From museum-security at museum-security.org Sat Oct 1 07:20:22 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sat, 1 Oct 2005 07:20:22 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] Protecting the world's art treasures Message-ID: <200510010520.j915KP8F012559@smtp-vbr4.xs4all.nl> Protecting the world's art treasures By Darren Waters BBC News entertainment staff September 30, 2005 The Federal Bureau of Investigation describes art theft as a "small but ugly criminal speciality" and estimates that artworks worth around $8bn (?4.5bn) a year are stolen around the world. As an exhibition of Edvard Munch paintings opens in London, can art ever be safe from thieves? One of the most recent, and certainly the most high-profile, art thefts took place at the Munch Museum in Oslo last year. Two paintings, one of them the iconic Munch work The Scream, were stolen by two armed men in August. They walked into the museum and simply tore the paintings from the walls before running to a getaway car. The museum - which has more than 1,000 Munch paintings - has loaned a large number of works to the Royal Academy for an exhibition of the artist's self-portraits, which opens on Saturday. Ton Cremers, founder of the Museum Security Network, says art theft remains a major threat around the world. "According to Interpol and the FBI and Interpol it is the third largest illegal trade after drugs and weapons," says Mr Cremers, who offers a consultancy to individuals and institutions on issues of theft and forgery. Victims He says museums are the victims of theft in 15% of all art robberies. "They are the ones in the headlines, private collectors are not." He adds: "The awareness of theft and security has increased in the last 20 years. But too many museums rely only on electronic equipment, not realising that you also need a good security organisation as well." However, he says that British museums generally have better security than museums on continental Europe. Since the 2004 theft in Oslo, the Munch museum has spent almost ?3.5m on improving its security. "The Munch Museum have gone very far with their security but it is still a good visitor experience," says Mr Cremers. "They have shown plenty of courage in taking this step." Electronic ticketing, a security entrance similar to airport passport control, bullet-proof glass for the most prized works and a long hall which can be closed at both ends to trap thieves are among the measures installed. 'Main problem' "Everyone has to go through a metal detector and every bag has to go on a conveyor belt and is scanned," says Jorunn Christoffersen, head of information at the museum. "Our main problem was the distance between the entrance and the halls, where very valuable paintings were shown, was too short. That is why we have made the entrance longer." She adds: "Very few museums have sufficient protection if armed robbers enter. "It is much more difficult in buildings like Tate Modern which are so big. You have to walk and walk and walk even before you see a painting." Ms Christoffersen says the museum still has some concerns, including fears of a potential hostage situation if a robbery was attempted in the future. 'Hostage situation' "There is the danger of a hostage situation with so many obstacles now in the museum. Even if we have done everything to prevent this from happening." With so many of its paintings on loan in London the museum has taken every step to ensure they are safe. "Our head of security has been in close contact with the Royal Academy and is in London now. He is also meeting with security heads at other museums, including Tate Modern and Tate Britain. "He has made sure the paintings are safe at the Royal Academy." Mr Cremers says: "If you were a private collector I would say - don't tell people about your artwork, don't show them and keep it in the heart of the house. "Museums have to do the exact opposite." Tore Hoifodt, head of communications at DNV, the firm which carried out the security assessment at the Munch Museum after the theft, says no museum would ever be robbery proof. "If you turned a museum into a fortress, perhaps it would be, but you want as many visitors in there as possible." He says changes to the entrance at the museum, making it less open and less accessible, are measures which could be applied to all museums and galleries. "Some people feel the museum is less accessible, but it is a difficult balance." Mr Cremers says improvements in security techniques would further protect art. "Access control will change. There have been a lot of improvements to showcases and new techniques in tracking the movement of objects around museums." Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/entertainment/arts/4289668.stm From museum-security at museum-security.org Sat Oct 1 07:36:07 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sat, 1 Oct 2005 07:36:07 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] Museum to return stolen art to Poland Message-ID: <200510010536.j915aATH029447@smtp-vbr14.xs4all.nl> Museum to return stolen art to Poland Jan Mostaert's 'Portrait of a Courtier' arrived at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in 1952, gift from woman who had purchased it from New York gallery Associated Press RICHMOND, Virginia - The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts will return to Poland a 16th-century Flemish painting looted by the Nazis during World War II. Jan Mostaert's "Portrait of a Courtier" (also known as "Duc le Burgundy" and "Portrait of Charles VIII") arrived at the museum in 1952, a gift from a woman who had purchased the art from a New York gallery. The oil portrait, owned by the Czartoryski family, was housed in a castle the family had converted to a museum. Duchess Maria Ludwika Czartoryski had the painting moved to Warsaw in 1939, shortly before the German invasion of Poland. Nazi thefts Stolen Picasso to bring USD 6.5 million / By Associated Press It was confiscated by the Nazis in 1941 and taken to a castle in Austria. It surfaced in 1948 in New York at Newhouse Galleries, which listed it as being from "an important European collection." The Virginia Museum began looking through its holdings for plundered works in the late 1990s, said Karen Daly, the senior assistant registrar. She conducts research on art to see whether it could have been looted by the Nazis. Daly said she is studying about 450 paintings in the Virginia Museum collection that may have been in Europe between 1933 and 1945. "That doesn't mean all those works are suspect, just that we want to establish the chain of ownership during those years," she said. "That can be very difficult." Daly said she found a listing for the Mostaert on a catalog of wartime losses listed on the Polish embassy's website. "We contacted them, and they provided the documentation that showed the painting's provenance," she said. The Mostaert is the second looted work the Virginia Museum has found in its collection. Last year it returned "Portrait of Jean d'Albon," attributed to Dutch-born painter Corneille de Lyon, to the executor of the estate of Julius Priester, an Austrian Jewish art collector. "Portrait of a Courtier" will be handed over to the Polish embassy, which will deliver it to the Princes Czartoryski Museum in Cracow. Woman entrusted painting to Paris art dealer for safekeeping when she fled Berlin in late 1930s. Nazis looted painting and other valuables in 1940. Grandson to get money from current owner More on stolen Picasso: Stolen Picasso to bring USD 6.5 million Woman entrusted painting to Paris art dealer for safekeeping when she fled Berlin in late 1930s. Nazis looted painting and other valuables in 1940. Grandson to get money from current owner By Associated Press LOS ANGELES - The grandson of a Jewish woman whose Pablo Picasso painting was stolen by Nazis during World War II will receive USD 6.5 million from an American who later bought the work from a gallery. Marilynn Alsdorf of Chicago decided she would rather pay Thomas Bennigson and keep the painting than continue a costly and complicated legal dispute, her attorney Richard Chapman said. The painting is now valued at more than USD 12 million. Alsdorf will be allowed to sell it after the settlement is approved by a federal judge. Alsdorf and her late husband bought the 1922 painting, known as "Femme en blanc" (Woman in white), for USD 375,000 in 1975. It was sitting in the window of a New York gallery, Chapman said. "This was a reputable dealer, not a back-alley thing," Chapman said. "She had no knowledge that there had been any impropriety at all." When Alsdorf tried to sell the painting in 2002, experts notified the Art Loss Register in London, which investigated its history. Missing until 1975 Bennigson's grandmother Carlota Landsberg entrusted the painting to a Paris art dealer for safekeeping when she fled Berlin in the late 1930s. Nazis looted the painting and other valuables in 1940, according to a 1958 letter from the dealer. Its whereabouts were unknown until New York art dealer Stephen Hahn purchased it in France in 1975 and sold it to the Alsdorfs. Hahn recently settled a separate lawsuit by agreeing to pay Bennigson, Landsberg's only living heir, an amount equal to his profit from that sale, Bennigson's attorney E. Randol Schoenberg said. Bennigson did not return a message seeking comment, but Schoenberg said Bennigson was satisfied. "You like to see in these type of cases things result without litigation and paintings returned to the prior owners, but when there's a dispute - and this one was hotly disputed - it's good to get that type of finality of a settlement," he said. Chapman claimed French courts should have had jurisdiction in the case, and that under that legal system Bennigson's claim came too late. http://www.ynetnews.com/ From museum-security at museum-security.org Sat Oct 1 07:39:38 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sat, 1 Oct 2005 07:39:38 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] Collector finds his stolen art headed for auction, sues Message-ID: <200510010539.j915deJX029223@smtp-vbr8.xs4all.nl> Collector finds his stolen art headed for auction, sues By Stephen Kurkjian, Globe Staff | September 30, 2005 In 1978, Michael Bakwin went from being a quiet art collector to being the victim of the largest unsolved robbery from a private residence in Massachusetts. Returning from a holiday weekend, he found that seven precious paintings had been stolen from his Stockbridge home. And now he feels he's a victim again, as he finds himself forced to go to court to prevent four of the stolen works from being put up for auction at Sotheby's. The paintings, worth about $3 million, surfaced last spring in London, in the possession of the Erie International Trading Co., an obscure organization with a Panamanian address. When Bakwin learned that the company had plans to auction the works, he asked the Art Loss Register, a firm that tracks stolen art, to intervene. Julian Radcliffe, chairman of the Art Loss Register, said he wants to know who the owners of Erie International Trading are, how they got the paintings, and what they may know about the theft. ''Until we know more about the circumstances of how they gained these paintings, we have to assume that Erie Trading knew they were stolen when they bought them, or worse, knows who stole them," Radcliffe said. He added: ''If we learn that they are legitimate people who gained these paintings through no untoward means, we are willing to step aside." Andrew Lafferty, a London lawyer representing Erie International, declined to comment on the lawsuit or on how the company had secured the paintings. No one has been charged with the theft of the collection, which was assembled by Bakwin's parents beginning in the 1930s. But one of the paintings, the most valuable of the lot, was eventually recovered, with Radcliffe's help. It was a still-life masterwork by Paul Cezanne; it surfaced unexpectedly in Switzerland in 1999. And to get it back, Radcliffe agreed to give Erie International title to the other six works. Radcliffe said he had signed the contract under duress, believing it to be the only way to recover the Cezanne. He said the deal, therefore, should be voided. ''If I wanted to get [the Cezanne] back at the time, I had to sign that agreement. And I told them so at the time," Radcliffe said in a recent telephone interview. Once the Cezanne -- ''Bouilloire et Fruits," or pitcher and fruit -- was in his hands, Bakwin decided he could never provide security for it. He put the painting up for auction, and a collector bought it for almost $30 million. The other six paintings are vastly less valuable. The four now perhaps headed for auction are two portraits by Chaim Soutine, an early 20th century expressionist, and two others by French painters Maurice de Vlaminck and Maurice Utrillo. Even though these are lesser pieces, Radcliffe said, he will not allow the auction to proceed without a legal protest. Lawyers for the Art Loss Register filed suit in July, asking that a London judge order the paintings returned to Bakwin. A hearing on the case is set for next month. ''Without knowing more about them, there is no way that these people should stand to profit from the auction of stolen paintings," Radcliffe said of Erie International Trading. ''It simply serves to encourage further art theft." Radcliffe said he has a clearer sense now of what happened to the artworks after they were taken from Bakwin's house. When working to recover the Cezanne, Radcliffe said, he was told by an Erie International lawyer that the paintings had been spirited to Russia and hidden there until a British resident brought them to Switzerland in search of a buyer. But Radcliffe said he now suspects the paintings had been taken to Switzerland shortly after the theft and stored there. The thieves, he said, apparently hoped to make use of a provision in Swiss law under which people can claim legal possession of stolen items if they can show they had bought them in good faith and had held them for five years or more. Although he declined to comment on the specifics of the case, Special Agent Robert Wittman, who heads the FBI's National Art Crime unit, said he was aware of Bakwin's lawsuit and that the FBI tracks ''for intelligence reasons" developments in all major art thefts. The statute of limitations for the actual break-in at Bakwin's house expired in the mid-1980s, but anyone who moved the stolen artwork across state lines or overseas during the past six years can still be prosecuted. Stephen Kurkjian can be reached via kurkjian at globe.com. From museum-security at museum-security.org Sat Oct 1 10:46:40 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sat, 1 Oct 2005 10:46:40 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] the Getty is not only museum entangled in controversy; Metropolitan Museum of Art, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and Cleveland Museum of Art, also accused of housing looted treasures Message-ID: <200510010846.j918kiTJ055389@smtp-vbr9.xs4all.nl> http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-getty1oct01,0,7864696.s tory?coll=la-news-comment-editorials STATE OF THE ART Just say no to plunder October 1, 2005 THE ILLICIT TRADE IN ART and antiquities has often been compared to trafficking in drugs or guns. Both trades are international in scope, require a sophisticated smuggling operation and are driven by demand in wealthy nations. But the analogy ends there. Art enriches society. Furthermore, the vast majority of U.S. and European museums are respectable institutions run by conscientious professionals who do their best to act responsibly under what are often challenging circumstances. But the best intentions, as recent revelations about the Getty Museum illustrate, are no protection against questionable or even criminal behavior. The Getty should not merely take a stand against smuggling; it should return any illgotten parts of its collection. The Getty's curator of antiquities is on trial in Italy for conspiring to traffic in looted