December 8, 1999
CONTENTS:
- U.S. Imposes Emergency Import Restriction on Khmer Stone Archaeological Material
- query: research project and museums' collections management
- Discovery of masterpieces shakes Paris
- Louvre returns Nazi art
- Meeting on antiquities turns angry in London
- Reward Offered for Stolen Picassos
- Stolen Cézanne found after 21 years fetches GBP.18 million
- Re: Museum Fires
- Exolart & an academic's inquiry (Jonathan Sazonoff)
U.S. Imposes Emergency Import Restriction on Khmer Stone
Archaeological Material
The U.S. Government is imposing an emergency import restriction on certain Khmer stone archaeological material ranging in date from the 6th century A.D. through the 16th century A.D. This step is taken in response to a request from the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia seeking U.S. assistance to protect its national cultural heritage that is in jeopardy from pillage. The request was submitted to the United States under Article 9 of the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. Both countries are party to this Convention. Stone archaeological material is being pillaged throughout Cambodia at an alarming rate. Recent reports indicate free-standing sculpture, architectural elements and other stone artifacts are being illicitly removed from Cambodia by the truckload. Important monuments and sites, such as Angkor and Banteay Chhmar, are being damaged and destroyed by pillagers who, by means of chainsaws and chisels, detach architectural and sculptural elements from ancient Khmer temples for the illicit market. Stone monuments and sculpture produced during the Angkorian Empire illustrate a high degree of artistic, social and economic achievement of the Khmer culture. Much of it also evidences the profound religious and social beliefs of the Khmer culture. The decision to impose this emergency import restriction was taken after the Cultural Property Advisory Committee reviewed Cambodia's request and made findings and recommendations in support of this action. The Department concurs in the Committee's finding that the material is a part of the remains of the Khmer culture "the record of which is in jeopardy from pillage, dismantling, dispersal, or fragmentation which is, or threatens to be, of crisis proportions." By taking this action, the Government of the United States demonstrates its respect for the cultural heritage of other countries and decries the global pillage that results in an illicit trade in cultural objects and the irretrievable loss of information about human history. The United States takes this action in the hope it will reduce the incentive for further pillage of the unique and non-renewable cultural heritage of the people of Cambodia.
# # #
The United States Department of State is responsible for implementing the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (the Act). This is the enabling legislation for the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. In accordance with the Act, United States Department of State accepts requests from countries for import restrictions on archaeological or ethnological artifacts, the pillage of which places their national cultural heritage in jeopardy. The Cultural Property Advisory Committee, appointed by the president of the United States, reviews these requests and makes recommendations to the United States Department of State. [End of Press Statement]
For more information, please see the Cultural Property web site:
http://e.usia.gov/education/culprop.
From: Janet Kroll jkroll@dttus.com
Subject: need your help
Hello, my name is Janet Kroll, and I am a student from DePaul University in Chicago, Il. I am doing a research project and museums' collections management and how current inventories are run. Since this is a museum security network, I figure there would be a number of experts who should get this message and could answer appropriately. I have a number of questions I would like to ask, and I would GREATLY appreciate a response. If you would include your position and where you work, that would be very helpful also. My e-mail address is jkroll@dttus.com or you could go through the network; I just figured e-mailing me direct would be faster. Any other information or additional people I should talk to would be very helpful. I would be very grateful to your response to any or all of the questions as soon as possible. Thank you for your time. The questions go as follows:
-Do you have any type of collections management system in place? If so, what specifically does it involve?
-Why do you feel some sort of collections management is necessary?
-How does your inventory system work? Do you take a physical inventory? How often?
-For each item you document, what information do you include?
-Have you ever used an outside consulting/accounting firm to assist in reviewing your collections management process?
-Is the inventory done through a centralized system or broken down by departments?
-What sort of computerization, if any is involved with taking an inventory?
