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December 25, 1998

CONTENTS:

- A New Article on Cultural Institution Value Methodology
- New member requesting info!
- France protected Vichy officials who profited from Jewish assets
- A guard, a guard, my kingdom for a guard (RE: stolen Shakespeare folio)
- Fish Museum Protest Turns Ugly
- discussion of Y2K and museums? (Jason A. Staloff)
- Historic Building Code
- Brazil searches for Nazi-looted works of art
- WJC Suspects France Will Retain 2,000 Looted Artworks
- Serbs demand their 'share' of rare Sarajevo Haggadah
- Re: A guard, a guard, my kingdom for a guard (stolen Shakespeare folio; four messages)

From: Roger Wulff museplan@erols.com
Subject:

A New Article on Cultural Institution Value Methodology

Dear Museum Security Network Listers:
Happy Holidays to all!!!!!! I just wanted to notify all of you that the article "How to Ensure Quality and Cut Costs With Cultural Institution Value Methodology; a Case Study of value on an Historic Renovation Project At The Science Museum of Virginia," Dr. Walter Witschey (Director of The SMV) and Roger Wulff, will appear in a forthcoming issue of "The International Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship," Elsevier Science, Oxford, UK.
As a further to Jonathan Sazonoff's mention of "Museum Security and Protection, a handbook for Cultural Heritage Institutions," the publication in question and many others is available on our Barnes & Noble Museum Bookstore at the Web Site Address below. Just type the words "Cultural Property Protection" in the search box and the entire list will appear.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
As the HOLIDAY SEASON APPROACHS -Visit our NEW "ONLINE" MUSEUM BOOKSTORE - WHERE YOU CAN NOW EARN FREQUENT FLYER MILES ON YOUR FAVORITE AIRLINES WITH THE CLICKREWARDS PROGRAM AND OUR "ONLINE"INTERNATIONAL CRAFT SHOP at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/yp/museumshopint
Museum Services International is a non-profit organization which provides planning and implementation services in all areas of cultural and museum operations - especially in the area of "Economuseology."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

From: Macon61@aol.com
Subject:

New member requesting info!

I am a University student studying stolen culture property in the criminal justice field. I have a strong emphsis in russian stolen art. Please add me to your mailing list and provide me with any books about this particular subject. All the local book stores do not have any listings in the history of Russian art or stolen culture property in this area. E-mail Macon61@aol.com Thank you!

France protected Vichy officials who profited from Jewish assets

By Lee Yanowitch
PARIS, Dec 20 (JTA) -- Members of France's pro-Nazi Vichy regime who profited from the sale of looted Jewish assets were protected from prosecution after World War II, according to documents from the French Finance Ministry's archives. The daily newspaper Le Parisien, which obtained the files, reported that some Vichy administrators received a 10 percent commission from the sale of buildings and businesses confiscated as part of an effort to rid the French economy of Jewish influence. The documents belonged to a man named as Professor Terroine, a former member of the Resistance appointed to run an office established after the liberation of France to deal with restitution. The revelations came just after France was bitterly criticized at the conference on Holocaust-era assets held recently in Washington for moving too slowly on returning paintings and other artworks seized from Jewish families during the war. Nearly 2,000 paintings sent back to France from Germany at the end of the war are still in the possession of state-run museums, and President Jacques Chirac said recently that the paintings must remain in France. At the same time, a body appointed in 1996 by former Prime Minister Alain Juppe to investigate the whereabouts of seized Jewish assets is facing resistance from banks, insurance companies and other state agencies in handing over their archives from the period, sources said. Jewish community leaders have voiced criticism that insufficient resources and the lack of cooperation by financial institutions are hindering the Matteoli commission from conducting its inquiry effectively. ``Civil servants are never in a rush. It all should go faster," said a source familiar with the situation. ``A lot of negotiating has to be done." The source said the commission would look into Terroine's archives, but at the same time he stressed that tens of thousands of other documents of the same type would remain untapped because the commission's assignment is limited to giving a ``global evaluation. They can't do everything. Historians have to be put to work on it." The documents found by Le Parisien tell of Terroine's anger at pressure by local politicians to turn a blind eye to the wartime activities of property administrators. ``Everyone knows that the [commission] they received increased their wealth, which was often very modest at the beginning, by a considerable amount," Le Parisien quoted a note from Terroine as saying. ``Most of them accepted their responsibilities to make a profit and help the enemy," he went on. A total of 7,000 administrators were employed by the General Commission for Jewish Questions to manage and sell off seized Jewish property. Terroine recorded the behavior of petty civil servants who profited from the slaughter of Jews. One of those was an employee of the Credit Lyonnais bank in the city of Clermont Ferrand who, ``realizing that a family had been exterminated, simply took the stocks that had been deposited in their name.''
(c Jewish Telegraphic Agency Inc.

From: "Reid Bailey" Reid.Bailey@educate.com
Subject: Re: DECEMBER 20, 1998

A guard, a guard, my kingdom for a guard.

So the thieves who obscounded with the shakespeare folio, "regarded by academics as the most important book in the English language", did so at a time when no one else was around the crown jewels of English Lit. Am I the only one who sees a problem here. Can the idea of prevention be overstated enough? Yes, we should be able to trust people, but we can't. And as far as the thieves not knowing what they had stolen, well educated people can be criminals as well;-)
Just a thought. Happy Holidays and thanks for all the great work being done on the list and the web site
Reid Bailey
rbailey@educate.com

Fish Museum Protest Turns Ugly

- (DANIA BEACH) -- Two anti-fishing protesters are charged with criminal mischief for allegedly spray-painting a fish statue. The men were demonstrating outside the New World Fishing Center Museum in Dania Beach on its opening day Saturday. Police say the men jumped onto a stainless steel sculpture of a swordfish leaping from a water fountain and sprayed red paint on it before fleeing the scene. They were arrested a few blocks away.

From: "Jason A. Staloff" jas-rml@rosenbach.org
Subject:

discussion of Y2K and museums?

Dear Museum Security Network,
I am impressed by the amount of material on your site, though I do wish I could do a search. I am in charge of my organization's year 2000 effort, and would be interested in seeing if there are any information resources compiled by other institutions. Can you think of any important consortia, Web sites, mailing lists etc. that you might refer me to?
Many thanks for your time, and happy holidays. Yours sincerely,
Jason A. Staloff jas-rml@rosenbach.org
Information Systems Manager Rosenbach Museum & Library
http://www.rosenbach.org tel 215.732.1600 ext. 23 fax 215.545.7529

From: Jack Watts firesafe@middlebury.net
Subject: [Fire Safe Heritage]:

Historic Building Code

D R A F T H I S T O R I C B U I L D I N G C O D E

A project of the Association for Preservation Technology International (APT)

c/o Preservation Architecture
51 Round Lake Road
Valatie, New York 12184
518-766-2459
518-766-2451 fax
email: mkrf@taconic.net
The Draft Historic Building Code Project (HBC) is a new research effort to develop a draft building code for historic structures that will be suitable for adoption by states or municipalities or by the International Code Council. The project is being funded with a grant to APT from the National Center for Preservation Training and Technology. The HBC will, for the first time, provide a regulatory document applicable to historic buildings nationwide. A primary focus of the project is to provide a straightforward approach to building restoration and rehabilitation that can allow the preservation of historic building elements while providing an appropriate level of safety for the historic structure. The project will incorporate compatible principles included in current rehabilitation and historic building codes, and technical and analytic advancements in the industry and architectural and engineering professions, including those of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Technical Committee on the Protection of Cultural Resources. The HBC is being developed under the leadership of architect Marilyn E. Kaplan of Preservation Architecture and fire protection engineer Dr. John M. Watts, Jr. of the Fire Safety Institute. Additional professionals representing the architectural, engineering, and preservation fields, as well as model code organizations, are participating in the project as peer reviewers.

Brazil searches for Nazi-looted works of art

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -- A Brazilian commission has launched a search for a Picasso and other works looted by the Nazis and possibly taken to South America, joining a fresh international push to recover art seized during the Holocaust. "We were told there were great possibilities that these works are in Latin America," commission member and Sao Paulo Senior Rabbi Henry Sobel told Reuters on Tuesday. The most famous of the 10 works targeted by the commission is a Pablo Picasso pastel from 1925 entitled "Pierrot au Masque," taken from a French Jew in Paris in 1941. The government-supported Commission for the Search of Nazi Monies in Brazil hopes art collectors in the region will see reprints of the Picasso and shed light on its whereabouts, as one Brazilian family did in another case earlier this year.
Sobel said the Catholic family, which he refused to identify, had turned over to the commission a Picasso and a Monet, valued together at $2.2 million. Although the commission has not yet found any proof that the two small paintings were previously owned by Jews, Sobel said they had passed through a Swiss gallery which had specialised in selling art looted during the Second World War. The commission is also tracing the moves of one Austrian dealer who sold "an incredible amount of looted art" to Brazilian and Argentine families, Sobel said. An international conference on assets seized from Holocaust victims held this month in Washington D.C. drew up nonbinding guidelines for countries to identify and publicise stolen works so the original owners could claim them, a move which delegates said would have a big impact on the international art world. The art guidelines follow a landmark agreement in October with six insurance firms to set up a $90 million humanitarian fund to aid Holocaust victims and to conduct an audit of their books to identify unpaid Holocaust-era claims.
Copyright 1998 Reuters. All rights reserved.

