A few weeks ago there was a thread on Museum-L about schoolgroups visiting museums and how to control these. The following article from the Daily Telegraph of London gives some insight in what may (and most unfortunately does) happen. Ton Cremers http://museum-security.org/ Children damaged Matisse paintings By Bruce Johnston in Rome TWO paintings by Henri Matisse were removed from a gallery in Rome yesterday after they were vandalised. Officials at Rome's Capitoline Museum suspect that the damage was caused by a child or children among the many school parties attending the Matisse Exhibition. Two canvases were each punctured four times with a pen or pencil. A third work, which will remain on show, was scribbled on. The damage to the three works, valued together at £35 million, came to light when a 10-year-old girl asked a guide why one of the paintings had a hole in it. Officials quickly agreed that the painting, Woman at Piano and People Playing Draughts (1924), on loan from the National Gallery in Washington DC, had been damaged. A check of all 210 works showed that a portrait of Madame Matisse entitled The Japanese Woman (1901), lent by a private collector, had three similar holes. Another entitled Zorah Standing, painted in 1912, and lent by the Hermitage in St Petersburg, had been marked with a pen. In all of the cases, the damage was found low down the canvas, suggesting that it was the work of children. Although experts say the damage can be repaired without difficulty, the incident comes as a deep embarrassment to municipal and national art officials in Italy. It follows shortly after another American gallery's refusal to lend works for a show in Rome, because of what it said was inadequate security. "The damage is immense, even if the works are easily restorable," said Eugenio La Rocca, Arts Superintendent for the city of Rome. "The image of our country has been compromised." Mr La Rocca contested the schoolchild vandal theory. He said that in damage of this kind there was always "a precise desire, however contorted". He did, however, defend security arrangements. "Even the best security system in the world can't stop a work of art being damaged." Anna Maria Sommella, director of the museums, said it had been decided to leave the third picture where it was because the damage was "irrelevant". To remove it would mean "depriving of the public of this treasure as well." The other two paintings had been transferred to a safe place where they would remain until their owners decided what to do. Museum Security Network http://museum-security.org/ http://www.xs4all.nl/~securma/ [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask]