- disclaimer message (PLEASE READ!)
- RE: --SMOKECLOAK STOPS THEFT
- RE: leary about how Smoke Cloak would be used in a museum of art gallery
- Science comes to rescue in art mystery
- New concern over damage to frescoes
- Archaeologists strike
- Video Security
- 'refurbishment' website
- questions re ethanol collections ( board of appeals feels that this could be a major fire hazard)
- PARK ADVOCACY GROUP MOVES TO BLOCK PERMIT FOR HOMESTEAD AIR FORCE BASE REDEVELOPMENT District's Decision Does Not Recognize Magnitude of
Impacts
- Re: Smoke cloak (Steve Keller)
- Umbria, home of the arts, pleads for aid
- Getty scoops British art treasure (the power of money...)
- Art Thieves Leave Many Frowns Behind( Gallery owner is waiting for police action after lithograph by Red Skelton is stolen)
- Newspaper says Van Gogh Sunflowers'' may be fake
- Looted Ethiopia's Axum Obelisk Will Return Home From Rome in April,1998
- Experts Weigh Sending David Abroad
- http://trace.guinet.com/index.html Trace on Line
--------------------------------------------------------
disclaimer message
We have added the following disclaimer message both to the indexpage
of the Museum Security Website and the introductory message for new
mailinglist subscribers:
THE MUSEUM SECURITY NETWORK IS PROVIDING IT'S WEBSITE AND
MAILINGLIST AND ITS CONTENTS ON AN "AS IS" BASIS AND MAKES NO
REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO IT'S
WEBSITE AND MAILINGLIST OR ITS CONTENTS. THE MUSEUM SECURITY NETWORK
DISCLAIMS ALL SUCH REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES. IN ADDITION, THE
MUSEUM SECURITY NETWORK DOES NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT THE
INFORMATION ACCESSIBLE VIA IT'S WEBSITE AND MAILINGLIST IS ACCURATE,
COMPLETE OR CURRENT. Except as specifically stated on this website,
neither THE MUSEUM SECURITY NETWORK nor any of its directors,
employees or other representatives will be liable for damages arising
out of or in connection with the use of this website or the
mailinglist. This is a comprehensive limitation of liability that
applies to all damages of any kind, including (without limitation)
compensatory, direct, indirect or consequential damages, loss of
data, income or profit, loss of or damage to property and claims of
third parties.
-----------------------------------------------
From: cjscheiner@MEM.po.com
Date sent: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 10:30:40 -0400
To: securma@xs4all.nl
Subject: OCTOBER 23, 1997
Re: - RISK MANAGEMENT/ LOSS PREVENTION --SMOKECLOAK STOPS THEFT
Does any one have actual experience with this product, as to whether
it effects paper, leather, wood, cloth, paint or other materials of
which books and art work are comprised? Also, how fast does it fill
how large a volume of space?
Thank you.
C.J. Scheiner, 275 Linden Blvd, Suite B2, Bklyn, NY 11226
cjscheiner@mem.po.com; (Phone & Fax: 718-469-1089)
------------------------------------
From: David_Tremain@pch.gc.ca
To: securma@xs4all.nl
Date sent: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 09:48:46 -0400
Subject: Smoke cloak
While I am sure this product would be useful in commercial
situations, I am a little leary about how Smoke Cloak would be used
in a museum of art gallery context for a number of reasons:
1. The likelihood of the smoke setting off smoke detectors, and
subsequently sprinkler systems or other fire suppression systems;
2. The smoke causing the smoke dampers in the ventilation ducts to
automatically shut down, thereby creating a problem with a
controlled environment;
3. Since the smoke consists of small particles, what effect these
would have on depositing residue onto artifacts, particularly paper
or textiles where the particles could get into the fibres themselves;
4. The fact that there is a cloud of smoke in the display area
obscures not only the thief, but also security guards attempting to
apprehend him, setting up a possible situation where there is a
collision with an artifact (i.e. on the floor or mounted on a
pedestal) or display case;
5. The smoke obscuring the monitoring of the event by CCTV, thereby
rendering the video tape useless if presented as evidence at a
trial.
I hope the company has addressed these issues, and I would welcome
their response.
