05/05/97
By Walter V. Robinson, Globe Staff
Once a prosperous San Francisco dealer in jade antiquities, Sydney Ashkenazie was facing bankruptcy in 1993 and had just $8 in his pocket, he said, when he walked into Christie's, a New York auction house, and saw an opportunity to erase his debts and make millions. Staring back at him was an oil portrait of a forlorn old man with a beard, valued at just $1,500 to $2,000, and attributed to an anonymous pupil of Rembrandt. But even then, before his winning bid of $29,900 and his subsequent discovery that the painting was stolen, Ashkenazie was convinced he had stumbled upon a genuine Rembrandt worth millions of dollars. Others have similar hopes: According to court records in Ashkenazie's bankruptcy case, his girlfriend left him at one point and took the painting, hoping to sell it. Another adviser, he said, urged him to smuggle the work into Switzerland and sell it on the ``gray market.'' His creditors are hoping that the painting, once credited to Rembrandt, will bring millions. The portrait's allure even drew criminal defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey to play a cameo role. In recent interviews, Ashkenazie and Bailey called each other liars over Ashkenazie's assertion that Bailey asked to be given custody of the artwork at one point. Yet the odds are that Ashkenazie will never cash in on his belief that he bought a Rembrandt for a fraction of its value. Research by his former girlfriend, Elizabeth White, discovered that the painting was looted by the Nazis from a French Jewish collector, Adolphe Schloss. (Her attorney said she took it only to safeguard it, and had no plans to sell it.) Ashkenazie, with approval by a federal bankruptcy judge, sought a meeting with the family of the World War II owner, but walked into a sting operation mounted by undercover US Customs agents. They seized the painting, leaving Ashkenazie with just a color snapshot of his potential financial salvation - and the possibility he could face criminal charges. The Globe reported a week ago that the painting was one of two that were looted from Jews during World War II and sold by New York auction houses. The other, a Boticelli portrait that Sotheby's sold in January for $650,000, was owned by a Dutch Jew who, along with his wife, died in the Holocaust. Last month, the seller of the painting made a six-figure settlement with the victims' descendants. In Ashkenazie's San Francisco bankruptcy case, ``This painting has become the holy grail,'' lamented Richard L. Gabriel, an attorney for one creditor. Attorneys for the bankruptcy trustee, a US government appointee required to account for Ashkenazie's assets, have sued the Justice Department, which has refused to disclose evidence to buttress the Schloss claim. ``We're now spending good money to sue to find out about a painting we may have to give up,'' said Michael A. Isaacs, the trustee's attorney. In March 1996, the bankruptcy judge, Thomas E. Carlson, endorsed an effort to ``go forward aggressively'' in an approach to the Schloss family, telling Atlanta lawyer Mark Kadish, who represented Ashkenazie at the time, to ``come back with either a waiver of interest from Schloss or an agreement with Schloss regarding an enforceable agreement for the division of the proceeds.'' At a warehouse on Second Avenue in New York City last May, according to Ashkenazie and court records, the former jade dealer met with a woman who said she was a Schloss family friend. In fact, she was Bonnie Goldblatt, a Customs Service agent who directs the Stolen Art detail. In two meetings, Ashkenazie said, he was offered $200,000 for the painting. But he said he turned aside the offer, warning Goldblatt that he could tie the painting up in court for years, and proposing they sell the painting and split the proceeds. Instead, Customs agents seized the painting. Goldblatt, citing the criminal investigation, has refused comment. It was also Kadish, according to Ashkenazie, who brought Bailey into the case. Ashkenazie said he gave Bailey a jade pin valued at $12,000 as a retainer. And at an Atlanta meeting, he said, Bailey demanded custody of the painting so he could handle negotiations. In an initial interview, Bailey denied receiving anything from Ashkenazie, then acknowledged he received the pin ``as security for my fee.'' (He said he plans to return it to the bankruptcy trustee.) Asked about the Atlanta meeting, Bailey exploded in anger. ``I never met with the man,'' he insisted. But when pressed, he said he ``didn't recall'' the meeting. Asked in a second interview if he ever did any work for Ashkenazie, Bailey cited the Atlanta meeting as evidence he had. Bailey also vigorously denied Ashkenazie's assertion that he asked him to turn over the painting, calling Askkenazie a liar. Countered Ashkenazie: ``Mr. Bailey is either lying or is suffering from memory loss.'' A year ago, Bailey spent 44 days in jail in Florida after being found in contempt of court for missing a deadline to return to the government more than $20 million in stock that a client accused of drug smuggling had once signed over to him. Ashkenazie is convinced he will outwit the art market. Christie's pricing of the work, he says, ``will turn out to be the biggest mistake in auction house history.'' But after three decades in which about 40 percent of the paintings once attributed to Rembrandt have been ``deauthenticated,'' most art specialists agree that it is unlikely that Ashkenazie bought a real Rembrandt. Otto Naumann, a New York dealer who is a Rembrandt specialist, said he viewed the work before auction and urged his clients not to bid. Coincidentally, Customs agents turned to Naumann for an appraisal after seizing the portrait. Goldblatt, Naumann said, visited him, ``desperately wanting me to say it was a real Rembrandt so they could further their careers at the expense of the poor fool who tried to sell them the painting. You should have seen the crestfallen look on her face when I told her it was not even worth what Ashkenazie paid for it,'' Naumann recalled. Such appraisals, however, do not bother Ashkenazie, who sets the painting's value at $20 million. ``In a way, I wish they would indict me,'' he said, laughing. ``The public attention might increase the value to $30 million.''
This story ran on page 3 of the Boston Globe on 05/05/97
Queen's praise for rescue teams in fire at Royal Academy
BY ALAN HAMILTON and Nigel Reynolds
SWIFT action by staff and firefighters saved more than 100 paintings, including works by Reynolds, Constable and Turner, when fire broke out in the Royal Academy in central London on Saturday night.
Curators inspecting the damage at the Academy's home at Burlington House in Piccadilly yesterday found that it was much less than they had feared and was confined to a handful of paintings, drawings and architectural models in a first-floor gallery. Several entries for this year's summer exhibition, which opens on June 1, suffered slight damage but could probably be repaired.
A message from the Queen, the Academy's patron, to Sir Philip Dowson, its president, expressed her relief at the minimal damage, and congratulated one of the country's leading art institutions on opening for business as usual yesterday morning.
Like many other galleries, Burlington House has no sprinkler system, on the ground that water is likely to cause far more damage to paintings than a small fire. But as the flames were being doused with firefighters' hoses, staff became concerned at a trickle of water beginning to penetrate a basement vault where a large part of the Academy's historic collection was kept.
Some staff were on duty for a lecture taking place in the building; others were quickly summoned from their homes. Helped by firefighters, who were issued with white cotton gloves as worn by art conservators, they formed a human chain and moved more than 100 paintings to safety in another vault. They saved, among other works, a series of Constable landscape studies, Turner's view of Dolbadarn Castle in North Wales and a self-portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
David Gordon, secretary of the Academy, praised staff and firefighters yesterday. "A fire is always a serious matter, but we were able to deal with it very quickly in the way we had predicted, and the fact that this morning people are coming in to see our George Grosz exhibition shows that our procedures are working," he said.
The cause of the fire is still unknown, but the first-floor Lecture Rooom gallery, where it broke out, is undergoing refurbishment.
+++
Monday 5 May 1997
Queen's praise for rescue teams in fire at Royal Academy
By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent
THE Queen has praised the operation that saved works of art valued at millions of pounds at the Royal Academy during Saturday night's fire that damaged an empty gallery and a temporary roof.
The Queen, patron of the 229-year-old academy, said she was "relieved" that the damage was contained and praised staff for opening the RA as usual yesterday. "That is a considerable achievement," she said in a letter to Sir Philip Dowson, RA president.
