ARCAblog

Padma Kaimal, author of "Scattered Goddesses: Travels with the Yoginis" traveled to museums to study the legacy from a lost temple in South India

2013-05-17T13:05:00.003-07:00

Kait Murphy (ARCA '11) in front of 10th
century Kanchipuram yogini
at the Sackler Galleries of Art in
Washington D.C.

Kait Murphy (ARCA 2011) interviews Padma Kaimal, the Author of “Scattered Goddesses: Travels with the Yoginis” which examines the cultural history, theft, and reunion of South Indian temple sculptures.

What happens to sacred objects lost over the centuries? What stories can they tell? Does their meaning change? Padma Kaimal, professor of art and art history and Asian studies at Colgate University, dreams of reuniting 10th century goddesses from a temple in South India. She chronicles the journey of these objects and their collective meaning. Their creation, dispersal, theft, sale, and museum acquisitions paint a colorful history that has been pieced together to explore how and why objects travel around the globe.

In Kaimal's new book, "Scattered Goddesses: Travels with the Yoginis," we can look at the storied past of most (but not all) goddesses that once graced a now-lost temple in Kanchipuram, India.

Through Kaimal’s outreach to museums and scholars around the world, 19 sculptures re-emerged from the original 64 in museums and private collections planting the beginnings of a reunion and telling the tale of their travels, theft, sale, and current locations.

Some highlights from an interview with Padma Kaimal:

KM: How did you get involved in this project?

PK: I became involved while looking at another 8^th century monument in the same region and noticed the goddesses were really important. Starting in 2003, I emailed museums and a bunch responded and invited me to look at their files. They would email scans of their images and I started diagramming and mapping where they all were.

KM: What is the history of the statues?

PK: The only information to go on for dating them is from their style and comparison to carved objects in northern Tamilnadu in the first 3 quarters of the 10^th c. Sometime between the 10^th c -19^th c, the temple was broken into and each of the goddesses was damaged to some degree with features hacked off like their noses and hands. Evidence from other research shows that all other religions were afraid of this sect of Hindu tantric goddesses. This was a secret sect so most people viewing seductive powerful women were frightened and didn’t understand their message.

At some point in the early 20^th century, seven goddess sculptures were salvaged and reassembled into a new temple. In 1926, a poor laborer reported to a French archeologist about interesting objects he found. This archeologist sent photos and descriptions to an art dealer back in Paris, which traced the objects directly from India to France.

Back in Paris, France, C.T. Loo was the single most important art dealer with access to Asian art. His markets were Europe and the United States. He had high standards for the works he acquired. He re-educated museums on what they needed to be buying in terms of high art. He got the museums on board and changed the collections. His goal was about the art preservation and education in addition to being a profitable businessman. Loo was behind the French archaeologist’s research in India and he paid his travel and room and board to find art. Also perhaps involved in the acquisition of these objects was the British director of the Madras Government museum. He was probably aware of the extraction and was able to retain two of the objects so that they would stay in Madras (now Chennai), India. In 1926, Loo began to sell the objects to various collectors and museums with the last one sold in 1960.

With the dispersal of the objects, the book exposes fragments along the path and helps connect the vectors to figure out where the objects were and ended up. There are still two goddesses that haven’t been found and it is thought that they are in private hands somewhere. Further research will help continue the chase. There is theft and rescue in this story but there is no separation between the good and bad guys. The same people were acting with motives we admire as well as those we deplore. The goddesses will always be somewhere else, even if they are some day repatriated to India. All trace of their original home has been lost.

KM: What is the status of the project?

PK: I am continuing to travel around to the different museums I went to for the research where the statues are located. Now some of these museums want me to return to share with their communities the stories of these objects on permanent display. But they are displayed by themselves and have lost their context.

One of my current projects is to go to each museum and re-contextualize the objects for curators and communities and those who support their museums. I want them to be on board and know they have amazing objects. Since government funding is disappearing and museums rely more on local buy in, that education is important.

Some places identify the museums as the bad guys in cultural property theft appropriation, which is an unfortunate tendency of the blame game. Museums are the last stop and we have to think about the whole chain of transport and extraction as well as the museums themselves. How do we support the museum’s responsibility and their response to the histories? We need to support them so they take care of the objects. We also need to convince them to tell the journey of objects in the display. Adding photographs and describing the long road of their history are important factors in leading to a reunion.

KM: What's next?

PK: I will continue to speak to museums as long as they want me and I would be happy to help to broker some trades to begin to reunite the objects. Each museum has one or a few object from various sites. It may be possible to facilitate some switches to reassemble the goddesses in an historical recreation. When you see these goddesses with each other, it is very exciting and they mean something different together than apart. They are variations on a theme and share the same basic physical format but with different objects in hand, seated on platforms, different hair and eyes. When the pattern emerges, it makes clear that visualizing Shakti, feminine force/power, was the part of the intent of the artists.

The Freer and Sackler Galleries of Art in Washington DC, have put together an exhibition on yoga as a tantric practice which will open this October 2013. Kaimal is a consultant on which sculptures might join the Sackler Gallery’s Kanchipuram yogini. The exhibition will be open October 19, 2013 through January 26, 2014.

