AUGUST 21, 1997
 
- Re: ANNOUNCE: Archive Disaster in Poland
- Jury indicts historical-documents dealer again
- Tourist in icy plunge to save Rome fountain
- Bernini fountain damaged by bathers (same story as above: different reporter, different paper): damage to the fountain comes after a series of assaults on priceless Italian sculptures and works of art of world importance.

 
(ICOM-L)
From: Pat Reynolds <pat@CAERLAS.DEMON.CO.UK>
Subject: Re: ANNOUNCE: Archive Disaster in Poland
 
 
My first reaction to hearing of the disaster in Poland is to reach for
the chequebook, and the second is to think of the most effective way of
giving (i.e. the way that is of most use to the Poles, and perhaps of
less use to the British treasury).
If I can channel my donation via a British registered charity, then I
can do it without paying tax (because I covenant money each month to the
Charities Aid Foundation which gives me a 'cheque book' which means I
can give money, untaxed, to British charities). Is it possible to do
this? (Is ICOM-UK set up as a charity, could it go via another Polish
charity which is registered in Britain?)
I should add that Keepers of Social History in Britain aren't
spectacularly well paid, and I only covenant (shame on me) just less
than 1% of my gross earnings, so we aren't talking large amounts here!
 
Pat Reynolds
pat@caerlas.demon.co.uk
(who has just come back from looking at three houses in Aylesbury, and was
feeling poor until she read the appeal)
Keeper of Social History, Buckinghamshire County Museum
"It might look a bit messy now, but just you come back in 500 years time"
(T. Prattchet)
--------------------------
 
(Beacon Journal)
Jury indicts historical-documents dealer again
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A dealer in historical documents faces 10 more felony charges for allegedly defrauding investors of more than $5,000 each for presidential signatures he didn't have. A Franklin County grand jury on Monday indicted Michael Hurwitz, 50, on eight counts of theft and two counts of forgery. If convicted, he could spend up to 18 months in prison on each of the 10 counts. He is scheduled to appear for arraignment Friday and was free on a $250,000 bond. Hurwitz has been the target of investigations for months. He disappeared in late April but was arrested on May 8 while trying to re-enter the United States from Canada. He was indicted earlier this year on another 19 counts stemming from what investigators said was a bogus World War II surrender document and faces trial next month. At least six lawsuits already are pending against Hurwitz, who ran a gallery in the city's Short North neighborhood.
The list of investors named in the newest indictment includes three of Hurwitz's
friends -- Bob Marvin, Jerry Beck and George Arnold. Marvin, formerly known as Flippo the Clown, filed a theft report with Columbus police, saying he lost about $15,000 in his dealings with Hurwitz. Beck, who said he invested nearly $70,000 with Hurwitz, said he had produced a television pilot for Hurwitz at his own expense and was in the process of offering the show about antiques and collectibles to cable television executives when trouble began to brew for Hurwitz and his wife, Jacquie. Arnold, the city's trade and development director and a member of Mayor Greg Lashutka's Cabinet, told police he gave Hurwitz $10,000 in a deal for a historical document. Beck and State Rep. E.J. Thomas, R-Columbus, are among those who have filed civil lawsuits against the couple.
-------------------------------
 