Chris Smith, the new National Heritage Secretary, last night said "serious questions" needed to be asked following the fire. The minister, visiting the scene of the blaze, praised the skill of the fire crews and RA staff in averting a major disaster.
David Gordon, secretary and most senior official of the academy, said that he was drinking champagne at a party at home on Saturday when he was told about the fire.
"We were toasting a former secretary of mine to congratulate her on becoming pregnant. Luckily, I had only had one glass," he said. He dashed to the RA in Burlington House, Piccadilly, leaving the bottle unfinished.
Fire investigators were still trying to find the cause of the blaze yesterday. It began in a temporary roof space above a gallery known as the Lecture Room, behind Burlington House in the Main Galleries, built in 1868. It was being refurbished as part of a £9 million rolling programme to modernise all the academy's 13 galleries.
Mr Gordon said that the academy was insured and none of its collection of Old Masters had been damaged. Only a handful of architectural models and prints, stored in the Lecture Room for the Summer Exhibition, were damaged.
During the blaze, attended by more than 100 firemen, hundreds of paintings were moved from vaults to galleries by staff and firemen as water dripped through from the Lecture Room. Mr Gordon said the summer show would open as scheduled on June 1, by which time the damaged gallery would be restored.
The privately-funded RA faced controversy last December when a leaked auditor's report disclosed debts of more than £3 million.
The report showed that the 120 academicians had not been kept informed of the crisis, that £200,000 had been "wasted" on exhibitions that would never take place and that a similar sum due in employers' pension contributions had not been paid.
Trevor Clark, the former bursar, was jailed for five years in March after admitting stealing almost £400,000 from the receipts of summer exhibitions. His systematic thefts exposed the amateurish, clubbable way in which the RA was run.
Mr Gordon has suggested management reforms to give a group of experienced businessmen more say in the institution's affairs.
The academy's collection includes works by Constable, Turner and Gainsborough.
copyright SECURMA The Netherlands
by Jason Burke and Richard Woods
FIREMEN fought a blaze at the Royal Academy of Arts in central London last night. Flames shot from the roof and black smoke billowed down Piccadilly. Eight firefighting appliances, three helicopters and more than 100 firemen from across London were called to the scene shortly after 8pm. The fire is believed to have started on a temporary roof towards the back of the building where construction work was taking place. It spread down into the building. Some firemen precariously worked their way across the roof. Others were sent inside the building to protect the contents. Officers were stationed on the first, second and third floors to cover the exhibits with protective sheets and were preparing to carry them out if the fire threatened to spread. In two galleries up to 40 exhibits for the summer exhibition, whose hanging was finalised last Friday, had to be moved. Two sets of architectural drawings and models were destroyed. Some of the 228-year-old academy's valuable works were also threatened. The academy, founded by Sir Joshua Reynolds, holds Tondo, a sculpture by Michelangelo which 20 years ago was valued at more than £6m. It regularly hosts touring exhibitions and currently has a display of works by George Grosz, the German expressionist painter, and an exhibition of political cartoons. During the past month thousands of works were submitted by contemporary artists for consideration for the summer exhibition. Last year more than 11,000 were submitted. The show usually attracts about 125,000 visitors. David Gordon, secretary of the academy, said there was no sprinkler system in the building because water was just as likely to cause damage as a small fire. More than 80 people were inside the building attending a debate on contemporary art when the alarm was raised. Sergeant Andrew Mellows of Vine Street police station had spotted the smoke, climbed a building opposite and saw that most of the roof was alight. Rachel Lumsden, a 29-year-old postgraduate at the academy, was inside the building. "The debate had been going for about an hour and a half and was very lively," she said. "At first we all ignored the alarm. But when it went off a second time they cleared the building. I am worried about my material; a lot of my work is back where the fire is." Damage from the fire and the high-pressure water pumped in to contain it is expected to run to hundreds of thousands of pounds. Paintings in the galleries below the fire were affected by the water, and fire damage to some of the walls was reported to be "extensive". The academy is already facing a financial crisis. Last year it had an annual deficit of £1m, accumulated debts of £3m and an overdraft of £2.25m. It had not been helped by a bursar who stole almost £400,000 from the institution to try to win back the affections of his wife. In March he was jailed for five years.
copyright SECURMA The Netherlands
By Julie Gatenby
A STOLEN Henry Moore sculpture worth more than £50,000 was recovered in a Sainsbury's carrier bag when police carried out a routine anti-terrorist check on a London taxi.
