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CONTENTS:

- adminstrator message about full reports and summaries
- Hazy pasts cloud some local art
- Ministers urged to back campaign against art theft
- Welshman claims to have painted many prized indigenous works (Aboriginal art world is rocked by fresh scandal)
- Clinton Signs Interior Dept. Bill (of National Park interest)
- Clinton To Veto Mineral Transfer (of National Park interest)
- Restored Windsor Castle rises from the ashes
- Re: Museum Security and SmokeCloak
- NPCA CALLS FOR BROADER PARK SERVICE ROLE IN REGULATING TOUR FLIGHTS (of National Park interest)
- summaries
- (Philadelphia Inquirer) National Gallery exhibit may have had stolen works. Experts say Nazis looted the items displayed in 1990.
- Youngworth denies he has control of stolen Gardner art By Stephen Kurkjian, Globe Staff, 11/18/97
- Stolen swords draw attention of the FBI
- Entertainer Seeks Paintings Seized at Drug Deal Courts: Wayne Newton had testified at bankruptcy proceeding that he bought the artworks for a friend. Now he says some of the paintings, which another man tried to trade for cocaine, are really his.
- Envoys accused over antiquities AN EMINENT archaeologist has accused diplomats of using diplomatic bags to smuggle illegally excavated antiquities from their countries of origin, (Dalya Alberge writes).
- Family questioned over lost Old Masters By Bruce Johnston in Rome FLORENCE police were yesterday investigating the disappearance of 100 Old Master paintings from a private collection believed subsequently to have been taken abroad in contravention of strict export laws.
- FEATURE-Cambodia's heritage another casualty of war 12:12 a.m. Nov 19, 1997 Eastern By Chris McCall

adminstrator message about full reports and summaries

The past couple of days I have been sending summaries of reports with links to the full texts on our Museum Security Website. Several subscribers wrote me requesting to send the full reports again. The decision to just send summaries was based on my conviction that only a few of our subscribers will read all messages. I intended to give the subscribers freedom of choice which reports to download and which to cancel. Apparantly not all of you have internet access and are able to follow the links to the full texts. So: back to the original service and full reports for everyone. Do use the CONTENTS at the beginning of each message to see if our long mailings contain information you might be interested in. Regards, Ton Cremers

Hazy pasts cloud some local art

By Maureen Goggin, Globe Staff, 11/17/97

At both the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, records suggest that some European artworks acquired during and after World War II arrived with pedigrees that should have aroused curiosity, if not suspicion. A half-century later, once-secret government documents have provoked a fresh accounting of what happened to the war's spoils, and have provided evidence that some unsuspecting collectors donated art to major museums that may have been plundered from Jews and other European collections. For example, documents in the US National Archives show a French art dealer, Cesar Mange de Hauke, collaborating with the leader of the notorious Nazi effort to plunder art from Jews. Yet in 1949, just as the State Department was denying him an immigration visa because of his Nazi complicity, de Hauke sold a magnificent pastel by Edgar Degas to New York financier Maurice Wertheim, whose collection passed to the Fogg in 1950. At the Fogg, correspondence on file shows that Wertheim was skeptical about de Hauke's right to sell Degas's ''Singer with a Glove.'' But he bought it anyway. National Archives documents contain evidence that the art was owned by a French family whose collection was targeted by the Nazis in 1941 and that, before it fell into de Hauke's hands, it belonged to a Swiss doctor who purchased at least one other looted artwork. The Degas is unusual for the amount of documentation that suggests it might have passed illegally through Nazi hands. But the two museums have other works with suspect characteristics: unexplained wartime ownership gaps, the involvement of dealers who col- laborated with Nazi art looters, and a failure by the collectors or museums to make inquiries before acquiring them. A wartime FBI report suggests that the MFA was nonchalant about the origin of its acquisitions during the war. The MFA's curator of prints admitted to FBI agents in 1941 that he knew that one dealer whose works he bought had been imprisoned in Germany for smuggling. After the FBI's visit, the MFA ceased buying from the dealer. Even so, MFA director Malcolm Rogers asserted the museum has always insisted that curators carefully check the history of acquisitions. Historian Mark Masurovsky said lack of interest by museums in the origin of artworks ''sent a clear signal during and after the war that there was an open and unquestioning market for looted artworks in the United States.'' Jonathan Petropoulos, a historian at Loyola College, said there is no evidence that American collectors and museums knew they were acquiring looted art. But, he said, ''There may be hundreds of paintings in American museums that were stolen from Jews or looted from other European collections.''

This story ran on page D12 of the Boston Globe on 11/17/97. © Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.

