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January 27, 1999
CONTENTS:
- Raiders grab UKP: 2m art and UKP: 20 for getaway petrol, latest information plus some similar incidents from the MSN archive
- Television & Stolen Art
- Art Crime incidents
- Halon alternatives
- priorities I usually assign to protection evaluations with cultural properties (Steve Layne)
- Lawyer Charged In Monet, Picasso Insurance Case
- Man scribbles on Pollock painting in Rome
- UNESCO studies return of stolen art
- Old church destroyed by fire
- Net fraud probe over sports memorabila
- RFI: laws, permits, and museums (Sally Shelton)
- I need hard facts!!!
Raiders grab UKP: 2m art and UKP: 20 for getaway petrol
By Paul Stokes
TWO armed robbers who snatched paintings worth UKP: 2 million from a city centre art gallery also robbed an attendant of UKP: 20 to buy petrol for their getaway car. The masked raiders are believed to have been on a "steal to order" mission when they made off with 20 works of art, including a UKP: 500,000 Turner watercolour, from York City Art Gallery. They held staff at gunpoint before tying them up, cut valuable canvasses from their frames and ripped down 600-year-old gold-painted wooden wall panels. As they left, the pair, who called themselves Bert and Tony, grabbed UKP: 20 from the wallet of a gallery attendant who lay bound on the floor. Police disclosed yesterday that the robbers told their victim that the petrol gauge on their car was registering "empty" and they needed to fill up. Det Insp Phil Metcalfe, who is leading the investigation, said: "It was unbelievable audacity and suggests these two were not just happy with their huge haul but that they were callous as well." One of the raiders loaded an automatic pistol in front of the three frightened male attendants and a gift shop girl, as the other brandished a sawn-off shotgun. After being bound, the frightened staff were warned not to call the police. They were not injured but received hospital treatment for shock. Det Insp Metcalfe, who is convinced that the raid was a case of stealing to order, believes the works could already have left the country. "There is a ready market for rare and valuable works of art," he said. "Ports, docks and airports have been alerted and a description of everything taken has been drawn up." Richard Green, the gallery's curator, described Friday's raid as "clearly the blackest day in our history". He said the loss of 20 works - 19 oil paintings and panels and the Turner watercolour of Rievaulx Abbey, North Yorks - was "devastating". Among the works taken were two l4th century gold panels featuring St Peter and St Paul by Martino Di Bartolommeo; two early 20th century paintings by Sickert and a collection of early Italian panels. Other works of art that were crudely cut or split as the robbers tried to remove the canvasses from their frames were abandoned on the gallery floor. "A considerable swath has been cut through our collection," Mr Green said. "What has gone is irreplaceable and the robbers seem to have had some kind of plan. They went mainly for small paintings which could be easily removed." The Turner watercolour had been loaned to the gallery and was one of only two works to be insured, the other being a painting of a seated nude by Roderic O'Conor. The thieves took their haul away in two large, black canvass holdalls with blue piping, leaving through the gallery's front door before mingling with homeward-bound office workers, shoppers and tourists. A white Vauxhall, believed to be the getaway car, had reportedly been left in the vicinity. Soon after the thieves left, gallery staff freed themselves from their bonds and summoned help. The man known as Bert is described as 5ft 7in tall, 35 to 40 years old and with dark hair. He was wearing a three-quarter-length black leather jacket and green shoes. His accomplice, Tony, is of heavy build and in his mid-forties. He was wearing a green waxed jacket.
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Do you remember this one???
