World Heritage Newsletter.
(For the latest information on World Heritage,and the complete
newsletter consult the UNESCO World Heritage Centre WWW pages at
http://www.unesco.org/whc/welcome.htm .)
News:
* TYPHOON DAMAGE TO HUE IMPERIAL CITY, VIETNAM
* SOUTH AFRICA RATIFIES WORLD HERITAGE CONVENTION
* UNESCO AND FRENCH GOVERNMENT SIGNING URBAN HERITAGE
PROTECTION AGREEMENT
* ASIA-PACIFIC HERITAGE SITE MANAGERS' WORKSHOP TO BE HELD
IN
BANGKOK, THAILAND, 19-24 NOVEMBER
Query:
* QUERY: EL NINO IN THE GALAPAGOS
** TYPHOON DAMAGE TO HUE IMPERIAL CITY, VIETNAM
On 25 September 1997 a severe typhoon attacked the World Heritage
city of Hue, Vietnam, causing over a half million US dollars in
estimated damage. Among the damaged buildings are Dien Thai Hoa
(Throne Hall) and the Cung Dien Tho (Queen Mother's Palace). The roof
of both buildings were blown away, causing serious breakage to the
timber beams and interior laquerwork. The masonry roof capping was
cracked and the roof masonry animals were collapsed. The restoration
workshop, offices, storage areas, and felled close to 100 large trees
in the World Heritage site. The Hue Monuments Conservation Centre is
requesting Emergency Assistance for repair of the damage.
Full contents of the World Heritage newsletter at:
http://www.unesco.org/whc/welcome.htm
----------------------------------------
(Times of London)
Turning heads: a new angle on 'ruined' picture (accusation that restorers have ruined
its design)
A SKULL on a renovated masterpiece is expected to make heads turn at
the National Gallery, after an accusation that restorers have ruined
its design. The row centres on finding a correct angle at which to
view Holbein's The Ambassadors. The enigmatic skull is a crucial
feature of one of the nation's most prized paintings. Holbein
painted it anamorphically, so that it appears distorted unless
looked at the right way. One of the gallery's severest critics says
that Holbein would not recognise the result of the restored work.
Michael Daley, an illustrator and director of ArtWatch UK, which
campaigns for the welfare of works of art, has used his expertise as
a draughtsman to argue that the restorers misunderstood the laws of
perspective. He said: "In key respects, the skull and its
significance have been misunderstood. Its design has been altered in
apparent ignorance of the artist's method." Holbein's enormous
double-portrait of two diplomats to the Court of Henry VIII, painted
in London in 1533, underwent a three-year restoration programme,
completed last year. It included repatching the skull after the
removal of varnish and earlier repaints exposed losses in the
original paint. Mr Daley says that the distorted, elongated design
originally righted itself only when seen through a glass cylinder:
"They tried to make it work from the extreme right-hand viewpoint,
which was never intended. To try to make it more intelligible, they
changed the proportions of the jaw, making it stick out much further.
They've made a ghastly blunder." Mr Daley suggests that Holbein was
playing artistic games with a viewing device. The glass cylinder
might have been a secret gift from his royal patron. Earlier in his
reign, Henry VIII had been painted "in such a cunning manner that the
face, when looked at through a peculiar optic, seemed larger than the
whole body". The gallery felt that The Ambassadors had badly
deteriorated through the ravages of time, water damage and earlier
restoration. Mr Daley, who felt there was no need for drastic
repairs, let alone repainting, is among those who believe that
restorers should not rework a painting to how they imagine it once
looked. "Viewing from the far right does not correct the
perspective. Seen from that position, the cranium remains grotesquely
distended. On the other hand, seen from the left, the near eye socket
is alarmingly disproportionate." The latest issue of Art Review,
published on Thursday, will elaborate on his findings to coincide
with the gallery's exhibition on the painting, "Making and Meaning",
opening on November 5, and a BBC series, Making Masterpieces,
beginning tonight. Previously, Mr Daley has attacked the National
Gallery's restorers for over-cleaning works by Titian and Veronese.
His new study backs concerns initially expressed by John Sharp, a
lecturer on art and perspective who also writes computer manuals. In
1994, he contacted the gallery after noticing that its Microsoft
CD-Rom contained "a gross error in the skull". Writing in Art Review
earlier this year, he said that, although the gallery claimed that
the skull appeared in corrected perspective from a "particular
point", it failed to identify the point. The CD-Rom showed a sequence
of how the image was developed by using an equally spaced grid of
parallel lines which is sheared to reconstruct the skull in a square
"unfortunately, parallel lines do not behave this way in
perspective, as anyone with a scientific training would know". The
National Gallery has since updated its CD-Rom graphics, conceding
that Mr Sharp was correct. Mr Daley's study was further inspired by
the optician Edgar R. Samuel. In 1963, he said, Samuel "noted that
the only truly corrected view arises from the front of the picture
when the picture is viewed through a glass tube held at right angles
to the lateral axis. Such viewing not only corrects the distortion
but also triggers an extraordinary compositional transformation in
the picture itself." David Lee, editor of the Art Review, said of Mr
Daley's study: "I'm very impressed. He has got them on this. He's
proved beyond any doubt that it was never intended to be seen from
the right. It seems the NG in this instance made a first-class pig's
ear of it. It doesn't lead one to have confidence that it solicits
expert opinion before starting work." The gallery's chief restorer,
Martin Wyld, insisted yesterday that the skull distortions were
corrected when the viewer stood in exactly the right spot. He said
that he had taken into account various viewpoints on perspective: "It
seems to work through a cylinder, and an exact spot from the right in
a certain distance from the picture, and also the left. This is 1533,
not 1997, and Holbein had probably not had much experience of this
kind of distortion." He denied that the jaw had been unnaturally
distorted: "Holbein's paint survives on most of the jaw." Details
such as the lute case and silk, satin and velvet fabrics were now
fully visible. Mr Daley said: "Perspective can't work from a variety
of viewpoints simultaneously."
-----------------------
From: "Disaster Recovery Yellow Pages(tm)"
<DRYP@DATABLAST.com>
Send reply to: DRYP@DATABLAST.com
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To: securma@museum-security.org
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--------------------
From: IntlArtCop@aol.com
Date sent: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 00:38:50 -0400 (EDT)
To: securma@museum-security.org
Subject: MASC Membership
The Museum Association Security Committee (MASC), the security
committee of AAM, is holding its annual membership drive. The
membership records are a bit outdated because the committee
suspended dues collection for a period to allow all memberships to
expire at the same time and our membership is very "mobile".
Therefore, I am asking anyone who is a member but whose dues notice
doesn't reach them in the next week, or anyone who wants to join, to
contact me by email for instructions on joining. The MASC will hold
elections at the Feb. 1998 meeting held in njunction with the
Smithsonian's National Conference on Cultural Property Protection and
only members whose dues are paid may vote.
Contact Steve Keller at steve@horizon-usa.com for information on
joining or if you do not get your dues notice. Dues are $15.
Steve Keller, CPP
------------------------
More stolen Cypriot church art treasures found
Nicosia Oct 19 (CNA) -- More stolen Cypriot church art treasures
have been discovered by German police in the basement of the building
where a Turkish archaeologist resides. Some twenty boxes and cases
containing icons, frescoes, ancient pottery, statues and coins were
discovered in the basement of the residence of 60- year old Turkish
archaeologist, Dikmen Aydin. After a tip-off from the Cyprus Security
Services, German police had discovered fourteen cases hidden in
Aydin's flat. The contents of the first hoard have now been entered
into a 24-page catalogue. Since the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus,
scores of priceless artifacts have been located in overseas markets.
Some were retrieved through legal means, others were bought.
Nicosia, Oct 15 (CNA) -- A Germany-based Turkish national was
arrested yesterday by German Police for allegedly possessing a
multi-million dollar stash of Byzantine art works stolen from
churches in the Turkish-occupied areas of Cyprus. Bavarian authorities
told a news conference Tuesday that a tip-off from Cyprus Police had
led them to track down a hoard of religious icons, including ornate
frescoes and mosaics in two Munich apartments. An initial estimate
raised the price of the 14th century art works to 34 million US
dollars. It is believed they were plundered from the Greek Orthodox
Monastery of Antifonitis, in Kyrenia, and the Panayia Kanakaria
Church, in the Karpass peninsula, right after the 1974 Turkish
invasion and occupation of the island's northern third. The Church of
Cyprus had fought a long and hard legal battle in the past few years
to successfully regain stolen mosaics from Panayia tis Kanakarias, in
Lithrangomi. The German Police said that a 60-year-old Turkish
archeaologist and art dealer, Hikmet Aydin, had been arrested on
charges of trading in stolen artifacts. Aydin was suspected of having
carried out an international trade in religious booty for years. Police
said some of the stolen items have been carried for years on.
Stolen Cypriot art found in possession of Turk
Nicosia Oct 15 (CNA) -- A combined operation between the Cypriot and
the German police, in collaboration with the Church of Cyprus,
brought to light stolen church art treasures worth 46 million US
dollars. The cache was located in 14 cases hidden in flats in Munich,
owned Turkish art dealer Dikmen Aydin and included a mosaic from the
church of Kanakaria in Lythrangomi village, one from the church of
Antiphonitis and two 14th century icons from the Monastery of Ayios
Ioannis Chrysostomou in the village of Koutsoventis.
Attorney-General, Alecos Markides, told a press conference here today
"we are determined to get back any archaeological or church
treasures stolen from the Turkish occupied areas of the island, no
matter how much time elapses". Since the 1974 Turkish invasion of
Cyprus, scores of priceless artifacts were located in overseas
markets. Some were retrieved through legal means, others bought. The
most publicised case was the retrieving of four 6th century mosaics
from the church of Kanakaria, found in the hands of an American art
dealer, Peg Goldberg. After a long legal battle in the US, she was
ordered in 1989 by judge James Noland to return the mosaics to their
rightful owner, the church of Cyprus. "We shall not relinquish our
rights on these treasures", Markides said. He praised the discreet
but decisive role the primate of the church of Cyprus Archbishop
Chrysostomos played in retrieving the 14 cases, a task which took
weeks of painstaking and meticulous work and involved many players.
Turk arrested in Germany with Cyprus Church treasure
Nicosia, Oct 15 (CNA) -- A Germany-based Turkish national was
arrested yesterday by German Police for allegedly possessing a
multi-million dollar stash of Byzantine art works stolen from
churches in the Turkish-occupied areas of Cyprus. Bavarian authorities
told a news conference Tuesday that a tip-off from Cyprus Police had
led them to track down a hoard of religious icons, including ornate
frescoes and mosaics in two Munich apartments. An initial estimate
raised the price of the 14th century art works to 34 million US
dollars. It is believed they were plundered from the Greek Orthodox
Monastery of Antifonitis, in Kyrenia, and the Panayia Kanakaria
Church, in the Karpass peninsula, right after the 1974 Turkish
invasion and occupation of the island's northern third. The Church of
Cyprus had fought a long and hard legal battle in the past few years
to successfully regain stolen mosaics from Panayia tis Kanakarias, in
Lithrangomi. The German Police said that a 60-year-old Turkish
archeaologist and art dealer, Hikmet Aydin, had been arrested on
charges of trading in stolen artifacts. Aydin was suspected of having
carried out an international trade in religious booty for years. Police
said some of the stolen items have been carried for years on UNESCO's
list of world culture items. The German authorities said the icons
are to be returned to the Greek Orthodox Church in Cyprus at the end
of the Turk's trial. They said after search in the suspect's two
houses in Munich 14 cases and packages containing the pillaged works
were found, hidden in a cellar and attic. The suspect faces up to 15
years in prison if he were convicted of dealing in stolen art
treasures. Aydin had been arrested a few years ago on charges of tax
evasion. Later today, Cyprus' Attorney-General, Alecos Markides, will
give a press conference on the issue. CNA AP/GP/1997
---------------------------
From: "MICROTRACE INC." <MICROTRACE.INC@worldnet.att.net>
To: <securma@museum-security.org>
Subject: Request for a link to our site Date sent:
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------------------------------
(Museum-L) From:
Sylvia Duggan <ssduggan@SAS.UPENN.EDU>
Organization: University of Pennsylvania
Subject: Identification Pass for Visitors to Storage
We are examining our policy and procedures for access of to storage
and other staff only areas by researchers or visitors. What kind of
systems for badges, visitors log etc. do people use. How do you
verify that the badges are returned to the proper place in the museum
or that they are not reused?
Thanks for any suggestions or resources of where to look at systems.
Sylvia S. Duggan
Assistant Registrar, Loans
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
--------------
(Ex Libris)
From: Deerfield <deerbook@ptd.net>
Alert: Another Book Crook
Fellow Bibliites: Just heard on the news that a dealer in rare books
and ephemera/autographs is allegedly "selling" non-existent material;
that is, he has customers send checks or wire funds and then does not
produce the goods (rather like Mr. Holt). His name is Mulders and
operates out of the Netherlands. --
-----------------------
PRAGUE, Oct 17 (AFP) - A joint operation by Czech and German police
has recovered a valuable collection of stolen 18th century paintings
and statues and led to the arrest of 25 suspected art traffickers,
police in Prague said Friday. The works, which include nine statues
and three paintings stolen from two castles and several churches in
Bohemia in 1995, are worth a total 3.5 million crowns (over 100,000
dollars). The 18-month police operation was one of the biggest
undertaken by the two forces. Plundering of historic art works in
former communist bloc countries has become a serious problem since
the 1989 fall of the Iron Curtain. Police also seized a pistol,
explosives and drugs in a series of raids. One person was arrested
trying to sell one of the pieces while four were found with statues
in their possession. The others were charged with being accomplices,
receiving stolen goods, or for drug possession.
------------------------
(San Jose Mercury News)
Matisse painting, missing for 57 years, may be at museum
SEATTLE (AP) -- A painting by French artist Henri Matisse, stolen by
the Nazis and listed as missing for more than half a century, is
apparently at the Seattle Art Museum. And now heirs of Paul
Rosenberg, the original owner of ``Odalisque,'' want it back. ``At
this point, lawyers are talking to lawyers,'' said Gail Joice, the
museum's chief registrar. ``If the family can offer us proof our
painting is the one that was stolen, we will return it to them.'' The
term odalisque means a woman in a harem. The lushly colorful 17
1/2-inch-by-21 3/4-inch painting was done in 1927 or 1928 and shows a
woman seated on the floor, her arms around a raised knee. Experts at
the Los Angeles outlet of the auction house Christie's said it could
be worth as much as $2 million. The painting has been missing since
1940, when Germany invaded France and Rosenberg, France's leading
dealer of 19th and 20th century art in Paris in the years after World
War I, fled with his family to New York. Left behind were more than
300 paintings, including works by Picasso, Delacroix, Ingres,
Matisse, Bonnard, Courbet and Cezanne, all stolen by the Nazis. In
1954, Prentice Bloedel of Seattle bought a Matisse from the Knoedler
Gallery in New York. He donated it to the museum in 1991, and it has
been on display frequently since then. Then recently, Bloedel's
daughter, art collector Virginia Wright, saw a reproduction of the
missing ``Odalisque'' in the book ``The Lost Museum: The Nazi
Conspiracy to Steal the World's Greatest Works of Art'' by Hector
Feliciano. She notified museum officials of the similarity to the
painting her father had donated; they in turn contacted the Knoedler.
Soon Feliciano heard that the painting had apparently been found and
notified the Rosenberg family, whose lawyers called the museum
Friday. Knoedler president Ann Freedman said the gallery had
purchased the painting in good faith, and that it was unclear whether
the gallery would reimburse the museum if the painting turns out to
be the stolen ``Odalisque.'' ``The subject is still too theoretical,''
she said. ``I can say I have full confidence the matter will be
resolved fairly.''