art. Times reporters Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino, reviewing hundreds of records from the museum, documented Sunday that half of the masterpieces in the Getty's antiquities collection were purchased from dealers suspected of looting. Their investigation also revealed a disturbingly wide gulf between the Getty's standards and practices. For two decades, the Getty has deplored the plundering of art, lecturing to anyone who will listen on the ethics and legalities of collecting ancient art, and revising its own acquisition policies to make them stronger. The museum's former director described its basic stance: "Nothing would justify buying an object that we knew or strongly suspected was stolen." Yet one internal memo shows that the Getty paid $10.2 million for three objects dug from ruins near Naples decades after Italian law had made it illegal to do so. Another memo showed that the Getty had acquired more than 300 antiquities from a private collection without a documented ownership history - eight months after unveiling a revised acquisition policy that pledged the museum would only buy items that had been published in catalogs or journals before 1995 or were part of "established and well-documented" collections. It is easy enough to ask that the Getty abide by its own rules. But it also is worth pointing out that the purpose of those rules is not simply to protect the Getty but to protect the cultural heritage of societies that have long since departed this world. The plundering of art, which has been practiced for thousands of years, has its defenders. There are some who justify holding ancient treasures such as the Elgin Marbles, the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the so-called Pergamon Altar at, respectively, the British Museum, the Louvre and Berlin's Pergamon Museum, saying they are better protected and taken care of there. Yet archeologists and historians argue that ancient works of art are best understood in their original context whenever possible. In the United States, it must be said, the Getty is not the only museum entangled in this kind of controversy. Other great U.S. museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and the Cleveland Museum of Art, also have been accused of housing looted treasures. One could reasonably argue that before 1970, when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization approved a convention that called on governments to make it illegal to "import, export or transfer ownership" of cultural property without permission from the country of origin, such looting was at least legally excusable. And at least until 1983, when the U.S. ratified the UNESCO convention, U.S. museums were not legally bound by it. Yet the looting continues, with the Getty's experience as the most prominent recent example of a museum failing to live up to its ideals. The first step is for the Getty to return the pieces it cannot prove were acquired legitimately. It also should adopt and enforce a clear, unequivocal acquisitions policy that it will not buy, accept or receive on loan any item illegally removed from its country of origin since 1970, when UNESCO adopted its convention. The looting of ancient art is a moral crime. As an institution devoted to the study of ancient civilizations, the Getty should play no part in a practice that limits our ability to understand both our heritage and who we are today. From museum-security at museum-security.org Sat Oct 1 19:40:38 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sat, 1 Oct 2005 19:40:38 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] Weekend reading: Timbuktu - learning at the heart of Africa Message-ID: <200510011740.j91Hefl7062631@smtp-vbr10.xs4all.nl> Timbuktu - learning at the heart of Africa By Christina Gallagher For some people the city of Timbuktu in Mali is only a figment of their imagination, perhaps where desert empires prospered, or a place out there at the ends of the earth. But the city does exist and its legacy as a centre for knowledge and trade in Africa is making imprints throughout the world. The beginnings of Timbuktu can be traced to the 11th century. It is situated where the Niger River flows northward to the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, making it an important port where West and North African goods were traded. 'The families guard them jealously' It was known for its gold and paper - two valuable commodities that would secure its place in history. Later it was an intellectual hub where the famed manuscripts captured prevailing thoughts of the day about a variety of topics, including medicine, mathematics, religion and astronomy. During the 16th century Timbuktu became known as the academic and commercial centre of Africa. At one point it had three universities, 180 Qur'anic schools, and was the major book publishing town in Africa. It is from this value of knowledge that the manuscripts emerged. Experts also say that the writers of the manuscripts are the intellectual descendants of those who originally wrote the Qur'an on behalf of the Prophet Mohammed, who could not read or write. In the late 1500s, Timbuktu was conquered by Morocco The area prospered until the end of the 1500s when it was conquered by Morocco. The army destroyed the city, burned libraries, killed many scholars and sent others to Morocco. This is why some manuscripts can be found in Morocco today and also in neighbouring Mauritania where some scholars fled. During French colonisation, which ended in 1960, many of the manuscripts from Timbuktu ended up in French museums and universities. Today the manuscripts offer proof that Africans' intellectual capacity extended beyond oral history and archaeological findings, which have long been regarded as the African way of recording history. Experts say the manuscripts could be the most ancient to have survived in sub-Saharan Africa and are important because they offer a glimpse into the views of black Muslim scholars over the centuries. The manuscripts were commissioned to be copied by governments, for which the artisans were paid a handsome sum of 24g of gold per copy. Some of these copies, which are adorned with gold leaf and vibrant colours, can be seen at the exhibition. Riason Naidoo, project manager for the South Africa-Mali Project, said: "Copiers were treasured people in Timbuktu. They were paid a high salary and had a high status." The manuscripts were mainly written in local languages using Arabic script. This makes it difficult for scholars outside of Mali to understand the meanings. French colonisation has also contributed to much of the local population's inability to understand the scripts today. Some of the manuscripts were also written in Hebrew, showing that Jewish traders passed through the area in search of gold. One reason the manuscripts survived so well in the region was its dry, hot weather, but because of the sand the paper has become brittle. Other threats, according to Professor Kole Omotoso from Bait al-Hikmah Translations and Africa Diaspora Research, are "termites, fire, climatic conditions, humidity, floods and illegal trafficking through sales to tourists from Europe". In 1988 Unesco declared Timbuktu a World Heritage Site. It has also been put on Unesco's list of World Heritage Sites in danger from desertification which plagues its buildings, including the town's three mosques that testify to its central place in 15th- and 16th-century Islam. The durable ink that looks as if it was used in contemporary times came from vegetable dyes, mainly from the Arabic gum tree. Horns and hooves of animals were burned and mixed with the ink to make the colours more brilliant. Some of their methods of mixing proved potent, and the effects can be seen on some manuscripts with holes burned through them from the acidic compounds. Nearly 20 000 manuscripts are kept at the Ahmed Baba Institute in Timbuktu.The oldest dates back to 1204. It is from the centre that 16 of the manuscripts were chosen for the current gallery exhibition. Timbuktu also has an estimated 80 private libraries, owned by families that have kept the manuscripts for centuries. Dr Mohammed Gallah Dicko, director of the Ahmed Baba Institute, says the manuscripts are considered sacred objects in Timbuktu. "The families guard them jealously. They are passed from father to son throughout the generations, whereby we have to convince families over 10 to 12 years to sell them." "The manuscripts were known about in many countries. After the French came, a lot of people hid them under the sand and in trunks. Only recently are they emerging again. "There is now a freedom created through awareness. Before there was a fear that they would leave the country and destroy the family heritage." Chris Murphy, a Near East specialist at the US Library of Congress who was a co-curator of an exhibition of Timbuktu manuscripts there, said in a 2004 interview with the New York Times that trafficking was now common practice. "Poverty is such that you can buy these for $2 to $5 (R13 - R32)," he said. "Then they are taken to Switzerland, often, where their provenance will be forged. And they get moved to auction houses where they will be sold for up to $1 000 (about R6 300). "Sometimes, they can reach five figures." Dicko says the manuscripts are priceless. He has pleaded with Unesco to stop the trafficking of the manuscripts, but says nothing has been done. In 2003 the South Africa-Mali Project was launched and it has been endorsed by the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) as its first cultural project. The project aims to create awareness of the manuscripts' importance and to preserve their legacy. The Timbuktu Manuscripts exhibition runs from Saturday October 1 until Saturday October 8 at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg. http://www.thestar.co.za/ From museum-security at museum-security.org Sun Oct 2 08:26:37 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2005 08:26:37 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] The Art of the Heist . Ttheft of artwork is a big-bucks business Message-ID: <200510020626.j926Qcll018555@smtp-vbr5.xs4all.nl> 10/10/05 The Art of the Heist It's not The Thomas Crown Affair, but theft of artwork is a big-bucks business By Ilana Ozernoy You know the story: A nefarious art collector sends a band of acrobatic thieves dressed in black turtlenecks to steal a rare and priceless piece of art. They pull hundreds of thousands of dollars in rappelling equipment out of their backpacks and perform death-defying stunts to retrieve the artwork from a museum that has cutting-edge security (usually involving laser beams). The cat burglars then deliver the stolen painting to the lair of their unscrupulous benefactor, who hangs it in his private quarters and savors it in solitude (usually with a bottle of French wine). But the reality of art crime is a much more banal--and tragic--tale. It is an underground business driven by common criminals and petty thieves who walk into museums in broad daylight and steal from churches and libraries and people's homes. Much of what is stolen is damaged or destroyed in the hands of rough amateurs, and in the United States only an estimated 5 percent is ever recovered. The rest--stolen paintings and icons, looted antiquities, and rare books--is a $4 billion to $6 billion industry estimated to be the third-largest black market in the world, after illegal drugs and illicit arms. A stolen painting or first-edition baseball card is worth only one tenth its value on the street, but to a burglar, it still could be more valuable than a stolen stereo and may be just as easy to obtain. "Petty thieves have come on to the fact that stealing art is more profitable than conventional crime," says FBI Special Agent Robert Wittman, who has been on the art beat for over 15 years. "An average bank robbery is less than a thousand dollars, and one Rembrandt is worth at least a million, so one art theft is like a thousand bank burglaries." Easy money. Stealing a painting, it seems, is sometimes easier than robbing a bank. Many museums have small security budgets and spend more money on acquiring new art than on securing it. Then there is the Catch-22 of putting art on display: If the public has access to the paintings, so do the thieves. When two masked thieves sauntered into the Munch Museum in Oslo in August 2004, they did so in broad daylight. Brandishing pistols, they yanked two of Munch's most famous paintings-- The Madonna and The Scream -- right off the walls in front of stunned museumgoers and security guards. The thieves walked out, shoved the paintings into the back of a black Audi, and drove off. They are still at large. The biggest art heist in America happened in an equally prosaic fashion. Fifteen years ago, two thieves masquerading as cops were ushered into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston by a sleepy security guard on night duty. The thieves quickly overpowered the museum's two guards, handcuffed them, and spent the next hour and a half plucking some of the world's most valuable artwork from the walls. The stash of art they made off with--now estimated to be worth at least $300 million--included Rembrandt's only known seascape, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, an oil work by Jan Vermeer, five drawings by Degas, and a bronze Chinese beaker, thought to have originated in 1200-1100 B.C. "All of this artwork is part of a cultural history," says Anne Hawley, director of the Gardner Museum. "When these materials are removed, it's as if Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is removed. It's more than a monetary theft--it's a cultural theft, which makes it so heinous." The Gardner case also remains unsolved. But while big heists of brand-name art make headlines, a steady trickle of valuable, albeit less famous, stolen collectibles makes up the bulk of the black market: Civil War-era swords and Americana, rare-edition books, B-list paintings. The Art Loss Register, the world's largest database of stolen cultural property, lists over 160,000 paintings, sculptures, and other antiquities, adding 10,000 to 15,000 new entries a year. (Among the items listed are the 13 items stolen from the Gardner Museum, some 300 works by Marc Chagall, and over 500 Picassos.) "My greatest regret is that there isn't a universal database," says Dorit Straus, a vice president at Chubb Insurance Group and one of the Art Loss Register's subscribers. "It's very difficult to match things up with their rightful owners, even if you have a good description, even if you think art is unique. How many reclining nudes did Picasso paint? There's just no way." Meanwhile, the appetite for art in America is only growing, making it the biggest consumer market in the world for stolen art, experts say. "You have a lot more people who have money, who want status, and are looking to buy art," says Straus, throwing her arms into the air. "We're insatiable here! People build bigger and bigger houses. There isn't even enough inventory to fill the demand for art." Straus says it is very difficult to sell a purloined painting in a business that runs on reputation, because no legitimate art dealer or auction house will want to trade in stolen property. The art of art theft lies in the ability to convert stolen property into hard currency. Though few good statistics from the criminal underworld are available, experts say that paintings, which are easier to transfer inconspicuously across international borders than large sums of money, are often used as collateral in drug trades. No deals. Art thieves might also try to claim a ransom on a painting, which in the short term costs the insurer a fraction of the cost of paying out a policy. But "art-napping" is a practice insurance companies say they are loath to encourage. "It's the same as governments who don't negotiate with terrorists," says Straus. "If you're going to negotiate with thieves, you're going to encourage more of the same." The more likely scenario is that a thief, having realized that a stolen