Illicit Cultural Property

Footnotes

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

"Le Marché"

A work by Camille Pissarro, stolen from France in 1981 is on its way back after a United States forfeiture proceeding (previous discussion here).
Princeton has announced the return of six antiquities with questionable histories to Italy.
Maya remains and objects were discovered in Belize during a construction project.
An investment art fraud scheme has been uncovered in Australia.
Can nuclear physics determine whether a piece of art is genuine?
Thieves have stolen 2 works of art from an Olympia, Washington art gallery by breaking and entering through a skylight.
UNESCO has threatened to revoke world heritage status for Seville because of a decision to build a new 40-story building.

ARCA Annual Conference June 23-24, Amelia Italy

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

I am very pleased to announce the call for presenters for ARCA's Annual conference, to be held in Amelia in conjunction with the summer postgraduate certificate program. I hope you will consider attending or presenting at the event.Call for Presenters 2012 ARCA

"Chasing Aphrodite" at the National Press Club

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:52:00 +0000

ARCA Alum 2011 Tanya Lervik has a summary of the Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino event this week at the National Press Club:

The discussion covered a wide range of topics – from the basics of international law and the ethical responsibility of museums to the specifics of various transgressions that occurred at the Getty. Felch and Frammolino described the scope of the problem and how they came upon the antiquities story while researching the lavish spending of a Getty executive, Barry Munitz. In the course of their investigation, they were approached by a “Greek chorus of Deep Throats” who informed them that the executive’s indiscretions paled in comparison. Arthur Houghton commented on his experience at the Getty and recruited members of the audience (including yours truly) to illustrate the donation tax fraud scheme that he discovered was being perpetrated by one-time curator, Jiri Frel. Houghton was instrumental in putting an end to that practice, but he was also the author of the “smoking gun” memo often cited as evidence that the Getty Museum management was aware they were acquiring looted works in contravention of the 1970 UNESCO convention. Houghton also suffered some uncomfortable moments when the conversation turned to his role as the originator of the Getty’s controversial policy of “optical due diligence” wherein they would generally accept an antiquity’s provenance as provided by dealers without stringently investigating its validity.

Hecht Trial Ends With a Whimper as Well

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:00:00 +0000

“I am not proud to say that Italian justice is slow. It is mortifying.”

So says Paolo Grigio Ferri, the prosecutor who helped build the case against Marion True and Robert Hecht, and also helped secure the return of many objects looted from Italy in recent decades. He was referencing the trial of antiquities dealer Hecht which has ended in Rome as a panel of three judges ruled the five-year statute of limitations expired. This was the same anticlimactic result which ended the trial of Marion. True and Hecht will not have the courtroom certainty of guilt or innocence attached to their names, though many of the important objects they acquired and exchanged have been returned to Italy.

From Elisabetta Povoledo's report:

The court ruling, issued Monday, came in response to a request from Mr. Hecht’s lawyer to dismiss the case because the statute of limitations on the charges had elapsed in 2011. The lawyer, Alessandro Vannucci, said he had hoped the trial would fully exonerate his client, who has always maintained his innocence, “but it was cut short.” This decision “does not do Bob justice,” he said, using Mr. Hecht’s nickname. The judges did not express an opinion on culpability or innocence. But they ruled that a series of objects that had been confiscated from Mr. Hecht’s homes should return to their “rightful owner,” which was identified as the Italian state, a decision Mr. Vannucci said he would contest.

Elisabetta Povoledo, Italian Trial of American Antiquities Dealer Comes to an End, ArtsBeat, January 18, 2012, http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/italian-trial-of-american-antiquities-dealer-comes-to-an-end/ (last visited Jan 18, 2012).

Update on the Athens Theft

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:11:00 +0000

This Picasso was given to Greece in 1949, because the Greeks resisted the Nazis

The Ink Drawing by Caccia

No recovery or arrests yet, but there has been a little new information to shed light on the recent theft from the Athens' National Gallery. Police have said that one man entered the National Gallery through a small balcony door, after he had deliberately and repeatedly set off alarms the night before, which led to a guard disabling one of the alarms. There has been speculation that Greek austerity and budget cuts contributed to the theft, which seems overblown and a bit unfair to the Greeks. Whenever a security breach or theft takes place, the museum looks bad. And whether budget cuts and poorly paid security played a role remains to be seen.

Greek authorities have said that the theft was probably done to benefit a private collector. That seems at this point to be speculation, and is an attractive, if unlikely motive for the theft. There just aren't that many real-life versions of Dr. Julius No.

But there is a good idea about what uses these stolen works may be put to:

A 20th Century landscape by Piet Mondrian

Dick Ellis, director of Art Management Group in England, who set up the art theft division for Scotland Yard more than 20 years ago, said there's a good chance they will be recovered and, if not, used as collateral to fund other criminal enterprises. "Government indemnity doesn't cover theft. They [thieves] are looking for a ransom route that is not going to be forthcoming. We'll have to see the caliber of the criminal," he told SETimes. "It's obviously an important Picasso, and it adds to its prominence that it was given by the artist himself," said Ellis, who recovered in Serbia two Picassos stolen from a Swiss museum five years ago.

