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Messages September 6 - 13, 1997
- Specialists at odds over dealing for art
- Restitution for looted art is discussed
- B'nai B'rith unit to seek Jewish art
- Project Seeks to Track Works Seized by Nazis
- Museum attorney meets with US prosecutor
- Moderator's message
- Search will widen for art looted by Nazis
- Art collector sent to prison for theft
- Steven R. Keller's website has moved to new WWW addres
- Art and terrorism
- 100 Endangered Cultural Sites Named
- Man charged in New York with $10 million art theft
- Loans against Picassos
- Clinton Portrait Stolen in Arkansas
- Clinton Portrait Returned to Police
- Peru fire threatens Inca citadel Machu Picchu
- Lost City of Incas closed to tourists after brush fire
- Youngworth is being harassed, lawyer says (Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum)
- Peru fire rages out of control around Inca citadel
- Church thieves should have hands cut off, says rector
- Jewish Group To Form Unit On Looted Art
- Bremen's stolen Rembrandt and Dürer turn up in US
- 2 men in Gardner deal set to meet/Time to deliver, observers say
- Artist's Heirs Sue Smithsonian, Ownership of Paintings by William
Johnson Challenged
- Russia Returns Looted Wartime Booty
- US attorney demands proof on stolen art (Isabella Stewart Gardner)
- Man, 60, charged in effort to sell stolen artwork
- Release, reward would be an insult, victim's kin says (Isabella Stewart Gardner)
- Earlier tipster makes his pitch on stolen art (Isabella Stewart Gardner)
- UNESCO sounds alarm over Venezuela heritage site (Canaima National Park)
Specialists at odds over dealing for art
By Patricia Nealon, Globe Staff, 09/05/97
On one thing Thomas Hoving and Constance Lowenthal, art experts,
agree: Never pay ransom to thieves to recover stolen art. But the
question becomes more complicated when investigators and victims
encounter someone who didn't steal the art, but may know where it is
- and wants to bargain for its return. Should officials make a deal?
That depends on whom you ask. Hoving, the former head of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York who in 1971 refused to pay off
terrorists who said they planted bombs in the museum's bathrooms,
says no. In the case of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum which is
reportedly negotiating the return of 13 masterpieces stolen in 1990 -
Hoving is particularly adamant. William P. Youngworth III, a Randolph
art dealer, and noted art thief Myles J. Connor Jr. say they have
inside information about the missing Gardner paintings, including
Rembrandt's only seascape, ''The Storm on the Sea of Galilee,'' and
one of only three dozen paintings by Vermeer. Both men say they can
help investigators find the art - for a price. Youngworth wants
immunity from prosecution, the $5 million reward, and Connor's
freedom. To Hoving, Youngworth and Connor don't deserve a deal. Both
men were in prison when the Gardner paintings were stolen, but
''these guys obviously engineered the original theft,'' Hoving said.
Even if Connor and Youngworth were not involved in the crime, many
believe they still should not be able to use any information they
have about the stolen works as leverage. ''To let a thug, a thief,
out of prison because he helped you get a painting back, I have
serious reservations about that,'' said Milton Esterow, editor and
publisher of ArtNews magazine and author of a history of art theft.
''I think it's wrong,'' he said. ''Even if it's a Vermeer.'' The
stepped-up negotiations for the Gardner art have been fueled in part
by Boston Herald reporter Tom Mashberg. In a front-page story,
Mashberg said he got a glimpse of what may be the stolen Rembrandt in
a darkened warehouse last month. His report has ignited a moral
debate that pits convicted criminals holding masterpieces hostage
against their owners who simply want the paintings back - whatever
the price. Lowenthal, executive director of the International
Foundation for Art Research in New York, said making a deal ''is very
tempting, like paying money to get your baby back. But paying ransom
to art thieves only encourages more art theft.'' Still, Lowenthal,
whose agency founded a registry of stolen art in the 1970s, and
others see a distinction between art thieves who peddle stolen wares
and those who know the location of the loot. Dealing with the latter,
they say, may be distasteful, but is ethical. ''I think that people
who lead to the safe return of the art are entitled to some of the
reward, depending on the condition of the art,'' said Lowenthal.
''They may not be of unblemished character, but that would not
disqualify them from collecting if everything else was in order.''
Those familiar with the art world say it's no secret that insurance
companies often sanction, if not promote, deals to return stolen art.
The Gardner paintings were not insured. But it has happened in other
cases, notably the return of a Winslow Homer painting stolen from the
Malden Public Library in 1976. Charles Moore, a Brockton private
investigator, was hired by the company that insured the painting.
Moore, who said he has helped recover more than $20 million in stolen
art and antiquities, found the man who held the painting, then did
business. ''He was looking for $200,000,'' Moore said of his first
art recovery case. ''I got him down to $21,500.'' The painting was
insured for $250,000, although it was worth much more. The painting,
stuffed in a brown paper bag, was brought to the entrance of the
Government Center subway station in downtown Boston. It was
authenticated by its last restorer, and the cash was handed over.
''He counted it right in front of everybody,'' said Moore. ''Then he
went on his way.'' The man was later prosecuted for receiving stolen
property, as part of an unrelated case, Moore said. While insurance
companies, private investigators and curators may be guided by the
return of their artwork, prosecutors and investigators want to see
justice done. ''And the concerns and interests of those parties may
not necessarily coincide,'' said Anna Kisluk, director of the Art
Loss Register in New York, which has a worldwide data bank of 100,000
stolen works of art. Joseph F. Savage Jr., a former federal
prosecutor who headed the same team that is dealing with Connor and
Youngworth, described a stark dynamic, akin to ''the pure desire of
the parents of a kidnapped kid to get the kid back. ''The difficult
position for the US attorney and the FBI is to sort of blend those
two inconsistent, but important values, into a single resolution,''
Savage said. ''They have to find a way to deal with people that
doesn't encourage theft, while at the same time maximizing the
chances of getting the stolen stuff back. ''I'm sure they feel like
the seascape in Rembrandt's painting: somewhere between a rock and a
hard place.''
This story ran on page B01 of the Boston Globe on
09/05/97. c Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.
--------------------------------------
Restitution for looted art is discussed
By David Goldstein
INQUIRER WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- On Feb. 2, 1942, a truck driven by Nazi soldiers pulled
away from a warehouse in Berlin carrying a cache of paintings that
included 41 oils by the German expressionist Max Pechstein. Then they
vanished. For more than a half-century, Hans Heymann has been
searching for them. They were the core of his father's art
collection, he said, left behind when the Heymanns fled after Adolf
Hitler rose to power and ``it became clear it was going to be very
unhealthy to stay.'' Like so many other works of art owned by
European Jews during the Nazi era, the paintings were seized. Some
were sold or destroyed. The fates of many others were unknown --
until recently. More and more famous artworks are embarrassingly
turning up in prominent museums and private collections. Works by
Picasso, Degas and Monet have recently become the source of tension
between their current owners and the heirs of Jewish collectors from
whom they were taken --many of whom perished in the Holocaust. And as
the paintings' cloudy history becomes revealed, troubling questions
are being asked about the legal and moral implications over the
ownership of looted art. Amid the splendor of a Washington ballroom
in the heart of Embassy Row, an international group of historians,
curators, lawyers and lawmakers met yesterday to discuss the issues
surrounding restitution to the victims of Nazi plundering. The
experts talked about imposing a new ethical ``yardstick'' to assure
that ownership of an artwork is scrupulously verified before
purchase. ``The hear-no-evil, see-no-evil dilemma is really at the
heart of it,'' said Gary Vikan, director of the Walters Art Gallery
in Baltimore. Members of Congress talked of enacting laws to let
people sue foreign nationals in federal court. And everyone talked of
heeding an overriding moral imperative to compensate a rapidly
vanishing generation of survivors. ``Art theft from the Holocaust is
one of the few things from the Holocaust that we can make right,''
said Constance Lowenthal of the International Federation of Art
Research. ``Art has a tendency to survive many calamities because it
is prized.'' The conference was sponsored by Washington's National
Jewish Museum. Through its Holocaust Art Restitution Project, the
museum is trying to develop a database for locating art stolen by the
Nazis from Jewish collections in Europe. It is no easy task. Besides
resistance from museums and galleries that are protective of their
collections, the trail of ownership is often shrouded in World War II
intrigue. ``You are dealing with shadowy areas and mysterious
persons,'' said Thomas Kline, a Washington lawyer involved in
recovering lost art. ``Putting a case together is difficult.''
Sometimes heirs have proof for their claims, like the shipping
documents Heymann has from the truck drivers who hauled away his
father's collection to Nazi offices. Sometimes heirs just have
yellowed photos of a painting above the mantle. And sometimes, all
they have are memories. Scholars say the Nazis stole vast amounts of
Europe's art treasures, with the goal of building a huge museum in
Hitler's hometown of Linz, Austria. They estimate that the lost
artworks number in the tens of thousands. Many may have been
destroyed; others were spirited away by Soviet troops, smuggled onto
the black market, and into the hands of private collectors and
museums. ``They could be anywhere,'' said Hector Feliciano, author of
The Lost Museum, a book that detailed how the Nazis plundered
European art. It was Feliciano's research that brought to light the
likelihood that a 1921 Picasso, Head of a Woman, hanging in the
Rennes Fine Arts Museum in Rennes, France, was looted from a French
Jewish collector. It may soon be returned to his heirs.
