From: IntlArtCop@aol.com
Date sent: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 00:50:27 -0400 (EDT)
To: securma@xs4all.nl
Subject: Ethanol collections
You wrote that you are seeking:
<<anecdotal accounts you may have on the relative safety of ethanol
collections in purpose-built safe storage.>>
I am not a fire protection engineer so I don't pretend to speak with
authority on this matter but in response to the Writer's question
about ethanol collections, I once surveyed a museum with a large
ethanol collection, stored on open shelves in a warm climate. The
storage facility had no "standard" heating system but was heated by
gas fired heaters that came on on those rare occasions when
temperatures dropped below a given point. The gas heaters had a
pilot light. The museum was located in an area of seismic concern.
My observation to the client, with a recommendation to consult with a
fire protection expert, was that the combination of ethanol in glass
jars, on open shelves, in a seismic area, in a building with pilot
lights on gas heaters was an accident waiting to happen. Their
expert ultimately concurred. Since the Writer is from southern
California, perhaps this information is relevant to her situation and
should be passed on to the expert. I noticed that the Writer
indicated that they had retained an expert to speak on their behalf.
What this implies to me is that the expert was hired to make their
case to the code authority. My advice is that the museum needs to
get a qualified opinion from an expert whose job it is to advise them
on the true risk, not argue their position that the code authority is
wrong, unless he truly believes that to be fact. I'm not saying that
this is the case here, but I do see this happen often in museums
where the museum hires an expert to make their case, regardless of
the risk. The museum's obligation ought to be to do what is best, not
what is cheapest or convenient or within budget. The expert needs to
evaluate all of the internal conditions in the building like the
presence of open flame, the flash point of the chemicals in use, the
containers that are used, how they are shelved and the likelihood of
them falling off the shelves for any reason, and the ramifications of
such an accident's worse case scenario. Will such an accident burn
down the whole museum? It is not unprecedented for a museum to be
required to build remote storage for hazardous collections such as
nitrate-based films. It is also common for code authorities to
require high concentrations of flammable liquids to be stored on the
ground level. This is due to the fact that a fire in the basement is
dificult, at best, impossible, at worst, to fight effectively. I
would not want to go into a basement full of alcohol as a firefighter
and most won't. Sprinklers would help to some degree but not much,
since water is not an effective tool in fighting an alcohol fire in a
basement. The result could be the collapse of the entire museum
building into the basement.
Steve Keller, CPP
Steve Keller and Associates, Inc.
IntlArtCop@aol.com
-----------------------------------------------------------
(Daily Telegraph London)
Uproar in Umbria over plans for ancient Rome theme park
By Bruce Johnston in Rome
PROPOSALS for a 1,400-acre Disney-style theme park in unspoilt
countryside near Orvieto, in Umbria - Italy's "green heart" - are
facing stiff opposition from local people as well as VIPs and
foreign nationals with homes in the area. Presenting their project in
Milan, the organisers, an Italian company called Filmholding, said
their aim was a theme park that could also be used as film studios
re-creating "part of ancient Rome", including a 150,000-capacity
stadium. Filmholding is owned by the Luxembourg-registered Compagnie
d'Investments du Brabant, which represents unnamed French and other
investors, and says it is planning for a stock market quotation. The
company says the project, called Roma Vetus, will bring at least
5,000 jobs to a region recently hit by a series of earthquakes. But,
although it is not clear whether the company has obtained planning
permission, local criticism has been quick to surface. "What I fear
is that they will ruin this area, which is a paradise," said
Orvieto's mayor, Stefano Cimicchi. The Roma Vetus project aims to
attract millions of people and aims to have a special motorway exit
built to facilitate transport from Rome, an hour away. It will also
recommission a former German airfield to take private planes. The
Italian producer Mario Gallo is reported already to have booked Roma
Vetus in its role as a part-time film set to make a television
series. Models of ancient Roman buildings will be constructed at 70
per cent of their original size. Inside them there will be nothing
visibly modern. Electric lighting will be banned and in the
restaurants and hotels there will be no man-made materials such as
plastic pinafores, aluminium or Formica surfaces in sight. Behind the
scenes, however, modern effects and research will virtually make the
project, with the buildings actually constructed of glass fibre.