Details on the exhibit can be found: http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/future.asp

Scottish Museums Close Tomorrow Morning as Part of a Three-Day Strike for Better Pay & Pensions

2013-05-14T16:25:00.001-07:00

Last month the Louvre staff protested against pickpockets (following a series of strikes in 1999 and 2009 against reductions in staff). This month, the staff of two Edinburgh museums will begin a three-day strike tomorrow for better pay and better pensions, reports The Scotsman:

THE National Museum of Scotland and National War Museum will be closed until lunchtime tomorrow as part of a three-day strike over pay and pensions. Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union began the series of strikes yesterday with staff from the justice sector. They will be joined today by staff from the two museums which has led to the early closures.

A museum spokesman apologised for any inconvenience caused to visitors and said all of its museums would be open as normal from Thursday. He said: “Due to anticipated industrial action this week, the National Museum of Scotland and the National War Museum will be closing at 1pm today, and will not re-open until 1.30pm on Wednesday.

“The Tower Restaurant will remain open and access will be via the Tower entrance of the National Museum of Scotland as usual. The National Museum of Flight and the National Museum of Rural Life remain open.”

The PCS began a campaign of industrial action on March 20, the day Chancellor George Osborne announced the Budget.

Decanter.com's John Stimpfig spotlights "The Wine Forger's Handbook" by wine journalist Stuart George and ARCA Founder Noah Charney

2013-05-14T15:26:00.001-07:00

Wine connoisseur John Stimpfig spotlights the The Wine Forger's Handbook by wine journalist Stuart George and ARCA Founder Noah Charney in Decanter.com, the online publication of the international wine magazine:

The slim volume gives a short history of forgery and fraud in the wine world, before going on to detail two short case studies covering two of the best known alleged fine wine fraudsters of recent times: Hardy Rodenstock and Rudy Kurniawan. It also functions as a guide with practical tips and a checklist of actions on how to avoid becoming a victime of counterfeit wine. The book comes at a time when collector awareness and press interest in the subject of fraud has never been higher, after series of high-profile legal cases.

The ebook The Wine Forger's Handbook was published in March and can be ordered at Amazon.com.

Here's a link to a post on the ARCA blog about the FBI's investigation into wine fraud.

The Missing Piece: Mona Lisa, Her thief, The True Story Headed to Denver Art Museum this Friday and to the Biografilm Festival in Bologna in June

2013-05-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

The Missing Piece: Mona Lisa, Her Thief, The True Story, the documentary about the 1911 theft of Leonardo da Vinci's now famous portrait of Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo from the Louvre, premiered in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hills Film Festival on Saturday, May 11.

"We were thrilled to have The Missing Piece screen at Grauman's Chinese Theater for the Beverly Hills Film Festival," Director Joe Medeiros wrote to the ARCA Blog. "We had a very enthusiastic sold-out crowd. It was our 9th festival and one of the best so far."

Medeiros bills the film as "the true story of how and why Vincenzo Peruggia, a simple Italian immigrant, stole the Mona Lisa and nearly got away with it".

The film will screen at the Denver Art Museum at 7 p.m. this Friday (May 17):

Come to a riveting and humorous documentary film about Vincent Peruggia, the man who stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911, his 84-year-old daughter who thought he did it for patriotic reasons, and the filmmaker who spent more than 30 years trying to find the truth. Written and produced by Joe Medeiros, former head writer for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, this documentary combines historical photographs, animation and interviews with Peruggia’s descendants to examine how an unassuming housepainter from Italy pulled off “the greatest little-known heist in modern time.” The producers will be present for Q&A after the film.

The international premiere of the movie will be at the Biografilm Festival in Bologna on Saturday June 15 and Sunday June 16.

Joe Medeiros, writer/director, and
Justine Medeiros, producer.

ARCA Alum ('11) Tanya Lervik saw the movie last July in Georgetown and reviewed the movie here.

Last October Joe Medeiros weighed in on the Isleworth Mona Lisa, positioning that the painting had not been newly discovered but around for almost a century (see the ARCA blog post here).

This documentary is available for private screenings. Here are the project's links:

www.monalisamissing.com

https://www.facebook.com/MonaLisaMissing

Twitter@monalisastolen

Updated May 15 to include information from the director Joe Medeiros.

Boston Globe's Todd Wallack on "Prized stolen art frequently resurfaces after decades"

2013-05-11T12:05:00.003-07:00

John Singleton Copley (1738-1815)
Painting of William Ponsonby,
Second Earl of Bessborough, 1790

The Boston Globe's Todd Wallack points to the increased chance of recovery stolen art years after the theft in "Prized stolen art frequently resurfaces after decades" (May 10, 2013).

Wallack recounts the recovery of John Singleton Copley's portrait of William Ponsonby stolen from Harvard University in 1971 at the 2006 Stair Gallerie's Auction of items from the William M. V. Kingsland Estate. Melvyn Kohn, who went by the name of Kingsland, was later discovered to have died with a private collection of stolen art. Alex Acevedo, owner of The Alexander Gallery, had purchased the unattributed painting for $85,000 then discovered it had likely belonged to Harvard and contacted the FBI.

Wallack writes:

Art detectives say long-lost works like the Copley are increasingly turning up after going missing for decades, thanks in large part to readily available information on the Internet or in electronic databases. The trend is feeding hopes of art fans that the prized pieces taken from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum 23 years ago could eventually surface as well.

