http://museum-security.org/
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NOVEMBER 1 -7, 1997
CONTENTS:
* Burrell's ban on lending artworks is lifted by peers
* House Votes to Protect Headwaters, Yellowstone (National Park)
* NIMRUD RELIEFS FOR SALE ( stream of reliefs looted from Assyrian sites in Iraq continues to flow westward)
* £5m painting found on church wall
* Shroud 'is genuine' (forgery)
* The Scandal of the Century; The Mansoor Amarna Exposé
* B'nai B'rith Calls on National Gallery of Art to Explain Buhrle Exhibit ( exhibit "The Passionate Eye: Impressionist and Other Master Paintings from the Collection of Emil G. Buhrle" featured art stolen from Jewish collectors, and the collector was a known Nazi arms dealer)
* Youngworth cites financial problems (Isabelle Stewart Gardner Museum)
* Munich raid strikes out Cyprus art smuggling ring
* Blaze damages castle of Dukes of Savoy in France
* Mariotto di Nardo (1394-1424) painting stolen from Dutch museum
* Christmas trees and fire hazard
* Fall River man charged in cemetery gate theft
* Defacer of Yoko Ono paintings says he was invited
* Rembrandt self-portrait found in Paris bedroom
* Missing $50 Million Rembrandt at Focus of Law Suit
* Re: (Fwd) Theft from historic house
* query: 'fraudulently" selling and trading $750,000.00 worth of the Brooklyn Museum's primitive art in the 70's
* £500,000 atlas by Ptolemy is stolen By Susannah Herbert in Paris
* Israel Museum exhibit stirs furor
* stolen item database?
* RE:stolen item database?
* Brooklyn Museum and 1978-Reply
* Trend Technology Systems B.V.
(Daily Telegraph London)
Burrell's ban on lending artworks is lifted by peers
By Auslan Cramb, Scotland Correspondent
ART experts reacted furiously last night to a parliamentary hearing's decision to overturn a will and allow works from the Burrell Collection to be sent overseas. Sir William Burrell, the shipping magnate, left more than 9,000 items to the city of Glasgow in 1944. He stipulated that none could be loaned to foreign galleries. This condition was successfully challenged yesterday by Julian Spalding, the director of Glasgow's museums and galleries, and the local council. They won the right to send paintings and sculptures abroad. The trustees of Sir William's will opposed the request. They expressed dismay at the decision. Art experts said during an 18-day hearing by a parliamentary commission that overturning the bequest would establish a precedent and discourage collectors from leaving their works to public galleries. Sir Nicholas Goodison, the chairman of the National Arts Collection Fund, in London, which was set up in 1903 to prevent works of art being sold overseas, said he was horrified by the ruling. "This is distressing news. The future of gifts and bequests to our museums rests on convincing donors that their wishes will be respected and upheld. The essential bond of trust between donor and recipient has been broken." Ruth Mackenzie, 87, Sir William's niece, said it was wrong to break the will. "Sir William would be truly horrified. I feel very let down by Glasgow council, which has broken its word. What could be worse than that?" The matter could not be decided in the Scottish courts, and the decision was taken by four peers. They ruled that civic leaders should be allowed to lend some works, subject to strict conditions. Their finding will be confirmed by parliamentary legislation. The peers, headed by Lord Lyell, accepted Glasgow's argument that transport and handling of art works had greatly improved since the 1940s, when Sir William was concerned about this. "We are therefore prepared to allow some easing of Sir William's prohibition on lending, with careful safeguards," said Lord Lyell. The commission added that fragile items, such as pastels, tapestries, carpets, rugs, needlework and lace, should not be loaned abroad. It proposed limits on the volume and duration of overseas lending, which will be agreed between lawyers for the commission, the city and the trustees. Lord Lyell said he and his fellow commissioners, Viscount Dunrossil, the Earl of Balfour, and the Earl of Mar and Kellie, were influenced by Sir William's intention that council and trustees should work together. Mr Spalding argued that lending would raise the profile of the Burrell Collection, whose visitors fell from more than one million in 1983, when the gallery opened, to 280,000 last year. He also claimed that it would make it easier to borrow famous pieces to show in Glasgow.
House Votes to Protect Headwaters, Yellowstone
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives Friday approved a compromise spending bill that protects an ancient redwood forest in California and shields Yellowstone National Park from a proposed gold mine. The $13.8 billion Interior spending bill also includes $98 million for the perenially embattled National Endowment for the Arts while making major changes in how the agency is run. The White House has threatened to veto the measure. A spokesman said Friday administration officials were still in the process of reviewing changes to the bill. Environmental groups have urged a veto, charging the bill misused money that was intended to buy public lands and included provisions hurting national forests and parks. Differences over the White House's plan to buy land to protect the redwoods and Yellowstone stalled the 1998 interior spending bill for several weeks. House-Senate conferees agreed to spend up to $250 million to buy the Headwaters forest in California and up to $65 million to buy land adjacent to Yellowstone that was the site of a proposed gold and silver mine. But they would delay the acquisitions for 180 days to give Congress time to review and change the administration's purchasing plans. Republicans had complained that the White House had cut deals with the landowners, then sent Congress the bill. But Democrats said they did not see the need for congressional committees to intervene, and said it could slow or imperil the purchases. Under the House-Senate bill, Humboldt County, California, site of the Headwaters forest, would get $10 million in compensation for lost timber jobs. Also under the bill, $12 million would be spent to repair and maintain a highway near Yellowstone, and the Interior Department would negotiate with the state of Montana on the transfer of $10 million of mineral rights to the state. Environmentalists complained that money to compensate Montana and California would be drawn from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is intended to buy public lands. That was "a major attack" on the fund because it allows money from it to be used to maintain existing public lands instead of acquiring new land. Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young said the "extremist fringe" of the president's advisers may recommend a veto. He said that if the measure was vetoed, Congress should send it back without the Yellowstone and headwaters projects. The bill directs that the remaining $362 million in the fund be used for land acquisition and and to address the $10 billion maintenance backlog at national parks, forests and other public lands. The $98 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, down $1.5 million from fiscal 1997 and down $38 million from the White House request. Conservatives tried unsuccessfully to kill the Endowment, which they charge is elitist, funds obscene art and directs most of its funds to large states like New York. The final bill places a 15 percent cap on the amount of funds any one state can receive, bars most grants to individuals and lets the NEA solicit and invest private money.
Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited.
Archaeology Magazine Volume 50 Number 6 November/December 1997
NIMRUD RELIEFS FOR SALE ( stream of reliefs looted from Assyrian sites in Iraq continues to flow westward)
(For full account with photographs and a site plan, see "Stolen Stones: The Modern Sack of Nineveh" by John Malcolm Russell. (c) 1997 by the Archaeological Institute of America at: http://www.archaeology.org/9711/newsb riefs/nimrud.html )
The stream of reliefs looted from Assyrian sites in Iraq continues to flow westward. Recently, several dealers in Europe and America have been shown photographs of two fragments from the palace of Tiglath-pileser III at Nimrud, as well as two images of pieces from the site museum of Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh. The Nimrud fragments originally decorated Tiglath-pileser's central palace and are the first from that site to appear on the market. They were awaiting publication in a storeroom at the site following a 1974-1976 Polish excavation. One of the fragments, depicting a charioteer was originally part of a larger relief that included two spearmen, a tree, and an archer. Looters used a blunt instrument to separate the charioteer from the rest of the slab. The second fragment was broken in antiquity and shows two royal officials addressing a standing king; only the king's right hand and staff survive. Photographs of one of these two pieces are known to have been shown to Robin Symes, a London antiquities dealer, who was seeking to check the provenience of the piece in advance of purchase. Symes was not eager to acquire a piece stolen from a site museum, according to Prudence O. Harper, curator of ancient Near Eastern art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Harper advised Symes to contact the Polish excavators. Samuel M. Paley, an Assyriologist at the State University of New York at Buffalo, says that 30 other reliefs from Nimrud may now be on the market. The Nineveh pieces were originally displayed in the throne room suite of the palace of Sennacherib. Once part of a single relief depicting a soldier leading a horse, they are the fourteenth and fifteenth sculptures to have emerged in the past two years. John M.
Russell, a Columbia University archaeologist who in 1990 photographed
the reliefs at the Nineveh museum, speculates that all 100 of them
have been broken up and offered for sale. One of the Nineveh
fragments recently surfaced in London in the possession of a British
resident who bought it from a dealer in Brussels. Russell discounts
the possibility that the Iraqi government is involved. "All evidence
I have is that the state officially deplores this...and is doing
everything it can to reclaim the fragments," he says. "The isolated
nature of Nimrud and Nineveh makes them vulnerable to
thieves."-SPENCER P.M. HARRINGTON
For full account with photographs and a site plan, see "Stolen
Stones: The Modern Sack of Nineveh" by John Malcolm Russell. (c) 1997
by the Archaeological Institute of America
http://www.archaeology.org/9711/newsb riefs/nimrud.html
(Times of London)
£5m painting found on church wall
BY RUTH GLEDHILL RELIGION CORRESPONDENT
A "WORTHLESS" painting nailed to the wall of an 18th-century church could be a masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance worth £5 million, a vicar has been told. The painting, given to St Thomas's church in Garstang, Lancashire, by a local family 80 years ago, was described as Ecce Homo, and attributed to the Italian Old Master Annibale Carracci. But after it was restored and valued in the 1970s it was dismissed as an almost worthless imitation. Since then the vicar, Canon Ron Greenall, has locked away every piece of silver, moveable furniture and even the cross in his church, which is left open all day, although the painting remained on the wall. Its true provenance came to light when an art expert visited the church and recognised its Italian origin. Canon Greenall sent it to a restorer and called in advisers who identified it as almost certainly by one of the Campi brothers, from Cremona. Last night it seemed most likely to be called Ecce Homo after all and possibly by Giulio Campi, the eldest of the three artist sons of Galcazzo Campi. According to a book by the late Bernard Berenson, Pictures of the Italian Renaissance, Giulio Campi's Ecce Homo is in Zagreb in the former Yugoslavia, but significantly he puts a question mark beside the reference, as if unsure. Confirmation of the painting's provenance could come in the next three weeks, after which if it does turn out to be the Campi masterpiece, Canon Greenall who has consulted his diocesan bishop intends to donate it to the National Gallery. Canon Greenall said he would rather raise money for the church at his annual cheese and wine party than sell the painting. "It is frightening. It is monopoly money to me. I am stunned by this discovery. We all thought it was just a common-or-garden copy." The painting was given to the church by the late John Kenyon Booth, a Garstang resident.
(Times of London)
Shroud 'is genuine'
Rome: A Swiss archaeologist claims to have proof that the shroud of Turin is genuine and not a medieval fake (Richard Owen writes). Maria Grazia Siliato, a Paris-based archaeologist who has studied the shroud for 16 years, said her forthcoming book The Shroud would show that it was the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. It is kept in a chapel at Turin Cathedral, where it was rescued from a fire last April. Carbon dating by laboratories in Britain, the United States and Switzerland in 1988 suggested the shroud, brought to France in about 1350 by Crusaders returning from the Holy Land, was a 13th or 14th-century forgery. But Dr Siliato said the carbon dating had been misleading, because the piece of cloth chosen for the tests had been repaired and restored at least five times since 1400. She also claimed that "electronic tests" had shown the the words "Jesus of Nazareth", invisible to the naked eye, were imprinted on the cloth, but did not say in what language.
The Scandal of the Century; The Mansoor Amarna Exposé
The Scandal of the Century - The Mansoor Amarna Exposé is the factual
story of The Mansoor Amarna Collection (http://www.amarna.com/). The
controversy over this collection involves Egyptologists, scientists,
and museums from around the world. Ms. Mansoor wrote this book to
expose the unscholarly and tyrannical control that a few scholars
have on the art world and our perception of the shape of past
civilizations. The public should be made aware of their influence,
indicates the author, so that some protection is established for our
ancient heritage. This exposé concerns a collection of 106 limestone
sculptures and fragments, dating from circa 1350 B.C., representing
the beautiful Queen Nefertiti, King Akhenaten, and their family. The
author's family has spent over forty years fighting to prove the
authenticity of their collection. The author points out that they
wouldn't have wasted their time and energy on that fight if they
weren't absolutely sure of the authenticity of their sculptures. Read
the complete book on line at: http://www.scandalofthecentury.com/
B'nai B'rith Calls on National Gallery of Art to Explain Buhrle
Exhibit
B'nai B'rith Suggests that Museums Worldwide Establish New Procedures
in Light of Gallery Mistakes
WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- B'nai B'rith is calling on the National Gallery of Art to explain why they did not reveal that art featured in the 1990 exhibit "The Passionate Eye: Impressionist and Other Master Paintings from the Collection of Emil G. Buhrle" was stolen from Jewish collectors, or that the collector was a known Nazi arms dealer. B'nai B'rith is calling on the prestigious institution to establish procedures so that similar mistakes are not made again and to republish the Buhrle catalog. "The exhibit raises a myriad of questions including why the prestigious National Gallery of Art gave a public platform to a Nazi arms dealer who was also the largest Swiss buyer of looted art," said Dr. Sidney Clearfield, executive vice president of B'nai B'rith. According to several art historians, information on Buhrle's past and his art was available to the public as early as the 1970s when the U.S. government declassified the World War II allies' Cooper Report. "For one of the major museums in the United States to ignore where his collections came from and to represent him as if he was an anti-Nazi crusader who was really a Nazi armaments dealer is extremely questionable," said Orl Z. Soltes, director of the B'nai B'rith Klutznick Jewish Museum. B'nai B'rith is calling on museums around the world to establish guidelines pertaining to the acquisition and display of art to ensure that nothing exhibited is stolen art. "The Gallery-which receives more than $50 million in government funds-should have done its homework on Buhrle and the art," Clearfield continued. Clearfield is a member of the World Jewish Restitution Organization and is actively involved in efforts to recover looted assets from victims of World War II. He serves on the Commission for the Clarification of Nazi Activities in the Argentine Republic, and is a member of the Council of the Special Fund for Needy Victims of the Holocaust. "The previous owners of the art should be given their rightful place in history. The omissions in the catalog throw into question the whole scholarship of the catalog which is now sitting in libraries and universities across the world," Clearfield said. Organized by the National Gallery, the exhibit then traveled to Canada, Japan and England. WJLA-TV, an ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C., is broadcasting a report on the Buhrle exhibit tonight after being prompted by a symposium on looted art organized by the B'nai B'rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum. The Klutznick Museum is sponsoring a Holocaust Art Restitution Project to establish a database on art losses and to research and document Jewish cultural losses.
