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September 22, 1999
CONTENTS:
- Preserving Historic Buildings (William A. Heidecker)
- Court Rules on Museum Art's Return (New York's highest court ruled MOMA can return two paintings to Austria despite allegations that they had been stolen by the Nazis from their Jewish owners)
- Gallery Owner To Be Tried for Art (New York gallery owner will be tried by a French court for owning a work of art which was part of a famous Jewish family's collection looted by the Nazis in 1943)
- Sacred Objects Returned to Navajos, Items out of Tribal Hands for a Decade
- Re: Interpol CD (Steve Keller)
From: "William A. Heidecker" heideckerwa@worldnet.att.net
Subject: Preserving Historic Buildings
An article has been published in the NFPA Journal, published by the National Fire Protection Association, entitled "Preserving Historic Buildings." The article is too long for publication here.
Interested parties should contact Bill Heidecker off-line at heideckerwa@worldnet.att.net to obtain a copy.
Court Rules on Museum Art's Return
By JESSE J. HOLLAND Associated Press Writer
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York's highest court ruled Tuesday that the Museum of Modern Art can return two paintings to Austria despite allegations that they had been stolen by the Nazis from their Jewish owners. In a 6-1 ruling, the Court of Appeals threw out a grand jury subpoena ordering the museum not to send Expressionist artist Egon Schiele's ``Dead City III'' and ``Portrait of Wally'' back to the Leopold Foundation in Vienna. The subpoena, obtained by Manhattan's district attorney, had drawn protests that it could have a chilling effect on the international lending of art works between museums. The two paintings were among more than 100 loaned to MOMA by the Leopold Foundation. Three days after MOMA's exhibit ended in 1998, Henry Bondi of Princeton, N.J., Kathleen Rief of Vancouver, British Columbia, and Rita Rief of New York City filed claims saying the paintings had been taken from their relatives when Germany annexed Austria in 1938. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau then subpoenaed the two works, requiring that they be kept in the United States while his office investigated the claims. MOMA argued that it was contractually obligated to return the paintings. The museum also argued that state law bars any interference - by anyone for any reason - with art loaned to New York institutions by foreign entities. Prosecutors maintained that the law historically applied only to civil proceedings, not criminal inquiries. However, the appeals court ruled Tuesday that the state law makes no exception for criminal investigations. MOMA officials - while supporting efforts to recover misappropriated art - welcomed the ruling, saying that if they had surrendered the paintings it would have discouraged other foreign institutions from lending works of art to museums in the United States. ``This is a victory for all the people and museums of our state because it means that New York will continue to be the cultural center of our world,'' MOMA said in a statement. The paintings were collected by Rudolf Leopold, who sold them to the Austrian government in 1993 and has argued that they were legally acquired.
The Leopold's board of directors had called the subpoena ``a heavy blow against international art exchange and international lending.''
Gallery Owner To Be Tried for Art
PARIS (AP) - A New York gallery owner will be tried by a French court for owning a work of art which was part of a famous Jewish family's collection looted by the Nazis in 1943. French judicial officials said Tuesday that an appeals court had ruled that Adam Williams, the owner of Newhouse Galleries, will be tried for ``receiving stolen goods.'' No date has yet been set.
Williams bought the painting by Dutch master Franz Hals, ``Portrait of the Pastor Adrianus Tegularius,'' at a Christie's auction in 1989. The officials said Williams claims not to have known the work was stolen. Williams didn't immediately return calls placed to the Newhouse Galleries. The painting was part of a 333-work collection owned by a well-known art connoisseur named Adolphe Schloss. Adolf Hitler had the impressive collection marked for seizure long before Germany's invasion of France. Descendants of Schloss are still trying to find most of the paintings. One of Schloss' descendants recognized the work as part of the family collection when it was shown in an exhibition in Paris in 1990. It was then seized by police.
Judicial officials said Williams, if found guilty, risks up to five years in jail and a $416,700 fine. A French court initially threw out the case against Williams in 1996. But two years later, the country's highest court, the Court of Cassation, re-opened the case. In an effort to recover the Schloss family's collection, the French government last year published a catalogue of the collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings.
Sacred Objects Returned to Navajos
Items out of Tribal Hands for a Decade
PHOENIX (AP) -- Four sacred artifacts being returned to the Navajo Nation are but a few of many treasured items lost over the years to thieves, tribal officials say. Navajo leaders planned a public prayer ceremony today in Window Rock to mark the artifacts' return after more than a decade spent out of tribal hands. "These artifacts were given to the Navajo people by our superiors, the powers," said Steven Begay, a Navajo cultural specialist. "For other people to have those items was not what they were intended for. They don't know how to use them or what they are used for." The centuries-old items have been identified by federal investigators as a mask, a tortoise shell and two coverings that may be drum heads or ceremonial vessel coverings.
