http://museum-security.org/
NOVEMBER 12, 1999
CONTENTS
_________________________________________
- Paintings returned 21 years after California heist
- 2000 National Conference Theme & Agenda:
"Challenges and Opportunities: Year 2000 and Beyond"
- Stolen Art and Antiques on the Web (Jonathan Sazonoff)
________________________________________
Paintings returned 21 years after California heist
By Andrew Quinn
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -
Three Dutch Old Master paintings stolen 21 years ago in a daring
Christmas Eve heist from a San Francisco museum have been returned
anonymously to a New York auction house, officials said Thursday.
The 17th-century paintings, one of them attributed to Rembrandt, were
left in a box at the William Doyle Galleries on Nov. 2 and were
quickly recognized as works taken from San Francisco's M.H. de Young
Memorial Museum in 1978.
"We have no idea who did it," Carolyn Macmillan, a spokesperson for
the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, said Thursday. "The mystery
hasn't been solved, but at least the paintings have been returned. We
are grateful that they will be back in their proper place."
The most famous of the paintings is "Portrait of a Rabbi," which art
specialists originally believed to be a Rembrandt but which some
experts now think may have been painted by one of his students or a
skilled copyist.
The other recovered works include Aert van der Neer's "River Scene at
Night" and "Interior of the Church of Saint Lawrence, Rotterdam" by
Anthonie de Lorme.
The whereabouts of a fourth painting stolen in 1978, Willem van de
Velde's "Harbor Scene", is not known.
Auction house officials said an unidentified man dropped off the
three paintings during a weekly open house for walk-in appraisals. No
one got a good look at the man, who vanished before the package was
noticed.
Alerted by an anonymous telephone call, auction house employees
called the police to open of the box, which they feared might contain
a bomb. Instead, they found the three paintings, which Alan Fausel,
the galleries' director of paintings and a former San Francisco
museum employee, recognized as belonging to the de Young.
"We are proud to have had a role in the recovery and return of the
paintings to the de Young," Fausel said in a statement.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation was called in to examine the
paintings, and on Wednesday evening the FBI informed the director of
San Francisco's city museums that the works had been found.
Museum officials tempered their euphoria over the return of the works
by noting that all three had been seriously damaged, including
"Portrait of a Rabbi", which someone had apparently attempted to
clean.
That painting, if it were in perfect condition and proven to be an
actual Rembrandt, could be worth as much as $20 million, but museum
officials said Thursday they suspected that, given its condition and
dubious authenticity, it could be worth less than the $1 million
estimated in 1978.
The other three stolen paintings were estimated to be worth a total
of $75,000 in 1978.
Macmillan said the three recovered paintings were currently being
held as evidence by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but that
they were expected to be returned to the museum within the next
couple of weeks.
Then, curators and art historians will take a fresh look at "Portrait
of a Rabbi", using testing technology not available in 1978 in an
attempt to verify its authenticity.
"One thing we're going to try to find out is if it is really a
Rembrandt or not," Macmillan said. "It was billed as a Rembrandt for
30 years, it traveled as a Rembrandt, but we just don't know. It's now
a matter of us getting our hands on it and having it looked at."
The artwork's return marked an appropriately mysterious final chapter
to a high-profile art theft that has puzzled San Francisco for years.
The Christmas Eve thieves dropped in from the skylight, removed the
paintings and escaped the same way, using a valuable 18th century
chest as a stepladder. No alarms sounded, and the theft was not
noticed until the next day.
After the theft, museum officials installed some $1.2 million in
security devices and offered a $50,000 reward for the return of the
paintings.
They also counted themselves lucky. While the thieves made off with
four paintings, others had been removed from their places on the
museum walls but left behind. Among these was "Portrait of Joris de
Caullerii," a genuine Rembrandt now worth between $25 million to $30
million.
