Grave robbing video

New hope for Schiele

Jury finds N.H. thief both sane and guilty

BRENTWOOD, N.H. - A jury quickly found a former assistant attorney general guilty yesterday of possessing hundreds of valuable items stolen from colleges and museums around New England. William McCallum, 34, of Londonderry, had admitted to stealing books, furniture, computers, and art - including a George Inness landscape worth $70,000 - from Ivy League and private preparatory schools, museums, and the state Supreme Court library. McCallum had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the 65 counts of possessing stolen property. The burden was on his lawyers to prove he suffered from a mental illness that caused him to steal. They didn't succeed. Just two hours after hearing closing arguments yesterday morning, the Rockingham Superior Court jury came back with its verdict: sane, and therefore guilty. Defense lawyers said they would not appeal. Defense witnesses had testified that McCallum suffers from bipolar disorder, severe depression, and kleptomania - a neurotic compulsion to steal. ''Set aside your stereotypes and accept the proposition that people who are brilliant, who are profoundly intelligent, can also be profoundly mentally ill,'' defense lawyer Stephen Jeffco told the jury of nine men and three women yesterday morning. But prosecutors argued that McCallum was nothing but a yuppie thief who got caught. Assistant Hillsborough County Attorney Simon Brown painted McCallum as a sane, calculating lawyer who planned his thefts and proudly showed off the valuables he had stolen. McCallum, who grew up in Newton, Mass., attended Yale University as an undergraduate, and got his law degree at Boston College. He was bright enough to land a clerkship with then-state Supreme Court Justice David Souter, now on the US Supreme Court. Several of McCallum's former co-workers testified during the trial that he was a competent and intelligent, if arrogant, lawyer who never showed signs of mental illness. However, defense lawyers pointed out that many of the things McCallum stole - such as doorknobs and used underwear - had little value, showing that he had an uncontrollable compulsion to steal. Judge Douglas Gray said after the verdict that he did not want to sentence McCallum to the state prison, because other inmates might attack the former state lawyer. ''I have grave reservations about McCallum's ability to survive in the state's prison,'' Gray said. ''It doesn't mean incarceration isn't warranted. In fact, I think it is.'' Prosecutors said they would accept a sentence at the county House of Correction or out of state.
This story ran on page B02 of the Boston Globe on 01/21/98.
c Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.

Did painting of nuns get on thief's goat?

Police are investigating the theft of a painting from a Hobart gallery but reject its being a Tasmanian repeat of last year's Piss Christ saga in Melbourne. The $700 painting, Nun, depicts the upper bodies of two nuns above the legs of urinating goats. Its painter, Helen Hopcroft, has described it as a commentary on the end of faith. It disappeared on Monday from the walls of the private Despard Gallery in Battery Point. Police are keeping an open mind on the motive for the theft, but Ms Hopcroft believes its location, on a pillar out of view of the gallery desk, was the reason it was chosen, not its content.
(Sydeney Morning Herald)

Monks lift ban on women viewing Goya frescos

A BAN on women viewing 11 Goya frescos in a closed monastery in northern Spain is to be lifted after delicate and drawn-out negotiations between the monks, art lovers and local authorities. The ban on women visiting the 16th-century Aula Dei monastery eight miles from Zaragoza was imposed in accordance with the asceticism demanded by Saint Bruno when he founded the Carthusian order in the 1080s. It was intended to protect the celibate life of the monks. It remained despite a clamour for the chapel to be opened fully to the public because of interest in the Goyas. The monks go without meat, eat bread and water on Fridays, and speak to each other only on Sundays. They wear hair shirts, and live in single cells. They insisted on their refusal to allow their solitary lives to be disturbed by women despite the hostility of local authorities who funded a restoration of the frescos, which Goya painted in 1774 and which depict scenes of the life of the Virgin Mary. Only three women have got past the ban and entered the monastery to view the frescos. One was Queen Sofia, another a court official and the third, Teresa Grasa, an art restorer allowed in a few years ago and who has played a key part in the negotiations. On all occasions, special dispensation was required. The matter came to a head two years ago on the 250th anniversary of Goya's birth. The monks stood firm, denying women entry. The women rejected an offer to be shown photographs of the frescos. The Vatican shrugged off the mounting furore, saying it was for the monks to decide who entered their monastery. The Aragon regional government reacted by closing the chapel to the public on the grounds that if women could not go in to see them, then the masterpieces could not be seen by anyone. Art lovers, women's rights groups, the Aragon government, the city hall at Zaragoza and Church authorities all became involved. There were protests by feminists at the gates of the monastery. Talks continued for two years with little progress, the monks refusing to shift their position. Under the agreement worked out this week, a corridor will be built from outside into the chapel so that visitors will not have to pass through the monks' living quarters. The prior, aware of the financial loss of keeping the frescos closed to the public, consulted his brothers and they consented. Now an architect has been commissioned to design a passageway to the chapel. It will be ready in six months.
Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1998.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 21, 1998
CONTACT: Kathy Westra, (202) 223-6722, ext. 121 Don Barger, (423) 494-7008