SOURCE B'nai B'rith
CONTACT: Robin Schwartz-Kreger of B'nai B'rith, 202-857-6536
Youngworth cites financial problems
(Isabelle Stewart Gardner Museum)
By Stephen A. Kurkjian, Globe Staff, 11/01/97
William P. Youngworth III, the jailed antiques dealer who is hoping to lay claim to the $5 million reward for the return of priceless artwork stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, has financial problems. Through his lawyer, Richard D. Smeloff of Quincy, Youngworth filed a voluntary petition for financial reorganization in US Bankruptcy Court in Boston yesterday. Youngworth listed owing a total of more than $100,000 to as many as 15 creditors and having assets of more than $100,000. "This is a financial reorganization to help him get back on his feet and not a liquidation," Smeloff said. During the summer, Youngworth, who is in jail awaiting sentencing on possession of a stolen motor vehicle conviction, had been in discussions with authorities and Gardner officials for the return of the 13 pieces of art, which were stolen from the museum in March 1990.
This story ran on page B02 of the Boston Globe on 11/01/97. (c)
Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.
Munich raid strikes out Cyprus art smuggling ring
By Dina Kyriakidou
NICOSIA, Oct 31 (Reuters) - The case had all the pungent ingredients of a good crime thriller: illicit deals gone sour, smuggler's secret rendezvous recorded by hidden cameras and police raids on booty-filled hideouts. The Munich police sting that recovered a hoard of looted Byzantine frescoes, icons and mosaics earlier this month handed Cyprus a major victory in its quest to rescue its cultural treasures from the art underworld. For the people involved in the eight month operation it meant not just the return of scores of long lost precious artefacts but the break-up of a criminal ring dealing in Cypriot art stolen from the divided island's Turkish north. "We have managed to catch the mastermind of the whole smuggling operation," said Athanassios Papageorgiou, an expert in Byzantine art who works for the Cyprus Archbishopric and who has helped track down stolen church treasures for years. Although the Munich hoard has yet to be properly catalogued, Papageorgiou said he recognised about 30 frescoes peeled from the walls of the 15th century Antifonitis monastery, dozens of icons, ancient manuscripts, Roman busts and a mosaic depicting St Thomas. The mosaic of the doe-eyed saint from the 520 AD church of Kanakaria in the north alone can fetch up to $8.6 million. The value of the whole treasure is estimated at more than $40 million. In a case that set legal precedent by holding an art dealer responsible for buying stolen goods, a U.S. court ordered Indianapolis art dealer Peg Goldberg to return four other stolen Kanakaria mosaics to the Church of Cyprus in 1989. Fragments of a large composition that once adorned the dome of the church near the northern town of Kyrenia, their pale faces constructed of shaded marble and glass, have now taken pride of place in the Cyprus Byzantine museum. "The man arrested in the Munich raid is the same man named in court by Peg Goldberg as the dealer who sold her the Kanararia mosaics for $1.2 million," Papageorgiou said.
SUSPECT BELIEVED TO HAVE SMUGGLED FOR YEARS
Munich police, acting on a tip from the Cyprus authorities, arrested a 60-year-old Turk in whose apartments the haul was found. They said he was suspected of carrying out international art smuggling for years but did not release his name. "He apparently had a falling out with his collaborator, a Dutch art dealer who decided to help Cypriot authorities," Papageorgiou said. "The art dealer set up the Turk, with news cameras filming the transaction that led to his arrest." The German authorities are searching for other hideouts and more stolen antiquities are certain to surface as they shake up the smuggling ring, he said. Cyprus says its 3,000 year old cultural heritage has been pillaged since the Mediterranean island was invaded by Turkey in 1974, in response to a Greek-inspired coup in Nicosia. It says art smugglers operate freely in the breakaway Turkish-Cypriot state, recognised only by Turkey which keeps about 35,000 troops there. Papageorgiou's scholarly looks-staid grey suit and thick-rimmed glasses-belie his mission as international art hound for the Church of Cyprus. "We get most of our tips from western visitors to the north and from the Turkish Cypriot press, which sometimes reports cases of vandalism and antiquities theft," he said. The Cypriot authorities are concerned that the damage done to the island's monuments, some dating to pre-historic times, can never be reverted and have appealed to UNESCO for help. "It's not just the treasures stolen. Archaeological sites are so damaged or neglected that I'm afraid in a few years they will be beyond salvation," said Cyprus Antiquities acting director, Sofocles Hadjisavas. Digs such as a Bronze Age site at Engomi, where a city with palatial buildings, Mycenean jars and advanced metallurgy facilities were unearthed by a joint Cypriot-French mission, have been abandoned since 1974, he said. UNESCO cultural heritage department officials said that although they have been aware of the problems for years, they can do little but issue notices of stolen goods. "We are naturally very pleased with successful cases, such as the Kanakaria mosaics found in Indianapolis and returned to Cyprus and the news of a major seizure in Munich," said UNESCO cultural heritage official Lyndel Prott. But the art smuggling situation in the north is difficult to assess partly because the Turkish Cypriot authorities demand that UNESCO missions sign papers recognising them as a state, Prott told Reuters by telephone from Paris. "Unfortunately we cannot make a mission to northern Cyprus. We are bound by two UN Security Council resolutions which prevent any action that might be interpreted as recognition of the independence of a state in northern cyprus," she said. Turkish Cypriots deny charges that Christian monuments are razed as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign aimed at eradicating the island's Greek past and say they do their best to preserve them on very limited funds. But the Cyprus government says the large number of artefacts that have found their way to the international art black market proves the Turkish authorities are doing nothing to stop the flow of Cypriot art to northern Europe and the United States. "It takes weeks to put up scaffolding and remove the frescoes from a church dome. It's impossible to do this without the authorities noticing," Papageorgiou said.
Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited.
Blaze damages castle of Dukes of Savoy in France
GRENOBLE, France, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Fire swept through the 16th-century castle of the Dukes of Savoy in the French Alpine town of Chambery on Saturday night, firemen said. Sixty firefighters brought the blaze under control after it devastated the roof and attics. There were no casualties. Italy ceded Savoy to France in 1860, and the castle now houses the headquarters of the region's elected council and the offices of the prefect (government representative).
Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited.
Mariotto di Nardo (1394-1424) painting stolen from Dutch museum
A 14th century painting by Di Nardo was stolen in the 'Simon van Gijn' musuem in Dordrecht, The Netherlands. According to the director of the museum the 'Adoration' oilpainting (40 x 16,5 centimeters) is of 'a substantial value'. Notwithstanding the fact that the painting on wood is very small no special security measures were taken. Plans did exist to put the painting in a showcase.... None of the (very few) guards in this 17the century mansion noticed the painting being stolen.
(source: ANP/NRC-Handelsblad, October 31, 1997)
Date sent: Mon, 03 Nov 1997 17:30:29 -0500
From: Joy Jackson
To: securma@xs4all.nl
Subject: NOVEMBER 2, 1997 -Reply
A question about fire /smoke loss prevention approaches by other museums/art galleries:
Is there a general consensus regarding installation of 'real' Christmas trees versus 'artificial' trees for display purposes? Which is preferable? What is standard practice?
thanks,
Fall River man charged in cemetery gate theft
By Judith Gaines, Globe Staff, 11/04/97
A Fall River man was arrested yesterday and charged with the theft of seven antique cast-iron gates from Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Watertown and Cambridge. Richard Teixeira, 57, an employee of the state Department of Public Works, was taken into police custody and charged with the crime after bank records revealed he had cashed checks received for selling four of the gates to an antiques dealer in West Brewster, said Mt. Auburn president William C. Clendaniel. The four gates, painted red but otherwise intact, were discovered Oct. 21 at Kingsland Manor Antiques Ltd., in West Brewster, on a tip from an anonymous caller who read about the heist in The Boston Globe. Watertown police questioned the antiques dealer, Norman Schepps, who revealed that Teixeira had sold them to him. Teixeira was interrogated at his home, and told police he had purchased the cemetery gates at the Brimfield antiques fair this summer. He was arrested after he was unable to produce a receipt, Clendaniel said. Schepps told police that Teixeira appeared once in the company of a man, and on another occasion with a woman. But investigators have not determined if either of these unidentified individuals were involved in the thefts, which were discovered last month. The three remaining gates have not been found. "We're hoping this arrest will lead to their recovery," said Meg Winslow, the cemetery's curator of historical collections. "And we're hoping this arrest will show the public that we won't tolerate theft from our nation's cemeteries," Winslow said. "Too often cemetery thefts end up with recovery at the antique dealer's shop, without arrest and prosecution." The gates were made between 1840 and 1860, and were stolen from fences enclosing family burial plots in the historic, 174-acre garden cemetery, which is annually visited by more than 100,000 people. According to police, Teixeira has been accused but never convicted of thefts from cemeteries in Vermont, New Hampshire and New York. In Vermont, he was arrested in the summer of 1992 after a caretaker allegedly spotted him and his twin brother, Raymond, stealing urns at a Bellows Falls cemetery. After police found additional graveyard relics in the Teixeiras' station wagon, an antique cast-iron gate was returned to a cemetery in Langdon, N.H., and a funerary urn was returned to a Claremont, N.H., graveyard. Vermont police believed but could not confirm that Teixeira was part of "a Connecticut-based ring that made hundreds of thousands of dollars from resale of antique grave ornaments," Winslow said. Clendaniel said he expects investigations will reveal that at least two or three people assisted in the Mt. Auburn thefts. He noted that each of the stolen gates weighs up to 100 pounds, "and the theft would be quicker and easier if there was a second person to help carry the gates, and a third to do surveillance." He and Winslow appealed to the public to keep on the lookout for the three remaining gates. They noted that each gate is about 2 1/2 by 3 feet in size and has great emotional, artistic and cultural significance. One gate has the name "S. Dow" at the top and is decorated with iron molded to resemble two crossed, down-turned torches tied with a ribbon. One has the name "J.B.H. James" at the top, and also features two inverted torches. The third gate, with vertical Gothic-styled ornamentation and a plaque at the top, may bear the name "William Goddard." "We need the public's help both in terms of surveillance at the cemetery site and at the sale end, where they should be careful about what they buy," Clendaniel said. Winslow added that the vogue in weathered, cast-iron garden ornaments, recently featured in garden catalogs and landscape design magazines, is especially disturbing since the authors fail to mention that these items often have been pilfered.
