From museum-security at museum-security.org  Fri Jul  1 06:53:53 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet)
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 06:53:53 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] The art of revenge. Germany says that Russia holds no
	less than 250, 000 items defined as displaced cultural treasures
Message-ID: <20050701045355.JQGE28432.amsfep14-int.chello.nl@cremers>


The art of revenge 
June 30, 2005

MOSCOW. (Anatoly Korolev, for RIA Novosti.) -- The recent celebration of the
end of World War II noticeably soured cultural relations between Russia and
Germany, as the latter used the occasion to issue a list of lost art works.
Germany says that Russia holds no less than 250,000 items defined as
displaced cultural treasures.

Russia has also been criticized at international conferences such as "Spoils
of War. World War II and Its Aftermath" held in New York in January 1995.
This conference was probably the most scandalous of all, and its main motif
was that the Russian mentality contradicts European and American museum
ethics. 

Unfortunately, the opposite is actually the case. Practically all large
world museums have to fend off claims continually, and every year courts
have full agendas of complaints from those claiming museum works of art. The
director of one American museum could not leave the U.S. for six years,
because the French were demanding that Interpol arrest him for having bought
a picture spirited out of France. New York's Metropolitan Museum, after
returning to the Bavarian State Museum precious stones stolen by an American
GI at the end of the war, requested that its name should not be mentioned.
In other words, returning art is as dangerous as accepting it. 

To return to the national mentality, Russian museum experts are
unfortunately not so prudent. 

Stripped of the Communist yoke, happy and naive, Russians dropped the old
practice of secrecy. The magazine Trofei ("Spoils") appeared, showing a mass
of art works that made their way to the country after the war. Archives were
thrown open. The Poles, for example, have published a tome on cultural
treasures appropriated by the Soviet Union. This book resulted from Russia's
open-door policy, under which the Poles were allowed access to the
declassified archives. 

Russia thought its noble actions would be appreciated. But this was a gross
miscalculation. Unfortunately, it was mainly Russia's fault for creating
this situation, that same mentality was to blame. Khrushchev's dictatorial
gesture of returning Dresden museum masterpieces to the GDR in 1955 was in
fact a personal act of a leader, a self-willed despotic decision taken by a
party top man, a gesture that was never discussed either by the people, or
society, or experts. 

The details show that Khrushchev was least of all interested in legality or
any norms then in existence. No: By returning the pictures to the East
Germans, he only wanted to spite the West Germans. The noble deed turned
into a shadow of a political action. But to say that the gesture lacked
noble motives is to forget the high emotional pitch of that move. 

The Dresden masterpieces were unveiled in 1955 at Moscow's Pushkin Museum of
Fine Arts, and the crowds of smitten people who came to see - and say
good-bye to - Rafael's Sistine Madonna, Giorgione's Venus and Titian's
Caesar's Money sealed the act as something holy and willed by the people. 

The Soviet Union returned 1,240 works of art to Dresden. In total, 1,850,000
art works were returned to the GDR, plus 71,000 books and 3 million archive
files. And now, years later, even the decision on Dresden masterpieces is
all but held against Russia. 

How else can we explain the German point of view once expressed by W.
Schmidt, director general of the Dresden state art collection, that the
canvases had been neatly stacked in underground mines near Dresden and
allegedly needed no restoration? 

But let us recall the true story of how the Dresden treasures were
uncovered. The prelude was the nightmarish British bombing of Dresden. In
the early hours of February 14, the British carried out a raid with 1,400
bombers, which dropped 3,749 tons of bombs on the city, 75% of them
incendiary. The first wave was followed three hours later by a second air
strike, and a third attack eight hours after that. Dresden was no more.
Casualties totaled 135,000 dead. The Zwinger Museum (home of the collection)
suffered, too, with 197 pictures perishing in the flames. Other masterpieces
were hidden elsewhere, in particular in deep stone quarries, where a railway
car with pictures was taken. Schmidt gave an assurance that the mines were
an ideal place for the pictures. Absurd!

Memoirs written by Soviet officer Lev Rabinovich, who discovered the cache,
and the reminiscences of Marshal Konev tell a different story. True, in the
mine gallery, behind two doors a light was on, and there were special
thermal control units installed.

"But," Konev writes, "those who hid the pictures probably presumed that the
stone recess would be dry. Unfortunately, ground water filtered through
occasional cracks, the air temperature varied widely, and the climate
installations were no longer working. The pictures were stacked in a random
fashion, some wrapped up in parchment, others nailed up in crates, and still
others simply set down leaning against the walls." When the pictures were
taken to Moscow, restoration took a total of 10 years, from 1945 to 1955,
the moment they were sent back. 

In the intervening period they were secretly kept in the storerooms of
Moscow's Pushkin Museum. And now we can see that since that time the
museum's name has assumed a negative coloring in Germany (first in West
Germany). Perhaps our mentalities are indeed too different? 

A recent sensation complicated the situation. On the eve of the 60th
anniversary of Allied victory over Nazism, the museum opened an exhibition
called "The Archaeology of War: Return from Oblivion" and featuring a
collection of antique art never previously shown. 

The organizers did not conceal, but on the contrary, stressed the fact that
this was a formerly famous collection of antique artifacts from Berlin
museums. The exhibition caused a shock among the German cultural community. 

It was believed that the collection, purchased by Berlin Kurfurst Friedrich
III of Brandenburg in 1698 from Rome's chief antiquarian Giovanni Bellori,
who served under Pope Clement X, was lost when the Russians stormed Berlin
in May 1945. But all of a sudden an amazed public was presented with 350
exhibits, including three great masterpieces: A bronze figurine of Zeus from
Dodona with a pomegranate in his hand, and two vases depicting a battle
between Hercules and Poseidon, the god of the sea, and a scene with Hermes
dancing in the company of goat-legged satyrs.

And imagine: Representatives of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
expressed regret that the Pushkin Museum launched the project "without
informing and involving Berlin museums", and that the Russian side
persistently turned down all requests from German experts for access to
storerooms holding captured art. 

Central to the decision to show trophy art was Irina Antonova, the museum
director. For more than forty years she has been ruling the country's
biggest museum with a hand of iron, and as an open public figure takes a
tough stance. 

For example, she may publicly admit the fact that her museum bought works of
art from private owners that were most likely stolen by Russian soldiers in
Germany. But in that situation, Antonova says, the museum was far more
concerned for the fate of a masterpiece in awful disrepair and likely to
crumble, rather than other moral subtleties. Such an answer must be credited
for its honesty and courage. As should Antonova's correctness. 

The antique collection is, however, a special case, and the museum
deliberately took the step in order that no secrets and mysteries remain in
the vaults between Germany and Russia. The noble impulse behind the
exhibition could be missed only deliberately. Russia demonstrated to Europe
that any omissions, secrets and lies are outdated in the common European
home. 

Most importantly, those who visited the show saw that the articles on
display were glued together from hundreds of small pieces. In other words,
they were the result of painstaking efforts to restore miniature artifacts.
What had been left of the Berlin collection in May 1945 was a heap of
fragments. Bronze, ceramic, bone and terracotta articles were all covered in
mud, tar and ash, disfigured and broken. Each of the tens of thousands of
fragments!

Also importantly, at first and for a long time no one suspected what these
fragments were. These ruins could have been ignored and trodden down, but
this was not done. On the contrary, the entire terrible-looking mass was
dispensed into packages, and stowed in wooden crates, which were then taken
to Russia and held until better times at a special museum fund in Zagorsk
outside Moscow. 

The new democratic Russia ended the fallacious practice of keeping art under
wraps years ago, with a unique collection of gold artifacts from Troy going
on public view in 1996. This time, the Pushkin Museum displayed the
Friedrich and Bellori collection. But it was a special case.

The collection took two years of back-breaking work to take shape. Each
fragment was scrutinized, described and scrubbed clean - especially
difficult was the restoration of bone articles - and then using modern
techniques was first assembled on a monitor and then put together by hand.
The first inkling that the restorers were dealing with the antique
collection from Berlin museums came when the early articles regained their
original form and shape. Before that it would have been impossible.

Would it have been better if everything had remained lying in the ruins? 

German museum experts are in fact nostalgic for the Iron Curtain, when the
whole of Russia was one complete enigma. 

Antonova was one of those who made Russia an open country. Sometimes,
perhaps, it looks too open, and museum curators in many countries dislike
this.

"We have already returned everything of prime interest," Antonova believes.
"Together with the Hermitage museum we have returned to Germany about 1.5
million exhibits. Our museum colleagues in France and Britain are following
this process anxiously. They keep asking us all the time if we are going to
give away more. Why? Because they fear that this may set up a precedent and
start an avalanche of mutual claims rolling. This they do not need. The
principal museum treasures, they say, were redistributed in the course of
the past century, and all collections are now formed and complete."

Worse still, occasionally the Russian side gets the impression that the
spirit of revenge is lurking behind the not-so European policy of "getting
everything back", and the ghosts of the Third Reich are hovering over
Russia's museums. 

Hitler himself ordered German museum experts to draw up a secret list of
works of art and valuable articles that left Germany since 1500 to become
foreign property. The Third Reich planned to cover as many as 400 years of
European history under the plan. But democratic Germany broke decisively
with Nazism, and Russia is well aware of that. 

In a word, it is high time to put paid to mutual claims. Otherwise, they
will never end and flood the whole of Europe, if not the world. 

Russia has in recent years finally been moving from stonewalling to an
offensive on this issue. It prepared several volumes of a general catalogue
of Russian cultural treasures lost during World War II, although no complete
list yet exists. It should at least be made public.

Topping this list of losses is the Church of the Assumption at Bolotovo Pole
outside Novgorod, demolished by the Germans. Today this can be struck off
from the list, as it has been restored through joint efforts by Germany and
Russia. A week ago, President Putin handed out 2004 state awards in the
Kremlin. Among the recipients were the architects who restored the church,
Viktor Krasnorechyev and Ninel Kuzmina. This is one example of a real
solution to problems existing between the countries in the delicate sphere
of restitution. 

Anatoly Korolev is a writer and journalist. The opinions expressed in this
article are those of the author and not necessarily those of RIA Novosti.


http://en.rian.ru/



From museum-security at museum-security.org  Fri Jul  1 06:59:24 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet)
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 06:59:24 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] Historical Document Thieves Go Hi-Tech. Salt Lake Book
	Dealer Helps Track Book Thieves
Message-ID: <20050701045925.YDPW14947.amsfep13-int.chello.nl@cremers>

Jun 30, 2005 3:30 pm US/Mountain

Historical Document Thieves Go Hi-Tech
Salt Lake Book Dealer Helps Track Book Thieves


Philadelphia, PA A researcher at the National Archives tucks valuable
historical documents into his clothes and walks out. In Philadelphia, an
archives employee strolls out with valuable historic material. A court
docket sheet from Leon Czolgosz's trial for the 1901 assassination of
President William McKinley disappears from a dusty, oversized ledger in
Buffalo, N.Y. 

In all three cases, some of the booty winds up posted for sale online. 

Welcome to the new frontier of theft, where good things sometimes come in
tattered, musty packages - and can often be fenced to faceless buyers
thousands of miles away. 

The Internet is making it easier for thieves to sell stolen historic relics,
often to unsuspecting buyers, but it's also helping authorities track down
missing documents and those who took them. 

Historians and dealers say the popular PBS treasures-in-attic program
"Antiques Roadshow" has made the general public aware of how valuable
historical treasures can be, and the Internet can provide a ready and
anonymous marketplace for the unscrupulous. 

"It's the mighty confluence where ignorance meets greed," said Salt Lake
City rare book dealer Ken Sanders. Sanders, former chairman of the security
committee for the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, has helped
track book thieves across the country and internationally. 

Paul Brachfeld, inspector general of the National Archives, said technology
has increased the speed of sales and the magnitude of the problem. 

"In the old days, it was harder to trade documents. But, you can basically
sell a document today and post it and somebody can sell it tomorrow - it's
that fluid," he said. 

The technology, however, is a "double-edged sword," Brachfeld said. 

"The problem is increasing, but it also gives us some really good
investigative tools," Brachfeld said. "We can now look at what's being
traded and sold just like the people who are interested in buying these
items." 

To that end, the National Archives has made an agreement with another
archival entity - which Brachfeld will not name - to help keep track of what
is being sold. 

Sanders said technology also allows word of stolen items to be sent
instantly to a network of 2,000 bookstores around the world. 

Knowledgeable Web users also help. 

Last year, Gettysburg-area historian Wayne E. Motts was tipped off by a
friend about a historic document for sale on eBay. It was a letter signed by
an Army officer named Lewis A. Armistead, who became a Confederate general
and died leading his brigade in the ill-fated Pickett's Charge at the battle
of Gettysburg. 

Motts, the director of the Adams County Historical Society, had done his
master's thesis on Armistead and recognized the three-page letter as one he
had seen a decade earlier in the National Archives in Washington. What's
more, he had the evidence to prove it - he had photocopied it. 

"My heart sank when I went down to my file and compared it," said Motts, who
knew immediately that the document, if genuine, must have been stolen. 

The result was the arrest of Howard Harner, 68, of Staunton, Va., who from
1996 to 2002 hid 102 documents in his clothes to smuggle them out of a
National Archives research room and sold them to a history buff and through
various auctions. The documents included some signed by Confederate
President Jefferson Davis and Generals Philip Sheridan and George A. Custer.


"These were treasures, they really were national treasures of our nation's
past, and just as a person working in that field, you hate to see that kind
of material go away," Motts said. 

Harner pleaded guilty and was sentenced in May to two years in prison. Motts
was honored June 13 at the National Archives for his role in bringing the
thefts to light. Lined up on a cart during the presentation were 42 of the
stolen documents - all that had been recovered. 

In 2002, former government archivist Shawn P. Aubitz was sentenced to 21
months in prison for stealing hundreds of historic documents beginning in
1996 while curator at the National Archives branch in Philadelphia. Like
Harner, his thefts were uncovered when a National Park Service worker
noticed one of the documents posted for sale on eBay. 

