From ellie at bruggemansolutions.com Wed Nov 2 21:16:15 2005 From: ellie at bruggemansolutions.com (Ellie Bruggeman) Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2005 21:16:15 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] Argentina: =?windows-1252?q?Contin=FAa_el_robo_de_joyas_prehist?= =?windows-1252?q?=F3ricas?= Message-ID: <43691E8F.9020807@bruggemansolutions.com> Contin?a el robo de joyas prehist?ricas Tesoros argentinos son ofrecidos en EE.UU. Buenos Aires.- Aunque la ley que protege los tesoros prehist?ricos fue aprobada por el Congreso en junio de 2003, una mala redacci?n de la norma y el retraso del Gobierno en la confecci?n de mecanismos de prevenci?n no permiten concretar una defensa eficiente para detener este negocio ilegal, que en Argentina mueve millones de d?lares. As?, en Argentina se alimenta sin pausa el tercer ?negocio? m?s redituable del mundo, luego del tr?fico de drogas y la venta de armas. Pero desde que se implement? la norma, el Estado recuper? 2.700 piezas paleontol?gicas confiscadas a comerciantes, traficantes y turistas, seg?n Pedro Guti?rrez, secretario ejecutivo del Museo Bernardino Rivadavia, donde se hallan las piezas recuperadas. All? hay desde conos de pinos araucaria petrificados -de entre 145 y 175 millones de a?os- hasta restos de invertebrados marinos de la costa sur. La recuperaci?n de las piezas deriv? en la apertura de casi 20 causas y sumarios en la Justicia, aunque sorprendentemente a?n no hay ning?n condenado. *La ?lista roja?* Seg?n Jos? Luis Garrido, asesor legal del museo, el origen de tama?a sinraz?n esta en la reglamentaci?n de la ley, a cargo del Poder Ejecutivo: ?De los diez art?culos sobre penas que tiene la norma, s?lo uno est? reglamentado?, explic?. Pero el problema no termina ah?, ya que a los inconvenientes en el uso efectivo de la norma se les suma la falta de una ?lista roja? nacional de bienes en peligro de ser traficados. La lista es una herramienta de probada eficiencia en otras regiones, y por esto fue incluida en la ley. La tarea de confeccionar la ?lista roja? de objetos arqueol?gicos y paleontol?gicos en peligro de ser contrabandeados recay? en el Instituto Nacional de Antropolog?a y Pensamiento Latinoamericano y en el Museo Bernardino Rivadavia. La lista completa ya fue girada para su publicaci?n al Comit? Argentino de Lucha contra el Tr?fico Il?cito de Bienes Culturales. No obstante, desde Cultura no acusan recibo y se defienden: ?la lista roja todav?a no est? completa?, dijeron. Los especialistas coinciden en que la lista roja es un mecanismo ?til para combatir el tr?fico de tesoros prehist?ricos, aunque no es el ?nico. Tambi?n Interpol Argentina cre? un ?rea de Protecci?n de Bienes Culturales, que junto con las dem?s fuerzas de seguridad nacionales, combate el tr?fico ilegal de objetos prehist?ricos. Sin embargo, como en los grandes negocios ilegales, el combate es una lucha desigual entre un Estado que camina con pies de plomo y una organizaci?n que opera desde las sombras ?con los bolsillos llenos?. (NA) *Concientizar a la poblaci?n* La ley provincial N? 7.500, de protecci?n de patrimonio hist?rico y arqueol?gico, es un instrumento de gran utilidad para frenar el tr?fico de piezas arqueol?gicas, afirma Jorgelina Garc?a Asc?rate. Actualmente, una comisi?n trabaja en la reglamentaci?n de la norma. Seg?n la directora del Instituto de Arqueolog?a de la UNT y colaboradora de la Secretar?a de Cultura de la Provincia, desde la aprobaci?n de la ley (en febrero de este a?o) se reciben menos denuncias de ?huaqueo? que en ?pocas anteriores. Destac? adem?s la importancia de concientizar a la poblaci?n, sobre todo en los municipios donde hay yacimientos, para que evite que restos arqueol?gicos vayan a parar a manos de particulares o salgan del pa?s. La campa?a de concientizaci?n, sostiene, est? dando resultados entre los pobladores de los Valles, pero no entre los coleccionistas. Las denuncias sobre robo de piezas arqueol?gicas o paleontol?gicas pueden hacerse en la Direcci?n de Patrimonio Hist?rico, en la Secretar?a de Cultura (San Mart?n 251). *Todo con una computadora* Buenos Aires.- Basta s?lo con tener una computadora y una tarjeta de cr?dito para comprar en Estados Unidos tesoros prehist?ricos encontrados en Argentina. Dos son los sitios, que pertenecen a la empresa norteamericana Extinctions Inc., que ofrecen f?siles vegetales y animales encontrados en el pa?s: www.fossilplants.com y www.dinostore.com. En el primer sitio se ofrece un cono de araucaria -recolectado en Santa Cruz-, petrificado, por 495 d?lares. Con s?lo poner la palabra ?Argentina? en el buscador de cualquiera de las dos p?ginas se puede apreciar un listado de 22 piezas de restos f?siles encontrados en el pa?s. A ello se suman los foros, los sitios en Europa y el tr?fico de piezas m?s grandes y valiosas que, seg?n los expertos, no se venden ?a la luz? de la web. http://www.lagaceta.com.ar/vernotae.asp?id_nota=134139 From ellie at bruggemansolutions.com Wed Nov 2 21:30:45 2005 From: ellie at bruggemansolutions.com (Ellie Bruggeman) Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2005 21:30:45 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] Venezuela: Arte sacro en riesgo de =?iso-8859-1?q?extinci=F3n?= Message-ID: <436921F5.6010207@bruggemansolutions.com> CONSERVACION / Es necesario realizar un inventario de las obras sacras del pa?s Arte sacro en riesgo de extinci?n Tallas, retablos y cuadros de las iglesias en Am?rica Latina en el olvido Alfredo Armas Alfonzo, en un art?culo publicado en la revista El Farol del a?o 1962, denunci? que "incurias y depredaciones han determinado la suerte y el destino del patrimonio art?stico-religioso venezolano, su ruina y su empobrecimiento" provocaron que se convirtiera en "factor de comercio, en material para la incineraci?n devastadora o basura arqueol?gica". Juan Luis Delmont, en el libro Una inmaculada criolla relata que Monse?or Francisco Jos? Iturriza Guill?n, fundador del Museo Diocesano de Coro, dec?a que hab?a empezado a formar la colecci?n del museo recorriendo los patios traseros de las casas, buscando piezas abandonadas en corrales y dep?sitos. Esta situaci?n provoc? que, adem?s de deterioro, las piezas olvidadas se hayan convertido en blanco f?cil para el mercado negro. Seg?n Mar?a del Mar Seijo, representante de Interpol ante el Comit? Venezolano contra el Tr?fico Il?cito de Bienes Culturales, en entrevista a El Universal destac? que el arte sacro "es uno de los m?s expoliados en Venezuela y Am?rica Latina". Los investigadores se?alan que existe desconocimiento sobre el valor de muchos de los cuadros, tallas y otros ornamentos de las iglesias latinoamericanas. Estas piezas encargadas a artistas de la ?poca han sido relegadas al olvido. Para Alvaro Gonz?lez, presidente de la Fundaci?n de Conservaci?n del Patrimonio Cultural y encargado del proyecto de restauraci?n de La inmaculada, una talla del siglo XVIII perteneciente a la colecci?n del Banco Mercantil, "es necesario realizar un inventario de las piezas sacras del pa?s". El conocimiento del patrimonio eclesi?stico existente, "el cual incluye retablos, las tallas en madera y bronce, los cuadros y los documentos religiosos, es un elemento importante para garantizar su conservaci?n y evitar que puedan caer en manos del hampa". El valor de las obras, muchas veces desconocido por sus propietarios, no es una informaci?n que resulta ingenua para las bandas organizadas dedicadas al robo de bienes culturales, "ellos conocen muy bien de qu? se trata", destaca Gonz?lez. La necesidad de conservar estas valiosas piezas "es un deber con las generaciones futuras", pero la restauraci?n es un proceso que debe "contar con un proceso curatorial en el que participen incluso cient?ficos, es necesario tener un criterio muy profesional al momento de intervenirlas". No ha sido nada sorprendente el hallazgo de cuadros retocados por los propios p?rrocos o "vecinos del lugar", relata Gonz?lez. "Muchas veces las personas actuando de buena fe, han ocasionado da?os al patrimonio". *Historia de restauraci?n *Iris Rangel, miembro de la Asociaci?n Civil para el Rescate del Patrimonio Hist?rico de Venezuela (Apahive) lleva adelante una lucha tit?nica para lograr la restauraci?n de la obra La dormici?n de Santa Rosal?a de Palermo un cuadro que data del siglo XVIII y que pertenece a la parroquia Santa Rosal?a en el centro de Caracas. En una conversaci?n con el p?rroco anterior, Rangel se enter? de su existencia, "El me habl? del cuadro y me dijo que quer?a recuperarlo". La presidenta de Apahive exhort? a la restauradora M?lida Mago, quien ha llevado adelante proyectos de restauraci?n en el Museo Sacro de Caracas, para que evaluara la pieza. El diagn?stico de Mago revel? que "se trata de un cuadro de 1,65 x 1,03 metros, con un marco que posee borde de oro y magn?ficas decoraciones". La especialista destac? su calidad pict?rica, y hall? "roturas y parches rojos en el lienzo original, fue previamente intervenida, posee residuos, manchas y p?rdidas ocasionadas por la acci?n de los insectos que sobrepasan los 200 agujeros". La actividad de los insectos en la zona del Caribe "es voraz" afirm? Mago, por eso es que el cuadro presenta tantas perforaciones. El estudio preliminar realizado por la restauradora no determin? el autor de la pieza. La restauradora necesita ejecutar otros an?lisis sobre el lienzo antes de comenzar con la recuperaci?n. Por su parte, Iris Rangel present? el proyecto ante el Parlamento Andino y Fundapatrimonio para recuperar la obra, pero a?n espera que la instituci?n municipal de conservaci?n patrimonial apruebe los recursos para iniciar el pro ceso. El proyecto tiene algo m?s de dos a?os en los archivos de Fundapatrimonio, "me prometieron que iban a incluirlo en el presupuesto del a?o 2006, solo deseo que as? sea", se?ala Rangel, quien no deja de ir y venir para lograr rescatar esta hermosa pieza colonial. http://deportes.eluniversal.com/2005/10/31/til_art_31312A.shtml From director at heritagewatch.org Fri Nov 4 03:24:31 2005 From: director at heritagewatch.org (Dougald O'Reilly) Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 09:24:31 +0700 Subject: [CPProt.net] story Message-ID: <2a6110f19a0677e3fdadc487f78be7ae@heritagewatch.org> ?Grave Looters Still Supplying Steady Demand? Cambodia Daily 31 October 2005 ? The looting of ancient graves in Banteay Meanchey and Oddar Meanchey province is continuing unabated, several police and government officials said Sunday. ? Yorth Ray, deputy police chief of Banteay Meanchey?s Thma Pouk district, said people from neighboring Svay Chek district have been discretly looting graves in his district for at least three years. ? ?We have measures to stop them,? he said. ?We will go and investigate this case and crack down on them early this week.? ? Yorth Ray said some of the looters had been detained and ?educated? but they simply continue looting in other communes or districts. ? ?They don?t profit much.. Some don?t make any money at all,? Yorth Ray said. ?But some are lucky and find the graves of rich people.? ? Ministry of Culture Secretary of State Chuch Phoeurn said much of the looting has moved from Banteay Meanchey to Oddar Meanchey. He said he and other ministry officials tried to stop looting in Banteay Meanchey?s Phum Snay several years ago but that their efforts may have been in vain. ? ?We went to Phum Snay during the day to stop the digging, but they continued digging at night,? he said. ?Everything was destroyed in the end, and now they are digging in Oddar Meanchey.? ? But he stressed that it was wealthy buyers?not poor villagers?who were the root of the problem. ? ?Rich people buy antiquities and ask people to dig up ancient graves for them,? he said. ?If there is no buyer, there are no diggers.? ? He said his ministry had repeatedly asked local officials to take action to stop looting, but that so far little has been done. The ministry, he added, might file a complaint against the local authorities themselves. ? ?Provincial authorities are responsible for enforcing the laws,? he said. ? Banteay Meanchey province deputy police chief Sam Chit insisted that looting was on the wane. ? ?We have very few places where people are digging graves,? he said. ? Yoem Thim, deputy governor of Oddar Meanchey province, also claimed that there is no more digging in his province since police cracked down on looters in Banteay Ampil district last month. ? He said more than 30 people in the district were arrested, detained for two days, and educated about why looting is wrong. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 2488 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://duvel.te.verweg.com/pipermail/cpprot/attachments/20051104/e9a5bc31/attachment.bin From museum-security at museum-security.org Fri Nov 4 06:53:33 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 06:53:33 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] November 10th Program: Recovery of Nazi-Looted Art; History and Latest Developments Message-ID: <200511040554.jA45semY010614@smtp-vbr13.xs4all.nl> ________________________________ From: E. Randol Schoenberg [mailto:randols at bslaw.net] Sent: 31 October 2005 19:23 To: E. Randol Schoenberg Subject: November 10th Program Importance: High Beverly Hills Bar Association Barristers COMMITTEE FOR THE ARTS CFTA is proud to present Recovery of Nazi-Looted Art; History and Latest Developments November 10, 2005 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. University Synagogue 11960 Sunset Boulevard Brentwood Hear the real stories of tragedy, intrigue and triumph behind the cases from the attorneys who are helping to shape the law on the recovery of art stolen during the Holocaust. Speakers : E. Randol Schoenberg Partner Burris & Schoenberg, LLP Lead counsel in Altmann v. Republic of Austria, seeking the return of six paintings valued at $200 million from Austria. Steven E. Thomas Partner Irell & Manella, LLP Legal advisor on the purchase, collection, auction and sale of fine art and cultural property. Presentation will include slide show of photographs and records (preserved by the Nazis) that are being used by lawyers and art experts to trace stolen artwork. Who should attend: This program is open to the public, but is a must for collectors, investors, attorneys, dealers, artists, art and law students, and anyone interested in art and justice! Registration: 6:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Kristallnacht Commemoration 7:00 p.m. - 7:20 p.m. Program: 7:20 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Question and answer period at the end. Reception: 8:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Food and drinks. Parking: Complimentary Parking is available at University Synagogue Price: FREE for members of University Synagogue $10 ($15 at the door) for the general public $25 ($35 at the door) for BHBA members wishing to receive MCLE credit $30 ($40 at the door) for non-BHBA members wishing to receive MCLE credit MINIMUM 24 HOURS - Refund with 48 hours notice - Raincheck with 24 hours notice Program Co-Chairs: Irena Raskin, Esq. Mark Pearl, Esq. To REGISTER for this program: Print and FAX this flyer to (310) 601-2423 or mail it to BHBA, Post Office Box 7277, Beverly Hills, CA 90212-7277 Online registration is only for attorneys seeking MCLE credit only http://bhba.org/event.htm If you would like to receive flyers by mail or to register by phone, call (310) 601-BHBA ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------COMMITTEE FOR THE ARTS " Recovery of Nazi-Looted Art" November 10, 2005 Name:_______________________________________ BHBA Member______ Bar#____________ Firm:_______________________________________________________________________ _____ Address:____________________________________________________________________ _____ Zip:____________________________ Phone:_________________________________ ____Enclosed is my check for $___________ Make checks payable to BHBA _____Charge $__________________ on my _______Visa ______MasterCard ______AMEX Card#_____________________________________________ Exp:________________ 1.5 HOURS MCLE CREDIT: This activity has been approved for Minimum Continuing Legal Education credit by the State Bar of California in the amount of 1.5 hours and the Beverly Hills Bar Association certifies that this activity conforms to the standards for approved education activities prescribed by the rules and regulations of the State Bar of California governing minimum continuing legal education. To find out more about the CFTA and our upcoming programs, please visit our web page at www.bhba.org/Committees_Sections/CFTA.htm MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "www.bhba.org" claiming to be From museum-security at museum-security.org Fri Nov 4 08:25:32 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 08:25:32 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] UK: 'Don't Buy Looted Goods By Accident' Message-ID: <200511040726.jA47QddF038319@smtp-vbr9.xs4all.nl> 25 October 2005 'Don't Buy Looted Goods By Accident' David Lammy Tells Heritage Bodies Museums, libraries and archives must work to ensure that they do not accidentally acquire material that has been stolen or looted, Culture Minister David Lammy said today. New Guidelines published today by the DCMS, urge cultural institutions to: ask for evidence, or provenance, of the object?s history before acquiring it; refuse to accept anything when there are doubts about its origins; and seek expert advice when they are unsure of how to progress. The guidelines, which are supported by the all the leading bodies in the area, follow increasing concern regarding the trade in illicit cultural property. The most recent statistics have British legitimate art sales standing at ?4.2 billion per annum. This represents around 25% share of the global market. It is impossible to assess accurately the size of the illicit trade market. Minister for Culture, David Lammy MP, said: ?These guidelines will give museums, libraries and archives access to the advice which will ensure that they can continue to expand their wonderful collections safe in the knowledge that they are doing so legally and ethically.? Alan Pugh, Welsh Assembly Government Culture Minister, said: "The clear advice contained in these guidelines will help highlight this serious issue to ensure that artefacts of the highest quality are able to be enjoyed by visitors to our museums, libraries and archives." Maurice Davies, Deputy Director of the Museums Association, said: "If museums and galleries follow these guidelines they will be able to avoid illicitly traded artefacts. I'm delighted that the guidelines set the standard that museums and galleries are now expected to meet." Chairman of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, Mark Wood, said: ?I very much welcome these guidelines. They mark a significant step in the steady progress museums, libraries and archives have been making to ensure that as collections develop and diversify, it is on the basis of the highest ethical standards. It is no longer acceptable for our public institutions to collect or borrow material which comes from an unethical source. This document gives the clear guidance which all institutions will welcome and want to implement.? Notes to Editors 1. The guidance is accessible here or a hard copy can be made available if you write to Owain Lloyd-James, Cultural Property Unit, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2-4 Cockspur Street, London, SW1Y 5DH. 2. The Guidelines were drafted by a working group, under the Chairmanship of Maurice Davies, Deputy Director of the Museums Association and member of the Illicit Trade Advisory Panel. The group contained representatives from museums, libraries and archives. Press Enquiries: 020 7211 6272 Out of hours telephone pager no: 07699 751153 Public Enquiries: 020 7211 6200 From museum-security at museum-security.org Fri Nov 4 08:28:20 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 08:28:20 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] Combating Illicit Trade: Due Diligence Guidelines for Museums, Libraries and Archives on Collecting and Borrowing Cultural Material Message-ID: <200511040729.jA47TRUg002506@smtp-vbr8.xs4all.nl> Combating Illicit Trade: Due Diligence Guidelines for Museums, Libraries and Archives on Collecting and Borrowing Cultural Material Combating Illicit Trade: Due Diligence Guidelines for Museums, Libraries and Archives on Collecting and Borrowing Cultural Material (PDF 418kb). The guidelines aim to assist museums, libraries and archives when considering the acquisition by purchase, gift or bequest of items of cultural property. They contain due diligence procedures to determine whether a proposed acquisition or loan of cultural objects is ethically and legally acceptable. The guidelines were developed following discussions at the Seminar for Museum Directors held at DCMS on 19 November 2003. The guidelines were drafted by a sub-group of the Illicit trade Advisory Panel made up of representatives from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, the Museums Association, the National Art Collections Fund, the British Museum, the V&A, the Ashmolean Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Society of Antiquaries of London, York Museums Trust, the Manchester Museum, the British Library and the National Archives. In addition, these guidelines have been endorsed by The Museums Association, the National Art Collections Fund, The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (including the MLA/V&A Purchase Fund), The National Fund for Acquisitions (Scotland) and the Society of Museum Archaeologists. The funding bodies expect museums to adhere to these guidelines when applying for funding for acquisitions. These documents are available online in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format. http://www.culture.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/721E9365-38BE-4AF8-BF8D-BE5B4BF8B21C/ 0/CombatingIllicitTrade.pdf Or: http://snipurl.com/jh73 From museum-security at museum-security.org Fri Nov 4 08:55:49 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 08:55:49 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] Truck Driver Sentenced For Basquiat TheftAllegedly Stole The Painting From A Warehouse Message-ID: <200511040756.jA47uuxf068150@smtp-vbr3.xs4all.nl> Truck Driver Sentenced For Basquiat TheftAllegedly Stole The Painting From A Warehouse (New York - AP, November 3, 2005) - A truck driver who pleaded guilty to stealing a $1.5 million Jean-Michel Basquiat painting from a warehouse at John F. Kennedy International Airport has been sentenced to one to three years in prison, the Queens district attorney announced Thursday. Anthony Porcelli Jr., 35, pleaded guilty to grand larceny in September. Prosecutors said he drove away with a wooden crate containing the untitled acrylic-and-oil painting on May 4. Authorities said he was identified by police through surveillance tapes. The painting had been on its way to a buyer in Rome who had paid more than $1.5 million for it at Christie's auction house in New York. It was found at a trucking company warehouse in Elizabeth, New Jersey. A message left for Porcelli's attorney, Robert DePalma, was not immediately returned Thursday night, but DePalma said in September that the painting was not damaged and that his client had cooperated with authorities and helped them retrieve it. Basquiat, a darling of art critics who was praised for his strong use of color and the social commentary in his work, died in 1988 at age 27 of a heroin overdose. From museum-security at museum-security.org Fri Nov 4 08:55:49 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 08:55:49 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] Smuggling Ring Used Sotheby's 110 Times, Italian Probes Show Message-ID: <200511040756.jA47uuxg068150@smtp-vbr3.xs4all.nl> Smuggling Ring Used Sotheby's 110 Times, Italian Probes Show Nov. 4, 2005 (Bloomberg) -- A smuggling ring put at least 110 Italian antiquities up for sale at Sotheby's Holdings Inc. and supplied 96 looted objects to 10 museums around the world, according to charges contained in Italian indictments and a judge's sentence of a convicted smuggler. The global scale of the alleged ring's trade -- worth tens of millions of dollars and involving museums from Tokyo to Toledo, Ohio -- is outlined in a series of cases that Italian prosecutors are bringing, in part to keep looted archaeological artifacts from auction houses and museums, the papers obtained by Bloomberg News show. ``A critical point has been reached, where the laxness, and sometimes the complicity of some museums in the U.S., and elsewhere, has been exposed,'' said Colin Renfrew, 68, a Cambridge University archaeology professor and member of the U.K. House of Lords. ``The current trial is an important one.'' Sotheby's, the largest publicly traded auction house, helped the alleged ring launder looted artifacts, Judge Guglielmo Muntoni of the Rome Tribunal wrote in sentencing Roman dealer Giacomo Medici, 67, to 10 years in prison for receiving and exporting stolen antiquities. ``Selling and re-buying the same artifacts, Medici and his associates were able to trade in `clean' works of art, sellable to whomever they wanted at the prices they themselves set at auction,'' Muntoni said in his decision filed May 12, which catalogs 110 items Medici put up for sale from 1983 through 1994 at Sotheby's in London and New York. Medici sold stolen antiquities at Sotheby's ``thanks to the absolute absence of controls on the part of the auction house and the complicity offered by its employees,'' Muntoni wrote. Sales Halted Sotheby's isn't charged with any crime, and Medici, who says he's innocent, isn't serving his sentence while he appeals. Sotheby's spokeswoman Helen Griffith in London said the company conducted a 10-month review of its antiquities business in 1997. ``It found no substantive deviation from the company's longstanding policy that employees may not violate or assist in the violation of the laws of any country,'' she said. The review came after U.K. journalist Peter Watson's 1997 book ``Sotheby's: Inside Story'' and an accompanying television documentary used company documents and hidden-camera reporting to show how the auction house facilitated smuggling and sold antiquities known to have been stolen from tombs. As a result of the review, Sotheby's stopped holding regular antiquities sales in London and appointed a worldwide compliance officer, Griffith said. Watson's report and testimony were among the evidence used to convict Medici, and will also be presented at coming trials in Rome, the court documents say. Prosecutors in Rome are building cases against at least 11 others besides Medici, including the former antiquities curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Marion True, and an assortment of art dealers and restorers, the documents show. Rome Trial True, 56, goes on trial Nov. 16 along with U.S. dealer Robert Hecht, 86, who lives in Paris and New York. They are charged with conspiracy and receiving stolen antiquities. Hecht is also charged with illicit export. Hecht denied the charges, and the Getty, speaking for True who declined comment, has said it expects her to be exonerated. Prosecutors describe Hecht and Medici as the ringleaders of a smuggling conspiracy that supplied at least 10 of the world's biggest museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, according to Medici's sentence and the indictments of True and Hecht. While the museums aren't charged with crimes, the cases should lead them to strengthen their acquisitions policies and return looted items to Italy, says Giuseppe Proietti, head of the Italian Culture Ministry's department of research, innovation and organization. Under Pressure ``I hope it puts pressure on them,'' Proietti said in an interview, singling out museums with public funding, such as the Metropolitan. The Met gets money from New York City and New York State, and its buildings are owned by the city, which provides it with heat and power, according to the Met web site. ``When we talk about prestigious museums with the public trust and funding, you have to pay attention to how they use this money,'' he says. At least 85 items that came from looting or smugglers have been tracked to six U.S. museums, the records show. The Getty has acquired or handled at least 52 such antiquities, according to charges against Hecht, Medici and True that were contained in Italian court documents. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has eight such pieces, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts has 22, and the Princeton University Art Museum in New Jersey, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, Ohio, each have one, the documents say. European Museums In Europe, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen has six allegedly looted items, all of which came through Medici, including the decorations of an Etruscan chariot for which Hecht is also charged, the documents show. Munich's Antikensammlungen also has a kylix, or cup, and a krater pot for mixing wine, each of which is included in the charges against Hecht, his indictment shows. In Japan, the Miho Museum near Kyoto has one allegedly looted piece, a 2,000-year-old bronze statuette, and a museum of ancient Mediterranean art in Tokyo has two pieces, both Greek-style pots, documents in Medici's case say. Italian judges haven't charged the museums with any crime. MFA spokeswoman Dawn Griffin in Boston said that, excluding coin collections, it has at least 116 objects that originated with Hecht, a number reported earlier this week by the Boston Globe. Including coins, the MFA has at least 1,317 items from Hecht, she said. ``Does that mean it's looted?'' Griffin asked. ``We need specifics and we would need to be contacted by the Italian government.'' Met, Getty, Princeton A Metropolitan spokesman, Harold Holzer, declined to discuss specific objects. ``In February 2005, the Metropolitan Museum wrote the Italian Ministry of Culture requesting a full discussion of works in the Metropolitan's collection that were the subject of the Ministry's concern,'' the museum said in a statement. ``No meeting has yet been scheduled.'' The J. Paul Getty Trust's board of trustees said Oct. 29 it was forming a committee and hiring outside lawyers to review the acquisitions of objects in its antiquities collection. Ruta Smithson, a spokeswoman for the Princeton museum, says it has provided the Italian authorities with information about the object named in Hecht's indictment, a psykter, which is a vase for cooling wine. The Toledo museum's spokeswoman, Jordan Rundgren, said, ``Our museum has not been contacted by the Italian government.'' The Cleveland museum's director of external affairs, Donna Brock, didn't respond to requests for comment. Museum Cooperating In Denmark, the Copenhagen museum said it dealt with Hecht some 30 years ago. ``We have been in touch with the Italian authorities and have exchanged all information that was requested, so this case now doesn't affect us,'' Jette Christiansen, museum keeper at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, said in a telephone interview. Spokespeople for the Munich museum, including the head of administration, Eva Maria Prochazka, didn't respond to requests for comment. The museums in Japan, where it was a national holiday Thursday, couldn't be immediately reached for comment. To contact the reporter on this story: Vernon Silver in Rome vtsilver at bloomberg.net. Last Updated: November 3, 2005 20:32 EST From museum-security at museum-security.org Fri Nov 4 09:01:29 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 09:01:29 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] Insider theft: Former space museum chief convicted of theft (Ary led Kansas Cosmosphere for 27 years) Message-ID: <200511040802.jA482a8l032074@smtp-vbr12.xs4all.nl> Former space museum chief convicted of theft Ary led Kansas Cosmosphere for 27 years The Associated Press Updated: 11:06 a.m. ET Nov. 2, 2005 WICHITA, Kan. - The former head of a Kansas space museum was found guilty Tuesday of stealing and selling spacesuit components and other artifacts that belonged to the institution and NASA. Max Ary, former president and chief executive of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, was convicted on 12 federal counts, including theft and fraud. The most serious charges carry up to 10 years in prison. He will be sentenced Jan. 19. Ary, 55, was instrumental in transforming a small-town planetarium into the nationally recognized museum, which he led for 27 years. He was convicted of stealing data recording tape from the Apollo 15 mission, an Air Force One control panel, spacesuit components, a lunar sample bag, and personal items carried into space by astronauts. Those included a Kansas flag given to the museum by astronaut Charles Duke Jr. Ary acknowledged he sold artifacts that belonged to NASA and the Cosmosphere but said they had been accidentally mingled with items in his own collection, which he said was made up of items he obtained as gifts or through trades. "At no time while employed at the Cosmosphere did I ever intend to cheat or do anything improper for the Cosmosphere," he told the jury. Former astronaut Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, testified on Ary's behalf, saying he gave space artifacts to the Cosmosphere because of his trust in Ary. "Max was the reason I even considered sending some artifacts to the Cosmosphere," Cernan said. Ary's attorney, Lee Thompson, would not comment about the verdict. Ary left the Cosmosphere in 2002 to be executive director of the Kirkpatrick Science and Air Space Museum at Omniplex in Oklahoma City. He was placed on leave from that job after being indicted in April. His contract expired in August. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. C 2005 MSNBC.com URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9897569/ From museum-security at museum-security.org Fri Nov 4 09:10:53 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 09:10:53 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] South Africa: Confiscated museum tanks may have been used before seizure Message-ID: <200511040812.jA48C0TF039396@smtp-vbr5.xs4all.nl> Confiscated museum tanks may have been used before seizure - minister November 3, 2005 Safety and security minister Charles Nqakula has suggested that the tanks confiscated earlier this year in a controversial raid on the SA National Museum of Military History in Johannesburg had been used shortly before the seizures. Speaking at a parliamentary briefing, Nqakula said "soft mud" had been found on the tyres of some of the vehicles removed from the building during a joint raid by the military police and the SA Police Service in January. He later tried to retract the statement and asked that the media not report the new information, warning that it could "come up as evidence". It was not clear whether this meant that museum officials arrested briefly after the raid would be prosecuted. Nqakula was speaking about loopholes in the Firearms Control Act and referred to some museums which had been found to be storing functional R5 rifles. He said police had found both functional weapons and operational tanks at the SA National Museum of Military History. "We are investigating a case as you know of the SA National Military Museum where we found these functional weapons, where we found tanks - also operational - and somebody said when they looked at the tracks on some of the trucks in that military museum ... there was soft mud on them. "Now we are not sure whether it rains in museums but it is those things we want to ensure don't happen, because people have been abusing the loopholes that we have in the Firearms Control Act," Nqakula said. Questioned by a journalist on the statement, he added: "No man, that thing is not meant for publication. I'll tell you why, it may come up in evidence. "So really, I wouldn't want us to report on that." The raid apparently followed a tip-off to authorities that the museum was holding "war capable" weapons and vehicles. A Ratel infantry combat vehicle, an Eland 60, a Ferret and an Eland 90, collectively worth R120 million, were removed, along with a number of other weapons on display. The museum director and two curators were arrested for possession of suspected stolen military equipment, but released without charges. The SANDF said this week that the probe was ongoing and sub judice. http://www.capetimes.co.za/ From museum-security at museum-security.org Fri Nov 4 09:26:02 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 09:26:02 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] The Getty gets serious Message-ID: <200511040827.jA48R9K9037051@smtp-vbr13.xs4all.nl> EDITORIAL The Getty gets serious November 2, 2005 HOPING TO DISPEL THE CLOUDS that have gathered over its head, the J. Paul Getty Trust board announced last week that five trustees had formed a special committee to review the Getty Museum's compliance with codes of law and ethics. It's about time. The institution is mired in controversies on both sides of the Atlantic. The Italian and Greek governments are demanding that the Getty return objects that they claim were looted, and Italy is prosecuting the Getty's former curator of antiquities, Marion True. The highly regarded True resigned last month just ahead of revelations about an eyebrow-raising loan in Greece that Getty leaders had known about since 2002. The California attorney general has opened an inquiry into several issues involving Getty Chief Executive Barry Munitz, including his pay, his perks and the sale of Getty land to Munitz's billionaire pal, Eli Broad. And the Getty has become a verbal punching bag for Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who wants to tighten the tax exemption for nonprofits. As we have noted before, the image problems at the Getty ripple across the rest of the art world, as well as nonprofits in general. Put simply, the public's trust in charities is at stake. And the antiquities disputes - a thorny problem shared by several leading museums - demand new safeguards. Creating a review panel is a first step toward addressing those issues. It helps that the members have a good track record outside the Getty when it comes to corporate governance, particularly committee head and board Chairman John Biggs, former chief executive of retirement fund manager TIAA-CREF. But that's not enough. Their work won't be credible without the involvement of independent experts. To that end, the committee has hired attorney Ronald L. Olson, a legal heavyweight with extensive experience serving on or advising corporate and nonprofit boards. Although he has indirect links to some of the committee members, Olson has no formal connection to the Getty. Biggs pledged that Olson and his firm will have "a completely free hand." The trustees view much of the controversy around Munitz as unwarranted, yet the committee plans to have Olson review every bit of spending by the CEO. It plans similar scrutiny of the museum's antiquities policies and the art it has acquired. The committee now needs to stay out of Olson's way. The institution has taken a lot of hits. He's got plenty of ground to cover. LA Times From museum-security at museum-security.org Fri Nov 4 09:39:23 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 09:39:23 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] Transylvania librarian files suit in 2004 assault Message-ID: <200511040840.jA48eUmd056977@smtp-vbr14.xs4all.nl> Transylvania librarian files suit in 2004 assault MEN USED STUN GUN ON HER IN ROBBERY By Beth Musgrave And Cassondra Kirby HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITERS A Transylvania University librarian who was stunned, tied up and blindfolded during a December 2004 robbery of rare books and art is suing the robbers for damages. Betty Jean Gooch, a special-collections librarian for the university, filed a lawsuit yesterday in Fayette Circuit Court asking a judge to award damages for physical, mental and emotional suffering, medical expenses and loss of wages. According to court documents and hearings, Warren C. Lipka and Eric Borsuk went to the Transy special collections library on Dec. 17. Before stealing pencil sketches by John James Audubon, a first edition of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, and two manuscripts from the 15th and 16th centuries, the men used a stun gun on Gooch, tied her up and placed a knit cap over her head and eyes so she couldn't see. Charles T. Allen II drove the getaway car. Spencer W. Reinhard, who attended Transylvania at the time, did not participate in the robbery but was in contact with the other men by cell phone. The men pleaded guilty in March to charges of robbery, conspiracy and theft of major artwork and are scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 6 in federal court in Lexington. All four were named in the civil lawsuit. The suit says the men assaulted, battered and falsely imprisoned Gooch, which has caused her emotional and physical distress. "This has been a traumatic ordeal for her," Lee Roland, Gooch's attorney, said yesterday. "These young men need to compensate their victim." Roland said Gooch still works at the library. Two of the men's lawyers said their clients were not surprised by Gooch's legal action. Adele Brown, who represents Lipka, said her client believes Gooch should be compensated for her ordeal. "He is extremely remorseful for the pain he has caused," Brown said. But Brown and Fred Peters, who represents Borsuk, said U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer Coffman can also order that the men pay Gooch restitution as part of the mens' sentence. Both Lipka and Borsuk are working but have little or no money, their lawyers said. It may take years for them to pay restitution to Gooch. Lawyers for Allen and Reinhard could not be reached for comment. The men, all 20-year-olds at the time, were arrested after they took the stolen items to Christie's auction house in New York in late December. A clerk there became suspicious, and the deal ultimately did not go through. The stolen works were returned to the library after the men were arrested in February. http://www.kentucky.com/ From museum-security at museum-security.org Fri Nov 4 09:39:23 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 09:39:23 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] Housecleaning at Egypt museum Message-ID: <200511040840.jA48eUme056977@smtp-vbr14.xs4all.nl> Housecleaning at Egypt museum By Michael Slackman The New York Times WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2005 CAIRO Egyptian archaeologists, who normally scour the desert in search of treasures of the past, have discovered that one of the greatest caches of antiquities may well be in the basement of the Egyptian Museum. For the past century, artifacts have been stored away in crates there and forgotten, often allowed to disintegrate in the dank, dusty cavern. Forgotten until now. The recent theft and recovery of three statues from the basement have prompted antiquity officials in Egypt to increase an effort already under way to complete the first comprehensive inventory of artifacts in the basement. "For the last 100 years, curators sat down to drink tea, but they did not do their jobs," said Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. "How many artifacts are in the basement? It was awful." Step through a small, Hobbit-sized door, down a steep flight of stairs and through a locked gate. The basement is a maze of arched passageways and bare lightbulbs hanging from decaying wires. It is packed with wooden crates, hundreds of them, sometimes piled floor to ceiling. Cobwebs cling to ancient pottery and tablets engraved with hieroglyphics. Six hundred coffins and 170 mummies have been found so far. No one knows what may have been stolen over the years. Last year, officials reported that 38 golden bracelets from Roman times had vanished from the basement, apparently six years earlier. "It is an accumulation of 100 years of neglect," said Ali Radwan, a professor of Egyptology at Cairo University who took a recent tour of the basement. "It is not appropriate for a country like Egypt to have such miserable storage for its history." The Egyptian Museum is a 104-year-old repository of some of the world's most famous antiquities. Inside, there are the mummified remains of pharaohs, like Ramses II, who died in 1212 B.C. There are the treasures of the young Pharaoh Tutankhamen, the golden chariot and the golden mask. Nearly two years ago, officials hired a company to begin to clean out the basement and convert some of the space into an exhibition area. Last year, Hawass decided that a more precise accounting was needed, so he sent a team of curators to do a complete inventory. It was a slow process in very difficult working conditions. There is little ventilation, poor lighting and dust - lots and lots of dust. So far 22,000 items have been inventoried - about 20 percent of what is actually in the basement, said Sabah Abdel Razek, the curator overseeing the job. The team never knows what it will find when a crate is cracked open. In one, Abdel Razek said, the team discovered parts of the palace of Pharaoh Merenptah, which dates to the 19th Dynasty (1307 B.C. to 1196 B.C.) and was unearthed by a team from the University of Pennsylvania around 1915. "It's like we are excavating," she said. The work was proceeding quietly until early October, when the museum discovered that three statues dating from the Old Kingdom era (2649 B.C. to 2152 B.C.) were missing. Initially, Hawass insisted that the pieces could not have been stolen. But after curators scoured the basement for more than a week, the tourism and antiquities police arrested two men from the cleanup crew. They told the police that the statues were left in a corner for three days so they thought no one wanted them. They smuggled them out of the museum with construction debris, officials said. After all the embarrassing publicity, Hawass decided to declare that it was time - once and for all - to put the basement in order. "The basement is like an antiquities graveyard," he said. One day last month, he took a small group through the basement, including a few journalists, academics and museum officials, to show off his latest project. He promises that within a year, the inventory will be completed and the area transformed into a proper storage facility with shelves and air conditioning. Right now, it is a mess. There are human remains on shelves, human skulls sitting in crates, tablets and amulets and bowls and jars scattered here and there. In one corner, Abdel Razek points out half a dozen intricately painted coffins. When she first entered the area, she said, they were strewn about, and each was covered in such a heavy layer of dirt that it was impossible to tell what it was. A cursory cleaning revealed these to be the coffins of the priests of Amon, the king of the gods. The priests were interred nearly 3,000 years ago. The mummies were discovered in crates nearby. http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/01/news/museum.php Abeer Allam contributed reporting for this article. From museum-security at museum-security.org Fri Nov 4 09:39:23 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 09:39:23 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] De seis millones roban a la iglesia! Message-ID: <200511040840.jA48eUmf056977@smtp-vbr14.xs4all.nl> De seis millones roban a la iglesia! (Publicado: 02/11/05) Zacatecas, Zac.- El p?rroco del Templo de Santo Domingo, Luis Humberto Jara, confirm? que el robo del pasado s?bado a esta iglesia ubicada en la ciudad de Zacatecas, fue superior a seis millones de pesos. * Se llevan ocho cealices y tres alcald?as del siglo XVIII Zacatecas, Zac.