(March 1997, painting was recovered and criminal caught):
Picasso painting is stolen in 35-second gallery raid
By John Steele and Godfrey Barker
A PONY-TAILED robber with a shotgun walked into a West End art gallery yesterday and stole a UKP: 650,000 Picasso painting before escaping in a taxi he had ordered to wait outside. The raid, which took only 35 seconds, was described by police as "most unusual". The man made no attempt to disguise himself from security cameras in the Lefevre Gallery, one of London's leading dealers in Impressionist works. Loss adjustors offered up to UKP: 50,000 for information leading to the return of Tête de Femme, a 1939 oil portrait by Pablo Picasso of his then lover, Dora Maar. The man, described as white and in his 30s, entered the gallery in mid-morning and approached an assistant, Jacquie Cartwright, to ask the price of the work, which was hanging on a wall visible from the street. During their brief conversation he opened a hold-all to show what appeared to be a sawn-off shotgun. Mrs Cartwright, who has worked at the Bruton Street gallery for 13 years, said: "He asked only for that one picture. "Then he told me he had a shotgun and he wanted the painting. He said: 'Get it off the wall for me.' I said I couldn't and told him to get it himself. So he did and then he ran out." A security guard and another member of staff chased the robber but lost him in a nearby side street where the unwitting taxi driver, who had originally picked him up at the Hilton Hotel, was waiting. Martin Summers, managing director of the gallery, said the man threatened staff at a nearby restaurant. He then brandished the gun at the taxi driver and forced him to drive to Park Lane and then Battersea, south London, where, according to Mr Summers, he tried to use a telephone at a branch of Halfords. The cab went on to Wimbledon, where the robber fled after removing the plywood painting from its frame and leaving UKP: 10 for the driver. Mr Summers declined to say whether the gallery owned the painting or was selling it for a client. Mark Dalrymple, a loss adjustor, said: "No one is going to be able to sell it at a serious price."
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and this one?????
2.52 p.m. ET (1652 GMT) August 9, 1998 AUCKLAND, New Zealand - A man armed with a sawed-off shotgun and a crowbar burst into the Auckland Art Gallery on Sunday and in front of stunned staff and patrons stole one of New Zealand's most expensive and popular European paintings. The man, clad in black, ran through the museum waving his rifle and yelling to visitors and employees to "get down" and "keep back," museum official Kate Darrow said. The gunman grabbed the 19th-century painting "Still on Top" from the wall and used the crowbar to remove the canvas from the frame. The painting, by French artist Jacques-Joseph Tisso, is worth up to $1 million. The robber left through the main entrance and fired a warning shot in the air before sprinting through a park with the painting under his arm. He is believed to have escaped on a motorcycle parked by a nearby highway. Police were still investigating Sunday night.
(Painting was recovered eight days later)
From: Jonathan Sazonoff saz@kwom.com
Subject: Television & Stolen Art
Dear Subscribers,
I'm off to New Orleans - for a media convention NATPE www.napte.org I hope to be furthering a television presence for stolen art and cultural property; by promoting a search for the world's most wanted art. We'll be looking for development deals so if you know of any participants, please tell them about us www.saztv.com
The Internet and television are quickly evolving. These and other media should be better used to highlight missing cultural property. With some coordination, such efforts could help deter future thefts and bolster recovery efforts. Towards those ends SAZ Productions, Inc. has a database, contacts, camera, and that's just half the story
- but enough about us.
Here is a brief review of resources about stolen art on TV ( US Broadcast & Cable). The cache' of stolen art has long been a popular story line. Television networks, cover art theft when it constitutes the "big news story". The Vanderbilt Television News Archive http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/ tracks the stories covered on the nightly news. In addition TV News Magazines also provide some coverage.
True crime is a popular TV genre. An occasional episode deals with stolen art. The newsgroup alt.true-crime has a contributor who notes plot and schedule of all such shows (browse, you'll find the listings. Appropriately, our associate Robert Spiel, has just completed filming a segment about the Gardner Theft for New Dominion's "DARING CAPERS" http://www.newdominion.com/ndpcap.htm Rather than leave specific programs out, I promise a fuller review in the near future.
Well, I've got to pack. I'll try to report back to the list with more items of interest. Any perspectives from those in the field and those in other countries would be most welcome. E-mail saz@webtv.net
Regards,
Jonathan Sazonoff
SAZ Productions, Inc.
www.saztv.com
From: Jonathan Sazonoff saz@kwom.com
Subject: Art Crime incidents
Dear Subscribers,
Several web sites have posted selected stolen art listings from the Museum Security Network. The dissemination of information is a good thing, but the editors need to do a little updateing.