(Times of London)

Ministers urged to back campaign against art theft

BY DALYA ALBERGE, ARTS CORRESPONDENT

A WORLDWIDE illicit trade in antiquities could be significantly reduced if the Government adopted an international convention on such objects, archaeologists said yesterday. Representatives of the British Museum and other archaeological and heritage organisations have begun a campaign for Britain to ratify the Unidroit Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects. The previous Government is thought to have feared that it would restrict trade in the art market, although countries such as France and Switzerland signed up in 1995. The 34-strong forum of British organisations that make up the Standing Conference on Portable Antiquities argue that the £100 million international antiquities market encourages the plunder of important sites in countries such as India, Italy and Egypt. They have given their unanimous backing to a resolution that calls on the Government to adopt the Unidroit Convention and deplores "the loss to knowledge and damage to the cultural heritage" caused by the trade in antiquities. The convention, they say, would ease the return of stolen artefacts to their rightful owners, whether governments, museums or individuals. The resolution was proposed by Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, the Cambridge archaeologist and Master of Jesus College, on behalf of the Council for British Archaeology. Lord Renfrew will today launch the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research in Cambridge to lobby governments into taking action, campaign against the worldwide looting of historic sites and monitor the scale of the traffic in antiquities. Lord Renfrew said: "The real value of these artefacts is destroyed once they are removed from their archaeological context." Commenting on the resolution, he said: "It's a great step forward that the standing conference representing most archaeology and heritage bodies in Britain has now warmly endorsed the Unidroit Convention. I very much hope the Government, as it has hinted, goes ahead and adopts it." He said that even though London had become one of the clearing centres for antiquities from countries such as India and China, the previous Government had resisted ratifying the convention. "It was worried about the status of Britain as a trading centre for the work of the art market. The art market now realises that if it doesn't clean up its act, it will lose face." He said that Sotheby's had "at last done something about it", announcing last July that it was to end antiquities sales in London after allegations that the firm sold artefacts that had been smuggled into Britain. He said the rest of the art market should follow their example. He pointed out that the convention was not retroactive and would not affect treasures such as the Elgin Marbles. Peter Addyman, director of York Archaeological Trust and chairman of the standing conference, said: "The UK's archaeological community has taken an important step. We will be putting the detailed case for Unidroit's implementation in the near future. Ethical traders have nothing to fear from it. The world's history will benefit from the better stewardship of archaeological material for which it provides." He said the scale of the problem was almost impossible to estimate. "But the impression we get in Britain is that whenever there's an opportunity for antiquities to be removed from their rightful place, such as Afganistan or Iraq, where conditions mean something can be easily extracted from the ground, as often as not they turn up in London."
(Times of London)

Welshman claims to have painted many prized indigenous works Aboriginal art world is rocked by fresh scandal

Roger Maynard writes from Sydney

A WELSHMAN who claims to have produced some of Australia's most valuable indigenous paintings has found himself at the centre of a scandal that could undermine the Aboriginal art industry. Ray Beamish, who used to live with Kathleen Petyarre, the prize-winning Aboriginal artist, has alleged that he is the main painter of many of her works, which have a combined value of hundreds of thousands of pounds. He claims to have developed the distinctive "sacred women's dreaming" style of painting that was attributed to his former partner. Beamish also says he is the main painter of her Storm in Atnangkere Country 11, which won Australia's most prestigious and longest-running Aboriginal art award, the 1996 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award. If true, the allegations overshadow any previous scandal about the identity of Aboriginal painters, including last year's disclosure that an elderly West Australian pastoralist, Elizabeth Durack, had successfully misled Australia's art world by pretending to be an Aboriginal artist called Eddie Birrup. Susan McCulloch, the co-author of the Encyclopaedia of Australian Art, said: "What this means in the broader context is that a storm of serious proportions will hit the Aboriginal art industry. Now, for the first time, a big indigenous-only prize has been won by what I believe to be a non-authentic work." The controversy came to light amid tension surrounding the couple's recent separation and mounting professional jealousies between rival art dealers. According to Beamish the idea for the Telstra award-winning work was his alone and he painted at least 90 per cent of it. "She probably would have done a day's dots," he said. Petyarre has admitted that her former partner had worked with her on some of her paintings, including "the middle" of the Telstra work. However, in a statement issued later by her lawyers she insisted that he had helped her only in "marking out the canvases" and maintained that she was "the author of any of the paintings signed by me". She said: "I have been given these Dreamings by my grandfather and only me and my sisters are allowed to paint our stories." While these latest allegations will send shock waves through an industry that generates millions of pounds on the international art market, some observers believe it will also force the industry to address fundamental questions over authorship. Fuelled by admiring comments of critics and curators, many Aboriginal painters have found their work suddenly worth thousands of pounds. Gallery owners who used to enjoy fat commissions for selling indigenous paintings of sometimes questionable quality also have a vested interest in the continued growth of the market. Many experts have promoted Aboriginal works of art as Australia's only true artistic heritage, likening them to the equivalent of Turners and Constables. When Durack, who is of Irish descent, revealed that Birrup was merely a figment of her imagination, the 82 year-old white woman embarrassed the cognoscenti and infuriated the nation's indigenous artists. Ms McCulloch said she believed the latest claims could only help towards a general industry clean-up. "Any hints that things may not be as they seem make potential purchasers extremely wary and can cost millions of dollars in sales - a great pity considering the amounts of fair dealing and genuine art which is around," she said.

Clinton Signs Interior Dept. Bill

November 17, 1997

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Reuters [OL] via Individual Inc. : President Clinton signed a $13.8 billion spending bill for the Interior Department Friday that had been strongly opposed by environmental groups concerned it will harm national forests. In a lengthy statement explaining his decision to sign the measure into law, Clinton complained that it ``includes several provisions that attempt to interfere with the responsible management of our national forests.'' He also announced that he intended to use his line-item veto power to remove a provision that would make ``an unjustified transfer of millions of dollars of mineral rights to the state of Montana.'' The federal mineral rights had been intended as compensation for Montana in exchange for the blocking of a gold mine that was to have been developed near Yellowstone National Park. Environmentalists claim the bill was larded with provisions to increase commercial logging in national parks and to allow a special fund -- that had been intended for new federal land purchases -- to be used instead for repairs and maintenance at existing sites. One provision of the bill calls for the sale of $208 million worth of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve this fiscal year. The administration had opposed the sale, which was to generate money to operate the reserve for a year. The bill also would continue funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, a key compromise reached after the House threatened to close down the beleaguered agency. Clinton said he was ``concerned'' that NEA funding had been reduced to $98 million, $1.5 million than in the previous year.

[Copyright 1997, Reuters]

Clinton To Veto Mineral Transfer

November 17, 1997

WASHINGTON - The Associated Press via Individual Inc. : - President Clinton said Friday he will use his line-item veto power to kill a $10 million transfer of mineral rights from the federal government to the state of Montana. Clinton called the measure _ slipped into a bill funding the Interior Department and the National Endowment for the Arts _ ``an unjustified transfer of millions of dollars of mineral rights'' that would cause a ``dollar drain on the Treasury.'' While he signed the $13.8 billion Interior spending measure into law, Clinton has six days to formally exercise the line-item veto power, which Congress granted him just last year. Other spending provisions in the bill also could be added to the veto list, aides said. The proposed mineral rights transfer was in the bill as a sweetener for a deal that would close down Crown Butte Mines' New World Mine just three miles northeast of Yellowstone National Park. Clinton and environmental groups want to shut down the mine to keep it from polluting the nation's most famous park. The bill provides $65 million to pay the mining company for its property and an additional $12 million for the state to repair a highway between Cooke City and Red Lodge, Mont. The action fulfilled a campaign promise Clinton made in Montana during a visit last year. The mineral transfer provision was a last-minute addition at the behest of freshman Rep. Rick Hill and Sen. Conrad Burns, both R-Mont., who said it would create coal mining jobs to replace those lost at the closed gold mine. But environmentalists and a local Indian tribe cried foul, and Clinton called the provision ``unwarranted.'' The environmental groups said developing federally owned coal resources would simply trade one environmental threat for another. And the Northern Cheyenne Tribe objected that negative impacts of coal mining would hit their reservation hardest. Hill welcomed the signing of the bill but said he was ``disappointed'' that the mineral rights transfer was singled out for a veto. ``I am, frankly, led to believe that he has chosen politics over Montana's economy,'' Hill said in a statement. The overall spending bill, one of 13 appropriations measures Congress passed before it adjourned Thursday for the year, pays for operations of the Interior Department and several other agencies in the coming year. It provides $1.2 billion for operating national parks, a $79 million increase over last year, and $1.3 billion for national forests, a $71 million increase. The bill also maintains the National Endowment for the Arts, which Republicans had sought to kill, by providing a $98 million budget. In addition to the land purchase to protect Yellowstone, the bill provides money to buy land and head off cutting of old-growth redwoods in the Headwaters Forest in California.

[Copyright 1997, Associated Press]

Restored Windsor Castle rises from the ashes

By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent

SIX months ahead of schedule, well under budget and opulently topped off with 500,000 sheets of gold leaf, the restoration of the Upper Ward of Windsor Castle was unveiled to the world's media yesterday, almost five years to the day after fire reduced parts of it to no more than a shell. The results of one of the most expensive restorations carried out in Britain will delight traditionalists, disappoint modernists who hoped the Queen might chose contemporary designs, and probably leave tourists unaware that there ever was a conflagration. On Nov 20, 1992, the fire, which burned for 15 hours, crowned what the Queen was to describe later as her annus horribilis. On Nov 20 this year, the Queen will celebrate her golden wedding anniversary with a ball for 600 guests in the restored quarters. The Queen has called the completion of the renovation "a wonderful anniversary present". Yesterday, on a grey day with the Queen in residence, the restored Upper Ward - containing nine principal rooms including the 180 ft-long St George's Hall on the ground floor and more than 100 other rooms above and below - glistened exquisitely. Those unfamiliar with the architecture and the decorations before the fire would hardly have known that these were not the rooms redesigned by Sir Jeffry Wyatville for George IV in the 1820s. Whether faithfully reproducing most of Wyatville's own reproduction of medieval gothic style was the right choice is another question. The Prince of Wales who, alongside his father, helped to supervise the restoration, will add fuel to the debate in a television documentary produced by Prince Edward to be shown on Thursday. He says: "I am afraid to say that I have never been a great admirer of Wyatville and I think what was done during King George IV's time to some parts of the castle was disastrous." The restoration is largely faithful reproduction, though St George's Hall has a freshly-designed hammer-beam roof, and the private chapel has been redesigned in Gothic style with an altar designed by Viscount Linley, the Queen's nephew. Originally budgeted at £40 million, the restoration has been completed for £37 million. Seventy per cent was paid for by the Royal Family, helped by receipts from opening Buckingham Palace to the public.
Date sent: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 00:14:01 +0000 To: securma@xs4all.nl From: Paul Dards Subject:

