Managers of the apartment block said they would call in the police if the sculpture was attacked by vandals.
http://news.independent.co.uk/
Russian President Calls for Protection of Nation's Cultural Treasures
The director of Russia's State Hermitage Museum is calling for the creation of a federal archaeological protection service.
Russian news reports quote Mikhail Piotrovsky as saying such an agency is needed to prevent the illegal sale and export of valuable cultural artifacts, already a growing problem in Russia. President Vladimir Putin is backing the proposal, and has asked the Interior and Culture Ministries to look into the matter. The Russian leader voiced support for copyright protection. Piracy of video, audio and data recordings is common in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union. President Putin also is calling for increased government funding for cultural activities, while also encouraging private investment in them.
Russian media say Mr. Putin made the remarks Monday during a meeting of the State Council at St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum. He said Russia faces two main tasks in regard to culture, protecting artistic freedom and providing better access to the nation's cultural heritage. Russian business leaders have already begun to invest in cultural development, but Mr. Putin suggested the government could do more to encourage them by way of legal and economic incentives.
http://www.voanews.com/
IRAQ
Staff revolt at Baghdad museum
Rory McCarthy in Baghdad
Tuesday June 17, 2003
The Guardian
Iraq's national museum, home to many priceless artefacts which were thought to have been looted after the fall of Baghdad, has been plunged into a new crisis because of a revolt by staff. More than 130 of the 185 staff of Iraq's state board of antiquities office in Baghdad, which runs the museum, have signed a petition demanding the resignation of its directors.
Staff said they believed that some of the thefts from the museum were an inside job. They also accused Dony George, the board's head of research, of arming them and ordering them to fight US forces. Mr George admitted to the Guardian that he armed staff but denied instructing them to shoot US troops. He said none of the directors had a hand in the looting. The row came after weeks of confusion about the artefacts apparently stolen from the museum under the gaze of US troops. At first Mr George and other directors accused the US military of failing to protect the building. But in the past two weeks many of the most precious pieces, including the golden treasures of Nimrud and the Sumerian vase of Warka have been returned. One employee said: "We want elections for new directors and we want an investigation into what happened at the museum."
US military investigators have discovered that the keys from a director's safe went missing and have never been found. Several employees said they found secure doors leading into the building unlocked but not broken after the first days of looting. A wall which concealed a secret entrance to underground store rooms, which only a handful of senior officials knew about, had been knocked down. Staff also described how Mr George gathered employees in the museum for a meeting in the early days of the war at which he ordered them to fight US troops or face the sack. One employee who was present at the meeting said: "He [Mr George] said: 'If the Americans come you have to fight.' They never mentioned thieves once." Missiles destroyed a building opposite the museum during the war. Staff said Mr George ordered them to fire at US aircraft or parachutists.
Mr George, who has worked for the board for 26 years and is known internationally, admitted he had been at the meeting and that guns were distributed but said he told staff only to guard the museum against looters. "They were given strict orders they were here to protect the museum from any kind of looting that might happen," he said. "They would never fight or shoot against any kind of tank or helicopter because it would be suicide." He said he had been a member of the Ba'ath party, but not a senior one. Refusal to join, he said, would have meant "troubles in my position here [at the museum] and at home". A spokesperson for the US-led coalition provisional authority (CPA), which is running Iraq, said Mr George's Ba'ath party membership had been investigated and he had been cleared. "All other allegations are just hearsay," the spokesperson said. Elections have been organised by the CPA in the ministry of culture, which oversees the museum, to choose new directors. But staff from the antiquities board are unlikely to take part. "It is not the way it works," the spokesperson said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/