van Gogh is not so easy to dispose of, will simply sit on the painting until he thinks it is safe for it to surface. "Thieves hold on to it until they either find a seller or die," says FBI agent Wittman. "Anytime I've ever seen paintings come back, it's through people trying to sell them." And Wittman has recovered a lot of cultural property--$140 million worth since 1999 alone, including an original copy of the Bill of Rights, missing since 1865, and five Norman Rockwells that were stolen in the 1970s. Wittman says he often recovers items in sting operations or when he gets wind of an upcoming sale. Stolen art can pop up at thousands of auction houses, flea markets, and estate sales across America. In an industry where business is often done anonymously, by private contract or in backroom dealings, the auction is the most public and transparent forum, an unofficial system of checks and balances. "Everything we're going to sell is available online [and] from time to time, people will call in and say, 'Wait a minute! That's my property,' " says Jo Backer Laird, senior vice president and general counsel in Christie's New York office. After the massive looting of archaeological sites in Iraq, the FBI expects stolen antiquities to soon flood the U.S. marketplace. "People don't even really know what's being stolen," says David Shillingford, who runs the Art Loss Register's New York office. "If something is being dug out of the ground, you don't even know it was stolen because the first person to see it for 6,000 years is the thief." Partly in anticipation of an influx of Iraqi artifacts, the FBI fielded an art crime team last year (previously, art was lumped into the broad category of property theft). Wittman shepherded seven agents through a mini art school to teach them "the difference between a Rembrandt and a Picasso." Unlike the Italian carabinieri or the Spanish art theft squad, which boasts hundreds of art cops, Wittman remains the FBI' S only full-time man on the job. "Whoever would have heard of a baseball card going for $500,000?" asks Wittman, shaking his head. "It's become treasure, get-rich-quick stuff. [And] as the value goes up, so does the fraud." View Of Auvers-Sur-Oise. This C e zanne was taken from the University of Oxford ' s Ashmolean Museum. Value: $3 million. The Madonna. Thieves stole a version of this Munch work in Oslo. Value: $15 million. The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. Rembrandt ' s seascape. Value: Unknown. http://www.usnews.com/ From museum-security at museum-security.org Sun Oct 2 12:24:28 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2005 12:24:28 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] Tomb raiders and the phantom army. A comic book is the latest weapon in the fight against looters Message-ID: <200510021024.j92AOUAh099808@smtp-vbr4.xs4all.nl> Tomb raiders and the phantom army by Guy De Launey A comic book is the latest weapon in the fight against looters CAMBODIAN tomb raiders have made a mockery of every institution that has tried to stop them so far. The government's Heritage Department proved powerless, the police and local authorities have failed and even Unesco has made little impact. Now a comic book is being used to fight against the looters. Wrath of the Phantom Army plays on popular superstitions to ward off potential raiders. When the protagonists dig up ancient graves in search of treasure, the village animals fall sick. As they continue to loot, an army of skeletons rises from a burial mound to confront them. The young men soon conclude that grave robbing is a profession with no future. Heritage Watch, the archaeological organisation, hopes that the launch of the comic last night in Siem Reap, Cambodia's cultural centre, will at least slow the looting. The main historical sites such as Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples are now well protected, but Cambodia's less-celebrated monuments are regularly plundered. Preah Khan temple in Kompong Svey province is a case in point. Once considered a rival of Angkor Wat, its isolation has proved to be its undoing. One night, five years ago, the local official of the Heritage Department heard the chink of chisel on stone coming from the temple and went to investigate. He found the temple surrounded by armed men, was beaten and then fled for his life. Many of the artefacts are stolen to order for clients overseas, but some end up on sale at international auction houses or on the internet. Ancient necklaces, beads and even statues can easily be found at markets in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Many rural villages are built on or near ancient burial grounds without the inhabitants even realising. When antiques dealers find out about the grave sites and offer the impoverished villagers cash for anything they find, they spark a frenzy of digging and inadvertent destruction. Dougald O'Reilly, the director of Heritage Watch, said: "The cemeteries that people are destroying every day represent the answers to those questions of how we came to be where we are today, not just as Cambodians, but as human beings, so it's priceless information. "It's our responsibility to at least give people an informed opinion about what they're doing." The comic uses a wise old monk to educate the looters in the error of their ways. Illiteracy is common in Cambodia's villages, and a picture- heavy, text-light publication stands at least a chance of making an impact. Its use of ghosts is also likely to strike a chord in a highly superstitious country. Nonetheless, some remain highly sceptical. At the old market in Siem Reap, only a few miles from Angkor Wat, Srey Raksmey, read the comic surrounded by the prehistoric gold beads and ancient temple bells in her souvenir shop. "People in the villages have money problems," she said. "As long as they're poor and the dealers have cash, they'll continue to dig." http://www.timesonline.co.uk/ From museum-security at museum-security.org Mon Oct 3 07:12:21 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 07:12:21 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] Theft Case Rattles Sedate World of Rare Maps Message-ID: <200510030512.j935CM5M090429@smtp-vbr10.xs4all.nl> October 3, 2005 Theft Case Rattles Sedate World of Rare Maps By ALISON LEIGH COWAN NEW HAVEN, Oct. 2 - With his neat blazer and scholarly air, it was not hard for E. Forbes Smiley III to blend in at the Yale rare-books library and make himself at home among its atlases and maps. But this visit to the Beinecke Library at Yale on June 8 by Mr. Smiley, a 49-year-old dealer in antiquities who plied his trade on both sides of the Atlantic, took a turn that has jolted the closed and covetous world of map dealers and collectors, as well as the serene if starchy institutions that hold treasured maps. According to the local police, a library worker's discovery of an X-Acto knife blade on the reading room floor near Mr. Smiley was the first hint of trouble. By early afternoon, they say, librarians had video images of Mr. Smiley removing from a book an antique map valued by Yale at $150,000. Later that day, the police say, they found in his jacket a fragile map that appeared to have been taken from a 17th-century book; others that also appeared to be stolen, worth more than $700,000, were in his briefcase. Now librarians and curators from New York to Chicago, alerted by the F.B.I., have been sent scurrying to their stacks to make sure their books are intact. And in some cases, including the New York and Boston Public Libraries, maps may have gone missing, though no one has accused Mr. Smiley in those cases. Charged with larceny in the first degree in New Haven, Mr. Smiley pleaded not guilty on Aug. 9 and has said little about the case beyond the assurances he initially gave the police that the maps were his and that he simply was comparing them to others at the library. His lawyer, Richard A. Reeve, has declined all comment, as has Yale. With Mr. Smiley, who has been buying and selling rare North American maps and atlases for more than a decade, scheduled to make another court appearance here on Monday, the case is turning into an embarrassment for prestigious libraries and elite collectors from Chicago to London. A field marked by tweedy scholarship in quiet, climate-controlled vaults has been rattled by disclosures of maps disappearing amid lax security and suspicions that big-money deals were being made with too few questions asked. Local prosecutors here brought the initial charges against Mr. Smiley. But according to interviews with people who have been contacted by the authorities, federal prosecutors in New Haven have been involved since this summer, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation asked libraries that had played host to Mr. Smiley to check their holdings. The United States attorney's office here has declined to comment, as has the F.B.I. Indeed, it seems that just about every library and university that ushered Mr. Smiley into its cloistered precincts has been scouring its collections for signs of tampering. The New York Public Library and the Boston Public Library, two institutions that leveraged Mr. Smiley's rapport with collectors to increase their rosters of map donations in the last decade, have acknowledged that maps may be missing from their collections and that Mr. Smiley's visits are being scrutinized for any possible link. The reverberations have been felt far as the British Library. Meanwhile, many of the customers who bought his wares - a group that includes some of the nation's most prestigious and most secretive collectors - are cautiously reviewing their purchases. "This is just the tip of the iceberg," W. Graham Arader 3rd, a dealer considered by many to be preeminent in the world of antiquarian maps, said of the New Haven case. Map thefts are common enough to be monitored by bloggers and are the focus of entire books. Still, Mr. Arader, a former trustee of Yale's library system, said he had to nag the university to install the cameras that ultimately helped nab Mr. Smiley. Greeting customers at his map-filled mansion on Madison Avenue - his "$35-million spider web," as he calls it - Mr. Arader said he has been warning clients for years that Mr. Smiley's prices were too good to be true. "A lot of powerful people will have to return stuff, because it's stolen," he said, adding, "Some very rich, very powerful, very influential men, against my judgment, against my written letters, against my e-mails, chose to ignore my advice." Mr. Smiley is a graduate of Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., according to a lengthy profile in The Hartford Courant. His career began in the map department of B. Altman & Company in New York before he went off on his own. Competitors recall that he struggled financially in the early 1990's and that he complained bitterly that a $250,000 map collection he had been building was stolen. "He called everyone in the business to say they were stolen, in case they were offered" for sale, said Murray Hudson, an antiquarian book and map dealer in Halls, Tenn. In pitches to customers and the introduction to his Web site, Mr. Smiley hammered home the idea that he sought long-term relationships with clients - citing, by way of example, work he did helping two prominent collectors, Lawrence H. Slaughter and Norman B. Leventhal, build impressive map holdings that now feature in the New York and Boston Public Libraries, respectively. "Once a relationship is established," he wrote, "I work to protect the collector's interest, and to assure that the finest copies of relevant maps and atlases are offered to them as soon as they appear on the market, and at the lowest possible price." Mr. Smiley and his wife, Lisa Benson, a former colleague at B. Altman, live in Chilmark, on Martha's Vineyard, but also own property in Maine, according to the profile in The Hartford Courant. As the F.B.I. has made its rounds, not all those individuals asked to surrender objects for inspection have been very good sports, say dealers who have been caught in the middle. Among other considerations, collectors may have to forfeit the maps - or the tax deductions, if it turns out they have donated the documents to libraries or institutions. Robert Newman, a third-generation map dealer who, with his brother, Harry, runs the Old Print Shop on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, said he was complying with an F.B.I. demand that he produce for examination 19 items the shop had purchased from Mr. Smiley. Mr. Newman said he has offered to buy the items back from his own customers, but added that some were still upset. "It's like your walking into their house and stealing their children," Mr. Newman said. Galling to him and others in the trade are what they consider to be the many missed opportunities to curb dishonest activities years ago - a failure he attributed to widespread misgivings among academic and cultural institutions to admit when they have been sloppy or snookered. For instance, the most valuable map that the F.B.I. asked Mr. Newman to produce for examination was purchased by him from Mr. Smiley some five years ago. Mr. Newman said he had been told that a prior owner had suspected the map's theft from the collection but never spread the word. Had the alarm been raised then, Mr. Newman said, "there was a chance to stop this four years ago." Charles T. Cullen, the president of Chicago's Newberry Library, an independent research institution, acknowledges that the map world has some explaining to do. Two maps are missing from books Mr. Smiley viewed at the Newberry in March, he said. One is a 17th-century map of Virginia by Capt. John Smith. Dr. Cullen finds the other - an 18th-century map of coastal South Carolina - especially puzzling, since it has a limited market. "We're somewhat embarrassed we had something stolen from us, but it happens," Dr. Cullen said. Donors, "know these things happen sometimes, and, of course, it always looks bad," he said, adding, "But it's one of the unfortunate aspects of being open." In any event, he said that neither map was likely to end up as part of a criminal case against Mr. Smiley. "One, we didn't see him steal them, and we couldn't say with absolute certainty that the maps were in the books when we gave them to him," Dr. Cullen said. Even police affidavit prepared by Detective Martin Buonfiglio of the Yale police department, which was the basis for charging Mr. Smiley in June, suggested that at Yale itself Mr. Smiley had been under suspicion once before. But that apparently did not put him on any "watch" list at the Beinecke Library. According to the affidavit, when the head of public services at the Beinecke heard about the knife blade on the reading room floor, she consulted the visitors' log to see who was inside the reading room, which is not open to the general public. Seeing Mr. Smiley's name, the affidavit notes, she called Yale's Sterling Memorial Library to see if its staff knew him and was told that he "was a suspect in a theft there on a prior occasion." But that incident, the affidavit says, was never reported or pursued for lack of evidence. http://www.nytimes.com/ From museum-security at museum-security.org Mon Oct 3 07:18:07 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 07:18:07 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] Roban tres tallas de siglos XIV a XVII en una ermita de Palencia Message-ID: <200510030518.j935I90i006666@smtp-vbr14.xs4all.nl> Roban tres tallas de siglos XIV a XVII en una ermita de Palencia October 3, 2005 El Ayuntamiento palentino de Guaza de Campos ha denunciado ante la Guardia Civil el robo de tres tallas de madera policromadas, datadas entre los siglos XIV a XVII, que se encontraban en el interior de la ermita del Santo Cristo de Acebes, informaron hoy a Efe fuentes municipales. Dichas fuentes precisaron que las im?genes sustra?das, ba?adas sobre matices de color oro, son una talla de San Mateo, del Siglo XIV; otra que representa a San Juan Bautista, del Siglo XVII, y la imagen de la Virgen, cuya