Theft & Security Page at Joslin Hall Rare Books http://www.joslinhall.com/musn.htm
Missing from View! Cases from the Hot Sheet. http://www.artresources.com/departments/hot.sheet/
Hope you find this information useful,
SAZ Productions, Inc.
www.saztv.com
From: "Jan Henriksen" janh@imv.uit.no
Subject: Halon alternatives
Mid last year (1998) I got some pretty usefull feedback on securing one of our wet-storagerooms (higly flameable) from a few sourses on the list. Today I am trying to say "Thank you!" to those who gave a contribution, but unfortunate I can`t find more than two in my mail system: SO; THANK YOU ALL! The feedback in items like that is very, very usefull.
I do in fact miss more concrete HOW TO information from the forum......
OUR HALON-problem is not solved yet, the firm doing the job for us is still in the process of judgeing what to recommend: And when they do, I might get back to get your oppinion folks!
Here below the artic sircle we had the first glimpses of the sun yesterday - and the aurora has been magnificent lately! Have a nice day!
//Beste hilsen// Yours sincerely//
//Jan Henriksen// Jan Henriksen//
//Forstekonsulent// Senior Executive Officer//
//Tromso Museum// Tromso Museum//
//Universitetet i Tromso//University of Tromso//
//Norge// Norway//
//Phone: 7764 5085//fax: 7764 5520//E-mail: janh@imv.uit.no//
URL: http://www.imv.uit.no
From: Steve Layne GlobalRiskConsultants@compuserve.com
Subject: Response To: Kevin Purpgoof Purpgoof@aol.com
Kevin: Here are the priorities I usually assign to protection evaluations with cultural properties, and the distractions I have most often found.
PRIORITIES:
1. Fire Protection - fire is always the greatest threat to a museum's collections and often not dealt with properly, especially in terms of proper storage of flammable materials, clutter, and system maintenance.
2. Training - you can by "state of the art" electronics, hire multitudes of proprietary or contract security...but if you don't train properly, you might as well have saved the expense. Many institutions give voice to training issues, but in reality do a poor job...if any.
3. Staff Relationships - Security has long been thought of as a negative, but necessary presence. Cooperation between museum departments and staffers must be dealt with from the highest levels, with realistic enforcement of policies and rules. Security reports, after months of little or no response, disappear into the great void.
4. System Application - So often, the tail wags the dog. Systems that should not have been purchased in the first place, may have been applied inappropriately, or may be cumbersome in operation...all dictate how security does its job. The reverse should be true..in that security should determine it's system needs and therefore have the vendor comply with those needs.
5. Budget - often the most restrictive aspect of a department's operations. If you're going to have a quality protection program, there is always a cost, including equipment, personnel wages, training, and maintenance.
DISTRACTIONS:
1. Bull-headed management. When institutional management refuses to let security utilize it's expertise, or when security management is unwilling to advance out of the stone age.
2. Budget. No funds to properly pay and retain good people, or to maintain or upgrade equipment. 3. Poor staff relationships. I have found so many occasions where the security manager has been told to stay away from one department or another, such as letting curatorial
staff "do their thing" without being impeded by package inspections or art movement passes. This condition is usually recognized when you find the security manager tucked away in a remote corner of a dingy basement office, without the benefit of contact with other staff, unless at a scheduled meeting.
4. Poor hiring standards. Whether or not the institution has an Human Resources Department, security needs to conduct backgrounds on every staffer, volunteer, and intern. Too often, security is told, "who we hire is a professional decision...and none of your business.
5. Lack of technology. I am still amazed to find security managers who do not have access to the Internet, or even basic computer access. We ARE in the computer age, and data management, networking, and so many other functions are related to computer use. There are, of course, others in both catagories, but these are the elements that still surprise me when visiting prominent institutions.
Hope this helps.
