NEARLY a year after the Umbrian earthquake which badly damaged the
Basilica of St Francis at Assisi, strong winds and heavy rain have
brought down part of a world-renowned golden mosaic on the façade of
the cathedral at Orvieto. The area has been cordoned off amid fears
that other sections may also collapse. Experts said it appeared that
the spectacular mosaic, depicting the Coronation of the Virgin Mary,
had been weakened by last September's earthquake, but the damage had
gone unnoticed. It had remained precariously in place until this
weekend's bad weather, which marked the end of a scorchingly hot
summer in Italy. Fragments fell near some tourists, but no one was
hurt.
It has been a year since hopes skyrocketed that the priceless artwork
stolen in 1990 from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum might finally
be returned.
A pair of rogue criminals, William P. Youngworth III and Myles J.
Connor Jr., were giving out strong signals that for the right price
($5 million) and meeting of their conditions (freeing them of
unrelated criminal charges), they could arrange for the return of the
13 art pieces, including paintings by Rembrandt and Vermeer.
But those high hopes dipped in early December when the FBI and the
museum announced that they were unable to corroborate Youngworth's
claims that microscopic paint chips and photographs he had turned over
to authorities came from one of the Rembrandts.
The months since have not produced any progress - behind the scenes
or otherwise - in unearthing the artwork, according to officials and
an attorney for Youngworth and Connor. The two men remain in prison
serving time on separate crimes, and have given no indication they
are still in a position to arrange for the artwork's return, or
engage authorities again in serious negotiations.
``It has been some time since either of them have brought it up with
me,'' said Martin K. Leppo of Randolph, who represents both men. ``I
think they are both concentrating on finishing up their time and then
seeing what happens.''
Youngworth, who has completed the first year on a sentence of 2-3
years for possession of a stolen motor vehicle, is serving his time
at MCI-Shirley. Connor, who still has a year to serve on a 10-year
sentence, is incarcerated at a federal prison in Springfield, Mo.,
where he is being treated for the effects of a stroke he suffered
earlier in the year.
While Youngworth and Connor are staying mum, federal authorities and
museum officials who negotiated with them last year still ponder
whether the two could make good on their pledges or were just
engaging in a publicity stunt to try to get their sentences reduced.
At least one official says privately he believes that Youngworth did
have access to the artwork for a short period of time through
connections to an underworld ring that controlled the paintings. But
those connections dried up after Youngworth was unable to reach a
deal with authorities and both sides became suspicious of one
another.
While he will not talk about his negotiations with Youngworth and
Connor, Brien T. O'Connor, the federal prosecutor on the case, says
the investigation remains a ``top priority'' for the FBI and the US
attorney's office.
This story ran on page B02 of the Boston Globe on
09/06/98. c Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.
The article on potential mold spores coming from old books and the
possible hallucinatory repercussions was well presented with one
exception: It didn't go nearly far enough in emphasizing the dangers
of breathing these potentially-deadly toxins. There are several
life-threatening illnesses that these particular mold spores may cause
or contribute to: Tuberculosis, asthma, and lung cancer may be only
the tip of the iceberg. Other auto-immune diseases, allergies, and
food sensitivities are mushrooming..,(no pun intended!) Candida
albicans (yeast overgrowth) is the latest one out of the gate and the
jury is still out as to how much any one or all of these may
contribute to the etiologies of the others.
David Clumpner
Co Chair
Well Mind Association
wma@speakeasy.org
www.speakeasy.org/~wma
The special, one-day sale upcoming on September 19 of Egyptian,
Greek, and Roman antiquities and coins by C.G. Sloan's of North
Bethesda, Maryland, is the result of a sensational crime that last
year shocked the dignified university town where Thomas Jefferson
called home.
George Moody, 53, lived and worked on Leonard Street in
Charlottesville, Virginia. The custom jeweler and goldsmith was born
in Indiana, grew up in Leesburg, Virginia, spent six years in the
U.S. Army, and graduated from the University of Virginia in 1975.
First a collector of rocks, minerals, and coins, he turned his hobby
into a profession after training as a jewelry designer at the
Gemological Institute of America in Richmond. His client base was
nationwide.
As business improved, Moody began collecting Japanese swords and
ancient artifacts from Greece, Rome, China, and Tibet. He had amphoras
from a sunken ship off the coast of Turkey.
Life was good for George Moody until it ended with a gunshot on
September 27, 1996. The triggerman was Dorian Lester, 48, former
bodyguard for socialite Patricia Kluge, ex-wife of John Kluge of the
Metromedia Corporation. Lester had been Mrs. Kluge's bodyguard for
ten years. He had also worked as a guitarist in a Christian rock band
and as a volunteer at a local fire and rescue department.
But Dorian Lester was going through a divorce and had dreams of
starting an international security company with offices in Washington
and London. He needed operating capital.
His girlfriend was Countess Valentina Djelebova, 41, a Bulgarian-born
resident of London and Charlottesville whose ex-husband, Edward
Artsrunik, is a descendant of Russian nobility.
The Countess was with Dorian Lester the night they paid George Moody
a visit. They got in despite a sophisticated alarm system because
Moody considered them friends and clients and welcomed them into his
shop.
"Charlottesville police nabbed Djelebova and Dorian Gill Lester
inside a pawn shop on the Downtown Mall four days after Moody's body
was found," wrote Calvin Trice, who covered the crime for the city's
The Daily Progress newspaper.
"Police said they discovered in the couple's possession hundreds of
precious and semi-precious stones traced to the workshop area of
Moody's home, where he ran a custom jewelry business.
"Like Lester, Djelebova had a ticket to fly to London's Heathrow
Airport with departure scheduled for the day of her detention."
"It was the biggest case in a decade," Trice said in a recent
interview. "There's not a whole lot going on around here. We have
about three murders a year."
In April Lester was convicted of robbery and capital murder. The jury
recommended life. The Countess was cleared of murder but faces a
grand larceny charge, which carries a 20-year maximum sentence. She
already has spent several months in jail while awaiting trial. She
was also charged with being an accessory after the fact, a
misdemeanor. She was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon the day
the couple was arrested, but she drew a 30-day suspended sentence.
The Countess is currently in London, free on $50,000 bail, tending to
her small children.
The sale of George Moody's collections will include bronzes, wood
carvings, pottery, masks, panels, and coins. About 500 of the 690
lots offered will be from his various personal collections.
c 1998 by Maine Antique Digest
Scottish councillors are meeting to consider how to deal with a request from Sioux Indians who want a sacred relic returned. Members of the Lakota Sioux tribe have asked Glasgow Council to hand back a shirt taken from a fallen warrior at the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890. The so-called "ghost shirt" and other artefacts arrived in Glasgow in 1891 with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West travelling show. It was given to the city's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum a year later, and has been kept there ever since. The campaign to get the relic returned was launched by the Wounded Knee Survivors' Association five years ago after an American tourist, of Cherokee descent, visited the museum and saw the shirt. In 1995 the association sent a delegation to Scotland to hold talks with the council about the situation.
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- Some art experts praise ``Victory
Boogie Woogie'' as the pinnacle of abstract pioneer Piet Mondrian's
career, while many taxpayers wonder whether the painting was a waste
of $40 million.
Jolting the usually tranquil Dutch art world, auditors have opened a
preliminary probe into the purchase as complaints mounted Thursday
that the 51-by-51-inch unfinished painting isn't worth the price tag.
``This is outrageous,'' declared art historian Bob van den Boogert at
Amsterdam's Rembrandt House Museum.
``I think the majority of Dutch people actually hate Mondrian,'' he
said, noting that entire galleries were deserted during a big
Mondrian exhibit in 1994.
``Victory Boogie Woogie,'' a diamond-shaped collage of small squares
in bold blues, reds and yellows, was done in oil and black crayon with
pieces of paper and plastic. The Dutch master created it in New York
between 1942 and his death in 1944.
The private National Art Collection Funds purchased the work last
week with part of a donation of $55 million from the 1998 profits of
the Dutch Central Bank. The highly publicized buy, the most expensive
art purchase ever funded by the Dutch state, aroused the curiosity of
the national Court of Audit, an independent body that investigates
government spending.
Preliminary investigations is under way, and court official Marijke
Ram said a full-scale probe could follow to determine whether public
money was used ``prudently.''
``Victory Boogie Woogie,'' which belonged to American magazine
publishing magnate S.I. Newhouse Jr. and had hung in a New York
apartment, will be added to the permanent collection of The Hague
Municipal Museum, already home to the largest Mondrian collection in
the world. It goes on display there Oct. 29.
