[Fwd: University Museums-Student Guards]
I am seeking information about university art museums who employ students as guards. How does it work for you? Thanks.
Gail Kana Anderson
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art/The University of Oklahoma
gail@ou.edu
From: Roger Wulff museplan@erols.com
Subject:
[Fwd: Re: coll. storage visits]
Regarding your question about collection storage visits. If someone
wants to see a particular item in the collection or even a set of items,
I would bring the objects out of storage for the person to view. I ask
for or give a 2-week notice. I do not TAKE the person to storage, but
bring the item(s) to them in a more public space in our main
administration building (e.g. library or department). I do not think it
wise to take someone to our storage facility. They don't need to see all
the "stuff" and there is also my own security to be concerned about.
(Our storage is in a remote location.) In any case, nobody is denied
access to the collection. They just have to work within our parameters.
Hope this helps!
Mary Ames Sheret
Southern Oregon Historical Society
Catalina Island Museum Patricia Anne Moore or Stacey Otte wrote:
>
> Hi! I'm wondering what kinds of policies (formal or otherwise) other
> museums have for permitting public access to collections. And when I
> say *public* I mean the general, lay public and/or collectors who have a
> strictly personal interest in viewing portions of a collection. In
> facilitating a visit by some pottery collectors several issues (such as
> "why don't you have more on display?" and "why don't you allow more
> public access to this collection") came up, which I addressed. He's
> written back to complain about our parsimony in the display of the
> pieces and allowing public access. In my reply, I'd like to give him a
> sense of other museums' policies.
>
> Anybody care to share? Thanks in advance.
>
> Stacey Otte
> Deputy Director
> Catalina Island Museum
> museum@catalinas.net
> 310-510-2414
The following article was published about half a year ago. However, in view of recent publications on art looted by the Nazis (especially information sent to the MSN list by Antonia Kriks and Walter Robinson) it seems most justified to sent this article about Switzerland an the Looted Art Trade Linked to World War IITon Cremers
Switzerland and the Looted Art Trade Linked to World War II
By Prof. Georg Kreis, University of Basel, SwitzerlandSummary :
With Hitler's accession to power, numerous German artists and collectioners of art found a refuge in Switzerland. The small State was at an advantage given its neutrality and the excellent international connections which it enjoyed. Encircled by the 3rd Reich, by Fascist Italy and by France, it thus played a central role in the movement of and transactions in objects of art. Its activities were manifested in two fundamentally different ways: on the one hand, Switzerland became a secure deposit spot, either temporary or permanent, for endangered works of art; and on the other hand, a country where the sale of works of art of a value more or less considerable, could be negotiated.
I. Situation at the outset
Switzerland played an important role as a neighbor to the Third Reich and also to fascist Italy because of Swiss independence and good international communications favoring movement and trade in art among other things. Stephanie Barron (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) wrote with reference to Helmut F. Pfanner ("The Role of Switzerland for Refugees" in The Muses Flee Hitler edited by Jarrel C. Jackman and Carla M. Borden, Washington, DC 1983, p. 243): "After Hitler's rise to power, neutral Switzerland became a haven, albeit temporarily, for German artists (and collectors who emigrated to keep their collections intact), writers, musicians, actors, theatrical directors, and other refugees. Many settled in Swiss cities, hoping to pursue their careers with relatively little disruption. Some stayed only long enough to make arrangements to emigrate elsewhere in Europe or to Palestine or the United States. Some remained permanently; others returned to Germany after the war" (cf. below, p. 137).This important art market role was played out in two fundamentally different ways: a) Switzerland became a storage site for endangered art, whether temporarily or permanently; b) It became a trans-shipment center for art deals.
II. Switzerland as an Art Storage Site
1. The best known case of this function being exercised was the temporary safekeeping of the Prado Collection which was threatened by the confusion of the Spanish Civil War. This was shown in Geneva in June-August 1939 before it returned.2. There are also several cases of deposits being made which are not known publicly and are governed be discretion. They reside in private houses and in public collections where individual private objects or more substantial collections were kept safely during the war, mostly without storage costs being raised.
