Hunt as they may for the origins of artworks acquired since the
1940s, many museums are finding it difficult to trace the ownership
of pieces plundered by Nazis. In the wake of newly discovered
information about looting by German Nazis, curators are beginning to
search through decades of records on the chance that some of their
artworks were plundered, said Philippe de Montebello, director of New
York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
"However foul and vividly recalled World War II-era thefts may have
been, the trail of works of art since their illegal seizures or forced
sales can be very murky and vexingly difficult to sort out," de
Montebello said Tuesday at the National Press Club.
A task force from the Association of Art Museum Directors, chaired by
de Montebello, introduced guidelines last month for reviewing
collections to determine whether any works may have been looted by the
Nazi regime or its conquering armies and never returned to the owners.
The Nazis kept only vague records of what they confiscated from
people- mostly Jews - in Germany and the occupied countries during
the chaotic years before and during World War II.
De Montebello said he had instructed the Met's 18 curatorial
department heads to painstakingly review "small 3-by-5 cards bearing
ink or pencil inscriptions written often decades ago."
"The truth is, the process will take time and money," he said.
But the resulting information could be used to establish claims that
originated several generations ago, he said.
Such claims for works in U.S. museums have been rare. In May, a judge
ruled that the Museum of Modern Art in New York did not have to
surrender two borrowed Austrian-owned paintings to two Jewish families
who claimed the works had belonged to relatives who died in
concentration camps.
The 1990s have seen an onslaught of claims on everything from Swiss
gold and Italian insurance policies to apartment buildings in Paris
based upon World War II events.
But unlike money, gold or real estate, a piece of art and the family
sentiments that can go with it are not interchangeable with another
work of equal value.
While roughly 80% of such works were returned to their owners by the
1950s, government archives declassified at the end of the Cold War and
a few investigative books have revived questions about what remains.
This fall, the State Department will co-host a 39-country conference
on how to accomplish the remaining restitution of art and other goods
looted during the war.
J.D. Bindenagel, the conference's coordinator, called the conference
the governments' attempt "to come to grips with the unfinished
business of the millennium."
There were 20 letters in all, from big museums and small, from Maine
to Florida, calling the theft of $2.5 million worth of 200 Civil War
artifacts and other rare memorabilia from the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania a travesty. They urged U.S. District Judge Clarence C.
Newcomer to impose the maximum sentence on the two admitted thieves
under the new federal law regarding the theft of cultural artifacts.
"This is the first and largest case under the new law," wrote Edward
H. Able Jr., of the American Association of Museums. "Your sentence
will set an extremely important precedent."
The illegal trade in antiquities is the third-largest crime
internationally after drugs and arms.
And so yesterday, Newcomer disregarded a proposed sentence of 20
months -- lower than the sentencing guidelines -- even though
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Goldman pointed out the two Delaware
County men cooperated in the FBI case, said agent Robert K. Wittman,
and recovered all of the artifacts.
Instead, Newcomer slapped both Earnest Medford, 48, of Trainer, a
trusted museum custodian for 20 years, and Civil War collector George
Csizmazia, 56, of Rutledge, with four-year prison terms and three
years' probation, more than twice the recommendation.
Csizmazia, an electrical contractor who brokers Civil War
memorabilia, was also fined $5,000.
Medford's attorney, George Newman, described the sentences as
"harsh."
"My jaw dropped," said Donald Moser, attorney for Csizmazia.
Newman called the remarks by Susan Stitts, head of the Historical
Society, "quite hypocritical."
"The same woman who described how terribly harmed they were is same
woman . . . moving to strip the Historical Society of all its
objects," he said, alluding to a plan to disperse the museum's
holdings to other locations.
Stitts could not be reached for comment.
Medford, a married Vietnam veteran with two grown children, received
$7,000-$8,000 for the items from Csizmazia over a 10-year period.
"I don't think Earnest had any idea of what they were worth," he
said.
Both Newman and Donald Moser, attorney for Csizmazia, said they would
appeal the sentence.
Newcomer received several letters from museums describing the
repercussions from thefts at their institutions: inability to attract
grants and donations, being written out of wills, reduced staff,
closed galleries and the loss of traveling exhibits.