In this country, a Degas landscape remains in storage at the Art
Institute of Chicago while pharmaceutical titan Daniel C. Searle, a
benefactor who purchased it for the museum, tussles over ownership
with the heirs of Dutch Jews who died in the concentration camps.
Searle has said he checked to make sure he had clear title to the
painting, but he apparently counted on the art institute to do that.
Testimony in the case shows that the curators apparently ignored or
otherwise disregarded evidence that the painting had been Nazi
plunder. Simon Goodman, grandson of the Degas' wartime owner, is
involved in several claims to recover art from his grandfather's
collection. ``The paintings,'' Goodman said, ``are all that is left
of my family.''
-------------------------------
B'nai B'rith unit to seek Jewish art
By Maureen Goggin, Globe Staff, 09/05/97
WASHINGTON - A foundation designed to serve as a clearinghouse to
track artwork stolen from Jewish victims of the Holocaust was set up
yesterday by the National Jewish Museum of B'nai B'rith.
The Holocaust Art Restitution Project will gather information to
create a ''finder's guide'' to help survivors trace and reclaim
paintings and other art confiscated by the Nazis during World War II,
said Ori Z. Soltes, director of the museum. Undersecretary of State
Stuart Eizenstat, who has been leading the efforts by the Clinton
administration to reclaim gold from Switzerland and other countries
that had been looted by the Nazis, noted that until recently,
''comparatively little had been said about the loss of cultural
treasures'' during World War II. He called the efforts to provide
restitution to Holocaust victims ''a search for truth, not just for
money.'' ''It's about our generation taking responsibility to do what
good we can to address the injustices of the past and to prevent ...
injustices in the future,'' said Eizenstat, one of the panelists at a
conference to discuss the implications of the stolen art. Funding and
the clearinghouse's status as a charitable foundation are still not
determined, Soltes said. Yesterday's conference, sponsored by the
National Jewish Museum, included researchers, lawyers, and
representatives of French and US museums. Constance Lowenthal of the
International Federation of Art Research applauded the project and
said: ''Art theft from the Holocaust is one of the few things from
the Holocaust that we can make right.''
This story ran on page A03 of the Boston Globe on 09/05/97. c
Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.
---------------------------
Project Seeks to Track Works Seized by Nazis
By Jacqueline Trescott
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 5, 1997; Page D07
The Washington Post
International attention is being focused on another poignant chapter
of Nazi tyranny --the efforts of victims to reclaim the works of
Monet, Degas, Picasso and other artists that were stolen from their
families. In recent years the movement to regain property, such as
gold in Swiss banks and dormant bank accounts, has galvanized
diplomats, human rights activists and, in particular, the descendants
of both Jewish and non-Jewish victims. Now the art world, motivated
by international pressure and moral responsibility, is accelerating
its efforts to sift through the issues surrounding thefts committed
50 years ago. Yesterday, in conjunction with a four-hour panel
discussion on cultural losses during World War II, Washington's B'nai
B'rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum announced the formation of an
effort to document the fates of seized cultural items and assist
historians, students and families in their searches for them. The
Holocaust Art Restitution Project (HARP) intends to deal with the
many aspects of reclamation. "Gold is far from the only commodity
that sits in questionably appropriate hands. Gradually the issue of
art has entered the consciousness of the world public," said Ori
Z. Soltes, director of the National Jewish Museum. The new
clearinghouse, he said, will develop a series of databases that will
focus on lost Jewish collections. Behind the panel yesterday hung
three documentary photographs of wealth pilfered during the war. One
showed Adolph Hitler choosing objects for a museum in Austria that
never opened. The Nazis removed art from private and public
collections and, although some works were destroyed, others ended up
in private hands and in state museums. Soltes said that as much as a
fifth of the world's art treasure was looted by the Nazis. Programs
to identify the rightful owners were carried out after the war but
had largely evaporated by the early 1960s, the panelists said.
"Restitution was not perfect nor complete," said Lynn Nicholas, one
of the field's authorities and the author of "The Rape of Europa: The
Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World
War." Over the years museums and other art organizations have
developed systems designed to spot stolen work. But recently the
ownership of a Claude Monet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was
challenged after a German filed a claim saying the painting was taken
from a bank vault in Berlin in 1945. The Metropolitan has said it
researched the painting and checked with the Art Loss Register. As
with many other issues of the Holocaust era, many in the older
generation were reluctant to talk about the lives and fortunes lost.
"My father couldn't talk about it," said Simon Goodman, whose family
is suing the current owner of "Landscape With Smokestacks" by Degas,
saying that it was taken from their grandfather. Goodman attended
yesterday's meeting and applauded the formation of the project.
"Information is at the crux of the problem," he said. Bringing this
unfinished business to closure, said Undersecretary of State Stuart
Eizenstat, is the responsibility of the current generation. "This
whole issue, now including art, is a search for truth, not just
money," he said.
Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company
-----------------------------
Museum attorney meets with US prosecutor
By Judy Rakowsky, Globe Staff, 09/05/97
The lawyer named by the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum to negotiate
the possible return of masterpieces stolen in 1990 met yesterday for
more than two hours with Assistant US Attorney Brien T. O'Connor, who
is handling the case. Neither O'Connor nor museum lawyer Rudolph F.
Pierce would comment on the afternoon meeting at the museum. The two
hold the keys to whether a $5 million reward and leniency in the
criminal-justice system are accorded to the convicted criminals who
say they can deliver the 13 stolen artworks, estimated to be worth
more than $200 million. But Joan Norris, Gardner marketing director,
said, ''The museum is committed to following every lead and will
continue to do so on this one even in full glare of the public eye.''
She added, ''All parties are eager to move forward.'' Meanwhile, one
of those criminals, convicted art thief Myles J. Connor Jr., arrived
back in the area yesterday on a request filed by federal prosecutors
last week in hopes he will aid in the recovery of the art, US
marshals confirmed. Connor is being held at a federal detention
center in Rhode Island, said sources. Chief Deputy US Marshal Tim
Bane said Connor's weeklong trip might not seem like the fastest way
to travel, but it was routine and not especially slow. Connor's
lawyer Martin Leppo said he was anxious to meet with his client, and
said he does not know how soon Connor will be meeting with federal
authorities. Leppo said before he lets Connor meet with authorities
he wants to resolve ground rules in a meeting with O'Connor. Leppo
said he wants to make sure that, if Connor accepts any of the $5
million reward for the return of the paintings, he does not hinder
his chances to persuade a judge to drop the remaining three years of
his prison term. The other key player in current negotiations,
William P. Youngworth III, has said that the reward money, an amnesty
on criminal charges pending against him in Norfolk County and
Connor's release from prison are all critical to any arrangement to
return the artworks. Youngworth is scheduled to appear at 9 a.m.
today in Norfolk Superior Court. Judge Elizabeth Butler issued an
order last Friday for Youngworth to appear in court to ensure that he
plans to make upcoming court dates on criminal charges that he had a
stolen van on his Randolph property illegally possessed ammunition,
and is a habitual offender. A trial on those charges is planned for
later this month for Youngworth, 38, a Randolph antiques dealer
who has been in New York for the past two weeks. Youngworth appeared
on the ABC news show ''Nightline'' Wednesday night and said he
believes he is the only person who can arrange the return of the art.
Charles Rankin of Boston, a criminal defense lawyer, said yesterday
Youngworth has hired him to deal with any federal charges that might
be filed against him relating to the missing art. ''It seems like the
guy needs some advice,'' said Rankin, who plans to meet Youngworth
today, Ric Kahn of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
This story ran on page B B9 09 of the Boston Globe
on 09/05/97. c Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper
Company.
-----------------------------
Moderator's message:
This far I have been updating the Museum Security Website two or
three times a week. For time management reasons starting this week
the website will be updated 'only' once a week.
Ton Cremers
-----------------------
(Miami Herald)
Search will widen for art looted by Nazis
By DAVID GOLDSTEIN
Herald Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- On Feb. 2, 1942, a truck driven by German soldiers
pulled away from a warehouse in Berlin carrying a cache of paintings
that included 41 oils by the German expressionist Max Pechstein. Then
they vanished. For more than a half-century, Hans Heymann has been
searching for them. They were the core of his father's art
collection, he said, left behind when the Heymanns fled after Adolf
Hitler rose to power and ``it became clear it was going to be very
unhealthy to stay.'' Like so many other works of art owned by
European Jews during the Nazi era, the paintings were seized. Some
were sold or destroyed. The fates of many others were unknown. Until
recently. More and more famous artworks are embarrassingly turning up
in prominent museums and private collections. Works by Picasso, Degas
and Monet recently have become the source of tension between their
current owners and the heirs of Jewish collectors, many of whom
perished in the Holocaust. And as the paintings' cloudy history
becomes revealed, so too are troubling questions about the legal and
moral implications over ownership of looted art. Amid the splendor of
a Washington ballroom Thursday, in the heart of Embassy Row, an
international group of historians, curators, lawyers and lawmakers
gathered to debate the issues surrounding restitution to the victims
of Nazi plundering. At the same time, a new clearinghouse to trace
the thousands of paintings and other rarities looted by the Nazis was
established. The basic goal is to raise an awareness that museums and
collectors will increasingly face this issue. Members of Congress are
debating enacting laws to enable people to sue foreign nationals in
federal court. And everyone is talking about the moral imperative to
compensate a rapidly vanishing generation of survivors. ``Art theft
from the Holocaust is one of the few things from the Holocaust that
we can make right,'' said Constance Lowenthal of the International
Federation of Art Research. ``Art has a tendency to survive many
calamities because it is prized.''
