At the AAM Annual Conference last year in Baltimore "Museum Theft and the
Federal Response: FBI Case Studies" was an EXCELLENT seminar on artifacts
stolen from museum collections. I would refer anyone interested in this
subject to the FBI, particularly Robert Wittman, Special Agent in
Philadelphia. The FBI maintains a list of stolen objects and encourages
museums to avail themselves of this service. Many stolen objects from
museums (of both large and small monetary value) have been recovered through
this program.

Furthermore, in response to the question, "What would you do if a board
member lost (or stole) an item from the collection?" In the particular case
of a board member who "cannot remember where he/she put it", I would propose
that as board members hold the fiduciary responsibility for the museum and
its collections, that that person should take responsibility for that lost
item. To this I mean, that the board member should either give the value of
the item to collections and/or replace the missing item to the best of their
ability. After all, the item does hold a monetary value and if that person
moved the item (either on or off-site) from where the curator and or
collections committee had placed it, that board member should take
responsibility for its loss or damage. This is what I propose and would
leave the fine-tuning to you.

My best,
Ware Petznick
Seeking Curatorial/Education position

------Original Message------
From: Liston <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: April 19, 2001 10:57:01 PM GMT
Subject: Re: Theft Policy


Wilbur Faulk has a fine handout on this from the conference--role of
director, curator, public affairs, security guy, risk manager, etc. There is
no real 'theft policy' because no one wants to issue a blanket statement of
'always report a loss' to insurance, police, staff, etc, or 'never bargain
or ransom an object' because clearly everyone acts as an amateur once in a
while when they think they can run things better than outsiders. I'll call
the guy on the phone and talk it out. We have a 'stolen and missing' policy
which foolishly says to consider everything missing as stolen, without
regard to length of time, etc, something quite terrible to say in the and
this week the new Secretary's guy is meeting with Morrell and Billingsly,
chuckle, chuckle. I got a list of hard numbers of money and position
cutbacks I'll share. You saw the scientists gone. Duplicating's gone Sep 1.
A total of 180 out of 4700 people, about 4%, with hiring and purchase
freezes. Nobody in OPS will lose thier job, says Morrell, simply reduction
by attrition and no hiring with severe cuts in overtime. Yet, I suspect more
cuts will come in other, more innovative ways, so we ALWAYS guard our
goodies.

David


-----Original Message-----
From: Autumn Woish <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, April 17, 2001 11:59 AM
Subject: Re: Theft Policy


>Jason,
>Unfortunately, I do not have any policies I, myself, can provide. However,
>you may try contacting someone at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
>(www.famsf.org). They recently had two or three works of art returned to
>them after being stolen approximatley 30 years ago. They are very nice
about
>providing all sorts of information, and might be able to point you in the
>right direction.
>Autumn
>
>
>>From: "Aikens, Jason" <[log in to unmask]>
>>Reply-To: Museum discussion list <[log in to unmask]>
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: Theft Policy
>>Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2001 14:11:48 -0400
>>
>>I know many curators out there have collection policies but I was
wondering
>>if any museum had a theft policy.  I'm looking to develop a policy that
>>provides what procedures our museum should follow if a theft of a cultural
>>resource occurs.  Such a policy would include   whether a museum should
>>contact the authorities, which authorities should a museum contact, should
>>an investigation be launched and what would be the procedures in such an
>>investigation.
>>
>>If anyone out there has a theft policy, I would appreciate any insight or
>>ideas you might have for developing such a policy.  I would also greatly
>>appreciate any samples of theft policies that could be sent to me.
>>
>>Thank You
>>
>>Jason Aikens
>>Collections Coordinator
>>Pro Football Hall of Fame
>>(330) 456-8207
>>Fax (330) 456-8207
>>
>>=========================================================
>>Important Subscriber Information:
>>
>>The Museum-L FAQ file is located at
>>http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed
>>information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail
>>message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should
>>read "help" (without the quotes).
>>
>>If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
>>[log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read
"Signoff
>>Museum-L" (without the quotes).
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
>
>=========================================================
>Important Subscriber Information:
>
>The Museum-L FAQ file is located at
http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed
information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message
to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help"
(without the quotes).
>
>If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
[log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff
Museum-L" (without the quotes).
>

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at
http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed
information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message
to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help"
(without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
[log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff
Museum-L" (without the quotes).


-----------------------------------------------
FREE! The World's Best Email Address @email.com
Reserve your name now at http://www.email.com

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).