Re: Museum Security and SmokeCloak

>At 10:56 AM 97/10/30 +0000, you wrote:
>>We sent information about Smokecloak to the Museum Security
>>Mailinglist. This information aroused several questions/comments
>>from our subscribers. These questions have been forwarded to you. A
>>little over a week ago we asked you for information about SmokeCloak
>>and the possibillities to use this device in an environment with
>>vulnerable objects, such as museums, galleries, libraries etc. Would
>>you please be so kind as to answer these questions? No reply seems
>>to be confirmation of some subscribers' opinion that SmokeCloak can
>>not be used in the environment where our subscribers work. Thanks,
>>Ton Cremers Museum Security Network

Hello Ton
Thank you for your interest.
I am pleased to report that Smokecloak can and is used in museums and libraries. The Imperial War Museum in the UK, and the national museum of Mexico in Mexico city use Smokecloak, we also protect many antique shops and dealers. We even protect diamond cutting companies. The density of vapour is carefully regulated by the Cloaksensor (a special patented feedback device) and will not damage delicate items. However because Glycol - the raw material for our vapour - was once used by painting restorers and now is not considered suitable. We have a problem with protecting oil paintings, even though the concentrations of vapour are nothing like the neat fluid that used to be applied to paintings. We do not recommend the use of Smokecloak in Art galleries. If you require further information please call us on +44 1908 567 007 or see our web page www.smokecloak.com or www.smokecloak.co.uk
Best regards Paul Dards MD Smokecloak Ltd.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 17, 1997 CONTACT: Jerome Uher, (202)223-6722, ext. 122

NPCA CALLS FOR BROADER PARK SERVICE ROLE IN REGULATING TOUR FLIGHTS

Agency Needs Authority, FAA Cooperation to Restore Quiet to Parks

St. George, UT -- The nation's leading national park advocacy group today said the National Park Service (NPS) must be given the power to regulate air tours in order to curb noise and the disturbance of other visitors. The National Parks and Conservation Association (NPCA) today testified at a congressional field hearing that legislation is needed to manage the operations of scenic air tours because of the industry's explosive growth at the Grand Canyon and its expansion to other parks. "Every year more national parks, national monuments, national historic parks, national lakes and seashores endure the drone of air tour engines, with a resulting loss of their natural quiet and the experience of tranquillity for the visitor," said Phil Voorhees, NPCA Associate Director for Policy Development. "In point of fact, any and every unit of the National Park System with dramatic features and a scenic vista is at risk." Currently, neither the Park Service nor the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has a process in place for regulating or managing flight tour operations over parks. A 1987 law was passed to "substantially restore" natural quiet to the Grand Canyon, but disputes between NPS and FAA over how to achieve noise reductions continue to this day. Meanwhile, according to the FAA, the number of annual tourist flights over the Grand Canyon has grown from 40,000 in 1988 to between 105,000 and 200,000 in 1995. The proportion of the park experiencing natural quiet has declined from 43 percent to 31 percent. In light of the experience of implementing the law at Grand Canyon, Voorhees asserted that legislation must explicitly delegate to NPS the authority for determining whether natural quiet is part of the park's natural resources and experience. It must delegate to NPS the authority to determine restrictions needed to preserve natural quiet and those how restrictions should be applied. It also must require that the FAA implement NPS recommendations and any revisions the Secretary of the Interior deems necessary to protect natural quiet unless FAA can clearly identify safety reasons for not complying. "Historically, FAA and NPS have not worked well in partnership," said Voorhees. "Therefore, to protect park resources and the visitor experience any legislation drafted should make it explicit that no flights shall take place unless FAA can devise, at an individual park, a route structure which both meets NPS objectives and ensures safety."
From: "Joseph Delci" joeyed@sprintmail.com
To:
Subject:

summaries

Ton, I write in regards to the summary format you experimented with recently. It appears it was not too popular with some and the ability to follow the links is certainly important. If you did not receive any favorable mail toward your recent change let me assure you that there are those out here who did find it more convenient. Furthermore, I felt the format provided a richer, more informative article, and the headline credited the sources in a much more appropriate manner. Personally, I find your service highly informational and a great service to the culturally concerned. I archive practically every article from MSN and have referenced them many times in the past to answer questions or to just pass them along as interesting articles often are. The HTML format also saves quite nicely to diskettes and provides a very readable archive as opposed to saving e-mail in a monotony of black and white, pedestrian characters. Another thing this format reminded me of is that you really do have a wonderful website. The convenience of having these articles e-mailed directly to us really is quite nice, but I'm afraid this convenience is something we may take for granted at times. By entering the environs of the Internet to read the MSN articles I also checked out the website which I had not done in quite a while. I was amazed at how much you have done since I last visited. I ended up staying for a while perusing the pages you had added. So, I'd like to offer a word of thanks for your attempt at this approach. I found it convenient in many aspects and would welcome it should you decide to return to it in the future. Sincerely, Joseph Delci Chicago
(Philadelphia Inquirer)

National Gallery exhibit may have had stolen works Experts say Nazis looted the items displayed in 1990.

