THE former head of Scotland Yard's art and antiques squad disclosed
yesterday that the private sector was increasingly having to conduct
investigations into art crime because the police were downgrading it
on their list of priorities. Charles Hill, who masterminded the 1994
recovery of Munch's The Scream during his 20 years with the
Metropolitan Police, said that art theft was still dismissed as a
gentleman's crime by the police, even though there was evidence
linking it to drugs and arms dealing.
Britain's specialist art squads have almost all been disbanded. Jim
Hill, who was with Thames Valley for 30 years, and Malcolm Kenwood,
who served with Sussex for 12 years in a 30-year career with the
police, have left the force, joining the Thesaurus Group and the Art
Loss Register respectively, which have specialist databases of stolen
art.
While Scotland Yard's art and antiques squad has been cut to only two
detective constables, every major European country invests in its own
national art squad.
Robin Thornes, chief executive of the Council for the Prevention of
Art Theft (CoPAT), a charity that has played an important role in
establishing codes of practice, said: "Of the major Western countries,
Britain is the only one without a national art crime squad - certainly
the only major art market country." The Italians, he noted, devoted 30
or more full-time officers to their squad.
Charles Hill, who works as a risk manager for Axa Nordstern, leading
specialist art insurers, predicts that art crime will be relegated to
the insurance industry and organisations such as CoPAT. But he gave
warning that the commercial sector was likely to be even "more highly
selective" in deciding what was investigated.
Mark Dalrymple, a director of Tyler & Co, specialist fine art loss
adjusters and chairman of CoPAT, said that with an object worth £5,000
to £10,000, for example, "insurers aren't going to spend £5,000 doing
something about it". The loss of a £100,000 item was an incentive to
"try to do something ourselves". He was among many who said that
police underfunding was "the root of the problem". He added: "It's not
the fault of the police but of the resources."
In August, Mr Hill noted, the Association of Chief Police Officers
agreed a deal with the Association of British Insurers, that the
insurers "do everything and the police may or may not take action". He
added: "I'm outraged that it's gone this way."
Jim Hill said that his office at Thesaurus was already seeing an
increase in reported thefts: "We are seeing people who are involved
with drugs get themselves involved with the art world."
Mr Kenwood gave warning that without specialist officers, more
criminal activity was inevitable.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bureau of Land Management has failed to track
millions of government-owned artifacts held by universities and
museums, a report by an Interior Department watchdog says. The BLM's
oversight of its artifacts is so lax, many museums cannot say for
sure which pottery, baskets and other objects in their collections
are owned by the government or where they came from, the report says.
And artifacts collected on BLM land sometimes do not end up in the
institutions designated to keep them. "This is our cultural heritage
that we're talking about. It can potentially get lost or even
destroyed, especially if it's divorced from its records," said Jan
Bernstein, collections manager for the University of Denver
Anthropology Museum. "By not keeping good records, the agencies are
doing a disservice to the people of the United States." BLM officials
say their main problem is lack of money and manpower. "Yes, these
things are important. These are things that the agency would like to
be doing. But the agency has had stagnant budgets and declining
numbers of employees for years," BLM spokeswoman Celia Boddington
said. The BLM's budget for managing such "cultural resources" is
about $13.5 million this year, an increase of nearly $400,000 over
last year, Boddington said. The BLM oversees 264 million acres of
federal land in the West, an area nearly as large as the states of
Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah combined. Those lands are home
to an estimated 4 million to 5 million archaeological sites, where
more than 20 million artifacts have been collected. The BLM has
museums in Billings, Mont., and Delores, Colo. Most of the artifacts
are held, but not owned, by about 190 non-federal institutions such
as historical societies, universities and museums in 34 states and
Canada. The outside institutions get the artifacts either under
permits granted to archaeologists or when they are removed to clear
the way for projects such as mining or road construction, said
Marilyn Nickels, manager of BLM's cultural heritage programs. An
audit by the Interior Department's inspector general found that the
BLM did not adequately control and account for its collections of
museum artifacts and historical items. The agency did not perform
required annual inventories of the artifacts, failed to determine
which ones were owned by the federal government and failed to get
signed agreements with the institutions accepting artifacts from BLM
land, the report said. "As a result, the Bureau had little assurance
that its museum collections were adequately maintained for future
use," said the report, issued to the BLM in September and posted
publicly on the inspector general's Web site last week. Bernstein
said she has attended meetings and talked with BLM officials in an
unsuccessful attempt to get the agency to acknowledge its artifacts
in her museum. She said she plans to write the BLM a letter
threatening to give back its collections when the University of
Denver museum moves to a new building next year. "I've really had no
contact with the BLM, so I'm taking the initiative to go to them,"
Bernstein said. In its response to the audit, the BLM said it planned
to require all institutions to send the BLM inventories of their
collections and report receiving any new artifacts from federal land.
"That will make it easier to track these materials," Nickels said.
The Interior Department's Inspector General Web site: www.oig.doi.gov
A LONG-LOST collection of gold and silver plate worth £250,000 has
been returned to a Cornish church after a chance e-mail inquiry from
Australia prompted its vicar to begin a search. The collection,
belonging to St Petroc's Church, Bodmin, was stored in a bank vault
for safe keeping 27 years ago and then forgotten. The items,
including the 16th-century Bodmin Chalice, probably would have
remained there had it not been for an e-mail sent by a priest in
Australia to the Rev Graham Minors, the vicar of St Petroc's. Fr
Peter Mathesen, who lives in Melbourne, asked to see the Bodmin
Chalice, a copy of which he had received as an award for service to
the Church. Mr Minors had to admit that he had never heard of the
chalice, but inquired at two banks in Bodmin after being told that
items may have been deposited for safe keeping. The local branch of
Barclays then contacted him with the news that a wooden box carrying
the name of St Petroc's had been found. Mr Minors said: "When I asked
if I could come and look inside I was told in no uncertain terms the
only person who could open the box was the signatory, Fr Canon Barry.
I replied that it would be difficult as he had been dead for a long
time." Mr Minors went to the bank and was allowed into the vault
after showing identification. "I had to break the chest open and when
I did I couldn't believe what I saw," he said. In addition to the
Bodmin Chalice, hallmarked from 1510, were two silver flagons from
1628, a 24in steeple chalice, silver palls, to be laid over a chalice
full of wine during Mass, two silver plates, a candelabra and two
gold and silver chalices from the 1800s. Mr Minors said: "Neither
myself nor the previous incumbent had ever heard of the chest. The
items are of immense historical value and must have been put away
because they were not for everyday use. My parishoners are tickled
pink. All good vicars should be on-line." He aims to apply for
funding so that the 15th century church can display the antiques and
use them for holy days. St Petroc's houses other valuable artefacts,
including St Petroc's casket, a medieval jewelled box holding the
saint's remains. It was stolen in the early Nineties but recovered by
police 40 days later. It is now on display in the church encased in
bullet-proof glass. Mark Lusty, the bank's branch manager, said:
"Once you give us something to look after, we look after it. There
was a lot of surprise in the room when all that silver appeared."
(Daily Telegraph)