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January 9, 1999

- Re: Stolen Asian Art
- Museum Security Mailinglist archive
- National Conference on Cultural Property Protection
- Stolen Asian Art (additional info) Jonathan Sazonoff
- Icons stolen from famed Russian church
- Bulgaria: Police Fight Theft Of Antiquities
- Disaster mitigation web site
- Afghan War Assaults Artifacts (Ancient Treasures in Kabul Turning to Rubble)
- Iglesia Mision El Buen Pastor Church fire
- Theft of sculpture stumps British mission in Ottawa
- MAYA ART RETURN (Denver Art Museum returns carved wooden lintel)
- proof to the long-cited claim that museum holdings are often stolen to order?
- STOLEN DINOSAUR FOOTPRINT RECOVERED IN AUSTRALIA
- RE: proof to the long-cited claim that museum holdings are often stolen to order? (Connie Lowenthal)
- Re: stolen to order? (Steve Keller)
- re Dr No. (stolen to order) (George Liddell)
- RE: stolen to order (Jonathan Sazonoff)
- Re: RE: stolen to order (Steve Keller)
- [Fire Safe Heritage]: Fire Guts Historic Winery
- Hope for the Best...(Prepare for the Worst!): Southeastern Museums Conference (SEMC) will host a series of disaster response workshops.

From: Jonathan Sazonoff saz@kwom.com
Subject:

Re: Stolen Asian Art

Dear Subscribers,
Jennifer Folley (Cornell Univ?) raises a good question. To those of us unskilled in Asian languages, there seem to be few sources on stolen Asian art. Ohio State University offers some good information on Afganistan and Nepal, and a website NUSANTARA also offers some Indonesian leads.

I join in the desire to learn more about stolen Asian art. I'm sure the Museum Security Network would like to hear from some experts in that field. To those ends, we "prime the pump." Here our meager Asian files (web sites and articles). We hope you find this information useful.
Regards,
Jonathan Sazonoff
SAZ PROD. INC.
www.saztv.com

Asia - Stolen Art Resources (web)

Pakistan

Contents of Diplomat's Magazine from Peshawar NWFP Pakistan
http://www.diplomat.com.pk/jun7.html
Rare coins disappear from city museum -DAWN - Top Stories; 08 September, 1998
http://www.dawn.com/daily/19980908/top8.htm
Pakistan News Service Hertiage Column
http://paknews.org.pk/heritage1.html

Philippines

DN - pn: Amorsolo stolen from hospital
http://x9.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=357218876&CONTEXT=899105571.1434255379&hitnum=53
Korea Times Report - Christies vs Marcos Philipines
http://www.korealink.co.kr/14_6/9806/t465195.htm

Boston.com / Latest News / Nation / Imelda Marcos appeals $40 billion judgment in Golden Buddha case
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/wirehtml/176/Imelda_Marcos_appeals__40_billion_j.htm

The Museum Security Mailinglist archive can be downloaded directly by clicking:

http://museum-security.org/MSN-archive.exe

From: "Mike Schultz" SchultzM@csi.com
Subject:

National Conference on Cultural Property Protection

Current information about the Smithsonian Institution's National Conference on Cultural Property Protection is online at
http://oit-csd.si.edu/other/opsconf.htm
Mike Schultz
Smithsonian Institution

From: Jonathan Sazonoff saz@kwom.com
Subject:

Stolen Asian Art (additional info)

Some of the links in the previous posting were bad. We apologize for that inconvenience. Also, as the question asked about East & SE Asian material, here are some more appropriate web pages.
Cambodia
http://oit-csd.si.edu/other/opsconf.htm
The Art Brief, Number 44
http://www.exhibitions.org/artbrief/ab44.htm

Fox News
http://foxnews.com/js_index.sml?content=/news/international/i_1111_3.sml
China
China Cult Property IN REVIEW
http://www.feer.com/Restricted/china/book1128c.html
Japan
Japan File: Travel: World: Southeast Asia: Stolen Arts
http://www.kto.co.jp/travel/1997_Mar_tra0028.html
And just for fun -- Treasure Hunting In the News
http://www.treasure.com/trnews.htm