Some artifacts tracked to dealers Begay declined to say what the items were or how they are used. Dozens of items held by museums and private collectors have been returned voluntarily to the tribe since federal legislation in 1990 cracked down on looting of American Indian sites. The latest objects being returned are among the few the Navajos have received through criminal investigations. Noel Johns, an agent with the Bureau of Land Management, said investigators recovered the artifacts in 1991 after tracking them to dealers in Santa Fe, N.M., and New York. He said they had been taken from a cave in northwestern New Mexico in 1986, before it was a crime.
Man pleaded guilty to sales The mask was recovered from a Tucson home. The other objects were found at a Santa Fe gallery. A New Mexico man pleaded guilty in 1992 to selling the artifacts. Johns said it has taken years to return the objects to the Navajo because federal regulations require that authorities ensure the objects are being returned to the proper tribe.
From: IntlArtCop@aol.com
Subject: Re: Interpol CD
In a message dated 9/20/99 11:39:03 PM, Virginia curry writes:
I would personally respond to those who would equate the negotiation for the return of stolen property with the recovery of a human kidnapping victim by saying that I do not agree that the value of a single human life can possibly be compared with any work of art or cultural patrimony, whatever the value of the treasure. By promoting negotiation for stolen property, for some form of compensation, usually money, you are merely creating the market for future exploitation. You are creating the demand side of the equasion. Most countries do not negotiate with terrorists over human life, why should there be negotiation with "terrorists" who threaten to hide or destroy art?
Thanks to Virginia et al for providing insight into the issue of the CD ROM. As I said in my original post, "What am I missing here?" Knowing that guilty parties often consult the database for the purpose of ascertaining if a reward has been posted answers my question. It would, indeed, be unfortunate if this resource denied law enforcement of information as to who is making such an inquiry. I'm still not totally convinced that the limited value of this knowledge outweighs the other advantages of such a database. Sometimes "purely civil" interests may legitimately be perceived to outweigh law enforcement interests. Sometimes the press or the public or private investigators working toward recovery have a right to know things to be learned from the database. Does this by its nature conflict with law enforcement? Not everyone inquiring about a reward is a crook. But you have convinced me that your desire to have an audit trail is not just a knee jerk reaction as sometimes is the case. Governments often gather information for the sake of gathering information and this makes some of us question the practice even when it is legit.
As for the comment about kidnapping of a child and recovery of a work of art, you misinterpret my comments. I agree with you when you say that "I do not agree that the value of a single human life can possibly be compared with any work of art or cultural patrimony". I suspect that you knew that I wasn't trying to make such an equation and I suspect that you know that I do not advocate negotiating with terrorists. Let me ask our readers a question, however. "How many of you really truly believe that no one negotiates for recovery of works of art?" Come on, raise your hands! What on Earth do you think a reward is, anyway? I've been hired to make more than a couple comments to the press after major thefts which were intended for the ears of the thieves in an effort to start negotiations. But let's not go there. There are some things which really should not be discussed in this forum. And that includes how the law enforcement side of the art theft case gathers its information and how the owner of the art and its representatives sometimes get it back.
There are very strong feelings about the issue of paying of a ransom for works of art, as you know if you read the thread about the Gardner theft when it looked like someone might give it back for a fee. While the art is nothing like a human life, the PROCESS, in reality, sometimes IS like the negotiation for a kidnapped child. To the credit of most museums, they generally do not pay a ransom. But that does not mean that there is no negotiation process that takes place, usually prior to the arrest. That was my point.
As a former law enforcement officer, I have become jaded about crime and punishment. When Nick Pace stole the three Cezanne's in Chicago in 1978 and was arrested in 1979 (by our colleague Bob Spiel), he was out of jail in about three years (Bob, correct me if my memory is wrong but didn't he get 5 to 8?). Most of the time he got, he got for showing a gun during the sell-back negotiations (where he was arrested). Is it any wonder that some people are not opposed to paying a ransom to get back a truly great work of art? Some elderly woman here in the US was found to have 50 dead cats in her freezer and she was charged with cruelty to animals and taken to jail by the police. She said she just couldn't bring herself to dispose of all of her former dead pets (which presumably died natural deaths one at a time over a many year period with a saucers of warm milk at their bedsides), so she stored them in the freezer. This poor soul will get more time in jail than some art thieves.
Gee, is that Keller getting opinionated in his old age!
Steve Keller
Museum Security Consultant
steve@stevekeller.com
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