Reuters/Variety
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991111/18/art-heist
_________________________________________________
2000 National Conference Theme & Agenda:
"Challenges and Opportunities: Year 2000 and Beyond"
http://natconf.si.edu/
This year's Conference theme, "Challenges and Opportunities: Year 2000
and Beyond," explores the issues, obstacles and technologies that
cultural property protection professionals will face in the next
millennium.
Leading authorities from the public and private sectors will offer
hands-on and lecture-style sessions in a wide-range of topics. These
tentatively include:
Curators and Security: The Benefits of Good Communication
Customer Service
Electronic Security Systems for the 21st Century
Executive Protection in a Museum/Library
Fire Safety Alternatives
First Aid Equipment and Training
Harassment in the Workplace: What should be done?
Hiring Challenges in Today's Job Market
Installing Simple Alarm Devices
Internal Threats to Museum/Library Security
International Art Theft
Legal Issues Affecting Museums/Libraries - Case Update
Lock/Key Development and Management
Managing Security Initiatives and Projects from Start to Finish
Security for After-Hour Special Events
Security Fragile/Invaluable Artifacts, Books and Displays
Twenty Successful Security Practices
Using Risk Assessment to Determine Staffing
Violence in the Workplace: How to Respond
http://natconf.si.edu/
____________________________________________
From: Jonathan Sazonoff <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Stolen Art and Antiques on the Web
Dear Subscribers,
Following the proliferation of web-sites featuring stolen art &
antiques; one notices there are a number of private efforts in the
field. For those who follow the subject, in addition to "major"
listings http://www.saztv.com/page9.html , we've also compiled a list
of "minor" web-sites concerning stolen art.
911find.net HOT SHEET
http://911find.net/gnHSview.php3
AntiqueDirectories.com - Stolen Antique Registry
http://www.pennygram.com/registry.htm
Antique journal crime watch
http://www.antiqueinfo.com/journal/crime_watch.htm
Antiques Trade Gazette Online - Stolen Items Page
http://www.atg-online.com/stolen/report.html
Art Matters
http://www.wysi.demon.co.uk/pages/artmatte.htm
Bayfront Gallery Art Theft Alert - Fort Mason Center - San Francisco,
CA
http://www.hia.com/bayfront/bg-home.html
CrimeExplorer.asp
http://www.crime-explorer.ch/
EuranStolen art
http://www.euran.com/stolenart.htm
Inter Auction Paris, partenaire des ventes aux enchères
http://www.interauction.org/stolen.html
Kunstraub.de
http://www.kidnapped-art.com
McGee's World Wide Antiques & Collectables
http://www.tias.com/stores/bjd/stolen-1.html
Missing from View! Cases from the Hot Sheet.
http://www.artresources.com/departments/hot.sheet/
PROPERTY REWARD INFO
http://www.tshooters.com/ric/propinfo.htm
Robert E. Spiel Associates: Wanted Art!
http://www.arttheft.com/art-page.htm
Stolen art gallery
http://lift2000.da.ru/SoHo/Gallery/3788/index.html
Stolen Antiques Posting
http://www.pricelessads.com/news/stolen.htm
Theft & Security Page at Joslin Hall Rare Books
http://www.joslinhall.com/musn.htm
Trace On-line Pictures Goods
http://trace.guinet.com/docs/hot.htm
West10 - A Collectors' Site - LOST & STOLEN
http://www.west10.com/lost_stolen.shtml
Hope you find this information useful.
Jonathan Sazonoff
Pres., SAZ PRODUCTIONS, INC.
Http://www.saztv.com
Contributing US Ed.
Museum Security Network
http://www.museum-security.org/saz.html
___________________________________
--------------------------------------------
http://museum-security.org/
The Museum Security Network is made possible
by generous sponsorship grants by Mosler Inc
(http://www.mosler.com/),
and the Netherlands Museums Association
(http://www.museumvereniging.nl/)
http://natconf.si.edu/
2000 NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CULTURAL
PROPERTY PROTECTION
---------------------------------------------------
========================================================Important Subscriber Information:
The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ museum-l.html. 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).
|