By Mike Feinsilber ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON

-- An art show that drew gushing reviews at the National Gallery of Art in 1990 is getting a second, far-less-friendly look. Critics complain that the museum failed to note that some of the paintings had been looted by the Nazis from Jews in France. "This exhibit raises a myriad of questions, including why your prestigious institution gave a public platform to a Nazi arms dealer who was also the largest Swiss buyer of looted art," Sidney Clearfield, executive vice president of the Jewish organization B'nai B'rith, wrote gallery director Earl Powell. The gallery minimizes its role in displaying "works of art that were shown for nine weeks in a temporary loan exhibition" of pieces owned by the late Swiss industrialist Emil G. Buhrle and a foundation he created. Among the 84 paintings in the show, "The Passionate Eye," were at least four -- by Alfred Sisley, Camille Corot, Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet -- that were seized by the Nazis when they occupied France, art historians say. After World War II, Douglas Cooper, a British army officer and art connoisseur, was asked by the Allies to investigate the disappearance of thousands of artworks. In a report that was declassified in Washington in 1975, he identified Buhrle as the largest Swiss buyer of art taken by the Nazis. The report lists the four paintings in the show as among those that had been purloined. Fine print in the exhibition catalog also notes that a fifth painting in the show was in the collection of Hermann Goring, Germany's second-most-powerful Nazi. In his letter, Clearfield asked the National Gallery to republish the catalog. Such catalogs are used as a reference in libraries and museums. He said republication would give the previous owners of the art "their rightful place in history." Ori Soltes, director of the National Jewish Museum in Washington, said it would have been impossible for Buhrle not to have known about the paintings' tainted history when he acquired them. And, Soltes says, it also would have been unlikely for the National Gallery not to have learned about that history when it researched the art in preparing the catalog, especially since the gallery helped the Allies identify confiscat ed art after the war. "I assume a museum of that stature does the kind of research which could not have avoided turning up that information," he said. He called the exhibit "morally irresponsible." In a statement, the gallery said it "makes all reasonable efforts to assure itself that it exhibits works of art that have been properly exported from their country of origin and have no legal claims regarding ownership pending against them." "We are constantly seeking to improve our procedures," the gallery added. The show opened in an air of celebration in 1990. J. Carter Brown, who then ran the National Gallery, welcomed "the biggest package of impressionists and post-impressionists that you'll ever run into in your lifetime." The fresh interest in the exhibit was provoked by the publication this year of the English edition of The Lost Museum, by cultural writer Hector Feliciano. The book traces how the Nazis stripped occupied countries of works of art -- 61,000 from France alone. Many have not yet been returned to the families of their original owners. Adolf Hitler considered modern art degenerate, but the Nazis still took it, selling it or trading it to cooperative galleries for resale. That is how Buhrle acquired many of his pieces, Feliciano wrote. He said Buhrle could not have been unaware of "the shady origins of the paintings he was buying." Taking note of the broader controversy, Rep. Jim Leach (R., Iowa), chairman of the House Banking Committee, drafted legislation expressing Congress' view that artworks seized by the Nazis or the Soviets should be returned to their original owners or heirs. Adding a twist to the story of Buhrle's collection, Feliciano reported that French collector Paul Rosenberg, original owner of some of the art that Buhrle acquired, regained possession of it in 1949 by suing Buhrle in Swiss courts -- and then sold it back to Buhrle. Soltes said Buhrle had settled legal claims against the four challenged pieces of art before they went on display at the National Gallery. Buhrle's legitimate ownership of the four is not in dispute, he said. What is in dispute is the National Gallery's failure to acknowledge the paintings' history.