Police were last night questioning two men arrested after recovering the bronze figure, which was taken three weeks ago from a London gallery. Officers stopped the mini-cab at a security point in the City of London on Thursday.
On closer inspection they found the plastic bag containing the sculpture on the back seat. The 10in tall sculpture of a reclining woman was one of the sculptor's later works, from 1980. The reclining figure was a popular theme for the artist, who died in 1986. The figure was stolen from the Waddington Galleries in the West End on April 10.
Stephen Saunders, financial director, of the gallery, praised police for recognising the significance of the piece. He said: "It is a great relief to have this sculpture back and all credit to the police officers who found it. We do have a number of Henry Moore's sculptures in our galleries and every one is important. The piece has not been returned to the gallery yet but we hope it is not damaged as it was only being carried in a plastic bag."
A spokesman for the City of London police said that searches at City checkpoints sometimes resulted in catching criminals not involved with terrorism. Sgt Charlie Owen added: "We don't stop every vehicle that enters the City. Our officers saw the Sainsbury's bag and it aroused their suspicions."
++++++++++++++++
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT HENRY MOORE
April 29, 1997
THE daughter of Henry Moore is to sell a large number of works left to her by her father.
They include some of his sculptures and Impressionist paintings that he had collected over the years. Mary Danowski, who has run up large legal bills in a series of battles over her father's legacy, has instructed Sotheby's to sell 44 works of art worth an estimated £6.1 million.
Although Mrs Danowski, an only child, and her father were estranged for several years, the sculptor, who died in 1986 aged 88, gave her numerous works during his lifetime. The most expensive piece in the auction in New York in May is likely to be Trois Baigneuses (1875-76) by Cézanne from his bathers series. It carries an estimate of £1 million to £1.3 million. A sculpture inspired by the painting is expected to fetch £60,000.
Other works include paintings and drawings by Degas, Millet, Seurat and Corot and sculptures and drawings by Moore himself. The earliest sculpture is a carved stone mask dating from 1927. Mrs Danowski, married to an American art dealer, was left with large lawyers' bills last year after she lost a long legal battle which went to the Court of Appeal.
In a case brought against the wealthy Henry Moore Foundation, which owns the majority of the sculptor's work, she claimed 215 bronze sculptures by her father worth up to £100 million. The case was the culmination of a series of disputes with the foundation which she helped to found to ease her father's £1 million-a-year tax bills.)
copyright SECURMA The Netherlands
>From: Bernard Clist
>Subject: Cultural heritage in danger
>
>We have been talking from time to time amongst museum professionals
>and
archaeologists alike about Cultural Resources Management and the
management of the integrety of museum collections.
>A few recent
examples, not talked about on CNN.
>"Albania.: The museum and the site
of Butrint, the latter part of the World Heritage List, have been
plundered and turned upside down due to social unrest in the country.
A greek woman archaeologist who is in charge of excavations on the
site, has been trying for the past weeks to get protection measures
into force and so to prevent similar problems on other major
archaeological sites in the country" (April AFP dispatch = french
press agency; my translation).
>Everybody remembers what happened in
Rwanda with the change of regime. What about the National Museum in
Butare built by the belgians and opened in September 1989, and its
8,907 pieces (1993 figure) ? What about its 35 strong staff, Tutsis
and Hutus ?
>In neighbouring Zaïre Kabila's troops have taken over the
major town of Lubumbashi in Shaba Region. What is the situation of the
Lubumbashi National Museum, second museum in this huge country ? And
what is going to happen to the Institut des Musees Nationaux central
facilities in Kinshasa and its 50,000 + collection with the coming
change of regime ?