Although it certainly has its detractors -- one man even told a
newspaper, ``Return that thing. I almost threw up'' -- others say
it's a masterpiece worth every penny.
The art fund that bought it calls it one of the most important
artworks of the 20th century.
Museum official Gerrit de Rook said the purchase was significant
because Dutch collections still were missing works from the final
years of Mondrian's career.
I was a little surprised to read on the most recent posting of a new
book titled "The Man Whole Stole the Mona Lisa". I have a paper back
copy of a book of the same title by Martin Page (Sphere Books 1988,
190 pages). This was originally published under the title "Set a
Thief" in 1984 by Bodley Head. The cover includes the quote "A
delight" attributed to the New Yorker, so I presume it was reviewed.
I read it on holiday a number of years ago and recall enjoying it as a
bit of light mystery reading. It sounds a lot like the book you are
referring to, but by a different author.
Thomas Dixon
A UKPounds:700,000 PAINTING looted after the Second World War was
returned to the German government by a High Court judge in London
yesterday in a test case with major implications for the art market.
Mr Justice Moses ruled that the 17th-century painting by the Dutch
mannerist artist Joachim Wtewael belonged to Germany rather than to a
Panamanian company, Cobert Finance, which bought it in 1989. Had the
company won the case, the way would have been cleared for a huge
quantity of missing war art to be sold openly, much of it in London,
capital of the art market.
The ruling on Wtewael's The Holy Family with Saints John and
Elizabeth and Angels revealed details of the nefarious trade in art
looted by all sides in the chaotic period at the end of the war.
Convicted Russian art smugglers gave evidence in the case.
Mr Justice Moses said that the painting was eventually taken out of
Moscow in 1987 by Big Mamma, the nickname of Mariouena Dikeni, wife of
the Togo ambassador to the Soviet Union. Mrs Dikeni had previously
smuggled works of art, including icons, out of Moscow.
She was contacted by a man who wanted to get the Wtewael to Berlin
and, after a meeting in an embassy car, she agreed to act as a
courier. She was to be paid UKPounds:28,000 when she handed the
painting over to a man called Fürst in West Berlin. But when she
returned to Moscow she claimed that she had left it with a relative
in Berlin. The painting then disappeared for a time before
resurfacing in London. The judge accused Cobert of lying and said
that Douglas Montgomery, one of its representatives, had been
associated with "the payment of what I regard as a bribe" to a
witness in the case. The 8in by 6in Old Master, painted on copper in
1603, was bought by the Duke of Saxe-Coburg in 1826. By the time of
Nazi Germany's collapse in 1945 it had been given by the duke's
family to the Ducal Foundation for Art and Science in Gotha. It
disappeared after the city was occupied by the Russians.
Cobert said that the picture was given to a Soviet colonel called
Kozlenkov, whose son sold it in Moscow in 1985. After passing through
two other owners it was bought by Cobert, which tried to sell it in
London. It was withdrawn from an auction at Sotheby's in 1992 after
doubts were raised about its provenance.
The German government contended that it had been stolen by Russian
soldiers and taken to the former Soviet Union, where it surfaced in
1986. Cobert argued that, whatever the history of the painting, the
German government had left it too late to claim it back under the 30
years limitation period set by its own laws.
But the judge ruled: "The law favours the true owner of property
which has been stolen, however long the period which has elapsed
since the original theft." He said that it would be against public
policy "to permit a party which admits it has not acted in good faith
to retain the advantage of lapse of time." He could not allow Cobert
"to succeed when, on its own admission, it knew or suspected that the
painting might be stolen".
The judge accused Cobert of having "deliberately and unconscionably
concealed facts" and said that by 1991 Mr Montgomery knew that the
painting had been stolen. He ruled that, in any case, the limitation
period ran only from 1987 when Mrs Dikeni "misappropriated" the
painting. The judge said: "Whether my conclusions will result in a
greater opportunity for those who enjoy Dutch mannerism or wish to
cultivate their antipathies, others will have to decide."
Dr Michael Carl, a German lawyer representing the Bonn government,
said after the hearing: "This is an important test case and such an
extraordinary story that they should make a film of it. I am delighted
at the outcome."