Hard to find lost works:
The conference was sponsored by Washington's National Jewish Museum,
which set up the clearinghouse. Through its Holocaust Art Restitution
Project, the museum is trying to develop a database for locating art
stolen by the Nazis from Jewish collections in Europe. The facts
would aid historians, researchers and families searching for lost
artwork. It is no easy task. Besides the wall of resistance from
museums and galleries that are protective of their collections, the
trail of ownership often is shrouded in the fog of World War II
intrigues. Sometimes heirs have proof for their claims, such as the
shipping documents that Heymann has from the truck drivers who hauled
away his father's collection to Nazi offices. Sometimes they just
have yellowed photographs of the painting hanging above the mantle.
And sometimes, all they have are memories. Scholars say the Nazis
stole vast amounts of Europe's art treasures, with the goal of
building a huge museum in Hitler's hometown of Linz, Austria.
The experts estimate that the lost artworks number in the tens of
thousands. Many might have been destroyed; others spirited away by
Soviet troops, smuggled onto the black market and into the hands of
private collectors and museums.
Fight over a Degas:
In this country, a Degas landscape remains in storage at the Art
Institute of Chicago while pharmaceutical titan Daniel Searle, a
benefactor who purchased it for the museum, tussles over ownership
with the heirs of Dutch Jews who died in the concentration camps.
Searle has said he checked to make sure he had clear title to the
painting. Testimony in the case shows that the museum's curators
apparently ignored or otherwise disregarded evidence that the
painting had been Nazi plunder. Simon Goodman, the grandson of the
Degas' wartime owner, is involved in several claims to recover art
that had been in his grandfather's collection. ``The paintings,''
Goodman said, ``are all that is left of my family.''
------------------------
Art collector sent to prison for theft
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 5 (UPI) _ A man believed to be one of the largest
collectors of modern art in the United States has been sentenced to
two years in prison for embezzling more than $1 million from his own
firm to buy artworks. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry P. Fidler
also ordered 47- year-old Clyde Allen Beswick to pay $1.27 million in
restitution.
The art collector pled guilty last month to felony charges of grand
theft and filing false tax returns.
Prosecutors said most of the restitution proceeds will come from the
sale of a ''substantial number'' of valuable art pieces seized by
authorities during the criminal investigation.
Deputy District Attorney Ralph Plummer says Beswick bought modern art
with the money he embezzled from the Pasadena, Calif., advertising
agency he co-owns, Brody Smythe Direct, Inc., between 1994 and 1996.
Prosecutors say Beswick also used embezzled funds to pay personal
credit card bills.
The embezzlement case began when Pasadena police launched an
investigation into an alleged theft from the Brody Smythe advertising
agency.
Police served search warrants as part of the investigation and found
art stored in several warehouses as well as in Beswick's home and
comany offices. _-
Copyright 1997 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
----------------------
Interesting website has moved to new WWW addres.
(A link to Steven Keller's homepage and those of several other
consultants can be foud at: http://museum-security.org/organisa.html)
Steven R. Keller and Associates, Inc and Horizon Institute have a new
web address at: http://www.horizon-usa.com/intlartcop, so change your
bookmarks if needed. Steven Keller's website is very much worthwhile
visiting on a regular basis. Steven R. Keller and Associates, Inc.
is the leading security consulting firm in the U.S. specializing in
projects involving museums, libraries, cultural and historic
properties, select universities, and facilities involving high value
assets. They also work extensively on major projects involving
architects, on projects in gated upscale communities, and on
executive residences. Their clients include the Smithsonian
Institution, the National Gallery of Art, Harvard University, the
Statue of Liberty, and 200 other institutions and select clients.
Steve Keller and Associates is operated by Steve Keller, CPP. Horizon
Institute, Inc. specializes in the development of training programs,
management and supervisory training seminars, and the production of
training materials for various professions, mainly, security, gender
therapy, writers and others. Their training programs train more
museum security officers worldwide than all other pre-packaged
training programs combined. Their materials are in use in North and
South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Horizon Institute, Inc. is
operated by Kathy Keller. Contents of the website:
- articles, downloads and links.
- Security Newsletter
- information about training programs and materials
- architect support site.
- Museum Association Security Committee (MASC) Newsletter.
-------------------------------
Art and terrorism
By Globe Staff, 09/06/97
The 11 masterpieces stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
in 1990 were not insured, partly to discourage thefts by criminals
looking for quick ransom money. Officials should not now yield to the
temptation of a devil's bargain with the crooks, or their seconds, in
order to recover the paintings. Naturally, civilized people
everywhere want the artwork returned in good condition. Some have
described the negotiations under way among lawyers for the museum,
the US Attorney's office, and the unseemly characters who claim to
have access to the loot as a classic kidnapping - no price is too
high to recover the precious cargo. But another analogy works as
well: negotiating with terrorists. The deal presented through the
media by William P. Youngworth III - an associate of the convicted
art thief Myles Connor Jr. and an ex-con himself - is nothing short
of extortion, and it must be resisted. There is ample precedent in
law enforcement for offering immunity to witnesses and informants who
can help solve a knotty crime, and often those witnesses are not
upstanding citizens. But prosecutors have not ruled out that
Youngworth and Connor themselves skim close to the crime, even though
they were both in prison at the time of the heist. The price they are
asking for the paintings -amnesty for their crimes, freedom for
Connor, and the $5 million reward - may appear justifiable to some.
But the true price is in the slow erosion of credibility in the law
for countless other crimes yet to be committed, and it is much too
high. Worse is the prospect of trading with criminals and still not
solving the crime. If the artwork is returned and the thieves are
never apprehended, the loop is not closed. The thieves will be free
to attempt the next heist - a Picasso this time, or perhaps the Dead
Sea Scrolls - with the Gardner negotiation as ammunition and
precedent. Everyone will be happy if the Gardner treasures are
returned. But if the paintings are exchanged for blackmail, they -
and we - will not be any safer.
This story ran on page A14 of the Boston Globe on 09/06/97. c
Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.
---------------------------------
(Acra-L)
100 Endangered Cultural Sites Named
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - From Pennsylvania Amish country to a 500-year-old Egyptian
temple, historical sites around the world are being threatened by
carelessness, mismanagement and encroaching development, according to
a preservation group. In its second biennial list of the world's 100
most endangered cultural sites, World Monuments Watch included
locations in 55 countries, including nine in Italy, seven in Mexico,
six in Russia and five in the United States. The list ranges from
single buildings, such as the Metropolitan Cathedral Palace of Fine
Arts in Mexico City or the Hagia Sophia cathedral in Istanbul, to
entire regions, such as the South Pass Cultural Landscape in Wyoming.
India's Taj Mahal and the south end of Ellis Island, which were on
the list two years ago, are no longer considered endangered, the
group said. At a news conference at the historic U.S. Custom House in
lower Manhattan, the private, non-profit group said many of the
monuments might completely fall into ruin unless immediate steps are
taken to save them. ``This list is a call to action, alerting people
worldwide that it is not too late to save a piece of the past,'' said
Cyrus Vance, former U.S. secretary of state and co-chairman of the
group. After releasing the original list in 1996, World Monuments
Watch said many of the buildings were repaired by chastened
governments and civic organizations. World Monuments Watch
contributed $3 million in grants for repair work, the group said.
As a result, only 25 sites from the 1996 list were still on this
year's list. Those include ancient Pompeii, in Italy, and the Russakov
Club in Moscow, designed by architect Konstantin Melnikov.
The preservation group's report said Lancaster County, home of a
large Amish settlement, is in danger of being overrun by development.
``Rapid suburbanization and all its predictable incarnations
threatens to negate Lancaster's County sense of place,'' the report
said. The Mortuary Temple of King Ahmenhotep III Gurna in Luxor,
Egypt, is threatened by both urban growth and agriculture, the group
said. And in the city center in Prague, Czech Republic, older
buildings are being changed, losing their character. Other U.S.
monuments on the endangered list: The South Pass Cultural Landscape,
which lies along the Oregon Trail, is threatened by mining.
Fort Apache, Ariz., where the U.S. Cavalry launched attacks against
Geronimo and other Apache leaders, needs 29 buildings restored.
Cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde National Park, Colo., are in danger of
eroding. The Bodie State Historic Park, a Gold Rush settlement in
California's Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, is threatened by mining
exploration. U.S. sites removed from the endangered list because of
preservation work are: the south end of Ellis Island; the Golden Gate
Park Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco; the Eastern State
Penitentiary in Philadelphia; adobe churches in New Mexico; Holy
Ascension Church in Unalaska, Alaska; Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 in New
Orleans; and Chaco County National Historic Park in New Mexico.
AP-NY-09-06-97 0314EDT
-------------------------------
Man charged in New York with $10 million art theft
By Gail Appleson, Law Correspondent
NEW YORK (Reuter) - A Japanese man was arrested Tuesday for allegedly
trying to sell $10 million worth of drawings, including ones by
Rembrandt and Duerer, which were stolen from museums in Germany and
Azerbaijan. Masatsugu Koga, 60, was charged in a complaint filed in
Manhattan federal court with concealing and trying to sell 12
drawings stolen from Bremen Museum and the National Museum of Baku in
Azerbaijan. The 12 drawings, all of which have been recovered, were
by artists including the 15th- to 17th-century masters Rembrandt van
Rijn, Albrecht Duerer, Jacob van Ruisdael and Annibale Carracci.
Koga was arraigned in federal court in a wheelchair and was released
on a $250,000 personal recognizance bond. He is scheduled to return
for a hearing next Monday. Federal authorities said that the drawings
disappeared after the Bremen Museum had arranged for the 1943
relocation of numerous artworks to the Castle of Karnzow in Germany.
Toward the end of the Second World War, the Soviet Army took over the
castle, discovered the artworks and exposed them to looters.
The complaint alleged that in about 1993, the National Museum of Baku
advertised an art exhibit which 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 exhibit 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 in
July 1993. The complaint alleges that 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, the
complaint said. He allegedly said he needed the money for a kidney
transplant. When Koga returned to the German Embassy, he was advised
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 complaint alleged. 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 U.S. Customs Service agent. The six
drawings were seized and the other six were soon recovered.
REUTER@ Reut20:50 09-09-97
---------------------------
Date sent: Sun, 07 Sep 97 06:10:47 -0700
From: "JOHN C. PLUMMER JR." <offshore@mail.cyberenet.net>
Organization: G & P VENTURES LTD.
To: Securma@xs4all.nl
Subject: Loans against Picassos
Would you know of any financial groups that would loan money against
a Picasso?
What documents are necessary in order to authenticate an artwork like
this? Thanks so much!
--------------------------
Clinton Portrait Stolen in Arkansas
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) A portrait of President Clinton that was
ultimately destined for his presidential library is missing from the
state Capitol rotunda. Secretary of State Sharon Priest said the
portrait was in its spot Thursday night but gone Friday morning. "We
are obviously not pleased about this," Mrs. Priest told The Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette in a story published today. "If it has been stolen
and if we find who did it, that person will be prosecuted to the
fullest extent." Mrs. Priest and other officials unveiled the oil
portrait May 23. Later, it was hung about 12 feet above the floor
with other portraits in the rotunda. It was on loan until it could be
moved to the planned Clinton Library. A police search and interviews
with maintenance staff turned up no leads, Mrs. Priest said. The
White House was notified as was the National Archives, which owns the
work. The FBI is taking over the investigation, Mrs. Priest said.
The portrait was painted in 1992 by Lawrence Williams of Burbank,
Calif. It was the first item to arrive in Little Rock to become part
of the library collection.
---------------------------
Clinton Portrait Returned to Police
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) A portrait of President Clinton stolen from the
state Capitol was returned to police Sunday. The oil portrait was
taken Thursday night or early Friday morning from the rotunda at the
Capitol. "The investigation is ongoing," said Little Rock police
detective Bob Wortham. Wortham would not say if any arrests had been
made. The FBI is involved in the investigation because the portrait
is owned by the National Archives. The painting is to hang in the
Clinton Library planned for Little Rock. The portrait, painted in
1992 by Lawrence Williams of Burbank, Calif., had hung on the second
floor of the rotunda, among portraits of other governors.
--------------------------
Peru fire threatens Inca citadel Machu Picchu
12:15 a.m. Sep 08, 1997 Eastern
LIMA, Sept 7 (Reuter) - A huge brush fire threatened the Inca citadel
of Machu Picchu on Sunday, blazing up a steep mountainside toward
Peru's most popular tourist site despite hundreds of rescuers trying
to beat it back, authorities said. ``The fire is all around the
citadel. We have 350 rescuers from the army, police and civilian
groups fighting it,'' Peru's Civil Defense chief Homero Nurena told
Reuters. Rescuers hoped to keep the flames about 300 yards (300
metres) away from the citadel by dousing the lush vegetation leading
up to the ruins that are perched on the peak of the mountain, Nurena
said. The Civil Defense was also working to prevent the fire, which
covered a total of about 40 acres (15 hectares), from reaching a
popular hotel just outside the citadel. UNESCO has proclaimed Machu
Picchu -- one of Latin America's most famous tourist attractions -- a
World Heritage Site. In 1912, U.S. archeologist Hiram Bingham
discovered the ruins, which archeologists believe were an important
religious center of the pre-Colombian Inca empire. ^REUTER@
Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
----------------
Lost City of Incas closed to tourists after brush fire
BY GABRIELLA GAMINI, SOUTH AMERICA CORRESPONDENT
PERUVIAN officials are urgently trying to assess the extent of damage
to Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas, after a huge brush fire
spread up the steep mountainsides of the ancient complex of temples
and palaces. The fire was put out successfully but there are fears
that it could reignite in the dry and windy conditions in the Andes.
More than 350 members of the army and police fought the flames that
spread across lush vegetation towards the 8,855ft high peak on which
the citadel is perched. Homero Nurena, Peru's civil defence chief,
said: "We are now assessing the damage caused to the ancient ruins.
The fire came within metres of the Inca city and there has to be an
archaeological investigation to see what was destroyed." He added:
"We remain on alert as there are still fears that the fire could
restart." The severe drought conditions are being blamed for the fire
which is believed to have started naturally. The blaze engulfed 99
acres of low shrubs on Sunday before it was extinguished yesterday
morning. The flames were put out using water from the two rivers, the
Urubamba and Aobamba, which flow through lush valleys 2,300ft below
Machu Picchu. "It was lucky that we had a water supply to douse the
flames," Señor Nurena said. "Other Inca ruins are in remote and
high-altitude Andean areas where water is sparse."
The Lost City of Machu Picchu, one of Latin America's most famous
tourist attractions, was proclaimed a World Heritage Site by the
United Nations. It receives about 1,000 visitors a day during the dry
season which begins in June and ends in December. The ruins were
discovered under thick jungle vegetation by Hiram Bingham, an
American archaeologist, on July 24, 1911. Between 1912 and 1915 he
brought in a team to clear the overgrown vegetation and discovered a
maze of complex structures that continues to provide an invaluable
source of knowledge about the Incas' advanced engineering skills.
Archaeologists say the exceptionally high quality of stonework and
the abundance of ornamental, rather than practical, structures
suggest that the citadel was an important ceremonial site for the
warrior tribe. Although it stands on such high ground, it is very
difficult to see from the surrounding valleys.
----------------------
Youngworth is being harassed, lawyer says
By John Ellement, Globe Staff, 09/08/97
The attorney for William P. Youngworth III said yesterday that law
enforcement officials are harassing his client so they can recover
art treasures stolen from the Gardner Museum in 1990 and deny
Youngworth his share of the $5 million reward. Howard Lewis said
Youngworth's brief incarceration on traffic charges in Worcester on
Friday is the latest example of what he contends is an effort to
pressure his client into revealing the locations of the paintings.
''Everybody is trying to do an end run around [Youngworth] and find
those paintings and then stick it to him,'' Lewis said. ''The FBI is
livid they can't solve this crime on their own.'' Bail was set at
$2,500 cash for Youngworth on Friday, and Youngworth was freed after
his wife, Judy, posted it around 8 p.m. Lewis said yesterday that he
did not know where Youngworth, who he said was ''broke,'' got the
money. Yesterday, Youngworth reportedly added a new demand
to his list: all state charges against him must be dropped. In a
statement sent by Lewis to The Boston Herald, Youngworth demanded
''that all of these bogus charges be dismissed before we proceed
another inch into the arena of negotiations.'' Lewis did not return
telephone calls last night. Youngworth has already demanded immunity
from federal prosecution, a share of the $5 million reward, and the
early release from federal prison of his friend, convicted art thief
Myles J. Connor Jr. Lewis also said yesterday that Youngworth is
negotiating further interviews with national media outlets, which he
declined to identify. Youngworth appeared on ABC-TV's ''Nightline''
last Wednesday.
This story ran on page B12 of the Boston Globe on
09/08/97. c Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.
-------------------------
Peru fire rages out of control around Inca citadel
08:17 p.m Sep 09, 1997 Eastern
By Tania Mellado
LIMA, Sept 9 (Reuter) - An immense forest fire raged out of control
around Peru's Inca citadel of Machu Picchu on Tuesday as intense heat
and huge palls of smoke stymied hundreds of firefighters, officials
said. The spreading fire devoured 1,500 acres (600 hectares) of dense
vegetation and came as close as 200 yards (metres) from the stone
ruins. Perched spectacularly on the saddle of a mountain, the ruins
were cloaked in a thick haze of smoke. ``The smoke has got a lot
worse. It is hampering visibility, and we have to worry about
asphyxiation,'' Peru's civil defense chief, Hector Nurena, said.
The area was sealed off to the thousands of visitors who every day
by train or on hiking routes reach Peru's most popular tourist site,
9,000 feet (3,000 metres) above sea level. Civil Defense workers
evacuated hundreds of people from nearby hotels and low-lying
villages and warned they would not reopen the area for at least a
week. Up to 400 firefighters cut down swathes of trees ringing the
citadel and doused the earth so that 25-foot (eight-metre) flames
surging up the steep mountain slopes would not reach the ancient
center. ``There has been no damage to the citadel,'' Nurena said.
But firefighters could not prevent the blaze from spreading as winds
carried embers across the dry forest to spark fresh fires all over
the area, where the lower Andean slopes merge into the Amazon jungle
about 700 miles (1,150 km) southeast of Lima. Dense smoke grounded
four helicopters that were waiting to fly over the forest and drench
the flames with water scooped up from nearby rivers in massive canvas
bags that swung below the choppers on winches. Teams of police,
soldiers and volunteers helped firefighters build moats around the
perimeter of the blaze. But the heat from the advancing inferno often
prevented them from completing the work, forcing them to retreat and
watch as the fire swept over the trenches, civil defense officials
said. UNESCO has proclaimed Machu Picchu -- one of Latin America's
most famous tourist attractions -- a World Heritage Site. In 1912
U.S. archeologist Hiram Bingham discovered the ruins, which
archaeologists believe were an important religious center of the
pre-Columbian Inca empire.
REUTER@ Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
-----------------------
Church thieves should have hands cut off, says rector
By David Graves (Telegraph of London)
A RECTOR has called for the thieves who stole a set of 100-year-old
figurines from his village church to have their hands cut off when
they are caught. The Rev Robert McConachie, 56, rector of 11th
century St Dunstan's Church, West Peckham, Kent, surprised his
parishioners by invoking the Biblical sanction after thieves stole
the figurines of the 12 apostles from a ledge behind the altar.
Mr McConachie was so outraged by the theft that he has demanded
retribution by referring his congregation to St Mark, Chapter 9,
Verse 43: And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off. It is better for
thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands to go into Hell,
into the fire that never shall be quenched. "Christ was clear on the
matter and so am I," Mr McConachie said at his vicarage yesterday.
"It was an act of sacrilege to steal from the church and the cutting
off of the hands of the thieves would certainly make them and others
think twice before doing such a thing again." The Londonderry-born
vicar, who was ordained nine years ago after a career as a quantity
surveyor with the Greater London Council, said: "Our prime aim in
the Church is to turn people away from sin and to save them from
going to Hell. Cutting off their hands would prevent them from
further hindering their progress to Heaven." Asked whether he
favoured one hand or both hands being chopped off, he replied: "Well,
I would start with one and see if it had the desired result." He
suggested that a State-appointed body should be created to perform
the amputations. "Not everyone would have the stomach for it," he
said. Mr McConachie, a father of three grown-up children, said he
believed strongly in the authority of the Scriptures. He said: "I
believe that they should be adhered to the letter as much as
possible. I think we have reached the stage where religion is
becoming watered down. We are becoming used to the Scriptures being
sanitised." He said his remarks had received a mixed reaction from
his congregation. He said: "After last Sunday's service, some people
gave me messages of support but others felt I had gone too far."
Mr McConachie accepted that the Christian interpretation of the
Gospel was that the sinner should cut off his own hand and that it
was the Muslim definition which justified the amputation of a limb by
a third party. "I suppose I am advocating the Muslim interpretation,"
he said. "I am sure that my Bishop and some of my parishioners would
not agree but you can't expect thieves to cut off their own hands in
this day and age." The stolen figurines, worth £5,000, have been
identified by an antiques dealer in north London who had paid a
fellow dealer £2,400 for them. He contacted the vicar after seeing a
story about the thefts on a local television station. Police are
investigating the sequence of sales to track down the thieves.
"The figurines are now on their way back and they should be returned
at some point over the next few days," Mr McConachie said.
Now he will consider ways of securing the figurines to prevent
another theft but would retain an open-door policy at St Dunstan's
and not lock the church. He said: "I believe that the doors should be
left open at all times so that people have access to a Holy place.
At times like this, when the nation is mourning and praying for the
Princess, it is particularly important. So it was easy for the
thieves to get to the figurines which, I believe, were stolen to
order." Nick Flynn, deputy director of the Prison Reform Trust, which
campaigns for a more effective and humane prison service, described
the vicar's call as "totally absurd".
---------------------------
Jewish Group To Form Unit On Looted Art
NEW YORK (Reuter) - The Jewish group that negotiated with Switzerland
for the return of unclaimed Holocaust-era accounts now plans to
investigate what happened to the billions of dollars worth of art
looted by the Nazis. The World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO)
plans at an executive meeting Tuesday to set up a special commission
headed by Museum of Modern Art chairman Ronald Lauder, a former U.S.
ambassador to Austria, to look into the question of looted art and
what should be done, a group spokesman said. The WJRO, a coalition of
several Jewish groups plus Israel, is headed by World Jewish Congress
President Edgar Bronfman, who led it in negotiations with Switzerland
on the question of unclaimed Holocaust-era accounts in Swiss banks.
A WJRO spokesman said that a search of Second World War archives
showed that some 55,000 works of art stolen by the Nazis in France
alone were not returned to their rightful owners after the war. Most
of the works stolen in France, including Impressionist and Old Master
paintings, belonged to Jewish owners, the group spokesman said. He
added that of the 55,000 works, 2,058 hang in French museums and
14,000 were publicly auctioned off by the French government after the
war. The WJRO is also expected to make a decision at its Tuesday
meeting on the first allocation of money from a special fund set up
by Swiss banks and businesses to aid Holocaust survivors.
The group was expected to approve the allocation of $12 million in
October from the $200 million fund to help East European Holocaust
survivors. The fund was set up by Swiss banks and businesses in
response to the controversy, which followed revelations that
Switzerland did extensive business with the Nazis, including selling
and laundering of looted gold.
Reuters/Variety ^REUTER@ Reut23:42 09-08-97
---------------------
Bremen's stolen Rembrandt and Dürer turn up in US
FROM TUNKU VARADARAJAN IN NEW YORK
A JAPANESE man has been arrested in New York after trying to sell
$10 million (£6.3 million) worth of stolen paintings, including works
by Rembrandt and Albrecht Dürer, to undercover police agents. The
works belong to the Bremen Museum in Germany, where they were last
seen in 1943. Police have charged Masatsugu Koga, 60, with possessing
and selling stolen artwork. Mr Koga says that he bought the
paintings from employees of the National Museum of Azerbaijan, in
Baku. The case came to light after German officials alerted US
authorities to Mr Koga's "portfolio"; curators from the Bremen Museum
helped the police in his arrest. Mr Koga's story began in April, when
he approached the German Embassy in Tokyo offering to sell 12
paintings for $12 million. He claimed that the works belonged to his
family and that he needed the money for "a transplant". One of the
paintings was Dürer's Women Bathing, valued conservatively at $6
million. Another, Rembrandt's Standing Woman with Raised Hands, is
valued at $2 million. Suspicious embassy officials sent details of
the pictures to Germany and it soon became obvious that Mr Koga's
collection was part of the scores of paintings lost from the Bremen
Museum in 1943. The records show that they were removed for
safe-keeping, but there the trail went cold. The museum has long
believed that the paintings were stolen by Soviet troops in 1945.
That would explain how they ended up in Azerbaijan, until recently a
part of the former Soviet Union. The German Embassy in Tokyo stalled
Mr Koga for three months, during which the foundations for his arrest
were laid. Mr Koga said that the paintings were kept in a safe in New
York, so that city's police and customs were put on alert. In July,
Mr Koga and German officials agreed that there should be an
inspection of the paintings in New York, with a view to a possible
sale. Last month Mr Koga was arrested in a Manhattan hotel. The
Rembrandt, the Dürer and four other paintings were recovered. Six
others are still missing.
(Times of London)
-------------------
2 men in Gardner deal set to meet/Time to deliver, observers say
by Judy Rakowsky and Stephen Kurkjian, Globe Staff,
09/10/97
The much-publicized negotiations for the return of stolen
masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum have reached a
critical juncture with a meeting scheduled today between the two
convicts who say they can arrange the art's return. Martin K. Leppo,
lawyer for imprisoned art thief Myles J. Connor Jr., said he plans to
meet today with his client and Randolph antiques dealer William P.
Youngworth III. ''I have to make sure both sides are able to follow
through on what they propose to do,'' said Leppo. ''I have to be
clear in my mind I'm negotiating in good faith.'' There are no plans
for federal authorities to join the meeting today, but several
observers said it is high time that the two men show they can get the
works of art stolen in 1990. ''It's getting to be put-up-or-shut-up
time,'' said one source close to the negotiations. ''They can
authenticate it without the police or the museum people being
there,'' said a former federal investigator. ''They could take a
picture or answer a specific question posed by the bureau or the
Gardner.'' Connor and Youngworth need to iron out details of
their negotiation strategy with federal authorities, observers said.
''Nobody needs to trust each other,'' said Edward Clark, a retired
FBI art-theft investigator. ''They just have to put it all in writing
what everyone can offer.'' Youngworth has said he wants the $5
million reward offered by the museum, immunity from prosecution in
connection with the stolen artwork, amnesty on pending criminal
charges in Norfolk County, and the release of Connor, who still has
three years left on his sentence. Both Youngworth and Connor were in
prison at the time of the theft. The sticky issue for Connor is that
no matter how helpful he is to federal prosecutors here, it is up to
a judge in Illinois to drop the remaining three years of Connor's
federal prison term. In July 1990 in Springfield, Ill., US District
Judge Richard Mills more than doubled the prison sentence requested
by a government prosecutor for art theft and drug charges, stating
that Connor's criminal past demanded it. The judge called Connor
''rotten to the core,'' and added, ''We don't need you, and we are
society.'' ''The judge can say, `You can do a deal with the FBI, but
you're not going to do a deal with me,''' said Clark. Youngworth is
facing a sentence of 15 years in prison if convicted of Norfolk
County charges of possession of a stolen van and of being a habitual
criminal. Federal authorities can ask Norfolk County District
Attorney Jeffrey Locke to drop the charges as part of a deal for the
artwork's return, but federal prosecutors cannot presume that
outcome. Meanwhile, the Globe has learned that a probate judge in
Plymouth County ordered Youngworth in June to stay away from his
mother-in-law, who is now in a Brockton nursing home suffering from
Alzheimer's disease. The order came after Youngworth's sister-in-law
alleged that he and his wife, Judith, had attempted to embezzle funds
from the elderly woman, Florence M. Sacarob, once a successful real
estate broker in Brookline. The allegation is not the only time that
questions have been raised about Youngworth's handling of finances.
As the Globe reported last month, Youngworth has had several
financial scrapes during his business career, including most recently
an IRS lien on his Randolph home for failure to pay $19,535 in back
taxes. In a case now pending in Suffolk Superior Court, a
Massachusetts insurance company has refused to pay a claim submitted
by Youngworth for $100,000 worth of rugs allegedly stolen from his
Brighton antiques shop because the insurer is not convinced the
robbery took place. The allegations in Plymouth Probate Court by
Miriam A. Strenger of Avon arose as part of a move by Strenger to
have her mother placed in court guardianship because of a failing
mental condition. ''My sister and her husband, Judith and William
Youngworth, have attempted to gain control of my mother's money to
pay for their own legal problems,'' wrote Strenger in a sworn
affidavit in February 1996 in which she sought to be named her
mother's legal guardian. Plymouth Probate Judge Catherine P. Sabaitis
last week agreed and named Strenger as Sacarob's personal guardian
and Rockland Trust Co. as financial guardian for Sacarob's estate,
which is estimated at $500,000 to $750,000. Sabaitis named Strenger
as Sacarob's temporary personal guardian following a court hearing on
June 10 and ordered another hearing in 60 days.
This story ran on page B01 of the Boston Globe on 09/10/97. c
Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.
-----------------------
Artist's Heirs Sue Smithsonian, Ownership of Paintings by William
Johnson Challenged
By Judd Tully
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, September 11, 1997; Page D01
The Washington Post
NEW YORK-Relatives of artist William H. Johnson (1901-1970), the
modernist painter who vividly chronicled African American life, have
sued the Smithsonian Institution and a New York art gallery in U.S.
District Court here. They seek to recover more than 1,000 artworks
they say belong to them, or money damages "not less than $100
million." Johnson, hospitalized as a mental patient after 1947, died
in 1970 without a will, but his art had been disposed of long before
in 1956 when a New York State Supreme Court judge granted a
court-appointed guardian's petition to "abandon as worthless and of
no value, paintings, watercolors and prints belonging to the said
incompetent person," according to court records. The art ended up in
the possession of the Harmon Foundation, a longtime supporter of
Johnson's work. The lawsuit claims that the now-defunct foundation
never secured title to the artworks. "Therefore the work could never
have been properly transferred to the Smithsonian in 1967," says
attorney Paul Hanly Jr. of Coblence & Warner, the Johnson family's
New York counsel. Smithsonian communications director David Umansky
said the museum "rejects the allegations" and expects "our position
will be fully accepted by the courts." Johnson's work was little
known, with little financial value, until the Smithsonian's National
Museum of American Art mounted three major Johnson exhibitions from
the 1,154 works it acquired. His images now appear on
Smithsonian-produced T-shirts, postcards, note cards, a computer
mouse pad and refrigerator magnets. There's even a children's book,
"Li'l Sis & Uncle Willie." Asked why the family waited so long to
file the lawsuit, the artist's nephew James Johnson, 61, of Florence,
S.C., said: "If you don't have the money to make a trip, stay in
a hotel and hire a lawyer, it's really out of your hands. So finally,
we got a chance after his last exhibition . . . and the attorney
said he was interested in this and we thought, `Hey, let's run with
the ball.' There's paintings all over the place that say Smithsonian
Institution and nothing about the family or anything like that. We
want to redeem some of this stuff, as much as possible. We want a
legacy so we can pass it on to our children and grandchildren."
The suit also charges that the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in New York
purchased approximately 26 Johnson pieces from the estate of Harmon
Foundation director Mary Beattie Brady sometime in the 1990s. "We're
challenging the claimed ownership interest that obviously Brady's
estate claimed in order to sell those paintings to Rosenfeld because
we don't believe the documents support that," Hanly said. "I'm
extremely distressed about this attack," says Rosenfeld, who mounted
an exhibition titled "William H. Johnson: From the Collection of
Mary Beattie Brady" in September 1995 and published a catalogue. The
dealer says a number of museums have acquired works from that show,
including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum.
"It's really complicated," said one New York museum curator. "The
family wouldn't have been able to do the suit if the Smithsonian
hadn't created a Johnson market through its exhibitions and
promotions. Unfortunately, it gets down to a big white institution
against a poor black family. I don't know what the answer is."
Johnson, who came from Florence, fought his way out of the Jim Crow
South to study at the National Academy of Design, and then in Paris
in the 1920s; it was there that he met the Danish weaver Holcha
Krake, 14 years his senior, who later became his wife. In 1929,
having absorbed the lessons of both light-struck French
impressionists and brooding Scandinavian expressionists, Johnson
was working in a Harlem loft with a leaking roof, startling
conservative New Yorkers with his seemingly unpolished brush strokes
and his dark and moody colors. The pictures he painted there won him
the Harmon Foundation's gold medal and a $400 prize. The award
prompted the mounting of a show in his home town, thus informing his
family and first supporters of his accomplishments. By 1946, his
relationship with the foundation had soured. Johnson wrote a letter
demanding the return of all work held by the foundation. He collected
his paintings and watercolors and took a steamer back to Denmark. He
suffered a breakdown in Norway and was diagnosed with an advanced
case of syphilis-induced paresis. He was returned against his will to
the United States in 1947 and was committed to Central Islip State
Hospital on Long Island. His artworks were repatriated later. He
never painted again and died in 1970, the year before the National
Museum of American Art began the exhibitions that would give him the
fame that had eluded him and the value that is now the subject of the
lawsuit.
Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company
-----------------------
Russia Returns Looted Wartime Booty
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW (AP) Giving up part of its vast accumulation of wartime booty,
Russia returned the archives of Liechtenstein's royal family in
exchange for a dossier on the execution of Russia's last czar.
"Today's exchange is evidence that the largest and one of the
smallest nations in Europe can cooperate fruitfully," Liechtenstein's
monarch, Prince Hans Adam II, said Wednesday during a ceremony in
Moscow's Museum of Private Collections. Wednesday's swap could set
precedent for other nations and individuals seeking to regain
valuable documents or art treasures seized by the Soviets in World
War II. Critics say Russia has no right to the trophies because
looting is against international conventions. Germany, for example,
is seeking the return of thousands of pieces of art carted off by the
Red Army at the end of the war. Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny
Primakov praised the monarch during Wednesday's exchange.
"The wisdom and patience of Your Highness has allowed us to solve the
issue in the only possible way by means of exchange," Primakov said.
Some documents were exchanged earlier this year and Wednesday's
ceremony was intended to complete the archive swap. The victorious
Red Army seized the Liechtenstein family archives in Austria at the
end of World War II when it captured the Liechtenstein castle near
Vienna. The documents were brought to Moscow and remained hidden from
the public eye for decades, along with millions of other items
scooped up by the Red Army's special trophy brigades. The Russian
government has been revealing its holdings since the Soviet collapse
in 1991, but has balked at returning art to Germany and other
previous owners. In Russia, there is a widespread public feeling that
the stolen treasures are compensation for immense losses suffered
during the war. Talks on the issue between the Russian and German
governments have remained deadlocked despite President Boris
Yeltsin's pledges to solve it. Liechtenstein, which was neutral
during World War II, had extensive holdings in Nazi-annexed Austria.
Hans Adam's father, Franz Josef II, was able to rescue his art
collection from the family's Vienna palace, but had to leave the
family archives behind. Seeking to regain family documents, Hans Adam
bought the so-called Sokolov archive at a London auction in 1990. The
dossier is named after Nikolai Sokolov, a White Army officer who
investigated the July 1918 execution of Russia's last czar, Nicholas
II, and his family in the city of Yekaterinburg. "When I learned that
the Sokolov archive was to go on sale, I thought it would be a good
gesture of gratitude to the Russian government if it decides to
return our archives," the prince said Wednesday. "What we did was but
a small gesture Sokolov's archive is contained in one case while we
had to charter a plane to bring back what we got," he said. "We are
happy if we were able to help Russia reassess its history at this
turning point." The White Army, which was fighting against the
Bolsheviks, overran Yekaterinburg soon after the Romanovs were
killed. Sokolov was put in charge of investigating the execution of
the imperial family. He questioned witnesses, including a member of
the firing squad, but was unable to find the bodies, buried secretly
in a mass grave and burned by sulfuric acid. The remains weren't
discovered until 1991 and a long series of tests proved they belong
to the imperial family.
----------------------
US attorney demands proof on stolen art
By Ric Kahn and Judy Rakowsky, Globe Staff, 09/11/97
US Attorney Donald K. Stern said yesterday that he will not bargain
with William P. Youngworth III until the rogue antiques dealer proves
his claim that he has access to precious artworks stolen from the
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. ''There have been no negotiations -
and there won't be - about what law enforcement might or might not be
willing to do until there's some showing that we know what we're
dealing with,'' Stern said. ''We want to have some confidence that
what we're dealing with are priceless works of art - not the work of
a bull artist.'' Last month, a Boston Herald reporter said he
glimpsed by flashlight what could have been one of the purloined
paintings in a warehouse - a viewing Youngworth says he facilitated.
The front-page story, Stern said, falls short of bona fide
information. ''We have not yet been provided the kind of concrete and
credible evidence one looks for in this case,'' Stern said. ''With
all due respect, it's not credible and concrete just because I read
it in the newspaper.'' In the last several weeks, Youngworth has made
headlines by boasting that he could help authorities recover $200
million in paintings stolen from the Gardner Museum in March 1990. In
return for his help, Youngworth has demanded immunity from
prosecution, amnesty on criminal charges he currently faces in
Norfolk County, the release of imprisoned art thief Myles J. Connor
Jr. and the $5 million reward. Stern declined to say whether
authorities had asked for more proof and were rebuffed. But his
comments appear to reflect growing frustration over Youngworth's
refusal to support his claims with evidence - such as a paint chip
from one of the canvases, or a snapshot of the art. On Tuesday,
Assistant US Attorney Brien T. O'Connor met with Youngworth, but the
meeting broke up without much progress. Afterward, Youngworth told
the Herald that he would not talk with authorities again until they
granted him full immunity on any charges that might arise from his
involvement with the stolen art. Youngworth reportedly walked out
after O'Connor, the lead prosecutor in the Gardner investigation,
would pledge only ''partial immunity'' in exchange for his help.
Yesterday, Stern implied that Youngworth overstated his case. While
not ruling out leniency for Youngworth in the future, Stern said
discussions with the antiques dealer had not reached the point of
formal negotiations. Stern said the only inducement his office would
give at this stage is a standard offer of protection: authorities
would not use Youngworth's statements against him, but they could
prosecute him if they developed other evidence. Stern declined to say
if they made Youngworth that offer. ''We haven't paid much attention
to his so-called demands,'' Stern said. ''Until we get the credible
and concrete evidence we're looking for, discussion about his
unilateral demands is pointless.'' But time could be a factor for
Youngworth. He is scheduled to stand trial Sept. 23 in Norfolk County
Superior Court for allegedly being in possession of a stolen van when
Randolph and Boston police raided his home in February 1996.
Under most circumstances, the offense probably would result in
little, if any, prison time. But Youngworth, a repeat felon, could
face up to 15 years behind bars under the state's habitual offender
law. Earlier yesterday, Youngworth held a two-hour strategy session
with Connor - who has been brought from federal prison in
Pennsylvania to take part in the discussions over return of the
artwork - and Martin K. Leppo, Connor's lawyer. ''There's been a lot
of encouraging conversation,'' Leppo said after the meeting. Connor
and Youngworth plan to meet again today. In recent weeks, Youngworth
has said he wants federal authorities to convince Norfolk County
prosecutors to delay his criminal trial, or drop the charges
completely. Both federal and state prosecutors declined to say
yesterday whether they had discussed Youngworth's demands. But
Norfolk Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Butler has told Youngworth and
his lawyer that she will not delay the Sept. 23 trial.
Stephen Kurkjian of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 09/11/97.
Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.
--------------------------
Man, 60, charged in effort to sell stolen artwork
By Associated Press, 09/11/97
NEW YORK - A Japanese man has been charged with trying to sell 12 Old
Master drawings that have been missing since World War II, in what
prosecutors say was an attempt to raise money for a kidney transplant.
Masatsugu Koga, 60, was charged yesterday with possession and
attempted sale of the artworks, which are worth an estimated $10
million. The drawings include Albrecht Durer's ''Women Bathing,''
worth $6 million, and ''Sitting Mary with Child,'' worth $2 million;
Rembrandt's ''Standing Woman with Raised Hands,'' valued at $2
million; and nine other drawings. In 1943 the drawings were taken to
castle Karnzow north of Berlin for safekeeping from air raids. They
vanished in 1945, looted from the castle by Soviet troops. For nearly
five decades their whereabouts were unknown to the art world until
they turned up in 1993 at the national museum in Baku, Azerbaijan.
That museum said they had been in the hands of the KGB, the Soviet
secret police, since 1947. German officials learned of the Baku
exhibit and were trying to get the drawings back when they were
stolen again in July 1993. This story ran on page A18 of the Boston
Globe on 09/11/97. Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.
-------------------
Release, reward would be an insult, victim's kin says
By Judy Rakowsky, Globe Staff, 09/12/97
James Spinney bitterly opposes both an early release from prison and
reward money for Myles J. Connor Jr., the man he holds responsible
for the murder of his sister in 1975. Connor is a central figure in
negotiations for the return of stolen masterpieces stolen from the
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. ''I'd love to see them get their
paintings back, but $5 million to a career criminal is too high a
price to pay,'' said Spinney, 38, who has recently called a federal
prosecutor to express the family's opposition to any deal with
Connor. ''Connor doesn't just deal in art, he deals in bodies,'' said
Spinney. Karen T. Spinney and Susan Webster, 18-year-olds
from Jamaica Plain, were stabbed to death in a Quincy apartment in
February 1975 by Thomas Sperrazza, now a protected witness serving
life sentences for the murders. Connor, 54, was once convicted of
ordering Sperrazza to fatally stab the girls after they had witnessed
a murder outside a Roslindale bar. But while a jury that would
subsequently acquit him at a second trial was deliberating, Connor
became a fugitive. Now Connor is serving a federal prison term on
unrelated stolen art and drug charges. ''It would kill me to see him
get that money,'' said Spinney, who pledged to go to Illinois to
lobby a federal judge against releasing Connor 2 1/2 years early.
Yesterday, Spinney fidgeted at the kitchen table in his parents'
Jamaica Plain home, saying that every time the limelight falls on
Connor his grief is renewed. Spinney said that giving reward money to
Connor would insult his law-abiding family. ''We all go off to work
every day, and we'll never get $5 million on the straight and
narrow,'' he said. Spinney's father, John, 76, who has attended
Connor's two murder trials, bank robbery trials, and even a
sentencing hearing in Illinois, predicted that any reward money in
Connor's pocket would merely ''finance another robbery, another
scheme.'' ''It's all a game to him,'' said John Spinney. James
Spinney remembers digging in the dirt in Northampton looking for
Karen's body before Connor pointed out the exact location of the
burial site. Then there was the time Connor escaped a prison sentence
by arranging the return of a stolen Rembrandt to the Museum of Fine
Arts, James Spinney said. ''He keeps getting let off the hook,'' he
said. ''He's never going to stop.'' James Spinney has written letters
to newspapers and has repeatedly telephoned federal authorities to
lobby against them making a deal with Connor and his associate,
William P. Youngworth III. Youngworth has said the terms for return
of the art include immunity from criminal charges, the $5 million
reward, and Connor's early release. James Spinney said he is
determined to honor his sister's memory by reminding authorities of
Connor's victims. But the battle, he said, has taken its toll. ''I'm
a mess, my nerves are shot,'' he said. ''There's no closure ... he
keeps coming back.''
This story ran on page A24 of the Boston Globe on 09/12/97.
Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.
----------------------
Earlier tipster makes his pitch on stolen art
By Daniel Golden, Globe Staff, 09/12/97
NORTHAMPTON - Before there was William P. Youngworth III, there was
Edward ''Rocco'' Ellis. As Youngworth haggles with federal
prosecutors over the masterpieces stolen from the Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum, the original tipster who may have helped break the
case waits impatiently in a county jail. This past June, the
48-year-old Ellis, who has been convicted of child sex abuse, was the
first to supply federal authorities with the names of two thieves he
says were involved in the $200 million heist, according to sources.