Though the vast majority of missing artwork is never recovered, stolen items are often discovered when they change hand, sometimes many years later, when brokers and buyers research the pieces online and through databases, according to brokers and others in the business.

“We’ve got recoveries happening every week,” said Christopher A. Marinello, an attorney for the Art Loss Register of London, which maintains an international database of more than 360,000 stolen, looted, disputed, or missing works around the world, including 1,000 from Massachusetts and hundreds of pieces from Harvard alone.

“It’s not that unusual to find artwork that has been lost for more than a quarter of a century,” Marinello said. “The valuable pieces either are recovered right away, or they go underground for a generation.”

Two years after the Stolen Aphrodite is returned, the Getty Museum Exhibits Objects from Sicily with the cooperation of the Italian Government

2013-05-10T19:52:00.001-07:00

About two years ago, The Getty Museum returned a Greek statue (formerly known as Aphrodite) to Sicily and appointed James Cuno as chief of the institution infamously associated with stolen antiquities. Today one of the world's richest cultural institutions is cooperating with Italian authorities. "Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome" is an exhibit in Malibu co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Assessorato dei Beni Culturali e dell'Identità Siciliana.

The Getty's website includes for the exhibit a list of objects and book edited by Claire L. Lyons, curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum and a specialist in the archaeology of Sicily, Greece, and pre-Roman Italy; Michael Bennett, the Cleveland Museum of Art's first curator of Greek and Roman Art; and Clemente Marconi, James R. McCredie professor in the History of Greek Art and Archaeology at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts.

Objects include The Mozia Charioteer, a statue discovered in 1976 on the island of Mozia, the first Phoenician colony in Sicily. The book includes an article by maria Luisa Famà on the discovery and ongoing discussion about the interpretation of this object.

Norway Celebrates 150 Anniversary of Munch's birth; BBC Broadcast Interviewed Charley Hill last February on the Successful Return of The Scream in 1994

2013-05-09T22:23:00.001-07:00

Celebrating the 150 anniversary of the birth of Edvard Munch, the National Museum and Munch Museum in Norway will exhibit more than 200 of the artist's paintings in "Munch 150" on June 2.

Here's a link to a BBC World Service broadcast last heard in February near the anniversary of the 1994 theft of Edvard Munch's The Scream. Charley Hill, former undercover police officer for Scotland Yard's Art and Antiquities Squad (his boss was ARCA Instructor Dick Ellis), describes how he posed as Chris Roberts, a consultant with the Getty Museum to negotiate the purchase of the stolen painting. The broadcast concludes the show with the statement that three of the four convicted of the theft successfully appealed on the grounds that Mr. Hill entered Norway under a fake passport.

Here's a summary of the facts on the 1994 theft as reported by the BBC.

Theresa Veier, an art history and lawyer in Oslo, wrote for the ARCA Blog about the artist and the theft of his work more than 65 years after Edvard Munch's death.

Raintree Publishes "Treasure Hunters Great Art Thefts" by Charlotte Guillain for Juvenile Market

2013-05-08T10:06:00.000-07:00

by Catherine Schofield Sezgin, ARCA blog Editor

Raintree, an imprint of Capstone Global Library out of Chicago, has published a book in its series on Treasure Hunters introducing the subject of art theft to middle-school readers.

In "Great Art Thefts", Author Charlotte Guillain highlights the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa; the 1990 burglary of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; the theft of Edvard Munch's The Scream in 1994; and the New Year's Eve theft in 2000 of Cézanne's View of Auvers-sur-Oise fron the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The book also opens the discussion on why art is targeted by thieves and what may happen to stolen works. A timeline, glossary of terms, and websites for additional information are provided along with an index.

Special appearances include Anthony Amore, director of security at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Charley Hill, 'ex-police officer who tracks down stolen art'; Alf Longhurst, museum and gallery security adviser; Superintendent John Carr of Oxford Police; Dr. Christopher Brown, director of the Ashmolean Museum; and Hugo Penning, head of security at the Ashmolean Museum. I had the pleasure of advising on early drafts -- relying upon my experience of introducing my own children to art and museums through the narratives of art thefts.

Shipwreck Exhibit to Open End of the Month in NYC

2013-05-07T15:35:00.001-07:00

Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (NasdaqCM: OMEX) will exhibit silver recovered from the submerged ruins of a World War II at the show "Shipwreck!" in New York City's Discovery Times Square beginning May 24.

The company's press release explains that this will be the first public showing of treasures found last year:

Silver recovered from the World War II-era SS Gairsoppa shipwreck, which lies approximately three miles deep, will be on display. This is the first public showing of some of the 1,218 silver bars (approximately 48 tons) of silver recovered to date from the Gairsoppa, which is the heaviest and deepest recovery of precious metal from a shipwreck in history.

In addition to the Gairsoppa silver, Odyssey is expanding the SHIPWRECK! Treasure Room to include a large selection of never-before-displayed coins from both the SS Republic and the “Tortugas” shipwrecks.

OMEX reported in the fourth quarter ending December 31, 2012:

The majority of the silver recovered in 2012 from the SS Gairsoppa shipwreck was sold in the quarter with fourth quarter proceeds of $30.1 million to Odyssey ($17.8 million of this was credited in third quarter to expenses as recoupment of project costs).

A management comment notes that the company 'salvaged 48 tons of silver from a depth of more than 15,000 feet.'