David Tremain
Conservator, Preventive Conservation Services
Canadian Conservation Institute
Ottawa
david_tremain@pch.gc.ca
---------------------------------------
Science comes to rescue in art mystery
BY NEIL STEINBERG SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
The saga of the biggest art heist in modern history made a pit stop
in Chicago last week, in the form of a thimble's worth of paint
flecks arriving under escort at the Michigan Avenue laboratory of
Dr. Walter McCrone. The flecks may or may not be from a pair of
Rembrandts that were slashed from their frames by two crooks who
strolled into Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum dressed as
policemen seven years ago and strolled out with $300 million worth of
art, including works by Degas, Manet and Vermeer. If you're not the
sort who haunts art museums, then Isabella Stewart Gardner might
sound like the name of just another rich benefactress. She was, but
an especially charming and egocentric one. She handed over her
mansion, built in the style of a 15th century Venetian palace, filled
with hundreds of art treasures, with the stipulation that the
artworks never be sold, never be loaned, and nothing change in the
home she had enjoyed. And nothing did. I was lucky enough to visit
before the thefts. The Gardner wasn't so much like a museum as like
the mansion of some dotty rich aunt who had stepped out for a cup of
elderberry tea. The place was dark, the guards antiques themselves.
Black velvet clothes covered glass cases of medieval
rarities--visitors were expected to pull the velvet aside, get an
eyeful, then push it back. The place was very low tech, very old and
very lovely. The theft of the dozen artworks shattered this
sealed-off little world and made it mournful. The spots where the
paintings had been displayed were left empty, marked by placards
reading ``Stolen March 18, 1990.'' The police were stymied. The trail
grew so cold that when the Gardner offered a cool $1 million reward,
no questions asked, for the return of the paintings, it emphasized
that the thieves were welcome to collect the money. The paintings had
been insured for damage, but not for theft. The flecks of paint under
McCrone's microscope were offered up by a pair of characters named
Myles Connor Jr. and William Youngworth III, who say they know where
the paintings are and will arrange their safe return in exchange for
immunity from prosecution and the reward from the museum, now swelled
to $5 million. And they want one other thing, too: Connor's release
from prison. He's in for--guess what?--art theft. As evidence that
they have the Rembrandts, they turned some chips of paint over to the
Boston Herald. The delegation in McCrone's office was from the
Herald, with a TV crew in tow, to see if the flecks were indeed the
real McCoy. Authenticating a Rembrandt is tricky stuff even when you
have an entire painting to work with. Approximately half of all the
pictures that have been called Rembrandts and hung in museums later
were determined to be the work of students or disciples or
out-and-out forgers. Ever the cautious scientist, McCrone won't say
the chips are from a Rembrandt, only that they aren't not from a
Rembrandt. That was enough to cause a whoop of joy in Boston. ``The
Boston Herald came out with a headline saying I said it is a
Rembrandt, but that isn't what I said in my report to them,''
McCrone said. ``I can say I can't find any reason to think it is not
by Rembrandt, and there are lots of positive indications it may well
be.'' McCrone is one a handful of microscopy experts in the country
who aid law enforcement and art curation by gazing at evidence,
micron by micron. He debunked the Shroud of Turin--among all but the
most die-hard believers--by amassing evidence that it is a 13th
century creation. The key to his work is knowing the history of paints
and looking for hues that came into being at a certain time. Prussian
blue, for instance, was created in 1704, and since Rembrandt died in
1669, finding that particular blue in a purported Rembrandt is like
finding a bar code on a Ming vase. The flecks were all smaller than
the period at the end of this sentence. McCrone, using an optical
microscope (he scorns those fancy electron jobbies), looked for
colors of paint that would rule out a painting as Rembrandt's. ``Those
were all absent,'' he said. ``And the ones there were very typical of
the form and composition Rembrandt did use.'' McCrone's work is
time-intensive, and while he employs a dozen associates at the lab,
he still puts in long hours. On a typical day he arrives by 3:15 in
the morning and stays until after 6 p.m. He walks every day, the two
miles from his home in the Lake Meadows development by Michael Reese
Hospital. ``I don't own an overcoat or hat,'' he said with a certain
pride. McCrone is 81 years old. ``Work is my hobby--I've got a lot of
interesting things to work on,'' he concluded. ``I've been lucky.''