- El p?rroco del Templo de Santo Domingo, Luis Humberto Jara, confirm? que el robo del pasado s?bado a esta iglesia ubicada en la ciudad de Zacatecas, fue superior a seis millones de pesos. Precis? que se robaron los ocho c?lices y tres alcanc?as, pero que datan del Siglo XVIII y tienen un valor aproximado de 800 mil pesos cada uno debido a su conformaci?n en oro y lata. El padre consider? que el robo fue cometido por personas profesionales, ya que s?lo decidieron tomar los ocho c?lices, que se guardaban en un armario, as? como el dinero de algunas alcanc?as. La puerta por donde entraron los ladrones, resalt?, nunca fue violada, ya que se abri? con la ?nica llave que se tiene, misma que se encentra en poder de los sacristanes, pero asegur? que no han levantado sospecha alguna estos guardianes por que son personas de confianza. Despu?s de avisar a la Procuradur?a General de Justicia del Estado y al Instituto Nacional de Arte e Historia (INAH), el padre Luis Humberto Jara y personal correspondiente, llevaron a cabo un recuento de los objetos faltantes, por lo que constataron que nunca se sustrajeron obras de arte como pinturas de este recinto. A su vez el director del Instituto Nacional de Arte e Historia de Zacatecas, Jos? Mu?oz Gomilla, calific? de lamentables los acontecimientos en la Iglesia de Santo Domingo. ?El INAH, a trav?s de investigadores y especialistas en la materia, tratan de obtener todas las caracter?sticas del material sustra?do del templo. Hasta el momento no tenemos un dictamen que nos permita saber la certeza de su antig?edad y por consiguiente no hemos se?alado cu?l es el monto econ?mico por el robo?, subray?. Explic? que si estos c?lices llegan a determinarse que forman parte del archivo cultural y constatarse que son del Siglo XVIII, entonces ser? competencia de la Procuradur?a General de la Rep?blica (PGR) su b?squeda y localizaci?n. El director del INAH dijo que es preocupante que se den este tipo de robos, ?se debe difundir a la poblaci?n que este tipo de robos afecta al patrimonio cultural y es un da?o para los zacatecanos y para los mexicanos, por lo que tenemos la responsabilidad de cuidarlos?. Mu?oz Gomilla exhort? a las autoridades eclesi?sticas a que consideren poner un sistema de alarmas en el lugar en donde se ubican estas reliquias o tener un mejor lugar para su protecci?n. Dio a conocer el proyecto Creaci?n de Bienes Muebles en Recintos Religiosos, que consiste en especificar cada uno de los bienes materiales en el exterior e interior de los templos, ?para conocer con cu?les son los bienes art?sticos y lit?rgicos de las iglesias, tenerlos identificados en una base de datos y poder protegerlos?. From museum-security at museum-security.org Fri Nov 4 18:22:04 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 18:22:04 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] =?iso-8859-1?q?Map_thefts=2E_Smiley=B4s_People=2E_T?= =?iso-8859-1?q?he_theft_of_culture_by_and_for_the_rich_?= Message-ID: <200511041723.jA4HN9Jl074586@smtp-vbr13.xs4all.nl> Smiley?s People The theft of culture by and for the rich by Alan Bisbort - November 3, 2005 A rare map of Pennsylvania from 1688, featured on E. Forbes Smiley III?s website: http://hartfordadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:132371 For 17 years, I worked at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. For four of those years, I worked in "Collections Improvement," a department whose job was to make the first full inventory of the General Collections' 20 million items acquired in the 200-year history of the nation's greatest cultural repository. The General Collections occupies 250 miles of shelf space in two different buildings on Capitol Hill. There was a lot of ground to cover and a lot of room where no-goodniks could hide. During my tenure, I became aware of a systematic assault on the collection by users of the library. In fact, a ring of thieves had been razoring out prints with locust-like precision, taking advantage of the open stacks and the trust the library had implicitly extended to its patrons. Entire runs of pages of hand-tinted prints from old folios on botany, zoology, geology, maritime history and exploration were removed and snuck out of the library, later to be sold as "old prints" in area antiquarian venues. Old maps and art prints were removed and sold as well. Indeed, I once came upon the folio that had, prior to the thievery, contained a series of limited-edition signed prints by George Grosz, one of my favorite artists. Nothing remained but the shell of the book and a few grains of dust. Those prints are now hanging on the walls of "collectors" around the country. Eventually, due in part to an, ahem, anonymous tip to the Washington Post -- I knew a Post reporter who was a bibliophile and sent him an urgent detailed dispatch -- the story broke. He did his homework, his devastating series hit the front page, the local TV stations got on it, then the national news, and America's antiquarian secrets were briefly revealed. The two men eventually caught and tried for the crimes -- there were, no doubt, others, these were just the two caught -- were let off with relative impunity, given the enormity of the crime: killing our culture. Both, it turned out, had been fixtures in the rarefied antiquarian circles for years. One of the thieves, in fact, was the accountant for a respected area auction house that dealt in old maps, prints and broadsides. A respected auction house, mind you, still plying its trade 20 years later. I was reminded of all this by William Finnegan's piece in the Oct. 17 New Yorker , about E. Forbes Smiley III, who was recently arrested after having razored out old maps from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University in New Haven. Smiley was one of the elite in the antiquarian trade. With his absurdly patrician name and presumed pedigree, he'd been extended freedom to roam among the finest collections of old books and maps in the country. In short, he was given courtesies and deference that any of the rest of us, though we may be pure as the driven snow, would not be given in 10 lifetimes. That's because, as one print and map dealer told Finnegan, the wealthy buyers of stolen goods "want to associate with old money. They're not comfortable spending $30,000 dealing with some anonymous person. They want you to be someone." Smiley, like another fake Andover/Yale preppie with whom we've become all too familiar in the past five years, was indeed someone. Like the "someones" caught erasing our nation's cultural heritage at the Library of Congress, Smiley was thought to be an honorable person simply because he "came from money." But Smiley is also a common thief, a liar, a fraud. He is, in short, a scumbag, as low and common as a crack dealer. Smiley's case comes on the wings of a major international art scandal involving an antiquities curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Marion True, it turns out, had been knowingly buying artifacts that had been illegally acquired and smuggled from their place of origin -- in a word, "looted." She faces a trial in Rome Nov. 16 on, said the New York Times , "criminal charges of conspiring with two art dealers to acquire millions of dollars' worth of looted antiquities." While the Getty is playing dumb about True's actions, this has been going on for years. True, in fact, was a witness for the prosecution in a 1989 case against Peg Longstreth (nee Goldberg), an Indiana dealer sued by the Republic of Cyprus over some early Christian mosaics she'd acquired that the Getty had coveted. Though ultimately exonerated, Longstreth's life was nearly destroyed. Why? J. Paul Getty is considered "someone." We want your feedback. Email editor at hartfordadvocate.com From museum-security at museum-security.org Fri Nov 4 18:22:04 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 18:22:04 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] NZ police find stolen goddess sculpture Message-ID: <200511041723.jA4HN9Jm074586@smtp-vbr13.xs4all.nl> NZ police find stolen goddess sculpture November 4, 2005 - 4:30PM In Maori lore, Pania of the Reef was a goddess who captured the heart of a chief's son before disappearing into the sea. Last week Pania vanished again - a much-loved 51-year-old bronze statue of the bare-breasted young maiden taken in the dead of night from its seaside location in the eastern New Zealand city of Napier. Some thought she'd taken to the sea once more, with a little help from some mortals. Instead, Pania was found on Friday under some blankets in a shed at a Napier residence with just a few scratches and bumps to show for her ordeal. A 27-year-old man and a woman, 26, were arrested and charged with theft. The sculpture's disappearance unleashed an emotional reaction from Napier residents and local Maori. "That overwhelming outpouring of concern and grief from the community did definitely make a difference," Napier mayor Barbara Arnott said. "People feel a deep commitment to her." The 60kg Pania had been shot in the head before and called a bimbo but never stolen. Flowers and cards were laid at the rock where statue sat and the site received even more visits than usual. Among those devastated by its disappearance was 67-year-old Mei Whaitiri, who as a teenage model was the inspiration for the Pania sculpture in 1954. Arnott received an anonymous letter this week confessing to the theft and promising to return the sculpture if there was no prosecution. She published a reply in the local newspaper asking the thieves to leave the 60kg statue in a safe place for council officers to collect. Police said Friday's discovery was unrelated to the mayor's letter but believed the one she received was genuine. Pania is being kept at a police station for forensic testing. The sculpture is expected within a week to be more securely fixed on the grassy waterfront of the Hawkes Bay city known for its Art Deco architecture. "A visitor to Napier would always go and see Pania," Arnott said. http://www.theage.com.au/ From museum-security at museum-security.org Fri Nov 4 18:22:04 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 18:22:04 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] Italian smuggling case provides evidence Boston Museum of Fine Arts has stolen art Message-ID: <200511041723.jA4HN9Jn074586@smtp-vbr13.xs4all.nl> Italian smuggling case provides evidence MFA has stolen art November 4, 2005 Associated Press BOSTON - Prosecutors preparing for a high-profile antiquities smuggling trial in Italy have produced the strongest evidence yet that the Boston's Museum of Fine Arts acquired stolen art, but museum officials aren't convinced. Italian prosecutors seized Polaroid photographs of three stolen objects - a vase, a jar and a statue - as part of their case against art dealer Robert E. Hecht Jr., who is accused of handling and receiving stolen objects and taking part in a smuggling ring. The three items are now part of the MFA's collection. Hecht and Marion True, former curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum in California, are scheduled to go to trial in Rome on Nov. 16. Both have maintained their innocence. According to prosecutors, the photos show the items dirty from being pulled out of the ground, The Boston Globe reported. "It is the smoking gun," said Ricardo J. Elia, a Boston University archaeology professor who has researched the trade in antiquities from southern Italy. "It means they came out of the ground; they were looted and cleaned up and sold. That's about as strong a case as you're going to find." Reached by phone in New York, Hecht said he was innocent and denied selling any stolen art to the MFA. He said he was angry about the charges and felt he wasn't treated fairly. "You know the Bible, don't you?" he said. "When they were going to take Jesus to be crucified, he said, 'Forgive them for they know not what they do.'" The photos, gathered during Italy's decade-long effort to force American museums to return looted art, led investigators to compile an additional list of 29 objects in the MFA's collection they suspect were taken from ancient sites. MFA officials said Thursday they hadn't been contacted by Italian officials and have no evidence anything in their collection is stolen. "There's absolutely nothing we've seen or heard that proves anything to us," said Katherine Getchell, the MFA deputy director. "We would be more than happy to hear directly from the Italian government and if, through that process, we find that any object in our collection has been stolen, we will absolutely return it to its prior owner." The vase and jar in the museum's collection are from the Apulia region of southern Italy. The third item is a marble statue from Greece. The Polaroids were seized in raids of Hecht's Paris home in 2000 and convicted art smuggler Giacomo Medici's warehouse in Switzerland in 1995. The MFA came under scrutiny through its dealings with Hecht, who has sold or given about 116 objects to the museum. Hecht made deals with Medici and took part in many controversial sales on his own. The Italian government ordered Hecht out of the country in the 1970s and Turkey banned him in the 1980s. Italian prosecutor Paolo Ferri said he intends to turn his attention to other American museums, including the MFA, after the Hecht and True trial is over. He said the photographs show clear signs that items now in the MFA were pulled out of ancient tombs. Virtually all Apulian vases were buried in tombs in southern Italy. "Boston has many questions to answer," said Ferri. "They have to convince me that they were working completely in good faith. Now they have the knowledge that they have acquired stolen artifacts. Are they worried? I don't know. Do they want an agreement? I don't know. But, they do have a moral obligation to give back the items to the victim, which in this case is Italy." From museum-security at museum-security.org Fri Nov 4 18:25:32 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 18:25:32 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] Israel: Police arrest archaeologist suspected of ancient relic trade Message-ID: <200511041726.jA4HQb8a028241@smtp-vbr1.xs4all.nl> Last update - 09:53 02/11/2005 Police arrest archaeologist suspected of ancient relic trade By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent An archaeologist was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of locating and purchasing an ancient document from antiquities thieves. Professor Hanan Eshel, of Bar-Ilan University, is suspected of purchasing pieces of a Leviticus scroll from the Bar Kokhba period (132-135 CE) from three West Bank Bedouin for $3,000. The three Bedouin allegedly showed the document first to a doctoral student of Eshel, Roi Porat. Porat, who was also questioned yesterday, allegedly called in Eshel, who subsequently made the purchase. Eshel and Porat were released with limitations after questioning. The police opened the investigation following a complaint lodged by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). Eshel and Porat are charged with unlawful possession of antiquities, failure to report the purchase of the scroll to the IAA within the required 15 days, and with unlawful excavation. Police said Eshel knew the scroll had come into the possession of the sellers through a robbery. When the IAA realized that Eshel, who has been interviewed in the media about the scroll in recent months, had purchased it, they openned an internal investigation. During this period, Eshel turned the scroll over to the IAA. The Israel Defense Forces and the police recently were able to locate three Bedouin suspected of stealing and selling the scroll. The three were arrested in their village and remanded in military court. One of them admitted during questioning that he had sold the scroll to Eshel and Porat. Sources in the police confirmed Tuesday that Eshel told them he had purchased the scroll with funds obtained from a third person, who is also being questioned. Eshel told investigators he did not report the theft to the IAA out of concern the IAA would take the credit. Eshel also said he did not know the law required him to report finding the scroll to the IAA. "Professor Eshel is one of the world's outstanding scholars of Judean Desert manuscripts," Bar-Ilan University said in response. "Professor Eshel has worked tirelessly to study the treasures of Jewish history. He saved a scroll of inestimable value and gave it to the state, and thus prevented antiquities theft and perhaps the destruction of an important find. Bar-Ilan University is convinced at the end of the investigation that it will be clear that Professor Eshel acted innocently and out of purely academic motives." http://www.haaretz.com/ From studio753bc at comcast.net Fri Nov 4 22:21:18 2005 From: studio753bc at comcast.net (Charles V. Sabba) Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 16:21:18 -0500 Subject: [CPProt.net] The Heist Project-Jersey City Message-ID: <000601c5e185$b290a110$c3d52644@DCY7MH71> 111 First St., makes its way into play! 