Icons stolen from famed Russian church

12:25 p.m. Jan 04, 1999 Eastern
MOSCOW, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Russian police were on Monday hunting thieves who broke into one of the country's oldest and best known churches and stole two contemporary icons and other trinkets from a gift shop.
With the Orthodox Church about to celebrate Christmas on Thursday, some Russian media devoted extensive coverage to news of the theft from the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl, although police said the crime had been committed 10 days ago. Founded by Russian ruler Andrei Bogolyubov in 1165, the simple, white church with its single, gilded onion-dome is visited by thousands of tourists every year. Located in Bogolyubovo, near the 12th century Russian capital of Vladimir some 180 km (110 miles) east of Moscow, the church sits solitary above the River Nerl and the surrounding plain and is a familiar image to visitors from around the world.
``This is one of the true holy places of Orthodoxy,'' NTV television said, declaring the church a symbol of Russian religious and national unity. He said the thieves' haul would have fetched little more than a couple of bottles of vodka.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.

(Radio Free Europe)

Bulgaria: Police Fight Theft Of Antiquities

By Petko Bocharov
Sofia, 4 January 1999 (RFE/RL) -- Bulgaria is a land rich in archeological treasures. Cultures such as the Thracian (6th century BC), the Roman and Byzantine have left behind on the Balkan peninsula numerous artifacts of both great interest and commercial value. Many specialists believe that still undiscovered treasures from these periods and from the First and Second Bulgarian kingdoms (680-1396) make the country one of the richest hunting grounds in the world for historic artifacts.
Unfortunately, because of the artifacts' value, some people are willing to break laws designed to protect Bulgaria's archeological heritage. Colonel Cyril Radev, chief of the police branch assigned to fight organized crime (CSBOP), said recently that artifacts worth nearly $1 billion were saved last year from illegal export to the West. He cited the figure as part of a general assessment of CSBOP's work during 1998.
Treasure hunting has long been a hobby or obsession for thousands of ordinary people in towns and villages across Bulgaria. Legends are still told of fabulous treasures, found with the help of mysterious maps and dug out at night under a full moon.
But in recent years, most treasure-hunting has become less romantic. It has turned into an illegal, unscrupulous and very profitable industry utilizing organized channels for smuggling artifacts abroad. The new treasure hunters operate with scanners and highly sensitive detectors that can signal the existence of metal under several meters of soil. They use excavators, bulldozers, tractors and trucks, and are bold enough to dig even in daylight.
These modern-day treasure seekers are interested only in what makes money. With the indiscriminate use of machinery for excavating, they destroy or irreparably damage objects and whole sites that archaeologists would call priceless. In 1995, an unique Thracian burial mound near the village of Rosino was totally destroyed. In 1985, Bulgaria's old communist regime reacted to the criminalization of treasure-hunting by creating a special department within the framework of the State Security apparatus. Later, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the start of the process of radical reforms in Bulgaria, this department was transformed into what is now the CSBOP.
A source familiar with the activities of the elite unit (who asked to remain anonymous) told RFE/RL that since 1985 about 25,000 artifacts have been stopped at the border and saved from being illegally exported. Yet, according to the same source, this number is believed to be only 30 percent of what has been lost. That means that perhaps some 70,000 artifacts have been lost.

Many objects end up in auction houses in the West, where they are restored and sold at twice or three times the contraband price. Buyers are mostly collectors from Austria, Germany and Belgium. Plundering newly discovered sites is not the only way that criminals in Bulgaria seek to get rich from antiquities. Another is theft from museums. Artifacts have been stolen from a museum near Ivailovgrad and from one in Plovdiv.
A third way criminals earn money is through forging old coins, statues and plates. Experts say that expert forgers can be found in Bulgaria.
In one case, the British Museum was reportedly ready to pay $200,000 for what it believed was a very old and very rare coin. The deal was abandoned only after Bulgarian police warned the museum that the coin was a fake.