Youngworth denies he has control of stolen Gardner art

By Stephen Kurkjian, Globe Staff, 11/18/97

In papers filed yesterday in US Bankruptcy Court, William P. Youngworth III - the rogue Randolph antiques dealer who has contended that he can broker the return of precious artwork stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum - stated that he does not ''own, hold or control'' the art. But Youngworth also reiterated that he is able to ''arrange/broker'' the return of the 13 paintings, sketches, and other pieces of art stolen in March 1990, and listed having a ''contingent claim'' on the $5 million reward offered by the museum. Neither Youngworth, who is serving a two- to three-year prison sentence for an unrelated stolen-auto charge, nor Richard D. Smeloff, his lawyer in the financial reorganization before the bankruptcy court, could be reached for comment. Since August, Youngworth has insisted to federal authorities, Gardner Museum officials, and reporters that he could help arrange the return of the stolen paintings, but he has declined to provide details about his access to them. Still, the Boston Herald has reported that Youngworth arranged for a reporter to get a secret glimpse of what appeared to be one of the stolen paintings. In addition, the Herald, relying on arrangements made by Youngworth and an associate, has put forth photographs, purportedly of two of the stolen Rembrandts, and tiny paint chips allegedly taken from one of the paintings. The FBI and the museum have analyzed the photographs and the chips but have not announced their results. By stating that he does not have control of the artwork, Youngworth could be trying to avoid a future legal problem. If he admitted in his bankruptcy file that he has control of the Gardner art, prosecutors might take him before a grand jury and demand that he testify about the artwork's location or face further jail time, legal specialists said. Meanwhile, Martin K. Leppo, Youngworth's criminal lawyer, said he was disappointed at the failed attempts recently to re-start negotiations between federal authorities and Youngworth for the return of the art. Last Thursday, after a Norfolk Superior Court judge sentenced Youngworth for possession of a stolen motor vehicle, Leppo said the relatively lenient sentence could lead to the artwork's return by the end of the year. Youngworth could have received the maximum 15-year sentence for the crime if he had been convicted of being a habitual offender of the state's criminal laws. However, that indictment was dismissed by Superior Court Judge Isaac Borenstein on Leppo's motion that inadequate information had been presented to the grand jury. Norfolk County District Attorney Jeffrey A. Locke's office yesterday dropped plans to seek an immediate hearing before the Supreme Judicial Court on an appeal of Borenstein's decision.

This story ran on page B04 of the Boston Globe on 11/18/97. © Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.

Stolen swords draw attention of the FBI

by Ron Avery Daily News Staff Writer

Gen. George G. Meade saved Philadelphia from the rebels by winning the battle of Gettysburg, and, in deep appreciation, the city gave him a gem-encrusted sword. And the thieves who lifted Meade's blade, plus three other important swords and an 18th century long rifle, from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania either had a ready buyer or will have to content themselves with admiring their swag in secret. That's because the FBI is on the case and has given dealers across the nation a detailed description of the missing pieces -- worth about $600,000, with the Meade sword accounting for about half. "I don't think they're going to show up at a dealer because these things have real fingerprints. They would be recognized immediately," declared Civil War expert and dealer Russ Pritchard III of Bryn Mawr. The society, which may eventually sell or donate all its 10,000 artifacts, is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the items' recovery. The items were taken from a locked storage room at the society, at 13th and Locust, sometime between late October and Nov. 4. Three of the four items had been part of the Society's long-running -- and probably last -- exhibit on Philadelphia history that closed in July. The artifacts were not taken up to the fourth-floor storage room until late October. Society artifacts manager Kristen Froehlich discovered the theft during an inventory. There was no sign of a break-in or tampering, said FBI spokeswoman Linda Vizi. The Meade and two other swords were "presentation" weapons -- ornate, ceremonial items given by governments, veterans or citizen groups to Civil War heroes. The fourth dates to the War of 1812 and was owned by Maj. Issac D. Barnard. The 60-inch long-rifle dates to about 1780, was in "mint condition" and is worth about $100,000. Meade's sword and scabbard contains a great deal of engraving, as well as many diamond chips, amethysts, gold and silver. "It would have cost at least $2,000 when it was made," said weapons expert Bruce Bazelton of the state Historical and Museum Commission. Bazelon published a description of the missing Meade sword in his book Swords in Public Collections in Pennsylvania. "It's a really, really important sword," he declared. Meade had at least three such swords. One encrusted with rubies and other precious stones is on daily display at the Civil War Museum and Library near 18th and Pine. Another is in Harrisburg. Meade, a Philadelphian, was appointed commander of all Union forces at Gettysburg just days before the battle, which became a turning point in the war. The two other missing Civil War swords had been given to Philadelphians Maj. Gen. David Bell Birney and Maj. Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys. Birney took over command in a particularly bloody part of the Gettysburg fight after Gen. Dan Sickles of New York was wounded. Humphreys' long military career stretched over 52 years; he was a hero at Gettysburg and was present for Lee's surrender.

©1997 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.

Entertainer Seeks Paintings Seized at Drug Deal Courts:

Wayne Newton had testified at bankruptcy proceeding that he bought the artworks for a friend. Now he says some of the paintings, which another man tried to trade for cocaine, are really his.