'The Heist Project' opening in Jersey City The Hudson Reporter by: Diana Schwaeble Current Editor The Heist project is a new multi-media play opening at Victory Hall Cultural Center, 186 Grand St., Jersey City, on Friday, Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. It is the convergence of two true stories: the largest unsolved art theft in American history, and the recent displacement of artists from the 111 First St. building in Jersey City. The innovative play is an interpretation of those stories of loss by visual and spoken word artists and musicians. The Idea According to Christine Goodman, the director of Art House Productions, she got the idea in 1999 when she traveled to Boston for surgery. Between trips to the hospital, she and her mother went to the isabella Stewart Gardner Museum to look at some art. "I was suprised by the intimacy of the space," said Goodman. "Walking through the museum, I felt as if I was peering into a hidden drawer that held all of Ms. Gardner's most private belongings." When Goodman reached the second floor, she was struck by the array of huge, empty frames hanging on the wall. Goodman found out that 15 years ago, two men came into the museum after hours and stole over $500 million in paintings including work by Rembrandt, Degas, and Vermeer. Due to a stipulation made in Gardner's will, nothing could be moved or changed in the gallery after her death. Once the 13 pieces were stolen, there was no way to cover up the loss by hanging new art on the walls. Development According to Goodman, Art House realized that the idea of loss resonated in Jersy City with the displaced artists. After discussions with other writers and artists, The Heist Project began to take on a life of its own as they built on interpretations of stolen work. "The pieces of art in The Heist Project are not reproductions," said Goodman. "They are living, breathing, reinventions of the original artworks stolen from The Gardner Museum." The more they developed the project, the more they realized that they couldn't perform a traditional play with a stage and the audience sitting in front of the actors. The Play The cast has 14 people who were directed by Jack halpin. The play, which runs 90 minutes, combines theatre, spoken word, visual art, music, and video all weaved together. The talent includes: Photographer Ed Fausty; sculptor Steve Singer; creator and artistic director Christine Goodman; composer David Amram; and many more. Amram wrote the music for the piece and has collaborated with legendary artists: Dizzy Gilespie, Thelonious Monk, Jack Kerouac, Arthur Miller, and many more. The musical score blends the stories together into one seamless work of imagination. "We have gotten so much love and encouragement from the local arts community," said Goodman. "The play is about honoring our collective history. I feel it's important to remember and celebrate what 111 First St. was, so it can inform the future of art in Jersey City." And... The show dates are: Nov 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12 for the general public and $10 for students and artists. For more information please call: (201) 915-9911 or visit : www.arthouseproductions.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://duvel.te.verweg.com/pipermail/cpprot/attachments/20051104/06ea8a0d/attachment.htm From director at heritagewatch.org Sat Nov 5 01:39:13 2005 From: director at heritagewatch.org (Dougald O'Reilly) Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2005 07:39:13 +0700 Subject: [CPProt.net] Sign the Petition to encourage Thailand and Singapore to enact legislation Message-ID: <079193bdb666a369b01fcac98808d9d3@heritagewatch.org> APPEAL TO HAVE THE GOVERNMENTS OF SINGAPORE AND THAILAND SIGN THE 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property Singapore has for centuries been a hub of international trade and it is this trade that has made the city great. Now one of the premier cities of Asia, Singapore remains a hub of the trade in antiquities. The same may be said for Bangkok where antiquities from all over the region are sold and shipped abroad. It is suspected that most artefacts illegally excavated by looters around Asia are transited through Singapore and Bangkok. The reason for this is that these cities have very liberal laws pertaining to the sale and transit of cultural heritage. With your help HeritageWatch will petition the governments of Singapore and Thailand to adopt stricter laws and limit the sale of antiquities with a foreign provenance. Please help us convince these governments that this is necessary if we are to preserve the great heritage of Asia. The petition is available at www.heritagewatch.org/petition.php Dr Dougald O'Reilly HeritageWatch, GPO Box 1395 Phnom Penh, Cambodia www.heritagewatch.org -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 2111 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://duvel.te.verweg.com/pipermail/cpprot/attachments/20051105/1e094230/attachment.bin From museum-security at museum-security.org Sat Nov 5 06:48:09 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2005 06:48:09 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] =?iso-8859-1?q?L=F6segeld_f=FCr_aus_der_Schirn_gest?= =?iso-8859-1?q?ohlene_Meisterwerke_gezahlt_=28Ransom_paid_for_stol?= =?iso-8859-1?q?en_Turner_paintings!=29?= Message-ID: <200511050549.jA55nGnR067072@smtp-vbr12.xs4all.nl> Tate Gallery paid five million ransom to get Turner paintings back. L?segeld f?r aus der Schirn gestohlene Meisterwerke gezahlt 04. November 2005 Elf Jahre nach dem spektakul?rsten Kunstraub der deutschen Nachkriegsgeschichte aus der Frankfurter Schirn sind Details ?ber den R?ckkauf der gestohlenen Gem?lde William Turners und Caspar David Friedrichs bekannt geworden. Nach Recherchen des Westdeutschen Rundfunks (WDR) hat die Londoner Tate Gallery f?nf Millionen Euro L?segeld f?r die beiden Turner-Gem?lde ?Schatten und Dunkelheit? und ?Licht und Farbe? bezahlt. Die Hamburger Kunsthalle streitet sich den Berichten zufolge noch mit dem Frankfurter Rechtsanwalt Edgar Liebrucks, der als Vermittler 250.000 Euro f?r die Wiederbeschaffung des Friedrich-Werks ?Nebelschwaden? vorgestreckt hatte. Die drei f?r rund 40 Millionen Euro versicherten Gem?lde waren am 28. Juli 1994 aus der Frankfurter Schirn-Kunsthalle geraubt worden, wo die Leihgaben die Ausstellung ?Goethe und die Kunst? schm?ckten. Die drei T?ter hatten sich in dem Museum einschlie?en lassen. Zwei von ihnen und ein Hehler wurden 1999 in Frankfurt zu langen Haftstrafen verurteilt, die Bilder blieben aber wie die Hinterm?nner verschwunden. Den Recherchen zufolge haben die Bilder das n?here Frankfurter Umfeld aber nie verlassen. Sie waren zun?chst in einer Garage am Frankfurter Zoo, sp?ter in Erlensee bei Hanau versteckt. ?Jugoslawische Mafia hinter Kunstraub? Nach den Angaben der Journalisten steckte eine jugoslawische Mafia um den Frankfurter Paten Rade ?Centa? Caldovic hinter dem spektakul?ren Kunstraub. Eine Teilzahlung des L?segelds f?r den ersten R?ckkauf soll im Juli 2000 unter der ?berwachung von Scotland Yard auf einer Parkbank in Bad Homburg ?bergeben worden sein. Beg?nstigt von blutigen Auseinandersetzungen innerhalb der Verbrechergruppe, denen unter anderem Caldovic bereits 1997 zum Opfer gefallen war, seien zwei Randfiguren der Frankfurter Unterwelt in den Besitz der wertvollen Bilder gekommen. Zwei Jahre nach dem ersten Deal unter Mafia-Regie h?tten diese beiden M?nner, der aus Wien stammende Automechaniker Josef S. und sein Freund Hartmut K., erneut den Rechtsanwalt Liebrucks eingeschaltet. W?hrend die Briten auch f?r den zweiten Turner rund zwei Millionen Euro L?segeld gezahlt h?tten, habe sich das Gesch?ft mit den romantischen ?Nebelschwaden? Friedrichs schwieriger gestaltet. Verk?ufer angeblich nach S?damerika geflohen F?r das nur 32,5 mal 42,4 Zentimeter gro?e Gem?lde h?tten die Erpresser zun?chst 1,5 Millionen Euro gefordert, seien aber schlie?lich auf 250.000 Euro runtergegangen. Nach WDR-Darstellung hatte sich die Kunsthalle zun?chst bereit erkl?rt, die Summe von einem Sponsor bezahlen zu lassen, der aber wieder abgesprungen sei. Liebrucks habe das Bild f?r 250.000 Euro in die eigene Obhut genommen und im August 2003 unversehrt zur?ckgegeben. Die Verk?ufer sollen mit dem Geld nach S?damerika verschwunden sein, auf der Flucht vor Staatsanw?lten und mehr noch vor rachs?chtigen Mafiosi. http://www.faz.net/ From museum-security at museum-security.org Sat Nov 5 06:48:09 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2005 06:48:09 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] French pledge cultural aid to stricken New Orleans Message-ID: <200511050549.jA55nGnT067072@smtp-vbr12.xs4all.nl> French pledge cultural aid to stricken New Orleans 04 Nov 2005 22:06:38 GMT Source: Reuters MORE By Michael Depp NEW ORLEANS, Nov 4 (Reuters) - A delegation from France visited hurricane-ravaged New Orleans on Friday to pledge cultural aid to the city that was once the capital of its vast Louisiana colony. "I'm here to offer you the cooperation of France on a concrete basis," French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres told a City Hall news conference with Mayor Ray Nagin through a translator. "We would like New Orleans to be a world light post as it used to be." De Vabres said France wanted to help rebuild the city's cultural life and would start by providing aid for New Orleans musicians who scattered after Katrina struck on Aug. 29. Concerts are being organized across France to raise money for those affected by the storm and some will be offered temporary financial aid, he said. De Vabres said France also will loan 50 works of art from the Louvre for an exhibit at the New Orleans Museum of Art in late 2006. Louvre president Henri Loyette was in the delegation. "The French are part of our history, part of our soul, and now they are definitely part of our future," Mayor Nagin said. "This is the first time a country has come here and stepped up to this level of commitment." France's ties with New Orleans date back to 1682 when it claimed the city as a French territory along with an area that now encompasses 10 states. The territory was named for King Louis XIV. In 1803, Napoleon sold the territory to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase to fund his military campaigns, effectively doubling the nation's size. Along with government efforts, 25 French companies and their U.S. subsidiaries have given $19.9 million to Katrina relief efforts, including the deployment of the world's largest aircraft, the Airbus Beluga, to dispense nearly 20 tons of emergency supplies after the storm. The French delegation's visit came on the same day that Britain's Prince Charles and wife Camilla Parker Bowles stopped in New Orleans as part of their U.S. tour to visit a levee and a French Quarter school, prompting the French minister to poke fun at how his announcement was overshadowed by the British royal couple. "I say long live competitiveness, because there is a very important European personality who is going to come here to help," he said, referring to Charles. http://www.alertnet.org/ From museum-security at museum-security.org Sat Nov 5 06:48:10 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2005 06:48:10 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] How Tate laid money trail to recover Turners Message-ID: <200511050549.jA55nGnU067072@smtp-vbr12.xs4all.nl> How Tate laid money trail to recover Turners By Nigel Reynolds (Filed: 05/11/2005) The Tate Gallery paid money to Balkan underworld figures for the return of two Turner masterpieces worth ?24 million stolen while on loan to Germany, according to a television programme. The Tate has always insisted that a payout of ?3.3 million was only for "information" and for the costs of an investigation leading to the recovery of the paintings. But Underworld Art Deal, to be shown on BBC 2 next week, reveals in detail how the Tate set out to "buy back" the paintings and hired a German lawyer and two ex-Metropolitan police officers to act as their intermediaries. In a cloak-and-dagger operation, apparently approved by both the German and British authorities, the trio handed over all of, or the bulk of, the Tate's ?3.3 million to unnamed criminals connected with the theft. The payment of money to criminals for stolen property would be a highly sensitive issue, not only because it would put recovery above prosecution but also because it could encourage other major thefts. The Tate's decision to pay off criminals, albeit through third parties, is likely to provoke strong debate in the art world. Scotland Yard documents show that British police and the Tate agreed that they must "ensure a robust media strategy is developed to prevent negative rumours of a buy-back". The Turner masterpieces, Shade and Darkness and Light and Colour - then insured for ?12 million each but now thought to be worth double that - were stolen from an exhibition at Frankfurt's Schirn Kusthalle in 1994 during which a security guard was tied up. The Tate's insurers paid up in full. The two thieves and their getaway driver were caught and in 1999 were given sentences ranging from three to 11 years. But the mastermind behind the theft, thought to be a leader of Frankfurt's Balkan mafia controlling drugs and prostitution in the city, was never charged and the paintings vanished. The Tate then took a gamble and paid its insurers, Lloyd's and Axa Nordstern, ?7 million to buy back the rights to ownership should the paintings ever reappear and then it put its own recovery plan into action. Edgar Liebrucks, a Frankfurt lawyer who had previously represented a Frankfurt-based Serb told the Tate that he believed he could negotiate the recovery of the paintings. He was hired as a go-between and the Tate also took on Det Supt Mike Lawrence and Det Jurek "Rocky" Rokoszynski. All three co-operated with the documentary, made by German television producer Kurtz Egmont. The gallery paid ?3.3 million into a Frankfurt bank account set up by Rokoszynski. When criminals that Mr Liebrucks was negotiating with demanded ?330,000 for photographs proving that they held the paintings, Rokoszynski paid up and the first step in the recovery had been taken. In 2002, announcing the recovery, Sir Nicholas Serota, the director of the Tate, refused to disclose any details but said: "We have paid for certain information and we have paid in a number of directions but I don't think we have paid the thieves in any sense. The sum is so small that I don't see it as significant." But Mr Lawrence told the documentary makers: "This was a unique situation, so unique in fact that the Tate had to approach the High Court to get authority to use some of the money to assist in getting the paintings back. He [the judge] used the term buy-back, and that's what it was in this case." Mr Liebrucks and the former policemen also detail how the police in Germany and Britain knew of the operation and, they claim, gave them immunity from prosecution arising from the negotiations. Mr Lawrence said: "The deal was that the recovery of the works of art was more important than arrests. It was a strange feeling." Mr Liebrucks' contacts wanted another ?330,000 up front to hand over one of the Turners. The Tate, by now anxious that it might be pouring money into a lost cause, refused to sanction the second payment. But Mr Liebrucks delivered the painting to the ex-detectives in Frankfurt in 2000 after driving to Switzerland to raise the money himself. He refused to tell the documentary makers where the money came from but he is believed to have been reimbursed from Mr Rokoszynski's account. Sandy Nairne, now director of the National Portrait Gallery but then the senior Tate official overseeing the recovery, flew to Frankfurt and collected the painting but the Tate kept its recovery quiet for another two years until after the second Turner was recovered. This was more difficult. The trail, according to Mr Liebrucks went cold, until he was contacted 18 months later by two sources claiming to have it. The lawyer handed over ?660,000 to one of them but no painting emerged and no further contact was made for some time until Mr Liebrucks was ordered to rendezvous in a wood outside Frankfurt. There he was led to a hut and shown the painting but not allowed to take it. The Tate would not authorise a deal unless Mr Rokoszynski was present. A complicated arrangement was set in place under which Mr Liebrucks was taken to an empty flat in a small town outside the city, told to memorise its whereabouts and return with Mr Rokoszynski. When they returned, they found the painting, took it to a hotel, telephoned the Tate, took 2.5 million euros out of the ex-detective's Frankfurt account, delivered the cash in a bag and, in Mr Liebrucks's words: "We met people to hand it over." No record was made of the serial numbers of the banknotes and they were not secretly marked, the lawyer says. Did the Tate knowingly pay a form of ransom? Mr Nairne says in the programme: "I think what we knew in all the different stages of the investigation was that a reward would be necessary, that a reward would be involved, that a reward initially offered by the insurers might need to be enhanced. I think that was clear from very early on." He said he had no idea in whose hands the Tate's money had finished. "It was absolutely not a ransom," he said. "A ransom is where somebody is threatening something. It may sound like splitting hairs but we paid for information leading to the recovery of the paintings." A Tate spokesman said last night: "The Tate acted throughout the investigation with the assistance and advice of the Metropolitan Police and dealt with a reputable German lawyer. The Tate obtained authorisation from the appropriate British and German authorities for all payments made by it to the German lawyer." ? Underworld Art Deal will be shown on BBC 2 at 7pm on Wednesday. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ From museum-security at museum-security.org Sat Nov 5 14:42:59 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2005 14:42:59 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] The MFA is approaching Italian authorities Museum looking into reports of possible stolen art Message-ID: <200511051344.jA5Di5IY042680@smtp-vbr13.xs4all.nl> The MFA is approaching Italian authorities Museum looking into reports of possible stolen art By Geoff Edgers, Globe Staff | November 5, 2005 A day after the Globe reported evidence that antiquities in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts could be stolen, the MFA said it will not wait for Italian authorities to approach it with questions. In a statement, the museum said it ''is in the process of contacting Italian authorities" to get more information about evidence that links the MFA with the upcoming, high-profile trial of art dealer Robert E. Hecht Jr. and former J. Paul Getty Museum curator Marion True, who are accused of participating in an art-smuggling ring. Though the trial in Rome centers on works acquired by the Getty, Hecht also sold or gave 116 works to the MFA over the years, excluding coins. Hecht and True have maintained their innocence. The MFA's statement signals a change in approach. On Thursday, the Globe informed the MFA that it had obtained information on potentially damning photographs seized in raids at Hecht's Paris home and at the Swiss warehouse of convicted art smuggler Giacomo Medici of an ancient vase, jar, and statue now in the MFA collection. Italian authorities suspect the objects were looted from ancient sites. MFA deputy director Katherine Getchell responded by saying that she could not discuss the specific objects because the museum had not been contacted by Italian authorities. She added that the MFA would not contact those authorities. ''I really don't think it's the right way to approach it," she said. ''We can't start going to every government in the world." The change comes, says MFA spokeswoman Dawn Griffin, because MFA officials feel there are conflicts in the information being collected on the case by various publications, including the Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and Bloomberg News. ''Basically, we felt that the press was spiraling out of control," said Griffin. ''We decided to take matters into our own hands and take a different approach. This is not the standard way you deal with claims. But under the circumstances, we decided to take a different approach." In its statement yesterday, the MFA said that if, by discussing matters with Italian authorities directly, ''we were to discover that an object in our collection had been stolen, we would return it to its rightful owner, consistent with the policy and practice of the Museum." In the past, the MFA has waited for claims to be made. That's what happened last year, when, after a claim made by Polish authorities, the MFA returned a painting determined to have been stolen by the Nazis during World War II. No more details of the museum's plans to contact the Italian authorities were available, according to Griffin. ''We're going to work directly with them," she said. ''We have been hearing everything third-party. The communication right now is going to be between us." Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers at globe.com. From museum-security at museum-security.org Sat Nov 5 15:53:04 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2005 15:53:04 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] Forgery: PAGES FROM HISTORY: HOW OLD IS COUNTERFEITING OF COINS? Message-ID: <200511051454.jA5EsADo095066@smtp-vbr8.xs4all.nl> PAGES FROM HISTORY: HOW OLD IS COUNTERFEITING OF COINS? November 5, 2005 'Bad coin drives away good coin', is a phrase commonly used in economics. Counterfeiting of coins, paper currency, court and registration stamp paper, is as old as the first coin ever minted. Remember Telgi? Read about counterfeiting of coins in ancient India in this article.-Ed. By Prof. A.V. Narasimha Murthy, former Head, Dept. of Ancient History & Archaeology, University of Mysore. Cheating is as old as man himself. It does not know geography or chronology and hence it is widespread, all over the world. Our ancient texts have always reminded us of the co-existence of dharma and adharma. One form of cheating, namely counterfeiting of coins, has been an ancient practice prevalent all over the world, including our own country. Speaking of our own ancient country, this practice was rampant in the Mauryan period in which great kings like Chandragupta and Asoka ruled. Kautilya was the first author to dwell at length on the problem of counterfeit coinage. The manufacturer of forged coins is called Kutarupa Kara. According to Kautilya, one who mints coins in any place other than the Government mint or without being supervised by the State Mint Master is a counterfeit coin-maker. Kautilya gives a list of apparatus that the counterfeit coin-makers used. They are metals, alkali, charcoal, bellows, clipper, hammer, anvil, designed die and crucible. He suggests that the Police should keep a vigil over such persons who frequently visit the shops and buy these materials required for minting. If a person, who has a white-collar job, returns home in dark with soiled clothes, such a person must be watched regularly because he may be a maker of counterfeit coins. Though at one place he suggests a fine of twelve (pana) gold coins, at another place he states that the fingers of the counterfeit coin-makers should be cut off. The punishment would be double for the person who helps in these operations. Vijnanesvara, a commentator on Yajnavalkya Smriti and hailing from Karnataka, was an illustrious writer and his book Mitakshara enjoys paramount authority in our law courts in matters relating to adoption, inheritance and partition. He flourished in the last part of the eleventh century. He noticed counterfeit practice is his days. Coating the base metal coins (copper) with gold or silver polish was very common and even the government officials colluded with criminals and amassed huge amount of what we today call blackmoney. In fact, both Manu and Yajnavalkya have suggested more severe punishment, namely cutting off the limbs bit by bit. No doubt this punishment looks inhuman, but they were interested in making the punishment a deterrent. Perhaps, people were prepared to loose their limbs but were bent upon amassing wealth by counterfeit methods. That is the power of greed. >From the studies made by the experts, it has become clear that counterfeiting took place on a mass scale during and post- Mauryan period. The Mauryan coins called 'punch-marked coins' were generally made of silver and contained various symbols like sun, elephant, bull, peacock, hill etc., punched on one side only. These coins were in circulation over a large area including Afghanistan upto Kerala. The next coins which attracted the attention of the counterfeit makers was Indo-Greek and Roman coins. Both of these series were in great demand for their higher percentage of fineness of gold and naturally Indians desired to make imitations of these gold coins to get higher profits in monetary transactions. About two thousand years ago, Roman merchants used to come to India, particularly South India including Karnataka, to purchase spices like pepper, cardamom, semi-precious stones like beryl, sapphire and other commodities like cotton, sandalwood etc. There was a great demand for these commodities in Rome and Europe. Hence, there was a brisk trade between Rome and South India. Thus there was great demand for Roman gold Aurei and silver dineri. This gave good scope for the unscrupulous elements to mint Roman coins not in Constan-tinople but in different places of India. One enterprising person from Talakad, not far away from Mysore, began minting gold coins of Roman emperor Ti-berius who ruled two thousand years ago. The mould and other equipments have been excavated at Talakad excavations. Coming to the later period, the reforms introduced by Muhammad-bin-Tughlak concerning coinage in general and token currency in particular, led to a large-scale counterfeiting of coins. He issued token coins of copper in place of silver and gold and ordered that they were equivalent to the gold and silver coins in value. This was an idea far ahead to his times and people were not prepared to accept it. Today, a piece of paper with autho-rised signature has been accepted as currency. But that was not the case then. Hence, during Tughlak's time every home became a mint. People prepared gunny bag loads of copper coins, took them to the treasury and exchanged them for gold co-ins and they became rich overnight but the Government became poor and bankrupt. However, Vijayanagara period, generally referred to as the golden age of South India, has a different story to narrate. The contemporary foreign writers paid glorious tribute to the genuineness of the Vijayanagara coinage. An Italian traveller Barbosa, who spent some years in Vijayanagara empire, has stated that 'coins of this place (Vijayanagara) are perfectly genuine. To prevent any malpractice in coinage, Vijaya-nagara Government had appointed a large number of officers who had some weights and balances which were so small that they did not weigh more than half an ounce and could be kept in the pocket. They were very accurate and the difference of a hair could be detected, states another traveller Varthema. Vascodagama also has paid handsome tribute to the coinage of Vijayanagara. Finally, we may refer to the modern or the present day forgeries. Forgery of currency notes are reported these days in the media frequently. But what is alarming is the counterfeiting of ancient coins like punch-marked, Indo-Greek, Kushana, Gupta, Mughal emperors and Tipu. Coin collection as a hobby has developed all over the world and ancient Indian coins are in great demand by the foreign tourists and coin collectors for their antique value. Naturally, ancient coins are in short supply, hence counterfeiting ancient coins. For example, a genuine Gupta coin or Jehangir's zodiac silver coin, or Tipu's double rupee may fetch a fabulous fancy price of over a lakh of rupees. Hence, one should be extremely careful in buying ancient coins. http://www.starofmysore.com/ From museum-security at museum-security.org Sat Nov 5 15:53:04 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2005 15:53:04 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] Ransom: Tate denies Turner paintings ransom Message-ID: <200511051454.jA5EsADp095066@smtp-vbr8.xs4all.nl> Sat 5 Nov 2005 2:12pm (UK) Tate denies Turner paintings ransom The Tate Gallery has denied new claims that it paid a multi-million pound ransom to under-world art thieves to recover two stolen Turner masterpieces. A documentary examining the intriguing case will allege the bulk of the ?3.3 million cost of an eight-year operation to recover the two works was passed to criminals. Undercover Art Deal, to be screened on BBC2 on Wednesday, claims that payments of ?330,000, ?600,000 and 2.5 million euros (?1,687,174) were made to secure the return of the paintings - insured for a total of ?24 million. A Tate spokeswoman confirmed that the gallery gained authority from the Government and High Court to use funds to aid the return of the works, but insisted money was only paid for information, not directly to criminals. "What we are absolutely clear about and what was explained at the time, is that no ransom was paid," said the spokeswoman. The two works - Shade And Darkness: The Evening Of The Deluge, and Light And Colour (Goethe's Theory): The Morning after the Deluge - were stolen from the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt in 1994 while on loan to the exhibition Goethe And The Visual Arts. Though the first painting was recovered in July 2000, Tate officials only announced the success of their operation in December 2002 following the retrieval of Light and Colour. Three thieves and a driver were arrested in 1995 and convicted in Germany in 1999. In 1995, insurers paid out ?24 million to the Tate and the title to the works passed to the insurance company. A deal was later agreed for the gallery to buy back the insurers' title for ?8 million. Officials at the Tate then secured Government and court consent to use some of the insurance pay-out to fund the successful recovery operation - making an eventual profit of ?15 million from the deal. At the time, Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota said his gallery had not "paid the thieves in any sense" and insisted the ?3.3 million costs had been used for travel, expenses, and payments for information. A spokeswoman for the gallery, which receives ?50 million annual public funding, said the case had been a "one-off" and the only major theft the Tate has suffered. This article: http://www.scotsman.com/?id=2200242005 From museum-security at museum-security.org Sun Nov 6 08:09:24 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sun, 6 Nov 2005 08:09:24 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] Row over BBC 'art deal' programme. A BBC spokesman said the corporation stood by the forthcoming programme. Message-ID: <200511060710.jA67ASHS081721@smtp-vbr13.xs4all.nl> Row over BBC 'art deal' programme The Tate has denied claims by a BBC programme that it paid a multi-million pound ransom to recover two stolen Turner paintings. Undercover Art Deal - to be screened on Wednesday - claims payments of around ?3m were made to secure the return of the artworks, which was stolen in 1994. However, a Tate spokeswoman insisted the money was paid for information and that "no ransom was paid". A BBC spokesman said the corporation stood by the forthcoming programme. He added that the documentary had been through "the usual rigorous editorial procedures". ?24m insurance tag The two works - Shade And Darkness: The Evening Of The Deluge, and Light And Colour (Goethe's Theory): The Morning after the Deluge - were stolen from the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt in 1994 while on loan to the exhibition Goethe And The Visual Arts. The paintings had been insured for ?12m each. Three thieves and a driver were arrested in 1995 and convicted in Germany in 1999. Following the theft, the Tate made a claim and the insurers settled for the full insured sum of ?24m, a move which meant the title to the paintings passed to the insurers. But this was subject to an agreement that the Tate should have first option to repurchase them if they were recovered. By 1998, the Tate had become concerned that the paintings had not been recovered and, as a result, a large amount of money in the insurance fund was lying dormant. A deal was struck whereby the Tate bought back the insurers' title for ?8m. The first painting was recovered in July 2000, but Tate officials did not announced the news until December 2002, when the second painting was retrieved. 