Pamela Kiesselbach, solicitor for Cobert, said: "We have to analyse
the judgment properly, but there is a possibility that we may appeal.
The company has no further comment at the moment."
The painting, which has been stored at Sotheby's while its future was
being decided and where the judge viewed it, will now be put on public
exhibition in Germany.
AS many as 300,000 important paintings looted by the Nazis during the
Second World War may still be missing.
Much of the art confiscated from Jews was shipped to the private
collections of German leaders such as Goering, but Impressionist
paintings, which the Nazis regarded as degenerate, were sent to
Switzerland and sold or exchanged for other works.
The Allies also looted art in Germany at the end of the war. Some
paintings were taken by American and British troops, but their
offences were minor compared to the mass theft undertaken by the
Russians. Individual Russian soldiers helped themselves to whatever
they could, but the large scale looting was done by special Red Army
"trophy brigades" ordered by Stalin to strip Germany.
The High Court hearing in London was told that one train in Leipzig
in eastern Germany was filled with 200 tons of paintings, books and
silver by a team of 60 Russian soldiers working for 10 days. Some of
the art taken by the Russians had been stolen from occupied western
Europe by the Germans earlier in the war.
But nobody knows exactly how much art is still missing, either hidden
in Russia or in private collections. The paintings which have never
been recovered include works by Titian, El Greco, Monet, Manet,
Renoir, Rubens and Van Dyck.
VIENNA, Sept 9 - Austria said on Wednesday museums that
house hundreds of art works seized by the Nazis and not given back
after World War Two will return the objects to their rightful owners,
most of whom are Jews.
Most of the thousands of works of art confiscated by Hitler's regime
after Austria was annexed by the Third Reich in 1938 were restituted
in the post-war years.
But some were silently incorporated into Austrian museums or extorted
from their -- mainly Jewish -- exiled owners on grounds they could not
be shipped out of the country.
``The clear and determined political will is there to give back those
works of art that were held back because of the export ban (on art),''
Elisabeth Gehrer, Minister for Education and Cultural Affairs, told
reporters.
``We can say we are dealing with about 400-500 catalogue numbers,
whereby a number can also be a coin collection.''
Apart from paintings and coins, the objects in question include
sculptures, antique furniture, glassware, musical instruments and
weapons.
Research in museum archives show that Vienna's showcase Museum of the
History of Art has called 915 objects of doubtful origin its own for
over 50 years.
The Austrian Gallery Belvedere -- famous for its collection of
paintings by turn-of-the-century masters Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele
-- also took its share of the pickings.
The gallery's possessions include 17 art works extorted from the
legendary Rothschild family after 1945, museum director Gerbert Frodl
told Reuters.
``Owners were not permitted to export their possessions. Museums said
owners could remove their collections if particular art works were
'donated,''' Frodl said.
``That was not exactly morally highstanding.''
Gehrer said authorities side-stepped a later restitution law which
stipulated that the export ban should not be applied to works of art
confiscated by the Nazis.
A draft law enabling the restitution of suspected objects of art will
be submitted to the government on Thursday for discussion.
``We want to document that at the end of the historically burdened
20th century we want to clear things up once and for all,'' said
Gehrer.
Parliament is expected to approve the law by the end of October,
enabling Austria to push ahead with restitution this year. Before
anything can be returned the claimant has to prove that he or she is
the legal heir of the rightful owner.
A full report on suspected art acquisitions in all 10 state museums
as well as the National Library is due within two months.
Austria launched an investigation into its state collections after
two paintings on loan to the Museum of Modern Art in New York from
the Leopold Foundation were confiscated by U.S. authorities in
January.
The two canvases by expressionist Egon Schiele, worth about 70
million schillings together, were claimed by the heirs of victims of
Hitler's Nazi regime.
The claims were rejected by a New York judge in May, but the case is
still pending and the controversy prompted Austria to take a critical
look at the acquisition of its museum exhibits and archives.
Frodl said the restitution process should get into swing as soon as
possible, although it would hurt to part with two particular baroque
reliefs in the Gallery Belvedere.
``The baroque reliefs are part of our permanent exhibition and would
leave a hole, but it would not be the end of the world.''
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.
A DUTCH Old Master looted from a German art gallery in the final
days of the Second World War must be returned to Germany, more than
50 years after it was stolen by the Red Army, the High Court ruled
yesterday.