Discovery of masterpieces shakes Paris
FROM ADAM SAGE IN PARIS
FRENCH art patrons were stunned yesterday to learn that 24 missing masterpieces by the likes of Toulouse-Lautrec, Manet and Renoir have been discovered in a Swiss safe. The works are thought to be part of a collection worth tens of millions of pounds left by a wealthy Frenchwoman, Anne-Marie Rouart, who was Edouard Manet's great-niece. The find, which was revealed by Le Figaro yesterday, adds to the deep mystery that has surrounded the collection since Mme Rouart's death in 1993. A criminal investigation is under way amid allegations of theft and fraud that have shaken the rarefied world of Parisian art. Mme Rouart's nephew, Yves Rouart, says that there is still no trace of four of the works, including Manet's La Chanteuse de Café Concert, which is worth at least GBP.1 million. He says that at least some of the masterpieces were left to him by his aunt. Yesterday Marianne Delafond, a curator at the Marmottan museum in Paris, confirmed the discovery of 24 important 19th-century paintings in a safe belonging to her father, François Daulte, a Swiss publisher, after his death last year. "We don't know how they got there," she said yesterday. "We informed M Rouart immediately. It is possible that they belong to him." Expressing surprise that the affair had been made public, she said: "I think this is rather ignoble." The works were found by Mme Delafond and her brother, Olivier Daulte, an art expert named as one of the executors of Mme Rouart's will, in the safe at the Crédit Suisse bank in Lausanne. The list reads like a Who's Who of 19th-century giants and includes two paintings by Degas, two by Renoir, one each by Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, Delacroix and Corot, six by Manet, nine by Berthe Morisot, and a copy of an Italian painting. "How did these oeuvres get into François Daulte's safe?" Le Figaro asked yesterday. When 27 works by the same artists, also drawn from the Rouart family collection, went on sale in 1997 they fetched a total of GBP.7.2 million. This latest chapter has fuelled a row that began when Mme Rouart left a will that has been a source of conflict. She asked the Academy of Arts in Paris to ensure that her collection was handed to the Marmottan Museum, and in November, 1997, 150 masterpieces went on display there. But she also bequeathed all her furniture to her nephew. Under French law, the term "furniture" includes any paintings hanging in the deceased's house, according to Le Figaro. M Rouart argues that 40 of the 150 masterpieces now at the Marmottan adorned his aunt's walls and are therefore his by right. He says the museum should only have received those paintings stored in the safe of the celebrated Wildenstein gallery in Paris. In 1997, M Rouart took legal action to launch a criminal inquiry into his allegation that he has been robbed and defrauded. M Rouart says that, in addition to the 150 paintings given to the Marmottan Museum, about 28 disappeared after his aunt's death. The Parisian investigating magistrate, Nelly Pauto-Pfister, has been placed in charge of the case. In a letter to Mme Pauto-Pfister, M Rouart says: "If a part of the works that mysteriously disappeared have been found, we still have not discovered the whereabouts of three paintings by Edouard Manet and one by Corot." The importance of the paintings can scarcely be exaggerated, with the 1997 Rouart sale described as "historic". Yesterday Le Figaro said the Academy of Arts was prepared to settle with M Rouart in its dispute with him although it gave no further details. But the paper added: "Many more developments can be expected."
http://www.the-times.co.uk/
Louvre returns Nazi art
A RADIANT picture by Tiepolo, arguably the greatest painter of the 18th century, is among five Old Masters returned by the Louvre in Paris to the original owners half a century after their confiscation by the Nazis (Dalya Alberge writes). Five of the paintings had been in the Louvre for the past 50 years and a sixth, another Tiepolo, was acquired by the Berlin Gemaldegalerie in 1979. On receiving them back, the owners decided to sell the works through Christie's. They are expected to fetch between GBP.924,000 and GBP.1.2 million.
