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Museum Security website statistics; over 1000 hits per week

August 20, 1999

CONTENTS:

- Art protect (David Shillingford)
- screenplay on the subject of Nazi stolen art
- Ex-UCLA Official Goes on Trial in Theft of Painting
- Nepal gets back smuggled ancient sculptures
- Looters Threaten Peru's Ancient Treasures
- Japan's fiscal woes force secret sales of famous artworks
- Jewish lawyers enter Nazi-looted art fray

From: "David Shillingford" DavidSALRNY@worldnet.att.net
Subject:

RE: Art protect

Date sent: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 09:26:09 -0400
Dear Mr Triebold
The ART-PROTECT service sounds interesting. The level of service is, of course, directly related to the quantity and quality of the database that is being searched.
Do we have to pay a fee to find out this information or would you be kind enough to share some statistics with the museum security network?
David Shillingford
+++++++++++++++++
quote:
Ladies and Gentlemen,
To my surprise I have noticed your listing of art recovering organizations on the internet all over the world but without naming our organization. ART-PROTECT is probably the worlds only on-line database listing all kind of lost art and of value. Every object is described in four languages ( German, French, Italian and English) and a photograph. A special search engine will help to find the particular piece of thousands one is looking for. All advertisements concerning lost and stolen art to be registered are free of charge. The access code to enter the database costs CHF 1'000.-- entrance fee and CHF 250.-- for the annual period for un unlimited access of all staff members of a company.
with kind regards
A. Triebold

++++++++++++++++++++++
David Shillingford
d_j_s@bigfoot.com
Tel : 212 262 4831
Fax: 305 768 6176
Cell: 917 520 5093
UK: 171 235 3393
Web: http://www.artloss.com

from: Benjamin Pettis benjamin@freelanceny.com I am currently writing a screenplay on the subject of Nazi stolen art and would appreciate the input of any of your subscribers. Thank you. ___________________________________________________

Ex-UCLA Official Goes on Trial in Theft of Painting

LOS ANGELES--The former head of student counseling services at UCLA went on trial in federal court Tuesday on charges of stealing a 19th century painting that hung in her office at Murphy Hall, the campus administration building, and selling it to a New York art gallery for $200,000. In his opening statement to jurors, Jane Crawford's defense lawyer said there is no proof that the university actually owns the landscape titled "Frost Flowers" by artist Arthur Wesley Dow. The prosecution says that the painting was donated by Dow's widow in 1928 to an association affiliated with UCLA's art department, and that it became the university's property when the association was dissolved. Crawford also contends that the painting was given to her as a gift by a UCLA colleague, Craig Cunningham, who kept it at his home for nearly 10 years. On the witness stand Tuesday, Cunningham denied giving it to her to keep. He said he expressed alarm when she told him she was considering selling the work.
Los Angeles Times.

Nepal gets back smuggled ancient sculptures

02:05 a.m. Aug 19, 1999 Eastern
KATHMANDU, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Four ancient Nepali sculptures smuggled to the United States have been returned to the Himalayan kingdom, a government official said on Thursday.
The art pieces recovered from a private collector in Los Angeles include an eighth century statue of a standing Buddha and three sculptures of different Hindu gods and goddesses from the 10th and 14th centuries.
``This is a big achievement,'' said Prakash Darnal, an archaeologist with the government's Department of Archaeology. ``Historically and archaeologically they are highly valuable.''
Department officials did not say how the pieces were recovered nor how they were smuggled out.
The Nepali capital, Kathmandu, and neighbouring towns are dotted with ancient temples. Many artefacts were smuggled out of Nepal during the 1970s due to lax security, officials said.