fecha de creaci?n est? fijada en el siglo XVI. El hecho de la sustracci?n de las tres obras de arte sacro se conoci? este fin de semana, seg?n indicaron a Efe los vecinos, ya que la ermita se encuentra alejada unos dos kil?metros del centro de la localidad, de unos 80 habitantes y situada a 40 kil?metros de la capital. Los vecinos comprobaron que la puerta de acceso a dicho recinto religioso se encontraba totalmente destrozada y el autor o autores del robo, al parecer, ten?an perfecto conocimiento del valor de estas obras de arte puesto que el resto de enseres de la ermita se encontraban en perfecto estado, a?adieron fuentes vecinales. Los habitantes de Guaza de Campos lamentaron el hecho, aunque mostraron su alivio al comprobar que la talla del Santo Cristo de Acebes, patr?n de esta localidad palentina, permanec?a en el interior de la ermita. La Guardia Civil ha abierto una investigaci?n para esclarecer este robo. La Di?cesis de Palencia inform? el pasado mes de julio de que tiene intenci?n de implantar sistemas de alarmas en un centenar de iglesias y ermitas de la provincia para evitar, en colaboraci?n con las fuerzas de seguridad, los robos y hurtos de objetos y de arte sacro. El entonces delegado diocesano, Angel Sancho, asegur? que paulatinamente se instalar?n los sistemas de seguridad que estar?n conectados principalmente con la Guardia Civil por cuanto la mayor parte de los objetos de arte sacro valiosos se encuentran repartidos en los distintos centros religiosos de la provincia. Terra Actualidad - EFE From museum-security at museum-security.org Mon Oct 3 09:11:08 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 09:11:08 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] Getty Curator Resigns in Loan Flap. Marion True bought a Greek home with help arranged by a major supplier to the museum. Message-ID: <200510030711.j937BAHE067699@smtp-vbr14.xs4all.nl> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-getty3oct03,0,4789889.story?coll=la- home-headlines Getty Curator Resigns in Loan Flap Marion True bought a Greek home with help arranged by a major supplier to the museum. By Ralph Frammolino and Jason Felch Times Staff Writers October 3, 2005 The curator of antiquities for the J. Paul Getty Museum bought a vacation home in the Greek islands after one of the museum's main suppliers of ancient art introduced her to a lawyer who arranged a nearly $400,000 loan. The Getty said in a statement Saturday evening that the curator, Marion True, had resigned after museum officials confronted her about the loan, which she obtained in 1995. The statement, released in response to questions from The Times, said the loan breached museum policy, which requires employees to report even the appearance of a conflict of interest. "The Getty has determined through its own investigation that Marion True failed to report certain aspects of her Greek house purchase transaction in violation of Getty policy," the statement said. "In the course of the Getty's discussions with Ms. True on this matter, she chose voluntarily to retire." True, 56, faces trial in an Italian court on charges that she conspired with dealers who were trafficking in looted antiquities. In its statement, the Getty said she was retiring to devote her full energies to her defense. Internal Getty records obtained by The Times show that museum officials knew three years ago about the loan True obtained for the vacation home. The Getty declined comment on the documents. Italian authorities say Interpol in Greece is investigating the loan. True bought the property in 1995, paying about $400,000 for the white villa in a walled compound covering an acre of land on Paros, a picturesque island that is a popular vacation destination. In purchasing the property, True had trouble finding financing. American banks wouldn't lend money on Greek property, and Greek banks refused to give loans to foreigners. True discussed her desire to purchase the home with Christo Michailidis, an art dealer based in London. He and his partner, Robin Symes, were at the time among the Getty's biggest suppliers of Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquities. Michailidis put her in touch with Dimitri Peppas, a lawyer with offices in the port of Athens. Peppas then arranged a loan for True. The loan was made through an entity called the Sea Star Corp. and deposited into a Swiss bank account, records show. The records do not identify the original source of the funds. Harry Stang, True's attorney, said last month that Michailidis had done nothing more than introduce True to Peppas. "To Ms. True's knowledge, neither Mr. Symes nor any member of the Michailidis family was involved in obtaining the loan for her, save for Mr. Michailidis' introduction to Mr. Peppas," Stang said. He said Michailidis, now deceased, described Peppas to True as a "financier for Greek shipping companies." Stang released a letter True wrote to Peppas in June 1996 in which she informed him that she had arranged a 20-year mortgage from a New York bank affiliated with the National Bank of Greece. She discussed repayment of the loan Peppas had arranged. "You must know how grateful I am to you for helping me to purchase the house in Greece, but as you can imagine, the longer period of time will make the repayment process much easier for me," she wrote to Peppas. True added she would be on Paros for the summer and "I hope to lure you and Lia to visit me!" Stang also released a check for $386,286 to the Sea Star Corp., showing that True repaid the loan in July 1996. In announcing True's resignation, Getty officials declined to say what aspects of the museum's ethics policy True might have violated. However, the museum's conflict-of-interest rules require employees to disclose "any transaction that would create even the appearance of favoritism." The policy also prohibits "owing money to or borrowing money from any supplier or dealer or from an individual or firm . with whom the trust does business of any kind." A nephew of Michailidis, Dimitri Papadimitriou, said he discussed the loan with his uncle and Peppas, whom he described as a lawyer for Michailidis. Papadimitriou, president of Liquimar Tanker Management, a Greek oil tanker company owned by his family, said his uncle told him about the transaction in 1995 while the two were on vacation. He said he understood from his conversations with Michailidis and Peppas that the source of the loan "wasn't supposed to be known" and for that reason the money was provided through a corporation. Reached in Greece, Peppas' son and legal partner declined to comment. Asked if he played a role in the loan to True, Symes said in a recent interview: "That's rubbish." He suggested, however, that it was possible Michailidis offered it on his own. In 1999, Michailidis died after falling down some stairs in an Italian villa. A year later, Italian authorities notified the Getty that True was under investigation for allegedly conspiring to buy looted art. The Italians interrogated True about her relationship with Symes. Since True became curator in 1986, he and Michailidis had sold the Getty $30 million worth of objects, many of which Italy now says were stolen from ancient graves and ruins. Getty attorneys in Los Angeles first learned of True's loan in 2002, when Ludovic de Walden, the Getty's London counsel, informed them of the transaction, records show. De Walden said the transaction was carried out through a lawyer who worked for Symes and Michailidis in Athens. De Walden didn't name the attorney. He said he doubted the Italians would find out about the loan. That information was conveyed to Getty General Counsel Peter Erichsen and then-museum Director Deborah Gribbon, who questioned True about the transaction, records show. Getty officials declined to say what True told them at the time about the loan. Efforts to seek comment from Erichsen were unsuccessful. Gribbon declined Sunday to talk to a reporter. Before her retirement, the Getty had retained a team of attorneys to defend both True and the museum in the Italian case. It is not clear whether the museum will continue to defend her, or whether she will now be responsible for her own defense. As antiquities curator, True led the museum's $275 million renovation of the Getty Villa in Malibu, which will showcase the museum's antiquities collection when it reopens this winter. In response to the Italian investigation, an internal review by Getty attorneys found that True and other museum officials continued doing business with a handful of dealers, including Symes and Michailidis, despite signs that they were trafficking in possibly looted antiquities, The Times reported last month. In one case, documents show, True purchased an object after the dealer informed her it was being sought by Italian police. Times special correspondent Maria Panaritis contributed to this article with reporting from Athens and Paros. From museum-security at museum-security.org Mon Oct 3 19:02:31 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 19:02:31 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] A belated rescue of Cambodia's past Message-ID: <200510031702.j93H2Wre076648@smtp-vbr6.xs4all.nl> A belated rescue of Cambodia's past By Robert Turnbull International Herald Tribune MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2005 PHNOM PENH In the stampede to experience the glories of Angkor Wat, few of today's hard-pressed tourists leave time to visit Cambodia's capital. It's a regrettable omission. Nestled at the confluence of three rivers, Phnom Penh's graceful skyline of pagodas and minarets, unspoiled by modern high-rises, provides one of Southeast Asia's most enchanting panoramas. Adjacent to the Royal Palace at the heart of the city stands the National Museum. With its angled roof, elaborately carved doors and terra cotta fa?ade, this classic example of "colonial Khmer" architecture is, alongside the Mus?e Guimet in Paris, home to objects and relics that once furnished Angkor Wat. It's scarcely possible to imagine the majesty and vitality that animated this adamantine empire during its 12th-century heyday without a morning in the museum's light-filled galleries. The collection embodies both the acquisitive ambitions of French colonialists and the current desire to foster a national cultural identity by providing the link to Cambodia's ancestry. It was inaugurated as the Mus?e de Cambodge on April 13, 1920, in the presence of King Sisowath. The museum's architect and first curator was George Groslier (1887-1945), a dedicated Orientalist and visionary who was the first child to be born in Phnom Penh of French parentage. Obsessed with the fragility of the Cambodian arts, Groslier built the museum not only to preserve this patrimony but to encourage the transference of thousand-year-old traditions of craftsmanship from the confines of a royal palace in decline to a larger public arena. Groslier was shocked by the results of a survey conducted by the colonial authorities into the state of Cambodia's heritage. He built the ?cole des Arts Cambodgiens as a complement to the museum, immediately behind it, blurring the boundary between the two institutions so that students could wander in and sketch among the visitors. Expert craftsmen who had drifted back to the rice fields with the demise of royal patronage were summoned back to train the next generation of goldsmiths, woodcarvers, weavers and sculptors. Groslier's mysterious death at the hands of Japanese torturers during their brief occupancy of Phnom Penh in 1945 had little effect on his efforts. He had established a network of French residents in all Cambodian provinces who acted as intermediaries in the collection of pieces. Antiquities were brought to the museum for safety by farmers or dredged up from the silt of the Mekong and Tonle rivers. Moreover, the museum's continued expansion up to the time of independence in 1953 and beyond was as much the result of efforts by the ?cole Fran?aise d'Extr?me Orient, whose experts and restorers lived on site and documented some 50 of Angkor's monuments. A succession of French and later Cambodian curators retained the National Museum's general appearance established by Groslier. At the museum, four galleries of 6th- to 13th-century Hindu and Buddhist stone and bronze sculpture jostle with hundreds of objects in ceramic, textiles and glass. Among scores of nagas, nandas, lingas and garudas are an enviable number of masterpieces, such as the 12th-century carving of King Jayavarman VII in Buddhist pose, two fighting giants from 10th-century Koh Ker and a large fragment of a reclining Vishnu, originally 6 meters in length, recovered from the Mebon temple in 1936. Groslier can also be credited with stemming the hemorrhage of plunder to France that began with the Mekong Commission's explorers in the 1880s and reached its zenith with the Exposition Coloniale in Marseilles in 1902. In 1923, Andr? Malraux, later to become Charles de Gaulle's minister of culture, was caught red-handed and charged with trying to smuggle out almost a ton of stones from the northerly temple of Banteay Srei. He was arrested and convicted. The stones were returned to Angkor's most ornately carved red stone edifice, and the scandal caused a pronounced shift in attitude. The miracle of the National Museum is that it survived almost 40 years of political upheaval from 1970 without any structural damage or significant looting. There were a few serious losses. A statue of the god Yama, for instance, which once sat on the Terrace of the Leper King in Angkor Thom and had been rescued during the '60s after someone tried to cut its head off, went missing during the '80s. However, to most people's astonishment, the building was left virtually untouched during the Khmer Rouge's brutally destructive rule from 1975 to 1979. The collection has been enriched in recent years. In 1999, armed Cambodian soldiers were caught trying to cross into Thailand with large sections of bas relief from Banteay Chmar, a magnificent structure with a perimeter wall second only to that of Angkor Wat in size. These are now securely held at the museum. A number of missing pieces of Cambodian art, bought in good faith, have been returned to the country. The 10th-century hunchback from Koh Ker, for example, was the property of a private American collector purchasing Cambodian antiquity on the open market. He recognized the object from photographs taken in the '60s. The Metropolitan Museum in New York was loudly applauded for returning a head of Shiva, originally from Prasat Krom in Siem Reap. Outside the capital, in the former war zones of the Northwest, museums and monuments were comprehensively looted in the turmoil of the late '90s. But collections in Banteay Mencheay and Battambong provinces have reopened under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Fine Arts and Culture, and new edifices are going up in the provincial centers of Takeo and Kompong Thom for what is left of their rural collections. "No one was entirely sure of how many collections there were before 1975," said Hab Touch, deputy director of the National Museum. "A central inventory was kept in PP, but the rich documentation that existed during the '60s was destroyed," he said. "We need to carefully document and photograph what is left, identify the needs of all these museums, and address how to improve their security and systems of management." Shelby White, an American philanthropist and long a supporter of archaeological conservation, was shocked to discover that the National had not updated its inventory in 50 years, and using a grant from her Leon Levy Foundation, the museum's Inventory Project aims to improve on the network established by the French, re-examining and rephotographing all objects for entry into a modern database. Provincial collections are already benefiting from the parallel Provincial Collections Survey, started in 2003 and funded by the Friends of Khmer Culture Inc., headed by the historian and curator Helen Jessup. The Phnom Penh inventory is being managed by Darryl Collins, an Australian