In the Buffalo case, authorities couldn't determine when the docket was
stolen, but the document was returned to its rightful home. 

Sanders, the rare book dealer, also worries that criminals will become more
brazen in their thefts. He pointed to a Kentucky case, where several men
used a stun gun to subdue a librarian before stealing three rare books. 

"The question I hate the worst in the store is 'What's the most valuable
book you've got in here?'" Sanders said. "But I guess I've gotten awfully
suspicious from doing security work for six years. It's a dark, dark world
out there." 



From museum-security at museum-security.org  Fri Jul  1 07:11:30 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet)
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 07:11:30 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] Aussie art in Islamic morality hoax
Message-ID: <20050701051132.NYXE11566.amsfep12-int.chello.nl@cremers>

Aussie art in Islamic morality hoax

July 1, 2005

Images:
http://www.crikey.com.au/articles/2005/06/30-1524-2579.html

By Stephen Mayne, who's related to an art expert

There's nothing like a good old fashioned morality tale to put the fear of
god into recalcitrant youngsters, but these days moral guardians are turning
to the internet to illustrate their far-fetched tales of warning:


The theft of art and tall tales from Islamic websites are not the sort of
thing you would expect to hit the Crikey bunker, but Patricia Piccinini -
older sister of Mrs Crikey and prominent contemporary artist - has been
quite shocked by developments over the past few weeks. 

In May, Patricia and her artist husband Peter Hennesey noticed a sharp
uptick in the traffic through Patricia's website, which now carries a front
page explanation of what is quite a disturbing hoax.

Site usage had surged from a healthy 150,000 page views in April to a record
950,000 in May. A quick look at the "top referrers" didn't just show Google
and various art magazines or galleries, but also websites such as Somalia
Online. A few days later they received the first email referring to the use
of one of Patricia's works - a cropped image from the sculpture The Leather
Landscape - in a hoax. The hoax was posted on an Arabic language website
www.alnilin.com and recounted the story of how a girl was transformed into
an animal after throwing a copy of the Koran on to the ground.

Subsequent emails have come in from places as diverse as Sudan, the US, UK,
Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia, indicating that the hoax has been spread
widely via email, websites, and the general media in the Muslim world.

As you can see here http://snipurl.com/fyf9, the article and cropped image
is still up on alnilin.com and has generated a lot of discussion. Most of
its readers seem just as confused and sceptical as Patricia and Peter. Go
here http://patriciapiccinini.net/ and you can see a fuller picture of the
image, which includes a model of our eldest daughter Laura. 

The stolen image is actually a sculpture of one of Patricia's
genetically-modified Meerkat creatures from her We Are Family exhibition
that was a big hit at the Venice Biennale in 2003. At the launch at
Federation Square in 2002, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer claimed the
Meerkat "looked a bit like Paul Keating."

That was left field enough, but who would have thought that an unsuspecting
multitude of Muslims have now been told it's what Allah does to little girls
who disrespect the Koran?

Peter and Patricia have been unable to find out where the story started, but
it may have originated around the time that another image of Patricia's was
included in myth-busting site Snopes.com, as you can see here
http://snipurl.com/fyfa. It's time for Snopes to bust another myth.

Obviously, Patricia is very disturbed that her image has been stolen and
used in this way without her knowledge and permission. However, how does
that message get conveyed to millions of Muslims? Patricia would love some
assistance in preparing an Arabic translation of her response for visitors
to her website who do not speak English. If anyone in the Crikey army can
help, please email smayne@ crikey.com.au.

Meanwhile, here are just two of the many emails that Patricia has been sent:

Michelle writes:
I am an Australian working in Kabul, Afghanistan. My Afghan collegues here
have been emailing one of your pictures from your We are Family exhibition.
Attached to it is some writing in Pashto, saying that this is an 18 year old
woman who has been cursed by Allah. She is apparantly in hospital in Iran
receiving treatment. I just thought it is really interesting how these
images are being interpreted on the other side of the world. I have since
shown them pictures of your exhibition, and told them they are sculptures!

Sudanese journalist Nizar Usman writes:
Thanks for clarifying the facts about your creature in The Leather
Landscape. Here, in Sudan, a very strange story has widely spread and I
translated and circulated your comment about the hoax and quoted it in my
newspaper column.

The story I heard said was that a lady in Oman was reciting the Koran while
her daughter is listening to an Arabic music channel known as al nojoom
(meaning: stars). The mother asked the daughter to turn off the TV,
furiously the girl threw the holy book, and she was immediately transferred
into that creature. They said the girl is in the main hospital there, and
her family refused to allow journalists to take more pics for her.

I heard about the story form my daughter (10 years of age), she heard it in
her school. Then I read it in a notice board in front of the main gate of a
mosque where there was a mammoth gathering. Then I read it in Alhayat daily
news paper, the editor stood in between unable to believe or not. Actually
what confused people here is that there are Quranic (Koran) verses saying
that Allah - long ago - transferred some guilty people into monkeys and pigs


How 'widespread' is the story? I guess it now the story is universal because
it has been posted in many famous Arabic forums, and the main source of this
story is site known as the garden of heavens. Its link is www.palislam.com
and the band width was unable to accommodate the huge traffic so the site
was suspended.

I guess the majority of Arabs are aware of that story. In Sudan the story
was a source of income, some people published and sold it for $0.25 per
copy. It was a good investment!



From museum-security at museum-security.org  Sat Jul  2 08:01:09 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet)
Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 08:01:09 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] World Monument Fund has named an entire country -Iraq
	- on its list of endangered sites
Message-ID: <20050702060112.JOBK28432.amsfep14-int.chello.nl@cremers>

Mesopotamia - Now an Endangered Species - Official.
Felicity Arbuthnot, GlobalResearch.ca


July 1, 2005

A year on from the 'handover' to a US handpicked 'independent Iraqi
administration' - few of whose leaders have Iraqi passports or allegiance -
and the skulking departure of US 'Viceroy' Paul Bremer, who said few
farewells, gave no press conference and slunk out at dawn, surreally,
reportedly, to 'take cookery lessons'- a little noticed and truly terrible
Report has been released.

The World Monument Fund has, for the first time, named an entire country
-Iraq - on its list of endangered sites. The Fund, which publishes every two
years, an inventory of the world's most endangered historical and
archeological sites and monuments, lists the 'cradle of civilisation' as,
effectively, in danger of extinction. The illegal invasion, built on
monumental lies, from Whitehall to Washington, has not alone 'destroyed the
village in order to save it', it has destroyed the country, the land of the
biblical Tigris and Euphrates - described by Gertude Bell, writer,
colonialist - never the less captivated by this 'land between two rivers' -
in the 1920's -'... great twin rivers gloriously named, The huge Babylonian
plains, now desert, Which were once the garden of the world...'

We have destroyed humanity's history.

The enormity of this historic wickedness has achieved what no other invader
in the millenia of chronicles of Mesapotamia has done. An evocative snapshot
of some of the major invasions which George Bush and his coalition of the
deluded have dwarfed, make salutary reading. Iraqi poet, Sinan Antoun lists
some who also marauded through Baghdad, 'the Paris of the ninth
century.'[1].

'945 Buwayhids; 1055 Seljuks; 1258 Mongols led by Hulagu; 1340 Jalayrs; 1393
& 1401 Mongols led by Tamerlane; 1411 Turkoman Black Sheep; 1469 Turkoman
White Sheep ; 1508 Safavids;1534 Ottomans under Sultan Sulayman the
Magnificent; 1623 Safavids; 1638 Ottomans under Sultan Murad IV; 1917
British; 1941 British again to depose pro-German government - 2003
Anglo-American invasion.'

The latter, he wrote, in an agonised column, the week of the April 2003's
destruction and declaration of 'liberation', as the world's most ancient
history was trashed by troops of a nation that has none, betrayed ' ... like
never before all of the accolades bestowed upon Baghdad by its numerous
rulers, chroniclers and lovers. It is no longer now the "Abode of Peace,
Mother of the World, Abode of Beauty, Gift of the Gods, Triumph of the Gods,
Round City" '.

Antoun tiptoes through his memories.

'I must tread warily, for the streets are still littered with bodies, books
and blood. Even the safe, labyrinthine streets of my own memory are not free
from the ghosts of wars, but at least they cannot be destroyed, or looted
and pillaged, except by amnesia.'

He draws a shaming comparison between the contemporary marauders, barbarians
and their historic predecessors. In earlier 'missions accomplished', the
'... caliphs and sultans were also patrons of art and knowledge,
connoisseurs, and sometimes composers, of the most beautiful poetry to have
survived in the collective memory of the Arabs.'

'Now, it is Baghdad's ironic fate to have been subjugated by a would-be
emperor, who has yet to master his mother tongue. While he is fully aware of
the geo-strategic importance of Baghdad, Bush is probably the one least
aware, in the history of the city's conquerors, of the precious symbolism
..' and richest history of civilisation's fragile cultural and historic
treasure. 'Does it matter to him?'

Baghdad - formerly Dar Es Salaam (City of Peace) was, for the first twelve
hundred years of its existence, regarded as one of the most refined,
civilised and festive cities on earth. Now, as with the monguls, it is
sullied, degraded, humiliated, rubble strewn. It's living spirit which
carries a golden legacy of beauty and learning to subsequent generations,
the all time gift of those gone before, lying trampled, mortally wounded, in
need of life support, under the jack boots of illegal invaders, who for the
most, despise the people, culture, language, and the learning which is the
largesse of Mesapotamia to the world.

In a further irony, the laws protecting cultural property, archeological
sites, history, libraries, scientific legacy, date back to the American
civil war. That carnage led to the 1863 Lieber Code and applied to American
troops and influenced the 1954 and 1977 additional protocols to the Geneva
Convention protecting 'the cultural or spiritual heritage of peoples.'The
Nuremburg trials after World War 11 was the first time individuals were held
to account for cultural war crimes and several Nazi officials were sentenced
to death for violations,including the desecration of cultural property. [2].

The World Monument Fund describes the looting at the archeological sites
around the country; direct conflict as with the Malwiya - 'the spiral'
minaret of Samarra built probably before 852 A.D. Conceived from love of
beauty, reverence, bricks and clay - that was bombed resultant from American
snipers using the site. Babylon, which has also been occupied by military
forces, had a military helicopter pad built, destroying history's
undiscovered legacies -and site of a wonder of the world, the Hanging
Gardens - from as far as estimates of forty thousand years ago.

Looting of the remains at Nineveh, the great Assyrian capital, glorious
until now - from seven hundred years before Christ. Whether the site of the
Garden of Eden too is destroyed; the place from which Noah is believed to
have sent the dove which brought back the olive leaf, showing the flood had
subsided, is unknown. Does Ur remain, where Abraham, Father of Christianity,
Judaism and Islam, for believers was born, suckled, legend has it, on one
finger which brought forth milk and the other honey. We have, it seems,
destroyed the land of milk and honey, maybe burial places of St Matthew and
the Prophet Jonah. The Tigris is poisoned with sewage, the detritus of war -
and dead bodies, slung there by American troops and who knows what other
formerly non-existent forces. Destruction has a broader geographic illegal
canvas to draw on than even the horrors inflicted on another holy, fragile,
antique site, Palestine. Many of the methods, however, are chillingly
similar.

Two professed Christian leaders have robbed the world of the continuity of
our collective past, whatever colour, creed or nationality. They have
destroyed the revered; sites that travellers and pilgrims of all that is
history have gazed on in awe since time immemorial. The contemporary
Crusaders have, in exchange, left their own historic legacy to Iraq and its
neighbours. In place of beauty, our collective past, the heritage of the
world, napalm, phosphorous bombs, landmines and a land poisoned by depleted
uranium waste, radioactive and chemcally toxic, condemning ground, the
gracious Iraqi people and indeed the coalition of the coereced and their
illegally installed puppet government, for four and a half billion years, to
cancers, offspring with foetal deformities, tumours, and the unimaginable.
'We do not inherit the earth, we are it's custodians for future
generations,' is a sacred pledge - except to a born again barbarian in
Washington or Whitehall. Some 'Christians' give God a bad name.

Now,"Snipers hunt people in the streets. People attempting to go to health
centers are shot at," testified Eman Khammas, at the World Tribunal on Iraq
in Istanbul. "There are many crippled children. There are thousands of
widows and orphans. There are no police for security and there are no
courts. Even hospitals are occupied and bombed and burned."

At the Tribunal, Former US Air Force combat veteran Tim Goodrich stunned the
jury by revealing his role in the "softening up" of Iraq months before the
US declaration of war. "We were dropping bombs then, and I saw bombing
intensify," Goodrich explained to a hushed room. "All the documents coming
out now, the Downing Street memo and others, confirm what I had witnessed in
Iraq. The war had already begun while our leaders were telling us that they
were going to try all diplomatic options first." [3]. Infact, the
destruction of Mesapotamia had been embarked upon in 1991 and the
starvation, deprivation, bombing of the place of our collective
consciousness had continued and continues ever since.

Falluja, Najav, Samarra, Kufa, Kerbala, Al Qa'em, Ramadi, Mosul, Al Talafar,
Iraq's towns and villages, ancient, sacred and simply home for generations,
north, south, east west, are being raised to the ground. Guernica, My Lai, a
silent Hiroshima and Nagasaki, rolled together in silent screams - silenced
by isolation, journalists too fearful to travel, a cowering, compliant UN
betrayal of all it stands for under a spineless Secretary General seemingly
more concerned by salary than slaughter, pension than principle. And for
braver journalists, 'accidental' execution by US forces at worst, or
censorship frequently by corporate masters in media boardrooms who, or whose
pals, also sit on many Boards of the multinationals attempting to plunder
Iraq. At least a glimmer of truth emerged recently with the renaming of the
Iraq debacle 'Operation Iraqi Liberation' - OIL. Like the US forces, the
British too were instructed that as soon as they entered Iraq from Kuwait,
their first mission was to secure the oil installations. [4]. Not for
nothing did the Iraqis near- immediately dub Vice President Dick Cheney's
giant former employer and ongoing generous benefactor 'Halli-baba.'

