April 09, 2012
February 06, 2012
Col. Matthew Bogdanos discusses lost art in first Huntsville Museum of Art 'Voices of Our Times' lecture series | al.com
Col. Matthew Bogdanos discusses lost art in first Huntsville Museum of Art Voices of Our Times lecture series
http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2012/02/col_matthew_bogdanos_discusses.htmlFebruray 6, 2012
On Feb. 9 at the Huntsville Museum of Art, Col. Matthew Bogdanos will discuss works that were stolen from the National Museum of Iraq, including this solid gold bull's head that adorned Queen Puabi's (Shub-Ad) Golden Harp of Ur, from the Early Dynastic III Period, ca. 2600-2500 B.C. (Photo courtesy of Matthew Bogdanos)HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - In April 2003, U.S. Marine Col. Matthew Bogdanos was on a counter-terrorism mission in Basra, Iraq, when a BBC reporter approached him and made a demand.
"She said 'the finest museum in the world is being looted. What are you going to do about it?' " Bogdanos said in a recent telephone interview from his office in New York City.
The museum in question was the National Museum of Iraq, which is located in Baghdad and is home to some of the most important relics from the 5,000 years of Mesopotamian civilization.
All the reporter knew when she approached Bogdanos that day was that he was an American military officer. She didn't know that in his personal life Bogdanos was a welter-weight boxer, a prosecutor in the New York County District Attorney's office or that he had a master's degree in classics from Columbia University.
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February 05, 2012
Piltdown Man: British archaeology's greatest hoax | Robin McKie | Science | The Observer
Piltdown Man: British archaeologys greatest hoax | Robin McKie | Science
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/feb/05/piltdown-man-archaeologys-greatest-hoaxFebruray 5, 2012
Bodies of evidence: John Cooke's 1915 painting of the Piltdown men – see large image for details. Photograph: Nils Jorgensen/Rex Features
In a few weeks, a group of British researchers will enter the labyrinthine store of London's Natural History Museum and remove several dark-coloured pieces of primate skull and jawbone from a small metal cabinet. After a brief inspection, the team will wrap the items in protective foam and transport them to a number of laboratories across England. There the bones and teeth, which have rested in the museum for most of the last century, will be put through a sequence of highly sensitive tests using infra-red scanners, lasers and powerful spectroscopes to reveal each relic's precise chemical make-up.
The aim of the study, which will take weeks to complete, is simple. It has been set up to solve a mystery that has baffled researchers for 100 years: the identities of the perpetrators of the world's greatest scientific fraud, the Piltdown Hoax. Unearthed in a gravel pit at Piltdown in East Sussex and revealed to the outside world exactly a century ago, those shards of skull were part of a scientific scam that completely fooled leading palaeontologists. For decades they believed they were the remains of a million-year-old apeman, an individual who possessed a large brain but primitive jawbone and teeth.
The news of the Piltdown find, first released in late 1912, caused a sensation. The first Englishman had been uncovered and not only was he brainy, he was sporty. A sculpted elephant bone, found near the skull pieces and interpreted by scientists as being a ceremonial artefact, was jokingly claimed by many commentators to be an early cricket bat. The first Englishman with his own cricket bat – if nothing else it was one in the eye for French and German archaeologists whose discoveries of Cro-Magnons, Neanderthals and other early humans had been making headlines for several decades. Now England had a real fossil rival.
It was too good to be true. As decades passed, scientists in other countries uncovered more and more fossils of early apemen that differed markedly from Piltdown Man. "These had small skulls but relatively humanlike teeth – the opposite of Piltdown," says Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum, who is leading the new study. "But many British scientists did not take them seriously because of Piltdown. They dismissed these discoveries which we now know are genuine and important. It really damaged British science."
In the end, the Piltdown Man began to look so out of kilter with other fossil discoveries that a team led by geologist Kenneth Oakley, anatomist Wilfrid Le Gros Clark and anthropologist Joseph Weiner took a closer look and in 1953 announced that Piltdown's big braincase belonged to a modern human being while the jawbone came from an orangutan or chimpanzee. Each piece had been stained to look as if they were from the same skull while the teeth had been flattened with a metal file and the "cricket bat" carved with a knife. As Bournemouth University archaeologist Miles Russell puts it: "The earliest Englishman was nothing more than a cheap fraud." It had taken almost 40 years to find that out, however.
Bones of contention: the 'skull' fragments with a full-size replica. Photograph: Antonio OlmosSince then, more than 30 individuals have been accused of being Piltdown hoaxers. Charles Dawson, the archaeological enthusiast who found the first pieces, was almost certainly involved. But many scientists still suspect he had the backing of experts who were the true guilty parties. Candidates includeArthur Conan Doyle, who played golf at Piltdown and had a grievance against scientists because of his spiritual beliefs; the Jesuit philosopher, palaeontologist and alleged practical joker Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who lived in Sussex at the time and who actually helped Dawson dig at Piltdown; Arthur Smith Woodward, the Natural History Museum scientist, who accepted Dawson's finds as genuine and argued they belonged to a new species of early human; the anatomist Arthur Keith, who also passionately endorsed the discovery; and Martin Hinton, another museum scientist, whose initials were found, in the mid-70s, 10 years after his death, on an old canvas travelling trunk, hidden in a museum loft, that contained mammal teeth and bones stained and carved in the manner of the Piltdown fossils. When it comes to suspects, the Piltdown Hoax makes Midsomer Murders look restrained.
"The trouble is that after 100 years we still do not know the identities or motives of those responsible," says Justin Dix, the Southampton University geochemist who will carry out much of the chemical analysis. "It is time we did." Hence the new project, which aims to uncover the identities of the hoaxers. And key to that will be the uncovering of the exact chemical make-up of the forged mat- erial – and the precise sequence of events that led to their discovery.
Anatomist Arthur Keith. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesOn the morning of 15 February 1912, Arthur Smith Woodward, keeper of geology at the Natural History Museum, sat down at his desk to open his mail, which included a letter from his friend Charles Dawson, a lawyer and amateur antiquarian. Dawson began with gossip about their mutual acquaintance Arthur Conan Doyle, who was completing his latest novel, the prehistoric adventureThe Lost World. Then he dropped his bombshell. He had stumbled on a very old layer of gravel, near a village called Piltdown, where he had found some iron-stained flints and "a portion of a human skull". This was the first mention, made to the outside world, of the fossil that was to be known as Piltdown Man.
During subsequent correspondence, Dawson – known as the Wizard of Sussex because of his skill at finding archaeological treasures round the county – revealed that during a dinner at Barkham Manor in Piltdown he had gone for a stroll and noted flints strewn around the grounds, the leftovers from gravel excavations used for local road building. Dawson asked the labourers to bring him any interesting finds and was rewarded when one presented him with "a portion of human cranium… of immense thickness". The lawyer then found another piece of skull – though no specific dates were provided by him. Nor was the labourer ever identified.
Arthur Conan Doyle. Photograph: PopperfotoIn May, Smith Woodward took charge of the first pieces of Piltdown skull and concluded they belonged to a previously unknown early human namedEoanthropus dawsoni – Dawson's dawn-man. Excavations continued at Barkham Manor and a series of flint tools were uncovered along with more bone pieces and animal remains, including the teeth of hippopotami that used to wallow around English waterholes in ancient times. On 21 November 1912 theManchester Guardian broke the story. Under the headline "The Earliest Man: Remarkable Discovery in Sussex", the paper revealed details of the skull, whose estimated age, between 500,000 and 1,000,000 years, made it "by far the earliest trace of mankind that has yet been found in England".
A few weeks later, at the Geological Society, Smith Woodward outlined further details to general scientific approval. Only one scientist, anatomist David Waterson, voiced doubts. The cranium looked human while the jawbone resembled that of a chimpanzee, he noted. No one else appears to have agreed – for a very straightforward reason. Palaeontology in Britain was going through a lean time and its practitioners desperately wanted to believe that fossil gold had been struck. Digs in France, at Cro-Magnon, and in Germany, at Neanderthal and Heidelberg, had produced startling finds of early humans. Britain had nothing. One French palaeontologist had even dismissed his English counterparts as merechasseurs de cailloux – pebble hunters.
The jibe hurt. Hence English researchers' willingness to accept the Piltdown finds. They may have been crudely made but the finds gave scientists what they wanted: evidence that England had been an important crucible in the forging of our species. "No one did any scientific tests," says Russell. "If they had, they would have noticed the chemical staining and filed-down teeth very quickly. This was clearly not a genuine artefact. The scientific establishment accepted it because they wanted it so much."
Keep on digging: workers looking for more fossils at the Piltdown site in 1912. Photograph: Nils Jorgensen/Rex FeaturesThere was more to this uncritical acceptance than mere jingoism, however. Piltdown also seemed to support the theory, then firmly upheld by English palaeontologists, that growing brainpower had driven human evolution. Our intelligence, above all, separated us from the animal kingdom. Thus our brains would have expanded early in our evolution and evidence for that should be seen in fossil skulls – like the one at Piltdown. It had a huge braincase but primitive teeth, suggesting – wrongly – that our cranial enlargement had happened early in our evolution. In fact, brains came late to humanity (see box below).
Excavations at Piltdown continued. In August 1913, Father Teilhard de Chardin, who went on to be one of the 20th century's most influential Jesuit scholars and philosophers and who was then living in Sussex, joined in and found a canine tooth supposed to have come from the apeman – a discovery that has linked him ever since with Piltdown conspiracy theories. Finally came the discovery of the cricket bat. The Piltdown hoax was complete.
By 1915, Dawson's dawn-man had become established scientific fact. The painting, A Discussion of the Piltdown Skull, by John Cooke, presents its discoverers in an almost holy atmosphere. Keith is seated while Smith Woodward stands behind him in front of a table with pieces of skull on it. Also standing, with a picture of Charles Darwin behind him, is the benign figure of Charles Dawson. "The way the painting is structured suggests Darwin is passing on his mantle to Dawson," says Russell. "The former had the theory, the latter had provided it, it is being suggested."
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February 04, 2012
Museumbeveiliging, Ton Cremers » Blog Archive » Verduistering erfgoed: een beveiligingsprobleem
Museumbeveiliging, Ton Cremers » Blog Archive » Verduistering erfgoed: een beveiligingsprobleem
http://www.museumbeveiliging.com/2012/02/verduistering-erfgoed-een-beveiligingsprobleem/Februray 4, 2012
Verduistering erfgoed: een beveiligingsprobleem
Volgens gegevens van de FBI is er bij ruim 80% van alle diefstallen uit musea die opgelost worden sprake van interne betrokkenheid. Een verontrustend hoog percentage. Statistieken geven echter niet altijd de objectieve duidelijkheid die ze lijken te geven. In de eerste plaats moet benadrukt worden dat het gaat om 80% van deopgeloste zaken. Sinds de FBI dit getal openbaarde was in meerdere interviews met duskundigen te lezen dat 80% van de diefstallen uit musea interne diefstal (= verduistering) betrof. Een onjuiste interpretatie van de feiten. Het is niet duidelijk op basis van hoeveel zaken de FBI deze conclusie trok. Bovendien is het mogelijk zo dat verduistering gemakkelijker op te lossen is dan externe betrokkenheid omdat het daderpotentieel beperkt is. Musea zijn immers, op enkele uitzonderingen na, over het algemeen qua personeelsomvang kleine tot middelgrote organisaties. Volgens de definitie van de Nederlandse Museumvereniging is er al sprake van een grote organisatie wanneer er meer dan 15 FTEs zijn. Er is geen enkel bedrijf dat zich met een dergelijke beperkte personeelsomvang een groot bedrijf zal noemen. Voor musea gelden blijkbaar andere normen.
Over verduistering uit Nederlandse musea, bibliotheken, archieven, kastelen en monumenten en kerken met kostbare collecties (de erfgoedwereld) zijn geen cijfers bekend. Aangezien het onderscheid tussen Nederlandse en Amerikaanse musea niet substantieel is, mag worden aangenomen dat de FBI cijfers een betrouwbare indicatie geven voor de kans op verduistering in de Nederlandse erfgoedwereld. Er deden zich in ieder geval de afgelopen jaren enkele opvallende feiten van verduistering voor. Er werd door een (ex)conservator uit het Legermuseum in Delft op grote schaal gestolen; een medewerker van het Stadsarchief in Amsterdam nam het werk mee naar huis, en een medewerker van een niet nader te noemen organisatie maakte het heel bont door een ernstige calamiteit te veroorzaken in de hoop ongemerkt kostbare boeken uit een bibliotheek te stelen.
Casustiek: het Legermuseum Delft
Door conservator Legermuseum leeggeroofd boek
In 2003 werd in het Legermuseum in Delft duidelijk dat prenten waren gestolen uit een zeldzaam boek. Van dat boek waren wereldwijd slechts drie exemplaren bekend, waarvan het Legermuseum er 1 bezat. Aangezien dit boek niet voor publiek toegankelijk was, of in ieder geval niet door bezoekers in de leeszaal was opgevraagd, was meteen duidelijk dat hier sprake moest zijn van verduistering. Bij nader onderzoek bleken prenten uit tientallen, honderden (?), boeken waren gescheurd, dat meer dan 1.000 losse prenten en topografische kaarten, vele aquarellen en een twintigtal schilderijen verdwenen waren. Bovendien waren recente schenkingen aan het museum niet te traceren. De dader, (ex)conservator Alexander P. viel al snel door de mand, waarop een uitgebreid onderzoek op touw werd gezet om gestolen boeken en prenten te achterhalen. Dat is ten dele gelukt, ondanks dat P. een beperkt aantal afnemers had: een bevriende buurman en een antiquariaat in leiden. P. verkocht jarenlang aan dat antiquariaat de buit van zijn strooptochten door de bibliotheek van het museum; een unieke bibliotheek omdat bijna een derde van de collectie niet in andere bibliotheken voorkomt.
P., die een gedeelte van de opbrengst gebruikte voor haarimplantaten (zijn vriendin moest na zijn arrestatie in de krant lezen dat hij niet 33, maar 36 jaar oud was), heeft inmiddels zijn straf van bijna twee jaar uitgezeten. Als bijkomende straf werd hem zes jaar verboden als conservator in een museum te werken. De antiquaar werd tot een zeer korte straf veroordeeld als heler. De schade aan de collectie is moeilijk te bepalen, maar loopt in de miljoenen. Wat P. nu doet is niet bekend; hij heeft enige tijd als culturele gids gewerkt op Sardini.
Casustiek: het Stadsarchief Amsterdam
In 2011 bleken zeldzame boeken uit het depot van het Stadsarchief in Amsterdam te worden aangeboden aan een antiquariaat in de buurt van het archief. Het stadsarchief – overigens niet de eerste keer slachtoffer van verduistering – nam de moedige stap meteen na ontdekking van de diefstallen naar buiten te treden en de publiciteit te zoeken. Niet alleen een moedige, maar ook verstandige – en helaas niet zeer gebruikelijke – stap. De schade aan de collectie bleef naar het lijkt beperkt. Interne diefstal schaadt niet alleen de collectie, maar ook de werkverhoudingen. Die schade kan na verduistering nog lang zijn sporen achter laten.
De medewerker van hebt archief was al dertig jaar in dienst en stond buiten alle verdenking.
Casustiek: Bibliotheek van anonieme organisatie
Door bibliotheekmedewerker opzettelijk veroorzaakte schade
De hulp van collectiesalvage bedrijf De DokumentenWachtwerd een paar jaar geleden ingeroepen naar aanldeiding van een ernstige waterschade bij een bibliotheek met kostbare werken. Een groot aantal kostbare tot zeer kostbare boeken stond tijdelijk op de grond opgeslagen in een afgesloten ruimte, in afwachting van de aanschaf van kluizen. Toen medewerkers na een paar maanden die ruimte betraden bleken de boeken doorweekt te zijn met water en onder de schimmel te zitten. Waarschijnlijk was er wateroverlast geweest vanuit de vloer en hadden de boeken zich volgezogen. Zoals gebruikelijk – om te stabiliseren – werden de boeken ingevroren en gecontroleerd gedroogd. Omdat de besmetting met schimmels aanzienlijk was, werden de boeken bij Isotron gegammastraald om alle schimmels te doden. Daarna werden ze in de ateliers van De DokumentenWacht gerestaureerd en teruggebracht naar de bibliotheek. Na enige tijd meldde de politie zich bij De DokumentenWacht omdat vijf, de meest kostbare, boeken ontbraken. Deze boeken konden verdwenen zijn tijdens de transporten vanuit de bibliotheek, naar De DokumentenWacht, naar Isotron, terug naar De DokumentenWacht, of tijdens het transport terug naar de bibliotheek. Het was ook mogelijk dat de vijf boeken ontvreemd waren tijdens de restauratie bij De DokumentenWacht. Deze zaak werd opgelost doordat bij een antiquariaat in Maastricht een van de boeken werd aangeboden. Dit antiquariaat heeft meteen de brancheorganisatie gealarmeerd en de dief liep tegen de lamp toen een van de gestolen boeken werd aangeboden bij een antiquariaat in Noord-Holland. Wat bleek: een medewerker van de bibliotheek had opzettelijk de omvangrijke waterschade veroorzaakt om zijn diefstal van boeken mogelijk te maken. Een unieke zaak.
Verduistering van erfgoed: een beveiligingsprobleem
Met name de interne diefstallen uit het Legermuseum en het Stadsarchief Amsterdam hebben geleid tot omvangrijke discussies in de erfgoedwereld, echter niet met het – vanuit de beveiligingsoptiek – gewenste resultaat. Maart 2011 vond er in de Reinwardt Academie – het opleidingsinstituut voor de museumbranche – een discussieavond plaats met als thema diefstal door medewerkers. Het was opvallend dat zelfs bij het Stadsarchief Amsterdam weerstand bestond tegen het nemen van duidelijke beveiligingsmaatregelen. De discussie stokte feitelijk bij het voorstel integriteitstrajecten te volgen en medewerkers aan te spreken op de ethiek van het werken met kostbare collecties. Iedere maatregel tot het bestrijden van verduistering heeft bestaansrecht, ook integriteitstrajecten, maar er zal meer moeten gebeuren. Er bestaat een ethische code voor museummedewerkers. In die code komen ook de aspecten diefstal en handel door medewerkers aan bod. Echter: de stelende conservator in het Legermuseum had die code ondertekend. Het valt binnen de erfgoedwereld – mogelijk ook binnen andere sectoren van de maatschappij – op dat voorstellen tot het nemen van beveiligingsmaatregelen vaak stuiten op het bekritiseren van die maatregelen omdat er altijd toch nog gestolen kan worden. Die critici hebben gedeeltelijk gelijk: DE afdoende maatregel bestaat niet. Sterker nog: zelfs een reeks aan maatregelen zal nooit leiden tot volledige eliminatie van verduistering. Echter: iedere maatregel die genomen wordt zal het daderpotentieel en dus de kans op verduistering doen afnemen.
Verduistering: maatregelen
In de Library of Congres in Washington D.C – de grootste bibliotheek ter wereld – worden medewerkers iedere keer wanneer ze het pand verlaten (ze mogen geen gebruik maken van de publieksingangen) gecontroleerd op het meenemen van goederen. Een maatregel die binnen de Amerikaanse cultuur volledig geaccepteerd wordt. In Nederland komt het niet zelden voor dat medewerkers al verzet aantekenen – zich niet houden aan – de huisregel alleen gebruik te maken van de bewaakte dienstingangen.
Afgezien van de, eventueel steekproefsgewijze, visitatie van medewerkers zijn er nog een aantal maatregelen te treffen om de kans op verduistering kleiner te maken.
- beperkte en gecontroleerde toegankelijkheid tot de collectie voor een kleine groep medewerkers; het mag niet zo zijn dat bijna alle medewerkers ongecontroleerd de depots betreden;
- steekproefsgewijze, periodieke controle van de collectieinventaris door een externe partij (verduistering kan vele jaren ongemerkt plaatsvinden; periodieke controle maakt het mogelijk problemen snel te ontdekken);
- gebruik van CCTV en elektronische signaleringstechnieken;
- screening nieuwe medewerkers (in museum Boijmans Van Beuningen te Rotterdam vond enkele jaren geleden een omvangrijke verduistering van geld plaats door een nieuwe medewerker met een lang strafblad);
- volledig digitaal registreren van de collectie en toegang tot die registratie – zeker voor wat betreft het killen van records – hoogwaardig beveiligen (de stelende conservator in het Legermuseum verduisterde ook grote delen van de handmatige registratie);
- en: verduistering bespreekbaar maken met de medewerkers, ethische code, integriteitstrajecten.
Het is een utopie te wensen dat de kans op verduistering volledig gelimineerd wordt. Sterker nog: streven naar volledige eliminiatie is schadelijk voor het werkklimaat en de continuteit van de organisatie. Dat zou weggooien van kind en badwater zijn.
++++++++++
Ton Cremers
toncremers@museum-security.org
+31624224620
http://www.linkedin.com/in/toncremers
http://www.linkedin.com/in/toncremers
https://groups.google.com/group/museum_security_network
http://www.museum-security.org
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
France Demands $330 Million In Back Taxes From Art Dealer Guy Wildenstein
France Demands $330 Million In Back Taxes From Art Dealer Guy Wildenstein
http://www.businessinsider.com/france-demands-330-million-in-back-taxes-from-art-dealer-guy-wildenstein-2012-2Februray 4, 2012
French authorities are claiming that art dealer
Guy Wildensteinowes $330 million in back taxes to the French internal revenue service for undervaluing the estate of his father, Daniel Wildenstein,
ArtInfo reports.
The French internal revenue service reportedly determined that Guy Wildenstein had hidden parts of his inheritance in trusts in Jersey, the Bahamas, and the Virgin Islands, according to ArtInfo (via Le Point).
Add this indictment to the list of legal challenges Wildenstein is already facing. In 2009, his stepmother sued for fraud related to his father's estate.
And in July of last year, Wildenstien was charged with "possession of stolen goods and breach of trust" when French authorities found 30 artworks described as "missing or stolen" in his vault in Paris.
Now check out 10 works of art that were destroyed by anger, carelessness or insanity >
Ringwood Manor closed for cleanup of artifacts after furnace’s sooty malfunction - NorthJersey.com
Ringwood Manor closed for cleanup of artifacts after furnace’s sooty malfunction
http://www.northjersey.com/topstories/ringwood/Ringwood_Manor_closed_for_cleanup_of_artifacts_after_furnaces_sooty_malfunction.htmlFebruray 4, 2012
RINGWOOD — A furnace malfunction at Ringwood Manor that coated hundreds of Civil War-era artifacts with soot has led to the closing of the historic country house in Ringwood State Park, a state official said Friday.
COURTESY OF NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Ringwood Manor
COURTESY OF NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Ringwood Manor
Last month’s furnace malfunction spewed oily black soot throughout the first and second floors of the 19th century home, coating priceless paintings, historic mantelpieces and Civil War relics, according to the Larry Hajna, a spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection.
more: Ringwood Manor closed for cleanup of artifacts after furnace’s sooty malfunction - NorthJersey.com
The Spoof : At $250m is Paul Cézanne's 'The Card Players' the art world's equivalent of the Hitler Diaries hoax? funny satire story
At $250m is Paul Cézannes The Card Players the art worlds equivalent of the Hitler Diaries hoax? funny satire story
http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s1i104177Februray 4, 2012
Painted by a true master!
London - As hoaxes go this one's expensive and may have fooled the Middle Eastern gas-rich state of Qatar's royal family into parting with $250 million of their hard-earned shekels - er...dinars!
Cézanne's 'The Card Players' is one of five painted by the master circa 1892 and was talked up so much by New York art dealers that the brain-dead Al Thani family coughed up a quarter of a billion dollars to get their sticky mitts on it for their Doha gallery.
This weekend Impressionism experts meeting in London confirmed the existence of a number of superb, secret forgeries of which the %250 million Cézanne is said to be the prime exemplar.
"The literary world had its Hitler Diaries, of course," Picasso blue period specialist Sir Hugo Nutters commented, "now the art world has fallen for the equivalent scam - AND fobbed it off to those punch-drunk Qataris for some of their ill-gotten gas empire zillions."
"It's a sophisticated replica of the original," one former Guggenheim assistant curator concurred.
"Good thing the Abu Dhabian's didn't fall for the ruse, someone very high up in the US Government may have put them up to being part of the loop that saw frenzied bidding go through the roof!"
No names are being mentioned at this stage but the presence of a British art world supremo at a White House dinner the other month may just provide a clue to the nefarious players' IDs.
Bellini's 'Venus In Chains Smoking With St Joachim' may be another of the anonymous forger's repetoire and is up for sale in Geneva on April 1st.
Make queen mudder's day - give this story five thumbs-up (there's no need to register, the thumbs are just down there!)
Thief takes painting after church service | This is Essex
Thief takes painting after church service
http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/Thief-takes-painting-church-service/story-15130653-detail/story.htmlFebruray 4, 2012
THE WORLD'S oldest wooden church refuses to lock its doors, despite having a unique 16th century painting stolen.
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More crooks looting copper for scrap - Norwich, CT - The Bulletin
More crooks looting copper for scrap - Norwich, CT
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/newsnow/x1419993086/More-crooks-looting-copper-for-scrapFebruray 4, 2012
Commemorative sundial stolen for second time in three months | Edinburgh and East | STV News
Commemorative sundial stolen for second time in three months | Edinburgh and East
http://news.stv.tv/scotland/east-central/296226-commemorative-sundial-stolen-for-second-time-in-three-months/Februray 4, 2012
The art marks the Queen's visit to Loanhead, Midlothian in 1961 and stands on a plinth in a park in the town.
03 February 2012 15:11 GMT
296226
Sundial: The structure was taken overnight on January 31.
A sundial which marks the Queen’s visit to a Midlothian town has been stolen for the second time in three months.
The copper and bronze structure sits on top of a plinth in Memorial Park, Loanhead and was taken sometime overnight on January 31.
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The Statue of Limitations and Recovery of Artworks, by Judith Wallace - artnet Magazine
The Statue of Limitations and Recovery of Artworks, by Judith Wallace
http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/news/spencer/spencers-art-law-journal-2-3-12.aspFebruray 4, 2012
Editors Note
This is Volume 2, Issue No. 3 of Spencer's Art Law Journal. This issue contains a single essay, which will become available by posting on Artnet, January 2012. Volume 3, Issue No. 1 will appear in Spring 2012
As noted in earlier volumes of this Journal, art law is an amalgam of personal property law, contract, estate, tax and intellectual property law relating to the acquisition, retention and disposition of fine art.
The essay in this issue will tee-up the question of how bona fide purchasers and other owners (donees, heirs and the like) can lose possession and title to the "true" original owner. Answers to some of the questions posed by this essay may come from the New York Court of Appeals later in 2012
Three times a year issues of this Journal will address legal questions of practical significance to collectors, dealers, scholars and the general art-minded public.
-- RDS
For inquiries or comments, please contact the editor, Ronald D. Spencer, at Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP, 2 Wall Street, New York, N.Y. 10005, by telephone at (212) 238-8737, or at
spencer@clm.comIF THE EXPIRATION OF THE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS BARS YOU FROM RECOVERING YOUR ART FROM THE CURRENT HOLDER, WHEN THE CURRENT HOLDER SELLS CAN YOU, NEVERTHELESS, RECOVER YOUR ART FROM THE BUYER? AND, ANYWAY, WHEN DID THE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS BEGIN TO RUN AGAINST YOU?
Judith Wallace
This brief essay offers an introduction into the circumstances whereby, under New York law, a good faith purchaser for value or a donee of a gift of art might lose possession (and, effectively ownership) of that art based on an ownership claim of the true (original) owner
-- RDS
Judith Wallace practices art law and environmental law at Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP and has assisted collectors, artists, foundations and scholars in title and authenticity disputes in state and federal courts.
Many are aware that one can lose (or gain) ownership of real property by occupying and using land openly and under a claim of right for 10 years.(FN1) Where real property is concerned, there is a public policy that favors use of land, and under certain circumstances, the law rewards misappropriation if it is sufficiently blatant and persists long enough.
Personal property, however, is treated differently than real property. If personal property has not been transferred or abandoned by the true owner, can a misappropriation ever give rise to legal title after the passage of enough time, simply because the statute of limitations (three years in New York, far shorter than the decade required for adverse possession) has expired? If so, what is required? Just as there are special rules for real property, are there also public policy concerns relating to fine art that are reflected in the law? If so, what are they?
Daily Mail War Memorial investigation: The vultures who buy stolen war memorials | Mail Online
Daily Mail War Memorial investigation: The vultures who buy stolen war memorials
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2096266/Daily-Mail-War-Memorial-investigation-The-vultures-buy-stolen-war-memorials.html?ITO=1490Februray 4, 2012
The vultures who buy stolen war memorials: The Mail unmasks the money-grabbing scrap metal dealers fuelling a sickening crimewave
By Steve Bird
Last updated at 11:38 PM on 3rd February 2012
Etched into three brass war memorials were the names of men who had made the ultimate sacrifice for this country in the fight to defend freedom and overcome the rise of dictatorship.
But the plaques honouring those who had fallen during two world wars were tossed into an oil-spattered iron bin, on top of a pile of mangled piping and frayed cables.
The memorials that should have been treated as priceless objects of British history — tributes from a nation indebted to those they commemorate — were instead considered mere junk and valued as scrap metal worth less than £30.
Shameless: One of the replica war memorial plaques is bought for scrap
The men behind this unscrupulous trade in second-hand metal can be exposed today after an undercover investigation by the Mail that reveals the tip of the iceberg of a multi-million-pound scrap metal business where few questions are asked about the provenance of the material bought.
Across Britain, 13 million tons of scrap metal are recycled each year, with at least 15,000 tons — estimated to be worth £800 million — believed to have been stolen. The whole business is said to be worth £5.6 billion a year.
There is widespread public anger about the huge amounts of stolen metal being traded — including war memorials, lead from church roofs, cables from railway lines and even parts of the track, manhole covers and irreplaceable sculptures.
Network Rail estimates the problem has cost it £43 million over the past three years — causing countless delayed trains and commuting misery — as criminals cash in on the rising price of raw materials. (What the potential safety implications are of people helping themselves to bits of a 125mph railway, you shudder to think).
Father Denys Lloyd pictured in the place where the bronze statue of Jesus once stood at St Joseph's Catholic Church in Sheringham, Norfolk
Most sickening is the big rise in the number of reports of thieves plundering war memorials, leading to a series of court cases with criminals — many in Eastern European gangs — jailed for selling stolen metal. To investigate the illicit trade, an undercover Mail team set about trying to prove how easy it is to sell stolen metal.
Our team posed as odd-job men with relatives in the building industry who had hired a gang of Eastern Europeans to wrench war memorials from a garden of remembrance.
Rather than use genuine plaques (and risk damaging them or not be able to retrieve them after our ‘sale’), we asked one of the country’s leading engravers to make copies of originals using bronze and copper.
So as not to arouse suspicion with potential buyers, we included in our haul of metal for sale a collection of power cabling we said was stolen, empty Calor Gas bottles and abandoned earthing strips of copper from a power station, which we’d bought for our investigation.
The cabling was inch thick strips of copper encased in rubber (which thieves normally burn off to maximise profit).
We included the empty gas cylinders in view of the fact that 200,000 are stolen every year to be sold as scrap.
Then there were the war memorials.
Stolen: A new law barring scrap yards from taking cash payments aims to tackle the epidemic of thefts, such as the one of a Barbara Hepworth sculpture from Dulwich Park
The only difference between our specially made plaques and the originals from which they were copied was that we changed the names of the 21 servicemen who had died in the two world wars in order not to cause offence to the memory of the dead.
The engraving on one of our plaques was a tribute to a pilot officer who served in the Royal Air Force and died at the age of 20 in 1942.
It read: ‘Stuart Edward Robinson, who lost his life on 21st June, 1942, in service to this country’. It added that the memorial was dedicated on the 65th anniversary of his death, in June 2007, by his surviving relatives.
Another one, for World War I, listed how two soldiers fell in 1914, another two in 1916, four in 1917 and six in 1918. The final plaque listed six men who died between 1942 and the end of World War II in 1945.
The next stage in our operation was to choose which area of the country to target. We decided to go to the West Midlands, where there has been a dramatic increase in the number of reports of sales of stolen metal.
It has to be said that several scrap metal merchants refused to buy our haul (it being considered ‘too hot’ to handle or because it would be ‘immoral’).
Indeed, workers at one yard were clearly well-versed in checking for stolen goods or for material that could be traced.
They tested our metal with an infra-red light to establish whether it had been stained with an anti-theft chemical, which is often used as a security measure by rail firms and local councils and which police look for during spot-checks on scrapyards.
But we were soon pointed in the direction of some back-street outfits that were considered more likely to buy metals we would say were stolen.
After several abortive attempts to sell our lorry-load of metal, we went to Pitford Metals in Brownhills, near Walsall in an area that was once the centre of the booming coal industry.
Though our undercover team told workers in the yard that the memorials and cabling had been stolen, they didn’t seem to mind and were happy to buy it.
Our undercover reporter told a worker that all of our metal had ‘obviously been nicked’, adding: ‘All of this is stolen!’
The man commented: ‘To be fair, half of the stuff in here is probably nicked probably, pal.’ Laughing, he added: ‘We don’t f***ing ask.’
In view of all the cabling we were offering to sell, someone joked: ‘Somewhere there’s a f***ing small town that’s lost its electricity.’ The yard worker then got some large bins and gave instructions about where to put the different metals, dividing up the cables and war memorial plaques, saying: ‘Copper is pink. Brass is yellow.’
He then weighed the total haul inside the plant. The so-called scales man gave a cursory look at the supposed war memorials, apparently to establish what kind of metal they were made of.
He told our undercover team how, as a schoolboy, he used to bring scrap to the yard, which is at the top of a small industrial estate.
Once the bins had been weighed, our undercover team was handed a piece of paper on which was written the weight of each type of metal. This had to be taken to the pay room, where the day’s trade price was calculated and cash was handed over.
No proof of identity was required — as is often routine in this trade — and our team gave a false name and a wrong address.
The yard handed over the cash — a total of £178 cash, which would work out at a paltry £30 for the plaques. We had said our load had been stolen, but not that it included war memorials.
Our team returned the next day with more metal — no war plaques this time — which we told yard workers had also been stolen. Our van-load this time was electrical ‘high-grade’ cabling we had, in fact, bought.
Crimewave: A brass plaque was stolen from the memorial stone at Christ Church in Willaston, Cheshire
The man in the pay room scolded our undercover team for handling metal we said had been stolen, insisting that the company would not take such items in the future.
He said his company normally only dealt with reputable traders and that the material we brought was ‘scraggy’ (worn out and old) and so ‘did not count’.
At one point, one of our under- cover team asked the man who had processed our metal (including the war memorials) the previous day if they still had the plaques or if they had been disposed of already.
He replied: ‘Yeah, they’re going now. They are weighing them up.’
Another ‘scrappie’ (as the yard staff are called) explained how the metals were shipped off to a larger scrap company and then sold abroad.
Subsequent research showed that Pitford Metals (which has operated at the site for more than 20 years) has two directors: Stuart Kirby, 38, from Penkridge, Staffordshire, and Lee Banford, 52, from Bilston, Wolverhampton. The company’s latest accounts show it has more than £1.2 million in the bank.
A few days after our undercover team’s sting operation, we contacted the company to explain what we had done.
Mr Kirby was livid at the suggestion that one of his staff had taken our specially created war memorials that he was told were stolen, insisting that his company would never take stolen goods. He threatened legal action against us.
Sadly, this cannot be the only firm prepared to deal in metal without knowing where it has come from. The extent to which the crime is spiralling out of control is illustrated by the dramatic increase in scrap metal thefts.
Of 12 scrap merchants our undercover team visited and who were told our hoard had been ‘illegally’ obtained, four said they would take the cabling, but rejected the war memorials (clearly worried about their provenance).
A Freedom of Information request has revealed that in the year 2008 to 2009, there were a reported 2,600 thefts of metal valued at £6.2 million in the West Midlands.
But last year, the local police force investigated a staggering increase: 17,107 thefts of metal worth nearly £28 million.
The British Transport Police, playing a leading role in fighting metal theft crimes, regularly assesses how many of the country’s 2,074 registered metal recyclers are suspected of trading in stolen goods. Using a traffic light system (with red meaning the company needs to be inspected regularly by police because they could be up to no good; amber that they are a cause for concern; and green suggesting the company is operating within the law), it identifies 107 as red, 290 as amber and 1,677 as green.
However, our undercover team’s research, suggest the problem is far worse, with about 40 per cent of scrap dealers we approached saying they were prepared to buy our ‘stolen’ metals — albeit not the war memorials.
No wonder the Government has stepped in to toughen up the law and introduce much bigger fines. The Government has woken up to the problem and announced plans to outlaw cash payments and increase fines for those involved in handling stolen scrap.
Under a new law to come into force later this year, traders will have to keep records of all transactions and be registered.
Home Secretary Theresa May said: ‘People who deal in stolen metal are criminals. Their activities bring misery to individuals and communities.’
The Commons Transport Select Committee has produced a report that called for laws governing the scrap metal industry to be reformed, and a new offence of aggravated trespass on the railways to be introduced after reports that there are eight cable thefts on the network every day.
The worry about introducing stricter laws, though, is that stolen metal will simply be sold abroad, instead.
While the UK Borders Agency invests a great deal of energy targeting illegal immigrants trying to enter Britain, less is done to monitor materials being shipped out of the country.
Graham Jones, the Labour MP who proposed laws to tighten up how metal merchants are policed, wants the Government to introduce a licensing system for the industry. He also praised the Mail’s undercover operation.
‘Well done to the Daily Mail for uncovering just how unscrupulous some scrap metal yards are,’ he said.
‘To think that only a handful of yards declined to take this metal is shocking.
‘It’s also alarming that none of the scrap metal yards appeared to have had the honesty to report to the police the names or registration plate of the undercover reporters, despite knowing full well that a crime had been committed.
‘There can be no excuses for not bringing in a tough licensing scheme for this part-criminal industry.’ The Mail did not report our case to the police because the scrap was not in fact stolen.
A spokesman for the Energy Networks Association, the industry body for power wires and piping, said: ‘Metal theft is at epidemic levels because of the ease with which criminals can buy and sell illegal scrap for cash with no questions asked.’
In recent months, attracted by spiralling trade prices for copper, lead, bronze and brass, thieves have become increasingly audacious.
A bronze statue of Jesus on a crucifix was stolen from a grave at a church in Sheringham, Norfolk. Around the same time, a 2ft solid silver cross was also stolen from an altar in a chapel at Manchester Cathedral, where it had stood for more than 50 years to commemorate the building’s destruction during the war.
A man was jailed for 12 weeks this month for trying to sell nine remembrance plaques stolen from a Manchester cemetery.
He admitted handling stolen goods after scrap merchants with some sense of decency reported him to police.
Last month, it emerged that a plaque honouring the bravery of a World War I hero who was awarded the Victoria Cross was stolen from a park in Worksop, Nottinghamshire.
Sgt William Henry Johnson single-handedly charged a German machine-gun emplacement in Ramicourt, France, in 1918. Police believe the memorial was sold for just £10. In some of the worst cases, children as young as 14 have been found risking their lives to steal metal from the railway network in the North-East.
Many councils have also recorded how drain covers and disabled ramps have been stolen. Even children’s playgrounds have been stripped of metal.
The increase in thefts has been found to be directly related to the increase in the trade prices for specific types of metals.
Last night, Deputy Chief Constable Paul Crowther, from the British Transport Police, said: ‘Scrap metal dealers have a responsibility to ensure the metal they buy is from legitimate sources and that they keep appropriate records.
‘It is not acceptable to turn a blind eye to stolen metal.
Tableau pas déclaré volé, mais tableau retrouvé - LeMonde.fr
Tableau pas déclaré volé, mais tableau retrouvé
http://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2012/02/03/tableau-pas-declare-vole-mais-tableau-retrouve_1638529_3246.htmlFebruray 4, 2012
Divine surprise ! La Mairie de Paris vient de se voir restituer un tableau... dont elle ignorait même qu'il avait été volé, il y a plusieurs dizaines d'années, sans doute. Neige à Saint-Mandé, de Maurice Boitel (1919-2007), a été officiellement rendu au Fonds municipal d'art contemporain, vendredi 27 janvier, après six semaines d'une procédure éclair qui met en lumière les limites des inventaires officiels.
A l'origine, l'Association des amis de Maurice Boitel. Dirigée par le fils du peintre de l'école de Paris, elle assure une veille systématique sur tout ce qui touche à l'artiste. Le 11 décembre 2011, elle découvre qu'un tableau de Boitel est mis en vente sur le site d'enchères eBay. Aucun titre n'y est apposé. Mais en scannant l'image et en la comparant au répertoire des oeuvres du peintre, l'identification est immédiate : il s'agit de Neige à Saint-Mandé. Primée en 1956 au Salon Comparaisons, la toile avait été acquise dans la foulée par la préfecture de la Seine. Une oeuvre des collections municipales, inaliénable, autrement dit qui ne peut être vendue.
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Le Figaro - Flash Actu : 500.000 € de vol dans un château
500.000 € de vol dans un château
Un homme d'une soixantaine d'années, soupçonné de vols d'objets précieux chez ses patrons, propriétaires d'un château dans la Haute-Vienne, pour un préjudice estimé à au moins 500.000 euros, a été interpellé, a-t-on appris aujourd'hui.
Employé depuis plusieurs années au service des propriétaires du château situé dans l'ouest de la Haute-Vienne, l'homme aurait dérobé pour plusieurs centaines de milliers d'euros d'objets d'art et de collection, d'antiquités et de bijoux de grande valeur.
Selon les premières estimations, le montant du préjudice pourrait avoisiner un million d'euros. "Il s'agit de toute façon d'un préjudice très important. Au moins 500.000 euros à cette heure", a assuré le procureur de la République deLimoges, Michel Garrandeaux.
Les propriétaires du château ont déposé plainte en juillet 2011, après une série de vols initiés en 2009, déclenchant l'ouverture d'une information judiciaire par le parquet de Limoges qui a mené à l'arrestation du voleur présumé hier.
Le Figaro - Flash Actu : 500.000 € de vol dans un château
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