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June 29, 1999

Library fire in France

350,000 books burn in France
A Major Library Disaster In France

The library shared by the University Lumiere (Lyon 2) and Jean-Moulin (Lyon 3) possessed about 450,000 physical volumes (monographs and periodicals). A large proportion of this collection was destroyed in the fire that started on Saturday, June 12th, a little before 2:00 a.m. First estimates indicate that about 350,000 were volumes lost. Included in this group are all of the periodicals from the 19th and the 20th centuries, as well as the basic collections needed for the programs in humanities and law.
As of now, it is not possible to determine the exact number of volumes that will ultimately be rescued. However, the first rescue operations that took place last Saturday and Sunday (June 12 and 13) have saved the most precious volumes from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, as well as the manuscripts and the incunables (about 150 items). As a whole, about 8,000 early volumes have been recovered by the rescue workers, the personnel of the two universities and the students. This very important result was achieved on Sunday by 5 p.m.
Other collections seem to have survived, but located as they are in areas that have become dangerous, their exact status cannot be easily ascertained. All in all, it is not yet possible to evaluate the number of volumes that can be saved when the situation is completely under control.
This catastrophe decreases in a significant manner the library materials at the disposal of Lyon students and while various measures are being implemented to ensure the preservation of what has been rescued. Various scenarios are being studied and they all aim at rebuilding the collections which are needed for teaching and research in the shortest possible time.
In addressing this message to you, we seek advice and perhaps even a bit of help. Allow us to outline our main areas of concerns.
1. If you have any practical library experience in recovering from such a fire, please share your experiences ; if you know of good documents that spell out useful tactics and strategies to recover as gracefully and efficiently as possible from similar catastrophes, please point them out to us
2. We envision acquiring various collections in microfilm or microfiche formats so as to convert them quickly to a browsable format, either in limited, on-site, intranets or otherwise, depending on the copyright situation encountered in each case. Do you think this is a good idea?
3. More generally, do you think that relying upon a strategy of digitization to recover from this fire makes sense? Does it make sense to plan this recovery action within the wider plan of establishing a brand new, digital, library? In other words, does it make sense to use the crisis to push a resolutely modern and possibly pioneering digital library project. Or does it make more sense, more humbly, to look for the lost volumes and replace them as far as is possible, according to various rules of priorities.
4. Assuming you have control or ownership of digitized materials which may be of potential interest, may we envision negotiating the purchase of or access to these resources?
5. If there are any obvious steps that we should take and that seems to be missing here, would you be so kind as to point them to us.
With many thanks for your time and kind advice, please accept our most heartfelt regards.
Charles Micol
Directeur de la Bibliotheque Universitaire
Charles.Micol@univ-lyon2.fr

Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 14:02:24 -0400
From: Jason Kaufman jasonkaufman@mediaone.net
To: Museum Security Network securma@xs4all.nl
Subject:

More on police auction blunder

Mr. Rogers:
Indeed, it is a matter for the courts, and subject to diverse local laws concerning title. If you are concerned with the matter of "ownership", I would defer to our colleagues in the legal profession to explain the varieties of title law throughout the world. It is an interesting subject, and I would very much like to read a summary. The fact that legal systems vary so greatly in their construance of "good title" indicates a lack of ethical consensus. The issue has to do with cultural, religious, economic, and other factors that require a legal historian and philosopher to explain. In my earlier message I merely proposed my own meta-legal interpretation of what seems just in those circumstances you describe. And my sense is that, whatever the applicable law, society should seek to correct their law enforcement agency's error to the satisfaction of the victim -- and if necessary the victimized buyer as well. Citizens collectively should pay for the error as an occasional cost of law enforcement. As for who enjoys legal claim to the disputed piece, my sense is that the sale should not be revocable, but that through arbitration an agreement should be sought which would satisfy both parties: either return the piece to the original owner and offer financial compensation to the buyer, let the buyer keep the piece and compensate the original owner, or some other agreed-upon solution. Should the buyer elect not to return the piece, and should the original owner not be satisfied with the offer of full-market compensation by the law enforcement agency, the original owner should have recourse to a civil suit for reparations by the law enforcement agency in an amount to be determined by a court. I would think that such claims must be subject to temporal limitations, and awards would be based on both the degree of diligence exercised by the law enforcement agency and the value -- both sentimental and monetary -- of the disputed piece. But again, one would hope that such proceedings could be avoided.
Jason Edward Kaufman (Esq. for the day)
riskmgmt@lava.net wrote:

Jason : Got your email off MSN. I initiated the query. Your points are well taken on compensation...but my inquiry is about ownership. Does the new owner have the rightful ownership? I understand it is an issue fo rthe courts, but the formum has always been a good place to get insight before going to court. We have all types of Museum professionals reading and participating here.
Thank you for your input. R.Rogers