http://www.the-times.co.uk/
Suspicion raised over National Gallery artefact
By JOYCE MORGAN
An international expert on illegal antiquities has raised the spectre of looted art in the National Gallery of Australia. Dr Neil Brodie, co-ordinator of the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre at Cambridge, wrote to the gallery in September asking how it had acquired a 10th-century Indian temple column. He said he had not received a reply to his letter or follow-up e-mail. Dr Brodie, who addressed a Sydney conference on art crime yesterday, said temples and historic sites in South-East Asia were being looted, and antiquities sold abroad. ''I wrote to [the NGA] and asked what their acquisitions policy was ... and what checks were in place,'' he said outside the conference. Dr Brodie is concerned that looted material could end up in galleries. He has asked the NGA about the provenance, or pedigree, of the column, and wants to know how it was removed from India, and when. The more recently a piece had been removed, the more likely it was to have been looted, Dr Brodie said. ''The cultural damage caused by the unrecorded removal of artefact is irreparable. ''People assume something is innocent until proven guilty. I think we should be taking the opposite tack: guilty until proven innocent.'' Dr Brodie said the public should be more aware of the extent of the trade in illicit antiquities and more questioning of objects they saw for sale. ''They see all these objects appearing, and they don't ask where they're coming from,'' he said. ''They just think: 'Oh, that's nice' ... they have to do more checking into things.'' The National Gallery's director, Dr Brian Kennedy, said he was not aware of Dr Brodie's letter or e-mail. All reasonable checks had been made, and there was no evidence to suggest the column - which had been bought from Sotheby's in New York in September 1998 - had been looted. ''Obviously, you can't prove it wasn't, but you can make every effort to check, in as much as you can do that,'' Dr Kennedy said. The column, believed to be from a Jain temple in Madhya Pradesh or Rajasthan, was a relatively inexpensive purchase and was not vital to India's national heritage, he said. Dr Kennedy did not know how long the work had been in America.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/9912/06/text/national16.html
Meeting on antiquities turns angry in London
BY WARREN HOGE
New York Times
LONDON -- It was meant to be a hands-across-the-channel academic symposium to soothe with reason wounded national feelings over who -- Britain or Greece -- is the rightful owner of one of the world's most cherished antiquities, the Elgin Marbles. Instead, it turned into a combative exchange of accusations and resentments, and even the normally hospitable gesture of breaking bread together ended up only increasing hostilities among the 200 archaeologists, conservationists and cultural officials gathered at the British Museum.
Food spread `tactless'
When drinks and sandwiches were laid out alongside the 2,500-year-old treasures, many delegates found it such an act of profanity that they refused to eat and bolted the hall. The ham-and-cheese beneath the graceful Hellenic sculptures was also an indelicate reminder of the embarrassing revelation last month that the gallery housing them in the British Museum is regularly rented out for high-priced fundraising parties. ``It was disrespectful and tactless in the extreme, in view of the recent controversy,'' said Constantine Bitsios, chargé d'affaires of the Greek Embassy, in one of the more polite comments of the day. The simmering feud over the fate of the 17 figures and 56 panels of a giant frieze that once decorated the Parthenon, on the Acropolis, has taken on added heat because of new scholarship exposing reckless past treatment of the treasures by the British Museum and the desire of Greece to have them returned in time for the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Thomas Bruce, the seventh earl of Elgin -- the name is pronounced with a hard ``g'' -- took them from the Parthenon temple in 1801 while he was British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, which then included Greece. The Greeks contend that he stole them; Britain says he lawfully purchased them. The government here has an unambiguous view of where they should remain. ``There has been no change at all in the government's view that the Elgin Marbles were properly acquired, legally acquired, by the British Museum,'' said an official of the Department of Culture. The marbles have been on display in the museum since 1816, and it is estimated that they are now viewed by 6 million people a year. The British have contended that bringing them to London preserved them from neglect and deterioration in Athens. But the Greeks now say the greatest damage done them occurred during a scouring operation at the British Museum 60 years ago. ``There truly was a barbarous cleaning,'' said Elisavet Papazoi, Greek's culture minister. ``The marbles were tortured.'' Mistreatment alleged