>Food for thought.
>Bernard Clist
copyright SECURMA The Netherlands
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Treasures of Russia's imperial past were headed for Houston Friday, ending a weeks-long wrangle over a planned American tour of the artifacts, a spokeswoman for U.S. organizers said.
``The truck loaded with artifacts is going to Houston,'' Katrina Kandra of the American-Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation said by telephone.
The truck in question is a huge moving van that was initially blocked by Russian diplomats from leaving the curb outside the Corcoran Gallery of Art at the beginning of the stand-off in mid-April.
The truck, loaded with jewel-encrusted costumes and other items, was moved Monday to the Russian embassy. The crown jewels of Russia's royalty were taken to the embassy by armored car, the organizers said.
For 10 weeks until April 13, the jewels, costumes and art had been on view at the Corcoran before capacity crowds. More than 80,000 people paid $9 each to see the exhibition.
The dispute began at the end of the jewels' run at the Corcoran, when Russia told U.S. organizers of the show they wanted the jewels back. The Americans said there were contracts to show the gems next in Houston, San Diego, California, and Memphis, Tennessee.
Kandra said an agreement between the two sides had been negotiated over the past few days and was to be signed Friday. She had no further details.
© Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved.
copyright SECURMA The Netherlands
BY PAUL WILKINSON
AN UNDERCOVER policeman was sold a stolen picture of a woman "so ugly
that only her son would have painted it" without one of the vendors
realising it was Portrait of his Mother by Rembrandt, a court was told
yesterday.
The portrait, valued at £300,000, was completed in about 1629 and had
been in the Earl of Pembroke's family for more than 300 years. It was
stolen from the Great Ante Room in Wilton House, belonging to the
earl, in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on November 5, 1994, so that the noise
of fireworks would drown the alarm.
The undercover officer, named in court only as James, paid £60,000 for
the portrait. It was among valuable antiques and objets d'art
recovered when police broke up a national trade in stolen treasures,
Newcastle upon Tyne Crown Court was told.
The men who negotiated selling the stolen goods had little regard for
the quality of the Rembrandt. They referred to it as "The Granny" and
"The Old Lady", and one was heard to observe it was so ugly that only
her son would have painted it.
David Duddin, 51, from Newcastle, denies six counts of handling stolen
goods, including three silver-gilt honey jars with spoons from Floors
Castle, Kelso, and a walking stick made from the spear that killed
Captain Cook, taken from a house in Coldstream.
William Lowe, QC, for the prosecution, said there was no suggestion
that Mr Duddin was involved in any of the thefts.
He was arrested with several others after a series of meetings early
last year with James, who posed as an adviser to blackmarket contacts
in the antiques world.
James agreed to buy stolen silver for £5,500, a quantity of swords for
£4,500 and paintings for a further £5,000. The undercover officer was
told £100,000 was wanted for the Rembrandt, but offered £60,000 plus a
payment of £3,000 to Mr Duddin for his part. At a meeting in London he
was allowed to inspect the work. A sale was agreed.
James, who gave evidence from behind a screen, said he was introduced
to Mr Duddin by a man called Vincent, who was described as a financer
of deals. They told Mr Duddin they were looking for antiques to sell
on the American market. The officer said: "We were discussing a
painting attributed to Rembrandt. I was aware that it was stolen. I
said we would have to try to authenticate it. Dave said he had been
assured the painting was a Rembrandt and was worth a lot of money."
The court was told that arrangements were made for the Rembrandt to be
passed over in the railway station car park at Hillingdon, west
London. It was handed to another undercover policeman, after which a
further undercover officer went to Mr Duddin's home. He was carrying
two holdalls, one containing £60,000, the other £45,000. Mr Duddin was
then alleged to have taken him to see another man who was given the
cash for the painting, which is on show to the public again at Wilton
House. The other stolen property has been returned to its owners.