Maybe a bit of McCrone's luck will rub off on the Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum, and they'll get those paintings back. Neil
Steinberg's book Complete & Utter Failure is available for the
special price of $10. Send check or money order to Chicago
Sun-Times, Room 110n, 401 N. Wabash, Chicago 60611.
-------------------------------------
(Daily Telegraph London)
New concern over damage to frescoes
By Bruce Johnston in Rome
THE frescoed ceiling of the Upper Basilica of St Francis in Assisi
is in much worse condition after a number of earthquakes than was
originally thought, says a leading fine arts official. The frescoes
have now been examined closely for the first time since parts of two
vaults bearing the work of Cimabue, and possibly Giotto, collapsed on
Sept 26, killing four people. They have been found to be covered in a
"spider's web" of deep cracks. The cracks measure between one-third
and three-quarters of an inch in width, and run right through the
eight-inch thickness of the plaster. Other large cracks have been
found in the ridges of the vaults, and where they meet supporting
walls. Professor Antonio Paolucci, Florence's fine arts
superintendent, who is in charge of the basilica's restoration, said
the earthquakes had "massacred the system of vaults" in the upper
church's ceiling. One local report said it was "as if the plaster had
been cut right through, like the slices of a cake". Prof Paolucci
dismissed suggestions that the collapse of the rest of the ceiling
was imminent, but said work to consolidate it would have to begin
without delay. Proper examination of the effects of 20 powerful
tremors and more than 2,000 aftershocks that have rocked Umbria and
the Marches regions of Italy was made possible by a catwalk suspended
along the nave, between the roof and the vaults. Paolo Rocchi, an
architect who headed restoration of Rome's newly re-opened Borghese
Gallery, affected by extensive subsidence, plans to reinforce the
ceiling with steel cables. Another challenge to restorers and
engineers is how to shore up the parts of the vaults that have
collapsed without causing damage to adjoining frescoes. It is feared
that these could be ruined by glue.
--------------------------------
Archaeologists strike
Athens, 23/10/1997 (ANA)
Greece's archaeologists went on strike yesterday in protest at
articles in the cultural heritage bill relating to the
archaeological service. At a press conference yesterday, they
expressed their opposition to the creation of a Museum Policy
Council, which would separate museums from archaeological sites, and
of a European Centre for Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Monuments which
it said undermined the archaeology profession. They threatened to
hold rolling strikes if the bill was passed.
---------------------------------------
GTVIDEO@aol.com
Video Security
Good day,
I am the applications engineer for Global Technologies. We provide
CCTV equipment to Law Enforcement agencies & businesses nation wide. I
am contacting you to offer my services for the design of video
security systems for Art Gallerys, etc. I would also like to offer my
services to your network to answer questions about video & security
products, while offering state of the art equipment. Global
Technologies represents over 70 major manufacturers supplying
equipment & training to RISS organizations {like the Mid-States
Organized Crime Investigation Center M.O.C.I.C.} all the way down to
the "mom & pop" store. We are in the design phase of a website, having
spent most of our time lately on wireless equipment designs for Law
Enforcement & Fraud Investigators. I hope to have it up soon. We will
be linked to major manufacturers sites for specification information,
& will have online design as well.
Please let me know how we can help.
{Thank you for your work}
Sincerely,
Michael J. DeStefano
1-800-624-8011 (Call for a Catalog) Global Technologies 1206
Eaglecrest P.O. Box 1049 Nixa, Missouri 65714 Fax: 417-725-2099
------------------------------------
refurbishment website
One of the subscribers sent feedback that some of the website pages
have grown to a too huge size (loading would take too long). We have
made a start redesigning the site. The Organizations page has been
split into six separate pages:
-cultural property protection
-security organizations and consultants
-reporting stolen property
-disaster management organizations
-miscellany: insurance, transport, training, certification, safety,
Museum Services International, risk management and insurance
-national parks
Your comments are welcome.
TC
------------------------------------------
Date sent: Fri, 24 Oct 1997 07:57:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: San Diego Natural History Museum
<libsdnhm@CLASS.ORG>
to: securma@xs4all.nl
Subject: questions re ethanol collections ( board of appeals
feels that this could be a major fire hazard)
I am writing to ask for help in the form of information. Please
forward this as you think appropriate.