Evidence for the charge emerged in a book by one of the speakers at the symposium, William St. Clair, 61, a former treasury and defense senior civil servant who studied Greek sculpture at Oxford and is now a history fellow at Cambridge. He claims that museum cleaners used steel wool, Carborundum, hammers and copper chisels to ``skin'' the marbles' original stained patina and that the museum conducted an ``illegal and improper coverup'' of the flawed work, repeatedly misleading prime ministers and religious leaders about the extent of the harm. Ian Jenkins, the museum's assistant keeper of the department of Greek and Roman antiquities, pleased the Greek visitors to the London conference Tuesday by confirming much of St. Clair's account of the faulty cleaning and the subsequent concealment. He acknowledged that the episode was a ``scandal'' but said only 40 percent -- not the 80 percent the author claimed -- of the marbles had been affected. But then he charged that identical techniques, including scraping and chiseling with metal instruments, had been used in Athens in the 1950s on the Hephaesteum temple and that two of the finest carvings ``still rot on the Parthenon as I speak.'' Greek officials reacted with outrage. `` `Rotting' is a very hard word -- that makes me very angry,'' said Ismini Trianti, director of the Acropolis museum. ``The subject of this conference is not what we have done in Greece. We can organize another conference in Greece for that.''
http://www7.mercurycenter.com/premium/world/docs/marbles02.htm
Reward Offered for Stolen Picassos
Restaurant: Their Value Is More Sentimental Than Financial
By Keith Coffman
EDWARDS, Colo. (APBnews.com) -- A $10,000 reward is being offered to anyone with information leading to the arrest or indictment of whomever stole three original Pablo Picasso artworks from a restaurant bearing the name of the late Spanish artist. Officials from the Cordillera Lodge & Spa, a mountain resort 125 miles west of Denver, announced the incentive today in the hope of securing the return of two etchings and a ceramic self-portrait -- worth $41,500 -- that were stolen from the lodge's Picasso Restaurant on Nov. 20. "The art has great emotional value to the property," said Cordillera CEO Gerry Engle. "The value of the art is more sentimental than financial, and we hope that the reward will convince anyone with knowledge of the theft to help us recover these pieces." No suspects in the case
Engle said the works have been hanging on the restaurant's walls since its opening in 1989, and "define the facility's name, theme and decor." Eagle County Sheriff's Office Investigator Doug Winters said the thefts occurred during an afternoon lull between lunch and dinner service, and that there were no customers in the eatery at the time. Police have no suspects in the case, he said. Related Stories: Cordillera marketing coordinator Sean Derning told APBnews.com when the thefts were made public last week that the thieves passed up prints of Picasso's works that also line the restaurant's walls, and went straight for the originals, which were bolted to the walls. Employees have been questioned about the thefts, he added. The etchings, both from 1933, are etched on laid paper and hand-signed by Picasso, who died in 1973. The first, "Dues Models Vetus Plate 42 from the Vollard Suite," is signed in red crayon. The other, "Le Pepos de Sculpteur devant une Breehanale au Tyaureau Plate 56 from the Vollard Suite," is signed in pencil. The self-portrait, "Visage d'hote," is a 1968 piece, partially glazed on a ceramic tile. The work is numbered and stamped on the reverse side.
All originals are valuable
Professor Karen Matthews, who heads the art history department at the University of Colorado at Denver, said the value of Picasso works vary according to when they were crafted, but most have high value because of the artist's contributions and reputation. "He revolutionized art with his personal and passionate displays through various media," she said. "We lived Picasso's life through his art." Matthews added that Picasso's "marketing and cunning" of his work during his long career also contributed to his legend. "He was a spectacular self-promoter: a P.T. Barnum of the art world," she said. Engle said that art dealers and galleries nationwide have been alerted to be on the lookout for the pilfered works. Anyone with information on the thefts should contact the Eagle County Sheriff's Office at (970) 328-7007. To remain anonymous, call Eagle County Crimestoppers at (800) 962-TIPS. Confidential e-mails can also be sent to the sheriff's Web site at http://www.eaglesheriff.com
Keith Coffman is an APBnews.com correspondent in Colorado.