(ConsDisList)
From: Jeanne Drewes jdrewes@jhu.edu
Subject:

Disaster mitigation web site

A developing web site on disaster mitigation assistance is available at URL: http://disaster.lib.msu.edu/disaster/
This site is the result of a joint project of the Baltimore Academic Library Consortium, BALC. The BALC group developed information on disaster recovery of library materials and worked on a list of supplies, experts and services to assist during a disaster. The web site provides a searchable database of these resources and a page to add a resource. While the majority of the resources are from the Washington/Baltimore area contributions from any area are welcome. Please feel free to use the site or add to the resources by using the supplied online form. If you have suggestions please e-mail me

Jeanne Drewes
Preservation Department
Milton S. Eisenhower Library
Johns Hopkins University
3400 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
410-516-5486
Fax: 410-516-4355

(ABC News)

Afghan War Assaults Artifacts (Ancient Treasures in Kabul Turning to Rubble)

By Amir Zia, The Associated Press
K A B U L, Afghanistan, Jan. 6 - Calligraphy scrolls and cracked statues lie dirtied in rubble that litters the floor. The main door is riddled with bullets, and the roof has been destroyed by shelling.
The Islamic treasures and 2,000-year-old Buddhist artifacts that once graced the collection of the museum in Kabul are no longer here. Some were plundered, others smashed, and the leftovers have been crammed into carelessly stacked boxes in the Ministry of Information. "These antiques are barely 20 percent of what our museum once used to have," says Maulvi Alifuddin Azizi, curator of the Kabul Museum, referring to the artifacts at the ministry. "We'll never know what treasures were lost because all the past records have been destroyed." The ruling Taliban government is now engaged in an effort to restore its battered museum, attempting to undo some of the damage inflicted on cultural treasures when the country fought off a Soviet invasion and later descended into civil war.

Even Taliban Presence Doesn't Help

The hard-line Islamic Taliban militia marched into the capital in 1996, but the museum here is probably still as bullet-pocked and devastated as it was during the worst of the war. And it's not just the Kabul Museum. Many other sites have either collapsed or been ravaged and looted by bands of thieves. The Taliban as well as those trying to preserve the remaining relics fear that without foreign help, protecting archeological sites and monuments may be impossible. The Taliban has tried to rebuild the museum, but lack of money has stalled even minor repairs. About all they could afford to do was seal off the ground floor windows and doors and ship the collection to the ministry building.

Reluctance to Fund Repairs

"One million dollars is needed to restore the museum. But donors are not excited about putting in $1 million or $2 million," said Nancy Hatch Dupree, vice chairwoman of Pakistan-based Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan's Cultural Heritage. Other sites may have missed their chance to be saved: Before restoration work could begin on a famous Buddhist stupa in central Kabul shaken by a rocket during the war, the slender tower collapsed. "Dozens of other archeological sites are also in danger," said Kabul Museum curator Azizi. In Herat province, 270 miles west of Kabul, two 15th century Muslim minarets have been destroyed, while two others are leaning dangerously, Dupree said.

Tall, Standing Buddha in Danger

There are also concerns that a Buddha statue in Bamyan, about 90 miles from Kabul, is in danger. At 175 feet, it is the world's tallest statue in which Buddha is standing up rather than sitting. A smaller standing Buddha was damaged by Taliban soldiers who blasted it with a tank in August when they captured the area. Although the Taliban authorities have promised to protect the Buddhas, the soldiers in the area are difficult to control and believe that images of Buddha are offensive to Islam. Devout Muslims believe that Islam forbids idols. "Islam prohibits statues. They should be destroyed," said Maulvi Sharif Haqqani, deputy chief of the Taliban's religious police. Although Afghanistan culture preservationist Dupree believes the Taliban will try to protect the Buddhas, she is worried about the foot soldiers.

Will the Word Spread?

"Can they put across this message to an ordinary, uneducated Talib?" she asked. "Official pronouncements are often not followed at the lower level, resulting in the looting and plundering of archeological sites, which is a serious problem." Dupree said newer Islamic monuments have suffered less damage than the ancient pre-Islamic monuments. "The locals take care of Islamic monuments. But because they lack expertise, the result of sincere effort is often ruinous. They smear cement to preserve or restore them. They don't realize it's a technical job," she said. Museum curator Azizi says the Taliban needs foreign experts. "We welcome any country, organization or individual which helps us in saving our remaining archeological sites and monuments," Azizi said. "We will lose them one by one if help does not come in time."