In our building expansion plan, space for compactorization of all
our ethanol-based collections (primarily herpetology, but also marine
invertebrates and some teaching materials) has been allocated on the
new basement floor. We are now scheduled to make an appearance
before a board of appeals to defend this. Technically, these
collections must be on the ground floor, but that space is dedicated
for/to programs and exhibits. The board of appeals feels that this
could be a major fire hazard and may require that we place the
collection off-site permanently. We do not want to separate the
collections from the researchers and can in no way afford to set up a
satellite museum. We have an engineer consulting with us on fire
safety who will be making the presentation. I am writing to ask for
any documentation, slides, or anecdotal accounts you may have on the
relative safety of ethanol collections in purpose-built safe storage.
I need to bring the engineer up to speed very quickly so that he can
make a good case for our being able to keep these extremely important
holdings on-site. We have lost a couple of buildings in the park to
fire, but these were due to arson. I do not have any accounts of
ethanol collections catching fire and would like to find out if
anyone does (and, if so, what were the circumstances). I need good
precise information, please. We have planned this area with full
control and safety systems, but the California laws are tough. (It
does bother me that we are being held to higher standards than a
liquor warehouse....) I need this information by the end of the month
(October), as we are not being given much time to prepare. Thanks in
advance.
Cheers,
Sally Shelton
Director, Collections Care and Conservation
President-Elect, Society for the Preservation of Natural History
Collections
San Diego Natural History Museum
P. O. Box 1390
San Diego,
California 92112 USA
phone (619) 232-3821 x226; FAX (619)
232-0248 email LIBSDNHM@CLASS.ORG
---------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 24, 1997
CONTACT: Vicki Paris
PARK ADVOCACY GROUP MOVES TO BLOCK PERMIT FOR HOMESTEAD AIR FORCE BASE
REDEVELOPMENT District's Decision Does Not Recognize Magnitude of
Impacts
Washington, D.C. -- In an effort to protect Biscayne and Everglades
National Parks from water, air, and noise pollution, the National
Parks and Conservation Association (NPCA) has moved to join an
appeal of the South Florida Water Management District's issuance of a
permit for construction of an airport near both parks. This appeal
was brought to force the county to recognize all of the impacts of
redeveloping Homestead Air Force Base into an international,
commercial airport ten times the size of the former base. "The
environmental impact of an airport rivaling Miami International in
size and operations on the south Florida ecosystem would be
devastating," said NPCA Southeast Regional Director Don Barger.
"What the county is not considering is that these are areas of
national significance and should be protected for all Americans." In
addition to the noise pollution, water and air quality would be
adversely affected by an airport that could include up to 25,000
passenger operations where none previously existed. One side of the
former base is directly connected to Biscayne National Park via the
2,500 foot Military Canal. The stormwater from the base flows into
this already polluted canal and discharges into Biscayne Bay. Little
thought has been put into whether or not the stormwater management
system is adequate for a facility of this size and the possibility
that run-off could include jet fuel and other substances harmful to
the surrounding wetlands and their resident wildlife. Beyond the
potential environmental impacts on the parks, the appeal maintains
that the county failed to obtain a conceptual approval permit for all
phases of the project under state regulation. This permit process
would provide for an in-depth analysis of overall project
environmental impacts and assures that the county has been
forthcoming about the magnitude of the project. "The county hopes
that by working in small steps and not releasing all of the
information up front, the public will not understand the magnitude of
the project until it is too late," added Barger. "We plan to expose
that deception." In 1931, NPCA sent a special study team to
evaluate the south Florida ecosystem's importance as a potential
national park. From this study and subsequent struggle, both the
Everglades and eventually Biscayne National Parks were established.
Since then NPCA has continually worked to protect these two unique
areas from destruction and will continue to do so on behalf of all
Americans.
The National Parks and Conservation Association 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.
--------------------------------------
From: IntlArtCop@aol.com
Date sent: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 00:23:01 -0400 (EDT)
To: securma@xs4all.nl
Subject: Re: Smoke cloak
I saw Smoke Cloak at ASIS in St. Louis. I think it has its place but
not in every institution. I understand that the smoke is theatrical
smoke and will not activate a smoke detector nor should it clog or
damage it. It will not set off sprinklers if the smoke detectors are
not activated on a dry pre-action system but i did not test this
myself so users should verify this.