CUMBERLAND GAP SAVED FROM COAL MINE THREAT

NPCA Claims Victory in Judge's Decision to Protect National Park Viewshed

Middlesboro, KY -- In a major victory for the national parks, a Kentucky administrative law judge yesterday determined that a permit for a coal mine adjacent to Cumberland Gap National Historical Park should be rescinded. The permit had been granted to Appolo Fuels, Inc., by the State of Kentucky. Judge Vanessa Mullins found that the coal mine, which would be visible from the park, would adversely affect the park's historic views. Under Section 522(e)(3) of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, any mining project that would adversely affect a national park cannot be approved unless the National Park Service (NPS) jointly approves the permit. The State did not consult NPS about the impacts of the project. This is a victory not just for Cumberland Gap, but for all national parks, said Don Barger, Southeast Regional Director of the National Parks and Conservation Association (NPCA). To my knowledge, this is the first time that a visual impact has been determined to be an adverse affect under this provision of the Surface Mining Act. With this ruling, we have made a step forward to protect all parks from the impacts of coal mining beyond their boundaries. Judge Mullins' ruling came in response to two appeals of the Appolo permit filed by NPS and by NPCA and the City of Middlesboro, Kentucky. The city had earlier joined with NPCA in a petition to have the Fern Lake watershed declared unsuitable for mining that would have threatened both the park views and the quality of the city's water supply. The decision in that case, delivered in September 1996, found that any mining in the watershed would adversely affect the park, and the area was declared unsuitable for mining. Evidence from the Fern Lake case was presented to the judge to support the appeal of the Appolo permit. The judge's decision demonstrates a genuine understanding of the historical and natural values of Cumberland Gap, and applies a broad, common-sense definition to the term æadversely affect,' said Barger. The result is to protect the landscape as viewed by early westward pioneers and Civil War lookouts. Because Congress did not define the term adverse affect when it passed the 1977 law, mining authorities have always been the ones to decide whether or not a park would be adversely affected by a proposed mine, and have rarely given NPS joint approval authority. Judge Mullins rejected the State's argument that an impact would have to be significant or major or permanent to adversely affect the park, and directed that any subsequent permit decisions on the Appolo project be made jointly with NPS, as required by law. The National Parks and Conservation Association (NPCA) is America's only private nonprofit citizen organization dedicated solely to protecting, preserving, and enhancing the U.S. National Park System. An association of Citizens Protecting America's Parks, NPCA was founded in 1919, and today has nearly 500,000 members.

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From: MediaNPCA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 21, 1998
CONTACT: Jerome Uher, (202)223-6722, ext. 122