This story ran on page B01 of the Boston Globe on 11/04/97. (c)
Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.
Defacer of Yoko Ono paintings says he was invited
CINCINNATI, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Pop icon Yoko Ono's quote telling viewers of a museum show of her paintings that "No one can tell you not to touch the art" was taken literally by one man, who now faces criminal charges for allegedly defacing her work. Jake Platt, 22, of Seattle, last week allegedly drew lines with a red marker across several of Ono's stark black-and-white paintings valued at $10,000 apiece by curators at Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center. A friend of Platt's, who was freed on bond and has since returned to Seattle, told the Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper that Platt considered his act an art statement, consistent with his belief in the Flexus art movement that advocates viewer participation. "He may consider it an art statement, but we consider it criminal activity," museum director Charles Desmarais told the newspaper. Ono's quote concerning touching the art was printed on a sign in the arts center. Platt's attorney said it was "an innocent mistake," and that his client was upset about the matter. The paintings were returned to New York where the damage will be assessed.
Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited.
Rembrandt self-portrait found in Paris bedroom
By Wendy Braanker
AMSTERDAM, Nov 4 (Reuters) - A Rembrandt self-portrait worth millions of dollars hung undetected for years in the bedroom of a Paris art dealer, a Dutch art historian revealed on Tuesday. The painting, believed to date from 1632, shows a 26-year-old Rembrandt wearing fashionable 17th century costume, white ruff, black hat and gloves. The unnamed Paris art dealer bought the portrait in 1970 as a present for his wife. From Wednesday, it will go on display for five days in Amsterdam's famous Rijksmuseum. "Over a year ago the painting was sold to a Dutch collector and the rumour spread it could very well be a real Rembrandt," historian Ernst van de Wetering told Reuters in an interview. The picture measures 21.8 centimetres by 16.3. Van de Wetering tells the tale of its discovery in his book: "Rembrandt; the painter at work," published on Tuesday. Van de Wetering, a Rembrandt expert, said he felt a spark of recognition when first saw the picture in 1977. But a colleague from the Amsterdam-based Rembrandt Research Project was not convinced of its authenticity. "I had a strong feeling in favour of the painting, but had reason to accept my colleague's arguments," Van de Wetering explained. "The question of the authenticity of Rembrandt's work has always been a hot issue." Rembrandt van Rijn, born in the western Dutch university city of Leiden in 1606, died in poverty in 1669. He is buried in an unmarked grave in an Amsterdam church. The Rembrandt Research Project, set up in 1968 by five Dutch art historians, sparked a controversy in the 1980s with claims that scores of works had been wrongly attributed to the artist. "In the period between 1930-1950 some 10,000 'Rembrandt' pictures were imported through New York harbour," Van de Wetering said, adding the painter had always garnered confusion. Some critics found it difficult to distinguish between Rembrandt, his workshop and imitations, Van de Wetering said. He has put more than 30 years of scientific research into Rembrandt's work and said his belief in this latest self-portrait was backed up by solid detective work. An institute in Hamburg, specialising in panels, had drawn a parallel with another authenticated Rembrandt. "They told me the panel of this self-portrait of Rembrandt correlated with another painting, which was definitely by Rembrandt. It was a portrait of (Dutch gentleman) Mauritz Huygens," Van de Wetering said. Taken in isolation, none of the arguments in support of the painting's authenticity was conclusive, he acknowledged. But taken together, they were very persuasive. Van de Wetering said an X-Ray of the portrait revealed layers of paint beneath. The construction of the first version fitted Rembrandt's method. "He usually finished the background first." The signature "Rembrant" also supported Van de Wetering's case. Added when the paint was still wet, the hand bore a very close resemblance to other Rembrandt signatures. The young master signed his work "Rembrant" in 1632, only changing shortly afterwards to "Rembrandt." "Then he went on with 'dt' for the rest of his life," Van de Wetering said. Brought up by a father who adored the Dutch master, Van de Wetering went on to study art history. He said he loved Rembrandt's creative power. "He was a true artist, while many other painters were producers." Van de Wetering had no idea how much the discovery was worth, explaining: "I'm a scholar and not interested in the market." Other works by Rembrandt, due to go under the hammer in the near future, have been valued at three to four million dollars.
Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited.