3. Collections which came to Switzerland with their owners form another category. The most prominent case is that of Robert von Hirsch (1883-1977), who transferred his first-class collection from Frankfurt to Basel in 1933 and bought the right to export it with a present to Hermann Goering (Cranach's "Judgment of Paris"). Cf. J.W.W(ille) in "Masterpieces" from the Robert von Hirsch Sale at Sotheby's". London 1978, p. 5. Another example is the fortunate fate of the Dutch art dealer Nathan Katz who could flee to Switzerland, thanks to Swiss mediation in 1941. Cf. A Venema, Kunsthandel in Nederland, 1940-1945, ("Art Dealing in the Netherlands, 1940-1945"), pp. 254 ff.
4. Any attempt to answer if unclaimed art objects are deposited in Switzerland would necessarily involve firms specialized in safekeeping. Since storage requires a lot of space and many firms have moved or rebuilt during the past 50 years, the likelihood of finding heirless objects is small. Art objects are more likely to have been placed in the hands of private acquaintances or sold at once.
III. Switzerland as a Market Place
1. The Gallery Fischer in Lucerne put on sale 125 paintings and sculptures described as "Modern Masters from German Museums" on June 30, 1939. This sale followed seizure in 1936 and 1937 of art categorized as "degenerate" in German museums. It had been displayed in a main exhibition in Munich and in a number of traveling exhibitions to alarm the German people. The sale abroad was intended to reap a financial harvest following the propaganda coup. Stephanie Barron, who in 1990 had access to the Fischer archives, provides the best documentation on this sale in an essay: "The Gallery Fischer Auction" in Degenerate Art: the Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany. Los Angeles, 1991, pp. 135-169. G. Kreis (see below) provides a slightly less comprehensive description.2. Barron's documentation allows one to identify the origin of all objects sold and in particular to check whether looted property from private ownership was put on sale as well as confiscated property from official sources (museums) and semi-official ownership (art galleries). At the time the action was contested for a variety of reasons. Yet there were very good and honorable grounds for the buyers' activity. In her 1991 description Barron makes no criticism whatsoever of the 1939 purchases. Most went to private people _ mainly in the USA. Only a small portion went to public art collections, in particular the Liège Fine Arts Museum and the Arts Museum in Basel. One motive for buying was to keep these European works of art in Europe and in public hands rather than letting them disappear to the USA and primarily into private collections there.
3. The author of this paper has published a monograph entitled Entartete Kunst für Basel. Die Herausforderung 1939 ("Degenerate" Art for Basel: the Challenge of 1939) on purchases of the Basel public-art collection. A remarkable feature of these purchases was the authorization of a special credit by the cantonal parliament of Basel City with the Lucerne auction in mind. To the fury of the auctioneer, the museum director, Georg Schmidt, also bought a number of objects which had not been taken to Lucerne and had remained in Berlin. A substantial part of the paintings confiscated in Germany was sold directly by official intermediaries _ again largely to the USA. It is known that none of the 21 objects bought by the Basel art collection had been in private ownership.
4. The book by Lynn H. Nicholas, formerly a member of the National Gallery of Art staff in Washington, DC, indicates the extent to which Switzerland was central to art dealing during the Third Reich and/or the extent to which the Swiss were involved in this trade. It was published in 1994 by Knopf in New York under the title The Rape of Europe in its original English edition and in 1995 by Kindler, Munich, in a German translation. The author is now probably the best informed person in the field. Her general description makes it possible to put events in Switzerland in this whole difficult field into perspective and cautions against overplaying their importance. According to this account, Switzerland played a relatively subordinate role all-in-all. Apart from some criticism of behavior in the second half of December 1945 (cf. paragraph 5 below), there is no reproach to Switzerland for having behaved in a questionable manner. The remarks of Erwin Leiser on this question (most recently in the Tages-Anzeiger of August 2, 1996) point in the same direction (cf. also E. Leiser in the issue of November ? 1987) on "Hitlers Kunstraub für Linz" (Hitler's Looting for Linz").
5. Lynn H. Nicholas devotes some pages (pp. 544-551) to the most spectacular of the "Swiss" cases. This concerns property looted from the Paris collection of Paul Rosenberg which was taken over by Lucerne gallery owner Theodor Fischer and sold in part to Emil Georg Bührle (1890-1956). This story has been known for a very long time and has indeed been before the Swiss courts. There is an important contemporary source: two reports by a British official responsible for protecting cultural assets, Douglas Cooper of Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA): one of January 21, 1945, "Reports on Looted Works in Switzerland" and another of March 22, 1945, "Report on a Visit to Switzerland" (National Archives, Washington, and Getty Center, Los Angeles). Through Goering's art adviser, Andreas Hofer, and art dealer Hans Wendland, Fischer had excellent contacts to the Third Reich. At the end of the war the Federal council called for any looted art to be handed in (the collecting point being the Museum of Art in Berne). With a Federal Council decree dated December 10, 1945 (Official Collection of Swiss Laws, 1945, pp. 1052-1056) the Federal Council implied that there would be compensation from the Federal Treasury for bona fide purchasers to the extent sellers in bad faith cold not be sued.
At much the same time the Federal Department of the Interior (a Dr. Vodoz is mentioned) must have implied to representatives of the Allies that an investigating committee would be set up to look into questions of looted art, but nothing came of this undertaking. As indicated in paragraph 4, Lynn H. Nicholas' judgment of this question is crucial. Rosenberg was obliged to take legal action under difficult circumstances but won his case. On June 3, 1948, before the Swiss Supreme Court: the pictures had to be handed over. In July 1951 Bührle brought a suit for recourse against Fischer and the Federal Government. On June 25, 1952, the Swiss Supreme Court ruled against the federal government in a looted property suit brought by Fischer. An ensuing legal action concerning Fischer's demand for a share in the compensation paid by Germany to Switzerland was settled September 2, 1958. The historian and television personality Thomas Buomberger drew attention to important aspects of this case in a television film in 1993 and went into detail in the Tages-Anzeiger of October 16, 1996. The origin of certain pictures led once again to debate when, to mark her father's 100th birthday, Hortense Anda-Bührle allowed the Bührle Foundation collection to be exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London from February 1 to April 9, 1991, after shows in Washington, DC, Montreal, and a Japanese city.
6. In the work referred to, Nicholas indicates in an impressive manner just how the war's confusion and the way in which it put legal order in doubt gave art dealing an enormous boost _ especially in the Netherlands and France. At the same time he shows that this trade, even if it largely benefited from personal emergencies, was not primarily responsible for the distress involved. Nor did it in itself worsen the situation but in some circumstances actually eased it by giving the persecuted resources with which to secure their physical survival. Many such individual sales and purchases were no doubt transacted in and through Switzerland. One could only form a judgment on them if the detailed circumstances were known in each case.
From: berryappraisals@cocentral.com (CC1026)
Subject:
Oil paintings damaged in shipment
- Carol Wickenhiser-SchaudtIn reply, I am an appraiser of personal property and have access to very qualified fine art restorers within the Southeast area. I have used a restorer who does museum restoration for the Virginia/North Carolina/Maryland area. I would be delighted to share any information necessary for contact with this restorer, should you so desire. I am less than one hour from Fayetteville and would be glad to assist you in any way, should you desire definitive photos or more detailed analysis.
RoseMary Starling, ISA
Wilson, NC
berryappraisals@cocentral.com
919-291-6433
fax: 919-237-4115
From: Jennifer Jaskowiak jaskowia@almaak.usc.edu
Subject:
Re: coll. storage visits
We have several smallish storage units scattered around campus. Scholars are only interested in items in our main unit, closest to our offices. We weigh each request based on staff availability, study space availability, and which object is being requested. If it is small and easily moved, I will bring the object to the scholar inside a room in the gallery space. For larger, heavier pieces it is not worth the risk of moving the object, so the visitor is allowed supervised access to storage. They don't stay long, though, as it is uncomfortable for humans--no seating and somewhat chilly.We ask for prior notification, a legitimate purpose (book, paper, etc.), and a willingness to abide by our rules and regulations. We are part of a private university, so we are not obliged to show the collection to anyone, but we do try to accommodate as often as possible as a measure of good will and professional support between colleagues. Besides, our little collection is varied and the museum benefits from scholarly visits--we add object and artist information to our files.
Jennifer Jaskowiak
Curator
Fisher Gallery
University of Southern California
From: Roger Wulff museplan@erols.com
Subject:
[Fwd: Re: University Museums-Student Guards]
>I am seeking information about university art museums who employ students as>guards. How does it work for you? Thanks.
Since 1991 we have used a uniformed non-student guard who is part of the campus security force. My experience with students was:
1. They don't dress like guards so their deterrent effect is minimal.
2. They don't act like guards and are reluctant to confront visitors who break the rules.
3. It is a nightmare to schedule the number of students needed to cover all the gallery's open hours.
Stephen Nowlin
Vice President
Director, Williamson Gallery
Producer, Art Center Online
Art Center College of Design
http://www.artcenter.edu/exhibits/williamson.html
http://www.artcenter.edu
The Netherlands: Museums are searching for looted art
Amsterdam - The leading dutch museums want to check the correctness of the origin of all objects of art which have been purchased during WWII. If the buying was done under dubious circumstances the art work will be given back to the former owners.The reason for the investigation have been researches according to it Dutch institutions also had been enriching themselves by the expropriation of Jews. All big museums in Amsterdam and Den Haag and collections in Groningen, Utrecht, Haarlem, Maastricht, Rotterdam and Eindhoven are taking part in this action. The first results are expected within 3 months.
(dpa/trenk)
(c) 1998 DER STANDARD
Confront the Past, Search for Provenance
By HECTOR FELICIANO
THE WORLD / NAZI PLUNDER Confront the Past, Search for Provenance By
HECTOR FELICIANO NEW YORK--A sea-change is taking place in Europe and
the United States regarding Nazi art loot. The latest example is the
recent decision by the Austrian minister of culture to make an
inventory of all artworks acquired by the country's 10 state museums
during the war and postwar years. Hence, more than 53 years after
the end of World War II, many of those ill-acquired works--probably
reaching into the hundreds--should soon be returned to their
rightful owners. The deeper reasons for this transformation go back,
of course, to the intricate changes in Western mentality and the
renewed interest in unsolved national and domestic problems brought
about by the end of the Cold War. But another, more specific and
concrete incident can be found at the base of that which we are now
witnessing. After years of stonewalling, the revelations, starting in
late 1995, that France had more than 2,000 unclaimed paintings,
drawings, sculptures and other artworks looted by the Nazis or sold
to them still "provisionally" safeguarded in the Louvre, Orsay,
Pompidou Center and other French state museums, took the
international art world by surprise.
This information surfaced even before news broke on the
well-publicized cases of Nazi gold and the dormant Swiss bank
accounts. These unclaimed works included masterpieces, such as
Courbet's "The Cliffs of Etretat, After a Storm" and important and
well-known works by Boucher, Chardin, Cezanne, Manet, Picasso,
Matisse and Leger. Some unclaimed pieces were even being used as
state furniture: an 18th-century bust decorated a room at the Elysee
presidential palace; a Rodin cast--"The Kiss"--was installed in the
garden of the prime minister's residence, and a painting by Utrillo
hung on the wall of an executive's office at the state-owned Credit
Lyonnais Bank. More stunning was the fact that French museum
curators had never published an official inventory of these works and
had done little or nothing to establish serious provenances--or
ownership histories--and find the rightful owners. Public outrage led
to a large, national debate that forced recalcitrant French state
museums, unaccustomed to any type of public supervision, to promise
publication of a definitive inventory (which has yet to be done); to
create an Internet site with a list and illustrations of the
unclaimed works, and to exhibit the works. Rapidly, dozens of new
claims by dispossessed owners were filed. Though two paintings have
been returned, museum officials are still dragging their feet,
treating claimants and claims with suspicion, while their official
statements insist they have done everything they could since the end
of the war. All in all, this shortsighted attitude--essentially
hoping the problem will evaporate--has led to a public-relations
disaster.
The vicissitudes of the French cultural world still strongly
influence other countries. Many art lovers, curators, art dealers and
art historians across Europe and the U.S. closely followed the
developments of the intransigent French museum situation and slowly
felt its repercussions in their own countries: Nazi-looted artworks
started surfacing in art galleries, auction houses, private
collections and museums. Soon, it was revealed that Dutch museums
held hundreds of similarly "provisionally" safeguarded artworks,
unclaimed and stored there since the end of World War II. In Germany,
curators and the media are investigating artworks purchased by their
museums in wartime occupied Europe. In the U.S., the highly
publicized case of two Egon Schiele paintings loaned by an Austrian
art foundation to the Museum of Modern Art in New York captured the
public's imagination. The American Assn. of Museum Directors has set
up a task force composed of directors of some of the most important
museums to try to find a solution. The decision by the Austrian state
museum system--with its prestigious Kunsthistorische, Albertina and
Belvedere museums--to research the provenances of its dubious
acquisitions is the latest and, probably, the most comprehensive
answer to what started in France more than two years ago.
Until recently, Austria had ignored its own Nazi past, declaring
itself a victimized nation occupied by the Nazis--as the Allies also
did. It selectively forgot it was annexed by the German Reich--with
the enthusiastic acclaim of a large part of the Austrian population.
In fact, after the Austrian Anschluss in 1938, art curators from the
Kunsthistorische Museum in Vienna helped confiscate the entire
collection of the Austrian branch of the Rothschild family and
established the looting inventory. Later, during the war, Austrian
curators and art dealers bought art at bargain prices all across
Nazi-occupied Europe. After the war, when the Rothschilds tried to
recover their works, the Austrian government announced they would
have to leave some artworks in state museums if they wanted to take
others out. The Austrian minister of culture recently labeled these
actions "immoral decisions." The Kunsthistorische has announced it
will now consider returning about 10 paintings. In the Belvedere,
about 100 works will be subject to provenance check. The Austrians
have taken not a cultural but a political decision. This is a huge
shift. As recently as the fall of 1996, the Austrian government tried
closing, once and for all, the recurrent question of looted art in
that country. It hastily organized a seemingly definitive auction of
the residues of unclaimed artworks kept since the end of the war in a
monastery at Mauerbach. With those sales, it implied the issue was
closed, which makes this most recent announcement all the more
startling. Following the Austrian example, can museums and all those
involved in the art world in the U.S. and Europe now begin seriously
searching for the provenance of works of art? It is absurd to have to
ask a question that has a seemingly simple answer; but it seems as if
our ignorance about provenance, a small element of the history of
art, is keeping us from undoing what the Nazis did. We now know the
following: Few have, up to now, cared about the provenance of
artworks; that an auctioneer, an art dealer or a curator often does
not know whether a painting is purloined; that there is no database
available where a researcher can find this information and, most
important, there is no law that forces a seller to search and find
out whether an artwork was looted by the Nazis or even stolen. We now
know it is indeed possible to search for the provenance of a work of
art--but only if strong public opinion pushes forward this new
attitude. - - -
Hector Feliciano Is Author of "The Lost Museum: the Nazi Conspiracy to
Steal the World's Greatest Works of Art."
(L.A.Times)
Battle to beat Russian art thieves
Police in Russia are struggling to crack down on crime which is stripping the country of its heritage. Security forces have confiscated more than 2,000 icons and other religious artefacts from smugglers over the past five years but thousands more are making their way to the West undetected. A thriving market exists for Russian artefacts which have become popular with private collectors in the West hungry for unique collectables. Shops specialising in the sale of icons, chalices, crosses, books, and manuscripts are operating in Britain, the United States, Italy and Israel. Many of them are run by immigrants from the former Soviet Union who have maintained criminal ties in Russia. Some of the treasures that have been salvaged by Russian security forces are being housed in Kremlin museums in an effort to protect them from further theft. But, cash-strapped museums and libraries lacking effective security are easy targets for persistent thieves. A total of 61 icons dating back to the 16th century were recovered from smugglers at Russian borders by security forces in January. The Federal Security Service (FSB) devoted months to uncovering this channel used by criminals to smuggle icons out of Russia. Many more are still in operation. In this instance, the paintings were destined for Poland and the Czech republic from where they would have been sold to France, Germany and the United States. The smuggling of artefacts is nothing new. In the 1970s, the KGB battled with a well-organised gang, dubbed the 'antique mafia', who targeted provinces around Moscow. On one occasion they drugged a church warden before stripping the church of its valuables.
Strict regulations
Strict rules regulate the legal exportation of art from Russia. It is almost impossible to purchase an icon. A licence is required for every artefact and buyers have to apply to a government committee. Requests are often denied. Singer Michael Jackson was unwittingly caught out by the strict system during his world tour in 1996. Airport authorities prevented him from leaving Russia with a ceremonial sabre he had been given by President Yeltsin's former chief bodyguard, General Alexander Korzhakov. Customs officials declared the gift to be of historical significance and it was duly removed from his luggage and returned to the general.(BBC News)
Paintings Worth $20 Million Damaged In Dallas
DALLAS (Reuters) - Three paintings worth more than $20 million,
including works by Frederick Church and Edward Hopper, have been
vandalized at the Dallas Museum of Art, police said Wednesday.
The works are Church's 19th-century landscape "The Icebergs,"
Hopper's "Lighthouse Hill" -- each said to be worth $10 million --
and "The Witches" by Walter McEwen. Its estimated worth was $100,000.
Police spokeswoman Victoria Eiker said the Church landscape had a
40-inch scratch that appeared to have been made with a key.
The Hopper painting had a five-inch scratch, while "The Witches" had
been gouged, she said.
Eiker said the paintings were probably damaged late Monday or early
Tuesday. No suspects had been identified.
Museum spokeswoman Ellen Key said the damage to the paintings
appeared to be superficial.
"There are some scratches that will require top quality restoration,
but it can be done," she said. Repairs were expected to cost $21,500.
Reuters/Variety
From: BHG Bert BHGBert@aol.com
Subject:
re: re: Paintings Worth $20 Million Damaged In Dallas
> From: "MR. JOHN SANTILLI" SANTILLJ@USNWC.EDU> Subject: re: Paintings Worth $20 Million Damaged In Dallas
While I can't describe myself as a "security enthusiast," I thought I'd share an event I recently witnessed at a well-known institution in my area. A young man placed a wad of green chewing gum atop a picture frame. A guard immediately materialized from around a corner and asked the young man what he was doing. I was very surprised that the man was not escorted from the building (in fact, I encountered him in another gallery about an hour later). I am a novice as well and I guess there are reasons for not making a mountain out of a mole hill, but I wonder, had the chewing gum been red, would he have been given the boot?
Bert R. Saper
Loaned art in best place, says Irvine
By Rachel Sylvester, Political Correspondent
LORD Irvine of Lairg defended his decision to borrow paintings from
galleries as he allowed members of the public into his newly-restored
official residence for the first time yesterday.
The Lord Chancellor told guests at a charity reception in the House
of Lords apartments that it was much better for the "beautiful
pictures and sculptures" to be on display in Westminster than to be
"languishing in cellars where no one can enjoy them".
Cherie Blair was among 100 guests who were invited to the party for
the charity Womankind Worldwide. They were the first people to see
the controversial UKPounds 650,000 refurbishment, including the
UKPounds 59,000 wallpaper and the UKPounds 145,000 fabrics and
carpets.
The reception had been planned for International Women's Day on March
8, but had been postponed because of building delays. It was intended
to celebrate the achievements of female lawyers and to encourage women
to become more aware of their legal rights.
However, guests were more intrigued to see whether the redecoration
of the residence was as Lord Irvine said, a "noble cause" for which
future generations would be "grateful". The River Room, overlooking
the Thames, is one of the most ornate rooms, with silk drapes lining
walls above wood panels. Guests were shown the hand-printed Pugin
wallpaper and fabrics.
The Lord Chancellor pointed out the paintings which had been
controversially loaned from galleries around the country. He said:
"I'm not going to ask you what you think about it. Someone once said
you have to suffer for your art - and it's not even my art. I hope you
will agree with the trustees of the lending museums that it is better
for these beautiful pictures and sculptures to be here - available for
people to see - rather than languishing in cellars where no one can
enjoy them."
But not all the guests found the decor to their taste - and there was
no mirror in the lavatory. The apartments will not be open to the
public until after Easter. Lord Irvine has agreed to open them for
three hours a week while Parliament is sitting and 58 organisations
have applied to visit. Last night's event, for which tickets cost
UKPounds 35, was vastly oversubscribed.
Lord Irvine was determined to make sure more women became judges. He
said: "Law is traditionally one of the most conservative of
professions. I think women should be proud of what they have already
achieved against the odds. But we must do more to break down the
barriers women still face."
