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securma@xs4all.nl
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July 19, 20, 21 - 1999

- Moderator's message: Continuation of the Museum Security:
Mailinglist and Website garanteed for at least two more years!
- Numismatic theft - Stolen Coins (Jonathan Sazonoff)
- query: painting sensors (Ricky Bush)
- Lyon library fire website
- query: info on security control room security and operations (Rahman B. Saladdin)
- RE: security devices for paintings
- A 20th-Century Master Scam (The Myatt/Drewe case)
- 'Count' steals art worth millions
- Los Angeles eye doctor guilty of art theft fraud
- Russian Court Knocks Down Art Law

Moderator's message:

Continuation of the Museum Security Mailinglist and Website garanteed for at least two more years.

Next to the support by the Netherlands Museums Association (NMV) ( http://www.museumvereniging.nl/) we have found a corporate sponsor: Mosler, Inc.( http://www.mosler.com/).
Mosler is a major player in the cultural property field and serves many museums. Both sponsors understand that the MSN must remain editorially independent and they respect that. Their grants enable us to buy the new equipment so much needed, to pay the monthly costs, and to attend upcoming conferences, and -which is most important- to keep offering the MSN services free of charge.
When you sign on to our web site or when you receive your MSN email, you will encounter banners or a header announcing Mosler, Inc. and the Netherlands Museums Association as sponsors, just as you see similar sponsorship announcements on the placard many museums use to acknowledge the gifts that make special exhibitions possible. We at MSN feel that this generous support will make us better able to meet the needs of the museum security community and we hope that you share our enthusiasm. We were especially fortunate to find sponsors of this statue.
The Netherlands Museums Association (NMV) has been very active in the field of museum security the past six years. The NMV developed a software program (MUSAVE) that enables museums to audit their security organization. A new release of this program will be available in a couple of months.
Mosler's reputation in the security community is one of high quality. Many major American museums have equipment installed by Mosler.
MSN will remain editorially independent. From: Jonathan Sazonoff saz@kwom.com
Organization: SAZ PRODUCTIONS, INC.
Subject:

Numismatic theft - Stolen Coins

Dear Subscribers,
We ran across a recent LAPD note about a major theft of ancient coins from Loyloa Marymount University in California.
This crime raises the intriguing question of what stolen coin resources are available on the web. Here is what we found. For those interested in rare numismatic thefts, fakes, and related items:

Thefts:

Art Theft Detail Home Page (see Loyola coin theft under - "What's New") http://www.lapdonline.org/art_theft
Cordici Museum of Erice - Numismatic theft http://www.infcom.it/kalat/monetiere/furtouk.html
Kabul Museum - 30,000 missing coins http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/afghan/list.html
Kadman Museum (1976 Coin Robbery) http://www.amnumsoc2.org/inc/kadman.htm

Let the buyer beware:

Ancient Coins and Modern Fakes, How to Tell the Difference http://members.aol.com/kroh/fakes.html

Other Stolen Coins:

American Numismatic Society - Home Page
http://www.amnumsoc2.org
Stolen coins, gold coins, coins, liberty, liberty coins, liberty gold coins, st. gaudens, silver eagle, serbian
http://www.volcano.net/~vukovich/
List of stolen coins and stamps
http://www.cybercoins.net/stolen.html

We hope you find this information of interest.
Please let us know about any other related materials.
Jonathan Sazonoff
Pres. Saz Prod., Inc.
www.saztv.com
Contributing US Ed.
Museum Security Network
www.museum-security.org/saz.html

From: Ricky Bush bushr@nysha.org
Organization: NYSHA
Subject:

painting sensors

We are looking for an alarm manufacturer that produces an vibration/movement sensor that can be placed on paintings that is small and concealable, would produce a local alarm, and would be loud enough to hear from a distance. If anyone could supply me with any information it would be greatly appreciated.
Rick Bush
Security & Safety Director
New York State Historical Association
bushr@nysha.org

From: Jack Kessler kessler@well.com
Subject:

Lyon fire

Coverage of the terrible fire which destroyed the BibliothFque Centrale of the Universite' Lumie`re Lyon 2 (Claude Bernard), the night of June 11 - 12 -- and the dramatic and very interesting efforts now under way to restore the building & collections & library service
-- all may be seen at,
http://phebus.univ-lyon2.fr

From: RAHEPH44@aol.com
Subject:

control operations/security

Rahman B. Saladdin, Chief of Security
Oakland Museum of California
Any info on security control room security and operations.