When a theft like this takes place, security is front and center, and the Greeks are noting that security was robust at the museum:

Niki Katsantonis, a spokeswoman for the culture ministry, told SETimes that "The National Gallery, as well as all the other museums and archaeological sites, are equipped with modern security systems," and pointed out that there have been thefts at many other museums around the world. She said the gallery will build a 46.5m-euro extension this year with EU funds, an addition that "won't just improve the grounds, but it will fortify them as well". Police spokesman Athanassios Kokkalakis said, "These were no amateurs. Their moves and operation together were very well calculated. With the publicity this heist has received, it's unlikely these works will ever make their way into the black market."

Robert Wittman noted, "You can't judge art only on the dollar value, but what it means to civilisation. Your biggest agony is if it is destroyed or damaged. . . . About 99.99% of the time they are not stolen to order, but on the ability of the thieves to go in and get them. Most of the time they will take what's easy to get and carry. . . . If they get caught in an armed robbery or something else, they can use it to negotiate."

Andy Dabilis, Greek investigators search for missing masterpiece, January 13, 2012, http://setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2012/01/13/feature-03 (last visited Jan 18, 2012).

"Cultural Heritage and African Art" at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:00:00 +0000

This Saturday January 21, from 9.30-4.30 the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University will present the Ruth K. Franklin Symposium on the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. Our topic will be “Cultural Heritage and African Art: Negotiating the Rise of Ethical and Legal Collecting Concerns.” More details and background are available here.

The speakers are:

George Okello Abungu, Ph.D., founding director, Okello Abungu Heritage Consultants, Nairobi, Kenya
Derek Fincham, J.D., Ph.D., assistant professor, South Texas College of Law, Houston
Kate Fitz Gibbon, J.D., attorney, Kate Fitz Gibbon Law Office, Santa Fe, N.M.
Barbaro Martinez-Ruiz, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University
John Henry Merryman, J.D., LL.M., professor of law emeritus and affiliated professor emeritus in the Department of Art, Stanford University
Sylvester Okwunodo Ogbechie, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara

I hope to post a few thoughts on the conference early next week, and if you are in the Bay Area I hope you'll consider attending.

Applications Still Open for ARCA's Postgraduate program

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:09:00 +0000

Amelia, Italy, home to ARCA's summer program

If you are interested in learning why art theft happens (as occurred earlier this week in Athens) or understanding why antiquities are looted, or a host of other related questions, please consider ARCA's program.

We have a terrific group of folks already signed on for 2012. Each year our group of applicants gets stronger and more varied. But there is still room for a few more if you are thinking of applying. The program is an investment in time and money, but we've done our very best to keep our tuition low, and our past students say their time in Amelia helps usher them into a new career path, establishes strong friendships, and is a terrific way to spend a summer.

The interdisciplinary program offers substantive study for a whole host of related fields from art police and security professionals, to lawyers, insurers, curators, conservators, members of the art trade.

In its fourth year, this program provides students with in-depth, master’s level instruction in a wide variety of theoretical and practical courses examining art and heritage crime: its history, its nature, its impact, and what is currently being done to mitigate it. Students completing the program earn a professional certificate under the guidance of scholars and professionals.

Here is our tentative schedule:

Courses 1&2 - June 04 -16
Noah Charney, Founding Director of ARCA, Adjunct Professor of Art History, American University of Rome - Art Crime and Its History

Dr. Derek Fincham, Academic Director of ARCA, Assistant Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law - Art and Cultural Heritage Law

Course 3 - June 18 - 22
Dorit Straus, Vice President and Worldwide Specialty Fine Art Manager for Chubb & Son, a division of Federal Insurance Company - Investigation, Insurance and the Art Trade

Course 4 - June 25- 29
Dr. Edgar Tijhuis, lawyer and assistant-professor of Criminology at the VU University in Amsterdam - Criminology, Art, and Transnational Organized Crime

Courses 5&6 - July 2-14
Richard Ellis, former Detective Sergeant Richard Ellis, founder of Scotland Yard’s Art and Antiquities Squad, Art Management Group Director, - Art Policing and InvestigationJudge Arthur Tompkins, District Court Judge in New Zealand - Art in War

Courses 7&8 - July 16-27
Dr. Tom Flynn, London-based writer and art historian - Art History and the Art World

Dick Drent, Director of Security, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam - Museums, Security, and Art Protection

Courses 9&10 - July 30 - Aug. 10
Dr. Valerie Higgins, Associate Professor and Chair of Archaeology and Classics at The American University of Rome - Archaeology and Antiquities

Dr. Erik Nemeth, Adjunct Staff at RAND Corporation, Founder and Researcher at Cultural Security - "Cultural Security: Interrelations of art crime, foreign policy, and perceptions of security"

It is a special program, and a really exciting opportunity for folks interested in preventing art and heritage crime. A prospectus and application may be obtained by writing to Admissions at education@artcrimeresearch.org. If you have any questions at all please contact me at derek.fincham "at" gmail.com.

Moral Rights in the Texas Law Review

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Two interesting recent discussions of Moral Rights have appeared in the Texas Law Review.

First, in a student note, Lindsey Mills (Moral Rights: Well-Intentioned Protection and Its Unintended Consequences) argues that "by taking away ownership rights that purchasers of artwork would otherwise have, [moral rights legislation] diminishes the economic value of the artwork in question and further, to the extent that artistic expression is deemed desirable, harms society as a whole. After weighing these interests against each other, she concludes that moral rights protection has no place in the United States, let alone as part of the Copyright Act."