I went into the smoke chamber and could easily breath but it was
disorienting.
This product has some application in small, unstaffed museums or
galleries that might need to disorient an intruder or deter him. Some
museums use exceptionally loud sirens to do this also. I'd hate to
attempt a smash and grab through a ground floor window and run to the
upper floor to grab a masterpiece with smoke and noise causing
confusion. But I agree that in a staffed museum the smoke could be a
danger to responding guards. And the danger exists for an intruder to
become so disoriented as to fall into a piece of artwork.
I've written to the company for more literature but it has not
arrived so I have nothing else to offer. I'll let you know when
we've evaluated the product fully.
Steve Keller
---------------------------
(Times of London)
Umbria, home of the arts, pleads for aid
(David Owen)
With shock and concern still reverberating a month after the
earthquake that severely damaged the Basilica of St Francis at
Assisi, it is emerging that far many more art treasures in Umbria are
at serious risk than was previously thought. They include the great
cathedral at Spoleto, famed for its summer arts festival, and
world-renowned Renaissance frescoes at Montefalco. "Umbria, home of
the arts, is weeping and deeply wounded," La Repubblica said. "It is
not just Assisi which has been shaken by the tremors. We need to
raise the alarm." The Archbishop of Spoleto, Mgr Riccardo Fontana,
said recent inspections showed that the 11th-century Duomo, or
cathedral, had suffered very serious damage in the continuing
tremors. Archbishop Fontana is aggrieved that destruction in the
Spoleto area has been overshadowed. "The Bishop of Assisi naturally
has had a lot to say about the damage there," he said. "But nobody
can say that this part of Umbria is worse off than that part, or
deserves more help. Four villages in my diocese, including Sellano,
the epicentre of the recent earthquakes, have been destroyed. The
earthquakes shake the whole mountain." The epicentre of the
earthquakes, initially near Foligno, has moved gradually south, with
tremors felt in Rome and even Naples. There were further strong
tremors at Sellano on Thursday and yesterday. The Archbishop's Palace
in Spoleto has been declared uninhabitable, and Mgr Fontana, who for
the first few nights of the crisis slept in his car, like thousands
of other residents, has taken refuge in a nearby monastery. Perched
high on a hill, Spoleto was once the centre of a powerful duchy,
until it was sacked by Barbarossa in 1155. It revived in the 16th
century when Lucrezia Borgia was made governor at the age of 19 by
her father, Pope Alexander VI. Its modern fame rests on the Festival
of Two Worlds, the music, dance and theatre festival founded by
Giancarlo Menotti in 1958, which attracts world-class performers and
well-heeled audiences to match. Gala concerts are held in the
cathedral. Two of the four pillars holding up the cathedral cupola
have sagged and a third is badly cracked. Art experts and engineers
say the fall of the cupola would destroy priceless frescoes by the
Florentine artist Fra Filippo Lippi (1406-69), above all the
masterpiece of his final years, his Coronation of the Virgin (1469),
which is painted in the apse semidome. The cathedral also contains
the painter's tomb: a friar, he was accused of seducing a girl from a
noted local family and is said to have been murdered by her
relations. He did his last work at Spoleto, including a series of
frescoes in the choir which are also now thought to be at risk: The
Annunciation, The Birth of Christ and The Death of Mary. The
cathedral's medieval buttresses are fractured and the façade, with a
giant mosaic depicting Christ Pantocrator, dated 1207, has come away
from the fabric of the building. There are fissures in the
15th-century Eroli chapels (named after the bishop of the time,
Costantino Eroli), which contain frescoes by Pinturicchio
(1455-1513), including a Madonna and Child with Lake Trasimeno one
of the best-loved spots in Umbria shown clearly in the background.
