Trial Begins for Ex-Museum Director
By BILL BERGSTROM, Associated Press Writer

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A former museum director told descendants of a
Civil War officer that a uniform owned by the family was only a
costume, then later sold it to a collector for more than $40,000, a
federal prosecutor alleged Monday during opening statements.
Russell Pritchard Jr., the former director of the Civil War Library
and Museum in Philadelphia, is charged with theft from a museum and
being an accessory after the fact.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Goldman said Pritchard allegedly agreed
to get the uniform appraised for his cousin. Then he told the cousin
the uniform had turned out to be a costume and had been donated to a
charity.
Goldman said Pritchard and his son later sold the uniform to the
collector, and it eventually was obtained by the Museum of Tennessee
for nearly $70,000.
Pritchard's cousin, William Day of Memphis, Tenn., is the great-great-
grandson of Confederate Lt. Col. William Richardson Hunt, prosecutors
say.
In his opening statement, defense attorney Thomas Bergstrom
questioned whether the prosecution could prove the uniform was from
Day's collection.
Pritchard ``absolutely did not steal that uniform, and he did not
obtain that uniform by fraud,'' Bergstrom said.
In December, Pritchard's son, an antiques dealer, pleaded guilty to
staging a phony appraisal in 1997 on the PBS television show ``The
Antiques Roadshow.''
On the show, a man who claimed to have found a Civil War sword in his
attic was told the weapon was worth $35,000. But Russell Pritchard
III and a business partner knew the man and had arranged for him to
bring the sword on the show.
Prosecutors said the partners staged the appraisal to get publicity
and attract customers.
In pleading guilty, Pritchard III agreed to cooperate in the case
against his father.

From:  Museum Security Network: newsletter
http://www.museum-security.org/






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