Among the irreplaceable artifacts on display yesterday were:
A jewel-encrusted sword given to Gen. George G. Meade on behalf of
his Civil War victory at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. A blue enamel
ring with 113 pearls and containing a rare tuft of George
Washington's hair. A gold snuff box of Philadelphia lawyer Andrew
Hamilton, who won the freedom-of-the-press trial of John Peter
Zenger.
Calling their conduct an "assault and affront to our culture and our
society," a federal judge yesterday sentenced two Delaware County men
to four-year prison terms for the theft of $2.5 million worth of
artifacts from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Both history
buff George Csizmazia, 56, and Earnest Medford, 49, the society's
longtime janitor, had pleaded guilty and cooperated with federal
authorities against each other. All 200 items stolen over almost a
decade have been recovered. But U.S. District Judge Clarence C.
Newcomer rejected a lukewarm prosecution motion that would have
permitted him to sentence each man to less than the 27- to 33-month
jail term recommended for them under federal sentencing guidelines.
Instead, Newcomer made the more unusual decision to sentence the pair
to longer prison terms, saying he did not believe the motion
"sufficiently encompasses the egregious offenses involved here."
Csizmazia, a dapper gray-haired man with a neatly trimmed mustache,
sat down in his chair after the sentence was imposed as if stunned. He
turned around to face friends in the audience, his eyes brimming with
tears. It was in Csizmazia's Rutledge home and garage that the FBI
found the society's artifacts -- including a ring containing a lock of
George Washington's hair and the flintlock rifle abolitionist John
Brown used at the siege of Harper's Ferry. Yesterday, Csizmazia told
Newcomer: "I know I've made a bad mistake; I don't know what to say."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Goldman told the judge that he could
not recommend a reduced sentence because Csizmazia lied to authorities
after he began cooperating, forcing the FBI to return to his home
several times to retrieve additional hidden artifacts. Csizmazia later
insisted that "I've been a collector for 40 years. I really didn't
know what they were looking for." Medford, of Trainer, the society's
custodian for almost 20 years until he was fired late last year after
the thefts were discovered, told the judge he was "very sorry that I
abused my position of trust." Newcomer credited the defendants' good
community reputations and lack of serious criminal histories, but told
spectators: "This may be their first serious venture in the violation
of the law, but when they did it, they went in feet first." In
addition to the no-parole prison terms, Newcomer fined Csizmazia
$5,000. Medford was not fined because of inability to pay. Each was
ordered to pay $640 to reimburse the historical society for legal
expenses and the cost of changing locks. Susan Stitt, the society's
president, made a "victim's statement" in which she asked for the
maximum prison sentences, calling the thefts "a crime against the
public and its cultural heritage." Stitt said she was worried that the
controversy over the thefts would make donors of money and artifacts
or historic documents reluctant to trust the society. The theft "has
seriously damaged our reputation as a responsible steward," she added.
"It will take us years to overcome those doubts." News of the thefts
in January came at an especially bad time for the society, then
embroiled in controversy over its decision to sell off most of its
12,000 artifacts and concentrate on collecting and preserving
documents important to Philadelphia and Pennsylvania history.
Prosecutors said Csizmazia, an electrician, first met Medford in the
late 1980s, when he did work at the society at 1300 Locust Street. The
pair began discussing Csizmazia's passion for military antiques, and
Medford subsequently began bringing him items. Csizmazia paid Medford
about $8,000 for about 200 items appraised at about $2.5 million.
1998 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.
ITALIAN police said yesterday that they were baffled by the theft of
100,000 school and university textbooks, including Greek and Latin
primers, in a "military-style raid" on a book depot in Turin. Police
said a dozen armed men dressed in black had held up staff at a
warehouse beonging to the Loescher publishing house, founded in 1867
and specialising in classical textbooks. The ten staff at the depot
were held at gunpoint for two hours while the robbers loaded three
articulated lorries with Latin and Greek dictionaries and standard
school texts on history and geography. The books had been packed in
cartons ready for distribution to schools and universities during the
summer, before the start of the academic term in September. "We are
the Robin Hoods of culture," the robbers announced as they left. "We
are stealing books to give them to less fortunate Italians". Riccardo
Botrini, head of Loescher, said he believed the theft was "the first
of its kind". La Stampa said that in an age of electronic multimedia
it was "encouraging that some people think books were worth stealing
at all".
(Times of London)