'Information only' A Tate spokeswoman confirmed the gallery gained authority from the government and High Court to use funds to aid the return of the works, but insisted that money was only paid for information, not directly to criminals. "What we are absolutely clear about, and what was explained at the time, is that no ransom was paid," she said. She added that the case had been a "one-off" and the only major theft the Tate had suffered. "The Tate acted throughout the investigation with the assistance and advice of the Metropolitan Police and dealt with a reputable German lawyer. "The Tate obtained authorisation from the appropriate British and German authorities for all payments made by it to the German lawyer. "The Tate paid money in the course of the negotiations for information that led to the recovery of the paintings and for the incidental expenses of recovery." Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/4410368.stm From museum-security at museum-security.org Sun Nov 6 08:44:48 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sun, 6 Nov 2005 08:44:48 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] Looting of Iraq's Antiquities Still Common Message-ID: <200511060745.jA67jpIT012910@smtp-vbr8.xs4all.nl> Looting of Iraq's Antiquities Still Common (KCBS) SAN FRANCISCO - Three kinds of looters raided Iraq's museums, said the man in charge of Iraq's collection of antiquities--common criminals, collectors, and many who had inside knowledge of the museums. Iraq's archeological heritage remains at risk, according to Dr. Donny George, director of the Iraq Museum and chairman of Iraq's State Board of Antiquities and Heritage. Violence in the country has made even the daily commute a life or death situation. Not long ago, George did not worry when he traveled back and forth between home and his office in Baghdad. Now when he commutes, there is no guarantee he will reach his destination. "When I go the office," George told KCBS's Mike Pulsipher, "I tell you the truth. I won't know that I'll reach the office or not. On coming back, I won't know whether I reach home or not. It's like that. You might be in an incident or you might be attacked. Nobody knows." In those uncertain circumstances, the country's museums are not secure, and even trusted museum officials become suspect as the country's heritage disappears under the fog of war. "In full darkness, they went through one large room," he said describing how investigators recreated a recent theft. "They went to the second room, turned right, then at the end turned left, went through some boxes that were there and got the most small and precious material that we have there," said George. "So this is a group that we believe they had some good knowledge from inside." But Baghdad is his home, and George said no amount of violence can keep him away from his family. "Whatever happens I have to go back," George said, adding that in Iraq's history, blood shed is not unprecedented. "As an archeologist, we know in the history, there were times like this," he said, "but they never last forever." George will return to Iraq at the end of November. You can hear Mike Pulsipher's entire conversation with Dr. Danny George on KCBS In-Depth, Sunday at 8:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_309133945.html From museum-security at museum-security.org Sun Nov 6 08:44:48 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sun, 6 Nov 2005 08:44:48 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] British Museum - Canada: Treasures recovered after decades-long struggle Message-ID: <200511060745.jA67jpIV012910@smtp-vbr8.xs4all.nl> Treasures recovered after decades-long struggle Times Colonist Saturday, November 05, 2005 ALERT BAY - On Andrea Sanborn's first attempt to persuade the British Museum to let go of her people's ceremonial mask, she showed up with an empty Adidas bag. "What's that for?" asked the museum boffins. "I've come for the mask," she said, straight-faced. Not only did she go home empty-handed on that trip, but they wouldn't even let her see the artifact, which was buried in deep storage, down in the basement with the spare mummies and winter tires. Eight years later, relations with the renowned London institution have improved dramatically. Sanborn finally saw her dream realized this week when the museum brought the mask to Alert Bay's U'mista Cultural Centre, where she is executive director. The event put a punctuation mark on efforts to recover treasures the Kwakwaka'wakw of northern Vancouver Island thought they had lost forever. It's a story that goes back to 1921, when 45 natives were arrested for taking part in a then-illegal potlatch ceremony on remote Village Island. Half of them were jailed, but the rest were freed on the condition that their tribes give up their potlatch paraphernalia. Almost 200 masks, rattles and other items were surrendered, ending up in museums and private collections across Canada, the U.S. and Europe. What followed was a long, dogged effort by the Kwakwaka'wakw to recover the lost artifacts, which were integral, they argued, to their culture's survival. This week's ceremony, held in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the U'mista centre, marked the success of that campaign. Almost all the seized pieces have been found and returned, and are on display in Alert Bay and at the Kwakiutl Museum on Quadra Island. Included will be the transformation mask -- a figure that opens up to reveal another face underneath -- now on long-term loan from the British Museum. http://www.canada.com/ From museum-security at museum-security.org Sun Nov 6 08:44:48 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sun, 6 Nov 2005 08:44:48 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] Syria recovers stolen antiquities Message-ID: <200511060745.jA67jpIS012910@smtp-vbr8.xs4all.nl> Syria recovers stolen antiquities CUL-SYRIA-ANTIQUITIES DAMASCUS, Nov 5 (KUNA) -- Syria recovered important antiquities which were smuggled outside the country after they were stolen some three years ago, state-run news agency (SANA) said Saturday. The agency quoted the Syrian ambassador in Berlin Hussein Omran as saying the antiquities, which belong to the period between 2000 B.C. until late times of the Ottomans, were recovered thanks to close cooperation between Germany and Syria. Omran said the relics included a large number of gold, silver and bronze coins that belonged to the Romans, Muslims and Byzantines. They also include dummies made of clay and amulets. The antiquities consists of necklaces, glass-made cups, bronze-made crosses, heads of arrows, tools made of ivory, small pieces of mosaic and cuneiform plates, explained the ambassador. The antiquities were discovered at the German-Swiss borders while two Syrians were trying to smuggle them into Germany. (end) tk. http://www.kuna.net.kw/ From museum-security at museum-security.org Sun Nov 6 08:44:48 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sun, 6 Nov 2005 08:44:48 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] Mexico: Urge combatir robo de arte sacro Message-ID: <200511060745.jA67jpIU012910@smtp-vbr8.xs4all.nl> 05 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2005 Urge combatir robo de arte sacro KENIA TORRES BELMONT La Procuradur?a General de la Rep?blica (PGR) en Guanajuato, tiene dos denuncias por robo de arte sacro en el municipio de San Miguel de Allende, ocurridos durante los a?os 2003 y 2004. En tanto el Instituto Nacional de Antropolog?a e Historia (INAH) reporta cuatro denuncias de 1998 al 2002, por este mismo delito en el estado. Jorge Videgaray Verdad, presidente del patronato ?Guanajuato Patrimonio Cultural de la Humanidad?, advirti? que hay que tomar precauciones para evitar este tipo de delitos antes de que se conviertan en un problema mayor. ?Es importante encender el foco amarillo de preventivo y tomar este tipo de medidas cada vez con mayor rigidez en la vigilancia que deben hacer los sacerdotes, de todos estos valores patrimoniales?, dijo. Los estados de Puebla, Tlaxcala y de M?xico son los que reportan m?s robos durante los ?ltimos siete a?os, seg?n el INAH. En total dicha dependencias report? ante la PGR, el robo de 179 piezas de arte sacro. El patronato Guanajuato Patrimonio Cultural de la Humanidad, trabaja desde hace 16 a?os en el rescate, conservaci?n y restauraci?n del arte. Entre las acciones de seguridad, Videgaray Verdad, indic? que est?n en comunicaci?n con los tres obispos que hay en el estado, para capacitar e informar a los p?rrocos y encargados de las iglesias que cuentan con piezas de arte sacro, sobre el valor de lo que tiene a su custodia y c?mo prevenir robos o enga?os. ?A veces no conocen del valor econ?mico y por lo tanto del riesgo que eso implica y las medidas precautorias que deben de tener para evitar que esto sea sacado de nuestras iglesias ( ), hoy nuestros sacerdotes, los p?rrocos cada vez son mas cuidadosos y m?s conocedores del valor que tiene (en las iglesias) en t?rminos econ?micos. Guanajuato cuenta con una vasta riqueza de piezas de arte sacro debido a la religiosidad de sus habitantes, que han manifestado su devoci?n a Dios con diversas expresiones art?sticas. La capital del estado, San Miguel de Allende, Salamanca, Yuriria, Ac?mbaro, Salvatierra y Le?n, son los principales municipios en donde se albergan diversas manifestaciones de arte sacro como pinturas, esculturas, iglesias, vestimentas usadas por los sacerdotes para oficiar misa, entre otras. http://www.am.com.mx/ From museum-security at museum-security.org Sun Nov 6 09:40:35 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sun, 6 Nov 2005 09:40:35 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] Odyssey of art from Mexican church illustrates the looting of masterworks in rural areas Message-ID: <200511060841.jA68fcj8068158@smtp-vbr2.xs4all.nl> The theft of Saint Francis Odyssey of art from Mexican church illustrates the looting of masterworks in rural areas Chris Hawley Republic Mexico City Bureau Nov. 6, 2005 12:00 AM TOCHIMILCO, Mexico - The entire town of Tochimilco turned out to celebrate when a stolen carving of Saint Francis of Assisi came home from the United States in September. There was live music and dancing. Five pigs were roasted. "Welcome home, Saint Francis!" was inscribed on a pink-and-blue arch over the entrance to the Chapel of the Third Order. Townspeople crowded into the chapel to gawk at the 400-year-old carving, which looked glorious after restoration. They joked that Francis was the new patron saint of migrants, because he had gone to the United States and come back, safe and sound. But long after the music died away, the questions remain about Mexico's most notorious art heist in at least a decade. How did thieves remove a 660-pound carving the size of a ping-pong table from a locked church without being detected? How could U.S. officials have let it into the United States? And why has no one been arrested? "There are a lot of things we don't know and a lot of people who are escaping justice," said C?ndida S?nchez Garc?a, president of the group of parishioners that cares for the chapel. The case of Tochimilco's stolen carving is part of a disturbing trend, say Mexican officials, as bands of art thieves loot rural churches across the country and sell their colonial art to collectors in the United States, Europe and Asia. In the past five years, about 140 churches have been burglarized in Mexico, mostly in the rich colonial region of central Mexico, according to the National Anthropology and History Institute. About 600 pieces of art were reported stolen in 2004 alone, said Ana Ruig?mez, an expert on art theft at the institute. Nationwide, reports of burglaries are on the rise, as church members begin to realize the value of their art and take steps to protect it, she said. Before, most churches failed to report such thefts. The losses run in the millions of dollars, although it's hard to know exactly how much because most churches have never had their art appraised. Most of the art ends up abroad, usually in the United States or Japan, Ruig?mez said. Mexico isn't the only country with this problem. In 2003, 2,162 thefts from places of worship were reported to Interpol, with Italy, France, Russia and Poland the worst-hit countries. But in the Americas, thieves in Mexico lead the pack raiding parishes, like the one in Tochimilco. The heist The Chapel of the Third Order sits on the edge of Tochimilco, a town of 3,000 where horses are still common transportation and the feed salesman makes door-to-door deliveries from a truck piled high with bright green alfalfa. The town is just 40 miles southeast of Mexico City but shielded from big city life by the Popocatepetl Volcano. In 1568, Franciscan friars built a monastery in Tochimilco. Sometime soon after, an unknown artist chiseled the carving out of a single piece of wood. The relief shows Jesus giving Saint Francis of Assisi the stigmata, the wounds that Christ suffered on his hands, feet and abdomen during the Crucifixion. The carving was a masterpiece of detail, down to the flowery pattern of gold leaf that decorated the robes of Saint Francis and Brother Leo, one of his followers. But as the centuries passed, the artwork got dusty and stained. Someone tried to touch it up with thick paint, blotting out the finer details of the carving. By 2001 it was covered with candle soot, relegated to a side wall in the small Chapel of the Third Order outside the town's main church. "I had seen it, but I never gave any importance to it," said Armando Tapia Contla, a hardware store owner. "People get accustomed to seeing these things, and they don't realize their value." But apparently someone did. On the night of April 9, 2001, thieves broke into the chapel through a side door. They took down the immense carving, carried it out the door, across a courtyard and up a flight of steps to the street. Then they disappeared into the night. Nothing else was taken. The investigation was botched from the beginning, townspeople say. The theft was discovered the next morning, but local police didn't report the crime to the nearest police station with investigative powers until the day after that. No one took fingerprints from the church, and it took days to find a picture of the carving. By then, the artwork may have already