By DAVAN MAHARAJ, Times Staff Writer

SANTA ANA--Las Vegas entertainer Wayne Newton insisted that he had nothing to do with the Renoirs, Dalis and a Matisse that were traded in an Irvine hotel parking lot two years ago for 110 pounds of cocaine, authorities said. The would-be drug dealer had receipts indicating that Newton had once purchased some of the artwork at a prestigious auction house, but still the singer didn't seek to claim them. But now Newton is changing his tune, saying that some of the 17 paintings are his after all and that he wants them back, according to a spokeswoman for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Because of the flip-flop, and some other contradictory statements by Newton in Bankruptcy Court, the agency is not taking the singer's word for it, said DEA Special Agent Sharon Carter, and has asked him to prove that the contested artwork is indeed his. According to Carter, Newton's attorney contacted the federal agency after Jose B. Uribe, a onetime Coachella city manager, was convicted last month in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana of attempting to swap the paintings for two suitcases, each stuffed with 25 kilograms of cocaine. The swap occurred May 24, 1995, at the Irvine Marriott. The drug suppliers turned out to be undercover agents who seized the artwork including 10 Renoirs, two Dalis and a Matisse and arrested Uribe, 49, and another man, Raymond Torres of Las Vegas. Torres pleaded guilty last year, though he is now attempting to retract that plea. When Uribe's trial ended, the DEA was set to turn over the paintings to the U.S. Marshal's Service, which would have auctioned the pieces because no one had claimed them, Carter said. But Newton's attorney recently called to say the entertainer wanted them back. Carter said the entertainer's request puzzled agents because Newton, who is currently embroiled in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, had testified under oath in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Reno that some of the paintings were not his. He testified that he had merely used his account at Sotheby's auction house to purchase the artwork for a friend. "You can't claim something that isn't yours," Carter said agents told Newton's attorney. "Agents are obviously interested in the outcome of his claim." "Normally, people whose property we seize abandon [it], but they don't come back and reclaim it. This is unusual." Newton and his bankruptcy attorneys didn't return calls seeking comment. Newton's claim has caused authorities to review information about how the paintings ended up in the art-for-coke exchange, Carter said. In a statement to DEA agents shortly after his arrest, Torres said he got 20 paintings from an associate who said he had stolen the artwork from a storage facility at Newton's Las Vegas estate. The unnamed thief even scooped up some receipts indicating Newton had bought the paintings from Sotheby's. Torres told the DEA that he promised the thief 3 kilograms of cocaine in exchange for the paintings, and then sought help from his friend, Uribe, in figuring out how to sell the artwork. In December 1994, Newton acknowledged in Bankruptcy Court that his Sotheby's account was used to pay $112,000 for "Baie de Pont Aven" and five of the 10 Renoirs seized by federal agents. But the paintings were not listed in an extensive inventory of Newton's assets filed in Bankruptcy Court. Newton had been called to testify about the Renoirs and other expenses after some creditors contended that he was continuing a free-spending lifestyle despite being more than $20 million in debt. The singer, who became famous as a chubby child entertainer with the 1963 hit "Danke Schoen" and was once listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's highest-paid entertainer, has been mired in personal bankruptcy since 1992. Newton testified that even though bankruptcy court records stated that five of the seized Renoirs were bought at Sotheby's auctions, charged to his account and shipped to the singer's Las Vegas home, these paintings were actually purchased for a friend from Texas, Keith Wood, who reimbursed him "and they were hand-delivered to him in Texas." "Not one penny of my money went to that [purchase] at all," Newton testified at the time. Wood could not be located by The Times and has never contacted the DEA, authorities said. Despite his denial that he owned the artwork, Newton and his wife, Kathleen, filed a report with Las Vegas police on Nov. 8, 1995--six months after Uribe's and Torres' arrests--that some paintings were stolen from a storage facility near their house. The missing paintings included Renoirs and Dalis and were valued at about $1 million, according to the police report, a copy of which was obtained by The Times.

Copyright Los Angeles Times

(Times of London)

Envoys accused over antiquities

AN EMINENT archaeologist has accused diplomats of using diplomatic bags to smuggle illegally excavated antiquities from their countries of origin, (Dalya Alberge writes).

Professor Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, called for the contents of diplomatic bags to be restricted to papers and documents. Although he declined to point the finger at any individual or country, he said that the bags were providing "an important route". Speaking at the launch in Cambridge of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, formed to combat the illicit trade in antiquities, Lord Renfrew described the situation as disastrous. He said: "The world's cultural heritage is rapidly being destroyed by the looting of archaeological sites." A spokesman for the Foreign Office said he was sure that British diplomats did not abuse the privilege of diplomatic bags.