scholar and teacher who first came to Cambodia in 1994 to spend one year creating order out of chaos. "When I first walked into building in 1994, it was in such a parlous state that I was quite shocked," Collins said. "The place had flooded continually, there were piles of sculpture lying on the floor, covered in dirt, and you could smell the presence of thousands of bats in the cavernous roof. There were regular blackouts, and the museum had neither water nor air conditioning." Collins thinks the inventories will have profound effect on security of the national heritage. "Things may go missing from time to time, especially at border areas," he said. "But if we have images of all Cambodian statuary, then we can use them as identification and keep check on what is leaving the country." He wants the collection to travel, as it did in 1963, when about 100 pieces were seen at Matsuzakaya Department stores in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. Two huge tours of artifacts to Germany and Japan are planned for 2005 and 2007. Collins says it's unlikely that the Cambodian museum will be demanding the return of objects from the Guimet. But their collaboration is assured, he feels. The great Paris-Washington exhibition of 1997 was the first time that works from the two great collections of Khmer art had ever been seen together. But for Collins and Touch, and the many others committed to Cambodia's cultural heritage, it won't be the last. From museum-security at museum-security.org Mon Oct 3 19:08:08 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 19:08:08 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] Restorer advises on maintaining, keeping art Message-ID: <200510031708.j93H89Ja065314@smtp-vbr5.xs4all.nl> Restorer advises on maintaining, keeping art Expert is restoring six Francis Davis paintings Almost two years ago, Rebecca Smith bought a 1984 Keith Haring painting on eBay from a Florida man who claimed to have found it at a flea market. Smith was a fan of Haring's work, and her husband, Damon Stuebner, met Haring's parents in Pennsylvania while working as a CNN affiliate. The work - a red dog standing on a green field, barking at two UFOs floating in a light-orange sky - showed up in Juneau without a frame. For months, it's been dangling from a nail in the wall, above Stuebner's laundry. Sunday afternoon, Smith and Stuebner brought the painting to McPhetres Hall, where Denver painting conservator Carmen Bria, owner of the Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Arts, led a free, four-hour presentation on restorative techniques. Bria, one of the few painting restoration experts working in the West, has been coming to Alaska since 1979. The WCCFA is in the process of restoring six antique Frances Davis paintings from Holy Trinity Church. The crowd of two dozen brought in 12 paintings Sunday for Bria to examine. The Haring work stood out. Most were landscapes or classical portraits. "I'm pretty sure it's authentic," Smith said of the Haring work. "I mainly wanted to know what I needed to do in terms of framing it. I just want to make sure that I preserve it properly." Dixie Hood brought a painting of a sailboat that her mother, Sylvia, completed in Connecticut in 1948. Flakes of paint had chipped off, exposing the wood beneath. The varnish had yellowed and blended in spots into the blue background, creating a green haze. A nail jutted from the inner-right side of the frame, threatening to scrape away more of the scene. "To make sure it's not going to lose more paint, the most important thing is to improve the structure, the stability," Bria said. Juneau artist Pua Maunu wanted advice on a landscape painting that had been hanging in Northern Light Church. The piece was covered with mysterious chalk marks that turned out to be a hidden purple layer. The work had evidently been stored behind a Coke machine, leaving it with horizontal scrapes. Susie and Ron Seator wanted advice on a Sidney Laurence work which seemed to radiate with a Fred-Machteanz-like ultramarine glow. Bria, who has restored more than 300 Laurence works, believed it to be a photomechanical reproduction which had faded and lost its yellows and reds. Another Juneau artist, Dorinda Skains, brought in a few of the paintings she salvaged from the August 2004 fire that destroyed downtown's Skinner Building. Her gallery was destroyed. "Five Yellow Apples" was left with a layer of soot and grime. Bria suggested a few cleaning methods. "When I say clean, I'm not talking about a sponge or a Brillo pad," he said. "We're talking about removing dirt, removing grime, removing varnish and old retouching. "Paintings can be so different," he said. "If a painting is more than 40 years old, it's going to have some loss. Most of all, we want to stabilize these works so they'll last for a long, long time and hopefully forever." Bria and the WCCFA have started cleaning two of the six Davis paintings. The restoration project is estimated to cost between $23,000 and $27,000 - approximately $16,000 to $17,000 of which has been raised so far. A dinner and arts auction is planned for 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, at McPhetres Hall to help raise more money. Click here to return to story: http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/100305/loc_20051003010.shtml From museum-security at museum-security.org Mon Oct 3 19:12:19 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 19:12:19 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] El despojo cultural en Africa Message-ID: <200510031712.j93HCKPu072300@smtp-vbr11.xs4all.nl> El despojo cultural en Africa October 3, 2005 El Africa desde hace 150 a?os est? siendo despojada constantemente de sus objetos culturales y, si bien la mayor?a de los pa?ses centrales donde se encuentran estas piezas aceptan que muchas de ellas llegaron de forma il?cita, a la hora de devolverlas las opiniones se dividen. Diferentes piezas culturales, como por ejemplo las terracotas nok y kwatakwashi de 2.000 a?os de antig?edad de Sokoto en Nigeria, las m?scaras fang, relicarios de Ben?n y bronces sao, se encuentran distribuidas entre instituciones p?blicas (museos europeos) y colecciones privadas. En Europa y en otras partes nadie responde por el robo general del patrimonio cultural al que Africa, en general, ha sido sometida. Vasta un solo ejemplo para ilustrar esto, en Costa de Marfil es casi imposible mostrarle a la poblaci?n las m?scaras rituales m?s significativas de su cultura, todas est?n en el exterior por lo cual el estudiante deber? conformarse con verlas por internet, con suerte. Los gobiernos de los pa?ses pobres de Africa Occidental, donde existe un extraordinario patrimonio cultural, sin embargo, tienen menos control sobre los robos. Este hecho y el elevado nivel art?stico de los imperios antiguos de Ghana (entre el siglo VII y XII, en la actual Mal? y Mauritania), de Mal? (entre el siglo XII y XV, en lo que hoy en d?a es Mal?, Guinea y Senegal), de Songhay (siglos XV y XVI en los actuales Mal? y Burkina Faso) y de Ben?n (entre el siglo XVI hasta 1898 en la actual Nigeria meridional) sit?a a la regi?n cada vez m?s en el punto de mira de los saqueadores y traficantes de arte. Seg?n argumentan algunos coleccionistas privados, el continente africano no est? preparado para resguardar su patrimonio cultural, pero en realidad muchos de los objetos extra?dos de Africa tienen un poder ritual y son elaborados espec?ficamente por cada etnia y s?lo ella comprende todos sus detalles. Ahora bien ?c?mo proteger el patrimonio cultural? Todas las leyes y convenios internacionales no pueden impedir el tr?fico ilegal mientras Africa est? sumergida en la pobreza extrema. En Camer?n, por ejemplo, los jefes de la tribu bamileke si bien tienen prohibido vender las piezas de su antiguo tesoro, terminan comercializando objetos a trav?s de otros miembros de la tribu, pero con el benepl?cito de funcionarios corruptos que son quienes finalmente permiten la salida del pa?s de las piezas./ Aldo Guzm?n Ramos, especialista en Patrimonio y Turismo, publicado en Rebeli?n.org http://www.la-epoca.com/ From museum-security at museum-security.org Mon Oct 3 19:12:19 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 19:12:19 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] Getty Museum to return disputed art works to Italy Message-ID: <200510031712.j93HCKPt072300@smtp-vbr11.xs4all.nl> Getty Museum to return disputed art works to Italy Reuters Oct. 3, 2005 - The J. Paul Getty Museum, one of the world's richest art institutions, has agreed to return to Italy three archaeological treasures its curator is accused of having acquired knowing they were looted. Italy's Culture Minister Rocco Buttiglione said he would be sending an official to Los Angeles to pick up the works. He wants the Getty to return the rest of a total of 42 disputed Italian art treasures it has in its collection. "The works are returning without an admission of guilt on the part of the Getty, but also without us withdrawing our accusations," Buttiglione said in a comments to Corriere della Sera newspaper on Monday. His spokesman confirmed the remarks. In a case closely watched by the international art world, Italian prosecutors charged the Getty's antiquities curator Marion True in July of criminal conspiracy to receive stolen goods and illegal receipt of archaeological artifacts. The case involves 42 artworks that prosecutors believe were illegally excavated or stolen and later acquired by the Getty, including a prized ancient Greek statue of Aphrodite. True denies the charges and the Getty has defended her. "Without question, we will ask for the return of all pieces acquired on the black market. When the proof in certain, we will demand it: we are already imposing huge pressure. And not only on the Getty," Buttiglione said. The three works the Getty has agreed to return are a large antique bowl signed by Asteas, a painter from the ancient southern Italian city of Paestum, a bronze Etruscan candelabra and an ancient Greek inscription. True's trial, together with that of Paris-based art dealer Emanuel Robert Hecht, is due to continue in November having been adjourned after opening remarks in July in order to provide an English translation of the proceedings. From museum-security at museum-security.org Mon Oct 3 19:17:44 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 19:17:44 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] New device to stop theft of paintings wins Euro prize Message-ID: <200510031717.j93HHjQc081417@smtp-vbr15.xs4all.nl> Moderator message: I have had the opportunity to see a prototype of this device, and really was impressed. Simple to use and very effective. If you want more information, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me via: toncremers at museum-security.org New device to stop theft of paintings wins Euro prize October 3, 2005 A University of Bath student has taken a prize in a prestigious European scientific and engineering award for designing a locking system to stop the theft of valuable paintings. Tom Howard, a student in Mechanical Engineering, won third prize in the Scientific Award BMW Group 2005 prize for his design of an anti-theft device for art galleries. He was one of only six students out of 230 entrants from 26 countries to receive a prize, and he will share part of the 70,000 Euros (?47,700) prize money. Tom, who graduated last year with an MEng in Innovation and Engineering Design, was awarded the prize recently at a ceremony in the BMW plant in Leipzig. His ?ArtSmart? dissertation investigated various ways of stopping thieves from stealing paintings from the walls of art galleries. He eventually selected one using a novel locking system using a mechanically coded plastic chip as a key. The advantages of his system are that the paintings can be unlocked quickly by the card holder if there is a fire, and the system is flexible enough to allow each museum and gallery to have its own specially coded card. The system is designed so that the entire mechanism can be placed inside the paintings? frames so that visitors? visual appreciation is not disturbed. The system is now being tested in two galleries and is at final prototype stage for mass production. Tom is now working on his PhD at Bath, and his thesis is entitled: ?The role of information, knowledge and creativity in the design process.? ?It?s a very exciting time because the system is now actually being used,? said Tom. ?Although it?s hard work producing the final product and doing a doctorate at the same time, it?s well worth the effort to see something that will be of practical use for galleries being developed.? http://www.securitypark.co.uk/ From museum-security at museum-security.org Tue Oct 4 13:26:39 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 13:26:39 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] Interesting reading from our archives (in view of the present Getty controversy): Harvard museum acquisitions shock scholars Message-ID: <200510041126.j94BQfjP074030@smtp-vbr4.xs4all.nl> October 3, 2005 Interesting reading from our archives (in view of the present Getty controversy): Harvard museum acquisitions shock scholars >From our archives, Januari 19, 1998: Harvard museum acquisitions shock scholars "The consequences of inaction, a team of academics who drafted the policy wrote, were unacceptable. Mitten, who urged acquisition of the vase fragments, also has purchased several undocumented classical antiquities from Robert E. Hecht - some of them, including 70 ancient Greek coins, as recently as last year. In the 1970s, the Italian government declared Hecht persona non grata and ordered him out of the country for nine years for his alleged involvement in the illicit trade in antiquities. For similar reasons, he was banned from Turkey during the 1980s. Mitten, a professor at Harvard for 37 years, has cordial relations with Hecht. ''I don't think there is any reason to question'' Hecht's credentials,'' Mitten said. ''We have bought from Bob Hecht and will continue to do so. He's very square with us. We have every reason to believe him.'' Thomas P. Hoving, former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has quite a different view of Hecht, having weathered a 1972 scandal involving the purchase of a 2,500-year-old Greek vase from Hecht for more than $1 million, only to have evidence surface that it had been looted in Italy. The true origin of the vase was never proven, and Italy ultimately dropped criminal charges against Hecht in the case. ''Nobody would accept anything from Robert Hecht unless they were really looney,'' Hoving said. ''In his entire career maybe there are two or three pieces he had that, by chance, were legitimate, that fell onto the truck. But the rest, no way.''" Read the full report: Harvard museum acquisitions shock scholars http://www.museum-security.org/reports/00798.html From museum-security at museum-security.org Tue Oct 4 16:51:37 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 16:51:37 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] RE: Thomas Hoving: Getting it right at the Getty (reaction Ton Cremers) In-Reply-To: <002401c5c8df$c5794b10$6402a8c0@tomq3h6sf4945g> Message-ID: <200510041451.j94Epc6b068893@smtp-vbr1.xs4all.nl> Dear Mr. Hoving, If something went wrong it may have been my interpretation of your piece. I cannot have misreported it, for it was forwarded in full to the Cultural Property Protection Net mailing list. I missed the humor in your text, and leave it up to you that this was due to my stupidity. In my view however your 'humor' really was obfuscated by the insulting suggestion that an easy settlement could be reached with the Italians. You might be VERY wrong this time. The Italians are not out for a settlement 'brewed' by a bunch of American lawyers. Contrary: they want EVERY piece that is rightfully theirs returned to Italy. Again: in your 'Making the mummies dance' you write that the 'age of piracy' is over after the Unesco 1970 convention was drafted (ratified by your country 1983). I was pleased to read in