In a follow up, Prof. Robert Bird responds (Of Geese, Ribbons, and Creative Destruction: Moral Rights and Its Consequences) with his own "misgivings based on her discussions of a Canadian moral rights case and artistic destruction. Professor Bird concludes with an appeal to pragmatism in light of "artistic doomsday rhetoric" against moral rights protections in American law."

Stolen Magritte Returned

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:30:00 +0000

Olympia by Rene Magritte, has been returned

In 2009 two armed thieves stormed the former home of Rene Magritte outside of Brussels. They held the three curators and two tourists at gunpoint while they stole the work. Given the events yesterday at the Athens Museum, it is perhaps reminding ourselves why art thieves decide to steal. At the time I ran through some possible motives of stealing a work of art:

The first, is that a collector admires the piece, and hired a thief to take it for him. We can call this the Dr. No situation. This seems the least likely possibility, but the one that strikes a chord with the imagination. Writers in this subject frequently cite the Dr. No as being responsible for thefts, and I admit it makes for good Bond villains, but there has been no convincing evidence that thsi is why people are stealing rare objects. Another similar possibility . . . is that an unscrupulous dealer may have a similar piece for sale, and if he can establish some excitement around these kinds of pieces, the price for his similar work may go up.

Second, the thief may not have known that the object was so rare as to make its subsequent sale difficult.

Third, the thief may simply be trying to kidnap the object. They could then [ensure] its safe return for a generous reward, or negotiate its return.

Finally, perhaps the market is doing such a poor job of regulating what is and is not legitimate, that it may not be all that difficult to sell this piece after all. This strikes me as the most troubling possibility, but also not very likely.

We can also add a fifth possibility, that organized criminals use these works as collateral in a kind of shadow version of the stock market.

In this case it seems the second possibility was exactly right, as now the work has been returned because the thieves were unable to find a buyer. In a report the Curator of the Magritte museum, Andre Garitte said the painting was returned after the thieves "understood they wouldn't be able to sell it because it was too well-known," he said. "It became an embarassment and they preferred to get rid of it. Luckily they didn't destroy it."

Art Theft from the Athens National Gallery

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:52:00 +0000

This Picasso was given to Greece in 1949, because the Greeks resisted the Nazis

The Ink Drawing by Caccia

A 20th Century landscape by Piet Mondrian

Shortly before 5 am this morning in Athens thieves broke into the back of the gallery, forced open a balcony door and stole a painting by Picasso, and Mondirian painting, and a sketch by Guglielmo Caccia. The works were stripped from their frames, and might have been damaged. The museum guard heard an alarm, and saw a person running from the building. The thief dropped a painting, a landscape by Mondrian as he escaped. The thieves had distracted the guards all night by perhaps triggering alarms from outside the building, which prompted the guards to disable at least one of the alarms. Police say the theft took only seven minutes.

Picasso stolen from Greek gallery, BBC, January 9, 2012, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16470459 (last visited Jan 9, 2012).
Associated Press, Art thieves rob Picasso from Athens museum, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57355197/art-thieves-rob-picasso-from-athens-museum/ (last visited Jan 9, 2012).
Picasso and Mondrian paintings stolen from Greece’s biggest state art museum, The Telegraph, January 9, 2012, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/9002976/Picasso-and-Mondrian-paintings-stolen-from-Greeces-biggest-state-art-museum.html (last visited Jan 9, 2012).
Greek national gallery robbed of Picasso, Mondrian, CBC, http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/01/09/greece-art-theft-picasso-mondrian.html (last visited Jan 9, 2012).

Footnotes

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:38:00 +0000

Will Rome's trash follow Hadrian outside the city centuries later?

There are concerns over the proposed siting of a landfill near Hadrian's villa.
In New Orleans a man was sentenced to two years in prison and $327,000 in restitution for selling forgeries of works by Clementine Hunter.
Rick St. Hilaire summarizes the expected forfeiture of a painting,Cristo Portacroce Trascinato Da Un Manigoldo after the loaned work from Italy was seized, the work will be returned to the family who was dispossessed of the painting by the Nazis.
Yuck: A drunk Denver woman punched, damaged and urinated near the vicinity of a $30 million Clyfford Still painting.
The 1866 wreck of the USS Narcissus in the mouth of Tampa Bay will become a Florida state archaeological preserve.
Martin Kemp found the trial of five men in connection with Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna of the Yarnwinder "deeply unsatisfying". Me too.
Creativity makes people feel uneasy.
A Manhattan art gallery has offered a reward for stolen art.

The Portable Antiquities Scheme, the voluntary program for reporting objects legally found in parts of the United Kingdom, has received attention for a racy brothel coin, called a spintria, or was it a game token?
Finally, Tom King points out an interesting article (but no link) by Raimund Karl which describes an Austrian model of heritage management. I thought about posting a longer response and discussion, but sadly I've given up hope that the heritage advocacy sites on the interwebs can offer any useful forum for discussion. I've made a peer-reviewed case for what I think is best after looking at the law, policy and results.