----------------------
Suspect admits a try to sell stolen art
Rembrandt, Durer works were included
By Reuters, 10/21/97
NEW YORK - A Japanese man has pleaded guilty to trying to sell $10
million worth of drawings, including ones by Rembrandt and Durer,
stolen from museums in Germany and Azerbaijan, federal prosecutors
said yesterday. Masatsugu Koga, 61, pleaded guilty Sept. 18 in
Manhattan federal court, but the action was kept sealed until last
Friday, prosecutors said. They added that Koga was cooperating with
federal authorities. During last month's hearing, he admitted
concealing and trying to sell 12 drawings stolen from the Bremen
Museum and the National Museum of Baku in Azerbaijan. Koga is
currently receiving kidney dialysis treatment, prosecutors said. The
12 drawings, all of which were recovered, included works by the 15th-
to 17th-century masters Albrecht Durer and Rembrandt van Rijn. Among
them were Durer's ''Women Bathing,'' which prosecutors said was
valued at $6 million, and Rembrandt's ''Standing Woman With Raised
Hands,'' worth about $2 million. Federal authorities said the
drawings disappeared after the Bremen Museum had arranged for the
relocation in 1943 of numerous artworks to the Castle of Karnzow in
Germany. Toward the end of World War II, the Soviet Army took over
the castle, and the paintings disappeared. The indictment charged
that in about 1993, the National Museum of Baku advertised an art
exhibition that included works from the Bremen collection that it
said had been acquired by the KGB in 1947. German officials saw a
newspaper report on the exhibition and contacted a Baku Museum
curator. The drawings were then identified as belonging to the Bremen
Museum. Germany formally requested that Russia return the drawings,
but the Baku Museum reported that they were stolen from it in July
1993. Prosecutors said the drawings surfaced in April, when Koga
offered to sell them. He allegedly approached the office of the
cultural attache in the German Embassy in Tokyo, saying the paintings
were part of his family's collection. Koga originally asked for $12
million but lowered the price to $6 million, according to
prosecutors. He said he needed the money for a kidney transplant.
When Koga returned to the German Embassy, he learned that at least
eight of the drawings had been identified as having been stolen from
the Bremen Museum collection. Koga offered to make all 12 drawings
available in New York for inspection by Bremen Museum officials, the
indictment charged. On Sept. 8 he showed six drawings he had in his
Manhattan hotel room to a Bremen Museum official who was accompanied
by an undercover US Customs Service agent. The six drawings were
seized, and the other six were soon recovered. Koga did not explain
why he went to the German attache or agreed to the New York
examination, according to the transcript of his plea hearing.
This story ran on page A06 of the Boston Globe on 10/21/97. (c)
Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.
--------------------------
Twice-Stolen Art Takes A Twisted Trail to N.Y.
Azerbaijani Lawyer Held After High-Speed Chase
By Jo Ann Lewis Special to The Washington Post Tuesday, October 21,
1997; Page A01 The Washington Post
A top prosecutor from Azerbaijan, her champion wrestler ex-husband
and an ailing Japanese businessman have been charged in one of the
art world's wildest capers, which culminated earlier this month in a
high-speed chase through the streets of New York. The loot: Twelve
drawings by Old Masters, including Rembrandt and Albrecht Duerer,
that were stolen from a German castle where they had been hidden in
the chaotic last days of World War II. Later seized by Soviet secret
police, the drawings mysteriously surfaced at a museum in Baku,
Azerbaijan, disappeared again in 1993, eventually resurfaced in New
York City, and were finally confiscated in a sting last month that
has sparked an international incident. The Germans want the pictures,
worth $10 million, back. So does Azerbaijan. The most famous of the
drawings belonging to Bremen's Kunsthalle was Duerer's "Frauenbad"
(Women's Bathhouse). It was one of hundreds of masterpieces pilfered
by Soviet soldiers and carried to Russia as private war booty. Since
the breakup of the Soviet Union, this loot has been turning up with
increasing frequency on the New York art market. This particular case
focuses on what appears to be an underworld ring centered in the
Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn. The 12 disputed drawings made
their way to Baku after being confiscated from Soviet citizens by the
KGB in 1947, according to court papers. Their whereabouts, however,
remained unknown to the Germans until 1993, when a Baku newspaper
boasted that trophy art in the form of drawings clearly marked with
the Bremen Kunsthalle stamp were on display at the National Museum in
Baku. Assured by a curator in Baku that the drawings were authentic,
the Germans made an official claim, only to be told that they had
suddenly vanished. Interpol was notified. A subsequent investigation
headed by the cultural minister of Azerbaijan, however, curiously
reported that only copies of drawings had been taken -- an assertion
that now appears to be untrue. German government officials have
speculated repeatedly that the works were probably taken from the
Baku museum with the knowledge, if not the aid, of corrupt insiders.
How these twice-stolen drawings ended up in New York is not clear.
What is revealed in court papers, however, is that a Japanese
businessman, Masatsuga Koga, attempted to sell them back to a
curator from Bremen for $6 million last spring. He first approached
Bremen curators through the German Embassy in Tokyo, saying he needed
the money for a kidney transplant. He claimed the drawings were
stashed in New York and said that only his "Russian partner" knew
their exact whereabouts. Koga later arranged to have the drawings
brought to his room at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. It was there that the
works were confiscated on Sept. 9 and Koga arrested. He pleaded
guilty Sept. 18 in Manhattan federal court, but the action was kept
sealed until Oct. 17. Koga also agreed to help American authorities
track down his partners. A month later a woman identified by
Azerbaijani diplomats as a prominent Baku attorney and prosecutor
flew into Kennedy Airport. According to court documents, law
enforcement officials in two unmarked cars followed her after she was
picked up by her son, a law student at New York University. The
Azeris realized they were being tailed and led police on a high-speed
chase through Greenwich Village before being stopped and apprehended.
The woman, Natavan Aleskerova, 43, was charged with conspiracy to
sell stolen art. Her son was not charged. Considered a flight risk by
prosecutors -- she was carrying three passports when she was arrested
-- Aleskerova had her bail set at $1 million. Azerbaijan Embassy
officials in Washington said Aleskerova was a prosecutor and
"attorney of good reputation" in Azerbaijan. Her father had served on
the Azeri supreme court. Her attorneys called her the "Madeleine
Albright" of Azerbaijan in court papers. Meanwhile her former
husband, Aydyn Ali Ibragimov, a champion wrestler and sports club
manager in Baku, also has been indicted for the same crimes and is
being sought by U.S. authorities. The drawings have apparently been
in New York for some time. In 1995, two men speaking "heavily
accented English" offered the drawings by Rembrandt and Duerer, as
well as Annibale Carracci, Jacob van Ruisdael and others, for sale to
a Sotheby's official. He informed the men that the works could not be
sold because they carried the Bremen Kunsthalle stamp and had been
published as stolen in a book of Bremen's war losses. According to
investigators, Sotheby's did not notify law enforcement until the
following day, by which time the drawings had vanished again.
According to court papers, several drawings other than those from
Bremen have been recovered in Brighton Beach since Aleskerova's
arrest. They may be some of the 200 or so drawings reported stolen
from the museum in Baku. Court papers did not reveal where in
Brighton Beach the additional drawings were found. There is a large
immigrant community from the former Soviet Union living there. It
appears that the fate of the drawings will be determined not by the
State Department, but by a federal judge in the Southern District of
New York. Assistant U.S. Attorney Maxine Pfeffer, who is in charge of
the case, said, "It is our belief there are more drawings out there
which are under the control of this defendant and her ex-husband."
(c) Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company
-----------------
Beastly battle to repair a 16th-century masterpiece
By GERALDINE O'BRIEN, Heritage Writer
In 1516 a ship carrying a rhinoceros to Pope Leo X sank off Italy
and the rhino - like most of the people on board - went to the
bottom. But rough sketches and descriptions survived - good enough
for Albrecht Du¨rer to draw a rhinoceros and later (in a century when
plagiarism was not a problem) for his version to be redrawn by
Conrad Gessner, for his Icones animalium. This rare book, published in
1554 and expanded in 1560, will go on display this weekend in the
Australian Museum, with most of its 140 hand-painted woodcuts on show
for the first time. During more than 70 years in the museum's
collection, the book suffered considerable damage to its binding and
some pages and has been "pulled down" into separate plates for
treatment and rebinding. Gessner also drew mythical creatures such as
unicorns and mermaids, still believed in by many in the 16th century
(although, according to Carol Cantrell, the museum's curator of rare
books, Gessner included some sceptical footnotes). Swiss-born Gessner
was hailed as the greatest naturalist of his time - a physician,
bibliographer and zoologist, who published widely in botany, zoology,
medicine, theology and linguistics. A $40.8 million Leonardo da Vinci
manuscript, Codex Leicester, would be on display in Sydney in 2000,
the Premier, Mr Carr, announced yesterday. The manuscript was
completed by Leonardo in 1506, shortly after the Mona Lisa, and
contains over 300 ink sketches illustrating his theories on the
movement of rivers and seas and the properties of rocks, fossils and
light. Interactive computers will highlight and expand upon material
in the document.
----------------------
Thieves steal cemetery's historic gates
By Judith Gaines, Globe Staff, 10/21/97
CAMBRIDGE - Seven historic cast-iron gates - relics of an era when
families wanted their burial plots to be as handsomely furnished as
their homes - have been stolen from Mount Auburn Cemetery, its
officials disclosed yesterday. The theft of the intricately molded
gates was discovered last Wednesday when a member of the cemetery
staff spotted a gap in one of the fences surrounding a family burial
plot. A gate had been removed from its hinges. A subsequent
investigation revealed that six other gates were missing from family
enclosures. They are about 3 feet wide, 4 feet tall, and weigh as
much as 100 pounds each. The stolen gates ''represent some of the
finest work of New England's cast-iron craftsmen in the 19th
century,'' said Meg Winslow, curator of historical collections at the
cemetery, which attracts 100,000 to 200,000 visitors annually. She
said the gates were custom-made for each of the seven families and
are irreplaceable. ''This theft is a crime against the dead and
against the living,'' said Mount Auburn president William C.
Clendaniel. ''Thieves who take from our historic cemeteries steal our
cultural heritage.'' Watertown police, who are investigating the
crime because the grave sites are in that town's part of the 174-acre
cemetery, do not have any suspects. But they told cemetery staff that
they believe an individual, or a team, stole the gates either for
resale on the antiques market or for their value as scrap metal.
Winslow declined to put a dollar value on the gates, but said their
primary value ''was historical, for what they tell us about our
culture, and sentimental, as family heirlooms.'' ''I shiver to think
that they may have been scrapped,'' she added. The gates were built
in the period from 1840 to 1870, when what historians call ''a
fencing mania'' swept through Victorian New England. In prior times,
the dead were mainly entombed in ''burying grounds'' attached to
churches. But in the 1820s, these graveyards became increasingly
crowded. About the same time, Clendaniel said, there was a shift in
ideas about death. Gradually, a cult of melancholy surrounded the
deceased, notions about burial became more sentimental, and
cemeteries developed as pastoral places, often away from churches,
where grieving friends could find solace, he explained. Founded in
1831, Mount Auburn Cemetery was the nation's first garden cemetery,
designed to incorporate the healing power of nature. The cemetery
also has one of the nation's finest collections of Victorian gated
fences - 55 of them, until the recent theft. In the mid-19th
century, infant death rates were high and many women died in
childbirth. For many members of the middle class, ''cemeteries became
an essential part of family life, an extension of the home,'' and a
way to honor and protect the dead, Clendaniel said. So families
bought large plots of land and surrounded them, using the latest
technology, with cast-iron fences that were more flexible and less
expensive than granite or marble. The fences enclosed as many as 50
graves and were individually molded with the family's name and lot
number on the front gate. One of the missing gates, which features
pointed Gothic arches adorned with iron leaves, came from the
Augustus Lowell family. Its massive fence enclosed the graves of the
poet Amy Lowell and former Harvard president Abbott Lawrence Lowell.
The other fences enclosed families of 19th century merchants. Three
of these gates - for the families of C.F. Hovey, J.B.H. James and S.
Dow - depict inverted torches, symbolizing lives that have been
extinguished. Those of the William Goddard and Isaiah Atkins
families have delicate, abstract iron designs and finials. The
magnificent fence gate for the family of L.H. Marsh features a
central almond pattern adorned with hanging floral garlands.
Clendaniel noted that descendants of these families and the Friends
of Mount Auburn Cemetery have spent considerable time and money
restoring these fences and are deeply upset by the loss. He asked
that antiques dealers and members of the public who buy cast-iron
gates and other ornaments for their private gardens be aware that
they may be purchasing stolen goods. ''We need the public's
assistance in recovering these irreplaceable elements of our cultural
heritage,'' he said.
This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 10/21/97. (c)
Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.
---------------------
Stolen Byzantine art recovered in Munich
By Mike Corder, Associated Press, 10/21/97
THE HAGUE - A 6th century mosaic of St. Jude valued at $8.6 million
was among more than 100 stolen frescoes and other Byzantine art
objects that have been recovered, Cypriot officials have said. The
find was reportedly made with help from an art dealer who claimed to
be a descendant of Rembrandt. The items, most dating to the 16th
century, were hacked out of the walls and ceilings of two Greek
Orthodox churches in Cyprus after the 1974 Turkish occupation of the
northern part of the Mediterranean island. Many were badly damaged.
Cyprus' diplomatic representative in the Netherlands, Tasula
Georgiou-Hadjitofi, said yesterday that a Dutch art dealer who
helped recover the treasures had recently turned them over at a
Rotterdam bank. She refused to name the dealer or elaborate on the
events that led to the recovery. Michel van Rijn, who claims to be a
descendent of Rembrandt van Rijn, the 17th-century Dutch master, told
the Vrij Nederland magazine that he was the dealer. Van Rijn
purchased the items in Munich from a 60-year-old Turkish art dealer,
whose name was not released, the magazine said. He had been given an
undisclosed amount of money to buy the works, wrapping up a 10-year
investigation by Interpol and police from Cyprus, Germany and the
Netherlands. Van Rijn secretly filmed the transaction, providing
German police with evidence they needed to arrest the Turk last week,
it said. Police later discovered an estimated $40 million worth of
stolen Byzantine treasures at the Turk's home. He faces up to 15
years in prison if convicted of dealing in stolen art. Cypriot
experts declined to estimate the value of the recovered items, which
range in size from a few inches to more than 30 by 10 inches. To
Athanasios Papageorgiou, the retired director of Cyprus' Department
of Antiquities, the works are priceless. ''These are like my
children,'' he said. ''Could you imagine seeing your children cut
into pieces? Still, I am happy to recover them, even in this
condition.'' The mosaic of St. Jude, which Papageorgiou valued at
$8.6 million, carried the scars of its violent removal from the
ceiling of the Panagia Kanakaria, a church in Lythangomi, Cyprus. The
roughly circular piece, about 18 inches wide, has badly chipped edges
and a thick crack running through the faded yellow glass chips that
make up the saint's halo. Cypriot authorities estimate that 60,000
art treasures have been stolen from churches in northern Cyprus since
the split in 1974. Turkey maintains 35,000 troops in the north,
which it occupied to protect the Turkish Cypriot minority after an
aborted coup attempt by supporters of union with Greece.
This story ran on page A02 of the Boston Globe on 10/21/97. (c)
Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.
------------------------
(Times of London)
Valuable artefacts fall foul of ivory ban
TWO ancient carvings sent to Britain to be valued at Sotheby's are
liable to forfeiture because they are made of ivory, the High Court
said yesterday. The court ruled that items similar to the
2,000-year-old figures were open to seizure under an EU trade ban
designed to protect present elephant populations and other endangered
species. Cherie Booth, QC, appearing for the owner, argued: "It is
hard to see how many elephants are going to be saved by prohibition
of this ivory, which is thousands of years old. "Those elephants
[from which the ivory came] are well beyond protection," she said.
But Lord Justice Ian Kennedy said that the Commissioners of Customs
and Excise had been legally justified in applying for seizure under
domestic regulations enacting the European ivory ban. The judges
refused the owner's lawyers permission to take the case to the Court
of Appeal, although they can still appeal directly. The lawyers
argue that the case has importance for the whole European community.