Missing $50 Million Rembrandt at Focus of Law Suit
PASADENA, Calif., Nov. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- The following was issued today by Rivkin, Radler & Kremer:
Original Master Paintings by Rembrandt van Rijn and Joseph Mallord William Turner, estimated to be worth $50 million and $10 million respectively, are the focus of a complaint entitled "Ernest J.T. Martin v. Glynda Andrews, et al." The complaint was filed in the Superior Court, Los Angeles County, Northeast District, by the Pasadena Office of the national law firm of Rivkin, Radler & Kremer. In 1994, Mr. Martin was approached by Glynda Andrews to determine the authenticity of two original Master paintings by Rembrandt van Rijn and Joseph Mallord William Turner, and exclusively represent the two paintings for sale. Ms. Andrews is the agent for the undisclosed owners of the Rembrandt and Turner paintings. The Rembrandt painting, entitled "The Baptism of Chamberlain", was thought to have been destroyed by the Nazis during World War II. Among other reasons, "The Baptism of Chamberlain" is a highly significant Rembrandt in that it is one of a handful of master paintings that exhibit a positive portrayal of a black individual. The painting measures 103 cm by 85 cm. It is anticipated that the painting has a fair market value of over $50 million. The Turner painting was also thought to have been lost or destroyed. It has been given the temporary title of "Meeting of the Waters" and measures 35.5 inches by 24 inches. It is anticipated that the painting has a fair market value of over $10 million. By contracts entered into in January 1995, Mr. Martin was given the exclusive right to sell the paintings and all literary, film and other rights in connection with the discovery of the paintings. Under his exclusive contract to sell the paintings, Mr. Martin expended more than $100,000 for x-rays, expert consultants and other cost to determine the authenticity of the paintings. In February, 1996, after the authenticity of the paintings had been established by Mr. Martin, the owners of the paintings unilaterally terminated the contract and claimed that the paintings had been sold in a private sale. Mr. Martin seeks damages for, inter alia, his lost commissions valued at no less than $7,500,000.
Mr. Martin is the International Director of Artis Mundus, a company that exclusively represents the owners of Master Works, and specializes in the recovery of lost, missing or stolen art treasures. Michael R. Brown, Esq., managing partner of the Pasadena office of Rivkin, Radler & Kremer, will prosecute this action on behalf of Mr.
Martin. Rivkin, Radler & Kremer, has six offices throughout the United
States, including Pasadena and Santa Rosa, California; Uniondale, Long
Island; New York City; Newark, New Jersey; and Chicago. SOURCE Rivkin,
Radler & Kremer
Copyright 1997, PR Newswire
Date sent: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 15:40:34 GMT
To: securma@xs4all.nl
From: webmaster@artloss.com (Alexandra)
Subject: Re: (Fwd) Theft from historic house
Copies to: graham@hellens.prestel.co.uk
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
From: "The Art Loss Register"
To:
Subject: Theft from historic house
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 12:04:18 -0000
Dear Mr Chapman
I saw your message on the Museum Security Mailing list and wondered if
you would like to register the stolen items on our database of stolen
works of art & antiques. If you have any photographs of the items
please send them to us as well as we are able to scan images onto the
computer. Our e-mail address is: artloss@artloss.com and we have a
web-site at: http://www.artloss.com. You can find one of our Art
Theft Report Forms on our internet site which you can print out, fill
in and send to us. I hope we can be of some help and I look forward to
hearing from you soon sincerely ALEXANDRA SMITH
From: jrall@hodgsonruss.com
Date sent: Thu, 6 Nov 1997 12:38:18 -0500
To: TomCremers@museum-security.org
Subject: brooklyn museum- michael kan and douglas ewing-
1978-
Dear Tom-
In the late '70's NYS Attorney General Lefkowitz brought a civil suit against Michael Kan, Douglas Ewing, James Economos and Robert Taylor for 'fraudulently" selling and trading $750,000.00 worth of the Brooklyn Museum's primitive art.
Do you know anything about this? Thanks for any help you can give.
Jen Rall
(Daily Telegraph London)
£500,000 atlas by Ptolemy is stolen By Susannah Herbert in Paris
ONE of the earliest printed atlases, Ptolemy's Cosmographia, has been stolen from France's National Library, prompting fears that its rare maps may be torn out and sold on the open market.
The book, one of the few surviving copies of an edition printed in Bologna in 1477, is worth between £300,000 and £500,000. Yesterday, the London book specialists Maggs described the book as "marvellous". John Collins, a Maggs director, said: "The tragedy is that something like this will be very hard to find. The thief can simply remove the maps and sell them individually."
The Cosmographia, written by the 2nd-century Greek astronomer and mathematician Ptolemy, was last called from the bookshelves at the National Library on Aug 1 by a researcher who consulted it in the map-room alongside other volumes. After he left, the librarian took the books back, recording their return in the register and replacing them in the stacks.
The Cosmographia's absence was discovered last month during a routine check. Police are investigating.
(Jerusalem Post)
Israel Museum exhibit stirs furor
By ARYEH DEAN COHEN
JERUSALEM (November 7) - Education Minister Zevulun Hammer yesterday called on the directors of the Israel Museum to reconsider continuing the exhibition "Live and Die as Eva Braun" by Roee Rosen, a lecturer at Camera Obscura and Beit Berl, currently on display. In the exhibit, visitors are invited to become Hitler's mistress, Eva Braun, in Nazi Germany in the year 1945, just prior to her and Hitler's death in a Nazi bunker. It includes doctored German children's illustrations, some pornographic. Hammer wrote to the museum's directors that his office had been approached by a large group of families of Holocaust survivors and others claiming the exhibit presented Hitler and the Nazis "in a positive light." Hammer said the families had asked him to express their protest over the exhibit and the fact that they had been very disturbed by it. Noting he generally did not interfere with museums regarding the content of exhibitions, Hammer wrote: "Because we are dealing with the memory of the Holocaust and our historic and moral duty to respect both its victims and survivors and their families, I would ask that you reconsider the continuation of the exhibit, or consider removing elements which offend the the feelings of many people." The museum responded that in considering whether to show the exhibit, it had been particularly sensitive to the subject of the Holocaust and to the survivors. "The exhibit in no way shows Hitler or Eva Braun in a positive light, but rather negatively, and the guilt shown in the exhibit is that of German culture and its exemplars," a museum statement said.
Date sent: Fri, 07 Nov 1997 01:07:04 -0800
From: Reed C Bowman
To: securma@xs4all.nl
Subject: stolen item database?
Hi-
I've been looking at the relatively anonymous online auctions recently, and wondering if there's any way to check to see if some of the more unusual items I've seen for sale might be stolen. Does some sort of online database exist to alert people to items that have been stolen from museums (or collections)? This comes up apropos of a Greek helmet, which may well be an imitation (the seller says he knows nothing about it and is willing to sell it cheap), offered for sale through eBay ( http://komodo.ebay2.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1648085 ). It was so strange to see such a thing in such a context, I was concerned; though it seems unlikely that it could really be an original piece at all. The originals must, I assume, be extraordinarily rare. At any rate, I would like to know if you or anyone else maintains an easily accessed database of stolen art, so that art lovers, book lovers and antiquarians can be on the lookout for these items, and can help identify those who steal, or at least, who fence them.
Thanks.
RCB
* Date: Fri, 07 Nov 1997 01:07:04 -0800
* From: Reed C Bowman
* To: securma@xs4all.nl
* Subject: RE:stolen item database?
* At any rate, I would like to know if you or anyone else maintains an
* easily accessed database of stolen art, so that art lovers, book
* lovers and antiquarians can be on the lookout for these items, and
* can help identify those who steal, or at least, who fence them.
There are several databases with information about stolen art. We have set up a bunch of links to organizations keeping records of stolen art at: http://museum-security.org/organisa.html The Museum Security Mailinglist has been active now for almost eleven months.
All reports are available on line at:
http://museum-security.org/artcrime.html By the end of this year we hope to be able to send the complete archive to all our subscribers.
Ton Cremers
Date sent: Fri, 07 Nov 1997 10:31:41 -0500
From: David Liston
To: securma@xs4all.nl
Subject: Brooklyn Museum and 1978-Reply
I have no particular answer on the lawsuit, but this background information puts its notoriety and eventual outcomes into perspective: The original staff of IFAR assuredly knew of this and perhaps was indirectly involved. 1978 was the first year of operation for International Foundation for Art Loss Research, Inc, (IFAR) by Bonnie Burnham in New York City, the parent of Art Loss Register today. Bonnie finished a PhD or PhD type thesis on stolen art at that time, (printed and sold) and no doubt worked on this, although by the Art Loss Register answer today, the replacement staff don't have this case in their records. Alexandra Smith and Anna Kisluk, even Connie Lowenthal, the director, are thorough staffers but, graciously, they are not of the age to know of or have worked in this capacity at the time of this event. These headlines were common at that time. That era in NYC was thick with newspaper, even court, claims of resale of art objects with legal claims against them. In the early 1980's in fact, IFAR petitioned New York State to be the "agent of record" for all stolen art in the state, including New York City, where 75+% of all American art transits sooner or later, to "clear" the title of objects without owners who are known or reachable, in order to permit resale. In common law here it is called repose: making public notice of a work for a period of time (in this case one year) so that title can be cleared of all claims and then resale and transport can proceed without any legal claims held against the objects. Repose has not been sanctioned by courts because legal cases complicate the matter too much, even for Georgia O'Keiffe who attempted to recover her own stolen painting which she found for sale. UNIDROIT "one law" in French, is the 1995 UNESCO treaty still gearing up with countries to ratify it, which would operate in Rome to be a world court to clear title to controversial cultural works internationally in order to permit exhibition and display, with international transport, to continue without legal or law enforcement threat of liens or claims, such as with the stolen art of World War II.
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