Pompeii Still at Risk

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:16:00 +0000

Martin Bailey for the Art Newspaper reports on UNESCO taking the initial steps towards putting Pompeii on the World Heritage in Danger list. A report published in June (to little fanfare) found that:

Although much of Pompeii remains in good repair, the problems are numerous, including “inappropriate restoration methods and a general lack of qualified staff… restoration projects are outsourced and the quality of the work of the contractors is not being assessed. An efficient drainage system is lacking, leading to water infiltration and excessive moisture that gradually degrades the structural condition of the buildings as well as their decor. The mission was also concerned by the amount of plant growth, particularly ivy.” . . . Pompeii attracted more than 2.3 million visitors in 2010 and on the busiest days it had 20,000. Sheer numbers, along with careless behaviour, are causing considerable damage: “Visitors in groups rub against the decorated walls, all too often with their rucksacks, or lean against them to take the best possible photographs,” says the report.

That has been my experience on visiting Pompeii as well. Do people need to touch and scramble over everything? On visiting the site, perhaps the calls by some to just bury parts of the site, and leave open only those areas which can be properly managed and visited is the right answer. I was surprised to learn that in 1956 there were 66 restored houses open to visitors, but today only 15 are open, and these are badly damaged by ignorant tourists and inefficient security.

There has been €105m set aside by the European Union, and a UNESCO 'action plan' could enable that money to be spent. However the funding cuts at UNESCO which resulted from the unfortunate decision on the one hand by the U.S. to cut all UNESCO support, and second, but UNESCO member states and Palestine to force the political brinksmanship may put that funding in jeopardy.

Martin Bailey, Italy allows Unesco into Pompeii, The Art Newspaper, January 4, 2012, http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Italy+allows+Unesco+into+Pompeii/25422 (last visited Jan 5, 2012).

2011 in Review

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:11:00 +0000

It was a turbulent year in cultural policy, marked in many ways by unrest in Libya, Egypt, and elsewhere. But even elsewhere, funding shortfalls, and austerity have put pressure on our cultural institutions, with too many deaccessions and museum closings to mention.

Egypt really was an important nation of origin in a number of ways. First, Zahi Hawass made a number of unfounded allegations with respect to the Central Park Obelisk in New York, in a high-profile call that was to seem terribly trivial only months later. And even before the unrest came news that the United States and the St. Louis Museum of art had each brought suit to assert that the Ka-Nefer-Nefer mask was either rightfully possessed, or had been stolen from Egypt. Then of course we saw the demonstrations in Tahrir square and the fears of looting at sites, storehouses and the Cairo museum. And of course just a few days ago, the protests have escalated once again, and L'Institut d'Egypte was burned, and only a few of the manuscripts were salvaged. I'm not sure what solutions the law can offer to problems like this, when states radically shift. The opportunistic will take advantage of the uncertainty to destroy knowledge, steal objects, and attempt to sell whatever can be made portable. The Solution is continued vigilance of the market in these objects, and a renewed sense of urgency for transparency to ensure these precious objects aren't trafficked and sold abroad.

In the Southwest the long string of sentencing hearings in the wake of the Four Corners Antiquities investigation continued, with partisans making repeated calls for stiffer sentences, despite serious questions about the force displayed by agents during the raids, and 3 suicides, including the death of the informant who would have been a key witness had any of the defendants chosen to go to trial rather than take lesser plea deals.

Yale and Peru finally finalized an agreement to send objects removed from Peru long ago by Hiram Bingham, and were able to conclude what both sides claim is a mutually beneficial deal. The Menil also announced it would return, as agreed, frescoes to Cyprus. Montrose will be without a very fine set of Byzantine Frescoes.

Italy was in the news a great deal as well, assisting in the protection of sites in conflict areas in the Middle East, receiving repatriated objects, most notably la dea di Aidone, even as calls for more returns were made.

The Smithsonian decided to postpone and later cancel an exhibition of objects from a looted underwater site in Indonesia, despite the fact that the site was excavated with an archaeologist present, and the site was published. Odyssey Marine also suffered a colossal setback in its efforts to salvage valuables from underwater archaeology sites.

Oh, and the Mona Lisa was stolen 100 years ago. In my brief forward to Noah Charney's re-examination of the theft, I argued the World’s Most Famous Painting is almost certainly the Mona Lisa. Few would dispute its claim to the title, though many have personal favorites they would place higher (I certainly do). As such, the painting cannot help but be left open to claims that it may be overrated, perhaps even unworthy of its esteem. Nearly everyone knows when shown an image of the work that it is the Mona Lisa. Why then did this simple portrait of a smiling woman become so ubiquitous. Did its theft in 1911 help it reach these lofty heights? Would the world have come to appreciate its charms all on its own? The story of its theft is the story of an overrated painting that might have been better left stolen. But nevertheless it marks the beginning of the modern era of art theft, one of the first really high profile thefts.

Also, $150 million worth of art may have been thrown away, the thieves of the Musee d'Art Moderne were arrested however.

It's been a turbulent year, hopefully next year we can just enjoy art, and there will be fewer thefts. Though I expect we might receive some bad news this week as museums and historic building reopen after the holidays.

Bonne Anée! and thanks as always for reading.