The Holy Family with Angels and Saints by Joachim Wtewael, worth
UKPounds:700,000, was one of thousands of artworks stolen as war
trophies and distributed throughout the Soviet empire.
Yesterday's judgment was seen as a landmark decision with
far-reaching consequences for the international art market. Michael
Carl a solicitor who has worked on stolen art cases for 30 years,
said that dealers and auction houses would have to apply much
stricter legal standards when selling objects.
The story of how Wtewael's masterpiece of Dutch Mannerism made its
journey from a castle in Thuringia in 1946 to a Sotheby's art sale in
1992 has all the ingredients of a John le Carré novel.
The characters include a forerunner of the former KGB; "Big Mamma",
an ambassador's wife with a sideline in art smuggling; a
mafia-controlled Russian icon art ring; and a secretive
Panamanian-registered company, Cobert Finance SA, accused of
concealing vital information about its dealings.
Add to this allegations made in court that a key witness was paid
$10,000 (UKPounds:6,000) at a shady meeting in the foyer of the Savoy
Hotel in London last February and you have what Mr Justice Moses
understatedly described yesterday as a "very stimulating case".
During the three-week hearing, the High Court heard how the disputed
masterpiece - painted on copper in 1603 and measuring 8in by 6in - was
bought by Cobert Finance in 1989. It was put up for sale by Sotheby's
in 1992 but withdrawn when doubts were raised about its provenance.
The picture's pre-war history is not in dispute. From 1826, it was
owned by the dukes of Saxe-Coburg Gotha until the family was deposed
in 1918 and the picture transferred to a muncipal Foundation for Art
and Science. Historians who gave evidence concluded that the picture
was most likely removed from Thuringia in 1946 by a Russian trophy
brigade led by a Major Professor Alexeyev under the authority of
Soviet counter-intelligence.
In the mid-1980s the picture resurfaced on Moscow's thriving black
art market and at this point, accounts diverge.
Cobert Finance initially claimed that the picture was given to a
Latvian colonel in the Russian Army by a German family in return for
food. His son, they said, took it to Moscow in 1985 before selling it
to a Mr Sunguza who sold it in Berlin to a Mina Breslav who, finally,
sold it privately to Cobert in London in 1989. However, on the first
day of the trial, Cobert conceded that it had not acquired the
painting in good faith.
The Federal Republic of Germany gave a very different account of the
picture's tortuous progress across Europe, based on the evidence of
two Russian art smugglers. One, Alexander Makhin, told how he had
first seen the painting at the Moscow flat of two icon smugglers.
Makhin contacted a German, Helmut Fürst, who smuggled works of art
from the former Soviet Union. Makhin then said he had set up a meeting
in an embassy limousine between Furst and Mariouena Dikeni, the wife
of the Togo Ambassador in Moscow. Mrs Dikeni, also known as "Big
Mamma", agreed to act as courier but later claimed to the cultural
attache to the German Embassy in Togo that she had lost the picture to
the Berlin dealer who was selling it.
Mr Justice Moses said that thieves should not be able to prosper by
hiding behind European laws that put time limits on reclaiming stolen
property: "The law favours the true owner of property which has been
stolen, however long the period which has elapsed since the original
theft."
-- The Museum of Modern Art has asked a state appeals court to allow
it to return two paintings to an Austrian foundation despite claims
the works were stolen by Nazis more than a half century ago.
The paintings, "Dead City III" and "Portrait of Wally," were among
more than 100 paintings by Egon Schiele lent to MOMA by the Leopold
Foundation in Vienna for a three-month exhibit that ended Jan. 4.
When the exhibit ended, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau
intervened on behalf of two families who claim the works were
plundered during the Nazi era from relatives. He obtained a subpoena
blocking the paintings' return to Vienna while the question of
ownership was investigated.
The museum wants the appeals court to uphold a lower court's May 13
decision that ruled state law prohibits the seizure of art loaned to
New York institutions.
In papers filed Wednesday, the museum said the subpoena has had a
"chilling effect" on foreign art loans to New York.
Barbara Thompson, spokeswoman for the district attorney's office,
said prosecutors would file a response next week.
The Leopold Foundation has maintained that the paintings were
acquired in good faith from legitimate postwar owners.
