- moderator's messages
- Recovering stolen art takes decades of patience
- wanted: information regarding security
- Does the International Foundation for Art Research have a WWW page?
- Japanese owner of 'Sunflowers' says it's no fake
- Forgotten sculpture rescued
 
 
 
MODERATOR'S MESSAGES
1: website in USA is back on line: http://museum-security.org/
2: do not let your mail bounce but please let me know when you are
away on holiday and not able to empty your mailbox.
 
 
 
 
 
Washington (AP)
Via ArtDaily
RECOVERING STOLEN ART TAKES DECADES OF PATIENCE
In Washington the Associated Press reported that it's not often that
high-profile works of art are stolen from museums. But when they are,
it can take international sleuthing, and decades of patience, to get
one back. Even the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre, notes
Interpol expert Angela Meadows. It was recovered two years after that
1911 theft. "They've got a guard standing in front of it now," she
said. "Little Regatta" -- a watercolor by the modern Swiss artist Paul
Klee -- went up on the walls again Wednesday at Washington's Phillips
Collection. It was stolen 34 years ago and returned just last month by
a man who said he bought it at an antiques fair long ago, without
knowing it was museum property. Expert: The money's not that good
Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization, gets about
50 cases a year of reported stolen art in the United States -- more
from private collectors than from museums. About half the material is
recovered, Meadows says. One of the most famous Message Board heists
in American history Favorite Art Museums -- the 1990 theft of 12
artworks worth $200 million, including paintings by Rembrandt, Vermeer
and Manet, from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum -- has never
been solved, and the art never recovered. Authorities, nevertheless,
say they are still trying to track the works. Most art thieves do it
for money, Meadows thinks. But the money isn't all that good, she
contends. She believes few eccentric millionaires can be found to pay
huge sums for masterpieces and then squirrel them away for themselves.
"That's much exaggerated," she said. Famed heists Yet thefts do occur.
Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, possibly the world's most famous
painting, was stolen from the Louvre in Paris in 1911 by an Italian
artist who wanted it back in Italian hands. It was recovered in
Florence, Italy, two years later and returned to France. At the
Phillips, the first museum in the United States devoted to modern art,
thieves have taken three other paintings since 1945. All three have
been recovered, said Phillips publicist Kristin Krathwohl. In the
latest Phillips case, Edward Puhl, a retired Boston-area businessman,
returned the painting to the museum last month. He said he paid $1,200
or $1,800 for it. Phillips publicist Krathwohl estimates it could now
be worth as much as $500,000. Puhl said the painting's original frame
and the labels identifying the work as museum property were missing
when he bought the work at an antiques fair in Maryland, just a year
or two after the theft. The Walters Gallery of Art in Baltimore had
145 items taken by a security guard on the night shift in 1988.
Baltimore police and the FBI got nearly all of it back in a week when
they looked in the man's cellar, said Lynn Wolfe, who has researched
the theft for the museum. Most of the objects were from its Asian
collection. When thefts are an inside job, small items could be
missing over a considerable period of time and not be noticed, said
Andy Wyczlinski, security officer at Washington's Corcoran Gallery
since 1989. "You can't keep a perpetual inventory of 10,000 items," he
said. Either way, Wyczlinski acknowledges, museums don't like to talk
about successful thefts because a loss makes it harder to borrow works
when they put on a special exhibit. The Corcoran, he notes, has not
had a theft since he took the security job in 1989. ----
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Date sent: Mon, 07 Jul 1997 16:19:46 +0300
To: "securma@museum-security.org" <securma@museum-security.org>
From: "giladi1" <giladi1@netmedia.net.il>
Subject: SECURITY FAIRS
 
dear Sirs,
Kindly advise how I can get information regarding security, defence
surveilance and such products specialized fairs.
Thanks and regards
Gideon Giladi
---------
 
From: GEC1800@aol.com
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 1997 19:49:16 -0400 (EDT)
To: securma@museum-security.org
Subject: INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR ART RESEARCH
 
Does the International Foundation for Art Research have a WWW page?
... If so can youn please advise
Thank you
GEC1800@AOL.com
----------
 
JAPANESE OWNER OF 'SUNFLOWERS" SAYS IT'S NO FAKE
01:58 a.m. Jul 08, 1997 Eastern
TOKYO, July 8 (Reuter) - The Japanese owner of Vincent van Gogh's
``Sunflowers'' on Tuesday broke its silence about claims that it might
be a fake, declaring there was no possibility that the famed painting
was done by anyone except the Dutch artist. Yasuda Fire & Marine
Insurance Co Ltd spokesman Yoshimi Takada said the painting of bright
yellow sunflowers in a vase, which the company bought for 24.75
million pounds ($41.46 million) in 1987 at London's Christie's auction
house, was undoubtedly authentic. ``We are absolutely convinced that
the picture is an original. We have no doubts on that and trust the
authority of Christie's,'' Takada told Reuters. Last Friday, a leading
art publication, Art Newspaper, said at least 45 paintings and
drawings by van Gogh may be fakes. The review quoted leading van Gogh
specialist Jan Hulsker as saying he had strong doubts about the
authenticity of the works, including ``Sunflowers.'' The costly
acquisition of the painting, one of van Gogh's best-known works,
earned a rebuke at the time from Japan's Finance Ministry, which
described the purchase as ``an excessive demonstration of wealth.''
The painting is on public display at Yasuda's art gallery in its
headquarters in central Tokyo. A spokesman for Tokyo's National Museum
of Western Art said there was nothing to substantiate the counterfeit
claim. ``There have been several reports of van Gogh fakes but so far
there has been no concrete proof, such as the use of unusual
materials,'' the spokesman told Reuters. ``The majority of experts
believe in the authenticity of 'Sunflowers','' he added. Copyright
1997 Reuters Limited.
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FORGOTTEN SCULPTURE RESCUED
MIAMI, July 7 (UPI) _ For years a valuable sculpture by renowned
Italian artist Arnaldo Pomodoro graced the lobby of a Miami government
building and nobody knew what it was. As a result, forklifts ripped it
out to make room for more offices. But finally someone figured out
what was happening and it was rescued from the welder's torch. The
rectangular statue, five feet long and five feet high, started out in
a city of Miami administration building. When Dade County bought the
building, no one knew what it was and the sculpture was torn out. It
was kept in a crate and the city was asked to pick it up. No one did
so instead of destroying it, the county took it to a new city building
and dropped it onto a courtyard next to a garage. That's when
officials remembered what it was. It was selected by the architect of
the building that was its original site. Pomodoro is one of the
world's premier sculptors who has his work displayed at such places as
the Vatican, the San Francisco Airport and Pepsico headquarters in New
York. Pomodoro says, ''I have a beautiful reputation all around the
world, my works have been exhibited in many different places. But
sometimes the destiny of our work cannot be put in words.'' City
officials say they eventually plan to repair the base that was damaged
when it was moved and display it at the new building. New York gallery
owner Sigrid Freundhofer says the work is worth as much as $80,000 and
will increase in value with the passage of time, so it is in the
city's interest to save it. She says, ''I'm sure this sculpture was
just screaming, 'Don't you know how important I am?''' _-
Copyright 1997 by United Press International.
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