The carvings cannot be confiscated at present because their owner,
Sadruddin Hashwani, a Pakistani hotelier, had them returned to his
homeland when he ran into legal difficulties in Britain. But his
solicitor, Sarosh Zaiwalla, said the judgment could deter people
abroad from sending artefacts to this country for valuation. The
carvings, thought to depict two dancers, were excavated in
Afghanistan and were once kept in a Kabul museum.
-------------------
US police turn theft inquiry into a fine art
AN OUTLANDISH tale of art theft whose cast of characters includes
wartime Soviet soldiers, an assortment of Azerbaijanis, the New York
police, and an apparently dim-witted Japanese businessman entered
its final chapter yesterday at a federal court in Manhattan. Details
of the alleged criminal conspiracy are almost as compelling as the
masterworks in question, which include pictures by Rembrandt and
Albrecht Dürer, and which are valued at more than $10 million (£6.3
million). On Friday, Masatsuga Koga, a Japanese entrepreneur of
dubious provenance, pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to sell
the stolen works, belonging to the Bremen Museum in Germany, where
they were last seen in 1943. Mr Koga, 60, was remanded in custody.
The New York Times has reported that he has also agreed to co-operate
with federal prosecutors. The Japanese businessman was arrested last
month at a plush suite in Manhattan's Grand Hyatt Hotel, after he had
arranged to meet a posse of New York policemen posing as German art
dealers with a view to concluding a sale of the art. His
"portfolio" included Dürer's Women Bathing, valued conservatively at
$6 million, and Rembrandt's Standing Woman With Raised Hands
estimated to be worth about $2 million. On his arrest, and faced with
the prospect of 15 years in prison, Mr Koga told police that he had
purchased the works from employees of the National Museum of
Azerbaijan, in Baku. The transnational plot soon began to thicken.
On October 7, police here arrested an Azerbaijani woman, Natavan
Aleskerova, 43, after a car chase through the streets of Greenwich
Village. Diplomats at the Azerbaijan Embassy in Washington have
protested against her arrest, describing her as a prominent lawyer
from Baku. Her own lawyers have even gone so far as to describe her
as "the Madeleine Albright of Azerbaijan". However, the police, who
found three passports on her and vast quantities of cash in the car
in which she was apprehended, have charged her in connection with the
stolen works. They have also issued a warrant for the arrest of her
former husband, Aydyn Ali Ibragimov, a former heavyweight wrestling
champion and one of Baku's most feared men. He is reported to be
still in the Azerbaijani capital. The story first began to unfurl in
April, when Mr Koga approached the German Embassy in Tokyo, offering
to sell 12 works for $12 million. He claimed that the works belonged
to his family and that he needed the money for a kidney transplant.
Suspicious embassy officials sent details of the pictures to Germany
and it soon became obvious that Mr Koga's collection was only a part
of the scores of artworks lost from the Bremen Museum in 1943. The
records show that they were removed for safekeeping to Karnzow Castle
in eastern Germany, but there the trail went cold. The museum has
long believed that the works of art were spirited away by
light-fingered Soviet troops in 1945. That would explain how they
ended up in Azerbaijan, which was part of the former Soviet Union.
The German Embassy in Tokyo stalled Mr Koga for three months, during
which the elaborate foundations for his arrest were laid. Mr Koga
said that the works were kept in a safe in New York, so the city's
police and customs were alerted. In July, the Japanese man and German
officials agreed that there should be an inspection of the works in
New York in September. That was when Mr Koga was arrested, and the
Rembrandt, the Dürer and four other works were recovered. Six other
pictures are still missing, and are believed by police to be in the
possession of members of the Russian mafia in the Brighton Beach
section of Brooklyn.
--------------------
(Times of London)
Church at Assisi to reopen
FROM RICHARD OWEN IN ROME
PART of the Basilica of St Francis at Assisi is due to reopen at the
weekend, a month after the double earthquake which killed four people
inside the great 13th-century building and damaged ceiling frescoes
by Cimabue and Giotto.
Only the Lower Church will be opened, with a solemn Mass on Sunday.
Father Nicola Giandomenico, the bursar at Assisi, said surveys showed
that damage to the Lower Church, which contains the tomb of St
Francis, had been relatively slight.
Most of the damage was to the Upper Church, where the vaulted ceiling
collapsed on September 26, killing two friars and two surveyors.
Antonio Paolucci, the former Culture Minister who is in charge of the
restoration, said the Upper Church would not reopen until 2000.
Father Giandomenico gave a warning that if there were further strong
tremors this week, the reopening of the Lower Church would be
postponed. There were several minor tremors yesterday.
This week engineers have been reinforcing the walls of the basilica,
and constructing scaffolding inside the Upper Church to shore up the
ceiling and enable restoration of the damaged frescoes to begin.
----------------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 21, 1997
CONTACT: Jerome Uher (202)223-6722, ext. 122 -or- Dave Simon
(505)247-1221
NEW ROAD BUILDING ASSAULT ON NATIONAL PARKS
Broad Coalition Denounces Road Through Petroglyph Monument
Washington, D.C. -- Legislation by Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) to
build a freeway across a national monument drew fire today from
national and local organizations. Senator Domenici's bill, S.633,
would delete 8.5 acres from Petroglyph National Monument near
Albuquerque in order to facilitate the construction of a six-lane
highway to serve development interests. Opposition groups --
representing 26 conservation, Native American, civic, historical
preservation and religious interests -- say the road would
irreparably harm the monument, which was established in 1990 to
preserve Native American religious rock drawings. "Enactment of
S.633 would establish the unacceptable precedent of Congress
facilitating (and virtually directing) the construction of a major
commuter highway, that has no park purpose, across a national park,"
the groups today wrote Domenici. The Senate Subcommittee on Parks
will hold a hearing on S. 633 October 23. Albuquerque mayor-elect Jim
Baca will testify against the bill. Baca, the former director of the
U.S. Bureau of Land Management, spoke out against the road in his
recent mayoral campaign. The bill would remove land from the monument
to create a corridor to extend a commuter road into undeveloped land
west of Albuquerque. The legislation is needed to circumvent
opposition to the road by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI)
and the National Park Service (NPS). Both DOI and NPS have concluded
that the extension of the "Paseo del Norte" road across the monument
is prohibited under existing law. "Here come the bulldozers again,"
said Dave Simon, southwest regional director of the National Parks and
Conservation Association (NPCA), which helped organize national
opposition to the bill. "They're aimed at the national parks and
Congress is driving. Petroglyph is a national park, not an urban
park. We refuse to let this area be desecrated just to accommodate
poorly planned urban sprawl." Petroglyph National Monument was
established in 1990 to preserve more than 15,000 Native American
religious rock images that date from 1000 B.C. to 1650 A.D. The
monument is considered a sacred site by New Mexico Indian Pueblos and
other Native Americans. S. 633 is the latest in a series of
Congressional road building assaults on the national parks. This past
summer, conservationists turned back attempts to use an 1866 mining
law ("RS 2477") to push roads across national parks and other public
lands. The National Parks and Conservation Association (NPCA) is
America's only private nonprofit citizen organization dedicated solely
to protecting, preserving, and enhancing the U.S. National Park
System. An association of "Citizens Protecting America's Parks,"
NPCA was founded in 1919 and today has nearly 500,000 members.
A copy of the letter and a list of organizations opposed to S. 633 are
attached.
National Parks and Conservation Association, 1000 Friends of New
Mexico, Central New Mexico Audubon Society, Conservation Voters
Alliance, Defenders of Wildlife, Friends Committee on National
Legislation, Friends of the Albuquerque Petroglyphs, Friends of the
Earth, Indian Law Resources Center, Keepers of the Treasures, League
of Women Voters (NM), Morning Star Foundation, National Council of the
Churches of Christ, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Native
American Rights Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, New Mexico
Heritage Preservation Alliance, NPCA Southwest Regional Office, Office
for Church & Society of the United Church of Christ, Sandia Pueblo,
Scenic America, Sierra Club, Society for American Archaeology,
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Southwest Research and Information
Center, The American Cultural Resources Association, The Historic
Santa Fe Foundation, The Wilderness Society, Utah Wilderness Coalition
October 20, 1997
The Honorable Pete Domenici
United States Senate
328 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Domenici:
The organizations and tribes noted above write to express our united
opposition to S. 633 (and its companion measure, H.R. 1424),
legislation that would delete 8.5 acres from Petroglyph National
Monument and create a 300-foot right-of-way across the monument. Our
organizations represent millions of Americans, including Native
Americans, and thousands of New Mexicans -- all of whom share in the
ownership of Petroglyph National Monument.
Your legislation is intended to facilitate the proposed construction
of Paseo del Norte across the monument. This will cause irreparable
harm to the integrity of this unit of the National Park System. Paseo
del Norte, which could be six lanes or wider, is projected to carry
24,000 vehicles per day, including heavy trucks, through the monument.
The highway would isolate the northern third of the monument;
permanently ruin the setting of one of the best concentrations of
petroglyphs; violate the sanctity of the land as a place of worship
and spirituality critical to Native Americans; and undermine the
original purpose of the monument, which is to preserve and protect the
natural and cultural heritage of the area. Extending Paseo del Norte
will not serve principal areas of planned growth. In fact, the road
would generate urban sprawl on Albuquerque's west side, thus creating
or causing additional negative consequences for taxpayers.
Enactment of S. 633 would establish the unacceptable precedent of
Congress facilitating (and virtually directing) the construction of a
major commuter highway, that has no park purpose, across a national
park. Parochial interests should not determine the future of land and
resources held in trust for all the American people under federal law.
page 2
We believe that the most appropriate resolution of Albuquerque's
transportation needs is thorough consideration of all potential
alternatives, including alternative route(s), that avoid the monument,
and averts destructive consequences for one of America's cultural
treasures.
As you will hear at the Oct. 23 Senate hearing on this issue,
opposition to the construction of the road is growing across America.
In addition, the recent election of Jim Baca as mayor of Albuquerque
demonstrates that the people of that city seek reasonable urban growth
management that does not despoil our parks and sacred places. Please
reconsider your support for the Paseo del Norte proposal.
Thank you for considering our views.
cc: Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Members
Senator Jeff Bingaman
Representative Steve Schiff
Representative William Redmond
Representative Joe Skeen
Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior
Rodney Slater, Secretary of Transportation
-------------------
From: Nancy Hill <nfhill@u.arizona.edu>
Organization: Arizona State Museum
To: TonCremers@museum-security.org
Subject: Great job! ... and unsubscribe/resubscribe
Dear Ton,
I must commend you on excellent management of securma! This list
helps me to maintain the global perspective necessary to informed,
proactive museum management. You provide a great service to us all.
Thank you. If you are ever in Tucson, Arizona, just contact me and
I'll arrange a personal tour of our archaeological and ethnographic
museum. My perspective is far more informed due to your list.
--------
From: Roger Wulff <museplan@EROLS.COM>
Organization: Museum Services International
Subject: Re: Identification Pass for Visitors to Storage
Sylvia Duggan wrote:
>
> We are examining our policy and procedures for access of to storage
> and other staff only areas by researchers or visitors.
>
> What kind of systems for badges, visitors log etc. do people use.
> How do you verify that the badges are returned to the proper place
> in the museum or that they are not reused?
>
> Thanks for any suggestions or resources of where to look at systems.
>
> Sylvia S. Duggan
> Assistant Registrar, Loans
> University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
____________________________________________________
Dear Sylvia:
I manage the International Cultural Property Protection Exposition
which is held in conjunction with The National Conference On Cultural
Property Protection (the next Conference and Exposition takes place
9-12 Feb., 1998 in Washington, D.C.) and Access Control is a very
important field for controlling access and egress for the storage
area - and for the entire institution. Badging Systems can be simple
or complex - ranging from a simple self-adheasive paper badge which
self-expires after a certain period of time or exposure to sunlight -
to more complicated computer-based systems which produce a photo ID
Card which can be taken home as a souvenir after use (with
information on the user being stored in the computer's memory). If
you would like, you may contact me off-list or visit the Confernce
next February.
Kind Regards
Roger Wulff
Museum Service International
museplan@erols.com
-------------------
Art Stolen by Nazi Troops Identified in Seattle Museum
ABCNEWS
By E.J. Gong Jr. ABCNEWS.com S E A T T L E, Oct. 21 - When the Nazi
war machine rolled into France during World War II, the Germans
seized more than political control. They bagged some of the world's
finest artworks, including many pieces left behind by Jewish art
dealers who fled before the Nazis arrived. Much of that art remains
missing today. But recently, one such valuable work turned up at the
Seattle Art Museum. And now, the family that claims ownership is
fighting the museum to get it back. Descendants of Paul Rosenberg, a
prominent Parisian art collector and close friend of Pablo Picasso,
say they are the true owners of Henri Matisse's colorful painting
Oriental Woman Sitting on Floor. Fleeing the Nazis Rosenberg and his
family fled France in 1940, fearing the horrors of Nazi concentration
camps. Before leaving, Rosenberg stashed hundreds of his paintings in
a private vault in southwestern France. German troops later found the
cache and plundered the collection, which included Matisse's Oriental
Woman. Owen Pell, a lawyer for the Rosenbergs, sent a letter to the
Seattle Art Museum, demanding the artwork's return. A museum
spokeswoman said the claim has not been verified, and that it will
return it if there's ample proof. "The Rosenbergs are the true
owners," he says. "They can trace their ownership back to the time it
was purchased from Matisse himself." Gift Came From Timber Magnate
The work, which the Seattle Art Museum calls Odalisque, was donated
by Canadian timber magnate Prentice Bloedel, who died in 1996.
Bloedel had purchased the work in 1954 from Knoedler & Co., a New
York gallery. A grandchild of Bloedel called attention to the
painting after seeing it in The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to
Steal the World's Greatest Works of Art, a book by Hector Feliciano
published last spring. In that book, Feliciano recounts how the Nazis
plundered vast art collections from several prominent Jewish families
living in Paris just before World War II. Author Elated "I'm elated
that it's been found and can return to the Rosenbergs," said
Feliciano from his office in Paris. "That's the whole point of my
book, to help find and recover these treasures." A former cultural
reporter for The Washington Post, Feliciano said he spent eight years
tracking art stolen by the Nazis. The Nazis had hoped to create their
own national museum in Austria and sought to beef up their collection
by raiding France's rich collection, Feliciano says. Ironically, they
disliked the modern art of Matisse and Picasso, which they considered
"degenerate art." Realizing their value, however, they stole the
paintings to trade for classical 16th century works, Feliciano said.
---------------------
THE HEIST AND THE HUNT
SUPPOSEDLY AUTHENTIC PHOTOS OF STOLEN ART TREASURES SHOWED UP LAST
WEEK ON PAGE ONE AND TV SCREENS
BY ROMESH RATNESAR
From the start, the heist has riveted and dumbfounded the art world,
with fresh chapters unfolding as if the perps had serialized the
tale. Last week came the most tantalizing clues so far in the 1990
theft of $300 million in artwork--including three Rembrandts, five
Degas and a Vermeer--from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
On Friday the Boston Herald published several black-and-white
photographs that purported to show some of the stolen paintings. And
the Herald said that in collaboration with ABC News, it had near
certain proof that the Rembrandts in the photos were authentic. The
paper pointed to some minute but telltale signs--a stretcher mark
here, a frayed edge there--that bolstered its stunning claim. But
there were also some holes in the Herald's report. All the "art
experts" who testified to the photographs' reliability refused to be
identified. The paper said that along with the photos, it had
obtained a pile of tiny chips of paint, but acknowledged it could
not authenticate "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that the chips came
from the stolen works. Furthermore, its source for the photos was one
William P. Youngworth III, a 38-year-old ex-con and antiques dealer
who is on his way to jail again on a car-theft conviction. Officials
from the Gardner asked to see the photos for themselves and demanded
that the Herald and ABC News drop their request for exclusive rights
to report on the museum's analysis. At week's end the drama had
degenerated to a squabble among lawyers for all parties. The theft
took place in the dead of night on March 18, 1990, when two men
dressed as police broke into the Gardner, tied up two museum guards
and dismantled the security system. They left with 13 objects,
including two certified masterworks--Vermeer's The Concert and
Rembrandt's Storm on the Sea of Galilee. Strangely, the robbers
chose not to lift the museum's most prized piece, Titian's Rape of
Europa. The thieves' improbable connoisseurship set off speculation
that the heist was a botched assignment ordered up by a wealthy
collector. But no leads panned out. Then, in August, Herald reporter
Tom Mashberg claimed he had been escorted to a dark warehouse and
shown by flashlight Rembrandt's signature on Storm on the Sea of
Galilee. The assignation was brokered by Youngworth, who then told
ABC's Nightline he could deliver the stolen works in exchange for the
museum's $5 million reward and the release of his pal Myles J. Connor
Jr., a thief who was in prison for selling cocaine and transporting
stolen art. Youngworth says he and Connor had nothing to do with the
original crime, and he has a pretty good alibi: both were in prison
at the time. Youngworth now faces up to 15 years in prison on the
auto-theft conviction. Last month he met privately with Gardner
directors and reportedly extracted a $10,000 down payment on a reward
for promising to produce some of the stolen goods. He will probably
try to negotiate down his sentence in exchange for more details. All
things considered, that may be a small price to pay for figuring out
who pulled off the biggest art heist in American history.