your book that you acknowledge in an admirably frank way that some (many?) acquisitions that took place before 1970 should be called acts of piracy. It is disappointing to learn that this piracy, a.o.'s through Marion True and her dubious dealer contacts, continued after ratification of Unesco 1970. I really pity Marion True that she got caught in a web with criminal dealers even leading to accepting help buying a private holiday resort in Greece. There is a personal drama in this. So, according to your own words some (many?) acquisition that took place in the pre-Unesco time AND during your reign as director of the Metropolitan Museum in N.Y. were, if not illegal, most certainly unethical. Shouldn't all these objects be returned to the rightful owners? This goes even more for those acts of piracy that took place after the ratification of Unesco. I know that a bilateral agreement between Italy and the USA was reached many years later. Yet, this does not mean that thefts that took place before that agreement are justified. I am convinced, and received reactions from Italian subscribers sustaining this conviction, that your comment in the L.A. Times rather obstructed a settlement than making it possible. Compared to your text in the LAT I really prefer a quote of you that I read 7,5 years ago: "Nobody would accept anything from Robert Hecht unless they were really Looney. In his entire career maybe there are two or three pieces he had that, by chance, were legitimate, that fell onto the truck. But the rest, no way." Boston Globe 01/16/98. You knew about Hecht's lach of morals already since 1972 when Hecht sold you a 2,500-year-old Greek vase with a very dubious origin. Just give me ONE reason why not all but just a few of these objects originating from piracy should be returned to the source countries. Just one, Mr. Hoving, and please do not try and convince me through self-centered talk that culture in American museums belongs to our global heritage, and is there for the whole world to enjoy. Please also do not try to convince me that these objects are better off in your museums. I have heard all these very poor excuses for looting and theft far too often. First of all it is not true that these objects are better off in American museums, and secondly: even if this were true it does not make theft, smuggling, and illicit excavations licit. Before you accuse me once again of stupidity. Your book, and your quote in the Boston Globe of January 1998 make it very clear that you have learned to take a firm position against the illicit trade in cultural goods. I appreciate that a lot. Please be as firm in favour of the return of looted objects. In case you do not have the report with your quote handy: http://www.museum-security.org/reports/00798.html, Harvard museum acquisitions shock scholars. Yours, Ton Cremers _________________________ > -----Original Message----- > From: TomHoving [mailto:tomhoving at earthlink.net] > Sent: 04 October 2005 14:33 > To: MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers) > Subject: Re: Thomas Hoving: Getting it right at the Getty > (reaction Ton Cremers) > > You misreported the piece. The board resolution is the key > AND the knowledge based on experience that the Italians would > seek much much more in the settlement and thje Getty would go along. > > Didn't it occur to you that the job application was something > of a humorous gambit? > How stupid can you be? > > Tom Hoving > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)" > To: "Thomas Hoving" > Sent: Tuesday, October 04, 2005 7:14 AM > Subject: RE: Thomas Hoving: Getting it right at the Getty > (reaction Ton > Cremers) > > > > http://te.verweg.com/pipermail/cpprot/2005-September/001756.html > > > From museum-security at museum-security.org Tue Oct 4 17:58:05 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 17:58:05 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] Alleged Beinecke Edward Forbes Smiley III thief meets with judge Message-ID: <200510041558.j94Fw6ws056732@smtp-vbr14.xs4all.nl> Alleged Beinecke thief meets with judge KAT HUANG STAFF REPORTER Edward Forbes Smiley III, an experienced dealer of antique maps, appeared at a pre-trial conference at the New Haven Superior Court yesterday as part of his ongoing trial for the theft of seven rare maps from the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library in June. Smiley's lawyer, Richard Reeve, said he could not comment on Smiley's conference with the judge. He said another conference is slated for Nov. 16, but no hearing date has been set at the present time. According to Smiley's arrest warrant, Beinecke Head of Public Services Ellen Cordes identified Smiley on the library's register after an Exacto knife blade was found on a reading room floor. The warrant also said Smiley had been captured on Beinecke cameras while fidgeting with the inside of his jacket. The warrant listed the value of the seven maps at approximately $878,000, a figure calculated by William Reese '77, a private dealer and Beinecke adviser. University Librarian Alice Prochaska said Beinecke's security measures have been reevaluated after the theft raised concerns about its security system. "We are examining all of our security procedures," said Prochaska, who declined to specify any details regarding changes made to the library's security systems. Yale Police Department Lt. Michael Patten said this is not the first major theft to occur at Yale. "We've had thefts before from libraries and museums at Yale," Patten said. Prochaska said nothing is currently missing from the collection, which includes many early, rare manuscripts and books from a variety of disciplines. The maps are currently being used as evidence but will be returned to Beinecke following the completion of the case. Copyright C 1995-2005 Yale Daily News Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved. From museum-security at museum-security.org Tue Oct 4 18:36:27 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 18:36:27 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] Prosecution outlines library corruption case. Former Ocmulgee library director David C. Wilson faces trial on theft and grand jury witness tampering charges. Message-ID: <200510041636.j94GaSPV064915@smtp-vbr4.xs4all.nl> Prosecution outlines library corruption case Former Ocmulgee library director David C. Wilson faces trial on theft and grand jury witness tampering charges. Larry Peterson 912.652.0367 larry.peterson at savannahnow.com --> DUBLIN - David C. Wilson treated the library system he ran as his "own private fiefdom," looting it virtually at whim, a federal prosecutor said Monday. In contrast, Wilson, former head of the Ocmulgee Regional Library, was the "most effective library director in the state," one of his defense attorneys said. The conflicting claims came during opening arguments on the first day of Wilson's trial on five counts of theft and one of grand jury witness tampering. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Newman outlined a series of alleged thefts by the former library official, indicted in March by a federal grand jury. Newman said Wilson stole a $6,199 lawn mower, drained a library bank account, took library construction bricks and lumber, and received travel money for trips not taken. He also said Wilson's wife charged the repair of her Mercedes Benz to the library. In addition, Newman said, Wilson paid the brother of a powerful state legislator $10,500 for work that was done mostly by another person. The lawmaker, former state House Speaker Terry Coleman, had helped Wilson win funding for major projects in the Ocmulgee system. Newman said some of his contentions would form the basis for the theft charges and others would be used to show that Wilson operated with "criminal intent." But defense attorney Page Pate said he'll show that Newman's contentions are unfounded. "This not a case about stolen money," Pate said. "Mr. Wilson did not steal any money. There is no money missing at all." He blamed alleged discrepancies in financial accounts on "disarray" in the Ocmulgee system's recordkeeping. Testimony by Ted Robertson, an expert defense witnesses, will show that money Wilson spent went for its stated purpose, Pate said. Pate also said Wilson was a pioneer in winning state money for new libraries, innovative computer applications, and programs that let middle Georgia residents earn advanced degrees without having to leave their communities. "I want you to recognize that there are two sides to this," Pate told the jury. Newman used State Librarian George Veatch and state library statistics to undermine Pate's claim that Wilson was a highly effective director. At the same time Wilson was the state's highest-paid public library official, his system was devoting the smallest portion of its budget of any system in the state to buying books and materials. With only limited success, Pate sought to extract from Veatch acknowledgement that there might be good reason for spending so little on books and materials. He also tried to get Veatch to agree that Wilson's accomplishments, especially in winning state money for his libraries, entitled him to his compensation. Newman said it reached $155,000 one year. Veatch said it was "out of line" with the pay of directors of comparable library systems. The prosecution's case is due to continue today. http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/100405/3334958.shtml From museum-security at museum-security.org Tue Oct 4 18:44:15 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 18:44:15 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] Cambodia's heritage going cheap Message-ID: <200510041644.j94GiGQK088308@smtp-vbr3.xs4all.nl> http://www.atimes.com Cambodia's heritage going cheap By Frances Suselo October 5, 2005 PHNOM CHISOR, Cambodia - Reet grew up among the hilltop ruins of this district about an hour's drive from the capital, Phnom Penh, learning how to count by going up and down its 412 steps. It is also at the area's local school that the 14-year-old boy learned about the looting of antiquities from the 11th-century hilltop temple, also called Phnom Chisor. Now, he tells visitors, "There is no looting here." The community around the ruins runs a program to educate villagers about the Phnom Chisor temple, made in Baphuon and Khleang architectural style from laterite and sandstone. Jutting out to the sky from the 100-meter hill, Phnom Chisor was built by Suryavarman I, the king of the Khmer Empire, for the god Brahma in 1010. The Angkorian temple is more or less intact, unlike many other ruins such as Koh Ker, capital of the Khmer kingdom in the 10th century, or even parts of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap province. Looting at Phnom Chisor is often done by poor villagers who sell the artefacts for small amounts, which then find their way to local or international markets. International auction houses do not make enough effort to ensure items are not obtained illegally, argues Dougald O'Reilly, founder and director of Heritage Watch, a Phnom Penh-based non-governmental organization. An ancient looted head would probably bring a local a mere US$1, but then could be sold for a hundred times that amount in a Bangkok market - and much more outside Asia, said Terressa Davis, project coordinator of Heritage Watch. Meantime, Reet notes that Cambodian law forbids looting of the country's antiquities. What would he do if someone offered him a lot of money for something from the ruins? His eyes blazed as he answered: "I won't do it because it's illegal. Besides, I know it's a bad thing to do." "Officers from the Ministry of Culture have made it very clear that looting is prohibited," a monk at a modern Buddhist temple beside the ruins said. "People are more informed now, so they will not be tempted to loot. We all have a duty to protect our own cultural heritage." The total value of cultural assets, both counterfeit and original, smuggled each year is about US$22 million, O'Reilly said, quoting Masayuki Nagashima, the author of Lost Heritage: the Reality of Artefact Smuggling in Southeast Asia. Worldwide, trafficking in stolen works of art and national treasures is valued at up to $8 billion a year, according to the Art Theft Program of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, which calls the trade "a major category of international crime". Interpol says the annual dollar value of art and cultural property theft is exceeded only by trafficking in illicit narcotics, money-laundering and arms-trafficking. The looting of artefacts also means the loss of crucial information about the past: social and political structures of society, pre-historic health, ancient technologies, records of border trade, as well as art and architecture. Many other Asian countries experience differing degrees of looting. But the popularity of Khmer artefacts along with porous borders and lack of resources add to the problems in Cambodia. Activists admit it is hard to curb the demand for stolen antiquities. So, groups such as Heritage Watch focus on education campaigns to prevent looting or encourage communities to protect their heritage by training villagers to develop new skills, such as managing small businesses and producing crafts to sell to tourists. But Heritage Watch's Davis said 80% of the catalogues of international auction houses have no provenance (information on items' origins) and this does not help efforts to protect Cambodia's heritage. "They can simply say that a vase is done in Ming style, but they won't say where exactly they got it from," Davis said. "The absence of provenance could mean either they really don't know where the item came from, or the information could be incriminating. People assume that because they are big companies, they follow the law, when in fact they are operating under a very thin veil of decency." But Wannida Saetieo, country manager of Sotheby auction house in Thailand, said the company is a "proper public company" that has always followed the law. "At Sotheby's, we always try our best to ensure that all items are genuine and not acquired through illegal means," she said. Before an item can be sold through Sotheby's, the owner must show documents certifying ownership, she added, but conceded the company "cannot guarantee 100% that an item is not stolen". "If we know that there is only one item and that the item is in a museum somewhere and if someone comes with an item that looks alike, then we know it's a fake," she said. But "it's the responsibility of the buyer to also do their own background check on any item", she added, flipping over a Sotheby magazine to its back pages to show the company's disclaimer. She also stressed that Thailand forbids the taking Buddha statues out of the country. "There is a big demand for them, but we don't sell them because it's illegal." Provenance on Sotheby's catalogues can be absent because wealthy owners guard their privacy and prefer not to see their names printed for the whole world to see, she said. "These people are very, very private." National and international laws and conventions exist to make theft and trafficking harder, but they are not always adequate. In 1996, Cambodia's National Assembly adopted the law on the Protection of Cultural Heritage, which covers "movable and immovable objects and cultural property from vandalism, illicit transfer of ownership, excavations, illicit export and import". In the same year, Cambodia claimed all cultural properties for the state, making the selling of Khmer antiquities illegal. But to recover a stolen artefact, the government has to prove theft by producing a picture of the item in its original site before it was stolen. Most pictures of Khmer antiquities in their original sites were taken in the 1930s by the French, so this loophole has added to the difficulty of prosecution. Stolen Khmer artefacts are usually smuggled out either by sea to Singapore or by land to Poipet, a Cambodian town on the border with Thailand, Heritage Watch founder O'Reilly said. Smugglers take advantage of the