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November 26, 1998

- Rare Copernicus book stolen from Polish library (second theft in eastern Europe this year of a copy of ``De Revolutionibus'')
- Paris has a fresh look at The Kiss (stolen by the Nazis and never reclaimed)
- France lends out art Nazis looted (museums have for 50 years been routinely sending abroad for exhibit art masterworks that were looted by the Nazis)
- Fire in Structure Being Converted to University Fine Arts Building (William Heidecker)

Rare Copernicus book stolen from Polish library

WARSAW, Nov 25 (Reuters) - A rare, first edition of a ground-breaking book by 16th-century astronomer Nicholas Copernicus has been stolen from a scientific library in southern Poland, police said on Wednesday.
It was the second theft in eastern Europe this year of a copy of ``De Revolutionibus,'' a 1543 work in which Copernicus presented his revolutionary thesis that it was the Earth which revolved around the Sun.
The book disappeared from the Polish Academy of Science's library in the city of Krakow on Tuesday, police spokeswoman Joanna Maciejewska told Reuters.
The theft may have been ordered by a private collector, she said. ``It is not that easy simply to sell the book or offer it at an auction because it is so rare and well known,'' she said. Another copy of the book was taken from Ukraine's National Vernadsky Library in August and has still not been traced.
The value of the 200-page book, of which only about a dozen copies exist, was estimated by librarians quoted by Polish newspapers at 250,000 to 400,000 German marks ($147,100 to $235,000). ``But most experts say it is simply priceless,'' Maciejewska said. The book was probably been stolem by a man in his early 40s who used forged or stolen identification documents to borrow it for research in the reading room, she said.
``The man sat at his table for some time examining the book and then told the librarian he was going to the toilet,'' Maciejewska said. The man, who left behind his coat, never returned. The library has no security guards. ``The librarian saw that the book was lying on the table all the time but it later turned out it was only the cardboard cover,'' Maciejewska said.
Police were working on a sketch of the man and would publish it shortly, she said. ($1-1.700 German Mark)
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.

Paris has a fresh look at The Kiss

FROM BEN MACINTYRE IN PARIS
A BRONZE cast of Auguste Rodin's famous statue, The Kiss, which was stolen by the Nazis and never reclaimed after the Second World War, was put on permanent display in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris yesterday in the hope that its owners might come forward. The cast, one of several by the artist, has been out of the public eye for at least three decades. It was initially kept in a storeroom before being transferred to the private back garden of the Hôtel Mâtignon, the residence of the French Prime Minister. The Kiss is one of 20 statues on show in the Tuileries - the gardens designed by Le Nôtre in the 17th century - under a Culture Ministry plan to promote modern sculpture. Lionel Jospin, the Prime Minister, "believes displaying the statue in a prominent place increases the chances that it will be claimed by its rightful owners or their heirs", Alain Kirili, the French sculptor behind the Tuileries Sculpture Project, said. Thousands of works of art pillaged by the Nazis were never reclaimed after the war, in many cases because their Jewish owners died in the gas chambers.
Rodin's The Kiss is number 25 on the French list of 2,000 unclaimed artworks.

France lends out art Nazis looted

By Arthur Spiegelman
LOS ANGELES, Nov 25 (Reuters) - French museums have for 50 years been routinely sending abroad for exhibit art masterworks that were looted by the Nazis, a Jewish group said on Wednesday. The World Jewish Congress said works by Picasso, Matisse and Leger had been placed on display in Berlin, London and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art without any indication that the artworks were stolen and technically were not owned by France. Museums involved include the Louvre and the Pompidou Centre, the group said.
In one instance, a looted impressionist painting by Maurice Utrillo was sent to Israel in 1954 for exhibit, the WJC said, basing its findings on a study of exhibition catalogues. These were compared with the names of more than 2,000 Nazi-looted artworks that France admitted receiving after the war and not returning to their rightful owners. The Jewish group made its finding public before a 44-nation meeting scheduled to begin in Washington next Monday to consider measures for returning Holocaust-era assets, including artworks. France is among the nations that will attend.
The meeting is a follow-up to an international conference on Nazi gold held last year in London.
``At the London conference, France said they were temporarily holding these paintings. We are expecting that at this conference, they will announce they are releasing them.'' Elan Steinberg, the WJC's executive director, said.
Ronald Lauder, chairman of the WJC's art recovery unit, is expected to call at the conference for the freeing of ``these last prisoners of war,'' Steinberg said. Among the works of art that France has exhibited aboard that were looted by the Nazis was Max Ernst's ``Fleurs de Coquillages,'' which was shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1968 and then exhibited in Boston and Moscow. Leger's ``Woman in Red and Green'' was shown at London's Tate Gallery in 1950, and Picasso's ``Head of a Woman'' was exhibited in Tokyo in 1996.
After the war, France received more than 15,000 works of art that had been looted, partly from private French collectors. Of that number, French museums are still holding 2,058 works of art ``in temporary safekeeping.''
Lauder is expected to urge the French and other European nations still retaining looted works to sell them at auction and give the proceeds to Holocaust survivors. Austria held such an auction of looted art in 1996. A 1945 document from the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA, estimated that the Nazis looted about one-fifth of Europe's art treasures, especially targeting Jewish collections.
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.

From: "William A. Heidecker" heideckerwa@worldnet.att.net
Subject:

Fire in Structure Being Converted to University Fine Arts Building

Building Under Renovation Severely Damaged

A church that was being converted into a university's fine arts building was severely damaged in a blaze that began when a temporary electrical system malfunctioned. The original three-story building had stone walls, wood framing, wood floors on heavy wood joists, and a wood-truss roof covered with slate. During the renovation, which was about half done, the first floor had been rebuilt with concrete, and the third floor had been replaced with metal framing to hold the concrete. Structural framing and construction voids were exposed in several areas. Workers were using a temporary 110-volt electrical system to power strings of temporary lights, and the building was wrapped in heavy gauge plastic to keep out the cold. The church had no sprinklers or detectors.
The building was unoccupied when a passing fire crew noticed smoke coming from the rear windows and notified the dispatcher by radio at 1:51 p.m. The passing crew didn't respond because it wasn't properly staffed to do so. Arriving firefighters found that several floors were already involved and flames were breaking through the roof. The entire roof quickly became involved, and the commanding officer sounded four alarms within 20 minutes. Fire crews had difficulty penetrating the heavy plastic shroud and the exterior scaffolding with their master streams, and the roof eventually collapsed. The investigation didn't begin until the following day, when a crane was needed to move the debris. Investigators determined that the fire started between the first-floor ceiling and the second floor. The first and second-floor ceilings were constructed of heavy wood beams, and the floor in between was the original wood decking. A temporary system using two 20-ampere circuits powered strings of 100-watt lights on wiring that was anchored by wire string stapled to the second floor joists. Investigators determined that the temporary electrical system had malfunctioned and that the fire spread vertically through construction voids and open areas. Damage was estimated at $4.7 million. All but one stone wall and part of another had to be taken down before reconstruction could begin. There were no injuries.
WAH Comment: Extraordinary precautions should be taken during renovation. From a risk management standpoint, make sure that the contractor has adequate insurance to cover this sort of incident.

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