--Reported by Rod Paul /Boston
------------------------------
Message by moderator:
Every now and then I forward messages offering information about
(security) industrial products. This is done from a fully independent
position and I do not bear any responsibility for the contents of
those messages.
Ton Cremers
-----------------------------------------
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and wanton damage. Bell boxes, Redcare, Paknet and digital
communicators send out a message that a burglary is taking place. In
time there is a response. In the meantime the burglary is completed
and the theives are long gone before anyone arrives. Only Smokecloak
is actively doing anything to stop the robbery taking place, it's
doing it fast, it's doing it effectively and it is doing it NOW.
Why use Smokecloak? Primarily, because it is THE most effective
theft deterrent on the market. Smokecloak came into being when
Smokecloak's inventor found his electronics business the target and
victim of repeated crime. His premises were attacked 7 times in 8
months. A sophisticated alarm panel, shutters and bollards were not
good enough to keep determined criminals from entering the premises
and stealing the stock. Advice was sought from various authorities,
including the police and security companies. Everyone accepted that
you couldn't stop a determined villain. The best you could hope for
was to slow him down and give the security forces a chance to
respond to the alarm. How do you slow a villain down and prevent the
removal of any items before the key holder arrives? You could: Hide
the valuables to stop him from finding the goods he is after, or
Secure the valuables to prevent, for say 30 minutes, the villain from
being able to remove the goods from the site. Even if this were
practical, removal or hiding of valuables is not sustainable in the
long term. Bolting everything to the ground or wall is equally
impractical while malicious damage can be as damaging to a business
as theft. The solution was to cover the area to be protected in a
fine vapour reducing visibility to less than 30 cm (less than half
the distance from you to this screen), that is practically nil
visibility, and then to maintain the density of vapour and nil
visibility until an authorised person arrives and switches off the
alarm. In other words a smoke security device, a SMOKECLOAK The
ultimate in not only slowing villains down, but actually stopping
them from stealing. Intruder alarms, CCTV, razor wire and even
guards may delay but do not always deter burglars if they are really
determined and the prize is valuable enough. Police and keyholder
response time to alarm calls varies considerably depending on
location, the time of the break-in and the resources available. The
police always respond as quickly as they can and not infrequently
arrive on the scene in time to disturb burglars, but unfortunately
not always. BUT the average commercial burglary lasts less than 4
minutes. Consider the response time to your premises. Not what it
should be, but what it really is, particularly at a bad time. Think
about it, and what actually would happen if your alarm goes off at
2.a.m. You know that's why YOU should use Smokecloak to protect YOUR
business.
SAFETY
Safety is paramount throughout every aspect of the design and
manufacture of Smokecloak. All machines are rigorously tested and
fully comply with all the safety standards and are fully CE
approved. Smokecloak, with its patented Cloaksensor combined with
the timer module provide an unmatched level of protection against an
incorrect activation. During the day the pumps are electro
mechanically isolated preventing smoke being produced in an occupied
building. This is vitally important in all shop, office and workplace
situations. Tamper evidence and resistance to attack are also built
into the machines in design, strength of materials and circuit
control.
Who needs Smokecloak?
Every business with equipment, raw materials, and stock, as well as
those with customer's goods awaiting delivery or collection, in for
repair or in transit, needs Smokecloak. Theft costs industry
billions of $'s every year but in addition to the cost of physical
losses, thecost of disruption caused by theft is much higher and
often catastrophic. Without the use of computers. even for a few
hours, most businesses will come to a virtual standstill.
Alladministration, orders, production processes, deliveries, stock,
accounts, records, invoices, wages .... may be adversely affected.
The cost of any number of staff doing nothing productive for a any
period is prohibitive, with no one able to answer the phones
resulting in lost orders, lost customers and lost revenue but the
costs are still there, ...... with additional costs - on repairs; on
short term hire until new equipment is bought, delivered and
commissioned; increased excesses on insurance policies; up-grading
security systems to prevent a return visit ........ Insurance will
not fully compensate for the loss. Even with proper back-up, the
disruption may be, and sometimes is, fatal.
Who uses Smokecloak?
There is hardly a trade, industry or profession that doesn't. Among
our list of users, most of whom experienced break-ins and severe
losses before they installed Smokecloak, are: Alarm & Security
companies to protect their own offices. Records of security
installations must be kept secure to prevent unauthorised access to
customer's premises. Retailers of every kind. Jewellers, sports
shops, boutiques, dress and clothes shops, shoe shops, Post Offices,
filling stations, hi-fi, tv and phone shops, computer and office
equipment suppliers,; Supermarkets, cycle and toy shops, marine
chandlers, off licences, etc. etc. Commercial and professional
offices. Smokecloak is used extensively in general offices, IT rooms
and suites, training and conference centres, in local government and
central government agencies, by insurance companies, banks,
solicitors, accountants, design studios, printers, architects,
construction, consulting and mechanical engineers, consultants,
software houses and people working at home. Leisure and recreational
establishments such as museums, golf clubs and pro shops, water
sports shops, amusement arcades, sports and social clubs, restaurants
and public houses. Other users include, hospitals, nuclear power
station, farms and horticultural centres, schools and colleges,
national parks, waste disposal plant and tire depots. The ultimate,
so far, is the post office in Soweto, South Africa that on average
was being attacked EVERY THREE DAYS until Smokecloak was installed.
Since then, over a year ago, the Soweto Post Office has not had any
further property loss. If it can stop attacks on that scale, think
of what it can do for you.
How does Smokecloak work?
Smokecloak is triggered by a signal directly (or optionally by a
dedicated verifier) from the alarm panel immediately the alarm is
activated when an intruder enters or approaches the protected area.
Smokecloak immediately releases into the atmosphere a dense benign
(harmless), totally impenetrable cloud of white vapour. Visibility
is cut to 30 cm within seconds. The thief flees, empty handed. When
the police and keyholder arrive in response to the alarm signal they
deactivate (unset) the alarm system, check the building for
intruders, expel the smoke, make the place secure, and reset the
alarm, automatically resetting Smokecloak. But, if the burglar,
hiding in the bushes thinks 'the coast is clear I can go in safely'
he is a little surprised when Smokecloak goes off all over again. The
vapour will stay in thick, operational state for upwards of an hour,
depending on ambient temperature and air currents. If, FOR ANY
REASON, the density falls below the required level a special sensor
will re-activate the machine to restore the correct level. By means
of this extremely sophisticated, sensitive and patented control
system, even if doors, windows or roof have been left open as the
thieves retreated Smokecloak will continue to provide protection.
Smokecloak system has always ONLY been made specifically for the
security market. Smokecloaks are fully compatible with and designed
to be integrated with modern detection and monitored alarm systems.
Smokecloak always requires a response to the alarm signal within
NACOSS approved time limits.