been in the United States. The phone call In 2002, art dealer John Schaefer of the Peyton Wright Gallery in Santa Fe received an intriguing telephone call. It was from Salvador Quetzalcoatl, a Mexican dealer who had sold some small statues through Schaefer's gallery. Quetzalcoatl said he had a large carving that Schaefer might be interested in. Soon afterward, a truck pulled into Santa Fe, and Schaefer got his first look at the relief. There was no written record of its origin, and Schaefer doesn't recall asking where it came from. But he knew it was something special. "I immediately realized how important this piece was," he said. "There was never a doubt in my mind that the piece was authentic." Schaefer agreed to sell the carving for Quetzalcoatl on consignment. He had a Spanish-speaking friend question Quetzalcoatl about the piece and paid a London-based company called Art Loss Register to check that it was not on any lists of stolen art. The report came back clean. Schaefer said he was unsure whether Quetzalcoatl told the friend where the carving came from. He declined to put The Arizona Republic in contact with the friend. In the end, Schaefer sent the piece to a local conservator for a two-month restoration, then put it up for sale. The asking price: $185,000 to $225,000, Schaefer said. The breakthrough It was dumb luck that finally rescued Saint Francis. Back in Mexico, someone saw a picture of the restored piece on the Internet in early 2004 and notified the National Institute of Anthropology and History. The Mexican government contacted the U.S. Embassy, and soon agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were at the Peyton Wright Gallery with a search warrant. They took records, computer files and a picture of Quetzalcoatl that he had once e-mailed to Schaefer, the gallery owner said. The agents seized the carving and took it to El Paso, where a Mexican art expert named Elisa del Carmen ?vila was sent to identify the piece. When ?vila opened the crate, it was clear that Saint Francis had undergone a stunning transformation in New Mexico. The hidden gold in his robes gleamed again. The paint had been removed and the exposed wood glowed with life. Using an ultraviolet light, ?vila could see that two missing fingers and a thumb had been repaired on his right hand. The Mexican historical institute sent the carving to its own workshop for another year of restoration and finally returned it to Tochimilco on Sept. 23. Mystery continues But the burglary is still unsolved. Schaefer, the gallery owner, has not been charged with any crime, but he has lost a few thousand dollars in the cost of the restoration. Quetzalcoatl, the Mexican art dealer, has disappeared. When The Republic tried to call the phone numbers he gave to Schaefer, a recording said they were disconnected. The address that Quetzalcoatl gave the gallery, 1641 Westheimer Road in Houston, is a former clothing store. When The Republic visited the address in October, it was empty and appeared to be under renovation. Quetzalcoatl's partner, according to Schaefer, was a Mexico City woman named Claudia Chanfreau. She has not responded to The Republic's e-mails and is not listed in the Mexico City telephone directory. Quetzalcoatl seemed to know many art dealers in the Southwest, probably including Arizona, Schaefer said. The pair could still be peddling art across the United States, he said. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not pursuing them, said Leticia Zamarripa, an El Paso-based spokeswoman for the agency. "As far as ICE is concerned, that case is closed," she said. The agency did not respond to The Republic's request for Quetzalcoatl's photograph. For Schaefer, the case shows the failures in the way art thefts are reported. All the right steps "I took all the right steps, I did all the right things, and still we didn't get the right information," he said. There were other failures as well, such as the way the thieves apparently got the huge carving past U.S. customs. And there is still the matter of how Saint Francis disappeared from the church in the first place, in a town where everyone seems to know each other by name. To combat the theft problem, some historic Mexican churches are installing security cameras, considering ways to track their antiquities and beginning to close their doors to outsiders. But in Tochimilco, parishioners say they can't afford a security system. They've added a few more padlocks to the door, but that's it. Many townspeople believe the burglary was an inside job. The chapel was only open on Sundays, so a casual visitor to the town would have been unlikely to know about the carving, they say. Police estimate it must have taken eight to 10 people and a truck to steal the carving. The chapel is in a deserted corner of the town, but it's less than a block from the police station. In the end, S?nchez said, nobody in town could have imagined that international art thieves would have wanted that old, dusty carving. "Because it's a small town, I guess we were caught off-guard," she said. "They have a saying: You never close the well until a child falls in." From museum-security at museum-security.org Sun Nov 6 09:40:35 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sun, 6 Nov 2005 09:40:35 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] Mexico builds database of artworks. Mexican churches trying to stem their losses Message-ID: <200511060841.jA68fcj9068158@smtp-vbr2.xs4all.nl> Mexican churches trying to stem their losses Many closing doors except to locals, Mexico builds database of artworks Chris Hawley Republic Mexico City Bureau Nov. 6, 2005 12:00 AM HUAMANTLA, Mexico - It was a still night in June, eight days after the feast day, when someone smashed in the ancient door of St. Anthony of Padua Church. The latches ripped right out of the worm-eaten wood, opening to a dazzling treasure: a collection of colonial-era paintings that would make a museum curator cry. There was St. Michael, charging through the clouds with the armies of heaven. St. Anthony, demonstrating the miracle of the Eucharist to a crowd of doubters. The Virgin of Guadalupe, appearing in a blaze of light to help convert the New World. One by one, the thieves sliced the saints from their frames. They took down a crucifix. They stripped the clothes from a statue of St. Anthony. By dawn, they were gone. Where 22 paintings used to hang, there were only dark spaces on the wall. "How you could do this to a church, I don't know," said ?ngel Garc?a Manzola, the church custodian. "But it's getting worse. They're going to rob every parish in Mexico." About 600 works of art are disappearing every year from Mexico's colonial churches, fueling a huge international black market in stolen Mexican art, the country's National Institute of Anthropology and History says. To guard against the theft of what many worshipers think of as priceless icons, some Mexican churches are closing their doors to all but local parishioners. The Mexican government is building an art theft database and is struggling to catalog the estimated 4 million artworks in the country's churches. Lawmakers are demanding harsher punishment for art thieves, and a few parishes are considering putting microchips in their artworks to deter theft. "People want this old art, and it brings a very good price. They are exploiting Mexico's historical riches," said Elpidio P?rez, Huamantla's chief parish priest. In Huamantla, a town of 40,000 people 70 miles east of Mexico City, six of the seven main churches have been burglarized in the past decade, along with several chapels in nearby haciendas, or colonial plantation houses, P?rez said. The thieves' favorite hunting grounds are the central Mexican states of Puebla, Tlaxcala, Mexico and Morelos, officials say. Those states were the heart of Spain's empire in the New World and are thick with basilicas, monasteries and shrines. In Puebla alone, there were 154 church burglaries reported from 1999 to 2005, with 569 artworks stolen, said Victor Valencia, director of the historical institute's branch in that state. Many of the burglaries are sophisticated heists, Valencia said. At a former monastery in Huejotzingo, the thieves managed to remove paintings from the top of a 65-foot-high altarpiece. In a 2001 burglary in Acolman, thieves entered through the window of a 16th-century church and rappelled down the wall to steal 10 paintings. "With the frequency of the thefts, the quality of the pieces and the methods they use, it seems to me that these are not simple crimes," Valencia said. "These thefts are done upon the orders of someone." The path of stolen art is difficult to follow. Some pieces go directly abroad, mainly to the United States and Japan, said Ana Ruig?mez of the Anthropology and History Institute. Others end up in antique stores and art galleries in Mexico City and border towns, or on Internet auction sites like eBay. Serious collectors usually demand a "provenance," documents showing the history of the artwork, before buying any piece. They also usually hire researchers to make sure it doesn't appear on any lists of stolen art. But documents are easily forged, and the most-wanted lists maintained by Interpol and other agencies are often incomplete. Though there have been no recent cases of stolen art discovered in Arizona, collectors and museum officials here say they are constantly on guard for suspicious pieces. Stolen goods can be notoriously difficult to spot because of poor reporting of thefts, they say. "You're just kind of on your own, being a detective," said Jim Ballinger, director of the Phoenix Art Museum. In 2000, buyers from the San Diego Museum of Art bought an 18th-century painting called The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden from an art dealer in Mexico City. The museum hired an expert in Latin American art to oversee the purchase and check the painting's provenance. But it wasn't until two years later that museum researchers detected discrepancies in the provenance while putting together an art catalog. Working with Mexican officials, they discovered the painting had been stolen earlier in 2000 from a church in the town of San Juan Tepemazalco. To help track down stolen pieces, the National Institute of Anthropology and History is encouraging churches to photograph their artworks and submit them to a new government database. Some parishes in Puebla have considered attaching microchips that set off an alarm when artworks are moved. A few churches, like the one in Acolman near the popular pyramids of Teotihuc?n, have closed their doors to outsiders to prevent thefts. Since the 2001 heist, the church is open only for Sunday Mass. Meanwhile, lawmakers from Puebla state are proposing changes to the Historical Monuments Law that would increase jail time for art theft to 15 years from 10 years, and boost the maximum fine to $2,100 from $5. But Valencia says church theft may be a symptom of deeper changes in Mexico as the country moves away from its Roman Catholic past. "What is happening in our society when an individual loses his sense of faith, when he is not just committing a crime against the state, but a crime that goes against his entire ideological environment?" Valencia said. "As an anthropologist, that's what worries me most." From museum-security at museum-security.org Sun Nov 6 18:18:08 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sun, 6 Nov 2005 18:18:08 +0100 Subject: [CPProt.net] Fingers point at Getty museum's overseer Message-ID: <200511061719.jA6HJDcC068912@smtp-vbr8.xs4all.nl> Fingers point at Getty museum's overseer Randy Kennedy, The New York Times November 6, 2005 He wanted it to be the perfect evening - the kind of courting of collectors the museum should do more often, he told the staff. Barry Munitz, president of the J. Paul Getty Trust, had invited his good friends Sherry Lansing, then the chairwoman of Paramount Pictures, and her husband, the director William Friedkin, to dinner last year in a house used for parties at the hilltop Getty complex in Los Angeles. Because Lansing and Friedkin collect Dutch art, Munitz wanted to impress them by having two 17th-century drawings by the Dutch artist Herman van Swanevelt from the Getty Museum taken to be displayed at the house. Museum officials, who said they felt that the event was more about socializing than about wooing important collectors, immediately protested. They argued that moving the drawings posed too many risks, and that the climate control in the house was inadequate for fragile works on paper. The drawings were moved anyway. For Munitz's critics, such anecdotes are a kind of shorthand for explaining a range of troubles that have engulfed the Getty Museum over the last few years. Today the Getty is under siege on many fronts. Its former antiquities curator faces an indictment in Italy, and allegations of lavish travel by Munitz have led to a wide-ranging investigation by the California attorney general into the Getty Trust's finances. Overlooked in these controversies, some of Munitz's critics say, is the harm suffered by the museum itself, including acquisitions, curatorial choices and departures by talented staff members who bridled at Munitz's decisions and leadership style. In 1982, when the museum received the estate of the oilman J. Paul Getty, it instantly became the one of the world's wealthiest. Given that it had six times more money than its next-richest American sibling, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, competing institutions anxiously waited to see how that fortune would reshape the museum world. Over the next two decades, the Getty grew significantly, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to enlarge its collection. But many critics say it has failed to live up to its early promise, a problem even before Munitz's arrival. And far from tilting the playing field with its money, the Getty - which has lost several high-profile bidding battles for artwork in the last few years - has recently begun to see that it cannot buy its way to becoming a great museum. It has decided to devote itself to what its poorer colleagues have always done: seeking donations of world-class private collections. Yet as it places its hat fully in hand, the museum is facing serious questions about its worthiness as a home for such collections. Most of these questions revolve around the structure of the trust, its board and Munitz, who has overseen the museum and the trust's other art programs for eight years. Many board members praise his vision and leadership. "I think he's really done a terrific job," said John H. Biggs, the chairman of the trust's board. But several former and current museum employees complain that Munitz - who has no background in art - has significantly interfered with the museum's curatorial operations and demoralized much of its staff by imposing his own vision in several crucial areas, disregarding or overruling many museum decisions. They describe a frustrating working environment in which Munitz has formed strong alliances with art institutions in England and Germany, and insisted on collaborating with them. While this has sometimes yielded loans of impressive works, they say, it has consumed time and resources that could have been directed elsewhere, organizing exhibitions that better illuminated its core collection of European paintings and Greek and Roman antiquities. As a result, they say, the museum's direction often appears erratic, and its reputation has suffered nationally and globally. The departure last year of the museum's previous director, Deborah Gribbon, who cited philosophical differences with Munitz, was in large part a response to such interference, according to former and current employees, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, partly because of fears of reprisals against current staff members. And they characterized many of Munitz's initiatives at home and around the world as propelled more by his social aspirations and connections than by considerat