"Something must be done immediately," the archbishop said. "The
walls, pilasters and buttresses are tilting, the stability of the
entire building is threatened." He said Spoleto needed £1 million "to
shore it up and avoid the worst. It is a race against time; we are
worried about new tremors." Nearly 800 churches in the Spoleto
diocese "of artistic and historic importance" have been closed for
inspection. There is also concern for the spectacular medieval
aqueduct across the gorge beyond the cathedral, the Ponte delle
Torri, which is 260 yards long and supported by ten 260ft-high
arches. Twelve miles north, nearer to the epicentre of the first
earthquakes at Foligno, emergency measures have been taken to save
the 15th-century frescoes at Montefalco by Benozzo Gozzoli
(1420-97), which were restored only seven years ago. The works
depict scenes from the life of St Francis, inspired by Giotto's
frescoes at Assisi, with recognisable Umbrian and Tuscan landscapes
in the background. Montefalco is famed for its views it is dubbed
"The Balcony of Umbria" and its Sangrantino wine is one of the
most prized reds in Italy. But its glory is the former Church of
San Francesco, now the town museum. In addition to works by Gozzoli,
who, like Lippi was a Florentine genius, the former church boasts an
Annunciation and Nativity by Perugino, and frescoes from the school
of Giotto. The campaign to preserve Montefalco's treasures is being
led by Luigi Gambacurta, the Mayor, who teaches literature at the
local secondary school and speaks of Gozzoli as if he were still
alive. Signor Gambacurta is praised as a local hero for his swift
action in shoring up the frescoes when the first earthquake struck.
"The first shock was in the middle of the night," he recalled. "At
first light I went to the school to check it was all right. Then I
rushed to San Francesco and was horrified to see the amount of
plaster that had fallen in the apse." He asked art restorers from
Spoleto to erect scaffolding to support the nave, with the help of
local carpenters. "We got it in place just before the second
earthquake struck at 11.42, the same one that brought down the
ceiling at Assisi. Here the scaffolding swayed, but it held." The
museum is planning to take visitors up onto the scaffolding to see
how restoration work on Gozzoli's masterpieces is proceeding.
However, there is still protective gauze over the frescoes and there
are fears for the roof, in particular for the vault above the apse,
whose ribs were reinforced with iron bars after an earthquake
earlier in the century. "Many jewels of art in Umbria are at risk,
but the pity is that not many Italians are aware of them," Paola
Manuali, a guide at San Francesco, said. "We get 20,000 visitors a
year at the museum, but many of them are foreigners on the Umbrian
art trail." Signor Menotti said that he hoped to organise a concert
at Spoleto with top-class performers to raise funds for restoration.
---------------------------
Getty scoops British art treasure
By John Hiscock in Los Angeles
THE 700 (English Pounds) million J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles
has scored a major coup less than two months before it is due to
open by obtaining an export licence from the British Government for
a landscape by the 17th-century French artist Nicolas Poussin. The
licence was granted after British museums failed to match the Getty
offer of £16 million for Temps Calme, which is being sold by Henry
Dent-Brocklehurst and the trustees of Sudeley Castle in
Gloucestershire. It was bought by the family a century ago and has
been on show intermittently since the castle opened to the public in
the Fifties. The painting "will feature prominently" in the Getty's
European collection when the museum, built on a hillside overlookng
the city, opens to the public on Dec 16. It will be displayed with
other masterpieces including works by Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir and
Cezanne. While the acquisition is being hailed by Getty officials,
art lovers in Britain are saddened by the loss of the painting. "This
is a terrible shame," said Alison Cole, of the National Art
Collection Fund. "It is a lovely painting which I think would have
been very popular in a major gallery. But at that price any bid
would have needed Heritage Lottery Fund money and they operate in
rather a political environment." Mr Dent-Brocklehurst, a close friend
of the actress Elizabeth Hurley, was abroad yesterday and unavailable
for comment. Earlier this year he said: "There is much work to do to
bring the castle and the estate into the 21st Century. I can
understand people's feeling but the trust thought long and hard
before deciding to sell." The Sudeley trustees have already sold
paintings by Rubens, Reynolds and Constable. Getty officials applied
for an export licence on April 1. The Ministry of Culture, Heritage
and Sport blocked it for six months but a licence was granted this
week after no interest was shown in Britain. A spokesman for the
National Gallery said: "We try to buy paintings that fill gaps in our
collection and, while Temps Calme is a fine painting, we already have
quite a few Poussins."
---------------------------------------------------
Art Thieves Leave Many Frowns Behind
Crimes: Gallery owner is waiting for police action after lithograph
by Red Skelton is stolen.
By DEBORAH BELGUM, Special to L.A. The Times
When works by Picasso, Degas and Matisse were pilfered last year from
a San Pedro warehouse, Los Angeles police quickly jumped into action.