Whilst Bush blathers and brags about 'freedom' -dictionary definition 'the
state of being free, especially to ... enjoy civil liberties..' - at Fort
Bragg, mothers, fathers and baby 'insurgents' are shot and slaughtered in
their homes, cars, in family groups, in dozens and hundreds - unaccountable,
precious lives, loves. Call those lives 'insurgants' and mass murder becomes
no more than a daily routine. Those who have become addicted to it will
return to their home towns and States one day to live out the addiction
there, or live for all time with their nightmares. 'The sacrifice' is worth
it, bragged the bragger, who makes none, attends no funerals and directs
that coffins of America's fallen not be photographed, their passing
unmarked, unhonoured, except by their own. Their final departure is as
invisible as Iraq's sons and daughters. In death they are both joined in
solidarity by the lies and betrayal of the world's most powerful nation and
the 'coalition' of the coerced.

As Americans celebrate Independence Day, it may be apt to reflect how that
independence was won. It was from defeating occupying forces, fighting for
freedom, for 'life, liberty and the persuit of happiness', just as Iraqis
are doing. Were those who won America 'terrorists', 'insurgents'. There are,
however, 160,000 of the latter on Iraqi soil. Iraqis fighters are largely
resistance fighters who want their country and its assets back and as
Americas two hundred years ago, are prepared to die for that end. Soldiers
of the 'coalition' have no need - or right - to be in Iraq now that the
Secretary General of the UN has said the invasion was illegal and a mounting
pile of documents are potent witness to the lies on which it was built. In
fact, just by being there, state a mounting body of legal experts, they
could return to their countries not alone to live with their demons, but to
find themselves charged with war crimes.

Troops are being sold a further lie - that Iraq's army, police, people, are
too backward, primitive, stupid, inept, to manage their own affairs and thus
troops must remain. Two years ago the world was told Iraq's people were so
sophisticated that their military and their expertise threatened the entire
planet. Prior to the invasion Iraq was a functioning - though battered by
two decades of war and thirteen years of uniqely punitive and murderous
sanctions - largely secular, soverign and legally independent state. It had
no problems with leaky borders, suicide bombers, terrorists - apart from CIA
funded ones who occasionally, but rarely slipped through - streets were safe
to walk, night and day and the structures of a normal, structured society,
functioned within the constraints of the embargo.

Certainly political dissent was not an option, as with many of Britain and
America's allies across the globe. With an estimated sixty thousand
prisoners now in Iraq's jails - [5] - most at unknown sites and charged with
nothing, with state torture, rape, murder and infanticide a norm, disease
and hunger rampant, the occupation for most of the Iraqi population is a
daily nightmare endured in a vast gulag. Iraq, as Donald Rumsfed rightly
claims, is not a 'quagmire', that is 'a soft wet area of land which gives
away under the feet', not much of that in Iraq. If troops stay, Iraq will
make Viet Nam look like a stroll in the park. 'Let them come, we Iraqis are
used to sacrifice ... we have been defeating invaders for centuries' similar
refrains were heard across Iraq, in the months before the invasion. As US
officials crowed of a 'cakewalk' in April 2003 and the Iraqi army 'fighting
like demons with weapons which should have been in a military museum' - as a
military friend remarked - they simply faded away to join the population in
fighting the invaders guerilla style, a tactic used throughout history to
defeat a mightier military.

In Jordan, days before the invasion, I joined a group of Jordanians in a
local cafe. The talk, fear for and anger about the now inevitable attack,
was of Iraq. 'There is something the Americans don't realise', said one of
the group. 'No matter what numbers, what weapons, how long they stay, they
will not conquer Iraq unless they kill every last man, woman and child.' The
medical journal Lancet upper estimate is of one hundred thousand Iraqi
civilian dead to January this year. Nearly two and a half '9/11's' every two
months - in a country that had nothing to do with that tragedy. The estimate
is surely on the low side. Those not killed in towns raised to the ground,
shot persuing daily normailities, die of untreated illnesses, water which is
a biological weapon. Mesapotamia's mass graves are ever spreading under
falling tears. 'They have left my sweet Afghanistan a poisoned burial
ground', said Dr Mohammed Daud Miraki, [6], whose seemingly forgotten
country has suffered a similar fate. its most ancient mosque is also on the
World Monument Fund's publication. He could be also speaking of Iraq.

As Prime Minister Blair's son Euan, having just majored in ancient history -
a gift to the the world his father has largely helped destroy - heads to
Washington to work his Dad's pal's Administration, that Administration needs
to make a rapid and major decision. Is their outcome for Iraq to leave and
return the country's sovereignty, or will Iraq become another 'final
solution.'

Notes


1. They came to Baghdad, Sinan Antoun, Al Ahram Weekly, April 17-23rd 2003.

2. Crimes of War, by Roy Gutman and David Rieff, pub. W.W. Norton and
Company.

3. www.brusselstribunal.org

4. Last Round by Mark Nicholl, pub. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2005.

5. Dahr Jamail, Testimony, World Tribunal on Iraq www.brusselstribunal.org

6. Author interview. Dr Miraki's website - www.afghandufund.org


Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility
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Research on Globalization.

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From museum-security at museum-security.org  Sat Jul  2 08:01:09 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet)
Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 08:01:09 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] French National Library Curator Accused of Thefts
Message-ID: <20050702060116.JODI28432.amsfep14-int.chello.nl@cremers>

French National Library Curator Accused of Thefts
Posted July 1, 2005

A former senior curator at the French National Library in Paris appeared
before a magistrate June 27 and pleaded innocent in the theft of 25 rare
manuscripts and 121 pages removed from books and incunabula, according to
the June 28 U.K. Guardian. Michel Garel, an internationally known expert on
Hebrew texts, had been arrested in July 2004 after an anonymous letter to
library officials drew attention to the sale of the library?s copy of a
13th-century Pentateuch at Christie?s auction house in New York in 2000. 
Last year, Garel admitted forging certificates of authentication that
allowed him to sell the Pentateuch at auction for some $300,000, the Tel
Aviv Ha?aretz reported last August 8. But Garel now claims he had confessed
under duress and to avoid jail. ?I have proclaimed my innocence from the day
I was handcuffed,? he said in the June 26 Paris Le Figaro. ?I am the ideal
scapegoat. 
. . . I have never accepted a centime for anything belonging to the
[National Library] or any other public collection.? He blamed his arrest on
?tense relations? with the library?s senior managers over the past 10 years.

Unrelated to Garel?s case, Le Figaro also published details of a 2004
inventory, commissioned by Library President Jean-No?l Jeanneney, that found
some 30,000 books and 1,183 manuscripts missing since the previous major
shelf-reading in 1947. Library Director-General Agn?s Saal commented to
reporters, ?To turn the library into a locked safe would be easy, but it is
not our vocation. Unlike museums, our documents are there to be consulted.?
Since the library?s move to its current location in 1996, officials have
tightened security considerably, including rotating staff members so they do
not spend too much time working in the same collection.

The U.K. Independent reported June 27 that part of the case against Garel
has collapsed because there was no licensed interpreter present when an
anonymous Anglo-Israeli bookseller gave evidence against him. He remains
under investigation but has not yet been formally charged.

Posted July 1, 2005.



From P.Boylan at city.ac.uk  Sat Jul  2 11:37:24 2005
From: P.Boylan at city.ac.uk (P Boylan)
Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 10:37:24 +0100 (BST)
Subject: [CPProt.net] NEW STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL ART MARKETS,
	INCLUDING ART CRIME 
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.33.0507021029140.5140-100000@swindon>

A new book, "Understanding International Art Markets and Management"
edited by: Iain Robertson of the Department of Cultural Policy and
Management, City University London, includes a chapter on "Art Crime" by
Patrick Boylan, Emeritus Professor at  City University and Chairperson of
the ICOM Legal Affairs and Properties Committee.

Published by Routledge, London & New York, May 2005, 256 pages.

Hardback edition: ISBN: 0415339561 price GB pounds 80.00
Paperback edition: ISBN: 041533957X price GPB 21.00






From museum-security at museum-security.org  Sat Jul  2 11:51:30 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet)
Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 11:51:30 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] =?iso-8859-1?q?_France=3A_une_sculpture_du_15e_si?=
	=?iso-8859-1?q?=E8cle_vol=E9e_restitu=E9e_par_un_Suisse_?=
Message-ID: <20050702095134.GJIX10246.amsfep16-int.chello.nl@cremers>

 France: une sculpture du 15e si?cle vol?e restitu?e par un Suisse 

July 1, 2005
 
 BORDEAUX - Une sculpture du 15e si?cle, vol?e en 1984 dans une chapelle de
Bordeaux, a ?t? restitu?e par un collectionneur suisse, a-t-on appris aupr?s
de la direction r?gionale des affaires culturelles (DRAC). Il dit l'avoir
achet?e de bonne foi.
Ce collectionneur, r?sidant ? Monaco, avait achet? la sculpture ? un
antiquaire parisien. Il a d?cid? de la restituer apr?s avoir lu un livre
consacr? au vol d'art qui ?voquait le parcours de cette oeuvre (?La
collection ?go?ste? de Vincent Noce aux Editions Lattes).
La sculpture, un relief repr?sentant saint Jean-Baptiste, devrait regagner
l'?glise Saint-Michel de Bordeaux une fois termin?es les proc?dures
administratives, selon la DRAC. Ce relief m?di?val de grande valeur avait
?t? vol? en 1984 en m?me temps que six autres panneaux du r?table de la
chapelle Saint-Joseph de l'?glise Saint-Michel. 
Le vol ?tait rest? longtemps inaper?u du fait que les sculptures en alb?tre,
provenant des c?l?bres ateliers de Nottingham, avaient ?t? remplac?es par
des moulages en pl?tre color?. Le subterfuge avait ?t? d?couvert en 1994
quand un des panneaux vol?s avait ?t? propos? en donation au mus?e parisien
du Louvre et reconnu.
Une enqu?te de l'Office central de r?pression du trafic des biens culturels
(OCBC) avait alors permis de remonter ? deux Bordelais, dont un antiquaire.
Quatre des panneaux ont ?t? localis?s chez un collectionneur du Connecticut
(USA) qui n'a pas pour l'instant manifest? l'intention de les rendre et un
autre est toujours recherch?.
 



From museum-security at museum-security.org  Sat Jul  2 11:51:31 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet)
Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 11:51:31 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] Looting of ancient sites threatens heritage  
Message-ID: <20050702095137.GJLS10246.amsfep16-int.chello.nl@cremers>

Looting of ancient sites threatens heritage  
By Mark Wilkinson 

Reuters, Jordan Times July 1, 2005

BOSTON - Iraq's archaeological sites, despite protection efforts, are so
ravaged by looters that the pillaging has landed the entire embattled nation
on a list of the world's 100 most endangered cultural sites. Two years after
the US-led invasion of Iraq and a widely publicised break-in at the Baghdad
Museum, the country is a hotbed of antiquities plundering that threatens to
put huge gaps in the understanding of its rich history, experts say.

Once called Mesopotamia, Iraq is regarded as the cradle of civilisation and
the birthplace of cities. This year's World Monuments Fund's list of the
world's 100 most endangered sites named Iraq, the first time an entire
country was listed as at risk.

"It's devastating. It's obliterating the country's heritage, and we might
never know the full story of Iraq," said Clemens Reichel, an archaeologist
at the University of Chicago. "Archaeological sites now look like lunar
landscapes."

The ancient Assyrian capital of Nineveh, the ziggurat at Ur, the temple
precinct of Babylon and the 9th century spiral minaret at Samarra have been
"scarred by violence," the World Monuments Fund said, while adding that
looting has damaged other equally significant sites, especially in the
South.

Touring Iraqi sites from a US military helicopter, McGuire Gibson, a
professor at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, said he
could see between 250 and 300 men digging at the site of the ancient city of
Adab. "The damage was unbelievable," he wrote in a paper.

The pillaging could hurt a wider understanding of human history, said Donny
George, director of the Iraq Museum.

"What was stolen is not just Iraqi heritage," said George, recently in
Boston to promote a book on the museum's collection entitled "The Looting of
the Iraq Museum, Baghdad."

"It is the heritage of mankind, the origins of agriculture, animal
husbandry, so when you lose such material, even just one piece, it's a great
loss," he said.

Black market

In spite of efforts by UNESCO, the cultural arm of the United Nations, and
law enforcement agencies including the FBI and Interpol to curb ransacking
and the trafficking of artefacts, Iraqi pieces chronicling millennial of
human history are finding their way to private collections across the world.

Archaeologists worry that once removed from their surroundings, relics
become almost impossible to understand in context. Once unearthed, they are
smuggled out of the country through Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey to Europe and
the United States and flood the black market.

Some pieces such as cylinder seals - small engraved stone cylinders used to
stamp impressions on wet clay that once fetched small fortunes at auction -
sell on the online auction site eBay for a few hundred dollars.

In the past two years, about 1,000 objects were confiscated at airports in
the United States, and hundreds more were found in Europe and neighbours of
Iraq such as Jordan and Syria.

In spite of the international effort, Reichel, who coordinates a clearing
house of missing Iraqi antiquities designed to help in their recovery, said
more could be done.

"What they are doing now is like waving your hands around to try and catch
flies," he said. "One thing they could do is forbid the trade of Iraqi
antiquities."

UNESCO sends information on missing artefacts to Interpol, which tries to
track them down. The UN group also has trained and equipped border patrol
and site guards to ensure relics are not smuggled out of the country.

Tradition of looting

Conflict and looting have historically gone hand in hand, although
motivations may have changed through the years.

"In ancient wars, getting the statue of a king would have been an act to
insult the conquered country or city," George said. "Now it's about the
material value."

Tomb raiders and looters abound from Latin America to Asia and the Middle
East. In Israel for instance, a land rich in ancient history, thieves raid
about 300 antiquity sites every year and hundreds more in the nearby West
Bank.

During the 1991 Gulf War, looters broke into nine of Iraq's regional
museums, stealing more than 4,000 objects from statues to clay tablets and
pottery. Less than a handful of those artefacts have been recovered.

The thieves who stole 15,000 pieces from the Baghdad museum as US troops
took the city in April 2003 were believed to be professionals with inside
knowledge of the museum and archaeology, George said.

Using glass cutters, they entered the building and carefully picked ancient
relics from replicas and found a storeroom that held boxes full of precious
jewels.

About half of the pieces have been returned to the museum, including the
Warka Vase, an alabaster piece from 3000 BC, and the marble Warka Head.

http://www.aljazeerah.info/



From museum-security at museum-security.org  Sat Jul  2 17:55:36 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet)
Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 17:55:36 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] Buddhist site in Pak. ransacked; relics stolen 
Message-ID: <20050702155539.LOLV8289.amsfep18-int.chello.nl@cremers>

Buddhist site in Pak. ransacked; relics stolen 


Islamabad, July. 2 (PTI): A Buddhist site near the north western Pakistani
town of Mardan was ransacked by unidentified people, who took away a number
of relics, including statues and iron tools. 

The site at Mekha Sanda near Mardan is located atop a hillock, 11 km away
from the area where famous Ashoka inscription rocks are situated, local
daily 'Dawn' reported today. 

It quoted local residents as saying that the culprits secretly excavated the
site some days ago and ruined the walls of remains. 

The paper said the unidentified people took away a number of relics,
including statues, pottery items and iron tools. 

It said no one is posted to look after the site, which has been frequently
excavated by the locals and smugglers. 

Illegal excavations at all the sites has been going on without any check for
quite some time amd extremely rare antiquities belonging to Greeko-Bactrian,
Gandhara, Hindu Shahi, Kushan and early Muslim periods have been stolen from
them, the report said. 



From museum-security at museum-security.org  Sun Jul  3 11:25:43 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet)
Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2005 11:25:43 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] Yemeni antiquities: a civilization in exile 
Message-ID: <20050703092544.UECO10024.amsfep15-int.chello.nl@cremers>


Yemeni antiquities: a civilization in exile 
By Ahmed Al-Zurqa
Jul 3, 2005 - Vol. VIII Issue 26 
Fears are mounting for up to 3000 antiquities that left Yemen for Europe in
2002.
Russia and Kuwait have failed to return thousands of valuable artifacts and
there is concern that the same fate may befall those currently on display in
Europe. 

With the closure of the Sana?a National Museum two years ago, there is
currently no national home for Yemeni antiquities, and with nowhere to
display their pieces, many collectors and foreign exhibitors remain
reluctant to hand them back to the Yemeni authorities.

To compound the issue, smuggling is rampant. Indeed the situation is so
grave that stories abound of concerned foreigners who buy artifacts on the
black-market and donate them to Yemeni museums to ensure that they do not
leave the country.

In 2004 a Belgium archeologist submitted around 500 pieces he bought from
villagers in Al-Jawf governorate, a rich archeological area.

Despite such philanthropic acts, the archeological community in Yemen
remains extremely concerned about the black-market trade in antiquities.
Their vigilance has recently secured some high profile arrests.

Arrests and contacts in high places

A statement given to the police by Mounir Arbach, an archeologist working
for le Centre Fran?ais d' Archeologie et de Sciences Sociales de Sana'a
(CEFAS), led to the investigation of several high-ranking officials at the
General Organization for Antiquities and Manuscripts (GOAM). Further
information received from Arbach enabled police to smash one of the largest
smuggling rings in Yemen and arrest its leader, Sameer Jadd.

Jadd, a Jordanian, had previously been arrested under suspicion of
smuggling, but had been released without charge. He was found to be
preparing a shipment of 788 pieces, which were in the possession of Hamid
Shakir, an Iraqi national. Shakir is a former employee of a cargo company
owned by the son of a former prime minister.

In addition a valuable telescope was found in a flat belonging to Shakir.
The location of the flat, within the political zone, in the house of the
head of Political Security, Ghalib Al-Qamish, raises a suspicion of
espionage-related foul play.
  
Although sources say that Jadd confessed to being a member of a large,
international smuggling network, he was released a second time.
Investigations are currently underway to identify further members of the
gang.

Jadd is believed to have bought artifacts from traders and brokers in the
Al-Jawf, Marib, Al-Baidha and Shabwa governorates as well as off the
black-market.

A million euro Yemeni throne 

Despite his help in breaking up a major smuggling ring, some have cast doubt
on the integrity of Arbach. Questions have been raised after he offered the
Yemeni government 500 pieces, only after they had already been in his
possession for four months. 

Arbach said that he was sent by GOAM to visit archeological sites in
Al-Jawf. ?We discovered an important temple and beautiful decorations,? he
said. He went on explain that ruins from four pre-historic kingdoms,
Al-Sawda, Haram, Kamna and Anaba, were in a bad state. 

While on the expedition he claims to have acquired important pieces costing
$16,000, in coordination with the Governor of Al-Jawf. The money was paid by
a French expedition.  

Investigating and breaking up smuggling rings has become an unfortunately
common event for the police tasked with their discovery. All too often,
however, suspects are released on the intervention of their embassy, before
they can be convicted. An employee at GOAM, who declines to be named, said
that many of the smugglers are themselves diplomats who take advantage of
diplomatic laissez passer to remove items, undetected.

Certainly foreign nationals are often involved in the smuggling of
antiquities out of Yemen. The Ministry of the Interior said it has
identified Jordanian and Syrian gang members. 

Furthermore, interested foreigners are frequently offered pieces by
unscrupulous dealers. Mr Arbach said that he had recently been offered 50
intact, bronze relics, by smugglers wiling to sell them for $35,000. He
informed GOAM, but despite being substantially undervalued, GOAM has
insufficient funds to purchase even such important items.
  
Indeed, GOAM has little capacity to combat the removal of antiquities from
Yemen. Often the best that they can do is to warn of the increase in
smuggling, and to identify sites where illegal digging has been taking
place. 

The GOAM itself is almost helpless about the whole thing. A former
administration had talked about pieces that were taken abroad to be
displayed, Kuwait and Russia being examples, but were not returned.

Critically, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has so far failed to produce
an atlas of archeological sites, which makes the task of monitoring them
more difficult. Most pieces are found by villagers after they are uncovered
by torrential rain. In Ibb governorate rains scoured a field bare, exposing
a number of columns and inscriptions. 
   
The problem is escalating. About 800 pieces were seized during 2003 alone,
and the number reached 1000 in the following year. 

Two years ago Jordanian archeological authorities returned a number of
precious artifacts including three bronze idols. They had been seized by
Jordanian customs at the airport. 

In 2002 the Yemeni Embassy in London managed to retrieve a number of relics
including two tombstones dating from the 10th Hijri century. The two pieces
were looted from a cemetery in Saada to the north of Sana'a and had been on
auction at Bonham?s.  

The items on sale in foreign markets provide further tangible evidence of
the scale of the problem, albeit too late. A Swiss merchant who acquired a
400BC stone throne (currently located in Switzerland) has put it up for
sale, priced at 1,000,000 Euros. The financial incentive for foreign dealers
is vast. There have been reports of two similar thrones, retrieved from a
site in Al-Sawda a few months ago, being sold to a merchant in the Gulf for
only YR 12 million (app. $65,000).

?The most beautiful Yemeni artifacts are in the European galleries,? said an
archeologist while on a visit to Yemen. He added that it would be virtually
impossible for Yemen to retrieve such pieces once they were outside the
country. 

Yemen Observer Newspaper 



From ellie at bruggemansolutions.com  Mon Jul  4 20:04:26 2005
From: ellie at bruggemansolutions.com (Ellie Bruggeman)
Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2005 20:04:26 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] France: une sculpture du 15e
 =?iso-8859-1?q?si=E8cle_vol=E9e_rest?=
 =?iso-8859-1?q?itu=E9e_par_un_Suisse?=
Message-ID: <42C97A2A.505@bruggemansolutions.com>

France: une sculpture du 15e si?cle vol?e restitu?e par un Suisse
    BORDEAUX - Une sculpture du 15e si?cle, vol?e en 1984 dans une 
chapelle de Bordeaux, a ?t? restitu?e par un collectionneur suisse, 
a-t-on appris aupr?s de la direction r?gionale des affaires culturelles 
(DRAC). Il dit l'avoir achet?e de bonne foi.
Ce collectionneur, r?sidant ? Monaco, avait achet? la sculpture ? un 
antiquaire parisien. Il a d?cid? de la restituer apr?s avoir lu un livre 
consacr? au vol d'art qui ?voquait le parcours de cette oeuvre (?La 
collection ?go?ste? de Vincent Noce aux Editions Lattes).
La sculpture, un relief repr?sentant saint Jean-Baptiste, devrait 
regagner l'?glise Saint-Michel de Bordeaux une fois termin?es les 
proc?dures administratives, selon la DRAC. Ce relief m?di?val de grande 
valeur avait ?t? vol? en 1984 en m?me temps que six autres panneaux du 
r?table de la chapelle Saint-Joseph de l'?glise Saint-Michel.
Le vol ?tait rest? longtemps inaper?u du fait que les sculptures en 
alb?tre, provenant des c?l?bres ateliers de Nottingham, avaient ?t? 
remplac?es par des moulages en pl?tre color?. Le subterfuge avait ?t? 
d?couvert en 1994 quand un des panneaux vol?s avait ?t? propos? en 
donation au mus?e parisien du Louvre et reconnu.
Une enqu?te de l'Office central de r?pression du trafic des biens 
culturels (OCBC) avait alors permis de remonter ? deux Bordelais, dont 
un antiquaire. Quatre des panneaux ont ?t? localis?s chez un 
collectionneur du Connecticut (USA) qui n'a pas pour l'instant manifest? 
l'intention de les rendre et un autre est toujours recherch?.

http://www.edicom.ch/




From ellie at bruggemansolutions.com  Mon Jul  4 20:07:42 2005
From: ellie at bruggemansolutions.com (Ellie Bruggeman)
Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2005 20:07:42 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] Update on US congressional investigation into China's
 theft of Tibetan Art
Message-ID: <42C97AEE.3010001@bruggemansolutions.com>

UPDATE ON US CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION INTO CHINA'S THEFT OF TIBETAN ART

On 7 June US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, Chairman of the International 
Relations Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, announced that 
he would launch an investigation into the theft of Tibetan property by 
officials of the Chinese government. Congressman Rohrabacher said that 
he sought to document the stolen property from the Tibetan government?s 
treasury, Buddhist monasteries, and individual Tibetans. The 
investigation will also demand a response from the Chinese government 
and the course of action it intends to take to return or reimburse the 
stolen property to the Tibetans. ?Just as the Nazis stole from European 
Jews, Chinese officials have refused to return or apologize for their 
pillaging of Tibet,? said Rep. Rohrabacher. Congressman Rohrabacher said 
that he would announce a schedule for the investigation in the coming weeks.

On 15 June Rohrabacher issued a partial list of questions that need to 
be answered to accurately document the theft of Tibetan property and 
belongings by the Chinese government. "For too long the Chinese 
government has gotten away with stealing precious Tibetan national 
assets and individual possessions," said Rep. Rohrabacher. "These 
questions are intended to be a starting point into an investigation that 
will hold accountable any individuals, regardless of position, involved 
in the pillaging of Tibet."

The investigation will focus on claims that from 1949 onward the Chinese 
government and individual Chinese government officials profited from the 
sale of stolen Tibetan belongings. Representative Rohrabacher is seeking 
specifics on the stolen property such as: exact amounts taken from the 
treasury, items taken from monasteries, the involvement of art galleries 
and museums, names of Chinese officials who were involved, and a 
chronology of events pertaining to the theft and sales. "The day has 
come for the Chinese government to answer for their actions and for the 
Tibetan people to demand justice," stated Rep. Rohrabacher.

On 30 June Congressman Rohrabacher sent out an appeal asking for 
assistance in his endeavor to restore Tibet's stolen heritage. He said 
that his investigation should be compatible with Sino-Tibetan dialogue 
since this is one of the many issues that need to be resolved. He 
provided a list of the type of information that was needed to begin an 
investigation:

1. What was taken from the Tibetan treasury by the Chinese government?

2. What was taken from Tibetan monasteries by the Chinese government?

3. What was taken from the Potala by the Chinese government?

4. What personal possessions were seized from Tibetans/

5. Which Chinese government or military units took all these items?

6. Where were all these items stored?

7. Which Chinese government or military units stored them?

8. What Chinese government or military units sold them?

9. What Chinese government or military units received the funds from the 
sales of those items?

10. Where were the foundries that melted down some of the goods?

11. What Chinese government or military units administered the foundries?

12. Where was the bullion shipped to?

13. What art galleries or museums bought Tibetan goods from the Chinese 
government?

As the nature of the Congressman's announcements indicates, the purpose 
of his investigation is as much to reveal the facts of China's pillaging 
of Tibet as to achieve any sort of restitution. Much of what China 
pillaged from Tibet cannot be recovered because it was destroyed, melted 
down or sold on the international art market. The more likely result of 
this investigation will be to shed some light on the circumstances of 
the events in question. Such as when were Tibet's monasteries looted, 
under what circumstances and what were the justifications? The 
investigation will also attempt to determine which individuals and 
organizations were responsible and to hold them to account.

It is believed that most monasteries were systematically looted in the 
years shortly after the revolt in 1959, although some may have survived 
relatively intact until the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 
1966. Thus, the looting of Tibetan wealth was an organized Chinese 
government project and cannot be blamed on the chaos of the Cultural 
Revolution. Presumably the Chinese government's justification for its 
looting of the wealth of Tibet was that this property was owned by all 
the people of China rather than just by the aristocratic and monastic 
exploiters of the people in Tibet.

The purpose of the Congressman's investigation is to elicit, from 
Tibetans as well as from Chinese, more information about these events 
that will allow Tibetans to, if not recover their lost heritage, at 
least reveal the facts and circumstances of its destruction. Already, 
the investigation has yielded some results. Rinbur Tulku, who went to 
Beijing in 1982 to recover the upper half of the Jowo statue, is in 
Washington D.C. and is cooperating with the investigation. Relevant 
parts of his biography that deal with the destruction of the Jokhang and 
Ganden and his trip to Beijing have been translated. Others have also 
come forward with information. The Congressman and his staff have said 
that they hope that their investigation will cause others to come 
forward with information about the looting and destruction of Tibet's 
artistic and cultural heritage. Those with informaiton or questions 
should contact Representative Rohrabacher's staffer, Paul Berkowitz, at 
202 225-2415 or ca46.investigation at mail.house.gov.

http://www.timesoftibet.com




From ellie at bruggemansolutions.com  Tue Jul  5 08:25:32 2005
From: ellie at bruggemansolutions.com (Ellie Bruggeman)
Date: Tue, 05 Jul 2005 08:25:32 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] US lawsuits pursue lost art
Message-ID: <42CA27DC.6070306@bruggemansolutions.com>

*US lawsuits pursue lost art
Is that a Nazi-plundered masterpiece in your museum? It may not be there 
for long.

By Randy Dotinga | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

SAN DIEGO - Growing up as a young boy in Germany, Claude Cassirer had a 
front seat to the sophisticated culture of prewar Berlin. He'd sit in 
his grandmother's parlor, soaking in the conversation, the fine 
furniture and a striking Pissarro painting of rainy-day Paris, a 
reminder of his family's close ties to impressionist painters.

"Before Hitler, we led a very pleasant life," recalls Mr. Cassirer, a 
retired photographer who lives near San Diego. "Then all of a sudden my 
father didn't have the options he had, and my grandparents were 
threatened with concentration camps."

His immediate family fled Germany, leaving the painting to the Nazis, 
and Cassirer didn't see it again until 2000, when a friend discovered it 
in an art book. Upon hearing the news, "I nearly fainted," says 
Cassirer. "It means my whole life; it means my whole past."

Five years later, the painting, claimed by a Madrid museum, is the focus 
of an international legal dispute that spotlights America's growing 
reputation as the friendliest place on earth for people looking to 
reclaim stolen art.

Armed with a new US Supreme Court precedent, Cassirer and others are 
taking on foreign governments - in this case, Spain - to force the 
return of artwork. But the plaintiffs face big obstacles, ranging from 
resistant museums and murky ownership records to less-than-sympathetic 
European law. And then there's the matter of enforcement: if you win a 
lawsuit against Austria or the city of Amsterdam - both defendants in 
current cases - how do you collect?

Thieves have been running off with art for millenniums, at least since 
early Egyptians started robbing tombs. But looting took on an official 
flavor in the 1930s and 1940s as the ruling Nazis plundered art 
collections in both Germany and occupied countries.

Some Jewish families were left with nothing; others, like the Cassirers, 
got a pittance for their possessions. Hundreds of thousands of artworks 
landed in Nazi hands.

The 1897 Pissarro painting "Rue Saint-Honore, Afternoon, Rain Effect" 
now sits in the world-renowned Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. According to 
the Cassirer family, it's worth an estimated $15 million to $20 million.

The worth of other paintings at stake in international lawsuits is 
estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Some critics accuse 
the claimants of greed and fear the artwork will vanish from public view.

But money is hardly the sole motivation for those seeking to recover 
stolen art, according to Louis Marchesano, curator of prints and 
drawings at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Families, he 
says, are trying to reunite with their past.

"It has to do with the social or cultural identity that's attached to 
the very act of collecting," he says. "You had these bourgeois, upper- 
and middle-class collectors, in Germany and other countries. They were 
identifying themselves as people of taste, people of culture. By 
stripping these people of their possessions, the Nazis were dehumanizing 
them as part of a larger campaign."

In both the US and abroad, some museums have returned plundered artwork 
to their owners or their descendants, especially during in the 1990s 
when art stolen during the Holocaust became a cause c?l?bre. But other 
museums seek support in European laws that emphasize statutes of 
limitations and the ownership rights of those who made purchases in 
"good faith," says Willi Korte, a Washington D.C. investigator who 
specializes in stolen art.

That's where the US comes in. "If you want to sue, you sue in this 
country," Mr. Korte says.

The Supreme Court helped matters last year when it paved the way for 
Americans to sue foreign countries over stolen art. The case revolved 
around a family's claims to six paintings by Austrian artist Gustav 
Klimt that were allegedly stolen by Nazis and landed in the Austrian 
National Gallery.

Another case, involving claims by the family of Russian artist Kasimir 
Malevich to his paintings at Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum, is now 
working its way through a US federal district court. Even if American 
plaintiffs win their cases, they'll face the challenge of convincing 
foreign governments to cough up the artwork. The US could seize foreign 
assets or grab the paintings if they travel here, but that would be an 
extreme move.

There's another possibility, however. American lawyers who work on 
stolen art cases say many disputes are handled privately, outside the 
court system. Bad publicity and the expense of hiring attorneys to fight 
lawsuits could convince foreign museums to try that route. Ultimately, 
"the point of these [legal] efforts is to generate pressure that these 
people come back to the bargaining table," Korte says. "At the least, 
you can cause the other side considerable financial pain."

Cassirer plans to continue his fight.

http://www.csmonitor.com/

*



From ellie at bruggemansolutions.com  Tue Jul  5 16:00:16 2005
From: ellie at bruggemansolutions.com (Ellie Bruggeman)
Date: Tue, 05 Jul 2005 16:00:16 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] Korea Asks France for Photocopy of Looted Books
Message-ID: <42CA9270.9010600@bruggemansolutions.com>

    Korea Asks France for Photocopy of Looted Books
	
By Bae Keun-min
Staff Reporter

The South Korean government has asked France for digital copies of all 
ancient Korean books that the European nation took from a royal archive 
in the 19th century.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said yesterday that it 
requested high-definition digital copies of 297 books for research 
purposes last month at the request of the local academia.

``We asked for permission for photographing the books last month through 
consultation with the Cultural Heritage Administration so as to give 
better access to our scholars and citizens,?? the ministry said. ``We 
haven?t received any response so far.??

The government plans to send experts to a national library of the 
European country in Paris and make color photoprints of the books with 
digital cameras to construct a database.

In 1866, France seized 297 volumes of some 1,000 books reserved in the 
``Oegyujanggak,?? a royal Choson Kingdom archive on Kanghwado Island off 
the west coast, when its armed forces attacked the island.

France invaded the island after six French Catholic missionaries were 
put to death by authorities of the kingdom. The remaining books were 
destroyed in a fire.

The Korean government officially asked for the return of the 297 books 
in July 1992 for the first time. In 2001, the two countries reached a 
tentative agreement, in which France would permanently loan the books to 
Korea and in return Korea would lend France other ancient Korean 
documents of similar historical importance.

However, the agreement was scrapped as many South Koreans objected to 
the accord, saying it would not be fair to trade other cultural assets 
for looted cultural properties.

The ministry said the request to make the digital copies has nothing to 
do with negotiations between the two nations over the ownership of the 
books.

Since late last year, the two nations have been in new negotiations for 
ownership of the books but with no visible progress.

The ministry said it will start by making replicas of 30 books that 
Korea has no transcription of and make copies of the rest later

http://times.hankooki.com/l




From museum-security at museum-security.org  Wed Jul  6 06:01:09 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (Ton Cremers)
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 06:01:09 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] (no subject)
Message-ID: <20050706040111.QKRI2457.amsfep20-int.chello.nl@cremers>

Figure stolen from art installation
July 6, 2005

By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

 "American Horse" by Thom Ross, one of numerous statues dpicting the
historic events of Custer's Last Stand on June 25, 1876, was stolen from Sun
Valley Festival Meadows over the weekend.  
Photo:
http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?issue_date=07-06-2005&ID=2005103986
 

Artist Thom Ross' Battle of the Little Big Horn sculpture installation
depicts the historic events on June 25, 1876, in large wood and acrylic
figures held in place by metal rods. The work was installed at the Sun
Valley Festival Meadows on Sun Valley Road during the Fourth of July holiday
weekend. 

On Thursday, June 30, Ross camped out next to the installation, but was told
the next day by Sun Valley police that they "prefer he not camp there," Ross
said on Tuesday, while taking down the installation. The Kneeland Gallery
leased the land for the installation from the city of Sun Valley. 

Like Custer, Ross lost. One of the 200 pieces, the 9-foot tall "American
Horse," was stolen Friday night. 

Ross checked on the work after the Gallery Walk on Friday, July 1. On
Saturday morning, he noticed one of the metal posts was empty. 

"The way it looked, it was one of the front ones and someone just drove up,
ran and got it and drove away," he said. 

The traveling exhibition is in commemoration of the 129th anniversary of the
famous Custer's Last Stand between the 7th Calvary and an overwhelming force
of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. Ross' paintings of the event are currently
on display at Kneeland Gallery, 271 First Avenue in Ketchum. 

After the theft, Kneeland hired a private security guard to patrol the site
until Tuesday. The gallery is offering a $500 reward for any information
leading to the recovery of the Native American figure. Call 726-5512. 



From museum-security at museum-security.org  Wed Jul  6 06:12:11 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (Ton Cremers)
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 06:12:11 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] Berlin Demolition Crew Dismantles Checkpoint Charlie
	Memorial 
Message-ID: <20050706041213.MMTG10246.amsfep16-int.chello.nl@cremers>

Berlin Demolition Crew Dismantles Checkpoint Charlie Memorial 

July 5, 2005 (Bloomberg) -- A demolition crew began taking apart a memorial
at Checkpoint Charlie, one of Berlin's most visited tourist sites, after the
bank that owns the land sued to remove the field of black crosses
commemorating each of those who died trying to escape East Germany. 

Working in yellow waterproof coats to ward off pouring rain, the crew took
down the 1,065 crosses and removed, chunk by chunk, the part of the Berlin
Wall that had been rebuilt at the site. 

The owner of the site, BAG Bankaktiengesellschaft Hamm, says that the
memorial is illegal and is preventing the bank from selling the land.
Alexandra Hildebrandt, widow of the founder of the privately owned Wall
Museum at Checkpoint Charlie and the manager of the memorial, campaigned to
keep it, supported by Berlin's opposition Christian Democrats and groups of
victims of the former East German government. 

``People come here from all over the world,'' said Torsten Kurschus,
spokesman for U.S. Republicans Abroad in the eastern German state of
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, who was collecting signatures late yesterday to
protest at the decision to demolish the memorial. ``If things had gone wrong
here, we might have found ourselves in a Third World War. Checkpoint Charlie
is an international symbol for freedom.'' 

Checkpoint Charlie was erected by U.S. forces in 1961 as a crossing point
for foreigners to the Soviet-controlled east. In October that year, it was
where Soviet and U.S. tanks, fully loaded and with orders to return any
fire, faced off at a distance of about 100 yards for several hours. 

Wrong Site 

Berlin's city government, comprising Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social
Democrats and the Party of Democratic Socialism, successor to the East
German Communists, backed the decision to demolish the memorial, arguing
that Checkpoint Charlie is the wrong place to honor victims of the East
German regime. 

Hildebrandt said a last-ditch attempt to raise the 36 million euros ($43
million) that BAG Bankaktiengesellschaft demanded for the land failed when
the bank yesterday rejected her offer because it came too late. 

Police said demonstrators left the site quietly earlier today as the
demolition crews arrived. Some had chained themselves to the crosses in
protest. 

``People left of their own accord,'' said Michael Maasz, a spokesman for the
Berlin police. ``It was very calm. No arrests.'' 



To contact the reporter on this story:
Catherine Hickley at  chickley at bloomberg.net.



From museum-security at museum-security.org  Wed Jul  6 06:12:11 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (Ton Cremers)
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 06:12:11 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] The Newfound Pollocks: Real or Fake? 
Message-ID: <20050706041218.MMUL10246.amsfep16-int.chello.nl@cremers>

The Newfound Pollocks: Real or Fake? 

July 6, 2005

Specialists on Jackson Pollock are divided over the authenticity of 32 newly
discovered works said to be by the artist 
By Kelly Devine Thomas 

A dispute over the authenticity of 32 recently discovered works purported to
be by Jackson Pollock has pitted two renowned Pollock experts against one
another and prompted the Pollock-Krasner Foundation to once again become
involved in authentication matters after disbanding its authentication board
a decade ago. 


Pollock expert Ellen G. Landau, a former member of the authentication board,
has authenticated the artworks, which include 22 small drip paintings on
board (the largest measure 16 by 18 inches), as well as several drawings and
unfinished works. However, Eugene Victor Thaw, co-author of the Pollock
catalogue raisonn? and another former member of the foundation?s
authentication board, contests the attribution. 


?All I am willing to say is if another supplement to the catalogue raisonn?
is published, which I have anything to do with, these pictures will not be
included,? Thaw told ARTnews. Asked if there were plans to issue a second
supplement to the original four-volume catalogue raisonn? published in 1978,
Thaw replied, ?If more works are discovered?and I have two or three works on
my desk that are right?there will have to be at some point. If so, I won?t
publish these pictures.?


Alex Matter, the son of the abstract painter Mercedes Matter and the
photographer and filmmaker Herbert Matter, discovered the works while
cleaning out a storage facility that belonged to his father in East Hampton,
New York, about three years ago, following his mother?s death in 2001.
Matter brought the find to New York dealer Mark Borghi, who represents his
mother?s estate. After arranging to clean and stabilize the works, many of
which were covered in soot, Borghi consulted Landau last year about their
authenticity. ?I was blown away when I saw them,? says Landau, the Andrew W.
Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Case Western Reserve University in
Cleveland and the author of Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner: A Catalogue
Raisonn?. ?It was a thrill of a lifetime for an art historian.?


Says foundation chairman Charles Bergman, ?Ellen Landau is a very respected
Pollock scholar, but I think that for something of this magnitude, one would
want a consensus of Pollock experts to decide if they are by Pollock, and if
they are, the experts and the market will respond accordingly.? 


Foundation attorney Ronald Spencer told ARTnews that the foundation is
consulting both Thaw and Francis V. O?Connor, who co-authored the catalogue
raisonn? with Thaw and is also a former member of the authentication board,
before making further statements. ?Now we?the foundation, O?Connor, and
Thaw?will go about the work of looking into these Pollocks,? says Spencer,
?and will not be making any statements until the process is over.? 


The only other member of the foundation?s defunct authentication board,
former Metropolitan Museum of Art curator William Lieberman, died in May.
O?Connor did not return phone calls from ARTnews seeking comment. 


?Ellen Landau knows as much about Pollock as anybody. Her opinion carries a
lot of weight,? says a Pollock scholar who is not involved in the
authentication of the works and who requested anonymity. ?It?s interesting
that Thaw, who has seen more Pollocks than anybody, has gone on record to
contest the attribution. His opinion carries even more weight. But I would
like to hear an explanation with some specifics in it as to why he doesn?t
think they?re right.?


Thaw would not specify his reasons for doubting the attribution, explaining
that if he did, ?It will land me in court.? But he did say that none of
Pollock?s other works is painted on the type of boards on which the newly
discovered works are painted. Even if the boards prove to be Herbert
Matter?s?Landau says they are and that similar artist?s boards can be found
in Pollock?s former studio on Long Island?the works still don?t resemble
?what Pollocks are known to look like,? says Thaw. ?At least none that I
know of.? Landau, meanwhile, stands by her opinion. ?I remain confident that
their provenance is impeccable,? Landau told ARTnews, ?and that they are
stylistically and technically consistent with Pollocks.? 


Borghi, who announced the discovery of the works in May, says that he and
Landau are also consulting other experts to confirm the authenticity of the
works. Borghi told ARTnews that ?a prestigious institution whose conservator
has done work on Pollock has taken some of the works for analysis to see if
they are consistent with known works of Pollock.? Borghi declined to
identify the institution, stating that the museum did not want its
involvement to be made public at press time.


According to Borghi, he flew to Thaw?s Santa Fe, New Mexico, home earlier
this year to show him several of the works. ?He never said anything about
their authenticity,? says Borghi. Thaw?s public disagreement with the
attribution after the discovery had been announced, he says, came ?out of
left field.?


Borghi says he, Matter, and Landau are proceeding with the organization of a
museum exhibition for next year that will feature the works and explore the
relationship between Pollock, Krasner, and the Matters. ?We have interest
from institutions that wish to proceed with the planned exhibition,? says
Borghi, who declined to specify which museums had expressed interest in the
show, explaining that it was too early in the process. Landau plans to write
a catalogue to accompany the exhibition, as well as a separate publication
delineating the importance of the works.


Before the discovery was announced, Borghi also notified the foundation,
providing a set of transparencies and requesting permission to reproduce the
images through the Artists Rights Society, the foundation?s copyright
agency. Spencer says the society mistakenly granted permission to reproduce
the works without consulting the foundation. After the images appeared with
the Pollock-Krasner Foundation credit line on Borghi?s Web site
(www.pollockexhibit.com), the foundation issued a press release announcing
that it was ?presently reserving judgment? on the works and had withdrawn
copyright permission ?pending resolution of authenticity.?


The foundation?s authentication board was dissolved after the 1995
publication of a supplement to the Pollock catalogue raisonn?. Since then,
the foundation has not authenticated works, and Bergman says it has no
current plans to publish another supplement. Instead, the foundation
recommends that owners of purported Pollocks consult the International
Foundation for Art Research (IFAR), a not-for-profit organization that
offers information on ownership, theft, and other matters concerning art
objects, and also issues opinions on authenticity by consulting a panel of
confidential experts.


Borghi says he did not submit the works to IFAR. ?What?s the point of
submitting works to a place where you don?t know who is looking at the
pictures?? Borghi asks.


Spencer says the foundation is becoming involved in the authentication of
these works because it has ?an interest in maintaining Pollock?s legacy. If
any splashes on paper were allowed to be sold as a Pollock, his legacy would
become much distorted and made false.? 


Landau says she is convinced of the works? authorship in part because of
their provenance, stating that she has ?direct knowledge of the closeness of
the relationship? between the Matters and Pollock and his wife, Lee Krasner,
through interviews she conducted with Krasner and Mercedes Matter, as well
as through various publications that document their friendship. Landau says
that Krasner, who became friends with Mercedes Matter in 1936, introduced
Pollock to Herbert Matter in early 1942 and that their friendship lasted
until Pollock?s death in 1956. 


?They were the best of friends,? says Landau, who notes that the Matters
owned other Pollock works, which appear in the catalogue raisonn?. Landau
says she does not know why the newly discovered works were not included in
the catalogue but speculates that Herbert, who died in 1984, ?packed them
away and didn?t tell anyone about them.? 


Borghi says that Alex Matter found the works wrapped in brown paper that was
marked with information, believed to be in Herbert Matter?s handwriting,
that states in part: ?Pollock (1946?49), Tudor City (1940?49), 32 Jackson
Pollock experimental works (gift + purchase).? Landau believes that most of
the works were painted around 1948 and 1949 in the Tudor City, Manhattan,
studio Matter kept between 1940 and 1949, which he also lent to Fernand
L?ger. 


Based on other notations on the wrapping, Landau believes that the works
were packaged in 1958, two years after Pollock?s death, when Matter had a
studio in Greenwich Village, and that some of the paints Pollock used to
create the works were invented by Matter?s cousin Robi Rebetez, a Swiss
chemist and art-store owner. Pollock?s initials appear on the backs of three
of the paintings, says Landau. In the storage facility, Alex Matter also
found letters from Krasner and Pollock, hand-drawn cards Pollock made for
Alex?s parents, and previously unknown photographs of Pollock by Matter.


Borghi, who says none of the works is presently for sale, would not comment
on their value, but last year a small drip painting on paper, formerly owned
by the Museum of Modern Art and dated 1949, fetched a record $11.65 million
at Christie?s. Landau says that the oil-and-enamel works on board fill a gap
in Pollock?s catalogue raisonn?, which documents only one mixed-media work
between 1948 and 1951. 


The Pollock scholar who requested anonymity says there are some
discrepancies between the works found in the storage facility and other
known Pollocks??the way the paint behaves,? for example, and that ?the
colors are odd??but suggests that the ?technical problems can be explained
by the story? that accompanies their discovery.


?If it ends up that they are not Pollocks,? says the scholar, ?they are
very, very good non-Pollocks.? 



From museum-security at museum-security.org  Wed Jul  6 06:31:08 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (Ton Cremers)
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 06:31:08 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] Diebe verschwinden mit Kunstwerk 
Message-ID: <20050706043116.USNC18546.amsfep19-int.chello.nl@cremers>


Diebe verschwinden mit Kunstwerk 

July 5, 2005

Polizeibericht

    
 Die K?nstlerin Claudia Zimmermann hat diese Skulptur geschaffen, die
unbekannte T?ter aus dem e.novum, Munstermannskamp, gestohlen haben. 
Foto: polizei ca L?neburg.

http://www.landeszeitung.de/start.phtml?m=20&fdat=result&idx=317067&titel=St
adt+und+Landkreis+L%FCneburg


 Die Diebe m?ssen viel Kraft haben: Sie trugen eine schwere Eichenplastik
der K?nstlerin Claudia Zimmermann aus dem e.novum am Munstermannskamp. Nach
Auskunft von Gesch?ftsf?hrer Jens Schmidt verschwand das Kunstwerk in den
vergangenen Tagen. Er geht davon aus, dass die Skulptur einen Wert von rund
1300 Euro hat. Da das Gr?nderzentrum ?ber keinen Etat f?r Kunst verf?gt und
alle Kunstarbeiten als Leihgaben erhalten hat, schmerzt der Diebstahl
besonders. Schmidt: "Wenn wir jetzt den Schaden ersetzen m?ssen, wird uns
nichts anderes ?brig bleiben, als alle Kunstwerke zur?ckzugeben." Hinweise
an die Polizei unter: Tel.: 292 215.



From tremblay at cyberie.qc.ca  Wed Jul  6 18:31:48 2005
From: tremblay at cyberie.qc.ca (Mychelle Tremblay)
Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2005 12:31:48 -0400
Subject: [CPProt.net] Vol de tableaux - Le conjoint de Myriam 
 =?iso-8859-1?q?B=E9dard_?= =?iso-8859-1?q?arr=EAt=E9?=
Message-ID: <6.1.1.1.1.20050706122903.02d64ec0@pop.b2b2c.ca>

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/actualites/article/article_complet.php?path=/actualites/article/06/1,63,0,072005,1093721.php

 From the Presse canadienne.




From museum-security at museum-security.org  Thu Jul  7 06:27:50 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet)
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 06:27:50 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] FBI ALERT/REQUEST FOR INFORMATION: Map Thefts by
	dealer Edward Forbes Smiley III
Message-ID: <20050707042752.RSJK18546.amsfep19-int.chello.nl@cremers>

FBI ALERT/REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
July 7, 2005

(Originally posten at Exlibris)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has requested that this Alert/Request
for Information be posted on this listserve.

On Wednesday, June 8, 2005, an individual identified as Edward Forbes Smiley
III, age 49, of, among other places, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, was
arrested by local authorities in Connecticut for the alleged theft of a map
from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New
Haven, Connecticut, USA.  The map allegedly stolen was the New England map
from John Smith's Advertisements for the unexperienced planters of
New-England ? (London, Printed by I. Haviland?
1631.)

Smiley is alleged to have visited the reading room at the Beinecke Library
on June 8, where he allegedly surreptitiously cut the above-described map
from the volume.  There were allegedly additional maps found in Smiley's
possession that appear to have been stolen from the Beinecke Library, as
well as several additional maps whose previous owner remains unidentified.
In the aftermath of the arrest, the FBI has been in contact with certain
other rare book libraries and learned that those institutions are finding
rare maps missing from volumes that Smiley had viewed.
The FBI requests that institutions holding rare maps in their collections
review their records and collections as soon as possible 1) to determine
whether Mr. Smiley reviewed books/maps in their possession and 2) to
determine whether any maps are believed missing.

The FBI requests that any information be provided to Special Agent Steve
Kelleher, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 600 State St., New Haven CT
06511; telephone (203) 503-5116.


More about Mr. Edward Forbes Smiley III


http://www.efsmaps.com/about.html
My name is Forbes Smiley. I work for collectors and institutions helping
them build interesting, and often important, collections of early maps and
atlases relating to the discovery and settlement of North America. Over the
past twenty five years I have operated offices at 16 East 79th Street, New
York, galleries at 175 East 57th Street, New York, and a private business on
Martha's Vineyard. During this time we have built several of the largest
collections of American cartographic materials in this country, including
the Norman Leventhal Collection of New England maps, and the Lawrence H.
Slaughter Collection of English maps and atlases - now at the New York
Public Library. 
My practice has always been to work closely with collectors and develop a
long term relationship - with the goals of identifying, acquiring and
organizing materials relevant to a region's cartographic history. Once a
relationship is established I work to protect the collector's interest, and
to assure that the finest copies of relevant maps and atlases are offered to
them as soon as they appear on the market, and at the lowest possible price.
This service includes negotiating on the collector's behalf, representing
them at auction, appraising material, as well as offering important maps and
atlases from our inventory. I am always glad to talk with collectors about
old maps, their experience with collecting, or plans for improving or
expanding their collections. 

We buy worldwide very aggressively, and sell very actively to dealers and
collectors. Individuals who are considering selling separate maps or entire
collections can rest assured we are able and willing to fetch them the
highest possible price for interesting material in good condition. 

We look forward to hearing from you soon: 

 E. FORBES SMILEY III
 243 Vineyard-Haven Rd, Edgartown, MA 02539
 Tel: (508) 645-3894 Email: info at efsmaps.com



From museum-security at museum-security.org  Thu Jul  7 06:39:18 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet)
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 06:39:18 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] theft of baskets from the The Healdsburg Museum
Message-ID: <20050707043921.SMVW2457.amsfep20-int.chello.nl@cremers>

 

________________________________

From: Daniel Murley [mailto:healdsburgmuseum at sbcglobal.net] 
Sent: 06 July 2005 23:29
To: museum-security at museum-security.org
Subject: Fwd: Stolen Baskets


Greetings, 
 
I appreciate your listing of our stolen baskets on your Museum Security
Network.
 
If you have any questions I would be happy to speak with you or converse by
email.
Sincerely,
Daniel

Note:  
 
photographs and detailed descriptions at:
 
http://www.museumbeveiliging.com/baskets.pdf 
(size of file is c. 1 MB, so please give it some time to download)


Daniel F. Murley
Curator
The Healdsburg Museum
Healdsburg, CA 95448
(707) 431-3325



From museum-security at museum-security.org  Thu Jul  7 07:03:27 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet)
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 07:03:27 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] =?iso-8859-1?q?Selbstbedienung_in_der_Biblioth=E8qu?=
	=?iso-8859-1?q?e_Nationale_?=
Message-ID: <20050707050330.HCKF1641.amsfep17-int.chello.nl@cremers>

Selbstbedienung in der Biblioth?que Nationale 

Im Bestand der Pariser Biblioth?que Nationale fehlen ?ber 30 000 B?cher,
darunter mehr als 1000 extrem rare und wertvolle. Das ist das Ergebnis einer
ein Jahr lang dauernden Untersuchung. Angesichts von 35 Millionen Objekten,
welche Frankreichs Nationalbibliothek beherbergt, mag dies eine
vernachl?ssigbare Zahl sein, doch die Untersuchung fand Anzeichen einer
"systematischen Pl?nderung". 