The trial continues.
copyright SECURMA The Netherlands
agoThe Ukrainian city of Lvov is
commemorating tragic events of five years ago when a picture gallery
was robbed in an unprecedented act of violence and two personnel of
the picture gallery were killed by bandits. A commemoration service in
memory of the victims was held in the picture gallery today.
The search for the thieves and pictures stolen from the gallery had
been announced by Interpol, but neither the criminals, not the
pictures have even been traced.
Although five years have passed since the violent robbery, the
personnel of the picture gallery told Itar-Tass that no special
security measures had been taken and access to the gallery was rather
easy for criminals even now. The cash-strapped picture gallery cannot
afford to provide the building with a modern signalization system and
security guards. As in the past, hopes are pinned on the personnel
only who might sacrifice their lives, defending priceless treasures.
The city of Lvov whose construction began in Middle Ages is famous for
its unique artwork attracting world criminals. There are many
unresolved crimes related to the world of art and culture put on local
police record files over the past decade. The list of stolen works of
art includes 20 icons dating back to the 16th -18th centuries which
were stolen from the National museum, six swords manufactured in the
17-18th centuries stolen from a depository museum in broad daylight,
12 canvasses painted by medieval artists stolen from the Olessky
Castle and not found until now. Luckily, these incidents of theft
involved no loss of life, while the tragedy of five years ago when the
picture gallery was robbed at noon with visitors around threatened by
a pistol was an unprecedented case in the history of world museums.
copyright SECURMA The Netherlands
By Linton Weeks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 29, 1997
The Romanov jewels standoff may be over. The
priceless artifacts were moved yesterday from
the Corcoran Gallery of Art to the Russian
Embassy, and Russian sources say their
government plans to allow them to travel to
Houston, the next venue on their
dazzle-America tour.
But the remaining stops, in San Diego and
Memphis, may yet be scrapped, according to
sources close to the prolonged dispute. Plans
call for the jewels to be shown later this
year in Moscow as part of that city's
850th-birthday celebration, sources say.
Yet those involved warned that anything could
happen. Negotiations between the host
organization, the American-Russian Cultural
Cooperation Foundation, and the Russian
organizing committee lurched on into the
evening at the Willard Hotel.
Reached at the hotel yesterday afternoon,
foundation chairman James W. Symington said
the only agreement the two parties had signed
was simply a release of the jewels. Period.
The day was one of fits and starts. At the
Corcoran, chaos reigned. A delegation of
Russians, led by Mikhail S. Gusman, executive
director of the organizing committee's
executive committee, and Vyacheslav Ilyich
Radaev, head of Russia's State Treasure
Repository, who was sent by his government to
break the logjam, bustled around the basement
of the museum.
"We have to be more concrete in some details,
some basic principles," Gusman said, tugging
at his blue blazer. He said the Russians
deserve greater consideration—"joint control,
joint handling and an exchange of full
information."
Asked about reports that after Houston the
Russians were going to take their baubles and
go home, Gusman confirmed that that's the
plan "for the moment."
For more than an hour, the Russian group
convened in the office of Corcoran Director
David C. Levy, signing papers and negotiating
by fax and phone with lawyers and
representatives from the foundation.
At one point, Levy said, security officials
from all camps were extremely skittish about
moving the jewels in broad daylight. But
around 1:30, two Brink's trucks, as pale gray
as the sky above, arrived. They were loaded
with five cases of jewels and two cases of
equipment and led, by a D.C. police
motorcade, through the streets to the
compound.
Once there, Levy was greeted by a throng of
Russians—including Yuli Vorontsov, Russia's
ambassador to the United States—and Jack and
Marcy Eschenbach, the American drivers of the
moving van that's carrying the rest of the
loot. The Eschenbachs have been parked behind
security gates since last Tuesday. Sources
close to the exhibit said the couple will
probably not be making the trip to Houston.
The Russians, one source said, are going to
fly everything to Texas by chartered plane.