(Daily Telegraph)
Hermitage's Injured Art Gets Delicate Surgery
(restoration of
damaged art works)
By John VaroliSTAFF WRITER
With his scalpel in hand and his eye to a microscope, Gennady Shirokov
begins to operate. After two days of successful surgery and
recuperation, Shirokov has the patient up and at it again - hanging on
the wall.
The "patient" that fearlessly went under the scalpel was Henri
Matisse's 1912 oil painting "Zora Standing," which was vandalized Jan.
21 while on exhibition at Rome's Capitolini Art Museum. Shirokov, one
of the most prominent art restorers at the Hermitage Museum, acted as
the "surgeon" to repair the "injury" - a 4.5-centimeter pen mark on
the painting's lower left side.
The mark might appear negligible to some, but it's difficult to brush
off even the slightest damage to this one-of-a-kind work of art, which
has an estimated value of $12 million. Shirokov, who repaired the
painting Feb. 23-24, took his work quite seriously.
"In the end the painting is a Matisse and not just any old picture,"
Shirokov told The St. Petersburg Times.
"This act of vandalism was a rare, yet serious, incident that
required careful attention."
Despite assurance from the museum in Italy, Shirokov was sent on the
next flight to Rome to see the damage with his own eyes.
"I went there immediately to make a visual analysis. For me, it was
most important to determine whether or not the pen mark had dug into
the layer of paint."
Three weeks later, the damaged painting finally touched down on
Russian soil, together with 13 other Matisse paintings the Hermitage
had loaned to the Capitolini. First, "Zora Standing" was photographed
with careful attention given to the damaged area. Then the painting
was whisked away to the Hermitage's laboratory where it underwent
chemical analysis to determine precisely what substance had been
scribbled onto the picture and the extent of the damage.
As suspected, a typical ink pen had been the weapon, and the mark
turned out to be "superficial," not having broken the layer of paint
produced by the French master's brush 86 years ago.
The lab then recommended the appropriate "surgery": removal of the
mark with a special alcohol-based solution and scalpel.
Then Dr. Shirokov went to work, laboring for two days at a microscope
to remove the ink.
Easy-going and composed about the whole affair, Shirokov plays down
his latest accomplishment in saving the life of a valuable piece of
art.
"Though there was a degree of concern when we first heard about the
incident, we were quite calm because ... we knew that the damage was
reversible."
"Zora Standing" is not the first Hermitage painting to be vandalized.
In October 1997, the museum proudly put Rembrandt's "Danae" back on
display after 12 years of painstaking restoration following an
incident in which a man doused the painting with acid and slashed it
with a knife. Shirokov was one of four restorers who worked on "Danae"
for 12 years, a far cry from the two-day repairs that January's act of
vandalism required.
Italian authorities are still in a muddle as to who the culprit was.
There are no witnesses and no teary-eyed confessions, though Italian
and Russian museum officials seem to believe the perpetrators might
have been schoolchildren.
"What struck me about the Capitolini is that people visit it in their
coats, so they can easily approach the paintings," said Shirokov.
The Hermitage, by contrast, requires visitors to leave their personal
belongings at the coat check - though no museum is really safe from a
weapon as inconspicuous as an ink pen.
"Zora Standing" has been returned to its usual spot in the Matisse
section of the Hermitage, but insurance agents are still bickering
over just how much that fateful 4.5-centimeter pen stroke will cost.
Hermitage officials said negotiations are continuing with the
Capitolini and its insurance company, and could not name an exact cost
of the damage at press time.
(St.Petersburg Times)
From: Ryan Judd RAJUDD@BYUGATE.BYU.EDU
Subject:
Re: University Museums-Student Guards
Brigham Young University Police employ 90 student security officers
for six separate areas. Each student must pass at least two interviews
and a background check. Once hired the student must complete a 40 hour
security academy sponsored by the police department. Each security
area has its own policy and procedure manual and in-house training
program. Some area's wear a Blazer and Tie while others wear a
traditional security/police uniform. Each area is supervised by a
Sergeant from the police departmen There will always be problems with
scheduling and loosing trained officers to graduation, leaving school,
class changes, marriage and more money. BYU has found that
supervision and training have been important in our programs success.