NATIONAL PARKS BIG LOSERS AT THE BOX OFFICE

Green Scissors Report Targets Hollywood, Concessioners' Exploitation of Parks Washington, D.C. -- Motion picture and television production companies pay little or nothing for filming in taxpayer-supported national parks while generating billions of dollars of revenue for themselves, the National Parks and Conservation Association (NPCA) said today as part of the annual Green Scissors report. This year's report, compiled by a national coalition of environmental organizations, taxpayers' groups, and deficit reduction proponents, identified more than $49 billion in wasteful and environmentally harmful federal spending and subsidies. National parks are for preserving our most cherished places and for the enjoyment of all Americans; they are not reserves for the financial advantage of a few companies, said NPCA President Tom Kiernan. Park visitors are being asked to pay double and triple the fees they paid in recent years, yet film companies have free rein in the parks and are giving very little in return. Under current National Park Service (NPS) regulations, film companies are only required to cover the cost of ranger supervision and any damage mitigation. Production companies can tie up roads, cause the closure of portions of parks and disrupt wildlife movement for days or weeks while shooting scenes. Utah's Arches National Park alone has averaged 52 filmmakers per year for the last five years. The Green Scissors report calls for the NPS to be given the authority to collect location fees from commercial filmmakers and be allowed to retain those fees within the park system. On November 9, 1997, Representative Joel Hefley (R-CO) introduced H.R. 2993, which would require the Park Service to charge fair market value filming fees and would allow the parks to keep the revenue generated. The Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service charge location fees of up to $3,000 per day from film production companies. Private landholders demand as much as $10,000 per day. Although estimates of potential revenue for the Park System are not available, the amount of revenue made from productions filmed in the parks is staggering. Of the hundreds of movies which have been filmed in national parks, three of the top grossing films -- Star Wars, Forrest Gump and Return of the Jedi -- have combined to generate well over $1 billion in revenues. Filmmakers aren't the only private businesses taking money from the parks, according to NPCA and Green Scissors. The NPS loses more than $50 million per year in potential revenues because of an anti-competitive contracting law that favors the concessions companies which operate profitable businesses in the parks. The corporations that sell food, lodging, and souvenirs in the national parks operate under a preferential 30-year-old law passed when national parks were high-risk locations for businesses. Today, however, the parks are visited by some 270 million visitors every year and concessioners reap a financial windfall. Park concessioners took in $662 million in 1995 from public visitors, but because of their legally enshrined monopoly paid only $15 million in franchise fees to taxpayers. While the national parks are forced to limp along without the money to repair historic buildings or protect the natural resources, the concessioners are getting away with sweetheart deals that they lobby Congress desperately to protect, said NPCA President Kiernan. It's absurd that the American public is paying higher entrance fees while concessioners are reaping higher profits. All stakeholders need to share in the responsibility of protecting our parks. NPCA found that concessioners in national parks pay only an average 2.2% of their gross revenues in franchise fees, compared with 10%-12% for businesses operating in state parks. If national park concessioners paid a similar percentage, which is likely under a competitive system, the federal treasury would have received $66 million in 1995. That is $51 million more than what concessioners actually paid. Over the five year period looked at by the Green Scissors report, another $255 million would become available for national parks. Legislation that would have allowed real competition in the concessions industry passed both the House and Senate overwhelmingly in 1994, but was not enacted into law by the end of the session. In the 104th Congress, the concessions industry again sabotaged reform legislation introduced by Senators Dale Bumpers (D-AR) and Bob Bennett (R-UT), and Representative Jan Meyers (R-KS). The National Parks and Conservation Association is America's only private nonprofit citizen organization dedicated solely to protecting, preserving, and enhancing the U.S. National Park system. An association of "Citizens Protecting America's Parks," NPCA was founded in 1919 and today has nearly 500,000 members. A library of national park information, including fact sheets, congressional testimony, position statements, press releases and media alerts, can be found on NPCA's World Wide Web site at http://www.npca.org.

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HH Sisson: risk management solutions for the entire art community

e-mail: msisson@hhsisson.com
Matt Sisson

Founded in 1926, HH Sisson is one of New England's leading providers of insurance and risk management solutions for the entire art community. Designers of "The Answer", the definitive insurance program for the arts, HH Sisson is a proud member of the Group 500, the largest property/casualty affinity group ever, with a global network of adjusters, appraisers, and 1,200 field offices worldwide.
Vice President, Sales, HH Sisson, Inc.

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From: CarterBH
To: securma@museum-security.org
Subject:

art website

You might be interested in The City Review at
http://www.thecityreview.com as it carries full coverage not only of the Denny case, but also major controversies involving the attributions of early Chinese paintings and the provenance of Egon Schiele paintings. Carter B. Horsley editor, The City Review
CarterBH@aol.com

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query; training videos for Security Officers

From: KMurszewsk

Does anyone know of someone or organization in the USA that has training videos for Security Officers regarding the following: Haz-Mat Response, Bomb Threat and Suspicious Packaging, Exterior and Interior Security, Physical Force, ETC.
Thanks for your help
Kevin

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Museum-L
From: Boylan P
Subject:

VANDALISING UNPOPULAR STATUES ETC.

A couple of weeks ago someone cut off the head of Copenhagen's kitsch "Little Mermaid" statue - a target of feminist (amongst others) protests over the years, but the hooded person who returned the head to a newspaper office a few days later was reported to be a (hooded) man. More relevantly, there were waves of destruction of statues and monuments in honour of past Communist and workers' revolutionary leaders across much of the former Warsaw Pact territory with the fall of communism, but this was just the latest of no doubt many waves of such "popular" (or State) activity. I remember being surprised when visiting the sculpture storage of major Moscow museums in the late 1980s to find many examples of representations of Stalin carefully preserved, though away from the public gaze. I was assured that these were being preserved (probably in defiance of official edicts) because of their artistic relevance, rather than because the museums were closet Stalinists. The centenary of the Prague National Museum in about 1991 also saw the re-emergence of portrait sculptures of not just pre-Communist leaders but also pre-World War I royals and nobles. Both groups had in turn been ordered out of the national Pantheon in the Museum for destruction after each successive revolutionary wave, but had been secretly hidden away for generations by curators anxious to ensure their survival as important examples of the work of the artists and sculptors represented. Also, doesn't India have a isolated public park somewhere full of statues of Queen Victoria, King Edward VII etc. moved out of public view and to avoid further vandalism when their subject matter became politically unacceptable as features of the country's town hall squares, main streets, waterfronts etc.?
Patrick Boylan