INSTALLATION
Smokecloaks are installed only by trained, authorised alarm
companies. It is important that premises are correctly surveyed, the
correct specification and configuration of machines agreed and
systems are installed and integrated into the alarm panel. Machines
are supplied with full installation and operating manuals and all
the necessary warning stickers.
USE
In use they are quick, clean and cost effective. Smokecloak is
designed for use during the time buildings are unoccupied, at night,
at weekends and holiday periods. Always used as an integral part of
a monitored intruder alarm system, Smokecloak protects premises and
property during the vital period between an alarm being activated and
the security forces, - police, guard or keyholder, - arriving to
investigate the cause of the alarm. Easy to operate; safe, secure
and unobtrusive (except when in action, when it has to be seen to be
believed!). No space is too small or too large to protect, from a
small store room to thousands of square metres of multi-storey
office or warehouse. In use, Smokecloak combats crime
Arrange a demonstration
Contact OUT of SITE Security Systems Ltd. for a FREE on-site
demonstration.
-----------------------------------
(Museum-L)
From: Karen Brown <kebrown@NEDCC.ORG>
Subject: Re: Identification Pass for Visitors to Storage
Ms. Duggan: First of all, you should never allow visitors to work
in storage and other non-public areas without supervision; all
materials should be moved to a reading room or the like for study and
review. Some of the best examples of collections theft have been a
result of a trusted visitor given priveleged access to material
without adequate supervision or inspection of used materials/personal
affects at the end of a session. Visitors who will be given access to
collections, or who will be moving through non-public areas should be
REGISTERED - e.g., their name, identification, professional
affiliation, mailing address (work and home?), current local address,
subject of research or purpose of visit, etc., and they should be
made to sign an agreement form (e.g., 'agreeing to abide by
procedures, rules', etc.) before being issued a VISITORS badge. In
exchange for the badge you can retain a piece of photographic ID.
Alternatively, you can issue a more permanent ID with a client number
on it after registration, and the researcher need only sign in and
out daily. This is not unlike use of a reading room in an archives,
or having access to the back areas of a museum (e.g., the
conservation lab). It ensures that you have information about who
is/was there and what their business is/was. In addition, the form
should list what collections were used during the visit; this should
be retained, as you would retain call slips. You might also want to
consider having your staff wear STAFF badges at all times; consider
new employees and noted movement of all unknown individuals through
your facility. I hope this is of some assistance. Let me know if you
have any further questions and we'll see if we can help. Good luck!
Karen
At 02:42 PM 10/20/97 -0400, you wrote:
>We are examining our policy and procedures for access of to storage
>and other staff only areas by researchers or visitors.
>What kind of systems for badges, visitors log etc. do people use.
How >do you verify that the badges are returned to the proper place
in the >museum or that they are not reused?
>Sylvia S. Duggan
>Assistant Registrar, Loans
>University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
******************************
Karen E.K. Brown
Field Service Representative
Northeast Document Conservation Center
100 Brickstone Square
Andover, MA 01810-1494
kebrown@nedcc.org
Tel.(978) 470-1010
Fax (978) 475-6021
http://www.nedcc.org
--------------------------------------
The art underground (odyssey of several Rembrandt and Durer
drawings)
The odyssey of several Rembrandt and Durer drawings that were stolen
from the Bremen Museum in Germany at World War II's end evokes the
great upheavals, both human and material, that resulted from that
cataclysmic conflict. From Bremen, which fell to British troops in
April 1945, the drawings somehow made their way to the National
Museum in Baku in Azerbaijan - formerly part of the Soviet Union but
now an independent state. They were then stolen again and were hidden
in New York City, arguably the art center of the world. The existence
of the drawings came to light when a Japanese walked into the German
embassy in Japan and offered to sell 12 of them for $6 million. There
is enough of a rich, cross-border broth in that paragraph to nourish
an army of mystery writers and connoisseurs of international
intrigue. The Germans, having looted private collections and museums
throughout Europe during their expansion, in turn saw their own art
works crated up and shipped out by the Russians. On a much lesser
scale, American and allied soldiers pilfered art in the ruined cities
they encountered. Long after the dispossessed of World War II have
either died or been resettled, plundered art continues to pop up in
surprising places. As the Globe's Walter Robinson has been writing,
stolen and looted artworks from World War II still haunt the world's
art markets like wandering ghosts of the displaced. It did not end
with World War II. As warfare has moved on from Western Europe to the
Balkans, to Africa, to Asia, so has the subterranean passage of art.
Mosaics from Cyprus, Khmer art from Cambodia, the treasures of
Afghanistan all sooner or later end up for sale somewhere.
Occasionally arrests are made, and some items are recovered, but they
are few and far between. There will be no stopping of this
underground river of illegality until the art markets themselves make
a greater effort to end it.
This story ran on page A18 of the Boston Globe on 10/22/97. (c)
Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.
---------------------
4 cemetery gates found in Brewster
By Judith Gaines, Globe Staff, 10/22/97
Officials at Mount Auburn Cemetery last night announced that four of
the seven historic cast-iron gates that were discovered missing last
week have been found and will be returned to the cemetery this
morning. ''I'm halfway thrilled,'' said Meg Winslow, the cemetery's
curator of historical collections. ''I'm so happy that these four
gates have been found,'' she said. ''But it's bittersweet, because
three of them still are missing and it's very emotional for the
families that are involved.'' Among the four recovered gates are two
that graced enclosures for the burial plots for the families of
Isaiah Atkins and Augustus Lowell. The Lowell enclosure has an
august, dignified gate with Gothic pointed arches and leafy vines.
The Atkins gate features a delicately molded, abstract design topped
with five finials. The gates were discovered after Winslow received
a tip from a Cape Cod resident who read about the thefts in The
Boston Globe yesterday. The caller, who requested anonymity,
remembered seeing at least two of the missing gates in an antiques
shop in Brewster. It occurred to her that the gates were stolen when
she realized that the names ''Isaiah Atkins'' and ''Augustus
Lowell,'' clearly visible on their cast-iron frames, had been
mentioned in the Globe article. After checking with local
authorities, Watertown police detectives David Collins and Bob
Eldredge went to Brewster to investigate. They discovered four of the
missing gates in the antiques shop. ''The gates have been recovered
and are here at the station now,'' said Lieutenant Richard Shea, duty
officer for the Watertown police. ''They'll be returned to the
cemetery at 8:30 Wednesday morning.'' Shea would not say whether
police believe they know who was responsible for stealing the gates.
''But there are people we want to talk to regarding this,'' he said.
He added that the antiques dealer knew who sold the gates to him.
''But that individual may have purchased them from someone else,''
Shea said. Watertown police are in charge of the investigation
because, although the 174-acre cemetery straddles the
Cambridge-Watertown line, the thefts occurred in the Watertown
section. Cemetery officials believe that the gates were stolen
sometime in the last few weeks, but it was discovered that they were
missing only last Wednesday when a staff member spotted a gap in one
of the 55 family fence enclosures for which the cemetery is noted.
Upon closer inspection, the staffer concluded that the gate had been
forcibly removed from its hinges. Recovering the gates is
particularly important because they are among the best examples of
Victorian cemetery fences in the nation, according to Mount Auburn
president William C. Clendaniel. They represent some of the finest
cast-iron work by New England craftsmen in the 19th century. The
gates also have sentimental value to descendants of the individuals
buried there because the families had had the gates individually
molded. The stolen gates, which name the family and lot number near
the top of the gate frame, were from the enclosures of the families
of S. Dow, J.B.H. James, Charles F. Hovey, L.H. Marsh and William
Goddard. Two of these have been found, in addition to the gates of
the Isaiah Atkins and Augustus Lowell families, but Watertown police
would not say which two. Watertown police also would not say if they
believe the three missing gates will be recovered soon. But Winslow
said the cemetery received calls throughout the day yesterday from
individuals with tips, which may prove useful. ''So many people are
upset by the lack of respect for something that used to be
considered a sacred place,'' Winslow said.
This story ran on page B01 of the Boston Globe on 10/22/97. (c)
Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.
--------------------------------