From: Jack Sullivan jacksull@mindspring.com
Subject: [Fire Safe Heritage]:

Iglesia Mision El Buen Pastor Church

January 3, 1999
MILFORD, CT (1830) 2 alarm fire destroyed the main floor of 2 1/2 story Iglesia Mision El Buen Pastor Church on 160 Chapel Street. Damage was confined to 1st floor, the 2nd alarm was pulled to protect exposures. (CP) A faulty furnace is blamed. The building is 115 years old and used to house the Woodmont Library. Firefighters managed to save some Bibles and religious articles, including a chalice.

Theft of sculpture stumps British mission in Ottawa

04:24 p.m Jan 07, 1999 Eastern
OTTAWA, Jan 7 (Reuters) - The theft of a bronze sculpture of a humanoid tree from outside the British High Commission in Ottawa has stumped police and diplomats alike, with hopes of a ransom demand fading as weeks pass without a clue. ``Stump Girl,'' a one-metre tall statue with a stump torso and girlish, ruby-slippered legs, was abducted overnight in November from its place among a trio of sculptures outside the downtown mission. Syd Maddicott, head of the High Commission's political and information section, said the kidnapping was clearly a premeditated act.
``She weighs over 200 pounds (90 kg) so we think there was some planning and a heavy truck involved,'' Maddicott told Reuters. ``We'd rather hoped it was a student prank and that in due course we'd get a ransom demand -- an offer to exchange Stump Girl for several cases of beer or something. But so far, nothing.'' Stump Girl's companions ``Bush Girl'' and ``Conifer Girl,'' sculpted by U.K. artist Laura Ford as part of a festival promoting British culture, were not touched by the thieves. But they have since been brought indoors for their own safety. With hopes for a recovery fading, British officials have launched a full-scale search for Stump Girl, distributing T-shirts emblazoned with her likeness and the challenge ``Have you seen this stump?'' The trio of sculptures -- which resemble offspring of a garden gnome and chunk of firewood -- are valued at C$40,000. Stump Girl herself is valued at about C$9,000, or, if melted down for her bronze, about C$80. Maddicott said the sculpture could be sitting in someone's garden -- but may be hard to spot. ``That's the difficulty, in a country where there are lots of trees, this statue could be ... hidden in a back yard easily enough,'' Maddicott said. ``Unless somebody looks for the red shoes.''
((Andrea Hopkins, Reuters Ottawa Newsroom, 613-235-6745, fax 613-235-5890))
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.

MAYA ART RETURN

The Denver Art Museum has returned a carved wooden lintel taken from the Classic period site of El Zotz in the Pet�n region of Guatemala, 12 miles northwest of Tikal. One of fewer than a dozen such artifacts known to exist, the lintel, dated stylistically to ca. A.D. 550-650, was stolen from temple I, the northernmost pyramid in the site's main plaza, sometime between 1966 and 1968. According to Dorie Reents-Budet, visiting curator of the museum's New World section, the lintel depicts a ruler, standing in profile, dressed in war regalia, and holding a knotted staff of war and sacrifice known from stelae at Tikal. The ruler's name is not preserved, and it is unknown whether he was a lord of El Zotz or Tikal. Surviving texts, however, refer to his mother as a "divine," or noble, woman. The glyphs on the lintel representing his father's name also appear on a pottery vessel from Tikal.
The lintel was purchased by the Denver Art Museum in 1973, when the United States had no law prohibiting the importation of Precolumbian art from Guatemala. "When we gathered all of the information surrounding the lintel's acquisition," says Denver Art Museum director Lewis Sharp, "returning it was simply the right thing to do." The lintel, which was welcomed home by Juan Antonio Vald�s of the Instituto Guatemalteco de Antropolog�a in a repatriation ceremony this past November, will be displayed alongside a well-known wooden lintel from Tikal in the Museo Nacional de Arqueolog�a e Etnolog�a in Guatemala City.--ANGELA M.H. SCHUSTER
c 1999 by the Archaeological Institute of America
http://www.archaeology.org/9901/newsbriefs/maya.html

From: Adrienne Deangelis acd@RCI.RUTGERS.EDU
Subject:

Re: Web databases - the other consideration

Hello--it does seem that the problem with the thefts mentioned is more a lack of supervision and poor management than one of excessive information. It also seems to me that if full information about a museum's holdings were easily available the victimized museum would be able to provide enough details about the lost objects to seriously crimp resale efforts by the thieves.
Is there any proof to the long-cited claim that museum holdings are often stolen to order? Any cases that can be cited?
Adrienne DeAngelis
acd@rci.rutgers.edu

