October 5, 1998

CONTENTS:

Mondrian painting stolen from Dutch museum (Ton Cremers)

[Fire Safe Heritage]: fire loss data on historic buildings

Missing Books (Naomi M. Steinberger)

Utah art museum receives high honors: accreditation

"We hope the people of Utah share our pride in having earned this prestigious honor," said Frank Sanguinetti, director of the UMFA. "This process was rigorous and demanding, as we examined virtually every aspect of our museum's operations; a year of self-study and an on-site review by a team of experienced museum professionals was required. We invite everyone in our community to help us celebrate this award by visiting the Utah Museum of Fine Arts and exploring its fine collection and exhibits." This is the third accreditation the UMFA has received. In 1972 it was the first university museum west of the Mississippi to receive this distinction. Construction of the new $12.5 million Marcia and John Price Building to house the UMFA is now in progress near the south end of the university campus. The 63,000-square-foot museum will be twice the size of the current museum. The facility will include a central grand gallery, an auditorium, cafe, museum store, education center, sculpture court and a group of changing and permanent exhibition galleries. The new UMFA will be open to the public in the summer of 2000. The UMFA, on the U. of U. campus at 1530 E. 370 South, is open every day and admission is always free to the public. Visitor parking is available throughout the week and is provided free on weekends. Museum hours are Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, noon-5 p.m. For information on current exhibits call the museum hotline at 801-581-7332.

French Police Recover Stolen Monet, Sisley Works

FBI seizes gold artifacts from New Mexico museum

French police recover thousands of stolen antiques

Brazilian commission hunts for artworks looted by Nazis

SAO PAULO, Brazil, Oct. 2 (JTA) -- The hunt for artworks looted by the Nazis is pressing ahead here. A commission created by the Brazilian Justice Ministry in 1997 is using leads supplied by the World Jewish Congress to search for more than 100 such works sold in the country between the 1940s and 1970s. n addition, two artworks -- oil paintings by Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso -- have been placed under the protection of the Special Commission to Examine the Nazi Legacy in Brazil. According to Rabbi Henry Sobel, a member of the commission, the oils were in the possession of two S o Paulo families. They were sold for $2.2 million in 1939 and are worth considerably more today. The sale was supposedly made through art dealer Thadeus Grauer, who represented the Switzerland-based Fischer Gallery in S o Paulo. Many of the artworks looted by the Nazis from their Jewish owners found their way to Switzerland during and after the war. The families who owned the two oils did not know the works had been stolen and they have been cooperating with the commission, Sobel said. He added that he has lists of suspect works that are housed in the Museum of Art of S o Paulo, the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro and the Museum of Art of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre. He named two paintings in the Porto Alegre museum, originally bought by families in the region in the 1950s, and later donated to the institution. One is ``The Small Black Lake" by Rose Bonneur, and the other is a small untitled landscape by Bruxton Knight. The sale of looted artworks had the purpose of filling the coffers of Kamaradenwerk, an arm of the Odessa network, which was dedicated to helping Nazis hiding in Latin America after the war, Sobel said. Odessa was deactivated in 1954, but Kamaradenwerk continued operating until 1968, according to the commission. Controversy has surrounded the commission's search, as local art dealers have questioned the ability of the commission to document whether any of the art had, in fact, originally been stolen by the Nazis. Museum officials, meanwhile, are defending themselves from charges that they are housing looted art. ``The works in the Museum of Art of S o Paulo have their origin extremely well documented, and the major part of the collection was attained before the war. Therefore, I don't think there is any problem," the president of the museum, J£lio Neves, told a local newspaper. ``At any rate, until now no one questioned anything, and I don't know anything." The director of the Museum of Art of Rio Grand do Sul, Paulo Amaral, told the newspaper, ``I have the utmost sympathy for the work of the commission, but it is very much in the air, without papers, without proof." According to him, the works in the museum by Bonneur and Knight that Sobel mentioned are having their purchase documents evaluated. But he does not believe there will be any conclusive evidence that can relate them to the Fischer Gallery. The commission has come under criticism for the secrecy surrounding its searches, but Sobel said it protects both the investigations and the individuals and institutions involved. ``The truth is that we have indications, but we don't have proof, and it is necessary to take precautions so that this does not become sensationalist,'' he said.
(c Jewish Telegraphic Agency Inc.

Museum considers security upgrade after gun theft

Two days after four antique pistols were stolen from an office at the Paterson Museum, officials there were examining ways to improve security, and Paterson police offered a $5,000 reward for information to help solve the theft. But museum officials also used the theft to fire up a long-simmering fight with the Great Falls Preservation and Development Corp., with which it shares the first floor of a former mill building. Museum officials contend that security would be better if the development group relinquished its space. "Security has always been a problem in the building," said Giacomo De Stefano, director of the museum on Market Street. "When we leave, there are still people who have access to the main areas, like the cleaning crews and the Great Falls Preservation and Development Corp. . . . The museum should have the entire first floor." But Great Falls officials said they have no plans to move. "I guess he [De Stefano] must have made the statement without sufficient information," said Stan Lacz, president of Great Falls. "I think [Giacomo] is a very capable person, and his work is appreciated in Paterson. But I think it's essential that Great Falls' offices be where they are because we are doing property management. We are right there to see what is going on." For months, Great Falls has been at odds with the city, which owns the building. The city sued Great Falls last year, alleging that it had mismanaged maintenance of the building and failed to disclose financial information. The complaint also seeks to have the corporation abandon its first-floor office next to the museum. It says Great Falls, whose executive director, Peggy Robertson, is the wife of state Sen. Norm Robertson, R-Clifton, should have access only to the second, third, and fourth floors. The stolen guns, worth $250,000, had been stored in De Stefano's private office, which is separate from the main part of the museum. The office can be locked, even if someone is in the main part of the museum. De Stefano discovered the theft and called police about 11 p.m. Wednesday, after returning from a lecture in Ringwood, where he had talked about, among other things, the manufacture of the first Colt revolvers in Paterson. Police said they had no new information on the theft but were working on a number of theories. It could have been an inside job, or it could have been someone attending activities in the building that evening. Or it could have been someone who walked in the front door, hid, and waited for the building to be locked up. De Stefano said the crime was the first major theft since the museum moved to the building in 1981. "Someone once stole an extension cord, but he was arrested on the way out," he said. "You're probably dealing with the same type of individual. He just found gold." Mayor Martin G. Barnes said the theft has prompted the city to come up with a better security plan for the building. He ruled out spending more money on guards or security equipment, but he said the city might limit the movement of cleaning crews, and limit access to the museum after hours, and require community groups using the building to provide their own security. "We're going to have to think of other ways to do it," he said. "We have to learn how to work smarter. We have to look at securing that whole building and getting it under city control."
Copyright c 1998 Bergen Record Corp.

Re: [Fire Safe Heritage]: RE: Halon Accident

Police investigate UKPounds 100,000 'fraud' at national museum