In other findings, Odyssey Marine reportedly retrieved treasure from the sunken Spanish galleon Buen Jesus y Nuestra Senora del Rosario. In 2012, Odyssey Marine turned over treasure recovered from an 18th century Spanish shipwreck to Spain where it is now on display.

Lion Attacking A Horse Ends Exhibit at Getty Villa; First Time 4th Century BC Greek Statue has been on display since 1925

2013-05-06T18:58:00.000-07:00

Lion Attacking a Horse in the atrium at the Getty Villa
(Photo by Catherine Sezgin)

Today the 4th century BC Greek statue, Lion Attacking a Horse, ended its nine-month exhibition in the atrium of the Getty Villa.

This is the first time the sculpture has been on public display since 1925 and the first time it has left Rome in 2,000 years.

Depicting the figure of a fallen horse succumbing to the claws and fangs of a ferocious lion, the monumental group dates to the early Hellenistic period (the late 4th century B.C.), when Greek sculptors began to produce naturalistic portrayals of intense emotion and physical exertion.

Close-up of Lion (Photo by C. Sezgin)

Although the original location of the sculpture is unknown, its massive scale and dramatic carving suggest that it embellished a monument in northern Greece or Asia Minor (present-day Turkey). Created in the era of Alexander the Great’s conquest of Asia, the sculpture may have formed part of a larger composition with a melee of wild beasts and mounted hunters, which commemorated the young king’s famous lion-hunting exploits at Sidon (present-day Lebanon) in 332 B.C. and a royal game preserve in Basista (present-day Uzbekistan) in 328–327 B.C.

The sculpture was eventually brought to Rome, most likely as war booty seized by a victorious general for display in the imperial capital. It was ultimately discovered in the streambed near the Circus Maximus, a stadium used for chariot races, gladiatorial games, and animal combats. The work was first mentioned in an archival document in 1300.

Backside of 4th century BC Greek marble (Photo by Sezgin)

By 1347, the sculpture was prominently displayed on the Capitoline Hill in Rome, the seat of the city’s civic administration. During this time, Renaissance Rome was experiencing a great rebirth of interest in its glorious ancient past, which served as a model for the present. Remains of antiquity, such as Lion Attacking a Horse, were among the earliest expressions of the Renaissance spirit.

The work was initially installed on the staircase of the Palazzo Senatorio in the Piazza del Campidoglio on the Capitoline Hill. Presiding over an area used for pronouncing judicial sentences since antiquity, this powerful image of domination and retribution served as a symbol of Rome for over a century. In 1471 Pope Sixtus IV transferred a group of ancient bronze sculptures, including the famous statue of a she-wolf suckling the twins Romulus and Remus, from the Lateran Palace to the Piazza del Campidoglio, as reminders of “ancient excellence and virtue.” Mounted on the facade of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, the she-wolf replaced the lion-and-horse image as the emblem of Rome. Lion Attacking a Horse was moved to various places on the Capitoline until it was eventually installed in the center of a fountain in the Caffarelli Garden in 1925.

This statue was loaned to the Getty by the Sovraintendenza ai Beni Culturali di Roma Capitale - Musei Capitolini with funding provided by the Knights of Colombus and the J. Paul Getty Museum's Villa Council.

ARCA Alum Leila Amineddoleh Begins First Month as Executive Director for the Lawyer's Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation

2013-04-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

by Catherine Sezgin, ARCA Blog Editor-in-Chief

Leila Amineddoleh (Cappadocia)

Leila Amineddoleh (ARCA Alum '10) is the new Executive Director for the Lawyer's Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation as of April 1.

Ms. Amineddoleh is of counsel at Lombard & Geliebter LLP and Adjunct Professor at Fordham University School of Law. In addition, Leila has been a frequent contributor to the ARCA Blog and a presenter at ARCA's Art Crime Conference. Leila, a pianist, also created "Classical Twist" with ARCA classmate and violinist Daniella Fischetti.

What will you be looking forward to this year in your role as Executive Director?

I am so excited about this position because the LCCHP is a great organization. The committee is in the midst of planning an exciting conference in NYC (tentatively planned for Nov 1-2,2013); submitting a written statement and testifying in support of the renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding between China and the US; continuing our call for the return of the ancient golden table at issue in In Re: Riven Flamenbaum; supporting the work of the Cambodian and US governments in repatriating a looted statue from Cambodia; and various other advocacy projects that are in the works.

Will we be seeing you in Amelia and are you presenting?

Unfortunately I will not be at the 2013 ARCA conference, but I will be spending time in Italy as I'll be teaching Art & Cultural Heritage Law in Rome for St. John's School of Law's summer program. What other upcoming conferences or panels will you be attending? Earlier this month I moderated a panel at Fordham Law School entitled "Defining Cultural Ownership: Shifting Focus, Shifting Norms..." It was well-attended and absolutely fascinating, as we had a fantastic line-up of speakers. My time in Italy this summer will also be busy with events, as my course includes tours around Rome, a field trip to the Roman Forum (led by an archaeologist), and various other events. I haven't committed to any other major events scheduled for after my time in Rome, due to the demands of my litigation practice. However, things in NY generally start getting hectic again in the fall.

