Recovery of Items Stolen from the Historical Society of PA

FBI PRESS RELEASE

• The Presentation Sword and Scabbard of Major General David Bell Birney, dated 1862;
• The Presentation Sword and Scabbard of General George Gordon Meade, dated 1864;
• The presentation Sword and Scabbard of Major General Andrew Atkinson Humphreys, dated 1861-1865;
• The Sword and Scabbard of Major Isaac D. Barnard, dated 1812
• A flintlock long rifle made in Lancaster County, PA circa 1780.

1/6/98 FBI press conference statement: Susan Stitt, Historical Society

This is a very emotional day for all of us at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. We are thrilled --and deeply grateful--for the quick action of the FBI and the Philadelphia Police Department in bringing these missing items home to Philadelphia. We feel lucky--and relieved--that they remain in excellent condition. However, we are shocked and deeply saddened that one of our own, a trusted 20-year staff member (and friend), has been charged.

Collecting, preserving, and protecting "the materials of history," as our founders in 1824 called artifacts and documents, is the reason why the Historical Society of Pennsylvania exists. The other reason is to give everyone--all of us--access to these materials. Although the Society serves an important public purpose, it is an independent corporation and receives public support only on a competitive basis. Most donors are more interested in funding public access to our collections--exhibitions and programs--than the significant staff expense, including security, that protect it. In other words, it is easier to pay for the sizzle, than the steak. The objects that have been recovered--and that you have seen today--are the very important steak of our heritage. Hopefully, their recovery will signal the need for increased operating support for collection-base institutions.

This must not happen again. Utilizing our newly computerized art and artifact catalog, we are continuing the process of re-examining collection inventories made over the past decades. To further protect these priceless memories of Philadelphia's heritage, a state-of-the-art card access security system and surveillance cameras will be installed during the renovations to our building at 1300 Locust Street, renovations that--thankfully--we have just begun and that, with sufficient support, we can complete.

White House Paining Vandal Caught

WASHINGTON - The Associated Press via Individual Inc. : A woman touring the White House today sprayed rust-colored paint in the Blue Room and was taken into custody by Secret Service agents, a White House spokesman Said.
- The woman caused more than $1,000 damage to the room's wall coverings and defaced two ``rather priceless'' busts of Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci that are among the oldest sculptures in the White House, spokesman Mike McCurry said.
- McCurry described the woman, who was not immediately identified, as between the ages of 30 and 35. ``I'm told she was taken into custody and was rather calm about it,'' he said. Her motive was not clear.
- McCurry said the woman was on one of the daily public tours when, just after noon, she began spraying paint at the busts on 5-foot pedestals and was interrupted by a nearby uniformed Secret Service agent.
- Secret Service officials did not immediately return calls for comment.
- The two busts will be removed for repair, but tours of the mansion would not otherwise be affected, McCurry said. Citing a fear of copycat vandals, White House officials refused to allow news cameras to film the damage.
- ``This president and this first lady are committed to keeping the residence open to the American public,'' he said.
[Copyright 1998, Associated Press]

To: securma@museum-security.org
Subject:

Questions: restitution of cultural property

Hi! My name is Nicole Perez and I am a high school student from Caracas, Venezuela. From January 24-31, I will be attending The Hague International Model United Nations conference (THIMUN) in the Netherlands. I am going to represent the Ukraine in the third committee of the General Assembly, where one of the issues is the return or restitution of cultural property to the country of origin. There are a few questions:
a)Has 1999 been proclaimed the year for the preservation and restitution of cultural property?
b)What is the Ukrainian policy in relation to the issue of the return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin? What international documents and agreements on this issue has the Ukraine signed? What new initiatives has the Ukraine, both on the national and international levels, taken to find a comprehensive solution to this problem?

Thank you very much for your attention!

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(ConsDisList) Date: 13 Jan 98
From: Sandra Lawrence
Subject:

Guidelines for sketching and copying in the museum

Recent changes in school visiting programs and requests from artists to copy in the galleries have prompted the AGO Collections Team to review our guidelines. In the past we have specified the range of sketching media permitted, based on both conservation and security concerns. Because our spaces tend to be relatively small, and very few works of art are protected by glazing or plexi-covered cases, we have restricted the use of drawing boards and clip boards, and generally limited media to graphite and coloured pencils. Portable seating was not permitted. Recently our Education Department introduced an activity book for children which requires the use of wax crayons. With increasing numbers of school groups and art students we have extended sketching media to include cartridge pens, but we have continued to deny the use of watercolours, inks, acrylics or oils. We have also relented on the use of portable seating and are making folding canvas seats available. To assist in our review and revisions I would like to hear what sketching guidelines or regulations are applied by other museums and galleries.

I would also like to know how other institutions deal with artists' requests to copy in watercolour, acrylic or oils, using easels. I realize that copying is relatively commonplace in European museums, but am not aware of North American practices. To date we have refused this type of copying, but with increasing numbers of requests we feel obligated to re-examine our policy. For reference purposes I'd also really appreciate receiving hard copies of guidelines or policies for both sketching and copying. Looking forward to hearing from you,

**** Moderator's comments: Consider making guidelines available in Conservation OnLine. Contact waiscool@palimpsest.stanford.edu

Sandra Lawrence, Chief Conservator
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

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Translation of article that appeared in Jan 14th issue of Die Presse, Vienna (presented to the Museum Security Mailinglist by: Antony F Anderson )

Official files on compulsory art traffic

Minister Gehrer is going to have the origins of paintings in Austrian Museums historically and scientifically investigated.

Pressurised by the confiscation of two Shiele paintings from the Leopold Collection in New York, Education Minister Gehrer is going to have the origins of paintings in the (Austrian) national museums reappraised. There is to be an index in the National Monuments Office in which all acts of seizure, protection, rescue and restitution of art during and after World War II will be brought together. She has instructed the Monuments Office and the National Museums to prepare all documents that could contribute to the reconstruction of property-situations.
Willi Korte, presently in Vienna, the advocate for the two families who have lodged a claim for the Shiele paintings impounded in New York, has made material available.
The collector Rudolf Leopold has also gone on the offensive: in the catalogue of the sales exhibition held in the Kornfeld Gallery (Bern) in 1956, 52 other works were to be found alongside "Dead City III", the picture now confiscated in America. Leopold remembers in "The Standard" and on Austrian Radio that today at least five leaves from this source are to be found in US museums, without objection: a half nude of "Black Girl" (1911)in the Allen Memorial Art Museum Ohio; a portrait of Edith Schiele (1915) in the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California, and a girl putting on a shoe (1910) in the New York museum of Modern Art. At least 11 further drawings and water colours are in private hands in the US, says Leopold.

Copyright "Die Presse" Vienna

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Date sent: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 11:38:48 +0100
To: "Museum Security Mailinglist"
From: "dr. Tomaso Vialardi di Sandigliano"

Re: Looted Art from Vienna and Salzburg in the Louvre?

On 13 Jan 1998 Antonia Kriks wrote in her personal comments (Schiele - translations german articles and comments):

> ... A few month ago the Italians presented a catalogue of art, 150
> pieces,
>looted by the "Wehrmacht" in Italy during the war. Those pieces of
>art are spread all over the world by now - what happens, if the
>Italians start to claim it back? ...

As we know from our records, more or less a 12% of those pieces are still in Italy.

> ... There is also the fact that American soldiers took back the one
> or
>the other piece of art from Germany to the states - not quite legally
>...

Not only "American soldiers" but also English and Russian soldiers; the majority were not "soldiers", but well cultivated officers and journalists. Last but not least, under the umbrella of Wehrmacht many Allied Intelligence officers followed the orders of their Government, considering the looting a partial repayment. In Italy the Holocaust Art Restitution Project doesn't exist (as far as now), but the Italians follow the stream ...

Regards
dr. Tomaso Vialardi di Sandigliano
VIALARDI DI SANDIGLIANO FOUNDATION
vialardi@italymail.com (private)
FOUNDATION: fvds@americamail.com
CASTELLO DEL TORRIONE fvds@irelandmail.com
- noli me tangere -
FAX : +39 15 691023
http://www.gvo.it/VdSF/torrione1.html

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Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 7:44:35 -0500
From: "NWS::WROBIN"@globe.com
To: securma@xs4all.nl
Subject:

GUATEMALANS DEMAND RETURN OF ARTIFACTS

BOSTON GLOBE

SOURCE: By John Yemma and Walter V. Robinson, Globe Staff Six weeks after Boston's Museum of Fine Arts opened its new galleries of pre-Columbian and African art, two senior Guatemalan officials met for the first time with the MFA's director to demand the return of Mayan antiquities they say were looted from their country. Those antiquities are also the subject of an investigation by the US Customs Service into how the Mayan pieces entered the United States before they were purchased by an MFA trustee more than a decade ago. The government of Mali, meanwhile, disclosed that the Clinton administration has asked the US Customs Service to investigate its country's claim that two valuable terra cotta figures on loan to the MFA exhibition were looted from Malian burial grounds. Officials of both countries promised legal action against the MFA if their artifacts are not returned. ``We told them the Guatemalan government is very serious about recovering the pieces,'' Carlos Enrique Zea Flores, Guatemala's vice minister of culture, said shortly after meeting with MFA director Malcolm Rogers and deputy director Brent Benjamin. ``They are magnificent pieces and we would like to see them here -- but legally.'' Zea Flores explained that Guatemala might loan Mayan items to the MFA if the museum returns the looted antiquities. Zea Flores described the meeting as friendly but formal. He said he reminded Rogers of a 1993 civil case in Chicago in which Guatemala won the return of items after a federal judge ruled that their illegal export from Guatemala could be construed as a violation of a US criminal statute against receiving stolen property. ``I invited them to come to Guatemala to understand the damage that looters are doing, to see what destruction is caused in getting one piece into a museum,'' said Zea Flores. ``I also told them we have proof that the looters are involved with the drug traffic.'' Rogers told Zea Flores and Fabiola Fuentes Orellana, Guatemala's consul-general in New York, that he would have to talk with the museum's board of trustees about the matter, according to the Guatemalans. Neither Rogers nor Benjamin would comment on the meeting, in keeping with their practice of refusing comment on the issue since the Globe reported in early December that there is evidence that the items from Guatemala and Mali were illegally exported from those countries. An MFA press release yesterday repeated the museum's view that the Mayan objects had been subjected to ``a complete legal review'' before they were accepted in 1988 from businessman Landon T. Clay, a longtime trustee of the museum. The review determined that the pieces had been ``legally owned in the United States,'' the museum said. The examination, however, appeared to ignore Guatemalan law that prohibits export of items of ``cultural patrimony.'' At the same time, the US Information Agency, which oversees anti-looting agreements between the United States and other countries, has also asked the Customs Service to investigate whether the two terra cotta antiquities from Mali, loaned to the MFA exhibition by museum overseer William E. Teel, were legally imported. An official of Mali's embassy in Washington, Mahamane Toure, said yesterday that his government plans to send a cultural delegation to Boston in the next several weeks and hopes that MFA officials will meet with the delegation and respond to a plea for the return of the artifacts. For decades, private collectors and museums in the United States have snapped up artifacts that were illegally excavated from ancient sites such as those in Mali, Guatemala and dozens of other countries. Museums argue that they are safeguarding objects that are already out of the ground. Archeologists, however, say collecting only encourages further plundering. ``Museums are really trying to come to terms with this and are very frightened,'' said Clemency Chase Coggins, a professor of archeology at Boston University. It was Coggins who in 1988 urged the MFA not to accept the Clay donation of Mayan pieces. Guatemala requested the pieces be returned at that time, but the museum's former director, Alan Shestack, refused. Elizabeth des Portes, president of the International Council of Museums, expressed support for the Guatemalan claim in a recent interview. ``The MFA may win the case legally, but to act ethically, they have to return the collection,'' she said. ``We are institutions in service of society. Our behavior has to be ethical and exemplary. How can you be an educational institution if you cannot behave ethically?'' With Mali, which has just two valuable antiquities at stake, the issue is no less sensitive. The MFA exhibition of items from the Teel collection that originated in the Djenne area in the Niger River Delta has generated widespread publicity in the country. The government, and archeologists who specialize in Djenne artifacts, say the items were smuggled out of the country during widespread looting that has occurred in Mali since the 1980s. US officials, who just recently signed a bilateral agreement with Mali designed to stop the flow of Malian antiquities into the United States, are urging the west African country to vigorously press a claim for the items loaned by Teel, who is a major benefactor to the museum. In a December letter to Mali's ambassador, Cheick Oumar Diarrah, the deputy director of the US Information Agency, Penn Kemble, wrote that the US government ``strongly supports'' Mali's efforts to reclaim looted cultural property. Kemble informed the ambassador that the Clinton administration had asked US Customs offices in New York and Boston to investigate the claims. Customs officials could not be reached for comment. But in past cases, customs agents have seized antiquities if they determine that dealers or collectors misstated the origin of the items.

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