At this week's meetings of both the Advisory Committee and the
Executive Council warm tributes were paid to Elisabeth Des
Portes, Secretary General of ICOM, who leaves at the end of
December.

Her new position is as head of a Paris-based international
federation with over 700 member commercial companies and other
organisations which aims to protect the interests of the member
companies against counterfeit copies of their products and
services and other kinds of intellectual property and trademark
piracy and theft.

At the Advisory Committee, Saroj Ghose, ICOM President, reported
that 33 applications had been received for the post of Secretary
General, from 14 countries and covering all five continents.
The Executive Council is moving as quickly as possible to fill
the vacancy, though realistically it is likely to be several months
before the new Secretary General will be able to take up the post.

The Executive Council has therefore made arrangements for certain
officers to deal with urgent business pending the new Secretary General
taking up the appointment.

In particular, the Treasurer, Piet Pouw, will be dealing with
general administration matters, including staffing, finance, the
1998 and 2001 General Conferences and membership (including
National and International Committee matters) , while Vice-
President Patrick Boylan will similarly be assisting with urgent
business in the areas of publications, public relations and
programmes.

However, on a day to day basis the Secretariat's Section Heads
will continue to undertake most of the work as usual, so please
address all correspondence and enquiries to the Secretariat by
letter, fax, email or phone as usual.


Patrick Boylan
Vice-President of ICOM

City University, Frobisher Crescent, Barbican, London EC2Y 8HB, UK;
phone: +44-171-477.8750, fax:+44-171-477.8887; e-mail: [log in to unmask]
World Wide Web site: http://www.city.ac.uk/artspol/