Nun ist der Kurator der Manuskript-Abteilung angeklagt worden, mindestens
100 Rara gestohlen zu haben, darunter eine franz?sische Ausgabe des
Pentateuch (die f?nf ersten B?cher des Alten Testaments) aus dem 13.
Jahrhundert. Dessen Diebstahl kam erst als Licht, als es im Auktionskatalog
von Christie's auftauchte. Der Kurator, Michel Garel, bestreitet die
Vorw?rfe. Er habe im Gegenteil seit Jahren die Bibliotheksleitung auf das
Verschwinden von B?chern aus dem alten Magazin aufmerksam gemacht. Dessen
Keller sei durch ein Labyrinth unterirdischer G?nge mit nahegelegenen
Antiquariaten verbunden: "Allein ich habe vier Passagen entdeckt, durch die
man unbemerkt in die Bibliothek eindringen und B?cher entwenden kann." DW


Artikel erschienen am Do, 7. Juli 2005



From museum-security at museum-security.org  Thu Jul  7 07:03:27 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet)
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 07:03:27 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] Iraqi government is building a dam wich will destroy
	the capital of the ancient assyrian empire 
Message-ID: <20050707050333.HCLB1641.amsfep17-int.chello.nl@cremers>


Wednesday 6th July 2005 (22h42) : 
The Iraqi government is building a dam wich will destroy the capital of the
ancient assyrian empire 
   
Tigris dam damns Assur The Iraqi government is building a dam which will
obliterate the capital of the ancient Assyrian empire Martin Bailey , The
Art Newspaper
LONDON, July, 2005 - The Iraqi government is building a dam which will
destroy the ancient city of Assur, the former capital which gave its name to
Assyria. Although it has received no publicity outside Iraq, the dam across
the Tigris is likely to result in one of the greatest archaeological losses
of modern times. John Curtis, the British Museum?s keeper of Ancient Near
East, returned from a visit to Baghdad last month, and he told The Art
Newspaper that the project ?will destroy most of the remains of Assur?. He
points out that the city, occupied by the Assyrians for some 2,000 years, is
?arguably the most important archaeological site in the Near East.?

Dr Curtis warns that the archaeological losses are likely to be even greater
than those caused by the Aswan High Dam in 1970, when temples along the Nile
were flooded. On that occasion, Unesco launched a huge international rescue
operation, but in the current political situation that would be impossible
in Iraq. The rapid timetable for the Iraqi dam and the unexcavated nature of
the remains at Assur would also make rescue work a major challenge.

Iraq is embarking on the dam because its hostile neighbour Turkey is taking
more water from the source of the Tigris. At times there is so little water
in the river downstream that it is apparently possible to walk across it at
Mosul, the main city of northern Iraq. The new dam will store water,
providing supplies for agriculture and the towns during the dry season.

The Makhul dam is being built 80 miles south of Mosul, spanning the Tigris
valley between the Jebel Makhul and Jebel Hamrin mountains. This will create
a lake which will run back for more than 20 miles and flood most of Assur.

The ancient city lies on a promontory, with its eastern edge on the flood
plain of the Tigris and its northern edge in the valley of the river?s old
course. The new lake would rise well above the lower levels of the ancient
city and the water table would cause severe damage higher up. In addition to
Assur, at least 100 other Assyrian sites would be lost or damaged by the new
lake. These include Kar Tukulti-Ninurta, the important city built in the
13th century BC just to the north of Assur.

Assyrian capital

Assur (or Ashur) became the capital of Assyria by 2000 BC and it remained
the religious centre of the empire until its capture by the Babylonians in
614 BC. It represented the centre of an empire which at its height stretched
from present-day Egypt to Iran.

German archaeologists began to excavate Assur in 1903 and many of the most
important finds are in Berlin?s Vorderasiatisches Museum. But despite a
century of extensive excavations, large areas of the city remain virtually
uninvestigated. Only a third of the 34 temples which were recorded shortly
before the Babylonian invasion have been found. Still buried must be the
greatest works of art from the royal workshops of the 13th century BC,
residences of merchants from the 18th century BC and temples built before
the 21st century BC.

The commercial and residential areas of Assur were on the lower levels, and
these will be completely flooded by the Makhul Dam. Although the upper level
of the city is 100 feet above the present river, the new lake will mean a
substantial rise in the water table, and this will destroy most of the
archaeological remains. Cuneiform tablets, for instance, will simply turn to
mud.

In order to minimise damage to Assur, two solutions have been proposed by
Iraqi archaeologists. The first would be the construction of a coffer-dam or
dyke around the entire site of Assur. This would have to be several miles
long and would be very expensive, possibly several times more than the main
Makhul Dam. With the present shortage of government funds because of the
economic problems resulting from international sanctions it is difficult to
see Saddam Hussein being willing to divert resources for a coffer-dam.

The second proposal is that the Makhul Dam should not be as high as
originally planned, resulting in a smaller storage lake. However, this would
negate many of the benefits of the water storage project, probably making it
uneconomic. It would also still flood low-lying remains at Assur, and the
rise in the water table would cause further damage.

Rescue

Last month senior Iraqi government antiquities official Muayad Damerji told
The Art Newspaper that he personally believes that the solution is to ?build
a concrete wall around Assur.? He admits it would be ?very expensive?, but
points out that ?we need water and we need Assur.?

Dr Damerji says that although the Ministry of Irrigation is considering a
coffer-dam, detailed information on the levels of the archaeological strata
has not yet been requested from the antiquities department. There is clearly
great concern over whether funds will be available for this protective
scheme.

It is difficult to discover what is happening on the ground, but work has
apparently begun on the foundations of the main dam. Completion is expected
to take around five years, and the project is being undertaken entirely by
Iraqi contractors. Although some archaeological excavations are currently
under way by German and Iraqi specialists, this is normal work and not a
rescue dig. Within the time available, it would be very difficult to mount
any large-scale excavation programme.

However, archaeologists have now decided to do what they can to mobilise
international support to save Assur. At an academic conference on Nimrud,
held at the British Museum in March, a resolution was approved which warned
of the damaging consequences of the Makhul Dam : ?The conference urges all
concerned parties, both within Iraq and internationally, to explore every
possible means of preserving the site of Assur which is of unique importance
in the history of Iraq in particular and world civilisation in general.?

Friday, 1 July 2005

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m13277&l=i&size=1&hd=0

Transmis par Jo?lle P.



by : Jo?lle
Wednesday 6th July 2005



From museum-security at museum-security.org  Thu Jul  7 07:08:27 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet)
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 07:08:27 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] Vol d'objets rares durant cinq ans
Message-ID: <20050707050830.QWIG11566.amsfep12-int.chello.nl@cremers>

EL MENZAH V
Vol d?objets rares durant cinq ans
 
July 7, 2005


Leurs apparences n?indiquaient nullement leur nature de s?offrir
illicitement ce qui appartient aux autres et de courir derri?re le gain
facile.
S??tant unis contre l?avis de leurs familles respectives pourtant ais?es,
les deux mari?s complices avaient perdu leurs emplois au bout d?un certain
temps. Mais pour s?assurer un revenu stable, ils ont d?cid? de recourir au
vol, et pr?cis?ment celui des objets rares et arch?ologiques. Pour ce faire,
le couple se pr?sentait aux magasins sp?cialis?s dans ce genre de commerce
et alors que l?un d?eux occupait le ma?tre des lieux, l?autre se chargeait
de subtiliser les objets de grande valeur et pas n?importe lesquels.
Et c?est ? la suite d?une plainte d?pos?e par une famille, habitant la zone
d?El Menzah, ? propos du vol d?un appareil photo d?une valeur de quatre
mille dinars, que les agents de la brigade de la police judiciaire de
l?Ariana-ville sont arriv?s ? mettre fin ? cette s?rie de vols et d?arr?ter
les coupables.
En remontant jusqu?? l?acqu?reur de cet appareil de valeur, les enqu?teurs
ont pu identifier le vendeur, autrement dit le couple en question. Les
plaintes d?pos?es ? ce sujet se faisant nombreuses, les agents de ladite
brigade ont pris en filature les deux coupables jusqu?? les surprendre en
flagrant d?lit.
Arr?t?s, ils ont avou? leurs pr?c?dents m?faits qui comportaient entre
autres le vol dans une galerie d?exposition d?un tableau de peinture valant
quelque dix mille dinars.
Six proc?s-verbaux ont ?t? dress?s contre le couple de voleurs qui ont
exprim? leurs regrets mais un peu tardivement... Par ailleurs, une bonne
partie du butin a ?t? saisie et rendue ? leurs propri?taires.
 
T.H 

http://www.tunishebdo.com.tn/article.php?rid=6&id=19568



From museum-security at museum-security.org  Thu Jul  7 07:08:27 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet)
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 07:08:27 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] =?iso-8859-1?q?Canada=3A_Des_voleurs_s=27emparent_d?=
	=?iso-8859-1?q?=27anciens_canons_au_Fort_Beaus=E9jour_?=
Message-ID: <20050707050833.QWJB11566.amsfep12-int.chello.nl@cremers>

Des voleurs s'emparent d'anciens canons au Fort Beaus?jour 
 
  
 Mise ? jour le mercredi 6 juillet 2005, 17 h 25 . 
 
 
Les deux canons situ?s ? l'entr?e du Lieu historique national du Canada du
Fort Beaus?jour, au Nouveau-Brunswick, ont ?t? vol?s en pleine nuit cette
semaine.

Le premier canon a disparu le 30 juin. Le deuxi?me a ?t? vol? le 2 juillet.
L'un d'eux a ?t? fabriqu? au 18e si?cle, l'autre au 19e si?cle.

Le site comptait une collection de 10 canons. Les voleurs se sont empar?s
des deux plus petits. Ces canons en fonte pesaient quand m?me quelques
centaines de kilos.

Ces canons faisaient partie des dons amass?s dans les ann?es 1920 et 1930
par le fondateur du mus?e du Fort Beaus?jour, John Clarence Webster, un
m?decin et historien ?tabli ? Shediac.

 
Mireille Blanchard, interpr?te au site, a rappel? l'importance de ces deux
pi?ces. ? C'est important pour le Fort Beaus?jour et aussi pour les gens de
la r?gion. On parle de pi?ces historiques inestimables, de grande valeur ?,
a-t-elle soulign?.

Les autorit?s ont renforc? la s?curit? au Fort Beaus?jour afin d'?viter
toute r?cidive. Il serait toutefois plus difficile de voler les huit autres
canons, car ces derniers sont beaucoup plus gros et p?sent plus d'une tonne.

Les policiers affirment qu'il s'agit d'un vol planifi? et ils demandent
l'aide du public pour retrouver les canons. 

Photos:

http://radio-canada.ca/regions/atlantique/nouvelles/200507/06/003-canons.sht
ml





From museum-security at museum-security.org  Thu Jul  7 07:19:14 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet)
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 07:19:14 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] Myriam Bedard's boyfriend arrested for theft of
	paintings valued at $100, 000
Message-ID: <20050707051917.PBZA10246.amsfep16-int.chello.nl@cremers>

 
Myriam Bedard's boyfriend arrested for theft of paintings valued at $100,000

July 7, 2005

MONTREAL (CP) - The boyfriend of Olympic gold medallist Myriam Bedard was
arrested Wednesday in the alleged theft of paintings valued at $100,000,
Quebec provincial police said.

Writer Nima Mazhari, 50, is accused of stealing about 20 paintings and will
appear in court on Aug. 9. Provincial police wouldn't reveal the artist
involved but a recent police search warrant indicates the paintings belong
to Montreal artist Ghitta Caiserman.

Caiserman and Mazhari shared a studio and in 2001 she became seriously ill.
The paintings were later reported missing.

Bedard won two gold medals at the 1994 Winter Olympics in the biathlon.

She made headlines in 2004 when she said she was forced from her job at Via
Rail for asking questions about the federal sponsorship program.

Bedard also credited Mazhari for persuading then-prime minister Jean
Chretien for keeping Canada out of the U.S.-led Iraq war in 2003.

http://canadaeast.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050706/CPN/39478026



From museum-security at museum-security.org  Thu Jul  7 11:01:40 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet)
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 11:01:40 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] Reward for solving icon theft increases
Message-ID: <20050707090142.BJOV10024.amsfep15-int.chello.nl@cremers>

Reward for solving icon theft increases
July 8, 2005

   The reward for the person who helps Walden police solve a string of
religious icon thefts is up to $1,250.
   Mark and Sara Merring offered $250. Their destroyed Virgin Mary sculpture
and grotto were recovered last week from Tin Brook, less than a mile away
from their home on Wileman Avenue. Just days before, another ruined Blessed
Mother statue was found in the brook near Hill Street.
   Barbara and Ernest Long added $1,000 to the purse yesterday. An Infant
Jesus of Prague statue was stolen from their yard last month but discovered
with minor damages behind Valley Central High School. 
   "My husband is still very upset," said Barbara. To him, the sculpture is
a tribute to a fallen friend and Vietnam comrade. To her, it's a memorial to
the brothers and sisters she lost in a drowning accident many years ago. The
candles she lights in their memory are still missing.
   Police said they have a few leads but have made no arrests. If you have
information, contact Walden police at 778-5595.



From a.cremers3 at chello.nl  Thu Jul  7 14:10:06 2005
From: a.cremers3 at chello.nl (MusSecNetworkCulPropProtNet)
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 14:10:06 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] RE: Iraq Goverment Dam story posted today
In-Reply-To: <BAY103-F18809EBDE8882C398B8A85B1D80@phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <20050707121008.XNNM1641.amsfep17-int.chello.nl@cremers>

Dear Cori Wegener,
 
Thank you very much for this correction. I must admit that sometimes I do
need specialists like you who are able to filter out incorrect information
from the abundance of information that is passing me each and every day.
 
Yours
 
Ton Cremers
 
 


  _____  

From: Cori Wegener [mailto:coriwegener at hotmail.com] 
Sent: 07 July 2005 14:03
To: moderator at cpprot.net
Subject: Iraq Goverment Dam story posted today



MSN Moderator:

Please note that the story below is quite old news from 2002.  The dam
project was abandoned after the U.S. invasion.  Having been posted in
Baghdad working with the Ministry of Culture, I know that Muyad Damerji no
longer works for the Ministry and that there are no archeological digs going
on in the country.  The British Museum conference on Nimrud that is
mentioned happened in March 2002.  I'm not sure what revived this old story.

Thanks very much for the service you provide.