From CNN Interactive
http://cnn.com:80/WORLD/asiapcf/9901/07/fringe/stolen.fossil.ap/

STOLEN DINOSAUR FOOTPRINT RECOVERED IN AUSTRALIA

January 7, 1999 Web posted at: 2:59 a.m. EST (0759 GMT)
PERTH, Australia (AP) A stolen 120 million year old dinosaur footprint has been recovered by police, a year after it was hacked from a slab of rock in one of Australia's most significant fossil sites. Police in Broome, on Western Australia's northwest coast, recovered the print believed to be that of a Stegosaurus on December 30. "We know there have been some attempts to sell it in Asia, but perhaps because of its size and weight or for whatever reason they've been unsuccessful," Broome's Senior Police Sgt. Geoff Fuller said Thursday. He refused to say how police came across the fossil. Each of the three toes of the large print measures six inches (15 cm). The 66 pound (30 kilo) block of rock in which the print is embedded measures 23 inches (60 cm) by 15 1/2 inches (40 cm) and is five inches (13 cm) deep. Two Broome men were arrested in November after local Aborigines reported the dinosaur print and three 7,000 year old human footprints missing from sacred sites at Crab Creek and Lombardina, both near Broome. "They've been cut out of the rock with an angle grinder, and because it's layered rock, they just had to smack it on the bottom and it would have dislodged," Fuller said. Although the dinosaur print had yet to be examined and verified, Western Australia Museum curator of vertebrate paleontology Dr. John Long believed it could be one of a series of prints forming the only known stegosaurus track in the world. "For dinosaur prints this is one of the two most important sites in Australia. They fill in a big blank in Australia's dinosaur diversity that you don't get from the scant skeletal remains," Long said. "It's also of great significance to the local Aborigines; the footprints are known as the footprints of `the giant emu man' from their dreamtime." The human footprint fossils remain missing.

RE: proof to the long-cited claim that museum holdings are often stolen to order?

From: Adrienne Deangelis acd@RCI.RUTGERS.EDU
Subject: Re: Web databases - the other consideration
Hello--it does seem that the problem with the thefts mentioned is more a lack of supervision and poor management than one of excessive information. It also seems to me that if full information about a museum's holdings were easily available the victimized museum would be able to provide enough details about the lost objects to seriously crimp resale efforts by the thieves.
Is there any proof to the long-cited claim that museum holdings are often stolen to order?
Any cases that can be cited?
Adrienne DeAngelis
acd@rci.rutgers.edu

From: Connie connie@rslmgmt.com
To: "'securma@xs4all.nl'" securma@xs4all.nl
Subject:

RE: proof to the long-cited claim that museum holdings are often stolen to order?

Date sent: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 10:34:01 -0500
In reply to Adrienne deAngelis.
I was exec dir of IFAR for almost 13 years, and every time there was a major theft, the journalists and media people invariably proposed a scenario (yes, a movie drama plan) in which some nefarious villain had plotted the theft for his own perverse and private enjoyment. During those years, his imagined identity changed with the world economy, so it started out that there might be a mad SHeik with newfound oil billions who (for some reason) stole rather than bought art; then it was a Colombian drug lord, and eventually a madman with a new fortune from small electronics (Pacific rim, of course). Is it true? In the movies, we have had lots of plots like "Topkapi" and "How to Steal a Million" and others. [I always refused to consult on art theft films.] The key one for me was "Dr. No" which was not ABOUT art theft. But after Sean Connery and Ursula Andress are captured and taken to Dr. No's island/fortress they are drugged. When they wake up and dress for dinner, they actually meet Dr. No. As they move from the parlor into the dining room (up two or three steps) an easel with the Goya portrait of the Duke of Wellington,(once FAMOUSLY stolen from the National Gallery in London but already recovered when the film was made) catches 007's eye. Connery raises one eyebrow and proceeds to dinner, without comment. But IN REALITY, no major theft has been done to order for a reclusive nut-case. In the early 1980s, there was a theft at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. The art was recovered in Greece within weeks. The perpetrators fingered a Greek olive oil tycoon, but there was not enough evidence to prosecute him. The Musee Marmottan theft (1985) of 9 Monets was, I believe intended for sale in Japan. The National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City (Christmas 1985), done for a thrill by two college dropouts. The first theft from Alfred Beit's collection at Russborough House in Ireland was for political ransom. The second (1986) was, as I understand it, to raise money for a scheme to make more money by defrauding a British corporation.There was also a string of burglaries in lower New England and Westchester County which became known as the Social Register burglaries because all the victims were listed in the Social Register. There, the thieves said they did it for Michael Filides, an art dealer on Newbury Street, Boston. Filides was tried and acquitted (He died last year.) testified Some thefts have been executed by hired "guns," (though most art thefts are without violence). In the UK, there was the case of the Brighton Knockers
(Antique dealers who knocked on the doors of homes of the elderly, expressed an interest in the antiques, sometimes were invited in for tea. Then, they sent the burglars around to take the best items. The annals of art theft are filled with amusing stories (which are miserable for the victims), but I don't believe that there is a Dr. No.
I would appreciate word from any subscribers who know of such a proven, convicted art theft mastermind who is also the "collector."
Connie Lowenthal connie@rslmgmt.com