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From: "Sycomore SA"
To:
Subject:

Artcrime2.html

Dear Mr. Cremers :
First we would like to thank you for all the interesting articles we are reading on your site and would like also to wish you a happy belated New Year.
On the article "Iraq Battles Against Archaeological Theft" Feb. 26, 1997, loaded on Artcrime2.html, would anyone know where to find Iraq's website displaying stolen items, as written in the last paragraph.
If you can do anything, we thank you in advance for your help in that matter.
Best regards,
Therese-ann Masset

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Two Matisse paintings damaged in Rome exhibit

07:35 p.m Jan 22, 1998 Eastern

ROME, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Vandals have poked holes through two paintings French artist Henri Matisse which were on show in a Rome museum, officials said on Thursday. Anna Sommella, director of the Capitoline Museum where the exhibition was held, said the works were most likely to have been damaged during two hours on Thursday morning when school groups were on guided tours. She identified the works as ``Pianist with Checkers Players,'' which Matisse painted in 1924 and is part of a permanent collection in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and ``The Japanese Woman,'' from 1901 from a private collection. The first painting, which was hanging in the last room of the exhibition, was found with a hole poked through the canvas where it shows a tablecloth on which two boys are playing checkers, museum officials said. Three smaller holes were found in the other painting, which hung in the first room of the exhibition. The holes were poked through parts of the painting where Matisse had depicted the woman's clothes and floor, they said. A senior Rome culture official, Eugenio La Rocca, said the paintings could be repaired quickly. ``In a few days we will be able to restore the works,'' he told reporters. ``Pianist with Checkers Players'' has already been restored in the past, he said. Rome city officials said sophisticated modern techniques meant the works would be as good as new. The paintings have been on display in an exhibition called ``Matisse, Revelation Came to me from the Orient'' in the Capitoline Hill Museum since November. The show is due to close on Sunday.
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.

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Schiele in New York - A further wait.

Prosecuting Attorney Morgenthau obtained evidential documents on Thursday that the claims of the Reif and Bondi families are untenable. The hearing in the New York Schiele case, put off several times in the past, took place on Thursday. "Today the Museum of Modern Art is going to Court and will fight against the subpoena with an extensive explanation of the circumstances of ownership", announced Klaus-Albrecht Schroeder, the Business Director of the Vienna Leopold-Museum. State Prosecutor Morgenthau is expected to grant a week for the material to be resubmitted, with documents attached, by the Management of the New York Museum. The two pictures impounded by the State Attorney's Office ("Dead City III" and "Wally") may then be released and by February may be on exhibition in Barcelona.
"Die Presse" Vienna Friday January 23 1998 edition.
Translated by Antony Anderson
antonya@antonya.ace.co.uk
http://museum-security.org/denney/index.htm

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From: "Al-Megdad"

Re: query: Iraq's website displaying stolen items

perhaps this question is not as humorous as it hit me when it popped to mind, but is there a web site for the items stolen from Kuwait by the iraqis?
donna

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Reply-to:
From: "Christian C Burke"
To: "Museum Security Network"

Subject: Fw: Cont. ed. courses on security?

----------
From: Roger Wulff To: MUSEUM-L@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM
Subject: Re: Cont. ed. courses on security?
Date: Wednesday, January 21, 1998 12:39 PM

Dear Cary:
The National Conference on Cultural Property Protection and The International Committee On Museum Security of ICOM Exposition is the leading source for Continuing Education in the fields of cultural institution: security, fire protection, safety, facilities management and emergency/disaster planning/prepardness in this country and abroad. Under the sponsorship of the Smithsonian Institution for the past 21 years, the Conference will be held 9-12 February, 1998 in Washington, D.C. Registration is $ 425.00 before 1 Feb., 1998 and $ 500.00 after. Registrar (202) 633-9446 - E Mail: grdmx@sivm.si.edu. For 1999, the conference wil be held at The Getty Institution during the first week of March, 1999.
Please contact the above numbers for further information or myself.
Kind Regards
Roger Wulff
ICMS Exposition Manager
______________________________________________________________
Morris Museum of Art wrote:
Our chief of security would like to know if there are any continuing education courses in the area of Augusta, Georgia (or southeast) on museum security.
Thank you.
Cary Wilkins

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From: "Christian C Burke" To: "Museum Security Network"