To: "'securma@xs4all.nl'" securma@xs4all.nl
Subject:

RE: security devices for paintings

Dear Mr Bush
I work at a large art museum which bought a system from Minicom (minicom@alphalink.com.au) in about 1993 which consists of sending units about 3x2x3/8 inches which sit behind the canvas of a picture nestled in a holding device attached to the stretcher. These have batteries which last over a year and a low battery signal is sent to the receiver some weeks before failure.
Each device sends its unique coded message to the central control room. It senses orientation (it has little steel balls in it and it is just about impossible to move the picture without setting it off) plus vibration (for example if the canvas were cut from the stretcher) and sudden change in light.
We have a large number of these units and use them not only in the backs of paintings, but also inside ceramics, sculptures, items of intrinsic value such as gold and silver, and so forth. We have even attached a fine thread to small gold jewellry which in turn is attached to the unit in a dummy box so if you move the ring, the sending unit is disturbed. We are a big gallery and could not have enough to cover everything on display, but there is no outward sign of which items are or are not covered so the When an alarmed item is disturbed, an alarm sounds in our control room and the exact location and details such as artist and title of that particular picture flashes on the monitor screen. The guard acknowledges the alarm and radios to the floor staff the problem. One of the particularly impressive things about the system is the speed- if you smash a sensor with a hammer, it still has enough time to send its signal.
We have used this system continuously for over 5 years and have had minimal false alarms and it has served us very well. I understand from Aziz Radwan, the designer and manufacturer of the system, he has just revised the design and it will soon be available in a smaller size, though the current size is quite acceptable from our point of view. Another feature of the new system is that you can track the location of the individual alarm, so if someone does a grab-and-run, the security control room can see ex This may not be exactly what you are looking for, but it is a great system. Aziz may also be interested in making what you want up as if you want it, others presumably will as well.
Hope this is of use. Please treat this information as confidential as we prefer not to have it widely known what system we use as countermeasures-and there are always possible countermeasures- may then be easier for someone to use on us.
With regards.
Name supplied

A 20th-Century Master Scam:

Forging a Giacometti or a Braque was the easy part.
The genius of the con rested in faking the provenance.
The art world may never know how much damage was done.
By PETER LANDESMAN Photographs by JILLIAN EDELSTEIN
This article was published in the New York Times magazine July 18, 1999.
Read the complete text with photographs at:
nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/19990718mag-art-forger.html, or at:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~securma/myatt-drewe.htm

(Daily Telegraph London)

'Count' steals art worth millions

By Will Bennett, Art Sales Correspondent
ART and antiques thought to be worth millions of pounds have been stolen from more than a dozen of the world's leading dealers by a highly sophisticated gang of confidence tricksters. Old Master paintings, prints, antiquarian books and furniture have been taken by a team of Italians whose leader masquerades as a count and claims to be a wealthy collector. At least two leading London dealers have fallen victim to the smooth-talking Italians, along with others from New York, Paris and Amsterdam.
Two suspects were arrested in London recently when a dealer became wary of some prints they were trying to sell. They were subsequently released by police because of lack of evidence. The scam has been operating for about nine months but the Italians are believed to have used the renowned art fair at Maastricht in Holland in March to check out some of their victims and their stock. Dealers received phone calls from an Italian who seemed knowledgeable about art and antiques and who asked for a work of art to be brought to his home for inspection before deciding whether to buy it. Such arrangements are not uncommon in the art trade and the Italian put pressure on dealers by saying that he needed to see the work before the end of the week because he was going away. The paintings, prints and antiques were sent to a series of addresses in northern Italy that turned out to be luxuriously furnished apartments where the "count" apparently lived with his son and employed a secretary. The confidence tricksters handed over receipts for the works of art and on some occasions lavishly entertained the dealers or the intermediaries who had delivered them. Dealers became suspicious when they were fobbed off with a series of excuses for not returning the works but when they made inquiries they found that the apartments had been rented and the "count" had vanished.
So had the paintings and antiques which they had sent on approval and even the hospitality lavished on them turned out to have been paid for with stolen credit cards. Douwes Fine Art, based in London and Amsterdam, was one of the victims of the gang. It lost two Dutch still life paintings by Jasper Geerards and Jan van den Hecke, worth up to UKPounds: 100,000 each.
Evert Douwes, a director of the firm, said yesterday: "This man of about 58 who seemed very knowledgeable told me that he was a count and that he lived in Toronto, travelled a lot and sometimes bought important paintings. He said that his wife actually had visited our gallery in Amsterdam. He was very sophisticated, very friendly and seemed to know a bit about the paintings. At least a dozen dealers have suffered over the past few months."
Mr Douwes believes that the total stolen amounts to several hundred thousand pounds but another dealer, who asked not to be named, said: "Not everyone has been open about how much they have lost. I think we could be looking at several million."
Charles Hill, risk manager for the art insurers Nordstern, which is offering a reward for the return of Mr Douwes's paintings, said: "This is the most sophisticated, well planned and well organised art theft in recent years."

Los Angeles eye doctor guilty of art theft fraud

06:11 p.m Jul 20, 1999 Eastern
LOS ANGELES, July 20 (Reuters) - A wealthy Beverly Hills eye doctor was convicted on Tuesday on fraud charges after arranging the theft of two of his own paintings to collect $17.5 million in insurance money.

Dr. Steven Cooperman, who could face more than 20 years in prison, had pleaded innocent, claiming that a former friend stole his Picasso's ``Nude Before a Mirror'' and Monet's ``The Custom Officer's Cabin at Pourville'' out of jealousy.
Cooperman showed little emotion when U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie read the verdict of guilty on the first of 18 counts against him. A jury convicted him on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, making false statements to banks and filing false tax returns.
Cooperman, 57, is scheduled to be sentenced in October. The trial turned on the testimony of James Tierney, a Los Angeles lawyer and Cooperman's former best friend. Tierney told the court that he and the ophthalmologist hatched the scheme in 1992 to get Cooperman out of financial trouble.
Tierney, who pleaded guilty to his part in the fraud and could face five years behind bars, said he stole the paintings while Cooperman was on vacation and gave them to a friend, James Little, to keep until the fuss died down and the insurance money was paid out. The plot fell apart when Little argued with his girlfriend and she told police the paintings were being hidden in a rented storage facility.
The U.S. government puts the current value of the two paintings at about $2.5 million but Cooperman had them insured for $12.5 million. He collected $17.5 million after suing his insurance company when it initially refused to pay up.

Russian Court Knocks Down Art Law

By ANGELA CHARLTON Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's Constitutional Court stepped into one of the country's most prickly post-Cold War disputes today, striking down parts of a law that would prevent the return of art the Soviet army plundered from Nazi Germany after World War II.
The law now goes back to parliament for revision, leaving more than 1 million paintings, books, coins and other so-called trophy art languishing in the museum basements that have housed them for a half century.
Many Russians - and Russian legislators who pushed through the law - fiercely oppose returning the art, viewing it as rightful restitution for the huge human, material and cultural loss inflicted on the Soviet Union by the Nazis.
But President Boris Yeltsin wants to negotiate with Germany - a major trading partner - on the sensitive issue and does not want to be bound by the law. Yeltsin had asked the Constitutional Court to assess the validity of the law, which he was forced to sign last year after parliament overrode his veto.
In an 80-page ruling Tuesday, the court said some articles of the law violate Russia's constitution and international obligations. One problem is that the law does not distinguish between art that belonged to Nazi Germany and works that were looted by the Nazis. The justices said Russia must consider claims from individuals, organizations or governments deemed Nazi victims. The Nazis had looted collections from individuals and museums in several European countries, which in turn were confiscated by the Soviets.
The court did not support all of Yeltsin's complaints. It upheld articles in the law which say that Russia is not obliged to return trophy art to governments of ``aggressor nations'' - meaning Germany and its wartime allies.
Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum, called the ruling a careful compromise ``that reflects today's political realities.''
``It's time someone offered a compromise. We've been behaving as if we were still at war,'' Piotrovsky said. The Hermitage is among the few Russian museums that have exhibited some disputed works in recent years.
The compromise, however, meant that both sides were claiming victory. Yeltsin's envoy to the Constitutional Court, Mikhail Mityukov, cautiously welcomed the ruling.
One of the law's authors, Communist lawmaker Nikolai Gubenko, seemed unfazed by the decision and told reporters he would resist revising the law.
The law does not ban the return of trophy art outright, but deems all the art works Russian property and introduces complicated procedures for restitution, making it extremely unlikely any art would be returned.
The issue has complicated otherwise good relations between Russia and Germany in recent years. Germany has long demanded the return of the collections, and Yeltsin has indicated a willingness to negotiate. In Germany, the chairwoman of the German parliament's culture committee, Elke Leonhard, expressed disappointment that the law wasn't thrown out completely. ``This is basically a victory for the nationalists and communists,'' she told Germany's WDR radio, adding that Germany would continue to demand the return of the art, but in a ``sensible and civilized'' way. At stake are an estimated 1 million books, 55,000 paintings, sculptures and other art works, and 175,000 coins and medals the Red Army emptied from bunkers, basements, mine shafts, museums and castles in Germany. Among the booty were works by painters Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne and Francisco Goya.
Red Army troops also made off with paintings and other art works from Germany's World War II ally, Hungary.
Russia's Restitution Commission says the Nazis seized or destroyed 760,000 items from the Soviet Union. One of Catherine the Great's palaces alone lost 29,000 pieces, including the incomparable Amber Room. On Monday, the German gas company Ruhrgas announced it was donating more than $3.4 million to help reconstruct the Amber Room.

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