WJC Suspects France Will Retain 2,000 Looted Artworks

By Itamar Levin
The World Jewish Congress suspects that the French government is about to transfer to the ownership of local museums more than two thousand works of art looted by the Nazis. To date, the French government has refused to undertake that heir-less artworks will be sold to finance aid to Holocaust survivors. After World War II, the Allies returned to France sixty one thousand works of art looted by the Germans and removed from the country. Forty four thousand were given back to their owners, thirteen thousand were sold by public auction, and two thousand and fifty eight remained on loans to museums, with the Louvre taking the lion's share. According to the WJC, the historic background proves that the great majority of all looted artworks were taken from Jews. Of those that remain, one thousand are paintings and the rest are sculptures, china pieces and others. They include eighteen paintings be Renoir, twelve by Monet, fifteen sculptures and paintings by Rodin, two paintings by Goya, nine by Degas and one by Rembrandt. A senior WJC source told "Globes" that in 1992, French museums were told by their legal advisors that the works were given to them on unlimited time loan, for as long as it was possible that the owners might be discovered. The French government is now refusing to disclose papers documenting the history of the artworks, and will only submit them to the commission investigating the looting of Jewish property in France. Art investigator Hector Feliciano said at the Washington Commission at the beginning of the month, that his requests to view the papers have been rejected for the past three years. WJC director-general Ilan Steinberg also asked to see the papers, and was turned away empty handed. According to the source: "In this way, they created a `Catch-22' situation. They say they will restore the artworks to their owners, but are not prepared to afford access to documents that may provide proof of who the owners are". The French government has so far refrained from making any clear statement as to the fate of artworks whose owners are not traced. The WJC is calling for action in accordance with the Austrian precedent, in which eight thousand heir-less works of art were sold by auction, and the proceeds shared between the Jewish community (88%) and organisations handling other victims of Nazi persecution (12%).
Published by Israel's Business Arena

Serbs demand their 'share' of rare Sarajevo Haggadah

By Douglas Davis
LONDON, Dec. 24 (JTA) -- A priceless Jewish artifact has become the object of a tug of war between Bosnian Serbs and Muslims. The 1995 Dayton Accord ended the civil war that broke out in Bosnia in 1992, but long-simmering ethnic tensions remain -- and now they are focused on a Jewish manuscript known as the Sarajevo Haggadah. Written on bleached calfskin, the Haggadah dates back to the Jewish presence in Spain before the Expulsion in 1492. Citing the Dayton Accord, which divided Bosnia along ethnic lines, Bosnian Serbs -- who make up about one-third of Bosnia's population, but control nearly half of the territory -- are seeking a one-third share in the treasure. While not asking for the Haggadah to be physically dismantled, they are demanding that it be exhibited every third year in Banja Luka, capital of the ministate carved out for Bosnian Serbs after the war. The manuscript is currently held in the vault of the National Bank in Sarajevo, the seat of the Bosnian government. According to the Bosnian Serb argument, the Haggadah should also be displayed every third year in Mostar, the unofficial Bosnian Croat capital. Jakob Finci, who heads what remains of the Bosnian Jewish community, believes the manuscript should stay where it is, saying the country's Serbian and Croatian populations showed no respect for each other's religious and cultural treasures during the civil war. The Serbs, he points out, destroyed a 16th-century mosque in Banja Luka, while the Croats blew up the Old Bridge, an Ottoman construction in Mostar -- two buildings that were considered among Bosnia's leading architectural treasures. ``Now, everybody wants his own museum," said Finci. ``The Haggadah is proof of the multiethnicity in Bosnia. It is a testament that even in worst of times, other people's values were not destroyed.'' The Haggadah, which was carried by Spanish Jews to Italy after the expulsion of 1492, was subsequently brought by a rabbi to Bosnia, which at the time was a province of the Ottoman Empire. The rabbi's family passed it down from generation to generation until a descendent sold it in 1894 to the National Museum in Sarajevo. During World War II, a Nazi general demanded that the Croat and Muslim curators of the museum turn the Haggadah over to him. The curators saved the manuscript by saying they had already given it to another German officer. They subsequently smuggled the Haggadah from the museum and turned it over to a Muslim preacher, who kept it hidden under the doorstep of a village mosque until the war's end. The Haggadah was then returned to the National Museum, where it remained until the outbreak of civil war in 1992. When Bosnian Serbs shelled Sarajevo in that year, the museum's Muslim director, along with members of the Jewish community, braved sniper fire to remove the Haggadah from the museum's vault and store it in its current sanctuary -- the National Bank. After the civil war's end, the Haggadah was not returned to the museum because that structure -- which dates back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire -- suffered heavy damage during the Bosnian Serb shelling of the city and has not since been rebuilt.
(c Jewish Telegraphic Agency Inc.