Looters Threaten Peru's Ancient Treasures

01:21 a.m. Aug 19, 1999 Eastern
By Alistair Scrutton
LIMA (Reuters) - Looters seeking to cash in on a booming worldwide market for artifacts are stealing everything from pots to jewelry to human bones and stripping Peru of one of the world's richest archaeological heritages, the government's cultural chief said Wednesday.
The treasure-smuggling is so extensive that as an illegal industry it comes second only to drug-trafficking in Peru, which is the world's largest supplier of coca, the raw material for cocaine.
``Peru is an enticing place for the illegal trade in cultural artifacts. This has grown in recent years,'' Luis Repetto, head of the national cultural institute, which administers archaeological sites, told Reuters.
Poverty at home and flourishing demand for ancient cultural objects abroad has expanded the illicit international trade in artifacts and threatens Peru's heritage despite government efforts.
Robberies are so wide-ranging looters have stolen artifacts from a church only yards from President Alberto Fujimori's Government Palace and medical students struggling to make ends meet have dug up skulls to sell to help finish their studies.
Gangs rob archaeological sites and smuggle their plunder to neighboring Latin American countries, Europe and the United States, Repetto said.
Ancient Peru was home to several advanced civilizations, including the huge Inca empire which ruled the Andean nation in the 15th and 16th centuries, leaving more than 100,000 archaeological sites spanning the country of 25 million people.
The nation's rich history interweaving Inca heritage with ancient pre-Columbian cultures and colonial Spanish treasures each year attracts thousands of tourists who contribute millions of dollars to Peru's poor economy.
Ironically, looting has increased due to Peru's success showing off its once-hidden treasures. As interest abroad rose among art collectors and tourists, smugglers also were attracted, Repetto said. While Machu Picchu, an Inca citadel perched on mountainous jungle in southern Peru, is one of the region's most visited tourist attractions, other finds have also placed Peru firmly on the archaeological map and in the world's museum catalogs. In 1987 archaeologists discovered the 1,700-year-old ''Sipan'' tomb adorned with gold objects, which has become a highlight of international exhibits.
Four years ago scientists unearthed from a snow-covered mountain in southern Peru what became one of Peru's most famous exhibits -- the Juanita mummy, a young girl sacrificed by the Incas 500 years ago. Her showing in the United States drew thousands, including first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.
``A lot of the time these international exhibitions have contributed to raise interest among disreputable collectors, who notice the objects at first hand or in catalogs,'' Repetto said. Robbers have a rich picking in a country where over 1 million artifacts are property of the state but only a small minority are protected.
Cultural objects, from old pots to jewelry to ancient human bones, are easy for thieves to find along desert valleys and mountain tops as they often lie exposed unprotected by authorities.
The government is fighting back -- creating a computerized catalog of Peru's archaeological heritage and training customs agents to identify illegal objects -- but the pillage continues.
``The police are doing their bit but it is not enough,'' Repetto said.

Japan's fiscal woes force secret sales of famous artworks

Thursday, August 19, 1999
By STEPHANIE STROM
THE NEW YORK TIMES
TOKYO -- With the stealth of a cat burglar, famous art is leaving Japan. Only a handful of bankers and art dealers know for sure where it is going, and they are not talking.
The paintings, including large numbers of van Goghs, Modiglianis, Renoirs and Picassos that vanished into Japan more than a decade ago, are being resold abroad as a result of Japan's economic problems. The paintings' whereabouts are now becoming even greater mysteries.
"We have already lost so much; we are losing so much still -- and I don't mean just we Japanese," said Shinichi Segi, an art critic who has tried to track paintings with only limited success. "The trail is going cold, perhaps forever."
Official trade figures show that from 1987 through 1991, the Japanese spent more than 1 trillion yen, or $8.7 billion at current exchange rates, on art. Many art dealers and scholars said the actual value was probably triple that amount.
Japanese collectors bought at least five of the most expensive works of art ever sold at auction, but only one, van Gogh's "Sunflowers," is still in Japan, in the corporate collection of Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Co.
The other four -- van Gogh's "Portrait of Dr. Gachet," Renoir's "Au Moulin de la Galette" and Picasso's "Acrobat and Young Harlequin" and "Pierrette's Wedding" -- have left Japan, apparently ending up in Europe or the United States, along with countless other paintings bought by the Japanese when their bubble economy was at its peak. "There's a loss of face associated with this art," said Chieko Hasegawa, owner of the Nichido Gallery in Ginza. "The sale of these paintings sends two messages: that you have financial difficulties and that you paid too much for them from the start."
The flurry of Japanese purchases in the late 1980s and early '90s sparked a wave of resentment in the art world. Curators and dealers regarded the Japanese purchases as losses. Some of the most prominent pieces disappeared into private homes and were rarely seen. Inevitably, the trophy prices that Japanese investors paid for real estate collapsed. Confronted with the fact that the value of their collateral did not match the value of their loans, banks began staking claims to whatever assets they could get their hands on, including art. In some cases, financial institutions lent money to collectors expressly for the purpose of purchasing art, so it was the collateral. More rarely, the financial institutions themselves bought paintings. Thus, many of the paintings purchased during that time ended up in the financial system. Although the rest of the world considers them treasures, in Japan they are literally bad assets, commonly referred to as "bad-debt art," the legacy of an era of profligate spending and lending that many would like to forget.
To be sure, some paintings have been located. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, for instance, recently acquired 10 works from Fukuoka City Bank, but the museum initially had to swear not to identify the specific works, the deal or the seller. Since then, however, the bank itself has talked about the sale.
But "Dr. Gachet" and "Moulin de la Galette," the two most expensive paintings ever bought at auction, have not been traced. In the spring of 1990, Ryoei Saito, then president of Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Co., paid a total of $160.6 million for the two paintings. Soon afterward Saito sent shivers through the art world when he said he intended to take the paintings to his grave, literally.
In 1992, however, bad debts caught up with Daishowa and Saito. His creditors cut off his control of Daishowa and seized the paintings, which then disappeared into their warehouse. The responsibility for selling the paintings fell to Fuji Bank, one of Daishowa's biggest creditors, and for five years, art dealers and collectors courted the bank. But Fuji held the paintings until 1997, when it sold "Moulin de la Galette" to an unidentified foreign buyer. Segi believes it fetched roughly $52.1 million, or two-thirds of the $78.1 million Saito paid.
"Dr. Gachet" has also been sold by Fuji, art dealers said, but no one knows who bought it, or when or for how much, although dealers assume that it sold for less than the $82.5 million it cost Saito. One recent report on German television said the piece had been sold to an American investor for $43 million, but art experts are dubious. Fuji Bank declined to comment, as did Sumitomo Bank, Mitsui Trust & Banking Co. and several other Japanese financial institutions whose names have been linked to art sales.
"These paintings coming out of Japan are being bought by wealthy people who lead private lives," said Michael Findlay, international director for 19th- and 20th-century art at Christie's, the auction house. "That's not unusual. The buyers of 70 percent of the works sold at auction are not identified."