Carlo Rambaldi, the special effects genius who created the alien ET
for the film of that name, has been commissioned to recreate, minus
the cruelty and the real blood, effects such as Christians fighting
lions. The best experts on ancient Rome have been wheeled in to
advise on what it was really like. On their advice, the roofs of Roma
Vetus will be painted in gold. On a plateau and surrounded by
unspoilt arable land, part of the site, including the airfield, has
already been bought for £10 million. Negotiations are under way for
the purchase of a further package of land. Another £6 million has
been spent on consulting fees and it is expected that a total of £450
million will be invested to create the mock Eternal City. Mr Cimicchio
is hoping that local property owners will rally in opposition to the
project, just as they have come out against plans to build a giant
incinerator in the region. That project sparked protests from, among
other residents, Susanna Tamaro, Italy's biggest selling writer;
Stefano Rodota, a leading Leftist MP; and Luigi Malerba, one of
Italy's greatest living writers, who occupies a large medieval
property in the area. Others who have properties nearby include Enzo
Siciliano, the chairman of Italy's state broadcasting corporation,
RAI; the London City banker Count Riccardo Pavoncelli and his new
bride, Cosima von Bulow; and "four or five ambassadors to Italy", Mr
Cimicchi said. There are rumours that, behind the theme park idea,
lurks Giancarlo Parretti, the local boy made good who raided, took
over and later lost financial control of America's MGM studios. "All
I can say is that Parretti has had this passion to realise such a
project for years," a local official said. "He has now put together a
group of people to finance the project, and they have bought a parcel
of land; that is to say, they've put down a five per cent deposit."
Parretti, 55, saw his fortune soar after a period spent working his
way up in the hotel trade in Sicily. One of his long-standing
friends is Gianni De Michelis, the Socialist politician who is
appealing against a corruption conviction. Florio Fiorini, his former
partner in MGM, is now back in Milan after being released from a
Swiss jail a year ago. The nearest branch of the World Wide Fund for
Nature said: "The news is hardly cause for joy. If the land has been
purchased, there will also have had to be masses of permits, which
would make it all worse." "This news has hit us like lightning," said
Andrea Ranchino, a spokesman for the fund. "We shall have to examine
the matter thoroughly before deciding how to react."
-----------------------------------------------
Skelton Paintings Are Target of Second Heist
By NICHOLAS RICCARDI, Times Staff Writer
( Los Angeles Times)
On what could be the start of one of the area's more unusual crime
waves, burglars stole 10 Red Skelton paintings from a collector's
home in Riverside County six days after a lithograph of one of the
late comedian's self-portraits was stolen from a San Pedro art
gallery. The latest heist occurred about 7:30 p.m. Friday night at a
house in La Quinta, a community near Palm Springs. The burglars
apparently kicked in the front door, ignored several other artworks
of greater value and stole the paintings, which were reportedly
originals, Riverside County Sheriff's Sgt. Sal Pina said. "They
picked and chose what they wanted and left more valuable paintings
behind," Pina said. Authorities estimated the value of the stolen
paintings at $100,000, although some gallery owners were skeptical
that all 10 were, in fact, originals. Skelton, who died Sept. 17 at
age 84, concentrated on oil paintings of clowns later in his life,
producing more than 1,000 of them. Fifty-three of those paintings
were turned into lithographs that came with certificates of
authenticity and were signed upon sale. Thousands of copies sold for
as much as $995 before his death. Skelton sold his original paintings
for up to $80,000, and one year earned $2.5 million from the art
sales. After his death, the values of his paintings have spiked, some
art collectors say. "It's morbid but that's pretty much how the art
world works," said Aaron Duran, director of Addi Galleries in Las
Vegas, the largest seller of Skelton lithographs. One of those
lithographs vanished from Parkhurst Gallery in San Pedro on Oct. 17
as the sole sales clerk on duty was helping another customer. The
lithograph, titled "Big Red," portrayed Skelton in his trademark
clown suit. The thieves, described by clerk Austin Knight as a couple
with a baby stroller, left five other Skelton lithographs. The two
dozen or so galleries selling Skelton works have mainly heard about
the thefts from media reports. Riverside Sheriff's deputies Saturday
said they did not know precisely which paintings were stolen from the
La Quinta home but said that it could be related to the earlier
theft. Art experts say Skelton paintings probably will not be
remembered by history for either quality or price. But aficionados
say that the art works remain as inspiring as the comedian himself.
Duran, of the Las Vegas gallery, said that the pictures will be
difficult to sell on the black market because his gallery is
essentially the sole clearinghouse for Skelton works. But in the wake
of the new theft, he said he will take additional precautions. "We
probably should, we probably will," Duran said. Associated Press
contributed to this story.
------------------------------ ----------------
Duerer, Drawing a Hot Bath (Recovered Artwork Called `a Miracle')
By Jo Ann Lewis Special to The Washington Post Sunday, October 26,
1997; Page G09 The Washington Post
Of course, the curator from Bremen had never seen Albrecht Duerer's
famous pen-and-ink drawing "Frauenbad" ("Women's Bathhouse") before
the weird encounter at New York's Grand Hyatt Hotel. She was 2 years
old in 1945, when Soviet soldiers stumbled upon the Bremen Museum's
hiding place in a German castle and carried "Frauenbad" -- and
hundreds of other Old Master drawings -- back to the Soviet Union as
war loot. "It was a strange experience to see things I knew about but
had never seen -- especially in this little hotel room with this
little Japanese man and all these disguised U.S. customs people,"
said Anne Roever, Bremen's curator of drawings and prints. "I was
astonished when I saw the drawing, and how clear and bright the ink
was." Now back in Bremen, she recalled her role in last month's
Customs Service sting, which retrieved "Frauenbad" and several other
Bremen drawings from the international black market. "It's a miracle
they were in such good shape after all they've been through," she
says. And indeed it is, given their postwar odyssey to a museum in
Baku, Azerbaijan, from which they were stolen again in 1993, and then
to New York. On Sept. 9, they were confiscated in New York from a
Japanese businessman, Masatsuga Koga, who has since pleaded guilty to
trying to sell the twice-stolen drawings back to Bremen for $6
million. Experts place the value of "Frauenbad" at somewhere between
$2 million and priceless -- comparable works by Duerer are no longer
on the market. Dated 1496, this drawing takes a sinuously subversive
peek at six nude women busily washing themselves in a communal
bathhouse. It created a sensation at the time. Made just after
Duerer's return from Italy, it illustrates how he was influenced by
the humanist revolution in progress there. "It has a lot of
Renaissance influence in the rendering of the rounded human body in
three-dimensional space, which is no longer linear and Gothic,"
Roever said. "There is also a cultural aspect: A painter drawing the
female body from nude models was absolutely taboo at the time. It
didn't exist. If there were nudes, it was Adam and Eve. And even that
was rare. What Leonardo was in Italy for the Italian Renaissance,
Duerer was for the North." It is because this drawing is a microcosm
of how the Renaissance changed art in northern Europe that it is so
crucial to the history of art. Very human indeed is the sweet, nubile
figure kneeling unself-consciously at the center of this composition,
coyly looking straight at us, across five centuries. Wearing only a
turbanlike towel around her head, she is washing the back of the fat
and extremely ugly old woman who sits in profile beside her -- a
jarring juxtaposition of youth and old age. There are all shapes and
ages here, even some small children, playing among the wash buckets
and steaming kettles of water. "Frauenbad's" legendary status is clear
from the fact that even when it was feared lost after the war, it was
studied by scholars from a dark prewar photograph and reproduced in
major books and catalogues on Duerer. "That's why we found it so
strange that Mr. Koga never accepted our offer to pay him a 10 or 15
percent finder's fee based on his $6 million asking price," Roever
said. "Now he has nothing, and is arrested." Bremen and other German
museums with World War II losses have often paid finder's fees to
recover significant works, but have an agreement not to pay more than
10 to 15 percent of the market value. They were especially eager to
make such a deal to retrieve "Frauenbad," since it is also being
claimed by the government of Azerbaijan. It was only after Koga's
refusal to accept the finder's fee that Roever informed U.S. customs
officials last summer. She then agreed to meet with Koga in New York,
ostensibly to look at the originals and check their authenticity and
condition, implying that she might pay his price. It was at that
meeting in Koga's room at the Grand Hyatt that she and undercover
customs agents carried out their sting. Now that the drawing has been
found, Roever is concerned about the future of "Frauenbad," which
awaits the outcome of the trials of both Koga and an Azerbaijani
attorney who was also arrested early this month and charged in the
same conspiracy. "I don't know what will happen now, because the
museum in Baku claims these drawings were stolen from them, too,"
Roever said. "The U.S. courts will have to decide who are the owners.
Unfortunately, that's the next step. I get very angry when I think
that we've finally found them, and that they might end up in Baku."
(c) Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company
-------------
Fresh tremors dash Assisi church hopes
By Bruce Johnston in Rome
FRIARS postponed the reopening of Assisi's lower church of St
Francis yesterday and instead made do with a Mass in the crypt, amid
warnings of new collapses in the upper church. "We did everything we
could to open the basilica," Fr Nicola Giandomenico of the Franciscan
community said. "But the latest findings by the experts deceived our
hopes. The risk of more collapses is too high." A month ago two
earthquakes which were followed by 3,000 other quakes and aftershocks
struck the town and surrounding region, causing part of the upper
church's frescoed ceiling to cave in, killing four. The general toll
now stands at £1 billion in damage to 1,150 monuments and thousands of
other buildings. Almost 10,000 houses have been declared unsafe, and
40,000 people made homeless. The seismic activity, after dying down
last week, returned to the area at the weekend, when one of a number
of shocks registered 4.3 on the Richter Scale. Yesterday morning 300
people heard Mass in the crypt of the lower church, which they reached
by a separate entrance from outside. "We are starting at the
foundations on a road of spiritual renewal and material
reconstruction," Fr Giulio Perrettoni, the friary's custodian, told
his congregation. The decision to move the Mass to the crypt housing
the remains of Italy's patron saint came after technicians gave
warning on Saturday - the second alarm in five days - about the state
of the upper church ceiling. "There is a progressive, gradual
worsening of the condition, because the [ceiling] vaults are now
deprived of consistency," said Prof Antonio Paolucci, the Fine Arts
Superintendent for Florence who is leading the restoration of the
Franciscan complex. "And with every day the risk of further collapses
grows." Costantino Centroni, the Fine Arts Superintendent for Umbria,
said: "We are very, very worried." Mr Centroni said that closer
inspection from a new catwalk running from the rose window above the
ceiling vaults had discovered "a spider's web of cracks which is
getting bigger before our eyes". He said: "We expected to find the
vaults in better condition. The sensors applied to the vaults are
telling us that they have undergone and are continually undergoing
further subsidence. We are unable to determine whether they [the
cracks] have been caused by old breakages, or by the continuing
vibrations of the ground." Mr Centroni said that as a result of the
new dangers, restoration plans were being changed to make the
consolidation of the ceiling the main priority.
----------------------------------
latest information on World Heritage
From: owner-whnews@unesco.org
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 19:10:01 +0100
Contents
News:
* ELEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF STATES PARTIES, 27-28
OCTOBER 1997 * FIRES IN UJUNG KULON NATIONAL PARK,
INDONESIA * NEW RESTORED MEDRESSEE IN BUKHARA, UZBEKISTAN
OPENS 18 OCTOBER
* SERIES OF FIVE COINS REPRESENTING WORLD HERITAGE SITES
LAUNCHED AT UNESCO
For the latest information on World Heritage, consult the UNESCO World
Heritage Centre WWW pages at http://www.unesco.org/whc/welcome.htm .
The printed Newsletter is available at:
http://www.unesco.org/whc/news/index-en.htm.
WHNEWS is provided by the World Heritage Centre, the Secretariat for
the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and
Natural Heritage, as a forum for the exchange of information on
matters relating to the World Heritage. The opinions expressed do not
necessarily represent those of the World Heritage Centre, UNESCO, or
the World Heritage Committee.
-----------------------------------------------------------
SmokeCloak:
A week ago the subscribers of the Museum Security Mailinglist
received information about the SmokeCloak device. Some subscribers
showed doubts about the possibility to use this device in an
environment with vulnerable objects. Those comments have been
forwarded to the producer with a request to send additional more
specified information. The only answer I received almost immediately
from the 'Out of Site' company was an e-mail request to call them
(which I did not). In stead I sent them a second e-mail asking for
more information. No result this far. The third e-mail will reach
them in moments. Their silence seems to be a confirmation of David
Tremain's opinion that SmokeCloak has several drawbacks for museums,
libraries, archives, and galleries.
I will keep you informed.
Ton Cremers
----------------------------------------------------
Brigham Young University Says No to Rodin Nudes
Associated Press
PROVO, Utah, -Mormon Church-owned Brigham Young University has pulled
four nudes from an exhibit of works by the renowned French sculptor
Auguste Rodin, including his famous "The Kiss." "We have felt that
the nature of those works are such that the viewer will be
concentrating on them in a way that is not good for us," said
Campbell Gray, director of the BYU Museum of Art. The decision
surprised the organizers of the traveling exhibit titled "The Hands
of Rodin: A Tribute to B. Gerald Cantor." Cantor, who died last
year, was a leading collector of the works of the 19th-century artist
perhaps best known for his sculpture "The Thinker." "We haven't had
any other institutions that felt the need to not exhibit any pieces
by Rodin," said Rachael Blackburn, curator of exhibits of the Iris
and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation. But the foundation accepts "what
they feel they need to do," she said. Gray said museum and
university officials discussed the issue for two months before
deciding that the four works would be censored. Rodin's sculpture
"The Kiss" shows a man and woman, both nude, in an embrace. While
considered one of Rodin's most powerful, and popular, works, Gray
believes it would disrupt the exhibit and offend some viewers.
Another nude sculpture pulled is "Saint John the Baptist Preaching,"
which is considered a depiction of his mortality. "Everyone knows the
prophet is mortal," Gray said. "But this conception of prophet is
made less than what we would regard as reverent or honorable."
(c) Copyright 1997 The Associated Press
---------------------
(Museum-L)
From: Richard Grenyer <r.grenyer@NHM.AC.UK>
Subject: Theft of Biological/Palaeontological Specimens
As a "stab-in-the-dark" attempt to get some information for a
research project, I have subscribed to the list with one single
question to ask: Have any list subscribers examples of the theft of
biological/fossil specimens from within an actual museum collection
(rather than loaned or display material) and if so, what fault in
the security measures was to blame (if any).
Hello Richard,
messages about stolen shells can be found at:
http://museum-security.org/artcrime2.html
http://museum-security.org/artcrime10.html
http://museum-security.org/artcrime11.html
http://museum-security.org/artcrime12.html
There is also a message about a stolen Narwhal tusk from a Iowan
museum (read below) Hope this is some help.
Ton Cremers
From: "B. Scherting" <schertng@BLUE.WEEG.UIOWA.EDU>
Organization: The University of Iowa
Subject: Stolen Narwhal Tusk
Seeking advise regarding appropriate agencies to notify or alert to
the theft of a 6' Narwhal tusk from the University of Iowa, Museum of
Natural History, on 8/11/97.
bruce-scherting@uiowa.edu
------------------------
Historic Cape Hatteras Lighthouse to be Moved (National Park)
BUXTON, N.C. (Reuters) - Plans to save the historic Cape Hatteras
lighthouse will move forward after the U.S. Senate approved $2
million to help save the country's tallest brick lighthouse from the
encroaching Atlantic Ocean, officials said Wednesday. ``We are glad
that Congress has seen fit to support the effort,'' Robert Woody,
chief of planning for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, told
Reuters. ``We look forward to solving the problem in the next couple
years so that it won't be an issue for the next 100 years.'' The
Senate approved the appropriation Tuesday after the House approved
it last week. President Clinton is expected to sign the federal
budget soon. The funding will allow National Parks Service officials
to begin a project to relocate the historic 198-foot tower, which has
languished for more than two decades. Since 1970, the U.S. government
has spent more than $2 million to protect the black and white striped
landmark. Shoreline erosion has brought the ocean to within 120 feet
of its base and scientists say it stands an 80 percent chance of
being toppled in a direct hit by a strong hurricane. In 1988, the
National Academy of Sciences recommended moving the lighthouse about
2,900 feet to the southwest. The new location would put it about
1,600 feet from the shoreline, roughly the same distance it was when
it was completed in 1870. Parks officials said planning had already
begun for the move, which was expected to take place in May 1999.
President Clinton was expected to include the remaining $10 million
needed for the project in his 1999 budget. The move was expected to
protect the lighthouse from the ocean for at least a century,
officials said.
Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited.
---------------------------
Joan of Arc birthplace 'desecrated' with EU aid
By Susannah Herbert in Paris
THE ancient birthplace of Joan of Arc, the 15th-century virgin
warrior burnt at the stake by the English, has been transformed into
a pebble-dashed suburban villa by an overzealous restoration
programme - courtesy of the European Union. As part of a £1.2 million
development scheme, half funded from Brussels, the local council has
covered up the cottage's stone walls with bilious yellow limewash,
smartened up the wooden roof, hiding its beam-ends, chopped down a
couple of towering trees and diverted a nearby stream. The effect,
according to the residents of the tiny Lorraine hamlet of
Domrémy-la-Pucelle, is "quite horrible and completely
inappropriate". Pilgrims to the village, a shrine for French patriots
which receives 60,000 visitors every year, have been quick to agree,
accusing the authorities of "desecration". Instead of discovering a
rustic idyll fit to inspire holy and patriotic thoughts in the breast
of an imaginative teenage shepherdess, pilgrims say the new-look
cottage is a monument to 20th-century brutalism. "It makes me want to
go to war, like Joan did - but against the architect," said one
disappointed tourist yesterday. Le Figaro newspaper has compared the
building to a buttered wedge of bread - and other critics have been
still more virulent. "I'd be surprised if Joan of Arc would have been
happy to see her home turned into a council house lookalike," one
pilgrim commented acidly in the visitors' book. Another wrote: "Joan
has been martyred for the second time!" The manager of the
neighbouring souvenir shop, who has been fielding protests since the
renovation started this summer, said: "Even before buying a postcard,
my customers ask me, 'Why have they used yellow pebble-dash?' I tell
them that I'm neither the architect in charge of historic monuments
nor the council. The mayor and the locals have nothing to do with
this - the site hasn't belonged to them for years." Rather than
admitting its error, the Vosges local council is now accusing
protesters of "over-reacting" to the first stage of a comprehensive
redevelopment which will eventually feature a modern audio-visual
centre next to the house and bring even more visitors to the village.
Claiming that the girl summoned by God to lead the French into
battle against the occupying English would have been "delighted" with
his work, François Blanc, the architect responsible, said yesterday:
"It's all historically authentic. I don't understand what the fuss is
about. The house was in a terrible condition, with leaking walls and
it needed a lot of work. "It's not yellow pebble-dash at all. I used
a kind of whitewash which was used at the time, but I didn't want it
to look too white. I aimed at getting a kind of ochre colour to give
a luminous effect." Too luminous perhaps? "Not at all. It's exactly
as it should be. Anyway, it's not my problem if people don't
understand. I'm paid to do my job, not to go round explaining things.
History will be my judge. The colour will age beautifully."
---------------------------------------
(ICOM-L)
From: Dan Matei <dan@CIMEC.SFOS.RO>
Subject: Robbery at CIMEC
Friends
On Sunday 26th of October 1997, late at night, CIMEC - The
Information Centre for Culture and Heritage, a public institution
under the Ministry of Culture maintaining the national databases for
the Romanian cultural heritage was robbed. The thieves entered by
cutting the lock of an escape iron door and by breaking the exterior
window (CIMEC is situated at the ground floor of the Free Press
House). Eight Pentium personal computers - more than a third of the
computers of the institution - the newest and most powerful, the
Internet server of CIMEC included, together with a telefax Minolta,
other electronic equipment - were stolen from six rooms. The local
and exterior data networks were savagely destroyed and the cables
dismantled. The paper archive and the furniture were vandalised. 50
CD-ROMs with original programmes were taken away. The restoration of
what remained from the computer network, the recovering of the
destroyed applications and programmes, the Web pages and databases
will take many weeks of hard work. The damage is the equivalent of
the budget of CIMEC for three months. It is a severe lost for an
institution with very modest financial resources, the more that the
whole activity of CIMEC relies on computers. By the stolen of the
Internet server, the main electronic resource for the Romanian
cultural heritage (http://cimec.sfos.ro), visited by 1,500 persons
monthly, is disconnected for an uncertain period. The Police is
investigating the case. Without financial help, CIMEC will not be
able to recover soon. The electronic archive of the Romanian cultural
heritage is in danger. We need the support of all cultural
institutions and companies.