Britain helps kill EU proposal for levy on art sales

By Will Bennett and Andrew Gimson
(Daily Telegraph)
BRITAIN has struck a secret deal with Germany to kill off European Union attempts to impose an artists' resale rights levy on the Ł2.2 billion a year British art market.
The Government agreed to support German amendments to a plan to force car manufacturers to recycle old vehicles in return for Chancellor Gerhard Schrsder's support on barring droit de suite. Yesterday Britain fulfilled its part of the deal by voting against the present recycling proposals, enabling Germany to muster a blocking minority under the qualified majority voting system. The vote by Michael Meacher, Secretary of State for the Environment, at the meeting in Luxembourg astonished observers because Britain had previously supported the scheme.
On Monday the Germans, who hold the EU presidency until next week, did not hold a scheduled vote on droit de suite and are likely to oppose the levy outright if the proposal is reactivated. Germany's 10 votes would give Britain and its allies more than the 26 needed for a blocking minority. The most likely scenario is that the plan to impose the levy throughout the EU will be quietly killed. This will come as a relief to the British art market, Europe's largest, which estimated that it would lose Ł68 million a year and 5,000 jobs if droit de suite was imposed.
Droit de suite, in force across much of the EU, is a sliding scale levy paid by the vendor of a work of art to the artist or the artist's family for 70 years after his or her death. Its supporters, including many British artists, say that the originators of works of art should share in profits made from their rising value. Opponents say that the effect on Britain's art market would force business to the US or Switzerland, and that the levy mainly benefits wealthy families or successful artists.
The car recycling proposals would force European carmakers to take back vehicles at the end of their life - from 2003 - and to recycle a minimum percentage of components. Mr Schroder wants this to apply only to vehicles made after 2003.

From: Jonathan Sazonoff saz@kwom.com
Organization: SAZ PRODUCTIONS, INC.
Subject:

FBI's National Stolen Art File - New URL

Dear Subscribers,
The US F.B.I. has recently updated their web site. The new URL for the National Stolen Art File is -
http://www.fbi.gov/majcases/arttheft/art.htm
Hope you find this information helpful.
Jonathan Sazonoff
Pres, Saz Prod., Inc.
http://www.saztv.com
Contributing US Ed.
Museum Security Network
http://www.museum-security.org/saz.html

From: Peter Millen Peter.Millen@wcom.com
Subject:

Another Julian Alden Weir Theft (More paintings pilfered from Cooper Inn)

Tuesday, June 29, 1999

More paintings pilfered from Cooper Inn
Two additional pieces of artwork stolen over weekend

By Tom Grace Cooperstown News Bureau
The Daily Star
COOPERSTOWN (NY)- Two more turn-of-the-century paintings have been stolen from the Cooper Inn in Cooperstown as local police and the FBI continue to search for two paintings stolen three weeks ago. Sometime Saturday evening, a thief or thieves made off with a watercolor by turn-of the-century artist Julian Alden Weir. Two oil paintings pilfered Saturday, June 6, from the Cooper Inn were also by Weir, a prominent landscape artist. Also missing now is an oil painting by Canadian-born Horatio Walker.
All the missing paintings are owned by Jane Forbes Clark and have been in the Clark family for years. Some have been hanging in the Cooper Inn since the 1930s. The two paintings stolen three weeks ago - "Belt of Woods," a forest landscape, and an Adirondack scene - both signed by Weir, are worth an estimated $100,000.
Those close to the investigation declined to set a value on the two paintings removed in the more recent heist. One source familiar with the investigation said they might be worth more than $100,000, but Gilbert T. Vincent, president of the New York State Historical Association, said they were probably worth less than that. "Horatio Walker is less prominent than J. Alden Weir, and the Weir taken this time is a watercolor, rather than an oil painting," Vincent said. "I don't think these two are worth as much as the two that were taken before."
Cooperstown Police Chief Michael Crippen declined to comment on the latest theft at the request of the FBI. The FBI agent in charge of the investigation was unavailable for comment Monday. However, a source who declined to be identified said police agencies are searching for a person or perhaps two people who visited the Cooper Inn between 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Saturday, driving a dark-colored mini van. The source said the van was driven to the back door of the inn and two people dressed in uniforms went inside the inn briefly before leaving. The van may be a Ford Aerostar model and was observed by more than one person at the scene.
The theft was noticed by a clerk, who was on duty during the first theft but is not considered a suspect, the source said. Frank Maloney, general manager of the Cooper Inn as well as the Otesaga Hotel, said the loss may have tragic consequences for local art lovers.
"It's clear that we can't allow the same kind of access to fine art that we have in the past, and it's a shame," Maloney said. Many security measures to protect paintings are now under consideration, he said.
Vincent said the two paintings stolen this time were "double-wired," but the thieves snipped the wires. It appears that the thieves knew when to strike, and how to get in and out quickly. They may have left behind a footprint and possibly a handprint, he said. J. Alden Weir, as he signed his paintings, was born in 1852 at West Point, the son of artist Robert Walter Weir. In his lifetime, he won plaudits for oil and watercolors, the Lippincott Prize, presented by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1913, and a gold medal from the National Academy of Design in 1906. His work is held in many collections and museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. In mid-career, he taught for the Art Students League and then at Cooper Union Art School in Manhattan. He died in 1919. Walker, born in Listowel, Ontario, in 1858, came to New York City to paint in 1885. His work was recognized in his lifetime, earning him a gold medal for oils and a gold medal for watercolors at the St. Louis Exposition of 1904, among other prizes. His work is held by private collectors and by museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Carnegie Institute. He died in 1938.
Anyone with information about the thefts should call the Cooperstown Police Department at 607/547-2500
c 1999 The Daily Star

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