Stolen Cézanne found after 21 years fetches GBP.18 million
BY DALYA ALBERGE ARTS CORRESPONDENT
A STILL LIFE by Cézanne which was stolen 21 years ago and recovered only weeks ago was sold last night for GBP.18.5 million. Buyers were so determined to acquire the French master's Bouilloire et fruits (Pewter Pitcher and Fruit) that they soon passed the estimate of GBP.9 million to GBP.12 million. Hundreds of buyers crammed into the saleroom and spilled over into two nearby rooms. Bidding jumped at GBP.500,000 a time before passing GBP.18 million in less than a minute. The oil on canvas, painted between 1888 and 1890, was part of a sale of Impressionist and Modern Art at Sotheby's which included 25 Picassos owned by Gianni Versace, the fashion designer who was shot dead two years ago outside his Miami home. They overshadowed the GBP.5.28 million fetched by a Van Gogh drawing, L'Olivette, an olive grove against an undulating landscape. In a landmark ruling, the Van Gogh had been returned this summer by the National Gallery in Berlin to a descendant of the original owner, Max Silberberg, a Breslau businessman who died in a concentration camp. He had been forced by the Nazis to part with his collection for next to nothing in one of the "Jew auctions" held between 1933 and 1938. His 85-year-old daughter-in-law, Gerta - who fled Germany in 1939 with her husband, Alfred, and lives in the Midlands - won the return of the drawing. Last night's extraordinary prices continued a trend set by Sotheby's in London: in the past 18 months it has broken records with the sale of Monet's Japanese Bridge for GBP.19.8 million and Degas's Danseuse en repos for GBP.17.6 million. The Cézanne, a vivid depiction of fruit including apples, oranges and a lemon, was bought in 1958 by two paediatricians - the late Harry Bakwin and his wife, one of the great American collecting families. It was stolen from the Massachusetts house of one of their children. The Art Loss Register, the database for stolen art and antiques, helped international police forces in retrieving it just weeks ago. One of the Bakwin children immediately put it up for sale. The Picassos included portraits of three of the artist's children. Young Girl with Boat, 1938, is of his eldest daughter, Maya, dressed in a sailor suit and holding a model boat: it sold for GBP.3.74 million against an estimate of between GBP.2 million and GBP.3 million. Others include a portrait of Paloma, his second daughter, estimated at between GBP.600,000 and GBP.800,000: it sold for GBP.936,500. A depiction inspired by his mistress Dora Maar, the photographer and painter with whom he had an eight-year affair while married to Olga Koklova, went for GBP.3.3 million, against an estimate of GBP.4 million to GBP.6 million.
From: Jack Watts
Subject: Re: Museum Fires
This is in response to Tina who wanted information about the Cabildo and other museum fires. The video "Culture Shock" features the Cabildo fire with interviews of the Director and the New Orleans Fire Chief. It is available for shipping costs from The National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, Phone - 318-357-6464, E-mail - NCPTT@alpha.nsula.edu This and several other significant museum fires in the US and abroad are described in Appendix A of NFPA 909, Standard for the Protection of Cultural Resources. It is available from the National Fire Protection Association, http://www.nfpa.org
John M. Watts, Jr., Ph.D., Director
Fire Safety Institute, P.O. Box 674, Middlebury, VT 05753 USA
voice/fax: (802) 462-2663 email: firesafe@middlebury.net
URL: http://middlebury.net/firesafe/
From: Jonathan Sazonoff saz@kwom.com
Subject: Exolart & an academic's inquiry
Dear Subscribers,
Several items of interest. First the French company Exol'art is back on line with a revised stolen items list "Récents vols de meubles anciens et d'oeuvres d'art en France"
http://www.art-antiquites.com/fr/oeuvres-art/txt/vol.html
Next, received an interesting series of questions, that I hesitate to answer. Does anyone on the list care to venture an opinion on art theft & organized crime?
