http://museum-security.org/
securma@xs4all.nl
SITE MAP
February 27, 1999
CONTENTS:
- RE: Checking handbags and backpacks; Bag and parcel inspections, and rules (David Liston)
- Re: Illicit Materials (Claudia Nicholson)
- Untrained guidedogs in Museum (Tim Gette)
- RE: Checking handbags and backpacks (Elizabeth Fuller)
- Aboriginal artist finds 20 more fake paintings (The Australian)
- query: Union Employees (Kevin Purpgoof)
Date sent: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 11:15:41 -0500
From: "David Liston" Listond@ic.si.edu
Subject: RE: Checking handbags and backpacks; Bag and parcel inspections, and rules (David Liston)
Include in your considerations: briefcases, purses, shopping and hand bags, overcoats and boots, strollers\baby carriages, backpacks, suitcases, umbrellas, oversize bags, delivery boxes (even pizzas!), amateur and professional cameras with flash and tripods, artist easels, assistance animals, signs and flags, obscene or provocative material or clothing, work tools, wrapped gifts, walking sticks\canes, disability equipment, balloons, sharp objects, lunches and food items, flammables, alcohol bottles, eviden Steve Keller is right: prepare practical, legally defendable strategies and put them in writing for whoever we assign to check items at the doors. Good customer service should also accompany our security and law enforcement.
Security managers:
* What is the local and the institution's loss experience?
* What is practical and what would be legally defendable, in Privacy vs Public Safety?
* How can inspection instructions to guards be shown to be impartial and also vary up and down according to perceived threats?
* What is reasonable accommodation and viable alternatives, including those practices at similar and neighboring institutions?
* What must "sworn" law enforcement officers do on discovery of illegal weapons, "fruits of the crime", burglary tools, contraband drugs, and illegally removed objects?
* How much support will the security manager's judgement receive from the institution director?
ENTERING: The practical and legal reason to check items entering a premises or building, reserving "the right to inspect, is to protect those inside from danger. The staffer working at the door should be prepared to explain this.
What practically and legally are the choices for someone entering?
A) enter with the object,
B) check it in our checkroom or locker, or
C) be required to leave with the object, perhaps to put it in your parked car. A director and a judge would ask if you've prepared your institution to defend your actions with an individual entering who has Christmas presents, a registered handgun, embarrassing purchases, a live pet, or a high value sculpture. To be turned away at the door with one of these and to be foll Coatroom and locker operations are separate practical, security and legal questions.
EXITING: The practical and legal reason to check items exiting a premises or building, reserving "the right to inspect, is to prevent the inappropriate or illegal removal of property. The staffer working at the door should be prepared to explain this.
What practically and legally are the choices for someone exiting, such as a staffer or visitor with a questionable object--even from the gift shop or the director's office?
A) exit with the object,
B) be required to (wait to) verify its legitimate removal, or
C) leave it with the security officer for clearance or confiscation. A director and a judge would ask if you've prepared your institution to defend your actions with an individual entering who has Christmas presents, a registered handgun, embarrassing VISITOR RULES:
* Rules require regular, careful improvements. Rules of Decorum continue to be challenged by new items that people carry in and out of institutions and new laws on privacy and public safety. Older, general rules become obsolete, unenforceable and not legally defendable.
* Rules by this term are negative features, not good customer service items. Even old rules such as "no touching" "no eating or smoking" "no animals" and other "no--" rules often require explanation or interpretation from our staff. Consider re-writing "rules" positively, especially without "no" and with a "why", such as:
For our common safety and enjoyment:
- only assistance animals for the disabled, to discourage distractions and unsanitary conditions;
- tobacco use outside only, to maintain a cleaner atmosphere for the collections on exhibit;
- food and drink consumed outside, and small quantities carried inside in covered containers, to avoid spills and maintain a clean collection atmosphere;
- cameras permitted except where not marked as prohibited by the artist, but no flash, which deteriorates fabrics and colors in the collections. etc etc
Thank you for helping us make this place safe and enjoyable for everyone.
Museum-L
From: "Nicholson, Claudia" claudia.nicholson@MNHS.ORG
Subject: Re: Illicit Materials
Simon asked hypothetically: The ICOM code of ethics states that it is highly unethical for museums to obtain or use illicit materials in a collection. But what should be done if the only examples of a valuable artefact needed for a certain collection are of dubious origins?
I have waited to for someone else to answer, and am disappointed that no one really responded thoughtfully.
Isn't the answer to this hypothetical situation that if the valuable artifact has "dubious origins" it is the museum's duty and responsibility to pass on it? What valuable artifact could be so needed for a collection that a museum in 1999 would stoop to unethical and possibly illegal means to get it? Isn't the reason that the code of ethics has this clause in the first place the fact that some museums didn't always observe either law or ethics in their acquisitions?
Maybe an example would be helpful.
Claudia Nicholson
Curator
Museum Collections Department
Minnesota Historical Society
345 Kellogg Blvd. W.
St. Paul, MN 55102-1906
e-mail: claudia.nicholson@mnhs.org
Phone: 651-297-7442
FAX: 651-297-2967
From: "Tim Gette" tgette@jfk.org
Subject: Untrained guidedogs in Museum
Date sent: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 14:33:50 -0600
We recently had a visitor come to our Museum with a dog that had a sign on it saying it was a "Guidedog in Training". She was insistent that this dog be allowed in the gallery area.
When she got into the gallery area, there was already a trained guidedog in the gallery. The "guidedog in training" became very disruptive towards the trained guidedog.
Does anyone have polices prohibiting "guidedogs in training" or does anyone have limits as the the numbers of dogs allowed in a gallery at any one time? (As the airlines limit the number of dogs in the passenger compartments?)
We eventually had to ask the lady with the guidedog in training to leave the gallery and invited her to return as soon as the other dog left. She felt this was a very unsatisfactory response on our part.
Any suggestions or help?
Tim Gette
Director of Operations
The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
V:214-747-6660 X6640
F: 214-747-6662
E: tgette@jfk.org
Date sent: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 16:45:41
From: "Elizabeth E. Fuller" eef-rml@rosenbach.org
Subject: RE: Checking handbags and backpacks
So far we've talked about bags and backpacks in terms of what can be brought in in them (bombs) and taken out in them (collection items). There's an additional consideration, which is the damage that can be done by the bags themselves.
In institutions that are blessed with large gallery spaces this is probably of less concern, but in house museums like ours, the problem of bags banging against the furniture, paintings, and other objects is a very real one, especially during group tours and crowded receptions. I worry especially about backpacks, because those carrying them cannot see exactly where they are. We have a written policy about checking large purses, bags, and backpacks, and a locked storage space for them. We have found that explaining the policy in terms of guarding against accidental damage often helps to overcome people's reluctance.
Elizabeth E. Fuller, Librarian Phone: (215) 732-1600 ext. 15
Rosenbach Museum & Library Fax: (215) 545-7529
2010 DeLancey Place eef-rml@rosenbach.org
Philadelphia, PA 19103 http://www.rosenbach.org
(The Australian) Aboriginal artist finds 20 more fake paintings
By SUSAN McCULLOCH-UEHLIN
27feb99
LEADING Central Australian Aboriginal artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri yesterday identified more than 20 works of his, being sold for a total of over $500,000 by a Sydney art dealer, as fakes. On Thursday, The Australian revealed Tjapaltjarri's claims that at least six works in the Christopher Day Gallery in Paddington, purportedly by him, were fakes. They had been supplied to the gallery by art dealer Patrick Corbally Stourton, who was holding a simultaneous exhibition of Tjapaltjarri paintings at his Mascot warehouse gallery.
Mr Corbally Stourton told The Australian he had acquired them from a "variety of sources".
Yesterday, Tjapaltjarri went with his lawyer and Sydney police to Mr Corbally Stourton's warehouse, where he was shown approximately 25 paintings under his name. He told police, who videotaped Tjapaltjarri examining the works, that only three had been painted by him. Police have ordered that they not leave the gallery. But this week's revelations, according to many in the Aboriginal art world, are just the tip of a very large iceberg. "We believe that there were at least 60 works available for sale through this source alone," said Semon Deeb, co-director of Sydney's Jinta Desert Art, who flew Tjapaltjarri to Sydney to view the suspect works.
"Since this became public, we've also been contacted by several collectors and others who have purchased works, which Clifford is looking at in the next few days. "Anyone who has any doubts about their works are welcome to contact us, as it's very important for Clifford's reputation and the Aboriginal art industry that these are reported - otherwise they will just keep circulating." Tjapaltjarri's paintings have, over his 26-year-plus painting career, become among the most highly sought-after of any Aboriginal artist. His work is shown internationally and represented in all major Australian public galleries, and many local and overseas private collections, including that of Buckingham Palace, which he visited in 1995 to meet the Queen. But, said Melbourne dealer Hank Ebes, from the Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings, who has dealt in his paintings for the past 10 years, Tjapaltjarri was "the most faked artist in Australia". "Because he is one of the most popular and well-known artists, there is money in faking his paintings," said Mr Ebes. Rumours of the dubious authenticity of the recently exhibited works had been circulating in the Aboriginal art world since mid-February, when Mr Corbally Stourton released an invitation carrying a suspect work on its cover.
So where do these fakes come from?
"They are either family members whom Clifford allows to paint his works, sometimes women who have lived with him, or out-and-out white copyists," said Mr Ebes. "Clifford is one of the nicest, most generous people you could meet, and a great artist, but he will allow family members to paint works which he signs. He sees no problem with this."
From: Purpgoof@aol.com
Date sent: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 22:19:51 EST
To: securma@xs4all.nl
Subject: Union Employees
I need information on: Dealing with Union employees.
Areas covering:- Questioning,
- Investigating,
- Parcel checking,
- and anything else which would be useful in this area.
Please stay within U.S. Restrictions and Laws, if possible NYS Restrictions and Laws would be very appreciated.
Thank you
Kevin
Main Indexpage