Dan Matei, director
-------------------------------
(ICOM-L)
From: Peter Rauch <anamaria@GRINNELL.BERKELEY.EDU>
Subject: Re: Robbery at CIMEC
On Thu, 30 Oct 1997, Dan Matei wrote:
> Eight Pentium personal computers - more than a third of the
> computers of the institution - the newest and most powerful, the
> Internet server of CIMEC included, together with a telefax Minolta,
> other electronic equipment - were stolen from six rooms. The local
> and exterior data networks were savagely destroyed and the cables
> dismantled. The paper archive and the furniture were vandalised.
> 50 CD-ROMs with original programmes were taken away. The restoration
> of what remained from the computer network, the recovering of the
> destroyed applications and programmes, the Web pages and databases
> will take many weeks of hard work.
The issue of protection of the informatics infrastructure of an
organization is an old one, and in businesses that have a long
tradition with the use of "computer centers", many "EDP auditing" and
security protocols are well-understood and usually practiced. Since
the advent of the proliferation of personal (and departmental and
desktop business) computing, however, the attention given by the many
newcomers to computing _operations_ to system and resource integrity,
and to protection from failures, accidents, vandalism, industrial
espionage, etc., has been mostly lacking, I believe. Ask any number
of installations what their "backup/recovery" and "security" and
"archiving" and other such operational protocols are, and if they are
being diligently practiced, and you'll usually be appalled. This is a
cost of doing business in e-world that is seldom being adequatedly
budgetted for, and sooner or later, many will be stung by the false
economy. I have no idea what the particular situation was/is with
respect to CIMEC, and do not wish to imply _anything_ wrt their
operations. I only make the above observations as an attempt to alert
every installation/business that _their_ operations very possibly
require some serious auditing to determine how "safe" their
information equity is. The equipment is easily replaceable (with some
funds). The information lost can be irreplaceable, and will often
have a value of hundreds or thousands or more times the physical
installation replacement cost. Where are your backup
tapes/cartridges/disks stored (Off-site? No!? Uh oh). When did you
last capture an image of your business's information wealth (last
night? No!? tsch, tschh).
Peter
---------------------------------
Defunct S.F. Gallery Under Probe
Ex-owners ripped off artists, police suspect
Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer
SAN FRANCISCO
The former operators of a now- defunct San Francisco gallery are
suspected of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from artists,
collectors and other galleries by selling consigned artwork but
never paying the original owners. No charges have been filed, but the
district attorney's special prosecution unit has initiated a criminal
probe of Harcourts Gallery, Inc., which claimed at one time to be
``one of San Francisco's premier galleries.'' Last month, authorities
seized bank records of Fred Banks and his wife, Jo Rogers, onetime
owners of Harcourts and the accounting firm of Rogers & Associates.
Rogers is also known as Joanne Van Weezel and Joanne Ordman.