fact that Singapore and Thailand are not signatories to the 1970 UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) convention that prohibits the import of stolen cultural property and requires countries to monitor the antiquities trade within their own borders. Cambodia has ratified the 1995 UNIDROIT (International Institute for the Unification of Private Law) Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects, which declares that "A possessor of a stolen cultural object must return it regardless of personal involvement or knowledge of the original theft." This allowed the Cambodian government to negotiate with Thailand in 2001 and 2002 for the restitution of 43 Cambodian cultural artefacts, which had transited through Singapore. A 9th-century stone head of Shiva and a 12th-century stone head of a demon were also returned by the Honolulu Academy of Arts in 2002. For now, small teams of local experts from Heritage Watch continue documenting Cambodia's ruins, so there is visual evidence in case some artefacts go missing and turn up somewhere halfway around the world. These teams also use illustrated comic books in Khmer to explain why villagers should protect their temples and ruins. Heng Chan Thol, a former student of the Archaeology Department of the Royal University of Fine Arts in Cambodia, believes that "Poverty alleviation and education should be the main efforts to get rid of this phenomenon." For instance, "The Apsara Authority, in charge of protection and preservation of Cambodian cultural heritage has tried bringing local people to work as guards for local historical sites. As a result, the looting in Siem Reap [Angkor Wat] has almost completely disappeared," he said. "One day, they will be held accountable," Davis said of traffickers in stolen antiquities. "Art collectors, looters and smugglers will face the same discrimination as those who profit from ivory and fur today." (Inter Press Service) From museum-security at museum-security.org Tue Oct 4 18:49:22 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 18:49:22 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] Restorers work to conserve art battered by Katrina Message-ID: <200510041649.j94GnN5n085724@smtp-vbr7.xs4all.nl> Restorers work to conserve art battered by Katrina by Sharon Cohen Indiana Daily Student ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Published Tuesday, October 4, 2005 CHICAGO -- Helen Conklin whisks a cotton swab delicately across a 19th century painting of silvery fish set in deep earth tones. She's looking for, of all things, mud on the canvas -- and sure enough, there it is. She peers at another painting through a microscope, focusing on a cardinal's rich crimson robes that have faded to a sickly pink. That's the mark of floodwaters. These works and many others -- paintings and frames crusted with mold and fungus, bits of debris, even a few feathers -- are here to be repaired and revived by art conservationists participating in their own version of hurricane recovery. They're part of The Chicago Conservation Center, a team of experts working in a sprawling seventh-floor studio more than 800 miles from New Orleans and the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina. They have much to do: A giant multicolored abstract is splattered with grime, an autumn landscape is flaking, canvases are sagging. In an epic disaster where there were many harrowing chronicles of life and death, these treasures tell a different tale of survival. "Art is a narrative and tells a lot of personal stories," says Heather Becker, CEO of the center. "If we don't try to save the history of our culture, of our communities, we lose that forever." The conservation work in Chicago is among many public and private efforts to salvage tens of millions of dollars' worth of cultural gems damaged in hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works, based in Washington, D.C., is sending conservators to the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency and cultural associations determine how to best repair waterlogged historic documents, sodden furniture and artwork. It also will help private citizens with damaged collections and heirlooms. Even before the floodwaters buried New Orleans, efforts were under way to preserve art treasures. Workers at the New Orleans Museum of Art secured sculptures and moved some paintings before the storm, then kept vigil inside in the chaotic days when looters rampaged through the streets. The museum's insurer, AXA Art Insurance Corp., dispatched private security guards to protect the building as well as clients who had galleries or private collections in the French Quarter or other areas. The museum, which has 40,000 pieces in a collection estimated to be worth about $250 million, escaped relatively unscathed. A giant sculpture in the garden needs repairs. Three other objects inside had water damage. The building is now haven to nearly 1,000 works that private collectors, galleries and other museums are storing there temporarily. "If there are angels in the heavens above, the museum's angels were archangels," says Jacqueline Sullivan, the museum's deputy director. "The storage was 12 feet underground. I can't imagine why it did not flood." But others weren't as lucky. AXA estimates that Katrina-related losses to its private clients -- including collectors, corporations and galleries -- could be as high as $30 million, according to Christiane Fischer, the corporation's chief executive officer. In recent weeks, hundreds of damaged pieces -- including paintings by well-known artists such as Helen Frankenthaler, William Merritt Chase and Alfred Bierstadt -- have arrived at The Chicago Conservation Center in climate-controlled trucks. They were collected by intrepid staffers who secured the art in what they call "rescue and recovery missions." Donning impermeable Tyvek suits with hoods, gloves, boots and respirators and guided by flashlights, the workers often made their way through dark, flood-scarred homes in New Orleans. "It's like an oven," says Walter Wilson, the center's director of disaster response. "You're doing an excruciatingly difficult job when it's 100 degrees." "Restorers work to conserve art battered by Katrina" http://www.idsnews.com/story.php?id=31513 From museum-security at museum-security.org Tue Oct 4 18:53:09 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 18:53:09 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] The phony bird collector Message-ID: <200510041653.j94GrAJ7085449@smtp-vbr11.xs4all.nl> The phony bird collector Tom Spears Ottawa Citizen October 3, 2005 Some people steal Rembrandts, others swipe money. A few get turned on by stealing dead birds from the British Museum. Doing so makes the late Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen a cad and a scoundrel, say outraged bird researchers who have just uncovered his hoaxes. The retired British Army officer had built himself a solid reputation for collecting and cataloguing specimens of many species by the time he died in 1967. Now, revisionists have been checking his records and finding how much he lied, cheated and swindled. And stole. Some of the dead birdies were actually British Museum specimens, stolen by the dastardly colonel and repackaged with his own label, claiming he found them himself. He took an owl originally found on a Chinese island and claimed he had collected it in Myanmar (which was still Burma at the time he went there.) Biologists consider it poor form when you lie about where animals live. It throws their maps off. This guy was a major supplier to museums of natural history. The forensic work has taken a decade; the journal Nature estimates there are at least hundreds of phony bird specimens, and maybe thousands. From museum-security at museum-security.org Wed Oct 5 06:54:16 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 06:54:16 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] South Africa: World heritage site gutted in North West fire Message-ID: <200510050454.j954sIxr058058@smtp-vbr2.xs4all.nl> World heritage site gutted in North West fire October 05, 2005, 05:15 Firefighting units and concerned farmers have been battling to extinguish an out-of-control veld fire near the Vredefort Dome. North West rural authorities said last night that the fire was still blazing in the Dome's northern hills. The dome was recently declared a world heritage site. Kobus Roux, the rural disaster manager in Potchefstroom, says a code red situation has been declared in the region. Thousands of hectares have been burnt and several farms gutted. The fire started yesterday along the Potchefstroom-Vereeniging road after electric wires were blown to the ground by strong winds. The winds of up to 60 km/h spread the flames. South African Broadcasting Corporation. From museum-security at museum-security.org Wed Oct 5 21:55:11 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 21:55:11 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] Mighty molecules rescue at-risk art. Nanotechnology solves 'almost all' restoration problems Message-ID: <200510051955.j95JtEF8046173@smtp-vbr1.xs4all.nl> Mighty molecules rescue at-risk art Nanotechnology solves 'almost all' restoration problems (ANSA) - Rome, October 5 - A team of Italian experts claims it has solved "almost all" the challenges art restoration faces using nanotechnologies . Nanotechnology is the branch of engineering that deals with the manufacture of things smaller than 100 nanometres - one nanometre is one billionth of a metre - and the manipulation of molecules and atoms . In recent years scientists at Florence University have been applying developments in the field to art restoration. The results have been remarkable . "Frescoes, oil paintings, old books and wood - we have resolved almost all the most significant problems," said Professor Piero Baglioni, the head of the Florence University nanotechnology team . Speaking at a Milan conference on how chemistry can "help art", Baglioni said that the problem with conventional restoration substances is that, no matter how gentle they are, their chemical compositions are always different to those of the surface of the work of art . This means the materials used to remove dirt from these unique objects and preserve them, inevitably alter and damage them to some degree too. With developments in nanotechnology though, it is now possible to produce restoration substances that match the composition of the works they are applied to . "We have been using techniques based on the dispersion of nanoparticles in solvents for about six or seven years," explained Baglioni. "This enables us to restore the inorganic material, especially in frescoes, because chemically they respect the composition of the painting . "In short, the work of art heals and gets cleaned." The cutting-edge techniques developed at Florence University have been used on works all over the world, including at the Louvre Museum in Paris. A Masaccio fresco at Florence's Brancacci Chapel and several Piero Della Francesca pieces in Arezzo are among those to have been transformed in Italy. According to UNESCO, 60% of the world's most important works of art and architecture are in Italy, so Baglioni's team is set to have a busy future . From museum-security at museum-security.org Wed Oct 5 21:55:11 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 21:55:11 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] UK: Indigenous remains to be returned Message-ID: <200510051955.j95JtEF9046173@smtp-vbr1.xs4all.nl> Indigenous remains to be returned London October 6, 2005 - 1:53AM The British government has enacted a law allowing the British Museum and eight other leading institutions to return human remains to indigenous communities abroad, including Australia. A section of the Human Tissue Act allows museums to return remains "which are reasonably believed to be under 1,000 years in age". Culture Minister David Lammy said the change was a "response to the claims of indigenous peoples, particularly in Australia, for the return of ancestral remains." Australian Aborigines have appealed to the British and Australian governments for more than 20 years to help them bring the remains of their ancestors home. Indigenous groups in North America and New Zealand have made similar appeals. Aboriginal groups estimate more than 8,000 sets of remains remain in museums and institutions abroad, most taken from the country as curios and scientific specimens in the 19th century. Hundreds of remains have already been taken back to Australia from countries, including the United States and Sweden. Most British museums can already respond to such claims, but the British Museum, the Natural History Museum and other large national facilities were created by acts of parliament which barred them from disposing of items in their collections. The government also said it had also drawn up new guidelines to help museums decide what to do with human remains in their collections. - AP From museum-security at museum-security.org Wed Oct 5 22:24:44 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 22:24:44 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] View from the Getty. If the Italians have their way, there soon will be a little less to see. Message-ID: <200510052024.j95KOkQr061624@smtp-vbr1.xs4all.nl> View from the Getty If the Italians have their way, there soon will be a little less to see. We've noticed that visitors to the renowned J. Paul Getty Museum spend more time admiring the imposing buildings, designed by Richard Meier, than the antiquities collection they contain. That could be a good thing, given that the Italian government maintains that many of the antiquities were stolen. How embarrassing it was to learn recently that, not only did the Getty's CEO, Barry Munitz, seem to be living awfully well on the nonprofit's proceeds; that the Italians wanted their artwork back; that the curator of antiquities, Marion True, faced criminal charges of looting in Italy; but that Ms. True also had once bought a villa in Greece with a loan from a supplier of the questionable antiquities and was quietly resigning her position. Still, as it turns out, things are not nearly so grim as they seemed. In an opinion piece this week written for the L.A. Times (which had done the investigative work that turned up most of the Getty's embarrassments), Malcolm Bell III, a professor of art history at the University of Virginia, portrayed the Getty in a different light. The Getty, he wrote, not only is no worse than many other museums, it had led the way in adopting a code of ethics superior to those of its competitors. The code was authored by none other than Marion True. Prof. Bell knows whereof he writes. For many years he was a co-director of excavations at Morgantina, Italy, where his research work often was subverted by looters. A good many purloined pieces of antiquity got sold for many millions of dollars, and ended up proudly on display at some of the best museums. Prof. Bell went on to praise the Getty's curator for having worked successfully to build the character of her institution, and called upon the great museums of New York, Boston, Cleveland and elsewhere to follow her lead in adopting aggressive codes of ethics. Unfortunately, according to the Times' reporting, the Getty was busy acquiring questionable antiquities well after the Getty had adopted these fine standards. The timing of all these accusations is particularly awkward, since the Getty is about to reopen its smaller campus in Malibu after several years of restoration. That lavish little museum, originally patterned after a Roman villa, also is noted for its Mediterranean antiquities. There may be a few less antiquities to put on display, if the Italians have their way. But then at Malibu, as in the hills of West L.A., the tourists seem more interested in the buildings anyway. http://www2.presstelegram.com/ From museum-security at museum-security.org Thu Oct 6 05:36:44 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 05:36:44 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] FW: Inter Press Service Cambodia Message-ID: <200510060336.j963ak1o025038@smtp-vbr4.xs4all.nl> From: Dougald O'Reilly [mailto:director at heritagewatch.org] Sent: 06 October 2005 02:56 To: msn-list at te.verweg.com Subject: Inter Press Service Cambodia CULTURE-CAMBODIA: Villagers Guard Their Own Antiquities Frances Suselo PHNOM CHISOR, Sep 30 (IPS) - Reet, 14, grew up among the hilltop ruins of this district, about an hour's drive from the capital Phnom Penh and learned how to count by going up and down its 412 steps. It is also right here at the local school that he learned about the looting of antiquities from the 11th century temple, also called Phnom Chisor, at the top of the hill. But, he tells visitors, ''There is no looting here''. The community around the ruins runs a programme to educate villagers about the Phnom Chisor temple, made in Baphuon and Khleang architectural style and from laterite and sandstone. Jutting out to the sky from the 100-metre hill, Phnom Chisor was built by Suryavarman I, the king of the Khmer Empire, for the god Brahma in 1010. The Angkorian temple is more or less intact, unlike many other ruins, such as Koh Ker, capital of the Khmer kingdom in the 10th century, and even parts of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap province. Looting is often done by poor villagers who sell the artefacts for small amounts, these then find their way to local or international markets, activists say. International auction houses do not make enough efforts to ensure items are not obtained illegally, argues Dougald O'Reilly, founder and director of Heritage Watch, a Phnom Penh-based non-government organisation. An ancient looted bead would probably bring a local a mere one US dollar, then could be sold for a hundred times the amount in a Bangkok market -- and much more outside Asia, says Terressa Davis, project coordinator of Heritage Watch. Meantime, Reet says that Cambodian law forbids the looting of the country's antiquities. What would he do if someone offers him a lot of money for something from the ruins? His eyes blazed as he answered, ''I won't do it because it's illegal. Besides, I know it's a bad thing to do''. ''Officers from the Ministry of Culture have made it very clear that looting is prohibited. People are more informed now, so they will not be tempted to loot,'' said a monk at a modern Buddhist temple beside the ruins. ''We all have the duty to protect our own cultural heritage''. The total value of cultural assets, both counterfeit and original, smuggled each year is around 22 million dollars, O'Reilly quotes Masayuki Nagashima, the author of 'Lost Heritage: the Reality of Artefact Smuggling in Southeast Asia', as saying. Worldwide, trafficking in stolen works of art and national treasures is valued at up to eight billion dollars a year, according to the Art Theft Programme of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, which calls the trade ''a major category of international crime''. Interpol says that the annual dollar value of art and cultural property theft is exceeded only by trafficking in illicit narcotics, money laundering and arms trafficking. The looting of artefacts also means the loss of crucial information about the past: social and political structures of society, pre-historic health, ancient technologies, records of border trade as well as art and architecture. Many other Asian countries experience differing degrees of looting. But the popularity of Khmer artefacts, porous borders and lack of resources add to the problems in Cambodia. Activists admit it is hard to curb the demand in the trade in stolen antiquities. So, groups like Heritage Watch focus on education campaigns to prevent looting or encourage communities to protect their heritage by training villagers to develop new skills, such as managing small businesses and producing crafts to sell to tourists. But Davis says 80 percent of the catalogues of international auction houses have no provenance -- information on items' origins -- and this does not help efforts to protect Cambodia's heritage. ''They can simply say that a vase is done in Ming style, but they won't say where exactly they got it from,'' said Davis. ''The absence of provenance could mean either they really don't know where the item came from, or the information could be incriminating''. ''People assume that because they are big companies, they follow the law, when in fact they are operating under a very thin veil of decency,'' she added. But Wannida Saetieo, country manager of Sotheby, Thailand, said the company is a ''proper public company'' that has always followed the law. ''At Sotheby's, we always try our best to ensure that all items are genuine and not acquired through illegal means,'' she said in an interview. Before an item can be sold through Sotheby's, the owner must show documents certifying ownership, she added, but conceded the company ''cannot guarantee 100 percent that an item is not stolen''. ''If we know that there is only one item and that the item is in a museum somewhere and if someone comes with an item that looks alike, then we know it's a fake,'' she stated. But ''it's the responsibility of the buyer to also do their own background check on any item,'' she added, flipping over a Sotheby magazine to its back pages to show the company's disclaimer. Wannida also stressed that Thailand forbids the bringing of Buddha statues out of the country. ''There is a big demand for them, but we don't sell them because it's illegal,'' she explained. Wannida said that provenance on Sotheby's catalogues can be absent because wealthy owners guard their privacy and prefer not to see their names printed for the whole world to see. ''These people are very, very private,'' she stated. National and international laws and conventions exist to make theft and trafficking harder, but they are not always adequate. In 1996, Cambodia's National Assembly adopted the law on the Protection of Cultural Heritage, which covers ''movable and immovable objects and cultural property from vandalism, illicit transfer of ownership, excavations, illicit export and import''. In the same year, Cambodia claimed all cultural properties for the state, making the selling of Khmer antiquities illegal. But to recover a stolen artefact, the government has to prove theft by producing a picture of the item in its original site before it was stolen. Most pictures of Khmer antiquities in their original sites were taken in the 1930s by the French, so this loophole has added to the difficulty in prosecution. Stolen Khmer artefacts are usually smuggled out either by sea to Singapore, or by land to Poipet, a Cambodian town on border with Thailand, said O'Reilly. Smugglers take advantage of the fact that Singapore and Thailand are not signatories to the 1970 UNESCO convention that prohibits the import of stolen cultural property and requires countries to monitor the antiquities trade within their own borders. Cambodia is also a signatory to the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects, which declares that ''a possessor of a stolen cultural object must return it regardless of personal involvement or knowledge of the original theft''. This allowed the Cambodian government to negotiate with Thailand in 2001 and 2002 for the restitution of 43 Cambodian cultural artefacts, which had transited through Singapore. A 9th century stone head of Shiva and a 12th century stone head of a demon were also returned by the Honolulu Academy of Arts in 2002. For now, small teams of local experts from Heritage Watch continue documenting Cambodia's ruins, so there is visual evidence in case some artefacts go missing and turn up somewhere halfway around the world. These teams also use illustrated comic books in Khmer to explain why villagers should protect their temples and ruins. Heng Chan Thol, a former student of the Archaeology Department of the Royal University of Fine Arts in Cambodia, agrees: ''Poverty alleviation and education should be the main efforts to get rid of this phenomenon''. For instance, ''the Apsara Authority, in charge of protection and preservation of Cambodian cultural heritage has tried bringing local people to work as guards for local historical sites. As a result, the looting in Siem Riep (Angkor Wat) has almost completely disappeared,'' he said. ''One day, they will be held accountable,'' Davis said of traffickers in stolen antiquities. ''Art collectors, looters and smugglers will face the same discrimination as those who profit from ivory and fur today''. (END/2005) . From museum-security at museum-security.org Thu Oct 6 05:41:50 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 05:41:50 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] Egypt's Culture Ministry plagued by bickering Message-ID: <200510060341.j963fqNo055604@smtp-vbr3.xs4all.nl> Egypt's Culture Ministry plagued by bickering By Ramsay Short Daily Star senior writer Thursday, October 06, 2005 BEIRUT: Fires, damaged statues and bickering - it has not been a good few weeks for the Egyptian Culture Ministry. First, Culture Minister Farouk Hosni resigned over a fire that broke out in the Beni Sweif Cultural Palace south of Cairo in September in which 30 people died and for which the ministry was widely held responsible. Hosni, a painter by profession, had his resignation rescinded by President Hosni Mubarak three days after he tendered it, responding to the pleas of some 400 high-profile intellectuals for him to stay. "Despite conceding the ministry's accountability, I had the most to lose in such a disaster," Hosni later said. "But I realized the charges were directed against me personally, even before investigations began. Feeling I had embarrassed the regime, I decided to bear the political responsibility myself." Now Hosni is arguing with Antiquities Chief Zahi Hawas over reports about mysterious damage to a Pharaonic statue during restoration work at the Egyptian Museum. On Tuesday he ordered a probe into the reports, asking Attorney General Maher Abdel-Wahid to investigate the matter only hours after the country's top antiquities official dismissed the reports as being unfounded. The Egyptian press, quoting museum officials, had reported that a statue of Khafre (2576-2551 BC), the fourth dynasty king and builder of the second pyramid at Giza, had been found damaged in the basement. Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Hawas, however, refuted the claims the Agence France Presse reported, saying they were "untrue." He said the statue the press described was small and bore no inscriptions to suggest that it was of Khafre. "This statue is in good condition and was never damaged since its discovery in 1988 west of the pyramid of King Khafre and transferred to the Egyptian Museum," the statement said. But Hosni insisted that he was determined to find the officials responsible for wrecking the treasure, ignoring his subordinate's denials. On top of this latest uproar, numerous artifacts have been vanishing from museums and archaeological sites around the country, leading to accusations that Egypt is not doing enough to protect its rich history or ensure safety standards at entertainment venues. Instead the Culture Ministry officials are arguing among themselves. A few weeks ago, officials announced the disappearance of three artifacts from the Egyptian Museum basement, which houses thousands of priceless treasures from different periods. Many other artifacts have also vanished from high-security sites around the country, some of them eventually traced to international antiquities dealers. On a positive note, in early August a Cairo court sentenced seven Egyptians to jail terms of up to 55 years in the biggest antiquities smuggling case in the country's history. The prosecutions followed the seizure of a cache of more than 600 artifacts from the time of the Pharaohs at London's Heathrow airport. Meanwhile, the Greco-Roman museum in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria has been closed and will remain so for two years to allow restoration work to proceed, the Supreme Council of Antiquities announced. Hosni said the work will include restoration of the museum building and its library. The museum's showcases are to be improved to ensure better display of the artifacts. The Greco-Roman museum houses a large number of Egypt's antiquities from the period roughly falling between 300 BC and the Arab conquest in the seventh century. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/ From museum-security at museum-security.org Thu Oct 6 09:00:38 2005 From: museum-security at museum-security.org (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)) Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 09:00:38 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] Moderator message: mailing list temporarily off line Message-ID: <200510060700.j9670fxM086294@smtp-vbr1.xs4all.nl> Dear Cpprot and MSN-list subscribers, I'll be 'en route' for a few days, so there will be no news updates. Keep sending your info. The lists will be on line again Monday October 10, 2005. Ton Cremers _________________________ Museum Security Network http://www.museum-security.org/ http://te.verweg.com/pipermail/cpprot/ http://te.verweg.com/pipermail/msn-list/ Sample file of Video Project http://www.lukanga.co.uk/lukanga-sample.wmv http://www.lukanga.co.uk/lenelly.wmv http://www.lukanga.co.uk/sample2.wmv _________________________ From ellie at bruggemansolutions.com Sun Oct 9 14:13:34 2005 From: ellie at bruggemansolutions.com (Ellie Bruggeman) Date: Sun, 09 Oct 2005 14:13:34 +0200 Subject: [CPProt.net] Argentina: Funcionarios contra la cultura Message-ID: <4349096E.2000708@bruggemansolutions.com> *Funcionarios contra la cultura* ------------------------------------------------------------------------ No es maldad, ni incompetencia, sino un claro caso de estulticia. La Argentina tiene una deuda impaga con el Centro Internacional para la Preservaci?n y Restauraci?n del Patrimonio Cultural (Iccrom), un prestigioso organismo internacional de cultura, que apenas asciende a $ 181.175, por no pagar sus contribuciones anuales por 6 a?os, y por ello ser?a expulsada de ese organismo en noviembre pr?ximo. El director de Finanzas y Administraci?n del organismo internacional, Bruno Pisan, dijo: ?Lamento confirmar que, vista la llamativa deuda que tiene la Argentina desde 1990, los Estados miembros decidieron, en su Asamblea General de noviembre de 2003, suspender su derecho a recibir servicios de Iccrom. Tras haber omitido pagar sus contribuciones por m?s de seis a?os, la Argentina corre el serio riesgo de que se considere que ha renunciado a ser miembro?, un eufemismo para advertir que expulsar?n a la Argentina del Iccrom por morosa y por no demostrar ninguna voluntad de pago. El Centro Internacional para la Preservaci?n y Restauraci?n del Patrimonio Cultural (Iccrom) se dedica a respaldar los trabajos de conservaci?n de museos, bibliotecas y archivos; aconseja sobre manejo de centros urbanos considerados lugares de turismo cultural; capacita a restauradores arqueol?gicos y funcionarios para el cuidado de sitios arqueol?gicos valiosos, y asesora al Centro de Patrimonio Mundial de la Unesco. Est? conformado y sostenido por 114 naciones miembros de la ONU, entre ellos los Estados Unidos, Francia, Polonia, Paraguay, Per?, Portugal, Armenia y Argelia. La Argentina necesita del concurso de este organismo para preparar planes de preservaci?n de sus sitios hist?ricos y personal para cumplirlos. No se desconoce que las necesidades de nuestro pa?s en esta materia son complejas y dif?ciles, porque debemos preservar valores muy destacados y a veces casi intangibles y no sabemos c?mo hacerlo. Por ejemplo, deben tomarse decisiones sobre el manejo de la Quebrada de Humahuaca, declarada por la Unesco ?paisaje cultural?, pero no existen en la Argentina especialistas en el cuidado y preservaci?n de estos sitios que, al mismo tiempo y para mayor complicaci?n, son asiduamente frecuentados por el turismo nacional e internacional; igual puede decirse de las Misiones Jesu?tic