Previous entries:

2009 in Review
2008 In Review
2007 in Review

The Fire at the L'Institut d'Egypte a "great loss"

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:11:00 +0000

One of the frustrations about writing about the protection of art and heritage is the biggest news items are often really grim, and there can often be little room for optimism. On Sunday the Institute D'Egypte caught fire and burned. The Institute was established in 1798 by the French, and held an estimated 200,000 volumes, including rare accounts of Egypt in the 18th Century. I must confess I had no knowledge of the Institute before yesterday, but because I, like many privileged folks in the developed world, have access to Wikipedia, I know it is an important building, and an important repository of information. Yet most Egyptians don't have that luxury. As Larry Rothfield points out, neither the protesters, nor the military seemed to know this was an important building containing books and manuscripts. Initial accounts describe troops throwing rocks down from the roof at protestors, and the protestors responding with molotov cocktails. It is not clear who started the exchange, but the result is clear. An important repository of knowledge has been destroyed.

The background for the destruction, which may or may not have been intentional, are rising tensions once again in Cairo near Tahrir Squar. The best current accounts of the destruction and attempts to rescue some of the volumes is the Ancient World Bloggers Group. And so there is at least some room for optimism. Many of the protesters were seen carrying books to a nearby church to attempt to salvage some of them. Also, William Kipycki, Tield Director of the Library of Congress--Cairo, Egypt at the U.S. Embassy photographed the stamps used at the Institute so antiquarian book buyers and sellers will be on the lookout.

Employees at the U.S. Embassy and the American University in Cairo have been reported as offering assistance to do what can be done to minimize continued destruction.

From the AP:

Zein Abdel-Hady, who runs the country's main library, is leading the effort to try and save what's left of the charred manuscripts. "This is equal to the burning of Galileo's books," Abdel-Hady said, referring to the Italian scientist whose work proposing that the earth revolved around the sun was believed to have been burned in protest in the 17th century. Below Abdel-Hady's office, dozens of people sifted through the mounds of debris brought to the library. A man in a surgical coat carried a pile of burned paper with his arms carefully spread, as if cradling a baby. The rescuers used newspapers to cover some partially burned books. Bulky machines vacuum-packed delicate paper. At least 16 truckloads with around 50,000 manuscripts, some damaged beyond repair, have been moved from the sidewalks outside the U.S. Embassy and the American University in Cairo, both near the burned institute, to the main library, Abdel-Hady said. He told The Associated Press that there is no way of knowing what has been lost for good at this stage, but the material was worth tens of millions of dollars -- and in many ways simply priceless.

A New Museum Position: Curator of Provenance

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:27:00 +0000

A Medallion looted during WWII

Geoff Edgers had a terrific piece over the weekend profiling Victoria Reed, curator of provenance at the MFA Boston. Her position was created in 2010, and is unique in the museum community. She is according to the piece the only curator of provenance at an American museum, a post which can put her in an uneasy position, recommending that the museum should not acquire objects with insufficient history.

Enter Victoria Reed, the MFA’s curator of provenance. Her job, which is almost as rare in the museum world as is the medallion, is to research works with questionable histories both in the collection and on the MFA’s shopping list. As a result, Reed’s other job is to break curators’ hearts. Through months of research, Reed traced the medallion to a museum in Gotha, Germany, that she knew had been looted during the Nazi era. With that information, the MFA’s jewelry curator, Yvonne Markowitz, put the brakes on its purchase. And in September, the Art Loss Register announced that S.J. Phillips Ltd., the dealer who had offered the medallion, would be returning it to the Castle Friedenstein museum.

This can't be an easy position to be in, but as more scrutiny attaches to museums, their collection, and their acquisitions, this kind of position will likely become more and more common. The market and dealers have not been adequately accomplishing this painstaking but necessary task, but perhaps they should be.

Paying for a position like this can be difficult given the funding climate for many museums. The piece notes that the position was funded by an MFA Boston donor, Monica S. Sadler, who stipulated that her position should not be cut from the museum's budget. So other benefactors to museums out there, if you are concerned with the practice at your local museum, give a gift with similar stipulations. Easier said than done of course, but all parties involved should be praised for undertaking an important piece of reform which really could continue to substantially change the importance of provenance research. The piece deals primarily with works of art and paintings, but a position like this which examines antiquities could have even more far-reaching consequences for repatriation and acquisition.

Geoff Edgers, A detective’s work at the MFA, The Boston Globe, December 11, 2011, http://bostonglobe.com/arts/2011/12/11/detective-work-mfa/6iaei4YOQOj83s9u3YfDXO/story.html?s_campaign=sm_fb (last visited Dec 13, 2011).

Madison on "Knowledge Curation"

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:57:00 +0000

Michael Madison (Univ. of Pittsburgh School of Law) has posted his recent article titled "Knowledge Curation", published in the Notre Dame Law Review, on SSRN:

This Article addresses conservation, preservation, and stewardship of knowledge, and laws and institutions in the cultural environment that support those things. Legal and policy questions concerning creativity and innovation usually focus on producing new knowledge and offering access to it. Equivalent attention rarely is paid to questions of old knowledge. To what extent should the law, and particularly intellectual property law, focus on the durability of information and knowledge? To what extent does the law do so already, and to what effect? This article begins to explore those questions. Along the way, the article takes up distinctions among different types of creativity and knowledge, from scholarship and research to commercial entertainment and so-called “User Generated Content”; distinctions among objects, works of authorship, and legal rights accompanying both; distinctions among creations built to last (sometimes called “sustained” works), creations built for speed (including “ephemeral” works), and creations barely built at all (works closely tied to the authorial “self”); and distinctions between analog and digital contexts.

Prof. Madison has a number of interesting things to say about culture, creativity and technology. He I think pays too little attention to the ~~rule~~ role cultural heritage laws play in the stewardship of knowledge and heritage, but he acknowledges the piece asks more questions than it answers. In examining how we decide what to save and "curate" from our past, it perhaps offers yet another implicit reason for increased attention to heritage awareness and protection, highly recommended.

Another Black Mark on the Art Trade

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:18:00 +0000

As the NYT describes this, "a painting no longer attributed to Mark Motherwell"

It really shouldn't come as a surprise that federal agents are investigating recent sales of modern works by artists like Robert Motherwell and Jackson Pollock, but it does. In a very good piece of reporting by Patricia Cohen we learn that the Knoedler Gallery in New York has abruptly decided to close after 165 years, perhaps to avoid a suit by Pierre Lagrange. Lagrange purchased a work purported to be by Jackson Pollock, for $17 million in 2007, yet forensic study of the painting reveals that two paints in the canvas had not been produced at the time Pollock was painting. Oops as Rick Perry would say.

The suspect works of art were supplied by Glafira Rosales, who claimed to have direct access to artists like Rothko, Pollock, Motherwell and others. The story of these works is a sadly familiar one, they were "bought by an unnamed collector in the 1950s from the artists", then when this collector died their were passed on to a "close family friend" who lived in Mexico and Switzerland, who insisted of course on anonymity. One is hard pressed to fell much sympathy for the dealers and galleries who still rely on these ridiculous provenances. They pollute our collective cultural heritage and defraud future generations. The same stories emerge from nazi-era restitution disputes, recently-emerged antiquities, and forged artworks. When these vast sums of money and important pieces of our heritage are at stake, some sectors of the art market continue to put expedience and short-term gain first. And sadly its a lack of meaningful scrutiny and regulation of these transactions. Thirty years ago Paul Bator argued the art trade is shrouded in secrecy, and sadly not much has changed.

Felix Salmon also looks to the role storytelling plays in all this:

The point here is that the art market, like the stock market, runs on a combination of trust and storytelling ability. The most expensive artists are nearly always those who can be credibly placed into central slot in the history of art; one of the main reasons that Abstract Expressionists in general are so expensive is because they have spent decades as the very heart of MoMA’s collection, which presented them as the pinnacle of 20th Century art, the artists standing on the shoulders of people like Picasso. When gallerists sell paintings, they tell stories not only about the work, but also about the story behind the work, conjuring up romantic notions of dealings between Robert Motherwell and Mexican sugar magnates, brokered by “man named Alfonso Ossorio”. So long as the institution selling the work is trustworthy, potential buyers tend to take such stories at face value — and, of course, they have a vested financial interest in those stories being true, the minute they actually buy the piece.

Patricia Cohen, Federal Inquiry Into Possible Forging of Modernist Art, The New York Times, December 2, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/03/arts/design/federal-inquiry-into-possible-forging-of-modernist-art.html (last visited Dec 6, 2011).

Footnotes

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:26:00 +0000

Defendants allege the FBI induced them to steal this Monet and four other works in 2007

In France thieves are on trial this week for the theft of four works in Nice, previously mentioned here. The defendants are arguing that Bob Wittman, then an FBI agent, induced them into committing the theft to implicate other defendants.
RAND Europe has publicly published online, "Assessing the illegal trade in cultural property from a public policy perspective", a report by by Siobhán Ní Chonaill, Anaïs Reding, and Lorenzo Valeri.
Libyan authorities have recovered small Roman antiquities which were recovered from Khadafi's troops fleeing Tripoli.
It is not often archaeologists can excavate a site with the contemporaries present, but the "Great Escape" tunnel has been excavated, and two British Veterans have returned to the site.
A man who used the sale of a Corot painting to defraud an art collector has been sentenced to six years in prison.
And a man who stole hundreds of military medals from a New Zealand Army Museum has been sentenced to three years in prison.
A Kandinsky watercolor will go on sale despite the fact it is the subject of a Nazi-era restitution claim.
Rick St. Hilaire summarizes the Import Restrictions recently put in place to restrict the import of certain objects from Greece under the CPIA framework.

Fisk University Wins Appeal

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:14:00 +0000

Georgia O'Keeffe Radiator Building

In a 2-1 decision Fisk University has won an appeal against the state of Tennessee which will allow it to sell a partial share in works of art to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas. The Tennessean reports today that the proceeds from the sale can be used as Fisk sees fit, it will not have to set aside 2/3 ($20 million) of the proceeds to care for the art. This is the latest, but not the last ruling in a dispute which has been ongoing since Fisk decided in 2004 to help offset its financial difficulties by selling works of art donated by Georgia O'Keeffe and her husband Albert Stieglitz.

Fisk officials called the ruling a victory: “On behalf of the many students who attend and the faithful alumni and friends, we look forward to working out the details with the Chancery Court and the (Tennessee) Attorney General,” said Fisk President Hazel R. O’Leary. We will never know for certain whether O'Keeffe would have approved of the sale of part of the collection, and as a consequence sharing the art in the South equally between Fisk and Crystal Bridges makes good sense for the University and the Museum, and art patrons in the South. It seems an interesting bit of timing that just as the Court of Appeals released its decision, Crystal Bridges is opening as well. The long legal battle is nearly done, as it will now be up to The State Attorney General, Fisk and the Chancery Court of Davidson County to work out the final arrangements for the sale in accordance with the latest appellate ruling.

Brian Haas, Court validates Fisk’s Georgia O’Keeffe art-sharing deal, Tennessean, (last visited Nov 30, 2011).

Art Crime and War Course in Hamilton, New Zealand

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:17:00 +0000

Hamilton, New Zealand

One of the highlights of ARCA's Certificate program each summer is a course taught by Judge Arthur Tompkins. For those willing and able to make it to New Zealand in February, which is the Antipodean summer, the University of Waikato’s Te Piringa-Faculty of Law and the University’s Centre for Continued Education have recently announced a forthcoming five-day summer intensive course, entitled “Art Crime during Armed Conflict”.

I cannot recommend Judge Tompkins's course highly enough, he covers art and war from ancient times in Greece and Rome up to the present Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

Here are the details:
Continuing Education Flyer for Art Crime During Armed Conflict

"Antiquities and Archaeology" in the Art Newspaper

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:57:00 +0000

Three fine articles in the November issue of the Art Newspaper examine where museums and nations go from here after the events of the last ten years. The rules are changing; objects have been returned, and more returns are on the way. When laws have been broken, objects were returned, and precedents are being set.

As a consequence, the way museums deal with antiquities is changing. As Max Anderson says in Erica Cooke's article, museums are moving away from "treasure houses" and acting instead as stewards of these objects and the heritage. And this may be forced on museums in any respect, as there are indications Italy will continue its recent efforts to stem the illegal trade in antiquities.

Fabio Isman reports:

Will the return of objectsfrom sites like Cerveteri continue?

[Paolo] Ferri says that the ministry is now looking carefully at “cryptic provenances” such as “Swiss private collection, 1980s” or “English, after 1975” with a view to introducing new legislation.

. . .
It is also worth noting that one of the first things that Ferri has done, since his transfer to the ministry of culture, has been to sharpen its focus on tracking stolen antiquities. The carabinieri are discovering the location of hundreds of antiquities, dug up illegally throughout the country and smuggled abroad from 1970 onwards. Many are in the possession of 40 or more major museums.

“Our intention is not just to get them back but to put a stop to trafficking,” says Ferri, “and I think we are having a degree of success: many museums and countries have changed their rules and regulations. It is not a question of property, but of morality. If the role of museums is to educate, they cannot possibly hang on to illegal artefacts.”

In a piece by Mauro Lucentini the two authors of "Chasing Aphrodite" offer their thoughts on where things should go from here. Felch notes the important stage we have entered:

This is a critical moment for both parties . . . The coming years will determine whether the spirit of co-operation that now prevails might amount not simply to an armistice, but all-out peace. The Italians must resist the temptation to continue with their iron-fist approach which, in the end, will cost them the public support in the US they have enjoyed until now.

And Frammolino argues something similar, "art is Italy's best ambassador" and that more pieces from Italy should be displayed at the Met. After my experience in Naples last summer, I tend to agree. But I also have a great deal of sympathy for the Italian position, and I'm not sure their approach has been all that "iron-fisted" as Felch describes it. I think the Italians could have been far far more aggressive, and some Italians I've spoken with have said they want a stronger approach, and more objects should be returned, and more collectors and museum officials should have been targeted. For me, the importance of this period will be the precedent set for future action. I'm currently working on a project thinking about the concept of justice, and how legal principles, and collective action should work towards a just result for museums, the public at large, future generations, and nations of origin. It looks to be an exciting time to continue thinking and monitoring these issues.

Erica Cooke, What should we do with “our” antiquities?, The Art Newspaper (2011), http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/What+should+we+do+with+%E2%80%9Cour%E2%80%9D+antiquities%3f/25018 (last visited Nov 17, 2011).
Fabio Isman, Justice is slow, but Italy has not given up the fight, The Art Newspaper (2011), http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Justice+is+slow%2c+but+Italy+has+not+given+up+the+fight/24989 (last visited Nov 17, 2011).
Mauro Lucentini, Has peace broken out after the trial of Marion True?, The Art Newspaper (2011), http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Has+peace+broken+out+after+the+trial+of+Marion+True%3f/24988 (last visited Nov 17, 2011).

Call for Papers, SLSA Conference in Leicester

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 22:16:00 +0000

Janet Ulph and Charlotte Woodhead are looking for folks interested in contributing Themes at the SLSA Annual Conference next April in Leicester. Here are the details:

Convenors, Professor Janet Ulph ulphju13 "at" leicester.ac.uk University of Leicester and Charlotte Woodhead c.c.woodhead "at" warwick.ac.uk University of Warwick.

This theme seeks to bring together discourse on the interface between, art, culture, heritage and the law. To this end papers will be welcomed concerning the legal and non-legal regulation of art, culture and heritage as well as the rights which exist in respect of these. Furthermore, participants may wish to engage in debates concerning the role played by morality in the context of preservation of the past and the need to curb the illicit trade in cultural objects. Papers may include, but are not limited to:

The de-accessioning or acquisition of objects from museums and other cultural institutions;
Legal protection of artistic works, the built environment and objects of cultural importance;
The illicit trade in cultural objects;
The relationship between property and culture;
Cultural rights and human rights;
Cultural institutions and the law;
Minority rights and interests relevant to culture and heritage;
Art and aesthetics and their relationship to law;
Cultural discourse on law; and
Law and humanities

Footnotes

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Export has temporarily been denied for View of the Rialto Bridge by Francesco Guardi.
The sale of public trust artwork continues. Donn Zaretsky wonders if museums are betraying their trust when the public loses all that public trust artwork. Steven Litt looks at the Cleveland Museum of Art's deaccession of works which were "never, ever going to [be shown]". Perhaps steps should be put in place to efficiently manage these sales in the same way the UK temporarily delays export of works of art?
Larry Rothfield says William Brown has overlooked the biggest threat to Libya—antiquities looting. And He suggests specialists should think about how to "plan, fund and manage the physical security of archaeological sites".
But a new government, and support for the Libyan antiquities department has already discovered lost cities in the desert.
The Getty now has a repatriation dispute over eight illuminated gospels from Armenia.
How much will climate change affect cultural heritage management? Heavy rains are again plaguing Pompeii. The drought in Texas has exposed a number of historic wrecks.
A thorough cleaning results in an inadvertent act of art negligence.
The unfortunate politicization of heritage at UNESCO.
1 in 10 museums have experienced object theft in a survey conducted by ICCROM and UNESCO.

France Seizes Painting Stolen in 1818

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:39:00 +0000

Christ Carrying the Cross, Nicolas Tournier

The owner of Weiss Gallery in London is in "complete shock" after officials from the French ministry of culture have refused to allow The Carrying of the Cross, by Nicolas Tournier to be taken from France back to England. The gallery purchased the painting at a Maastricht art fair last year for 400,000 Euros. The gallery took it to a small old master art fair in Paris called Paris Tableau, but France has now detained the work of art.

Mark Weiss, the owner of the gallery stated "I've been in communication with the director of the Toulouse museum since I acquired the painting in 2010, and at no stage has he ever stated that the picture was a stolen painting." The work originally hung in a chapel in Toulouse, but during the French Revolution the work was confiscated and moved to a museum. It was then apparently stolen from a museum in 1818. It would be interesting to know more about what those conversations were like between Weiss and the Toulouse museum.

France has argued this is the rediscovery of a long-lost work, yet it was stolen nearly two centuries ago. Have there been persistent claims for its return? I'm not sure. It is difficult to envision the French have the legal right to seize the painting so long after its theft. They do have the de facto power perhaps to temporarily detain the work, and make life very difficult for the gallery owner. Any experts in the area of French law care to offer any opinions? The newspaper accounts have merely focused on the seizure, without diving into the merits.

AFP: British gallery rejects France’s claim to painting, (2011) (last visited Nov 9, 2011).

"Participatory Stewardship" at the Menil

noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 19:32:00 +0000

The Byzantine Fresco Chapel in Houston

Last Thursday I attended a terrific panel discussion at the Menil. It affirmed for me why cultural heritage offers such a rich area of study. It gives us an opportunity to think beyond who owns what and offers new ways of envisioning things like patent rights in the human body, the trade in works of art, stewardship, engineering design above and beyond contractual relationships, open source museums which can extend beyond cultural walls and bureaucracy, and the creative commons. As Rex Koontz, Director of the School of Art at the University of Houston noted, short of discussing pre-Columbian art, his area of focus, a conversation about heritage and stewardship is the most important conversation we could be having. The discussion touched on all these areas in exciting ways.

The moderator, Kristina Van Dyke facilitated the free-flowing exchange. She began the conversation by pointing out that artworks have lives and a offer us an opportunity for each visitor to "possess" them in a way. If I like to stand and absorb and really take in a work of art, I've created a connection with the work which might not be the same as ownership, but is in many ways a richer more fulfilling relationship. The starting point was the recent announcement that the Menil would return the Byzantine Mosaics which were on long term loan from Cyprus.

For those unfamiliar with the story, Dominique de Menil was offered the mosaics for sale in 1983. The pieces had been stolen from a small church in the Northern Turkish-controlled region of Cyprus. After consulting the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus Ms. de Menil purchases the mosaics, restored them, and they have been on display in a specially-constructed building near the Menil since 1997. Recently it was announced that this long-term loan will end and the mosaics will return to Cyprus. The acquisition, restoration and long-term loan of the mosaics offers lessons for the antiquities trade, and was a remarkable act of stewardship which eschewed the concept of permanent ownership and instead produced a collaborative relationship which benefitted the original owner—the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus—and also allowed Ms. de Menil to put the mosaics on display for many visitors to see. You can read more about the story at the Menil's chapel website.

This was the starting point for the conversation which took on a number of interesting themes. Prof. James Leach from the University of Aberdeen offered his thoughts on property. He is an anthropologist who has worked in Papua New Guinea and he provided an overview of property theory, which he defined as the relationships among people with respect to things. Property in fact stands as a particular form of ownership, while other conceptions of property offer a richer and more meaningful way to foster relationships. In fact anthropology, and the law grudgingly, has begun to increasingly view property not as mechanical rights but as a complex web of interconnected relationships. This is an idea I've tried to think a lot about, and I wish I'd had the benefit of this exchange before I tackled the ideas of property and heritage. Before the event, the audience may have been skeptical that biomedical research, the legal relationships of Schlumberger and intellectual property would link up to heritage. But of course they do if you move beyond property and examine these problems through the lense of stewardship and conceive of property as a web of relationships.