The Austrian government, facing mounting evidence that its museums
have long been an illicit repository for thousands of artworks seized
from Jews during World War II, moved yesterday to create a commission
that would return the art to families that have waited six decades for
justice.
The government took its action after new reports surfaced on the
extent of the unreturned plunder. One museum, Vienna's Museum of the
History of Art, completed a study recently suggesting that at least
915 objects in its collections have a tainted past.
''The museums didn't want to return anything they had, regardless of
the justice of the claim,'' said Alice Kantor, a retired CBS News
researcher from New York City who was rebuffed by Vienna's Albertina
Museum in the 1970s when she sought the return of a Gustav Klimt
drawing.
The Klimt was one of 222 artworks that the Nazis confiscated after
Kantor and her family fled Austria in 1938. Only two were ever
recovered. Kantor said the government's proposal now gives her hope
that the Klimt will be returned and that perhaps other works
belonging to her family will be located.
For Austria, the disclosures have been a three-fold embarrassment:
First, Jews were stripped of their artworks after the German
Anschluss in 1938, when Austria was united with Germany. Second, many
of the country's museums acquired art - like the Kantors' Klimt -
during the war that they had reason to suspect had been looted from
Jews. And third, during years of post-war bureaucratic extortion,
government museums very often returned a portion of the artworks
claimed by Jews, but only after the owners agreed to let the museums
keep other major works.
Some of the Jewish victims hailed the government's decision to make
amends. Bettina Looram - the daughter of Alphonse Rothschild, one of
the best-known victims of the art plundering - said in a telephone
interview that Elisabeth Gehrer, Austria's minister for education and
cultural affairs, has displayed ''extraordinary courage'' in pushing
the restitution.
For now, the government review excludes the Leopold Foundation, a
quasigovernment agency. The Leopold's loan of artworks to New York's
Museum of Modern Art last year ignited the controversy that led to
the press disclosures in Vienna and prompted the government action
yesterday.
Just as the museum concluded the exhibition of the foundation's
collection of works by the Austrian painter Egon Schiele, American
Jewish claimants to two of the Schiele paintings demanded return of
the works, ''Dead City'' and ''Portrait of Wally.''
The Museum of Modern Art refused, but Manhattan District Attorney
Robert M. Morgenthau subpoenaed the paintings, effectively keeping
them in New York City. A lower court has ruled the subpoena invalid,
but Morgenthau has appealed the decision.
The foundation's collection was acquired by the government from art
collector Rudolf Leopold. Though Leopold exerts substantial influence
on the foundation, the government holds a majority of seats on its
board.
Reporting by Hubertus Czernin, an Austrian arts journalist, first
disclosed the governmental complicity in February. Czernin, who
reported new details this week, said last night that the government
will have no choice but to include the Leopold collection in its
search for misappropriated works.
Many of the paintings Leopold acquired have uncertain ownership
histories ''and were purchased by Leopold during a period, in the
1950s and 1960s, when many artworks with questionable pasts were
sold,'' Czernin said. Since the New York claims surfaced, Leopold has
insisted that he acquired the collection in good faith, from owners
who had legal title.
Lawrence M. Kaye is a New York art law specialist who represents the
heirs of Lea Bondi Jaray, who once owned ''Portrait of Wally,'' one
of the two Schiele paintings in legal limbo in New York. Kaye said
yesterday that his clients welcome the steps the Austrian government
is taking and hope that those steps ''lead to the restitution of all
artworks wrongfully taken from victims of the Holocaust.''
But there ''has been no indication from either the Austrian
government or the Leopold Foundation that they intend to return the
painting to the Bondi family, its rightful owners,'' Kaye said.
One victim almost certain to recoup her family's art is Looram, the
wife of a retired American diplomat. She said her mother, Clarice,
regained Alphonse Rothschild's extensive art collection after the
war.
The Austrian government, however, refused to issue an export permit.
''But then they said, `Maybe, if you're willing to donate a third of
your art collection, we'll let you export the rest,''' Looram said.
The return of the well-documented art objects will be relatively easy
for the government, Looram said.
''What I am hoping very much,'' Looram said, ''is that the many
families who have tried for years and years to recover just one or
two paintings will now be able to do so.''
This story ran on page A02 of the Boston Globe on 09/11/98.