(The Times London)
Tourist in icy plunge to save Rome fountain
FROM RICHARD OWEN IN ROME
ITALY reacted with national outrage yesterday after an attack by three unemployed Romans on Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona in the heart of the capital. A young tourist from Northern Ireland who dived into the fountain's icy waters to rescue the damaged pieces was hailed as a hero.
The media treated the incident as terrorism, condemning "a mindless act of vandalism", and the news led television bulletins. There were calls for heavier
fines and jail sentences for damage to the nation's artistic heritage.
Professor Federico Zeri, a leading art expert, said that it was time the army
was called in "to protect the country's heritage".
Francesco Rutelli, the Mayor of Rome, said: "Enough is enough. From now on we must punish severely anyone who fails to respect our unique cultural heritage."
The damage happened when three unemployed men aged between 33 and 43 ­ all from Rome, and all with petty criminal records ­ clambered into the fountain. One tried to climb up the statue, breaking off the tail of a sea monster between the figures representing the Ganges and the Danube. It fell into the water in three pieces. When onlookers called the police, two of the men climbed out and ran off, but the third was arrested. The other two, identified because of their wet
clothes, were caught shortly afterwards. They go on trial tomorrow. Their
defence lawyer said they would claim they had been trying to cool off, and
the damage had been accidental.
Il Messaggero said that police were reluctant to climb into the fountain because they did not want to get their uniforms wet. They turned to Ciaran Shevlin, 17, from Augher in Co Tyrone, who was wearing a T-shirt, shorts and sandals. One of the officers helped him to climb into the basin of the fountain, where the water is waist deep, and, to applause from the crowd, Mr Shevlin submerged himself three times to bring up the pieces. "I didn't need asking twice," Mr Shevlin said. "We Irish are happy when we can be of service. The pieces were heavier than I expected and the water was very, very cold. But I didn't mind."
An Italian passer-by bought him a blue Italian national football shirt from a
street vendor. Mr Shevlin, a Roman Catholic, is a member of a mixed group
of Protestants and Catholics staying at Lanuvio, near Rome, as part of a
European Union town twinning programme.
The damage to the fountain comes after a series of assaults on priceless Italian sculptures and works of art of world importance, including an attack on Michelangelo's Pietà in St Peter's Basilica in 1972 by a deranged Hungarian who believed he was Jesus Christ.
The marble Fountain of Four Rivers, with an Egyptian obelisk in the centre,
is the only one designed in its entirety by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the Baroque
sculptor. It was unveiled in 1651 and was dedicated to Pope Innocent X. Its
massive allegorical figures represent the Nile, the Plate, the Danube and the
Ganges Rivers.
According to legend, the figure representing the Nile has its face covered so
that it cannot see the façade of the church of Sant' Agnese, designed by
Bernini's rival, Francesco Borromini. Equally, the figure representing the
River Plate is raising its hand, as if to stop the church falling down. Alas,
neither myth can be true: the church was begun a year after the fountain was
completed. The true explanation is that the Nile's face is covered and the
River Plate's hand is raised to shield its eyes because the sources of both
rivers were unknown.
When Bernini designed the sculpture of the fountain ­ one of the few works
he carried out for a Pope with whom he was on bad terms ­ he intended the
rivers to represent the four quarters of the known world. But he may also
have had something else in mind.
Bernini was very close to the Jesuits, founded a century earlier by St
Ignatius Loyola, and as a young sculptor he helped his father on monuments
in the first Jesuit church in Rome, the Gesù. Acording to one theory, the four
rivers really represent those parts of the world where the Jesuits hoped to
make converts for the Catholic cause. The figure pulling the veil over his
head represents the Nile, and a symbolic palm tree at his side appears to
hold up the Egyptian obelisk. There is also a magnificent lion crouching to
drink from the fountain.
The figure sitting astride a staff represents the Danube. The one holding up
the papal shield stands for the River Plate. The figure with an Oriental face
and a dragon alongside it stands for the Ganges. All four of the figures are
surrounded by flora and fauna depicting their respective continents.
--------------------------
(The Telegraph)
Bernini fountain damaged by bathers
By Bruce Johnston in Rome
DAMAGE by hooligans to one of Rome's most celebrated fountains has inflamed public opinion, leading to stiffer fines for offenders and calls for artistic monuments to be placed under permanent armed guard, possibly even by the army.
The latest work of art to suffer is the Fountain of the Four Rivers, the masterpiece that Gian Lorenzo Bernini sculpted in the centre of Rome's Piazza Navona in 1651. The sculpture, personifying the rivers Ganges, Danube, Plate and the Nile (whose eyes are closed and head is covered, since its source at the time was unknown) is considered to be the work that allowed the artist finally to win over Pope Innocent X, his difficult patron, and overtake Borromini, his arch-rival. Before hundreds of startled tourists, three men, two of them aged 33 and the other 43, climbed into the fountain on Tuesday at lunchtime to escape the heat. By trying to use the sculpture as a diving board, they broke the tail of a sea serpent into three large pieces that sank to the bottom of the pool.
When police arrived at the scene, none of the many officers could be bothered to wade into the fountain to retrieve the fragments, the largest of which was 26 inches long. Eventually, Ciaran Sheulin, 17, an Irish tourist, climbed into the fountain and recovered the pieces of marble. The hooligans, two of whom were caught running away from the scene, risk up to a year in prison and fines of £15,000. They told police: "It was too hot and we just had to have a swim."
The incident is the latest in a growing number of attacks on the three fountains that grace Piazza Navona.
On the Appian Way, which heads south out of Rome, virtually all of the Roman funerary sculptures of family groups that line the road have now been badly defaced with spray-paint. In the Villa Borghese, in the capital, there are more decapitated statues than those with heads. After the latest incident of vandalism, Rome's city council has raised the fine for people who trespass in fountains to one million lira, or about £350. Walter Veltroni, the deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Artistic and Cultural Heritage, said: "Episodes such as this show that the safeguarding of monuments is not only a question of ensuring that there are adequate security measures, but is also a job that must be entrusted to the civic sense of the ordinary citizens."
Interviewed by the local media, tourists in the Piazza Navona said they were surprised by the total lack of security or surveillance of important monuments.
Francesco Rutelli, the city's mayor, said in a statement: "After this latest episode of damage to the Fountain of the Four Rivers, the time has come to . . . severely punish those who express total disregard for a cultural heritage, which in the case of Rome is unique in the world." Frederico Zeri, the vice-president of the National Fine Arts and Cultural Heritage Council, and Italy's foremost art critic, called for leading monuments to be guarded day and night in the same way that government ministries and other buildings are by police. "It is the least that one can do," he said, adding: "However, one could also employ the army." Italy's Environmental League said the real problem was not security, but "the total lack of culture in consideration for works of art which are part of Italy's inestimable wealth". For these works to be secure, the league said, they had to be appreciated and understood by the people.
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