The foundation, meanwhile, scheduled a news
conference for 2:30 p.m. yesterday at the
National Press Club. Symington, an
ex-congressman from Missouri and former State
Department chief of protocol, and Mikhail
Shvidkoy, Russia's deputy minister of
culture, were to announce an agreement that
would allow the tour to proceed as planned.
But the two men never showed, and at 4
o'clock, Brian Gaudet, a public relations
spokesman for the foundation, said the fate
of the treasures was still unknown.
He said the State Department had asked Andrew
Somers, an American entrepreneur and former
American Express general counsel, to sit down
at the negotiating table to help the two
sides find common ground.
The State Department, Gaudet added, has been
helpful in smoothing this sensitive
international dispute with a "quiet hand."
"The Russians are in possession of the
jewels," Gaudet said, "and we are in
possession of a contract."
In Houston, Museum of Fine Arts Director
Peter Marzio also staged a news conference.
He said the city is excited to be getting the
exhibition, but that due to the delay the
opening date might be postponed. Right after
the news conference ended, Marzio received a
call from the foundation saying that no final
agreement had been reached.
"I'm glad it's over, from our point of view,"
said the Corcoran's Levy. "I think it would
be a very good thing for the exhibit to
continue to the other cities." He also said
yesterday that after all the publicity the
exhibit has received, many Washingtonians who
hadn't seen the opulent display—which
includes a ruby pendant belonging to
Catherine the Great and a stickpin containing
a diamond believed to have been cut from the
same stone as the Hope Diamond—should get the
opportunity.
One observer said that when Levy proposed
bringing the exhibit back to Washington
sometime in the future, Ambassador Vorontsov
shook his index finger back and forth and
said, "We'll see."
copyright SECURMA The Netherlands
AN urgent review of security at Buckingham Palace was under way last
night after a mental patient entered the grounds early yesterday.
The incident is an embarrassing security breach at a time of
heightened concern about the IRA threat in the run-up to the election,
though Scotland Yard, which has responsibility for royal protection,
stressed that the man did not enter the Palace buildings.
There was no harm done to members of the Royal Family but security
sources said there was concern at the breach and the possibility that
the intruder might have been armed or violent. The Queen and the Duke
of Edinburgh were not at the Palace, having spent Sunday night at
Windsor Castle, but it is believed that Prince Edward may have been
present.
Police officers on duty at the palace thought that the man was there
on legitimate business and exchanged pleasantries with him as he
strolled out through the gates. It was only after a taxi driver called
police to say that a passenger had admitted to getting into the
grounds of Buckingham Palace that it was realised that his description
matched that of the man they had saluted as he left.
The man, in his 20s, who has not been named, was held yesterday at
Kentish Town police station, north London, after his arrest at Camden
Lock. It is understood that he had absconded from a mental hospital
near Hastings, East Sussex. He is thought to have been too ill to be
questioned last night but investigations apparently showed that
someone fitting his description walked out of the gates of the palace
at around breakfast time. He is not expected to face charges.
Police said the intruder had been in the grounds for "a few minutes",
but he is believed to have told the taxi driver that he had been there
for a considerable time.
Health officials said last night that a man who had been "sectioned"
to a mental health unit at St Leonards, East Sussex, had absconded
five days ago. But they refused to say whether the man was the person
at the Palace.
The inquiry will be led by Cdr Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan
Police SO 14 Royalty and Diplomatic Protection squad. It will focus on
how a mentally disturbed man managed to enter one of the most heavily
protected houses in the world, despite the presence of royalty
protection officers, some armed, on the gate and patrolling inside.
Cdr Clarke will try to ascertain how he managed to move about within
yards of the Palace buildings without being spotted by officers or
being caught on closed-circuit television. Questions will also be
asked about whether dogs were used to patrol, and if so why they
failed to find the man, and why the intruder failed to trigger
sophisticated alarm systems.
The most serious security breach at Buckingham Palace came when
Michael Fagan managed to get into the Queen's bedroom in 1982. The
sovereign awoke to find Fagan, from Islington, north London, sitting
on the end of her bed, but kept him talking until security guards
arrived.
copyright SECURMA The Netherlands