From: IntlArtCop@aol.com
Subject:

Re: stolen to order?

In a message dated 1/8/99 9:28:35 AM, securma@xs4all.nl writes: >Is there any proof to the long-cited claim that museum holdings are often stolen to order? Any cases that can be cited? >
I have long held that while there are certainly a few cases that can be cited, the key word here is "often" and that art, at least in the U.S., is not generally stolen to order and kept by Dr. No in his basement for his private collection. This is a great theory for the newspapers. Bob Spiel: Are you reading this? What is your take on this? Do you agree with me?
Steve Keller

From: Liddell Management Ltd liddell@zetnet.co.uk

Subject: re Dr No.

Dear all.
It is interesting is it not that "The Collector" is always seen as a rich sociopath with nothing other than his own aesthetic gratification in mind. Ms Lowenthal states that "IN REALITY, no major art theft has been done to order for a reclusive nut-case." This comment is almost as worrying as the idea that Dr No could exist, in other words to say that it never has or could not happen is to bury our collective heads in the sand. In reality when we examine the world in which live, the depths to which humans can stoop in order to gratify their particular urges would make most peoples hair stand on end, why then do we strive so hard to dispel the "myth" that mr Big could be out there, whose only need is to possess something beautiful or outstanding. What is more likely and possibly more worrying is that Mr Big is probably Mr medium an altogether different kettle of fish, dificult to see or find purely because of his low profile and lack of island ownership. Keep an open mind friends, its when you don't think it will happen that it does, ask Bill Clinton did he think she'd keep the dress? Did anyone??
Yours George Liddell.
George N Liddell
Managing Director
Liddell Management Ltd

From: sazonoff@webtv.net (Jonathan Sazonoff)
Subject:

RE: stolen to order (Connie Lowenthal)

Dear Subscribers,
Ms. Lowenthal raise an interesting point, there may be no "Dr. No". As for collectors as thieves or the contracting there of....There was the case of the student who pillaged French and Italian museums in 1990. He always wanted to own a Renoir; so he took one from the Louvre. There was also the janitor in Philadelphia who was found with important civil war swords, I guess he fancied himself a collector. He was not, however, a reclusive billionaire. In 1982 a Dr. Waxman of PA was arrested with 172 pieces of stolen decorative arts worth $2,000,000. Could that be considered more than a hobby? In the previous posting, the Marmotten was mentioned. Didn't they have a buyer in Japan? There was a rumor that Idie Amin of Uganda had a perloined collection. Also, at least one Picasso (stolen?) found its way into the hands of the late Pablo Escobar. I know of one Chicago dealer, arrested some years ago, having sent a thief to Field's Department Store to pick up some nice antiques for future resale. These are just a few examples. We still don't know the whereabouts of many great works of art . Perhaps "Dr. No" lurks out there; he just hasn't been caught.
Regards,

Jonathan Saonoff
SAZ Productions, Inc.
http://www.saztv.com
PS - It is an honor to have Ms. Lowenthal contribute to this list.
She has been refered to as the world's leading authority, researcher, etc. in the field of art theft. It is a pleasure to have her expertise added to this mailing list.

