May 5, 1999

CONTENTS:

Due Diligence

Attended the American Association of Museums final session on the final day of their Cleveland '99 Convention. A presentation on due diligence was organized by Linda Chaffinch (FBI National Stolen Art File) with, William Tompkins (Smithsonian Institute), Victor Wiener (American Association of Appraisers), Linda DeVida (Art Loss Register) and Robert Wittman (Philadelphia FBI) To be quite honest, despite running a web site concerning stolen art, and pouring over stories of stolen art; I wasn't quite sure about the specific legalese. I'm not a lawyer, so any clarifications or corrections by readers are most welcome. International readers will have to bare with us, as the presentation concerned US law. When it comes to stolen art, the law is clear. A thief can not pass good title with a stolen work of art. So in the eyes of the law, stolen art is stolen art. US Laws concerning cultural property, fine art, and Museums are also clear (not much mumbo jumbo involved). For reference, these laws can be found at the FBI's web site (scroll down) http://www.fbi.gov/art.htm

Due diligence is a two sided coin. First, to recover a loss, you might have to substantiate your claim in court. There, you may have to demonstrate the steps you have taken to report missing objects. Beyond reporting the loss, you should be able to demonstrate reasonable efforts made towards the recover your loss. Due diligence is relative, there is no standard criteria. Legal disputes are fact sensitive and decided on a case by case basis. The other side of due diligence is making sure you have good title before acquiring a significant piece. Remember, like hot potato, the last one holding it could get burned. Museums and collectors should take great care in acquiring pieces. Aside from the obvious monetary loss, institutions can get terrible PR with legal disputes. The cost in lost good will with your "community" could off set the benefits of litigation.

Rather than get too far afield, as this is such a broad subject, may I ask if there are others on the list who might provide their own comments and insights on due diligence?
Jonathan Sazonoff
Pres., Saz Prod., Inc.
www.saztv.com
Contributing US Ed.
Museum Security Network
www.museum-security.org/saz.html


From: "Ron Lander, CPP" rlander@ix.netcom.com
Subject:

Key Control Procedures

Finance and Funding

Collecting institutions face ever increasing demands on their resources to fulfill their responsibilities as stewards of our natural and historic heritage. These needs for staffing, equipment and capital improvements present significant funding challenges. How can collections care staff help build these needs into the budgeting process, and use them as fundraising tools? The good news is that this fascinating part of what we do is inherently attractive to potential funders, and can be a powerful tool in grants writing or capital campaigns. With a better understanding of budgeting and fundraising, you can give the finance and development staff in your institution tools they can use to help meet your needs. This two-day workshop will provide a "financial primer" on budgeting, fundraising, and on linking long range plans for collections care needs to these processes. It will help staff integrate collections funding needs into the budgeting process, grants writing, and capital campaigns, and broaden staff understanding of the development and use of financial information in institutional decision making. If you are not a financial planner or decision maker at your institution, understanding how the system does work, can work, or should work will help you leverage the resources you need to do your job.