STEVE LAYNE Cultural Property Protection Consultant
Lawyer Charged In Monet, Picasso Insurance Case
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Los Angeles entertainment attorney has been charged in an alleged $12.5 million insurance scam involving Monet and Picasso paintings, federal authorities said on Thursday. Tom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles, said James Tierney, 56, was charged late on Wednesday with one count of aiding and abetting wire fraud, and was due to be arraigned on Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
Tierney's clients have included Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson, singer Gloria Estefan and actor Timothy Hutton. According to the complaint, Tierney and a friend, art collector Steven Cooperman, hatched a plan in 1992 to defraud the Home Insurance Co . and the National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, out of $12.5 million by claiming that two valuable paintings had been stolen. Cooperman, 56, who now lives in Fairfield, Connecticut, has been indicted and faces a trial on March 9 in Los Angeles on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property and money laundering. The complaint alleges that in July 1992 Tierney entered Cooperman's home in the exclusive Brentwood section of Los Angeles using a key and alarm code provided by Cooperman. It alleges that Tierney removed two paintings, Picasso's "Nude Before a Mirror" and Monet's "The Customs Officer's Cabin at Pourville." Cooperman sued the insurance companies in November 1992 and subsequently settled for "a sum in excess of $12.5 million," the complaint said. The paintings were eventually found by FBI agents in an indoor storage center in Olmsted Falls, a suburb of Cleveland. James Little, a Cleveland attorney and a former law partner of Tierney, claimed he unwittingly brought the paintings to Cleveland in late 1995 after Tierney asked him to hold them for safekeeping because he was going through a contentious divorce.
Man scribbles on Pollock painting in Rome
01:19 p.m Jan 26, 1999 Eastern
ROME, Jan 26 (Reuters) - A man scribbled on a painting by U.S. abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock at Rome's modern art gallery on Tuesday, police said.
Pietro Cannata, 52, was taken into custody shortly after security guards noticed him take out a grey felt tip pen and begin marking the 1947 painting, which is on permanent display at the National Gallery of Modern Art and known by its Italian name ``Sentieri Ondulanti.'' Art experts were assessing the damage to the canvas, whose estimated value is around 800 million lire ($471,000), Elena Di Maio, one of the museum's art historians told Italian news agency ANSA. ``It doesn't look serious, because security guards were quick to intervene,'' she said. Tuesday's incident was not the first time Cannata has attacked art works in Italy. In 1991, Cannata broke off a toe of Michelangelo's David in Florence and attacked two 15th century paintings with a pen and a penknife in 1993, before he was interned in the psychiatric ward of a Tuscan hospital, police said. Italy, home to a wealth of artistic and cultural riches, is often the target of art vandals and thieves. Most recently, three priceless Van Gogh and Cezanne paintings were stolen last May from the National Gallery of Modern Art. They were found a month later.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.
UNESCO studies return of stolen art
01:56 p.m Jan 25, 1999 Eastern PARIS, Jan 25 (Reuters) - An international committee met on Monday to look into the plundering of a Cambodian temple and draft rules that would help stop trafficking in stolen art.
The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) said the 22-nation committee would hear a report on the theft of more than 100 stone carvings from the 800-year-old, Angkor-era Banteay Chamar temple during its four-day meeting at its Paris headquarters. The carvings were smuggled to Thailand and seized from antique showrooms in Bangkok. Cambodia has said it wants them returned. UNESCO said the carvings recovered in Thailand had left a 11-metre-long (36 ft) breach in the wall around the temple, in northwest Cambodia. Other carvings forming a 14-metre-long section of the wall are still missing. UNESCO said the theft amounted to destroying Cambodia's archives as inscriptions on the carvings were unique historical testimonies. The intergovernmental committee will look at pending requests for the return of artworks to their home countries, including Greece's demands that Britain return marble sculptures from the Parthenon temple. The committee will also draft an international ethical code for art merchants and study worldwide electronic dissemination of information on stolen art.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.
From: "Rizio Bruno Sant'Ana" rbruno@internetcom.com.br
Subject: Old church destroyed by fire
In January 20th, a great fire has almost completely destroyed an old church in Mariana, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. A very important milestone of the brazilian colonial architecture, with paintings and images of the great importance, the church was passing through a restauration process when a fire started. Witness has sayed that the fire happens because of the use of inflamable liquids for the cleaning of the painting of the roof, which falls with three of the walls. Only the altar has survived, and no one has been injuried.