But on Friday, nearly a week after a Red Skelton clown self-portrait
was spirited away from a San Pedro art gallery, Los Angeles detectives
had yet to interview the sales clerk on duty when the lithograph was
lifted. Nor had the LAPD's art theft specialist yet been called in to
investigate the caper. "I'm not even aware of it happening," said
LAPD Det. Don Hrycyk, who is assigned full-time to investigate art
thefts. The thieves who entered the Parkhurst Galleries in San Pedro
last Saturday afternoon apparently knew exactly what they wanted. They
weren't after the Thomas Kinkade landscapes or the seascapes by the
gallery's owner, Violet Parkhurst. They seemed to have their eye on
one thing, a colorful lithograph by Skelton, the venerable
rubber-faced comedian and artist who died last month. While the sales
clerk was distracted by one couple, another pair with a baby stroller
allegedly made off with the signed piece titled "Big Red," depicting
a frowning Skelton dressed in his trademark clown outfit. It was
valued at $2,850 and was being sold by the gallery on behalf of a
private owner. Austin Knight, who has worked at the gallery for more
than 15 years, recalled being shocked by the fast-acting thieves, who
left five other Skeltons untouched. "I turned around like this," said
Knight, opening her mouth and throwing her hands up towards her face,
"and it was gone." Knight, 64, said she was working alone when the
lithograph disappeared from the gallery, which is tucked away in
Ports o' Call, a mock fisherman's village next to the Port of Los
Angeles. The gallery is one of a handful in the nation authorized to
sell Red Skelton paintings and lithographs, whose prices, some say,
have nearly tripled since the entertainer died Sept. 17. Skelton,
whose acting and comedic career spanned six decades, spent his later
years painting clowns and images of the well-known characters he
portrayed, such as Freddie the Freeloader and Clem Kadiddlehopper. He
made a small fortune from his artwork, earning as much as $80,000 for
a single canvas. At his death, he had completed more than 1,000 oil
paintings--all portraits of clowns. About 55 of his paintings were
turned into limited-edition canvas lithographs which he signed once
they were sold. Each of the lithographs, whose prices ranged from $595
to $995 before his death, was numbered and came with a certificate
verifying that it was an original. Skelton made an estimated $2.5
million a year from lithographs. The piece stolen from the San Pedro
art gallery was No. 175 out of 2,500 lithographs printed from the
painting "Big Red." It was part of a series that contained a companion
lithograph called "The Cellist." But the thieves did not get the
lithograph's original certificate, meaning that it will be very
difficult to sell on the secondhand art market. Skelton was among a
number of entertainers, including Tony Curtis, Anthony Quinn, Buddy
Ebsen and Tony Bennett, who in their later decades have taken up art
as a hobby and business venture. Skelton experts say his art has
quickly risen in price since his death. "The more scarce they become,
the more valuable they become. He didn't pre-sign any of the
lithographs," said Jonathan Wood, who sells Skeltons in his Newport
Beach gallery called Pagliacci. In 1991, thieves made off with a
Skelton oil painting valued at $45,000 from the gallery. It
eventually turned up at a Gardena card club, Wood said. While
Skelton's work was never classified as fine art, it delivered an
upbeat message to many who saw it. "When you look at his clowns, you
can be really miserable," said Knight, who has four lithographs by the
comedian in her personal collection. "Then you suddenly remember the
things Red Skelton has said and done and you feel good inside and
start to laugh." Over the years, Skeltons have drawn less than
mammoth prices in more upscale art circles. "They are not necessarily
good investments," said Kelly Troester, a print expert at Butterfield
& Butterfield art auctions in Los Angeles. "Red Skelton tends to go
for higher prices in galleries, but his resale value [in art auctions]
brings a fraction of what people paid for it." By mid-Friday, no
detectives had yet been to the Parkhurst Galleries to interview Knight
about the stolen artwork, said Harbor Division Det. Tom McAvay,
noting that an initial report was taken the day of the theft. Nor had
officials notified other galleries specializing in Skelton art to be
on the alert for anyone attempting to sell the stolen piece. "I
hadn't heard anything about it," said Aaron Duran, director of Addi
Galleries in Las Vegas, the largest seller of Skelton lithographs.
