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January 2, 1999

CONTENTS:

- Final for this Year
- Boston museum accused again of housing looted artifacts
- Museum defends artifacts collection; Due diligence cited in MFA acquisitions (Walter Robinson)
- Russia reaffirms pledge to return Nazi-looted art
- Gallery Fights Haggling With a Metal Detector; Van Gogh Scalpers Pestering Patrons (Spencer S. Hsu)
- Museum Flooded When Pipe Bursts (Bonneville Museum)
- The fight to recover stolen cultural property - 1998 in Review

Final for this Year

Dear Subscribers,

This is the final message for 1998. Tomorrow I will spend some time updating the site. Starting January 2 both the 1997 and 1998 messages will be available for downloading as a zipped archive. To open this archive you will need a zip/unzip program. ( http://www.winzip.com to get an unlimited trial version). The total amount of information is some 900 pages of printed paper. There will be a separate page offering an index of all messages sent these two years. I will try and make a user friendly archive of both the messages and the index.
The mailinglist seems to be quite popular. Very rarely we receive unsubscribe messages (please do not start sending those right now...). This far I had estimated the number of subscribers at some 550. Yesterday I did a real count: the list has exactly 790 subscribers (75 of whom receive the MSN messages as a weekly digest). In my opinion this is quite a lot for such a specialized list. The website received 49.500 hits this far. At the moment the average hits per day is a little over 135...
Some of you may remember that at some point in 1998 I tried to get a sponsor for the Museum Security endeavor. Most unfortunately this did not work out, notwithstanding the great help Steve Keller gave me. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam pays for both providers (Usa and Europe), so there is some financial help. You can imagine that it is absolutely impossible to take care of the list and site during my daily routine at the museum. As long as my wife accepts the time I spend on MSN, and as long as she does not complain about the (too) high phonebill I will continue taking care of MSN, with or without a sponsor.
The past two years on several occasions I have offered MSN to the security branch (ICMS) of the International Committee of Museums (ICOM). I regret this was in vain. I did not ask for money or any other favors. The only thing I wanted was to keep moderating the list and 'weaving' the site. ICMS has been taking extremely small steps to get on line for the past four years. The only thing achieved is an 'official' ICMS site in Poland: http://www.icms.org.pl/ (Go see for yourself.) I have been an ICMS member for six years now and will remain a member. It is most regretful that the ICMS chairman does not answer my e-mail to him (sent two months ago.......). All of this really is a pity. There is no reason to have a Museum Security Network next to ICMS. The MSN mailinglist has more subscribers than ICMS has members. So, do become an ICMS member and make this organization grow. E-mail address of the (leaving) ICMS secretary: David Liston SIWP01.OPS1.LISTOND@ic.si.edu
Another ICMS is the International Conference on Museum Security. I hope to be there for the first time. The conference is held in Los Angeles March 7 - 11 (hosted by the Getty). This might be a very nice chance to meet many of you. Information about this conference and how to join is available at our archive; after downloading find: 08198.html.
I hope that all of you will enjoy a really fantastic final year of this turbulent century. There have been too many wars and too many interracial problems this century. Let's hope the next one will show smarter and more tolerant inhabitants of this little village called 'world'...
Yours
Ton Cremers

Boston museum accused again of housing looted artifacts

BOSTON (AP) -- For the third time in the past year, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts is in the spotlight for housing artifacts that may have been looted. First, Guatemala demanded the return of art plundered from ancient Mayan graves. Then came reports that a 1904 painting by Impressionist Claude Monet was stolen by the Nazis during World War II. Now as many as 61 Greek and Roman antiquities housed at the museum may also have been illegally excavated and smuggled, The Boston Globe reported Sunday. When the Guatemalan allegations surfaced last December, the museum defended itself by saying the artifacts came to the United States between 1974 and 1981 -- before the MFA created standards to reduce the plundering of artifacts. But since 1984, the museum has acquired some five dozen Greek and Roman antiquities that have no record of ownership, according to a Globe inquiry. Scholars say that's a dead giveaway that they were plundered. The case underscores the challenge for the MFA and other museums to deal with art that may have been plundered, as more countries such as Turkey, Italy and Guatemala try to reclaim lost artifacts. MFA Director Malcolm Rogers said he has no misgivings about the artifacts and refused to discuss the museum's collecting ethics with the Globe. Museum spokesmen did not immediately return a phone call this morning seeking further comment. Scholars say MFA officials cannot plead ignorance about acquiring objects that were most likely recently removed from the ground. "There is no doubt that there is a pattern by the MFA of acquiring looted material that was illegally excavated in Italy," said Murray C. McClellan, an archaeologist at Boston University. Cornelius C. Vermeule III, an MFA curator who retired in 1996, was known for his aggressive method of obtaining artifacts. And former MFA Director Alan Shestack told the Globe that he could have been more rigorous during his tenure from 1987 to 1994 to ensure that acquisitions had not been looted. Some art dealers said there is no way to know for sure whether art was recently looted. However, said Jerome M. Eisenberg, a well-known New York art dealer: "If you buy it at auction without a provenance (ownership history), it was probably illegally excavated." Most museums, including the MFA, have kept guidelines since 1970 that recognize the right of countries to protect ancient grave sites. The museum also joined other countries in 1983 to adopt standards designed to curb the looting of antiquities.
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Museum defends artifacts collection; Due diligence cited in MFA acquisitions

By Walter V. Robinson, Globe Staff, 12/29/98
The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, responding to a Globe report that it has acquired scores of classical antiquities in recent years that may have been plundered from grave sites, yesterday said it exercises ''appropriate diligence'' when it acquires artwork. But Cornelius C. Vermeule III, the retired curator who oversaw most of the acquisitions, said yesterday that he does not know whether some of the objects might have been freshly looted from grave sites when the museum acquired them. In the report, in the Sunday Globe, a former MFA director said the museum seldom raised questions about the origin of antiquities it acquired. And two antiquities dealers who have sold objects to the museum said they cannot always say that objects they sell have not been recently looted. With assistance from 11 archeologists, the Globe studied 71 classical artifacts the museum acquired, by donation or purchase, between mid-1984 and mid-1987. Only 10 had a history of any prior owner. The remaining 61 had no history at all, strong circumstantial evidence, the scholars said, that they had recently been looted by grave robbers, mostly in Italy. In a two-paragraph statement, the MFA said that when it considers acquiring objects for its collection, the artifacts are reviewed ''to ensure that their addition to the Museum's collection is both legal and appropriate.'' In the brief statement, the MFA chose not to take issue with what the Globe reported. Asked about that late yesterday, Dawn Griffin, MFA spokeswoman, said the museum does not agree that it acquired the artifacts without exercising due diligence. Vermeule, the MFA's classical curator for four decades until his retirement in 1996, did not return telephone calls before the Globe report. But in a brief telephone interview yesterday, Vermeule said the MFA ''tried to do due diligence'' before acquiring artifacts. Asked whether it was possible that some of the 61 undocumented artifacts might have been freshly looted, Vermeule replied, ''I don't know.'' Vermeule took issue with MFA director Malcolm Rogers for consistently refusing to discuss the acquisitions, even though his predecessor, Alan Shestack, acknowledged in an interview last week that the MFA had been less than rigorous in ensuring that artifacts it acquired were not recently plundered. Shestack was director from 1987 to 1994. ''The museum and Malcolm Rogers should talk about these things. Otherwise it will look like we've been bounding through the marketplace picking up everything in sight,'' Vermeule said. The Globe reported that the museum acquired the undocumented objects after it committed itself in 1983 to observe international standards designed to slow the plunder of antiquities. Mario Bondioli Osio, the president of Italy's Interministerial Commission for the Recovery of Art, expressed frustration yesterday at cases like that involving the MFA, saying his government cannot mount a successful legal claim without having evidence of where and when an artifact was looted. As one way to minimize the demand for looted artifacts, Italy recently began making yearlong loans to US museums of classical antiquities that are much more important and valuable than most museums could afford to purchase, according to Bondioli Osio. The MFA now faces a likely lawsuit from the government of Guatemala, seeking the return of a collection of pre-Columbian artifacts the MFA acquired in 1988. The museum's lawyer has acknowledged that he knew the objects were illegally exported from Guatemala. But the MFA has insisted that they were legally imported into the United States. The Globe also reported that Turkey's government is pressing for the return of the top half of a ''Weary Herakles'' statue whose bottom half is in a Turkish museum in Antalya. Murray C. McClellan, a Boston University classical archeologist, said last night that he views the fact that the MFA did not take issue with the Globe's story as an indication that the museum might take greater precautions in the future. ''Now we'll see whether they really do exercise due diligence,'' he said. McClellan said the potential lawsuits, by Turkey and Guatemala, would amount to a tragic waste of resources. But given the museum's statement, he said, ''I would be shocked if they would make a major blunder, like Guatemala or the Herakles, again.''
This story ran on page B01 of the Boston Globe on 12/29/98.

Russia reaffirms pledge to return Nazi-looted art

By Lev Krichevsky
MOSCOW, Dec. 29 (JTA) -- Russia has reaffirmed its commitment to return works of art stolen by the Nazis during the Holocaust that are now housed in Russian museums.
But Western hopes that Russia has many of these works are ``exaggerated," the Foreign Ministry said in a recent statement. At an international conference in Washington on Holocaust-era assets earlier this month, Russia agreed to return to Holocaust victims or their heirs art looted by the Nazis. Experts say such restitution would be difficult under a Russian ``trophy art" law issued last year. The law requires that claims should be made by governments rather than individuals. In addition, a work can be returned only if the Russian Parliament approves each restitution by a separate act. The bill has also been criticized for not distinguishing between artworks that belonged to Germany and those that were looted by the Nazis from other countries. Moreover, the April 1998 law set a deadline of November 1999 to make a request for restitution. Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimir Rakhmanin has been quoted as saying the government would be willing to extend the deadline. At the end of the war, the Soviet Union dispatched special teams to collect thousands of paintings, as well as archival material that included manuscripts and photographs, from the defeated Nazis. Valery Kulishov, director of the restitution department with the Russian Ministry of Culture and head of the Russian delegation at the December conference in Washington, said in an interview that Russian museums contain some objects whose origins are unknown. ``But this does not mean that they necessarily belong to Holocaust victims," Kulishov added. Since the end of World War II, Russia has zealously guarded information about the details of the art taken from Nazi Germany. About 200,000 pieces of this trophy art are now reportedly stored in Russian museums and private collections. In a related development, a Hungarian diplomat stationed in Russia reiterated that her country would claim art confiscated from prominent Hungarian Jewish families during World War II. In an interview published in the daily newspaper Kommersant, Rita Mayer, the counselor for cultural affairs at the Hungarian Embassy, specifically mentioned the names of several Hungarian Jews whose collections, first confiscated by the Nazis, are now kept in state-run museums in Moscow and in Central Russia. ``Their heirs are alive, and even if they are not, the property belongs to Hungarian Jewish community,'' Mayer said. Some art was taken by the Red Army from banks in Budapest where Jews were forced to deposit their valuables in the late 1930s. Other objects came from the collection of top Nazi official Adolf Eichmann, who stole them in 1944. According to Mayer, Hungary has documents proving the origin of these art objects. One of such works is the portrait of a woman by French painter Camille Corot -- allegedly originally from the collection of Hungarian Jew Ferenz Hatvani -- which is now a prized possession of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. Last year, the Hungarian government asked Moscow about the fate of art treasures stolen by the Nazis from Hungarian citizens, including Jews. In its request, Hungary mentioned at least one Hungarian Jew as being the rightful owner of a collection of paintings now in Russia. Russia has yet to return any of the works.
(c Jewish Telegraphic Agency Inc.

Gallery Fights Haggling With a Metal Detector; Van Gogh Scalpers Pestering Patrons

By Spencer S. Hsu; Washington Post Staff Writer
The National Gallery of Art, reacting to isolated complaints by art lovers who say they are being verbally abused by ticket scalpers, has installed a metal detector for the long line of people seeking same-day passes to the Vincent van Gogh exhibition. The security measure, adopted Dec. 19, came just in time for last week's holiday crush of viewers and blast of wintry weather. The action raised consternation on all sides that, besides leading to longer lines, the museum's solution has not exactly addressed the underlying friction between members of two groups who seldom mingle on the National Mall. Since the free exhibition opened Oct. 4, hundreds of van Gogh admirers seeking a limited supply of 2,000 daily passes rub shoulders with self-styled downtown entrepreneurs on Constitution Avenue beginning at 5 a.m. each day. The hucksters, who snatch as many as four tickets at a time to sell later for $10 to $35 apiece, number about 250 on a busy day and include several homeless men and substance abusers. "I arrived there at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday," said Susanne D. Arnold, a 62-year-old Alexandria school teacher who waited six hours to see the largest display of van Gogh paintings outside the Netherlands in the last 25 years. When she got in line, Arnold said, a "young woman" of about 40 attached herself to Arnold's elbow. "She said she was too intimidated to stand there by herself. She said people were not very nice to her, telling her, 'Don't you be in this line, we'll get the tickets and sell them to you,' " Arnold said. "She seemed young because she couldn't hold her own in line." Arnold's and others' chief complaint, however, was that a metal detector inside the building does nothing to keep the peace outdoors. Besides, the detector applies only to people seeking van Gogh tickets. There is no security gate for 5,600 daily viewers when they actually enter the exhibition gallery -- most passes were distributed through earlier orders -- or the 20,000 or so daily museum-goers who walk through adjoining doors. The security line "moved like molasses. Going uphill. In January. In Alaska," said James F. Kurtz, a 50-year-old computer salesman from Greenbelt, who watched thousands pass into the museum while he waited behind a metal detector from 8 a.m to noon Wednesday in 28-degree weather for tickets for himself, his girlfriend and his brother. Deborah Ziska, chief spokesman for the National Gallery, said it has received no complaints about the metal detector, which will be up until the exhibition closes Jan. 3. Ziska said administrators responded to "one incident of verbal abuse we know of." No patrons or museum employees have been threatened, Ziska said, adding, "This has no relation to the exhibition itself," or to related security or insurance issues. Asked how a metal detector inside the building controlled verbal harassment outside the gallery's doors, Ziska said it set a note of "psychological deterrence." "Just in case those characters happen to have anything with them," Ziska said, "we want to make sure if emotions are running high, that there's an extra precaution." That explanation did not satisfy many patrons, ticket scalpers or their potential customers interviewed along Constitution Avenue yesterday -- who all seemed to get along just fine. "The scalpers are not doing anything bad, they're just taking advantage of an opportunity and the museum is creating the opportunity," said Jeorge Kauf, 24, a museum visitor from Brooklyn, N.Y., who said the solution is longer exhibition hours. "It makes us sell our tickets for higher prices," said a 31-year-old man who said he was homeless and gave his name as "John," the name stitched on a blue, "Belair Swim and Racquet Club" jacket that he "picked up." Like others, he said the longer wait was an added cost: "It's not hurting the scalpers, it's hurting the tourists." "Joe," a mustachioed 45-year-old man from Northwest Washington identified by his mates as the scalper-in-chief yesterday, said his first rule to newcomers is, "Don't scare the tourists. The city needs the tourists, and the scalpers need the business." That can be trying for all sides in downtown's urban menagerie. "The problem is, you have people who don't interact well with the public," "Joe" said, "and a public that is used to fine art, good manners, the whole works. You put them together and you don't got peanut butter and jelly."
c Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company

(Yahoo Daily News)

Museum Flooded When Pipe Bursts

- (IDAHO FALLS) --
It's probably going to be two months before the water-logged Bonneville Museum reopens. Ten- thousand gallons of water poured through the 80-year-old Idaho Falls building when a water pipe burst on the top floor. Most of the museum's artifacts seem to be unharmed because they were in display cases... and there's no damage to most of the wall pictures and paintings. The floors and carpets are another story.

Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 01:47:16 -0600
From: Jonathan Sazonoff saz@kwom.com
Organization: SAZ PRODUCTIONS, INC.

Subject:

The fight to recover stolen cultural property - 1998 in Review

Dear Subscribers,
1998 has been a year of great progress in the fight to recover stolen cultural property. There has been a greater use of the internet and historic attempts have been made to address many outstanding culture property issues.
In addition to the growth of the Museum Security Network, INTERPOL (USNCB), the FBI National Stolen Art File, and the USIA have all premiered cultural property sites on the web this year. see http://www.saztv.com/page11.html. There has also been a proliferation of public and private web sits. http://www.saztv.com/page9.html
The biggest stories of 1998 seemed to have their antecedence in WWII. The Russia Government renewed its desire to keep captured trophy art. On the positive side, progress was made at the Washington D.C. Holocaust Assets conference. see http://www.ushmm.org/assets/. As WWII caused the greatest modern plunder of art, it is no surprise that attempts for reparation have taken so long.
Fortunately, a healthy desire to do the right thing, seems to have blossomed. The Art Loss Register, WJC, AAMD, State of New York and others have provided specific initiatives. There has even been a proposal for the development of a single web site to those ends.
As for reviewing the major cases of 1998 here is our attempt. Many sources were consulted. We welcome any and all corrections. Happy new year from SAZ PRODUCTIONS, INC.

Australia Broome 11/27/98 Dinosaur Foot Print 120,000,000 yr old
Australia Ramsgate Mathieson Gallery 12/14/98 Lindsay Women w/ Pan like figure (watercolor)
Australia Ramsgate Mathieson Gallery 12/14/98 Lindsay Women w/ Pan like figure (etching)
Belarus Vitebsk Museum 11/9/98 Chagalls
China Beijing (suburban) 4/1/98 Buddha (painted stone) 499 bc Wei dyn
Denmark Copenhagen Harbor 1/8/98 Statue of Little Merrmaid Recovered
France Nice Fine Arts Museum of Nice 9/21/98 Sisely Alley of Poplars Recovered
France Nice Fine Arts Museum of Nice 9/21/98 Monet Cliffs of Dieppe Recovered
France Nice Princess Erina of Saxony 1/6/98 475 carat ruby & a pearl bear
France Paris Louvre 5/4/98 Corot Chemin De Sevres
France Paris Private residence 5/3/98 Corot
France Paris Louvre 1/7/98 Marble votive stone
France Chateau de Compiegne 5/12/98 18th & 19th cent
France Chateau de Compiegne 5/12/98 18th & 19th cent (vases statuetts)
France Ministry of Culture note 2/26/98 Parrocel St. Augstine & St. Bernard
Honduras Copan Archeological Museum 2/27/98 Mayan / Wife of 1st King's Mother of Pearl Neckless
Honduras Copan Archeological site 2/27/98 Mayan Jade Pieces
Italy Rome National Modern Art Gallery 5/20/98 Cezanne Cabanon de Jourdan Recovered
Italy Rome National Modern Art Gallery 5/20/98 Van Gogh The Gardner Recovered
Italy Rome National Modern Art Gallery 5/20/98 Van Gogh Woman From Arles Recovered
Italy Venice Guistiniani Palace (private) 10/22/98 Map of Venice Recovered
Italy Venice Guistiniani Palace (private) 10/22/98 Canaletto Flour Wraf Recovered
Japan Koryo Koryo Museum 11/15/98 ceramic pieces (15)
Japan Tokyo Yanmonoki Museum 1/8/98 Sung Dyn. (2)vases 20"
Netherlands Middelberg Zeeuws Museum 9/26/98 Mondrian The Tree (1909) Recovered
New Zealand Auckland Auckland Art Gallery 8/9/98 Tisso Still on Top Recovered
Peru Arequipa Museum 11/20/98 Inca Feather Cloak (560 Parrot) Recovered
Philippines Baguio City Hospital 5/27/98 Amorsolo Lord and Some of His Children
Poland Krakow Polish Academy of Science 11/25/98 Copurnicus `De Revolutionibus'' (1543)
Russia Moscow Paleontological Institute Jan-98 240 million year oldamphibian skull
Russia Moscow Paleontological Institute Jan-98 mamoth tusks (worlds largest) 220 lbs
Russia St. Petersburg Geological Museum (Chernishova) 12/1/98 Helicoprion bessonovi "holotipe"
South Africa Capetown SA National Gallery 10/4/98 Stickert Royal Hotel, Dieppe (1902)
Spain Lebena Church 3/16/98 Madonna and Child (Sta Maria de Lebena)
Spain Zamora Church 3/16/98 Descendimento
Spain Zamora Church 3/16/98 Dudas de Sto. Tomas
Spain Zamora Church 3/16/98 El Santo Entierro
Spain Zamora Church 3/16/98 Resurreccion
Ukraine 8/15/98 Copurnicus `De Revolutionibus'' (1543)
United Kingdom Buckinghamshire Madmenham 7/18/98 Warhol Self-Portrait 1964 (Black top on red velvet)
United Kingdom Glouchester Business in Winchcombe 1/20/98 Duncan Venetian Lagoon
United Kingdom Glouchester Business in Winchcombe 1/20/98 Lesrel The Conuoisseurs
United Kingdom Glouchester Business in Winchcombe 1/20/98 Gallon Loading Reeds by a River
United Kingdom Glouchester Business in Winchcombe 1/20/98 Andreotti Gathering Roses
United Kingdom Glouchester Business in Winchcombe 1/20/98 King A Quiet Fish
United Kingdom Glouchester Business in Winchcombe 1/20/98 Fidler Loading hay cart in farm yard
United Kingdom Glouchester Business in Winchcombe 1/20/98 Key Landscape - Bredon Wores
United Kingdom Glouchester Business in Winchcombe 1/20/98 Belleuse Rembrandt Bust
United Kingdom Hampshire 1/22/98 Collins 2 Boys and a Girl w/ Net on a Beach
United Kingdom Hampshire 1/22/98 Collins 2 Women & child in open landscape
United Kingdom Hampshire 1/22/98 Collins Boys and a Girl w/ Net on Beach - boats
United Kingdom Hampshire 1/22/98 Collins Harvest Scene
United Kingdom Hampshire 1/22/98 Collins Youth & Maiden w/ toy boat on beach
United Kingdom London Victoria & Albert Museum 11/12/98 Constable Dedham Lock and Mill
United Kingdom London Victoria & Albert Museum 11/12/98 Constable Sketch for Valley Farm
United Kingdom London Courtland Institute 11/6/98 Giovanni (Gherado di) Head of an Angel (fragment)
United Kingdom London Courtland Institute 11/6/98 Bles, (Herri met de) Landscape w/ St. Praying
United Kingdom London Courtland Institute 11/6/98 Aachen (Hans van) Entombment (1582)
United Kingdom London West End Gallery 2/9/98 Condor Peacock Lady
United Kingdom Sunderland Museum Apr-98 Lowry Young Man
United Kingdom Durham University 12/16/98 Shakespeare 1st folio
USA LA, Chinatown CA Stolen from a salesman 1/14/98 Gems
USA CT Mar-98 Recovered
USA West Palm Beach FL 2/9/98 Lucayan terracotta bell krater
USA Des Moines IA Drake University 1/27/98 McKenney History of the Indian Tribes of America (# vol)
USA MI Park West Gallery 5/7/98 Picasso etch
USA MI Park West Gallery 5/7/98 Rembrandt plate
USA Hendersonville NC 5/3/98 Rembrandt Recovered
USA Lincoln NE University of Nebraska Mar-98 Nadelman Man in Open Air (1915) bronze
USA Santa Fe NM Private Collector 7/24/98 Swift Dog Ledger of Little Bighorn (10 pics)
USA Troy NY Rensselaer Polytech. 4/3/98 Portrait of Wm. Rensselaer
USA Cleveland OH Rockefeller Park Greenhouse 7/30/98 Hellen Keller Statue
USA Memphis TN Calvary Bapt. Church 2/9/98 Giordano (School) Recovered
USA Goldendale WA Maryhill Museum 5/17/98 16 rare roman coins


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