Rizio Bruno Sant'Ana
Biblioteca Mario de Andrade
Rua da Consolaçao, 94
01302-000 - Sao Paulo - SP
rbruno@internetcom.com.br
(Daily Telegraph London) Net fraud probe over sports memorabila
By Andrew Cave in New York
INTERNET auctioneer e-Bay is being probed for fraud by American consumer watchdogs after doubts have surfaced over the authenticity of sporting memorabilia sold through its online web site. The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs began the investigation after receiving complaints about baseball stars' autographs sold through the site. One case is said to involve a ball "autographed" by baseball star Roberto Clemente, who died in 1973 - five years before that type of ball began being manufactured. In another case, the autograph of 1920s baseball legend Babe Ruth was said to be on a baseball made in Haiti, which did not begin supplying balls to the US until the 1960s, long after he died. Investigators are also probing a "one of a kind" autograph of Christy Mathewson, a pitcher who made it into baseball's Hall of Fame, which has been sold several times. In such deals e-Bay acts only as a conduit through which people can buy and sell products. Despite this, the watchdog is said to believe that e-Bay could be charged with fraud and not seen just as a innocent middleman collecting commissions on sales. This will alarm other online auctioneers, including Sothebys which is preparing its own internet site. New York spokesman Shonna Keogan said: "We have received complaints about them and we are investigating right now." She said any internet site offering products to New York consumers would fall under her department's jurisdiction, wherever the company concerned was located. E-bay, based in San Jose, California offers its website to buyers and sellers of antiques, coins, stamps and memorabilia. Its shares have rocketed into cyberspace, increasing more than 11-fold to $207 since launching on Nasdaq at $18 in September. The company's market capitalisation has risen from $700m on flotation to $8 billion, giving its 31-year-old founder Pierre Omidyar a $2.5 billion paper fortune just three years after forming the company. E-Bay made no comment on the allegations yesterday.
From: "Sally Shelton" Shelton.Sally@NMNH.SI.EDU
Subject: RFI: laws, permits, and museums
For the files on laws and permits, especially Federal and international scientific permits, I am looking for documented accounts of museums of any type or discipline that have encountered legal problems with ownership, accessioning, deaccessioning, or ot her transactions involving permit disputes. This might involve (but is not limited to) shipping, customs, donation, lending, collecting, and other problems, and includes objects made with biological and/or geological materials as well as intact specimens . I am also interested in finding out if any museum has successfully used the ASC-USFWS MOU to accept material from a private donor without the donor's having a permit. (If you don't know what that is, I can explain off-list, but chances are you haven't u sed this if it looks unfamiliar.) Please reply off-list to spare everyone else the legalese. Many thanks!
Sally Shelton
Collections Officer
National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC 20560-0107
phone (202) 786-2601, FAX (202) 786-2328
email Shelton.Sally@nmnh.si.edu
From: Purpgoof@aol.com
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 17:40:56 EST
To: securma@xs4all.nl
Subject: I need hard facts!!!
Most recently I have asked for your opinions on different issues. Now the time has come, due to recent communications with my Director, I need FACTS. I have been told that "We (our department) like security in MOST places DO NOT have a solid set schedule.". Of course we all take into account the need to be shuffled around due to sickness or vacations. Drawing from my own knowledge I know that the issue of a set schedule, the way it was explained to me, was opinionated. However at the end of this conversation I was specifically told that we shouldn't be basing our conclusions on our own opinions (If opinions are not taken into consideration how do we ever reach a conclusion in the first place?). I personally know from different institutions with which I keep in contact with DO HAVE solid set working schedules. I even know for them to specifically state when there is an opening to list the specific shift which needs to be filled.
Like I said we all make changes due to sickness and vacations, but for now lets put those two issues aside. So what I need to know from all of you is do you have a solidly set schedule or a schedule which changes on a constant basis (daily at times!!!).
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