All Knight hopes for is the swift return of the piece. "I'm just so
upset that someone would steal something that was done by a dead
person," said Knight.
-------------------------------------
Newspaper says Van Gogh Sunflowers'' may be fake
LONDON, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Vincent van Gogh's ``Sunflowers,'' one of
the world's most valuable paintings, may be a fake, the British
Sunday Times newspaper reported, citing investigations by art expert
Geraldine Norman. It was the second time in four months that an art
expert had cast doubt on the authenticity of the painting. In July,
the London-based Art Newspaper said at least 45 works attributed to
thye Dutch artist, among them the ``Sunflowers,'' could be fakes. The
painting was sold by the Chester Beatty family in 1987 to Japan's
Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Company for 24.7 million pounds
($40.3 million). The Japanese owners said in July that there was no
possibility the famed painting was a fake. Spokesman Yoshimi Takada
told Reuters then: ``We are absolutely convinced that the picture is
an original.'' According to the Sunday Times, British expert
Geraldine Norman concluded that a sunflower study attributed to the
famous Dutch artist was ``almost certainly'' the work of Claude-Emile
Schuffenecker, an embittered Parisian art teacher who owned it when
it surfaced at a Paris exhibition in 1901. The auctioneers
Christie's, asked to comment on the allegations of a possible fake,
said in a statement that it saw no reason ``to alter our original
opinion that the 'Sunflowers' is an authentic work by van Gogh.'' But
Norman said: ``The letters of Van Gogh only ever refer to six
paintings of sunflowers yet there are now seven. The Yasuda picture
is the odd one out, never getting a mention in his correspondence.''
Schuffenecker is described as having ``the classic psychological
profile of a faker: an artist so resentful of his own lack of
recognition that he makes fakes to prove that connoisseurs cannot
tell the difference.'' The newspaper said Schuffenecker was known to
have made copies of other Van Gogh works in his collection. Van Gogh
committed suicide in 1890 having only sold one canvas in his
lifetime. ($ - 0.612 British Pounds)
------------------------------------
Looted Ethiopia's Axum Obelisk Will Return Home From Rome in April,
1998
ADDIS ABABA (Oct. 25) XINHUA - Ethiopia's national committee for the
return of the axum obelisk today announced that the obelisk now
standing in Rome will return home in April next year. According to
the Ethiopian News Agency, members of the committee told Ethiopian
newsmen that "the effort for the return of the obelisk since 60 years
now is nearing success thanks to the friendly gesture of the
incumbent Italian government". They said the Italian International
Technical Institute has taken the contract to transport the obelisk
homewards and reinstate it at its original site. Ethiopian scientists
and experts with the institute will work together for the proper
reinstatement of the obelisk that weighs 160 tonnes, they said. They
added that the work will be carried out in such a way that it would
not harm other heritages found at the original site. The axum
obelisk was looted in 1937 by Italain aggressors under the personal
order of Benito Mussolini. Enditem
------------------------------------------
Experts Weigh Sending David Abroad
ROME (AP) A new group of art experts has been asked to decide
whether transporting Bernini's statue of David to Washington's
National Gallery would put the sculpture at risk, Italy's Culture
Ministry said Tuesday. The National Gallery requested the statue, now
in the Galleria Borghese in Rome, last year for a 1998 special
exhibit marking the 400th anniversary of Bernini's birth. A committee
of government and university experts initially approved the loan, but
subsequent protests prompted the Culture Ministry to seek a second
opinion. Critics say the 6-foot marble statue could be damaged
during the trip. Others maintain it is unfair to deprive Italy of the
masterpiece during Bernini's anniversary year.
------------------------------
http://trace.guinet.com/index.html
Trace on Line
An On-line repository for holding information enabling your goods to
be identified in the event they are lost or stolen and subsiquently
recovered. With crime increasing in alost every country in the world,
it makes sense to secure your possessions by using whatever crime
prevention measures are at your disposal, we have a tips page which
can offer some suggestions to you. In the UK the public are
encouraged to mark or engrave their possesions with their postcode
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problem comes if you move house of the goods are taken out of the
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trace on-line to be the On-line roadshow where items that are
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something has been stolen or lost they can be added to the database
in case they are recovered. Just enter details of the goods that you
wish to register and include an identifying code, manufactures number
anything which will help to identfy that particular item.
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