From: IntlArtCop@aol.com
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1999 02:02:42 EST
To: securma@xs4all.nl
Subject:

Re: RE: stolen to order (Connie Lowenthal)

In a message dated 1/8/99 12:26:43 PM, Connie Lowenthal writes:

[I always refused to consult on art theft films.]

I just read Connie's (thorough) answer to the question about stealing art to order. I had just replied to the same question then read on down the long list of unopened email to find her reply. Darn, Connie, you have a great memory!! Don't you just love those Hollywood producers and screenwriters who call and ask for technical advice on films? I get those calls, too. Several in the past two months, in fact. I did some work on movie set designs in the past but NEVER on art theft movies and never giving away secrets. Mostly making security look visually attractive. I suggested the retina scanner scene in Mission Impossible when they wanted "visuals". Isn't it amazing that in real life I spend great time and energy making security invisible to the museum goer, but Hollywood wants it to be as visible and obnoxious as possible! One producer (Richard Donner Productions as I recall) recently asked me to tell them how I would defeat the alarm system in a major museum so they could put it in a film! Like I'm going to do that. A screenwriter working on a screenplay wanted to know what a museum "vault" is like so they could show what it is like to "dig" through it. (We all know how that would look, don't we. Think of your own "vaults". ;-) By the way, one got my name from my Web site but the screenwriter got my name from either this list or MSN's web site. So we really do have to be careful of what we say. My wife, who many of you know is a novelist, is working on a screenplay (nothing to do with art theft). But she has threatened to stay up at night with a pen and paper and listen in to me as I talk in my sleep because I won't tell her how to commit the perfect heist. If I did, it wouldn't be very "visual" or interesting. An inadequate number of unqualified untrained unsupervised underpaid guards in a museum with a Grade C alarm line. Ho Hum! How boring. Some day, Connie, you and I should get together and come up with some cock and bull story line and lead these guys on when they call for information. We'll make up the story in advance and give each other as alternate sources. I'll verify what you say, you verify what I say, etc. They still think we have lasers that singe the hair on your arms as you skillfully try to tip toe between the beams to reach the pictures. They'll believe anything as long as its visual. Every time I hear them ask me about the lasers, I think of some poor little old lady, probably a major donor, sneaking past the ropes and stantions into a gallery under installation to see the painting she just donated and getting toasted by the lasers. Or a school kid getting his hand zapped like Darth Vader's sword when he ignores the "do no touch" sign. They can't believe that a good security system designer designs a museum security system that even he can't defeat. The more you tell them this, the more they call you back to see if you'll work with them. Then again, maybe I DO keep a "back door" to your burglar alarm system! Connie, can you help me unload some Impressionists. I'm looking for a private collector who wants them for his den . . .
Steve Keller

From: Jack Sullivan jacksull@mindspring.com
Subject:

[Fire Safe Heritage]: Fire Guts Historic Winery

Fire Guts Historic Winery - (WASHINGTONVILLE, NY) -- The nation's oldest winery... located in Orange County... has been gutted by fire. The blaze broke out last night at Brotherhood Winery in Washingtonville. The winery had stayed open all through prohibition by producing sacramental wine for Catholic churches. Private water trucks had to be brought in to wrap up the fire. No serious injuries are reported. Despite the damage to several historic buildings, the owners plan to rebuild.

From: "T.Patrick Brennan" tpb2007@VISI.NET
Subject:

Hope for the Best...(Prepare for the Worst!)

Hope for the Best...
Prepare for the Worst!
The Southeastern Museums Conference (SEMC) will host a series of disaster response workshops designed to give participants hands-on experience in disaster recovery. these two-day workshops will be presented in South Carolina, Virginia and Alabama. What is the design and schedule of the SEMC Disaster Recovery workshop? The Southeastern Museums Conference will hold three two-day workshops in different geographic areas, to reduce costs for attendees and to facilitate the establishment of a disaster response network within different geographic areas:
- South Carolina State Museum in Columbia, South Carolina, January 16-17, - Hampton University Museum in Hampton, Virginia, February 20-21 and - Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, Alabama, March 6-7, 1999.
The SEMC emergency response workshop will be modeled after successful workshops held at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts and by the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia. The workshops will be led by conservators from the Southeast, familiar with disaster related decision making and sound recovery techniques. The workshops are made possible by the SEMC Professional Development Committee, the contributions of conservators and host institutions, and funding from the Institute of Museums and Library Services (IMLS) Professional Services Program.
Participants will:
- discuss general actions for disaster recovery, formation of recovery teams and methods utilized for the various types of media; - respond to a staged water-related disaster involving paper, books, photographs, textiles, wood and metals; - learn how to "triage" a disaster scene and receive hands-on experience in establishing the correct methods for the recovery of each.
Agenda
Day 1:
8:30- 9:00 Registration Esther Hockett, SEMC Executive Director
9:00 - 9:15 Welcome, Introductions, and Announcements Host institutions and support staff
9:15 - 10:15 The Nature of Response and Recovery; Health and Safety Issues Presenter: TBA
10:15 - 11:00 Disaster Response Basics: Works of Art Presenter: Catherine Rogers, Paintings Conservator, Private practice, Charleston, SC
11:00 - 11:15 Break
11:15 - 12:30 Disaster Response Basics: Textiles Presenter: Beth McLaughlin, Textiles Conservator, Biltmore House, Asheville, NC
12:30 - 1:30 Lunch (on your own)
1:30 - 2:30 Disaster Response Basics: Paper & Photographic materials Presenter: K. Sharon Bennett, Archivist, The Charleston Museum, Charleston, SC
2:30 - 3:30 Disaster Response Basics: Metals and Wood Presenter: Ted Monich, Objects Conservator, S.C. State Museum, Columbia, SC
3:30 -3:45 Break
3:45 - 5:00 Response Considerations for Historic Structures Presenter: Jon Poston, Historic Charleston Foundation, Charleston, SC Possible evening session on various case studies pertinent to the geographic area -- any recent disaster response efforts in that locality

Day 2: 9:00 - 9:15 Welcome, Introductions, and Announcements
9:15- 9:30 "This can happen to you" Case Scenarios (Slide presentation) Presenter: K. Sharon Bennett, Archivist, The Charleston Museum, Charleston, SC
9:30 -9:45 Preparing for the Packout: Roles and Rules Presenter: K. Sharon Bennett, Archivist, The Charleston Museum, Charleston, SC
10:00 - 1:00 Packout of Damaged Materials
1:00 - 2:15 Lunch together (box lunch provided)
2:15 - 3:00 Evaluation of Team Dynamics, Critique of Procedures Panel of Conservators
3:00 - 3:15 Break
3:15 - 4:15 Conducting a Hazards Survey of Your Site, questions and answers Presenter: K. Sharon Bennett, Archivist, The Charleston Museum, Charleston, SC
Fees & Enrollment Registration for members is $75; $110 for non-members. Refreshment breaks, lunch and workshop materials are included. Enrollment will be limited to forty participants per workshop.

Main Indexpage

January 9, 1999

CONTENTS:

Re: Stolen Asian Art

Asia - Stolen Art Resources (web)

Afganistan

China

India

Iraq

Indonesia

Japan

Nepal

Pakistan

Philippines

The Museum Security Mailinglist archive can be downloaded directly by clicking:

National Conference on Cultural Property Protection

Stolen Asian Art (additional info)

Icons stolen from famed Russian church

Bulgaria: Police Fight Theft Of Antiquities

Disaster mitigation web site

Afghan War Assaults Artifacts (Ancient Treasures in Kabul Turning to Rubble)

Even Taliban Presence Doesn't Help

Reluctance to Fund Repairs

Tall, Standing Buddha in Danger

Will the Word Spread?

Iglesia Mision El Buen Pastor Church

Theft of sculpture stumps British mission in Ottawa

MAYA ART RETURN

Re: Web databases - the other consideration

STOLEN DINOSAUR FOOTPRINT RECOVERED IN AUSTRALIA

RE: proof to the long-cited claim that museum holdings are often stolen to order?

RE: proof to the long-cited claim that museum holdings are often stolen to order?

Re: stolen to order?

Subject: re Dr No.

RE: stolen to order (Connie Lowenthal)

Re: RE: stolen to order (Connie Lowenthal)

[Fire Safe Heritage]: Fire Guts Historic Winery

Hope for the Best...(Prepare for the Worst!)