Subject: Information request-Univ. of Pittsburgh
Date: Fri, 03 Dec 1999 12:14:39 EST
From: "Mark Coates" markcoates@hotmail.com
Dear Mr. Sazonoff,
I am a graduate student writing a research paper on art and antiquities theft. I have several questions I hope you can help answer. 1.) How organized is the art and antiquities theft market? Is it predominately the involvement of brokers and dealers? 2.) How extensive is the role of organized crime in the U.S. regarding art and antiquities theft? In Europe? Asia? 3.) What types of networks are involved in art and antiquities theft? Is there involvement of drug smuggling groups etc? Cooperation between organized crime groups worldwide?
Thank-you for your assistance and I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Mark Coates
Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
University of Pittsburgh
Hello Mark,
As to your question, the scope of the art theft is quite wide. It ranges from kids pulling pranks - stealing statues from college campuses, to cultural kleptomaniacs, people with personal grievances, insurance fraudsters, strong arm thieves, burglars and other perpetrators of cultural property crime.
Thus I hesitate to look at cultural property crime as an organized field. Indeed, there have been theft rings broken across the world. Cases such as the Chinese warehouses filled with Cultural relics, or a trove of Italian antiquities found in Switzerland prove that such operations have, and do exist. Indeed there was even the case, a few years ago, where the old KGB clandestinely exchanged arms and money for Middle Eastern treasures.
How extensive is the illicit art trade? The numbers have been declining. From a $3,000,000,000 annual figure in the early 1990's the numbers have dropped to $1,000,000,000 - $500,000,000 as we approach the 21st century. There was once a comment by a Czech official lamenting that the rates of cultural theft were falling, only because thieves already took everything.
As to US crime rings - with lucrative ventures such as gambling, drugs, adult entertainment, extortion and fraud - I'm not sure what portion of mob resources are left to deal in stolen art. Great art works are practicably unfencable because of the electronic communication revolution. Auction catalogues are checked (eliminating high bid sales) news of thefts are published, put on the internet even broadcast thus unique materials are getting harder to sell. The problem with stealing a masterpiece is its lack of anonymity. If something is hot you don't want to draw attention to it. Prospective client don't want to get artworks knowing they can never sell them. Remember that a thief can never pass good title to an object. Who ever is left holding the stolen art loses.
As to Europe, most crime rings I assume are not connected. The Russian mob dealt some Icons in Germany several years ago, Italian antiquities traffickers have been busted in Switzerland, some English pieces have shown up in South Carolina, and Greek treasures have been found in Florida. So yes, there is some international traffic in stolen goods but to what extent or in a %, I don't know. As to Asia, well the Bizarres of Pakistan are noted for their Afghan antiquities. The markets of Thailand are known for their Cambodian pieces and the antiques districts of Hong Kong and Singapore are noted for their antiquities of unknown provenience. The Chinese have dealt harshly with those in the illegal antiquities trade. The death sentence has even been used to deter such offenses.
As to international drug rings and arms smugglers, there is anecdotal evidence that stolen art works have been used as both collateral and trophy. With deals in the millions of dollars (already involving contraband)there might be some criminal elements that unfortunately collect art.
For further information, there are several items that may be of interest listed in the article section of the Museum Security Network http://www.museum-security.org More specific reports can be found on the web-sites mailing list (reports).
As to an international web of organized crime - I don't feel qualified to offer an informed opinion. My research is more about lost objects of art, rather than on organized crime. A brief search of the web found several links on that topic that might be of help. Examples:
http://www.ganglandnews.com/
http://www.americanmafia.com/
http://www.afpc.org/issues/crime.htm
http://members.tripod.com/~orgcrime/index2.htm
Hope this response, in part, answers your questions. Perhaps the subscribers to MSN might be willing to offer you some wider perspectives.
Regards,
Jonathan Sazonoff
President SAZ PRODUCTIONS, INC.
http://www.saztv.com