According to court documents, the couple has been involved since
1988 in a grand theft scheme in which dozens of works would be sold,
but the money from the sale would not be given to the original owner
or artist. If clients complained, ``they were either told that their
works had not been sold, or that there was interest by prospective
purchasers in their works, or that the works had been sold, but the
buyer was either making payments or was a slow payer,'' the search
warrant notes. The reported victims range from local artists Bruce
Beasley and John Battenberg to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. ``We
were systematically deceived,'' said Will South, research curator for
the state's museum, which lost more than $100,000 stemming from a
painting that he said was sold without compensation. ``From our point
of view, we were completely defrauded.'' Neither Banks nor Rogers
could be reached for comment. But in an interview with prosecutors,
Fred Banks' brother, Steve, who was vice president of the gallery,
acknowledged that ``no doubt there were times'' when people were not
told that a sale had taken place when it had. Banks told prosecutors
the business never recovered after the October 1989 earthquake. Fred
Banks purchased the Harcourts Gallery in 1968. It emphasized
Impressionist, post-Impressionist and Modern works of art. In 1989,
it boasted a staff of dozen. Although the gallery went out of
business and filed for Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy last year,
court documents allege the scheme continues to the present. At the
time of the July 2, 1996, bankruptcy filing, 52 people who had been
clients said they were not paid or only partially paid. ``I got
burned,'' said artist Nancy Genn of Berkeley. Genn said the gallery
put on its last show in the spring of 1996 involving 18 of her pieces
in mixed media. She said she was shortchanged at least $8,000 for
paintings that were sold. ``It was very awkward for me,'' she said.
``A lot of people who bought works I knew personally. I never wanted
them to know that I didn't get the money.'' The art involved in the
case included works by Impressionists Mary Cassatt, Pierre Auguste
Renoir and other well-known artists. The Utah Museum of Fine Arts,
which is affiliated with the University of Utah, (entrusted
``Untitled'' Girl with a Red Neckerchief) by Federico Zandomeneghi to
the gallery in December 1993. In March 1995, research curator South
contacted the gallery and was led to believe that the pastel was
still at the gallery. But the painting had actually been sold in June
1994 to David Camitt Ltd. in London for $109,500. ``We can ill-afford
to have those sorts of things happen,'' South said. ``It's an
embarrassment.'' He said the reputation of the Harcourts gallery was
impressive, as was the facility itself, standing at 460 Bush Street,
at the entrance to Chinatown. ``It was a two-story building, they had
a vault, shiny, blonde hardwood floors,'' he said. ``I was always
impressed by how sizable Harcourts was.'' A local collector, Dr. John
McCusky, said he entrusted a print of his for sale and he got a piece
in exchange. He said he was still owed $1,000, and he kept pestering
people in the gallery to no avail. ``I was causing quite a stink,''
he said, adding that other galleries were aware of the financial
troubles. ``Everyone in the art world knew what was going on.''
Lawrence Chew, an attorney who had been handling ``collection
matters'' for Harcourts, said he no longer represents the gallery
and declined to comment. Leslie Kane, who handled the company's
liquidation as well as Fred Banks' bankruptcy, said she now has no
involvement in the case and declined to comment.
-----------------------------------
DJ allegedly incites vandalism
CASTRO VALLEY, Calif., Oct. 28 (UPI) _ A radio disc jockey faces
possible vandalism charges for allegedly inciting dozens of young
people to vandalize a sculpture with ketchup, eggs and toilet paper.
Police say KYLD radio's Joseph Ray Lopez broadcast live from the
''Castro Valley Welcome'' sign-sculpture Monday and promised to pay
fines for anyone cited for vandalizing it. Witnesses told police
that Lopez promised $100 to anyone sticking station decals on the
$106,000 sculpture, designed by Washington artist Sheila Klein. No
permanent damage was done, and the only other arrest was of a
jaywalker. Lopez was arrested after the incident on a warrant out of
Santa Clara County for failure to appear in court on charges stemming
from another broadcast. He was being held on $10,000 bail. San Jose
police say he had promised $94 to the first person who came to his
radio van at the San Jose International Airport with one of the
airport's toilet seats. Sheriff's officials were attempting to get
tapes of Monday's broadcast to determine whether to seek similar
charges. Alameda officials have logged hundreds of protest calls
since the sculpure went up last month. A town hall meeting was
scheduled for tonight. County Supervisor Mary King told the Contra
Costa Times that even though the sculpture looks like a sign, it was
commissioned as a piece of artwork. King says, ''A lot of people
don't like Picasso, but they wouldn't be allowed to go to the
Metropolitan and egg his work.'' _-
Copyright 1997 by United Press International.
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