June 11, 1998

CONTENTS:

- Re: moderators message and some news

- Art Loss Register Announces Initiative to Set Up Holocaust Art Database

- Re: moderators message and some news

- 170 museums to review collections for stolen art

- The Big 50

- Rabbi linked to disappearance of rare books (Times of London)

- concealed weapons: law enforcement

- Auctions boom in Poland as new rich swoop on art (while thieves are getting slicker and greedier)

- Cleaning 'scarred' Elgin Marbles (Daily Telegraph London)

- Court: Smithsonian is not federal agency

- Restoring art can be a touchy job for this conservator (The Kansas City Star)

- Experts asked to examine Elgin Marbles (San Jose Mercury News)

- Germany goes to court for looted Old Master (Times of London)

- Staid Swiss reject ``The Kiss'' (Reuters)

- Property removal policy (Bill Parker)

- stolen art in last 30 years (findtec)

- CUADERNOS DE SEGURIDAD, the leading security magazine in Spain is preparing for its number of June an article devoted to the Museums Security

- Greece has intensified its demands for the return of the Elgin Marbles from Britain

- Art theft websites

- top 10 midwest graduate riskmanagement/insurance universities

Re: moderators message and some news

ALR Announces Initiative to Set Up Holocaust Art Database

Re: moderators message and some news

170 museums to review collections for stolen art

WORCESTER - Prodded by growing public awareness and government concern, the Association of Art Museum Directors vowed yesterday that its 170 member museums will launch an immediate review of their collections to determine if they unwittingly acquired artworks plundered by the Nazis during World War II. The AAMD, acknowledging that some museum collections might contain spoliated art, also said it would join forces with groups seeking out looted wartime art by mining declassified wartime archives and creating databases of the thousands of artworks still missing 53 years after V-E Day. ''No museum that has acquired works of art in the last 50 years is immune from claims,'' declared Glenn Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Philippe de Montebello, director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the chairman of an AAMD task force that created the new guidelines, said at the group's annual meeting here that museum officials in France, Holland, and Great Britain have agreed to adopt similar guidelines. Among the guidelines established for the AAMD's member museums, the most prestigious in North America, are procedures that would encourage mediation as an alternative to litigation to resolve Holocaust-related claims, closer scrutiny by museums before they acquire artworks or accept them on loan for exhibitions, access to information about ownership of artworks in and around the war years, and public notice if artworks are determined to have been plundered. Several directors, including James Cuno of Harvard University's Art Museums, said that as a result of the extensive attention to the issue, member museums have begun receiving calls from people seeking help in locating artworks taken from their families by the Nazis. Malcolm Rogers, director of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, said the MFA has already begun its own comprehensive review, with an examination of the past ownership of its valuable Old Master paintings. Rogers said he doubts the research will discover any stolen art at the MFA. With the announcement yesterday, America's preeminent repositories of art - which have a history of wearing down and fending off those who lodge claims for allegedly stolen artworks - have now formally allied themselves with several organizations representing Holocaust victims. In doubt, however, is how many claims are likely to be filed. Museum officials have said they believe there will be no more than a few legitimate claims. Some specialists in wartime looting believe there are hundreds of Nazi-plundered paintings in US museums, although they acknowledge that the passage of time and lack of documentation will put many of those artworks out of reach of the families that suffered the losses. Also in doubt, to some, is how committed the museums are to what de Montebello said would be ''prompt'' resolution of such claims. ''In the past, the museums have clearly not complied with their legal and ethical responsibility to make appropriate title inquiry prior to acquisition,'' Lloyd P. Goldenberg, a Washington art law specialist, said last night. And when claims do arise, ''they most often resist,'' added Goldenberg, who said he feared that the AAMD guidelines may be little more than ''a public relations effort to make the museums appear godly.'' But Constance Lowenthal, director of the Commission for Art Recovery, which was recently formed by the World Jewish Congress, said she views the AAMD action as ''a great and welcome step forward. The guidelines are strong, clear, and, where they are not specific, they are flexible.'' Lowenthal, who attended the museum directors' meeting, noted that the task force's recommendations are not binding on AAMD members. ''Now, each museum director has to find the energy, the money, the staff, and the will to contribute to this effort,'' she said. In addition to Lowenthal's effort, the National Jewish Museum last year formed the Holocaust Art Restitution Project. And just this week, the Art Loss Register, which compiles records of art thefts that are often checked by purchasers, announced that it will greatly expand its database of wartime losses and use that to match against artworks for sale, including 400,000 objects sold at public auction each year. With the AAMD report, de Montebello said, ''America's museums place themselves squarely on record as committed to acting swiftly and proactively to conduct the necessary research that will enable us to learn as much as possible about the history of works of art for which full ownership records have not been available.'' He added that he does not forsee a ''huge'' number of claims. Wartime claims have been lodged against some museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and some members of Congress have even proposed legislation that would impose due diligence standards for art purchasers. The dissolution of the Soviet bloc, the opening of classified records in several countries and the work of researchers using computerized databases have combined in the last two years to produce a flood of information about wartime looting, including documents showing that artworks stolen by the Nazis, many of them taken from Jews, were shunted by unscrupulous dealers into a black market that delivered them to the world's most vibrant postwar art market - the United States.
This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 06/05/98.

The Big 50

Rabbi linked to disappearance of rare books

A SACKED senior rabbi and religious judge faces investigation by Scotland Yard over allegations that rare Hebrew books worth up to £500,000 are missing from a library. The United Synagogue, representing 70 synagogues, confirmed yesterday that the Metropolitan Police had been asked to investigate the disappearance of books and documents from the library of the London Beth Din. The Beth Din is a religious court which arbitrates on disputes ranging from kosher food to divorces. The police were called in after the sacking of Dayan Cariel Kaplin as a consultant to the court, which is run by the United Synagogue. The dayan, 66, was a full-time member of the court from 1976 to 1994 and then became a part-time member and consultant until he was dismissed last month. A spokesman for the synagogue said that after the discovery that books and papers were missing, a "substantial number" were recovered and a sum of compensation had been received from Dayan Kaplin in payment for the books that had so far not been recovered. His contract was also terminated. The spokesman could not say how many books were involved or the value of the books but the Jewish Chronicle reported the total value at up to £500,000. The synagogue has also called in experts on rare Jewish books and from the antiques world to hunt for those that are still missing. The spokesman said: "There is no reason to believe any other person in the employment of the United Synagogue or in any way connected with the London Beth Din, whether in the past or present, is involved." The library does not lend books but provides a repository of writings which rabbis can consult. It was realised that the books were missing last month after a 500-year-old edition of a work by a medieval Spanish rabbi was bought in Israel by a collector based in London. He decided to compare the book with the copy in the Beth Din library and then discovered it was the same book. Dayan Kaplin, from Golders Green in North London, is a noted collector of Jewish books in his own right. Yesterday a member of his household said that he could not comment, but might do so later.

concealed weapons: law enforcement

In response to Mr. Yee's concern about law enforcement or peace officers having restricted access to the galleries while in possession of a firearm. The Indianapolis Museum of Art has acted in such a manner for the following reasons:
1) Boston Art Theft in 1991: Perpetrators entered the facility (armed) under the false pretence of being uniformed law enforcement officers. The IMA will always verify need for law enforcement presence to protect the assets.
2) Our Officers are unarmed, and clothed in professional dress. Why? Because "hard" uniforms and sidearms have proven to be detrimental to the customer's experience. People feel uncomfortable with plain clothes Security Officers in the galleries as it is.
3) As a customer enjoys the visit to our galleries, the "sudden" appearance of a law enforcement Officer with a side arm tends to make people wonder "what is wrong". Such a situation causes unneeded anxiety, and in some cases, panic.
4) Why should a "peace officer" come into the museum, with his/her sidearm unless specifically requested to do so by museum representatives (Security). In any case, as I had stated before, we verify the identity of the individual and report his/her presence to law enforcement dispatch as a form of reporting the activities of law enforcement officers while on duty.
5) We do encourage the presence of law enforcement Officers on the grounds of the museum as a patrol deterent. Their presence is absolutely necessary as a deterent to crime for our public parking areas and outer buildings. The main complex is altogether different.

Auctions boom in Poland as new rich swoop on art (while thieves are getting slicker and greedier)

WARSAW, June 7 (Reuters) - Polish art auctions are packed out and prices are soaring as a newly wealthy generation of business people rewards itself for success or seeks alternative investments. ``Ever more young people who have proved themselves in business are not afraid of putting themselves to the test at art auctions,'' said Jozef Grabski, head of the Sztuka auctioneers in Krakow, southern Poland. The sums involved are small by world standards, especially as most works sold are by internationally lesser known Polish artists. All the pictures that went under the hammer in Poland in 1997 together fetched less than a third of the costliest picture worldwide last year, a portrait by Paul Cezanne of his wife which sold in New York for $23.1 million. But business is booming as interest spreads beyond a narrow circle of seasoned collectors and the first wave of local entrepreneurs who dominated the scene until recently. ``We're sending twice as many catalogues to clients as a year ago,'' says Zofia Krajewska-Szukalska at Warsaw's Agra Art.

ART SALES SOAR

MUSEUMS LACK CASH

EXPORT CURBS

Cleaning 'scarred' Elgin Marbles (Daily Telegraph London)

The sad story of the Parthenon Marbles - Melina Mercouri Foundation

We hold them in trust for the whole world [British Museum statement] -

GREECE, which has long campaigned for the return of the Elgin Marbles, said yesterday that it wanted "a full explanation" after the disclosure that British Museum staff caused irreparable damage to the marbles. The scandal, hushed up for 60 years, is disclosed in a book to be published next week by William St Clair, a world expert on the marbles. It says British Museum curators in the late Thirties scrubbed many of the 2,500-year-old marbles with metal scrapers in an attempt to make them look white by removing original paint and the weathered patina. When the extent of the damage was realised, some marbles were hastily re-coloured with a stained wax and the museum used Whitehall secrecy rules to cover up the episode. Mr St Clair said yesterday that he believed the historic surfaces of 80 per cent of the Parthenon marbles, removed to Britain by Lord Elgin in 1801, have been lost forever. What scholars and visitors have seen for the last 60 years is not the naturally-stained patina of Phydias's original marbles but the results of a botched conservation carried out in secret to the orders of the late Lord Duveen, one of Britain's most controversial players of the art market. He became notorious for tampering with Old Master paintings to sell them at high prices to impressionable Americans. According to an official inquiry in 1939, but suppressed by the British Museum until now, the damage "cannot be exaggerated". The inquiry, chaired by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, chairman of the trustees of the museum, only examined the condition of three of the marbles. But it concluded that at least one, the Selene's horse's head, had effectively been "skinned". The revelations and the cover-up are expected to lead to a furious row. The Greek embassy in London said the episode was "shameful" and "outrageous". It damaged the museum's reputation and undermined Britain's "moral authority" for retaining the marbles. Peter Ainsworth, shadow culture minister, said the discoveries were "extraordinary" and he wanted an urgent assessment made of the new evidence. Mr St Clair, a former senior Treasury official, said that Chris Smith, the Culture Secretary, should order an immediate independent inquiry. In an attempt to head off criticism, the museum immediately promised to hold an international seminar of scholars, restorers and marble experts to consider the damage. The new book, Lord Elgin and the Marbles, will also cause some embarrassment to Mr Smith. In answer to questions on the marbles in Parliament on Monday, he said: "They have been kept in very good condition. Very great care has been taken of them ever since." His officials said yesterday that Mr Smith had not been aware of the damage to the marbles or of the contents of Mr St Clair's book when he spoke. Mr St Clair, 60, studied Greek sculpture at Oxford and has written on Shelley and the Greek War of Independence. His latest book is the third, revised edition of an earlier volume. The new edition transforms his studies from essentially academic treatises into a work of political embarrassment because he publishes, for the first time ever, the report of the museum's own internal inquiry in 1939 into the damage caused by Lord Duveen. Mr St Clair and other scholars have repeatedly asked the museum to release the report under the 30-year rule governing the secrecy of official documents. The museum refused, claiming that further sensitive documents added to the file after 1939 meant that it had the legal right to extend the 30 years of secrecy. Only in 1996 did the museum finally allow Mr St Clair to see the report. A museum spokesman admitted to The Telegraph yesterday that it had been guilty of "a misjudgment" in not allowing him to see it many years earlier. The marbles had originally been painted. But, after the ravages of more than two millenniums, most of the paint had disappeared and the marbles had acquired the colour of honey. Mistakenly, Lord Duveen was convinced that the marbles had originally been pure white. And that is how he wished them to look in his smart new gallery. The museum, according to the inquiry report, agreed to conservation work. But it failed to supervise it adequately and curators spent 18 months scraping and smoothing many of the sculptures with powerful abrasive tools, including probably Carborundum. Mr St Clair says the tool marks made by the original workmen, traces of original fifth-century BC paint and the signs of natural ageing disappeared under the onslaught. When the museum's senior staff found out what had been happening, the project was halted and "remedial measures" ordered. Mr St Clair believes that many of the marbles were restained with a coloured coating. The former prime minister Stanley Baldwin, one of the trustees, told his colleagues that on no account should anyone be sacked. Guilty staff were, however disciplined discreetly. Some hint of the scandal did leak out but the damage was played down. Yesterday, the museum denied the extent of the damage. Andrew Hamilton, its spokesman, said: "The trustees admitted at the time there had been over-cleaning in some areas of sculpture. But we think Mr St Clair is exaggerating the damage." ____________________________________________