The Jerusalem Post

Jewish lawyers enter Nazi-looted art fray

By MARILYN HENRY
NEW YORK (August 18) - In a high-profile case that pits claimants to Nazi-looted art against New York museums, including the Jewish Museum, an association of Jewish lawyers has become the first Jewish organization to enter the legal fray on behalf of the Nazi victims' heirs.
"The public has an overriding interest in investigating possible crimes, securing justice for Holocaust victims, and preventing New York from serving as a haven for Nazi-plundered art," said the American Section of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, as it filed a brief in state court on Monday.
Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau seized two Austrian impressionist paintings by Egon Schiele in January 1998, after allegations that the art, on loan to the Museum of Modern Art, had been stolen from Jews by Nazi agents or collaborators.
MOMA and other museums have argued in court that the paintings should have been returned to Austria under the terms of the exhibition contract. They also argued that the seizure would have a chilling effect on American cultural life because lenders would fear allowing American museums to borrow their art.
Morgenthau's office, in turn, accused the museums of using "scare tactics" and "frightening but hollow generalities about anticipated cultural disasters that simply are not materializing."
The basic issue is whether the art can be detained while there is an investigation about whether it is stolen property. The court is not determining ownership of these works, which are named "Dead City" and "Portrait of Wally." They were lent to MOMA by the Austrian-financed Leopold Foundation.
Although Jewish organizations have demanded that European nations, banks, and enterprises restore Jewish property and have insisted that, for example, France make a serious effort to return Nazi-looted art, none of these organizations have stepped forward in the Schiele case. The silence of Jewish organizations appears to stem from conflicts of interest in the art cases. Their major donors are among the New York elites who support the local civic cultural institutions. MOMA, which declined to detain the Schieles, is chaired by Ronald Lauder, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and an official of the World Jewish Congress. Lauder, the former US ambassador to Austria, also is a Schiele collector.
"We filed this brief to highlight the policy issues in this case, chief among them that the laws of the State of New York, and the state's fine cultural institutions, should not become vehicles for perpetuating the crimes of the Holocaust," said Matthew Kaliff, director of the lawyers' association.
These considerations "far outweigh the museum community's interest in the easy exchange of art," said the association's brief.
After Morgenthau seized the Schieles, Austria undertook a review of the art under federal control. Earlier this year, it returned to the Rothschild family an art and antiques collection that went on to fetch $89.5 million in a record-breaking auction last month in London.


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