From: Liddell Management Ltd liddell@zetnet.co.uk
Subject:

Re: A guard, a guard, my kingdom for a guard.

It is a sad fact that art theft in Europe is reaching epidemic proportions. Recently published figures claim that in Europe alone over 600 hundred items, valued at UKPounds:5000 per item, classified as works of art, are being stolen from museums and art galleries. Whatever the reasons behind the theft it is never because the thief knew what he was taking! It is always assumed that the thief was working alone and wandering around the particular museum or art gallery in the vain hope of finding something he could get rid of quickly. Whilst this on occasion undoubtedly does happen, I suggest that there are a huge number of easier targets. The second assumption is that the thief has little or no intelligence and that when reading in the press - "that he will never find a buyer for his ill gotten Van Gogh" - he will instantly chuck it in the nearest bin. For reasons, known only to themselves, the police authorities in the UK refuse to accept that art theft on a large scale can be for reasons other than payment for drug deals, or sheer stupidity. Indeed the Art and Antiques Squad of the Metropolitan police force in London (our premier force which has a Commissioner rather than a Chief Constable) is a full time squad within the drugs squad! As for the Shakespeare folio who has it - an idiot or a collector - both or neither? Time will tell.
George N Liddell
The Art Theft Research Unit
and The Hours Project

From: David Klappholz davidk6@idt.net
Subject:

Re: A guard, a guard, my kingdom for a guard.

I hope they *absconded* with the book because *obscounding* might easily have resulted in severe sexual dysfunction later in life. (Come to think of it, though, given the evil nature of their deed, maybe the consequences of obscounding might be reasonable punishment.)
Dave

From: "Reid Bailey" Reid.Bailey@educate.com
Subject:

Re: Stolen Shakespeare folio

A guard, a guard, my kingdom for a guard.

So the thieves who obscounded with the shakespeare folio, "regarded by academics as the most important book in the English language", did so at a time when no one else was around the crown jewels of English Lit. Am I the only one who sees a problem here. Can the idea of prevention be overstated enough? Yes, we should be able to trust people, but we can't. And as far as the thieves not knowing what they had stolen, well educated people can be criminals as well;-) Just a thought. Happy Holidays and thanks for all the great work being done on the list and the web site
Reid Bailey
rbailey@educate.com

From: Cugall@aol.com
Subject:

Re: A guard, a guard, my kingdom for a guard.

In a message dated 22-Dec-98 12:59:16 PM Eastern Standard Time, liddell@zetnet.co.uk writes:
The second assumption is that the thief has little or no intelligence and that when reading in the press - "that he will never find a buyer for his ill gotten Van Gogh" - he will instantly chuck it in the nearest bin
.
The other alternative is that the thief already had a buyer before stealing the piece. It could be that some infinitely wealthy but unscrupulous person (perhaps bin Ladin or some drug lord) wants the rare item just to thumb his nose at the system and brag to his friends how he put one over on people.

From: Liddell Management Ltd liddell@zetnet.co.uk
Subject:

Re: A guard, a guard, my kingdom for a guard.

This is actually my personal belief, that this piece has been stolen to order,it will turn up one day, but until we begin to appreciate the fact where their is something precious or important then someone will always be willing to risk his or her liberty in order to aquire an object for themselves or a third party, we will continue to lose important pieces, be they of high monetory value or not,at an alarming rate.


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