This is a very brief summary of our program, so please contact me for
further information.
Sergeant Ryan Judd
BYU Police
Security Supervisor
Museum of Art
From: KlausZ KlausZ@aol.com
Subject:
Authentication Systems for Museums, Galleries and Collectors
MICOTr Authentication Systems for Museums, Galleries and Collectors. MICOTr Micro-Component-Tracer is a color-coded micro particle (sizes 15-25µ, 25-32µ and 32-45µ with seven or more color layers) for authentication and identification of art objects against counterfeit, theft, forgery, etc. No fake art objects have any chance to be auctioned or sold anymore if authenticated with the owner's code combination.The particles are sprayed or brushed on the substrate, on the canvas of pictures, over registration marks, etc. Our MICOTr Tracer-Fiber is unique and can be stitched into woven products. Our products are not visible to the naked eye and do not alter the original. The authentication process should be recorded with a video camera as follows: · Focus on the object and record any specifics or number; · Record the marking and focus on the spot the marking is applied; · Log the object into a register and focus on the registration number. The simple use of a UV light (365 nm) will identify the color code by reflection and a pocket microscope (>100x magnification) allows you to read the code sequence.
In the case of change of ownership of an art object we recommend to authenticate the related documents with your customer code to avoid the transfer of stolen art with faked documents. MICOTr products mean easy application, instant identification with inexpensive devices and cost-effective pricing. Compare our products and services with our competitors and it will be easy for you to decide who is the best!
MICOT CORPORATION
http://www.micot.com
info@micot.com
PS: We are working with the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico, to protect Mexico's historical art treasure.
From: Carol Bernstein bernstein3@earthlink.net
Subject:
CBS (Dan Rather) re: ASU whistle-blower
Memo to Legislators, Governor and Higher Education Faculty and Staff, Dan Rather, on CBS Evening News (in the segment called "Eye on America") will be featuring an ASU whistle-blower, Prof. Jared Sakren. The report is scheduled for Monday, March 23 (but could possibly change). (This is relevant to our state whistle-blower bill, HB2182 public employees; whistle-blower changes.) The abuse of authority on which they will be focusing will be the false accusations of sexual harassment that were leveled at Prof. Sakren, and used as a tool to terminate him. The staff from CBS Evening News came from New York to ASU last Thursday, and taped all day, including interviews with Dean Wills and theatre students. According to the producer of the show, the issues raised will be abuse of power, retaliation and Academic Freedom.Carol Bernstein, PhD
President, AAUP AZ Conf.
From: CARDELL@cua.edu
Subject:
Stolen Manuscripts Recovered
Some good news for a change, forwarded from a musicologist friend ....Dear list members,
I am very pleased to inform you that the music manuscripts stolen from Las Palmas Cathedral have been recovered. I do not have detailed information, but I have been told that the combination of pressure from the police, the media, and particularly the international musicological cyber-community has forced the robber to return the materials. All the information about the recovery is very obscure, and it seems that the owners or the police have made a deal with the person not to publicise the name in exchange of the manuscripts. It seems that the international support has been a key factor for the recovery. The local and national media reported the fact that information had circulated several times around the globe via Internet, and dozens of calls and e-mails have been received from all the world (and anything related to Internet is very fashionable nowadays in Spain). This probably discouraged the robber, since there was little chance to sell the manuscripts afterwards.
I would like to extend a very warm acknowledgement to everyone who has given support. I would also like to apologise to those who have received several times my first email (and perhaps this one). At least, the Internet, and particularly the music mailing lists, have demonstrated to have a great efficiency.
We can all be pleased with the recovery.
With best wishes,
Alvaro Torrente
From: Mary Ross mross@spectra.net
Subject:
Art loan agreements
I'm organizing an exhibit at a not-for-profit gallery and borrowing works from a well-known commercial gallery. They have asked me whether I'll be sending them a formal loan agreement. Would you be able to advise me if there's a site on the Internet where I can obtain a sample loan agreement for this purpose or would you have anything like this available from your site?Thanks for your assistance.
Sincerely,
Mary Ross 259 Oak Street
Binghamton, NY 13905