Best regards,

Cori Wegener

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts


Message: 5
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 07:03:27 +0200
From: "MSN CPPnet" <
<http://by103fd.bay103.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/compose?curmbox=00000000-0000
-0000-0000-000000000001&a=da834ce00788214b541ebca9a4d71e24&mailto=1&to=museu
m-security at museum-security.org&msg=80B7F1D4-D400-46DD-B810-581A2307121F&star
t=0&len=25001&src=&type=x> museum-security at museum-security.org>
Subject: [CPProt.net] Iraqi government is building a dam wich will
destroy the capital of the ancient assyrian empire 
To: <
<http://by103fd.bay103.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/compose?curmbox=00000000-0000
-0000-0000-000000000001&a=da834ce00788214b541ebca9a4d71e24&mailto=1&to=list@
cpprot.net&msg=80B7F1D4-D400-46DD-B810-581A2307121F&start=0&len=25001&src=&t
ype=x> list at cpprot.net>
Message-ID: <20050707050333.HCLB1641.amsfep17-int.chello.nl at cremers>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


Wednesday 6th July 2005 (22h42) : 
The Iraqi government is building a dam wich will destroy the capital of the
ancient assyrian empire 
   
Tigris dam damns Assur The Iraqi government is building a dam which will
obliterate the capital of the ancient Assyrian empire Martin Bailey , The
Art Newspaper
LONDON, July, 2005 - The Iraqi government is building a dam which will
destroy the ancient city of Assur, the former capital which gave its name to
Assyria. Although it has received no publicity outside Iraq, the dam across
the Tigris is likely to result in one of the greatest archaeological losses
of modern times. John Curtis, the British Museum?s keeper of Ancient Near
East, returned from a visit to Baghdad last month, and he told The Art
Newspaper that the project ?will destroy most of the remains of Assur?. He
points out that the city, occupied by the Assyrians for some 2,000 years, is
?arguably the most important archaeological site in the Near East.?

Dr Curtis warns that the archaeological losses are likely to be even greater
than those caused by the Aswan High Dam in 1970, when temples along the Nile
were flooded. On that occasion, Unesco launched a huge international rescue
operation, but in the current political situation that would be impossible
in Iraq. The rapid timetable for the Iraqi dam and the unexcavated nature of
the remains at Assur would also make rescue work a major challenge.

Iraq is embarking on the dam because its hostile neighbour Turkey is taking
more water from the source of the Tigris. At times there is so little water
in the river downstream that it is apparently possible to walk across it at
Mosul, the main city of northern Iraq. The new dam will store water,
providing supplies for agriculture and the towns during the dry season.

The Makhul dam is being built 80 miles south of Mosul, spanning the Tigris
valley between the Jebel Makhul and Jebel Hamrin mountains. This will create
a lake which will run back for more than 20 miles and flood most of Assur.

The ancient city lies on a promontory, with its eastern edge on the flood
plain of the Tigris and its northern edge in the valley of the river?s old
course. The new lake would rise well above the lower levels of the ancient
city and the water table would cause severe damage higher up. In addition to
Assur, at least 100 other Assyrian sites would be lost or damaged by the new
lake. These include Kar Tukulti-Ninurta, the important city built in the
13th century BC just to the north of Assur.

Assyrian capital

Assur (or Ashur) became the capital of Assyria by 2000 BC and it remained
the religious centre of the empire until its capture by the Babylonians in
614 BC. It represented the centre of an empire which at its height stretched
from present-day Egypt to Iran.

German archaeologists began to excavate Assur in 1903 and many of the most
important finds are in Berlin?s Vorderasiatisches Museum. But despite a
century of extensive excavations, large areas of the city remain virtually
uninvestigated. Only a third of the 34 temples which were recorded shortly
before the Babylonian invasion have been found. Still buried must be the
greatest works of art from the royal workshops of the 13th century BC,
residences of merchants from the 18th century BC and temples built before
the 21st century BC.

The commercial and residential areas of Assur were on the lower levels, and
these will be completely flooded by the Makhul Dam. Although the upper level
of the city is 100 feet above the present river, the new lake will mean a
substantial rise in the water table, and this will destroy most of the
archaeological remains. Cuneiform tablets, for instance, will simply turn to
mud.

In order to minimise damage to Assur, two solutions have been proposed by
Iraqi archaeologists. The first would be the construction of a coffer-dam or
dyke around the entire site of Assur. This would have to be several miles
long and would be very expensive, possibly several times more than the main
Makhul Dam. With the present shortage of government funds because of the
economic problems resulting from international sanctions it is difficult to
see Saddam Hussein being willing to divert resources for a coffer-dam.

The second proposal is that the Makhul Dam should not be as high as
originally planned, resulting in a smaller storage lake. However, this would
negate many of the benefits of the water storage project, probably making it
uneconomic. It would also still flood low-lying remains at Assur, and the
rise in the water table would cause further damage.

Rescue

Last month senior Iraqi government antiquities official Muayad Damerji told
The Art Newspaper that he personally believes that the solution is to ?build
a concrete wall around Assur.? He admits it would be ?very expensive?, but
points out that ?we need water and we need Assur.?

Dr Damerji says that although the Ministry of Irrigation is considering a
coffer-dam, detailed information on the levels of the archaeological strata
has not yet been requested from the antiquities department. There is clearly
great concern over whether funds will be available for this protective
scheme.

It is difficult to discover what is happening on the ground, but work has
apparently begun on the foundations of the main dam. Completion is expected
to take around five years, and the project is being undertaken entirely by
Iraqi contractors. Although some archaeological excavations are currently
under way by German and Iraqi specialists, this is normal work and not a
rescue dig. Within the time available, it would be very difficult to mount
any large-scale excavation programme.

However, archaeologists have now decided to do what they can to mobilise
international support to save Assur. At an academic conference on Nimrud,
held at the British Museum in March, a resolution was approved which warned
of the damaging consequences of the Makhul Dam : ?The conference urges all
concerned parties, both within Iraq and internationally, to explore every
possible means of preserving the site of Assur which is of unique importance
in the history of Iraq in particular and world civilisation in general.?

Friday, 1 July 2005

 <javascript:ol('http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m13277&l=i&size=1&hd=0');>
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m13277&l=i&size=1&hd=0

Transmis par Jo?lle P.



by : Jo?lle
Wednesday 6th July 2005



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From museum-security at museum-security.org  Thu Jul  7 16:07:02 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet)
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 16:07:02 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] Gallery silent in statue mystery
Message-ID: <20050707140710.OVJG10024.amsfep15-int.chello.nl@cremers>

Gallery silent in statue mystery 
Jul 7 2005
 
By Emma Pinch 
   
Birmingham gallery bosses have been left red-faced after an uninsured bronze
on sale to raise money for Aids orphans was stolen - and they did not even
notice. 

'The Athlete', a 24cm-high figurine, was being exhibited at the Royal
Birmingham Society of Artists' gallery in the city's Brook Street when the
theft took place. 

It was created by leading South African sculptor Patrick Reynolds and valued
at just less than ?2,000. 

Like all of his work, The Athlete was made to help fund the God's Golden
Acre orphanage in the Valley of a Thousand Hills, KwaZuluNatal, which looks
after 97 children whose parents have died of AIDs. 

The charity was founded by his wife, Heather, who was praised by Nelson
Mandela as a 'historic figure' in the story of the new South Africa. 

She chose the gallery eight years ago after reading an advert for it in a
magazine in South Africa. She immediately borrowed money for the airfare and
flew to Birmingham to exhibit a sculpture there, where it also won an RBSA
award. 

Since then one of her husband's works has been displayed there annually,
without a hitch. 

But this year when the charity's UK representative, Ann Smith, arranged for
its collection following the end of the four-week exhibition, the gallery
couldn't find it. 

"My sister-in-law called round to pick it up last Thursday after the
exhibition closed," said Mrs Smith. "They looked for it and said they just
couldn't put their hands on it at that moment. 

"Then on Saturday they told us it had been stolen. There were only a few
sculptures, and this is a nice big bronze. I did think they might have
noticed it had gone." 

Mrs Smith said said she understood the gallery was not insured for t h e f t
. 

She claimed she was told by the gallery that she "should have read the small
print" and insured the sculpture privately. 

The sculpture had not been sold by the end of the exhibition and it would
have been returned to Mr Reynolds' stock. 

The Valley of a Thousand Hills is the worst AIDS blackspot in Africa where
one in three adults are HIV positive. 

As well as raising funds for the orphanage, money from the sculpture sales
also goes to support foster care centres in remote areas in the region which
are run by grandmothers or teenage girls because the 18-45 generation are
all dead. 

Mrs Reynolds said yesterday: "Two thousand pounds is a fantastic sum of
money in Rands and this could have been used to save hundreds of lives in
KwaZuluNatal and bring love and comfort to abandoned children. We are deeply
saddened by this sick and callous theft." 

Mrs Smith said they would have reservations about exhibiting at the gallery
in future. 

She added "We would just like to say to whoever took it to search their
hearts. Can they really do this to someone who has been orphaned through
AIDs?" 

Nobody from the gallery was available for comment. 

* The figurine has the number 4/50 engraved on it. Anyone with information
on the theft can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. 
 



From museum-security at museum-security.org  Fri Jul  8 10:52:43 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet)
Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2005 10:52:43 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] Ethiopia discovers 30 million years old fossils 
Message-ID: <20050708085245.XNUO14947.amsfep13-int.chello.nl@cremers>


 
     Ethiopia discovers 30 million years old fossils 
      BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jul 07, 2005 



      Text of report in English by pro-Ethiopian government Walta 
Information Centre website on 7 July 



      Addis Ababa, 7 July: The Authority for Research and Conservation of 
Cultural Heritages said remains of plant and animal specimen estimated to be

30 million years old have been unearthed in Ethiopia. 



      Archaeology and palaeoantropology department head with the authority, 
Dr Yonas Beyene told Walta Information Centre on Tuesday [5 July] that the 
animal and plant fossils ranging up to 30 million years and 500,000 years 
old stone tools were discovered at Chilga, middle Awash, Melkakuntire, and 
Fejej areas [Central Ethiopia]. 



      Dr Yonas said detailed analysis was still under way on 28 and 30 
million years old animal and plant fossils discovered in Chilga, Gonder 
areas. 



      He said stone tools ranging from four million years to 100,000 years 
were also discovered in Milechifra, Gona, Dikak and Sidima in Awash valley, 
at Galili in Somali state [southwest], Cheleleka in West Hararghe and 
Melkakuntre in West Shewa zone [central]. 



      Six studies focused on the life style, the settlement pattern as well 
as cultural civilization and technological aspects of ancient people that 
lived before several million years in prehistoric era have been conducted. 



      Paleoantropological studies would help in understanding the history of

people who left no written document or inscription behind them, Dr Yonas 
said, adding that such studies have been conducted in Kafa-Shaka, Gamo, 
Askersa [southern]and Benishngul-Gumuz [western] in the country. 



      He meanwhile said registration of a site has also been carried out at 
Armufo-dilala in West Shewa, 100 kms away from Addis Ababa where 800 years 
old 18 standing steles depicting human pictures were discovered. 



      Dr Yonas said discussion was held with the local community to conserve

and develop the burial area to which work on administration plan was under 
preparation. 



      The discovery of human specimen found in Omo valley area has helped 
push the history of early hominid prehistoric era from 165,000 years to 
196,000 years, he added. 



      Source: Walta Information Centre website, Addis Ababa, in English 7 
Jul 05 



      C BBC Monitoring 



      _____________________________________________________________________ 

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From museum-security at museum-security.org  Fri Jul  8 11:40:25 2005
From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet)
Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2005 11:40:25 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] FW: finalized programme Copenhagen conference
Message-ID: <20050708094027.NEBB8289.amsfep18-int.chello.nl@cremers>

 
From: Jan Bos [mailto:Jan.Bos at kb.nl] 
Sent: 08 July 2005 11:29
Subject: finalized programme Copenhagen conference

Dear speakers,

Please find enclosed the finalized programme of the IFLA-RBMS preconference
"Responsible Stewardship towards Cultural Heritage Materials", to be held in
Copenhagen on 11 and 12 August. I feel we have a very interesting programme
and I thank you in advance for your contribution. There are still places
available, so please stimulate colleagues in your institutions or country to
subscribe! Information on registration can be found at
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla71/satellite10prg.htm.

I repeat some information which I sent you before. Each presentation is
scheduled to take 20 minutes. Please do not exceed! The Kongelige Bibliotek
is well equipped with technical facilities. Please test your PowerPoint or
other software before the meetings.

Speakers will not be charged a conference fee. They have free entrance to
the conference, including lunch, coffee and tea breaks and reception.

For those who seek accomodations, prereservations have been made in two
hotels for 10-12 August.
Both hotels are in central Copenhagen, near the Kongelige Bibliotek.
- Palace Hotel, www.palace-hotel.dk, (single:1025 DKK; double: 1225 DKK;
excl. breakfast)
- Mermaid Hotel, www.mermaid-hotel.dk, (single: 725 DKK; double: 925 DKK;
incl. breakfast) Make your reservations at these hotels before 10 July and
refer to the preresevations made for the IFLA Preconference.

I'm very much looking forward to meeting you all in Copenhagen.

With best wishes,

Jan Bos
IFLA-RBMS Secretary



Jan Bos

National Library of the Netherlands
Expert Services
STCN & Bibliopolis
PO Box 90407
NL-2509 LK Den Haag

tel.: +31 70 3140336
fax: +31 70 3140655
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From ellie at bruggemansolutions.com  Sat Jul  9 10:46:11 2005
From: ellie at bruggemansolutions.com (Ellie Bruggeman)
Date: Sat, 09 Jul 2005 10:46:11 +0200
Subject: [CPProt.net] India: Rare books missing from Khalsa College Sikh
 History Research Department
Message-ID: <42CF8ED3.8070203@bruggemansolutions.com>

Rare books missing from Khalsa College Sikh History Research Department,
even as intellectuals turn a blind eye
A tale of plunder

Even as the smokescreen resulting from the fire at the Sikh Reference 
Library, Golden Temple Complex, refuses to clear up even after 21 years 
of Operation Bluestar, the community seems to have overlooked 
?plundering? of the equally important Sikh History Research Department 
(SHRD), Khalsa College, till 1984 by its ?own people?.

While the Sikh