Fw: Artist arrested at NY City Hall

For Immediate Release:
A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artist s Response To Illegal State Tactics) President Robert Lederman was arrested in front of City Hall today during the Mayor s State of the City speech. Lederman had used a piece of chalk to write, GIULIANI =POLICE STATE on the street near Giuliani s parked white sports utility vehicle. He was immediately surrounded by police, arrested and dragged into the basement of City Hall where he watched the Mayor s speech on a T.V. monitor while surrounded by police officers. Police officials immediately washed the chalk off of the street near Giuliani s vehicle. Lederman was held for three hours at the First Precinct and charged with Defacement of Property. While in custody he was interrogated by three N.Y.P.D. Intelligence officers and asked if he intended to kill the Mayor. This is Lederman s 17th arrest on speech related charges. He has never been found guilty on any of the charges. The arresting officer is P.O. Meeks.
Arraignment is scheduled for 2/17/98 at 346 Broadway.
For information contact: (718) 369-2111
e-mail ARTISTpres@aol.com
A.R.T.I.S.T. web site
http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html
Photos and a tape recording of the incident are available.
First Precinct (212) 334-0611 Mayor Giuliani's press office 212 788-2958

Background.
Brooklyn resident Robert Lederman has earned his living by selling his own original paintings on the streets of New York City for the past 35 years. Lederman is a plaintiff in the street artist Federal lawsuit and President of A.R.T.I.S.T. He s been arrested a total of 18 times for First Amendment protected speech related activities. This breaks down to 12 times for selling or displaying his art; three times for protesting artist arrests in SoHo; one time for posting a political leaflet about the street artist issue on a lightpole in SoHo [the case is now in its eighth month in Criminal court]; one time in Washington D.C. for handing out leaflets about the street artist issue in front of the U.S. Capitol {a trial was held and a decision is still pending; the judge resigned rather than rule on the case] and now one time for using a piece of chalk to criticize Mayor Giuliani. Lederman believes that Giuliani has shown a consistent pattern of contempt for New Yorker s Constitutional rights generally and for First Amendment rights in particular. Police officials have told Lederman that Giuliani personally ordered them to arrest street artists. Reporters have told Lederman they were threatened by the NYPD with being cutoff from Police Department sources if they continued to cover the street artist story. It s certain that if Lederman had written Rudy Giuliani is great instead of Giuliani = Police State he d never have been arrested. In other words, the arrest was based on censorship of Lederman s political statement. Lederman and members of A.R.T.I.S.T. intend to do a Chalk-In against the pedestrian barriers in Midtown this coming week in order to draw further attention to the Mayor s arbitrary limiting of basic rights. Lederman discovered the chalk idea after being arrested for posting a leaflet. He recycles and uses small squares of drywall found in dumpsters and garbage cans on the street as chalk. The chalk is non-permanent (it blows away by itself after a few hours) and extremely noticeable.

1/15/98
Dear Editor,

Police State of the City

Watching the Mayors State of the City address in handcuffs from the basement of City Hall while surrounded by cops gave me a real insight into what Giuliani means when he says, "This is my chance to do all of the things that I was too timid and restrained to do in the first administration." I m one of the criminals and police bashers he admonished before a handpicked audience of admirerers enthusiastically clapping and cheering on cue. My crime? Writing GIULIANI=POLICE STATE with chalk on the asphalt near the Great Dictator s armored car. Every day New York City moves closer to becoming a caricature of a third world totalitarian state. All that s needed to complete the picture is torch-lit rallys and a snappy salute demonstrating our respect for police officials.
Robert Lederman
President of A.R.T.I.S.T.
255 13th St Brooklyn, N.Y. 11215
718 369-2111

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From: Soulstealer To: securma@museum-security.org
Subject:

Museum Security Internships

I currently attend a small private University in New Jersey and will obtain my B.A. in criminal justice after my summer internship. I have an art history and I attempted to investigate potential museum security internships unsuccesfully. Also I am an adult student with an overall GPA of 3.72 and several honor society affiliations. Any suggestions you may have are greatly appreciated. Thank you Sabrina Di Guiseppe

From: "Nancy Parrish" Subject:

Re: Museum Security Internships

Date: Thu, 22 Jan 98 13:37:26 PST
I don't know where you are interested in working, however, even though our Museum does not have an official internship program, we do get busy in the summer and need extra persons. You might want to try sending your resume to our Human Resources Dept. at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, One Key Plaza, Cleveland, OH 44114. And, the Cleveland Museum of Art has been established for years, they may have an internship program. I do know that they have a very respectable Security/Loss Prevention Department.

Nancy Parrish
Registrar

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