And his bargaining chip worked: he was subsequently transferred from
a federal prison to the Hampshire County House of Correction here,
near his western Massachusetts roots. Since then, Youngworth has gone
public with much the same tale. That's no coincidence, because these
two longtime criminals are funneling information from the same fount:
the notorious art thief Myles J.Connor Jr. Both of Connor's
associates are looking for lenient treatment from authorities and a
share of the museum's $5 million reward. And their rivalry could
potentially snarl negotiations over the return of the paintings. They
appear to be competing not only for the money but also for the
attention of federal investigators and the friendship of their
mentor, Connor. A colorful character straight out of an Elmore
Leonard novel, Ellis boasts about his scars and tattoos, about the
sleazy bars he used to own, his friendships with Mafia ''wise guys''
and his willingness to beat up anyone who ''disrespects'' him. While
reluctant to criticize Youngworth directly, Ellis proclaims himself
the only true spokesman for Connor, his friend for 20 years and
former cellmate at Lompoc Federal Penitentiary in California.
''Myles is very devoted to me,'' Ellis says. ''We've been through
hell and high water. He believes in me, he's my brother. I love him
very much.'' Connor's attorney, Martin Leppo, confirmed the
friendship between his client and Ellis. ''I am aware of Rocco Ellis,
and he plays an important part in the overall Gardner matter,'' Leppo
said. After fuming for weeks in his cell while Youngworth seized the
headlines, Ellis is now going public with what he has told
investigators about the Gardner theft. He says, for example, that
David Houghton, an auto mechanic and art appraiser from Malden who
had dated Connor's sister, planned the heist. According to Ellis,
Houghton, who has since died, visited Connor in prison in Illinois
three months before the theft and sought his advice. At that meeting,
according to Ellis, Houghton identified 13 artworks as targets. All
but two were eventually stolen, Ellis says. Houghton paid $25,000
apiece to two experienced robbers, and then hid the paintings in a
duffel bag inside a steamer trunk until his death at 52 from a heart
attack in 1992, Ellis says. One of the robbers who donned police
uniforms and tied up the Gardner's security guards, according to
Ellis, was Robert Donati of Revere, a reputed Mafia associate who was
murdered in 1991. Ellis says he does not know who the other robber
was, but believes the man is still alive and no longer in the Boston
area. Federal officials declined to comment on the validity of this
scenario. Ellis said he refuses to inform on any living person. Asked
where the paintings are today, and who is hiding them, Ellis refers
the questions to Connor. He does say that their condition is
deteriorating. By revealing his role in the Gardner investigation,
Ellis hopes to highlight his current effort to vacate his 1990 sex
abuse conviction. That legal challenge, now pending in US District
Court in Springfield, raises the same issue that led a state Superior
Court judge to overturn the convictions of two members of the
Amirault family in the well-known Fells Acre Day Care case in 1995.
Like the Amiraults, Ellis says he was denied his constitutional right
to confront his accuser because the child whom he was convicted of
abusing was allowed to testify with her back to him. Ellis, who has
been knifed, beaten and had teeth knocked out by other inmates for
his crime, insists he is no child molester, and he has got a cadre of
devoted friends and supporters still attesting to his innocence. ''If
they let me out tomorrow on the Gardner thing, I'd still pursue'' a
retrial, he says. ''If you knew me, you'd know I could never do that
crime.'' He's no art thief either, but he considers himself lucky to
know the best in the business: Connor. Pacing the jail's tiny
''pressbox,'' Ellis reenacts the fateful meeting when Connor offered
him a ticket to wealth and freedom - the inside story of the Gardner
heist. First, Ellis taps on the wall, the way he did in a federal
prison in Oklahoma City that summer of 1990, a few months after the
Gardner theft, to find out if the ''M. Connor'' in the next cell was
his old buddy from a Massachusetts prison. He croons ''Unchained
Melody'' - the signature tune that Connor, a former rocker, sang back
then to identify himself. Then he pantomimes Connor's gesture as they
walked together in the prison yard. Ellis had been complaining that
he had been framed by a former girlfriend for sexually abusing her
daughter. Promising to help, Connor began drawing in the air,
outlining paintings. Stolen paintings, to be exact. Born in North
Adams, the 48-year-old Ellis has a criminal record that includes
convictions for statutory rape, cocaine possession and attempted
extortion. While in prison in 1985, Ellis met Catherine DeCouto, who
was married to his former counselor. By the time of his release from
prison in 1986, her marriage was breaking up. Ellis began living with
DeCouto and her 6-year-old daughter. That same year, he and DeCouto
had a daughter of their own. But the family harmony was short-lived.
Ellis and DeCouto separated acrimoniously. In 1989, as Ellis was
pushing in court for custody of their daughter, DeCouto accused him
of sexually abusing her other daughter. The case was heard in federal
court because Ellis was charged with interstate transport of a minor
with intent to commit rape and abuse. At Ellis's trial in 1990, Judge
Frank Freedman allowed the girl to testify at a table set up next to
the jury box, with her back to Ellis. She testified that Ellis had
inserted his hands, fingers and toes in her vagina and forced her to
have oral sex with him. The prosecution also contended that the girl
had overeaten to become fat and less attractive to Ellis, and that
Ellis had taunted and ridiculed her. ''This child was severely
traumatized, beyond the point of many I have worked with,'' says
Susan Via, who prosecuted Ellis and is now an assistant US
attorney in Tucson. ''She was genuinely terrorized.'' Ellis insists
he never abused the girl. He says that she twice acted out sexually
towards him, and that he suspects a family friend of abusing her.
Although he begged to tell his story to the jury, Ellis says, his
attorney refused to put him on the stand. His lawyer, Morris
Goldings, says he strongly advised his client not to testify, and
Ellis made the final decision. Describing the assaults as ''unusually
heinous, cruel, brutal and degrading,'' Freedman sentenced
Ellis to 25 years in prison without parole. Ellis lost on appeal in
1991. Then Ellis found an unexpected benefactor: Diana Sandgren, a
Needham housepainter and former human services worker. Sandgren, who
had become friendly with Ellis in 1986, began researching his case.
DeCouto ''just hit the optimum moment to bring false allegations of
child sexual abuse,'' Sandgren says. ''The McMartin case was on the
national news every night. There was enormous national hysteria,
and an industry had sprung up around child sexual abuse.''
Sandgren accumulated nearly 20 affidavits from Ellis's friends and
family contending that he was a good parent and that they saw no
evidence of abuse. One prosecution witness, who had testified about
the taunting of the victim, said in a 1990 affidavit he had changed
his mind and believed in Ellis's innocence. Sandgren also discovered
that Ellis's lawyer, Goldings, had previously represented DeCouto in
seeking a liquor license. Goldings, who did not disclose his prior
representation of DeCouto at Ellis's trial, says he did not have a
conflict of interest because her case was unrelated to Ellis's.
Goldings acknowledges that he did not challenge the special seating
for the victim. A subsequent US Supreme Court decision, Goldings
says, has reinforced the right of defendants to confront their
accusers, and Ellis ''does have a point to raise on that issue.''
DeCouto, who has since remarried, declined comment. Ellis, who wears
his daughter's name on his left biceps, is not allowed to have any
contact with her, but does not want to surrender his rights as her
father. Ellis also sought favor from authorities by contending that
he had inside information on the 1983 bombing of a US barracks in
Beriut. But the account was never substantiated. In 1993, after the
deaths of Houghton and Donati, Ellis began shopping information about
the art theft to federal prosecutors. But when they refused to move
him to the jail of his choice, he clammed up. After the museum raised
its reward last year from $1 million to $5 million, Connor authorized
Ellis to reopen negotiations. Ellis says he has no doubt that his
information will prove correct, and that the paintings will turn
up. ''There are two things I don't do,'' he says. ''Steal, or lie.''
This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on
09/12/97. Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.
----------------------------
UNESCO sounds alarm over Venezuela heritage site
12:49 a.m. Sep 12, 1997 Eastern
CARACAS, Sept 11 (Reuter) - The United Nations has expressed concern
over Venezuela's plans to run electricity lines through Canaima
National Park, which Venezuela declared a World Heritage site just
three years ago. The park, which houses the world's tallest
waterfall, ancient table-top mountains and unique plant species, lies
in the remote southeast of the country. In a letter to Venezuela, the
U.N.'s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
said the state electricity company Edelca had proposed erecting power
lines in the park to export power to Brazil without conducting an
environmental impact study. ``The Bureau of the World Heritage
Committee ... noted with concern that this site faced considerable
threats from a proposal of the national electricity company EDELCA to
erect a series of power transmission lines, expected to extend 160 km
(100 miles) across the park,'' the July 15 letter said. Canaima,
which boasts the towering Angel Falls, is one of 107 natural World
Heritage Sites in the world. It received that designation from
Venezuela in 1994. ``During recent years large-scale mining
operations have been started in areas outside the park and are
resulting in significant loss of forests and pollution of rivers,''
the letter added. UNESCO said the indigenous Pemon Indians living in
the park were opposed to the lines because they believed they were a
prelude to increased mining and logging in the area. The letter
requested permission to make a high level mission to the park before
Oct. 15, but a UNESCO spokesman in Paris said Venezuela had not
replied yet. ``The World Heritage Site is designated for the
protection of certain values which are recognized to be of oustanding
universal significance,'' the UNESCO spokesman added. ``They are
nominated by countries... so once a country has done that the
expectation is that the country will protect those values.'' REUTER
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