Instructors:
Trudy R. Hayden is Director of Foundation and Government Support for the American Museum of Natural History. She was Director of Foundation Relations for the Natural Resources Defense Council from 1994-1997, and from 1984-1994 worked at the New York Public Library as Manager of Program Development and Foundation Relations and Deputy Director of the Campaign. In her "pre-fund-raising life" she worked for many years as a policy analyst and advocate in the field of civil liberties and civil rights, including as Director of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Privacy Rights Project in the 1970s. She is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Columbia University.
John E. Rorer is the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President at The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York. Mr. Rorer came to the Garden initially as Chief Financial Officer in 1989. Before joining the Garden, from 1976 to 1989, Mr. Rorer served in several management positions at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, New York. His last position was as Vice President for Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer. At Polytechnic, Mr. Rorer also participated in the creation, planning and development of Metrotech, a $1.0 billion, 16- acre commercial/academic complex in downtown Brooklyn, adjacent to the University's campus.. He held a series of increasingly responsible positions in New York City government from 1969- 1976. Mr. Rorer is a graduate of Harvard College and holds a Master's Degree in Public Administration from New York University, where he previously served as an adjunct lecturer.
William R. Vartorella is Executive Vice-President of Craig and Vartorella, Inc., an award- winning company which specializes in global fundraising, strategic planning, and staff and board development and training. Mr. Vartorella has spent the last decade fundraising, lecturing, convening workshops, and writing articles concerning a host of projects in the U.S. and abroad. He has been a sponsored speaker at a number of global meetings, including the Second World Congress/Natural History Collections held at and co-hosted by Cambridge University; the Drexel Symposium/Field Expeditions; and a recent world congress on rupestrian archaeology (IRAC 98) at UTAD in Vila Real, Portugal. He writes a regular column on funding for Human Performance in Extreme Environments, the leading journal for scientists working in extreme environments (space, undersea, the Arctic), and for the Glyph, a regional newsletter of the Archaeological Institute of America. His work appears regularly in Fundraising Institute, Nonprofit World, Nonprofit Board Report, and Fundraising Management.
Date and time: Sunday June 27 and Monday June 28, 1999, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Early fee: on or before May 15, $90 SPNHC members, $100 non-members Regular fee: after May 15, $100 SPNHC members, $110 non-members Lunch not provided.
Check or money order payable to "SPNHC 99", or VISA or Mastercard orders, should be send with a note indicating this is registration for the Finance and Funding Workshop to: SPNHC 99 Jane C. MacKnight, Registrar CMC, Geier Collections and Research Center 1720 Gilbert Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-1401 USA FAX 513/345-8501 Sorry, we cannot accept purchase orders
For further information on registration email Jane MacKnight at
jmacknight@cincymuseum.org


Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 10:06:17 -0400
From: Steve Layne GlobalRiskConsultants@compuserve.com
Subject:

IFCPP Update

Year 2000 problem

Workshop on disasters

MUTEC Exhibition in Munich, 15 ... 18 June 99

[Fire Safe Heritage]: Globe Ship Burns

The Great Dali Art Fraud

Summary:

"Eyes, sensibility, common sense, knowledge, experience are the best protection against a fake, and my definition of a fake is anything that pretends to be something it isn't." - June Wayne, co-founder of the Tamarind Institute, quoted in The Print Collector's Newsletter, May-June 1972.
"If you like the damn thing, and you know what it is and you want to buy it and you want to spend two thousand dollars for it, I may think you're a horse's ass, but I'll also defend your freedom to do it." - Clinton Adams, co-founder of the Tamarind Institute, interview with Lee Catterall, author of The Great Dali Art Fraud & Other Deceptions, on December 2, 1987.
"Woe to you!" master artist Albrecht Durer declared on the title page of his series of woodblock prints, Life of the Virgin, in 1511. "You thieves and imitators of other people's labor and talents. Beware of laying your audacious hand on this artwork." Durer's stern warning did not bring an end to the menace of fine print fraud, nor did the series of prosecutions across the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. Warning: Most of the Dali fakes at issue in those cases remain in possession of victims who were unable to obtain refunds. Not surprisingly, many of the victims are trying to unload their "prints" on the Internet at outrageous prices. This activity is not illegal unless the prints are misrepresented. Use of the term "original print" to describe a mere reproduction of a painting may be legally insufficient as misrepresentation because of the changing practices of artists in the use of new technology. Consumers interested in purchasing fine prints should gain a familiarity with the medium before spending a cent on this garbage pile. To begin with, take a look at the Federal Trade Commission's 1994 warning about Art Fraud.
Don't be fooled by Dali's signature on a print. He signed thousands of blank sheets of paper that later were used to reproduce Dali images, usually paintings. More often, his signature was forged on such reproductions. He signed his name in so many ways that experts are at a loss in verifying an authentic Dali signature. Before buying any Dali print, also consider Dali's Abuses, which constituted overt participation more than mere facilitation, in the manufacture of hundreds of thousands "limited edition" prints bearing his name and his surrealistic images. While many of the paintings are authentic works of Dali, they have been reproduced in numerous "limited editions" and sold as "original" lithographs, etchings, etc. The painting most commonly reproduced for such fraudulent purposes was Lincoln in Dalivision, "prints" of which Los Angeles art appraiser Dena Hall testified in the Hawaii trial have become as commonplace as "pancakes at the pancake house." Other favorite Dali paintings used as models by the print fakers were Corpus Hypercubicus, Metamorphosis of Narcissus and Hallucinogenic Toreador. Dali assuredly did not participate in fraudulent prints bearing his name and images that were not his, which are referred to as "fake fakes" and are far less numerous than fakes based on Dali's actual paintings.