Court: Smithsonian is not federal agency

Restoring art can be a touchy job for this conservator (The Kansas City Star)

Perhaps no one has a more intimate knowledge of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art's painting collection than its longtime chief conservator, Forrest Bailey. Bailey, who retired last month after 25 years at the museum to pursue his own artistic career at the age of 65, knows every square inch of Joseph Mallord William Turner's large canvas, "The Beach at Hastings" (1810), for instance. It took him a full year to restore. The British landscapist's works are notoriously hard to clean, Bailey said recently. The artist constantly was trying new colors as they came on the market, and the different paints used in a single canvas respond differently to cleaning solvents. (Previous restorers had used solvents to destructive effect, he found.) Bailey prefaced his own work on the painting with a visit to the Center for British Studies at Yale, where, he said, "I immersed myself in Turner's technique." Yet of the hundreds of works he had treated over the years, the Turner painting "was the scariest," Bailey said. "Forrest has taken conservation from a part-time program at the Nelson and made it a major policy-making component of the museum," said Marc Wilson, director of the museum. "Thanks to Forrest, we are one of the most sensitized museums in the country to issues of conservation." Restoring is one part of the conservator's job. Preservation is another. And Bailey could be a real stickler when it came to protecting works in the collection. In the early 1980s, when the museum's Willem de Kooning painting "Woman IV" (1952-53) was returned from a loan show, he discovered charcoal and bits of paint in the bottom of its crate. From that point forward, he refused to allow the painting to travel, despite a curator's promise of the painting for a big international show. The artwork already had been printed on the cover of the exhibition's catalog. Bailey wouldn't budge. Bailey, Wilson said, "has in effect served as our conscience on issues of preservation." Jerry Vegder, owner of Gallery V, said he's often referred people who have art questions to Bailey. "I tell them, if you can get a moment of his time, ask this man because he really knows. He's one of our little treasures." The Nelson currently is conducting a national search for Bailey's successor. Wilson said he is looking at strong internal and external candidates and hopes to announce the museum's new chief conservator by July 1.

Horror stories

Conservation and conscience

From conservator to artist

Experts asked to examine Elgin Marbles (San Jose Mercury News)

Peter Foster on the fight for a 1603 masterpiece taken as the Red Army advanced through Nazi Germany

Germany goes to court for looted Old Master (Times of London)

Staid Swiss reject ``The Kiss'' (Reuters)

Property removal policy (Bill Parker)

stolen art in last 30 years (findtec)

CUADERNOS DE SEGURIDAD, the leading security magazine in Spain is preparing for its number of June an article devoted to the Museums Security.

CUADERNOS DE SEGURIDAD, the leading security magazine in Spain is preparing for its number of June an article devoted to the Museums Security. For this reason we would need to update the data for our articles. Actually, we have the crime data suffered in the museums from 1964 to 1994 . To make our article we would need to know the crime data of the four past years therefore we request your collaboration. Take advantage of the situation to congratulate and to thank to you for your interesting information labor in this sector all over the World. If you facilitates us a postal mail address we will have much pleasure in delivery you a copy.
Waiting your news,
Kind regards
Susana Barrado Navascués

MODERATORS ANSWER:

Greece renews marbles demand

Greece has intensified its demands for the return of the Elgin Marbles from Britain.

It follows revelations that British Museum staff cleaned the sculptures with damaging copper scrapers and caustic chemicals 60 years ago. Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos said a new book by a British expert strengthened Greece's case to win back custody of the classical sculptures, known in Greece as the Parthenon Marbles. The minister told a news conference: "Britain's position is that they preserve the marbles better than anyone else in the world and they don't need the help of a southern European country". But describing the cleaning error as "tragic", he said the book by historian William St. Clair "shot down" this argument, "in a resounding and impressive way."

Smith: formal request

Art theft websites

top 10 midwest graduate riskmanagement/insurance universities