B. A. Shapiro invents a fifth version of Degas' "After the Bath" in the book "The Art Forger" which focuses on the Boston art world and the 1990 theft of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

2013-04-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

Degas' After the Bath c 1883

B. A. Shapiro's The Art Forger (Algonquin Books, 2012) mixes elements with the 1990 theft of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Theft with the Boston art world and art forgery. Ms. Shapiro uses a fictional painting by Edgar Degas, After the Bath, in this art crime novel.

Here's a link to the book review in The New York Times by Maxwell Carter, an associate vice president and a specialist in Impressionist and modern art at Christie’s, which provides a nice synopsis of the plot.

Here's a link to the author B. A. Shapiro's website which includes information on art thefts, art forgeries, and encouraging words about writing novels.

This link to a book review last January in the Salisbury Post ("'Art Forger' leaves readers wondering what's real") highlights the author's note at the end of the book:

Shapiro does several clever things. She uses real artists and real connoisseurs like Gardner in the telling of the book. All the forgers Claire learns from are real, as are the techniques they used. She mixes in chapters of Isabella Gardner’s letters to her niece detailing her adventures with Degas — these are juicy fiction. She offers “A Note on the Research” at the end of the book to make clear what is history and what is fiction.

Barbara Shapiro writes in this "Note on the Research":

The painting techniques that Claire uses for both her forgery and her own work are consistent with current practices, as are the descriptions of the struggles of a young artists. The forgers and dealers she discovers through her Internet research were/are actual people, including John Myratt, Ely Sakhai, and Han van Meegeren, and the specifics of their crimes, methods, inventions, and punishments are also accurate.

The details of the 1990 robbery of Gardner Museum are factual -- it remains the largest unsolved art heist in history -- with the exception of the inclusion of Degas' fifth After the Bath, which neither was stolen nor exists, although it is a composite based on his other four After the Bath works.

Blogger Poul Webb (Arts & Artists) shows images from Degas' studies on women after bathing.

Here's a link to a discussion of Degas' After the Bath at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Quebec's Art Crime Enforcement Unit Reports Recovery of Stolen Domingue Painting

2013-04-16T15:57:00.003-07:00

On January 14, Quebec's art crime enforcement unit, a partnership between the province's police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, reported the theft of "Rue Richard", an 18 by 24 cm watercolor by artist Maurice Domingue.

Today Art Alerte, the email notification system for Canada's art crime squad, published the information that the painting has been recovered.

No other information has been made available.

Our condolences to Boston

2013-04-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937
Reina Sofia Museum

Boston hosts great art museums, world-class universities, and a great Marathon. Institutions like the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum close today on Patriot's Day. This year more than half a million people lined the streets to cheer more than 26,000 runners until the Boston Marathon ended with two deadly explosions. People were senselessly killed and maimed. One doctor described injuries similar to those resulting from a battlefield. Our hearts mourn with yours. And thank you to all the emergency personnel, including the race's first aid center, who responded so quickly.

American Institute for Roman Culture To Host Third Annual UNLISTED Conference on Archaeological Cultural Heritage

2013-04-15T00:30:00.001-07:00

"Cultural Heritage in Digital Media: Conversation for Conversation, Sustaining Global Storytelling Online" is the subject for the third annual UNLISTED conference to be sponsored by the American Institute for Roman Culture.

This program, which offers simultaneous translations in English and Italian, will be held at the Marconi University in Rome from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 18.

"Conversation for Conservation"

It is essential to tell a good story on a global level in an accessible manner through the various channels of digital media (e.g., FB, Twitter, Instagram), to foster conversation. This dialogue, in turn, leads to action, having a direct beneficial effect on sites and monuments because of the broad range of people and organizations involved through existing partnerships and participation."

Here's a link AIRC's conference page. The conference can be followed via live streaming courtesy of Marconi University.

Brent E. Huffman, producer of the documentary "The Buddhas of Mes Aynak" (2013), will speak at this conference. Other participants include Stephan Faris, a freelance journalist who writes for TIME (e.g. Gladiator Tomb); Nicolee Drake, professional photographer; Erica Firpo, freelance writer and social media consultant; Sam Horine, professional photographer; and AIRC Documentary Films.

Kunsthal Rotterdam: Art Gallery Robbed Last October to Close for Six Months to go "green"

2013-04-15T00:30:00.000-07:00

The Kunsthal Rotterdam robbed last October will close from June to October 2013 for planned reconstruction works, according to the email send out yesterday.

During these months, overdue maintenance will be realised, the main entrance relocated, technical installations renewed, and the sustainability of the entire building shall be improved. The reconstruction works are jointly initiated by the Kunsthal, de municipality of Rotterdam – owner of the building – and architecture firm OMA. The board of the Kunsthal as well as the Mayor and Executive Board of Rotterdam have given their consent for the reconstruction works.

Seen the scope of the renovation, it has been decided to extend the management of the Kunsthal with a business director, Bas den Hollander.

The Kunsthal will be closed for visitors during its five months reconstruction works. Therefore, Friends of the Kunsthal and members of the Kunsthal Business Club are compensated and will receive a forthcoming letter with additional information.

Behind the scenes, the Kunsthal-team will continue to work on an exciting exhibition programme.

As from November 2013, we will be happy to welcome you in a beautiful renovated and sustainable building.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: How has the institution faired more than two decades after the theft? Former Undersecretary for Homeland Security Juliette Kayyman wrote about this last year

2013-04-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

Here's an article overlooked by the ARCA Blog last year: In the Boston Globe, a former Undersecretary for Home Security, Juliette Kayyem, wrote in March 2012 of the "Gardner's narrative of resiliency" on the new addition to the institution:

In 1990, two thieves dressed as Boston police officers told the museum night guards on duty that they were responding to a call. The thieves passed the sole security door. There was just one alarm button at the time; only motion detectors traced their movements. There were no cameras. A mere 81 minutes later, they were in possession of the masterpieces worth, today, half a billion dollars. The investigation is ongoing.

The new building could have been a fortress. But that would have made the theft the focal point of how we would perceive the museum. Instead, the colorless glass entry, the brick walls, even the enclosed corridor that passes from the new building through a grove of trees into Gardner’s historic courtyard serve as practical access controls. There are no doors for the public to the original Gardner mansion. A thief would now have to walk through a transparent glass tunnel, into the new building, and out a security door for the easiest exit. Though counterintuitive, its openness makes it more secure.

While the museum is watched by hundreds of cameras, the new structure is designed to relieve some of the stress from Gardner’s old home by shifting the burdens of exit and entry to the much more modern and secure building. “There is simply no place in the museum where a thief can just grab art and get outside,’’ Anthony Amore, the head of museum security and author of “Stealing Rembrandts,’’ said.

The Buddhas of Mes Aynak: Kickstart Funds Used to Purchase Computers and Cameras for Afghan Archaeology Office in Kabul

2013-04-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

New computer at Afghan Archaeology Office in Kabul
(Photo via The Buddhas of Aynak on Facebook)

Documentarian Brent E. Huffman raised $35,200 on Kickstart for The Buddhas of Mes Aynak. On Friday he announced on Facebook (The Buddhas of Aynak) that new computers and cameras have been purchased from 10% of those Kickstart funds for the Afghan Archaeology Office in Kabul.

"Now the Afghan archaeologists can accurately record record their findings at the Buddhist city at Mes Aynak and other archaeology sites in Afghanistan," Huffman wrote.

Brent Huffman is an assistant professor at the Medil School of Journalism at Northwest University.

German Camera Productions has finished the documentary on the Buddhist monastery ruins sitting on top of a larger copper mine contracted to a Chinese company for extraction. (See previous ARCA blog posts here: archaeological wealth threatened; dangerous precedent; and archeologist's deadline in Mes Aynak extended.

Mary Ellen Gabriel reported for the University of Wisconsin-Madison News ("Archaeologists on front lines of protecting ancient culture in turbulent regions") that archaeologists may only have until June to work at Mes Aynak unless something can be worked out once the excavation begins.

The China Metallurgical Group said in June it will close the site to archaeologists and begin preparing the area to make way for a massive copper mine that will bring in an estimated $100 billion in revenue, of which $3 billion will be paid to the Afghan government. Archaeologists fear that everything will be destroyed, including artifacts from undiscovered levels beneath the Buddhist monuments that may date back to 3000 B.C., during the Bronze Age.

Though the mine will go forward no matter what, there is still a chance — a small chance — that the excavation site could exist alongside it.

University of Wisconsin-Madison's professor of anthropology J. Mark Kenoyer is working to rally support to preserve the site [again quoting from Ms. Gabriel's article].

“Miracles can happen,” says Kenoyer, which is one reason he agreed to travel for the first time to the heart of Taliban country to help make a dramatic case for preserving this vital piece of global heritage.

Around the world, archaeological sites are threatened by war, environmental degradation, mining, dam-building, and even mass tourism. Rebellions in Libya, Syria and Mali have endangered not only the lives of millions of people, but thousands of years of human history.

Archaeologists and anthro-pologists play an increasingly vital role in communicating not only the importance of what will be lost, but the potential benefits to tourism and culture if it can be saved. In the digital age, the impact of a well-crafted story, or petition, or documentary can resonate much further than it might have 15 years ago.

Rijksmuseum Reopens Today after $480 ten year renovation

2013-04-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (Photo: Telegraph)

Queen Beatrix reopened the Rijksmuseum today amidst fireworks and a queque of people waiting to enter the museum for free after a ten year $480 million renovation designed by Spanish architects Cruz and Ortiz:

The museum covers 800 years of Dutch history through 8,000 objects, distributed through 80 rooms. A one mile (1.5-kilometre) walk around the galleries will take you "from the Middle Ages to Mondrian," the Dutch painter and one of the pioneers of the De Stijl movement in the first half of the 20th century.

But at the heart of the museum's physical and artistic identity is Rembrandt's vast masterpiece of militia intimidation, The Night Watch. The painting, flanked by works by the likes of Johannes Vermeer and Frans Hals, symbolises the Golden Age, roughly spanning the 17th century, when the Dutch dominated much of world trade and, as a result, art.

The renovation Rijksmuseum is also known for a special feature -- the nearby bike path leading out of Vogel Park continues through a tunnel running through the middle of the museum:

The museum didn't want the tunnel used as a bike path because of its proximity to the entrance, but the city authorities decided to let the bikes through and monitor the situation.

The Telegraph published a guide on how to get around the renovated Rijksmuseum.

German Government Agrees to Return Oskar Kokoschka's "Portrait of Tilla Durieux" to Flechtheim's Heirs

2013-04-13T04:00:00.000-07:00

Oskar Kokoschka's "Portrait of Tilla Durieux" (1910)
Museum Ludwig/Marcus Stroetzel via Bloomberg

The ARCA Blog mentioned Alfred Flechtheim and a painting by Oskar Kokoschka in November 2010 when German forgers were suspected of using fraudulent stickers from the Dusseldorf art dealer's gallery to sell artworks falsely attributed to French and German Expressionist artists ("German Forgers May Have Used Catalogs of Jewish Art Dealer").

Alfred Flechtheim fled Nazi Germany when his business was confiscated in 1933 and died in London in 1937. Flechtheim's heirs have tried to recover more than 100 paintings by artists such as Picasso, Juan Gris, Fernand Léger, and Vincent van Gogh from European and American museums.

Catherine Hickley reported for Bloomberg News on April 9 that the German government has agreed to return Oskar Kokoschka's "Portrait of Tilla Durieux" (1910) to Flechtheim's heirs:

“Portrait of Tilla Durieux” (1910) has been in the Museum Ludwig in Cologne since 1976. Flechtheim’s great-nephew Mike Hulton, a medical doctor based in California, filed a claim for the painting’s restitution in 2008, saying the dealer sold it under duress and didn’t get a fair price. The museum said Flechtheim was already in financial trouble before the Nazis came to power and sold the painting to pay off debts.

“The view of the advisory commission is that this case cannot be exhaustively clarified,” the panel, led by former constitutional judge Jutta Limbach, said in a statement. “Because of an absence of concrete evidence, it is to be assumed that Alfred Flechtheim was forced to sell the disputed painting because he was persecuted.”

Francisco Goya's 1978 "Witches in Air" is subject of auction house theft in Danny Boyle's fictional film "Trance"

2013-04-12T18:22:00.004-07:00

Francisco Goya's Witches in Air, 1798
Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain

by Catherine Schofield Sezgin, ARCA Blog Editor

In Danny Boyle's fictional movie, Trance, Francisco Goya's $25 million painting is stolen during an auction in a choreographed heist. One of the thieves, Simon (James MacAlvoy), works at the auction house. Simon betrays his accomplices before a bump on his head precedes a case of amnesia. Rosario Dawson is the hypnotherapist and Vincent Cassel (who played an art thief in Oceans 13) is the criminal boss applying the pressure on the bewildered lad with the big blue eyes and Scottish brogue to recall where he hid the stolen painting.

In reality, Goya's Witches in Air is owned by the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain. The 1798 oil painting is not on display:

Three bare-chested characters wearing dunce caps hold a fourth, nude character in the air while another lies on the floor, covering his ears, A sixth figure flees, his head covered with a white cloth. With his hand, he makes the gesture intended to protect him from the evil eye. At the right of the scene, a donkey stands out against the neutral background.

This was one of six canvases Goya sold to the Duke and Duchess of Osuna in 1798, as decoration for their country house in La Alameda. They are linked to the etchings from his Caprichos series, in which he presented scenes of witches and witchcraft similar to this one.

This painting was acquired by the Prado Museum in 1999 with funds from the Villaescusa legacy.

The film also includes references to Rembrandt's "Sea of Galilee" stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990 (the whereabouts of Dutch master's only seascape is publicly unknown) and an imagined room of "lost paintings" including Caravaggio's Nativity (stolen from a church in Palermo in 1969 and rumored to have been eaten by pigs).

A True Goya Painting Theft: History of Stolen Painting from the Toledo Museum of Art in 2006

2013-04-12T18:00:00.000-07:00

Here's an example of a true theft of a painting by Francisco Goya on November 7, 2006, which occurred when the artwork was being moved from one museum to another.

David Johnston for The New York Times reported on November 17 ("Goya Theft is Attributed to Inside Knowledge"):

Federal investigators have concluded that thieves armed with detailed shipping information were behind the removal of a Goya painting from a truck en route to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum from Ohio last week, law enforcement officials said Friday.

The 1778 painting, “Children With a Cart,” was packed inside several nested crates aboard a locked unmarked truck used by a professional art transporter. The crated painting was removed from an outer shipping container in the truck while it was parked at a Howard Johnson Inn near Bartonsville, Pa.

The two drivers checked into the hotel around 11 p.m. on Nov. 7, according to the motel manager, Faizal Bhimani. He said the white midsize truck was left in an unlighted parking lot adjacent to the hotel, out of sight of the hotel’s rooms and the main office.

When the drivers returned to the truck at about 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 8, the locks had been broken and the painting, insured for $1 million, was gone, law enforcement officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Here's a link to the press release from the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio offering a $50,000 reward for the return of the Goya painting.

Here's the link to the FBI's press release on November 20, 2006 upon recovery of Goya's "Children with Cart" within three weeks of the theft.

Here's a link to the NPR story of the FBI Art Crime Team which reports that the Goya painting stolen from the Toledo museum was recovered within 10 days.

Here's a link to an article in The Wall Street Journal online in 2011 with a motivation for the theft:

Robert K. Wittman, former head of the FBI's Art Crime team and now a security consultant in Philadelphia, notes that history's most infamous art thefts, including the 1990 Isabella Steward Gardner Museum heist in Boston, targeted works hanging on walls, not in transit. But he adds that art on the move is at its most vulnerable.

Mr. Wittman helped recover a 1778 Goya masterpiece stolen off a truck in Pennsylvania in 2006 en route from the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio to the Guggenheim in New York. In that case, its two drivers made the dumb decision to check into a motel for a nap. They returned to find their parked truck busted open and the unmarked Goya crate gone. The thief didn't know what he had, and said he wanted to get rid of it. He didn't destroy the painting because "it kind of grew on me." He had a lawyer contact authorities saying he had found it in his basement—there was a $50,000 reward—but wound up pleading guilty and being sentenced to five years in prison.

Goya's 1778 "Children with Cart" is still on display at the Toledo Museum of Art.

Louvre's one-day protest to procure help against threat of pickpockets follows strikes in 2009 and 1999 against reduction in staff

2013-04-11T23:00:00.000-07:00

The Louvre reopened on Thursday after a one-day strike by museum security protesting the problem of pickpockets by children entering the museum for free.

Police will now join security staff in combatting the problem of relieving tourists of cash, according to museum officials.

In December 2009, employees of France's Culture of Ministry closed monuments such as Louvre, Museé d'Orsay, and Versailles Palace in a strike protesting the government's plan 'to replace only one out of every two retiring civil servants, which they say will cripple French museums'.

In 1999, French museums closed due to strikes. Marlise Simons for The New York Times reported on the situation then:

The main demand of the strikers, all employees of the Culture Ministry, is that they want the Government to hire more people and create at least 1,000 new jobs. They particularly want more security guards, whose numbers, the strikers contend, have not swelled to match the ever-growing stream of visitors. Strikers also demand that the Government end the system of hiring people on temporary contracts and instead offer permanent jobs.

On Friday, hundreds of frustrated tourists milled around near I. M. Pei's glass pyramid that gives access to the Louvre. Instead of a ticket to the museum, visitors got pamphlets from striking workers, explaining their grievances. They did not get much sympathy. A family from Sydney, Australia, said that seeing the Louvre's great collections from ancient Egypt and Greece would have been the highlight of their trip to Paris.

Louvre closed due to "exceptional circumstances"

2013-04-10T13:36:00.003-07:00

Paris' Louvre at night (Photo by CR Sezgin)

The Louvre's website pops up a message today:

Due to exceptional circumstances, the Louvre museum is currently closed. We apologize for the inconvenience and will keep you informed when the museum opens again.

The New York Times' Arts Beat blog reported:

PARIS –The Louvre museum was shut on Wednesday after 200 guards and surveillance agents went on strike to protest the growing number of often violent pickpockets who prey on them and tourists.

“For more than a year, pickpockets have come here every day,” Thierry Choquet, a member of the main union at the Louvre, said. “They threaten guards by telling them that they know where they live.”

The pickpockets are often minors from Eastern and Central Europe, Mr. Choquet said, who “buy entry tickets, threaten agents and attack tourists.”

On Wednesday the museum’s management said that it would beef up security forces at the Louvre, which usually attracts between 25,000 and 30,000 visitors a day at this time of year.

BBC News quoted sources as saying that the pickpockets included children.

The Guardian reported that earlier efforts had failed:

The museum said in a statement that pickpocketing was a growing problem despite measures taken last year, including tighter co-operation with the police and temporary bans on people already identified as pickpockets from re-entering the museum. Late last year, the Louvre filed an official complaint to the state prosecutor over visitors falling victim to the thieves.

The Telegraph reported how it's done:

Many of the thieves are children who get into the museum for free and then start asking people for money.

“Do you speak English?” is their usual opening gambit, and then they surround victims, helping themselves to money and possessions.

And the difficulty in resolving the problem of the 'children of Romanian immigrants (France's Interior Minister)':

“The children are tough and very well organised,” said one member of [Louvre] staff. “They stop at nothing to get what they want, and work in gangs.

“We can only do so much, but arrests are usually impossible because of their young age. If they are kicked out, they return the next day. They are very aggressive towards staff, putting people in danger of attack.”

New Yorker Leonard A. Lauder Donates $1 Billion Cubist Art Collection to The Metropolitan Museum

2013-04-09T19:18:00.000-07:00

Picasso's "Woman in an Armchair"
owned by Leonard Lauder
is one of 78 works donated to the Met

Today The Met approved a gift of 78 Cubist works from philanthropist and cosmetics heir Leonard A. Lauder, according to The New York Times ("A Billion Dollar Gift Gives the Met a New Perspective").

Forty years ago, Leonard -- the older brother Neue Galerie's found Ronald S. Lauder -- began collecting paintings, drawings, and sculptures by Cubist artists. NYT article describes the donation to the Met:

The trove of signature works, which includes 33 Picassos, 17 Braques, 14 Légers and 14 works by Gris, is valued at more than $1 billion. It puts Mr. Lauder, who for years has been one of the city’s most influential art patrons, in a class with cornerstone contributors to the museum like Michael C. Rockefeller, Walter Annenberg, Henry Osborne Havemeyer Robert Lehman.

In September 2007, a Montreal man, Georges Jorisch, claimed Leonard Lauder owned a Klimt painting, "Blossoming Meadows", Nazis had stolen in Vienna from his grandmother, Amalie Redlich. Lauder disputed the painting's history and within three months the lawsuit was dropped. [In November 2011, Jorisch sold a recovered Klimt painting, Litzlberg on the Attersee, at Sotheby's for $40 million.]