Family questioned over lost Old Masters

By Bruce Johnston in Rome

FLORENCE police were yesterday investigating the disappearance of 100 Old Master paintings from a private collection believed subsequently to have been taken abroad in contravention of strict export laws. According to La Nazione newspaper, the five children and sister of the late Prince Tommaso Corsini, one of Italy's greatest noble families, are under investigation. Inquiries have focused on Prince Tommaso's collection of priceless art which magistrates say were all listed by the state in 1948, and thus subject to a sale and export restriction. The collection is known to have gone partly to Tommaso's heirs and partly to create a private gallery in the Palazzo Corsini, the family's historic residence in Florence, which includes works by Rubens, Botticelli, Pontormo, Bronzino and Andrea del Sarto. The palace was the venue of a legitimate auction of antique furniture, furnishings and books four years ago, said to have netted the family almost £3 million. Yesterday's reports did not elaborate as to which part of the collection the missing paintings belonged. But it was claimed that altogether 100 of the original 500 canvasses and panels had "disappeared", possibly sold and in many cases also exported illegally. Carabinieri specialising in stolen and illegally exported art determined that the paintings were missing after searches of Corsini family villas, palaces, apartments and farmhouses early this year. The reports said investigators now wanted to know "by what channels" works in the Corsini collection had allegedly come to be included in sales at London auction houses. The reports also said that investigators suspected a "triangle" involving Italy, British auctioneers and Swiss banks" had been used to "shift paintings halfway round the world". The heirs have reportedly sold "a few paintings in Italy" from their private collection to pay for the upkeep of the gallery, but insisted they have not broken the law. "The public gallery was in no way involved and the state had always been scrupulously informed of any dealings," the family said. The Florence-based investigation into the Corsini collection developed out of an inquiry opened by Florence magistrates last year into the surprise appearance at the Getty Museum in Malibu, California, of a painting by Rubens, the Death of Samson. It had belonged to the Corsini collection. Luciano Trovato, the magistrate in charge of that inquiry, said in March that three dealers who had bought the painting in 1991 for £175,000 from Anna Lucrezia Corsini, one of the heirs, had done so after guaranteeing that it was not a Rubens but a work by one of his pupils. Two years later, it was bought by the Getty Museum for £4 million, and last year it was exhibited as a Rubens. Investigations into the original Samson sale led Trovato to formulate the new accusations, La Nazione said yesterday. Mr Trovato said yesterday: "I can only confirm that an investigation is going ahead."

© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.

FEATURE-

Cambodia's heritage another casualty of war

12:12 a.m. Nov 19, 1997 Eastern By Chris McCall

SIEM REAP, Cambodia, Nov 19 (Reuters) - For hundreds of years the ruins of the mighty Khmer empire lay safely hidden in thick jungle, but decades of civil war have made looting its remains all too easy for the descendants of its people. As the war and Cambodia's political turmoil drag on, the people responsible for protecting the World Heritage site around Angkor Wat fear that time is running out. ``If the war carries on for long, Cambodia's heritage will be destroyed. Angkor will be ruined,'' says Chea Sophat, head of a special police unit protecting the site. The 12th-Century temple and the surrounding remains of the ancient Khmer capital have become a mecca for foreign tourists since they were reopened. In 1996, entrance fees alone totalled more than $1 million. But art thieves have come as well, mostly armed and often with powerful connections. The poorly funded authorities say they wage a constant battle against looters, mostly by night. Gunfights, intimidation of police informants and jungle stake-outs are all regular occurrences, they say.

AN ARMY OF LOOTERS

Sophat estimates that 80 percent of the looters are members of the armed forces, while the other 20 percent are mostly local villagers. Since the special unit was created in the early 1990s, it has seized 168 items and deals with 20 to 30 looting cases a year. But probably only one in three items are recovered. Thai traders are said to be the main dealers. Important artefacts are among those stolen. In early November, a large stone head was taken from the north gate of the Bayon, the centre of the ancient Khmer capital. ``This statue is very important and very expensive for the Thais,'' says Sophat. It was eventually found buried in a field. Two members of the military are suspected in its theft. A recent legal change has finally given Sophat's 400-odd men the power to detain members of the military. Previously, they had to approach military authorities for permission. Like most things in Cambodia this team is desperately short of funds. Policeman Him Kuon, 55, earns $20 a month, the same sum foreign visitors pay to visit the site for a day. The main buildings the police unit uses were paid for by foreign aid. Sophat says looting has increased since June, when First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh was ousted in two days of factional fighting in Phnom Penh. The police chief links this to a downturn in tourist revenue as foreigners avoided Cambodia. ``If there are no tourists there is no money.''

THE ONCE MIGHTY KHMER EMPIRE

>From the 9th to the 13th century, the Khmer empire ruled not only Cambodia but large parts of Laos, Thailand and Vietnam from Angkor. But many Cambodians do not appreciate the cultural value of the site, Sophat says. The Khmer Rouge regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975-79 virtually wiped out the country's intelligentsia. ``Not all Khmer love Khmer culture. They love money,'' says Sophat. Cultural theft in Cambodia carries a maximum of five years in prison, he says, but admits that enforcement is difficult. Uong Von, the Ministry of Culture's chief conservationist for Angkor, says some of those convicted of looting leave prison very quickly. ``These people have strong supporters,'' says Von. ``This job is very difficult -- and also dangerous.'' Thieves fearing capture may hide in the forest or join the Khmer Rouge guerrillas, who control territory some 180 km (100 miles) north of Siem Reap. ``Ta Mok is the chief thief,'' Von said, referring to the guerrillas' military chief. Informants have been silenced with threats of violence and now the department does all it can to keep their identities secret. But of the more than $1 million that entrance fees to Angkor brought Cambodia in 1996, Von says only $10,000 went to his department, which faces bills of around $700 a month just for electricity.

STOLEN CELESTIAL DANCER

To illustrate the problems they face, he cites the case of a statue of an apsara, or celestial dancer, recently stolen from the western entrance to the Banteay Kdei temple. ``We do not really know how they stole it. Our warden just went to the site the next morning and saw the traces of looting,'' says Von. The statue was one metre high and dated from the 13th century. It would fetch a high price on the international art market, Von says, but cannot say how much. ``We only know that the older, the more expensive.''

Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited.