Footnotes 2.8.2010

  • The Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-in site becomes a Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro, N.C.
  • 1909 murder-suicide in the UK’s National Portrait Gallery published in their Archive Catalogue.
  • The Jewish heir to a Nazi looted Klimt landscape has agreed to split the $45.4 million proceeds from the Sotheby’s auction with the current owner, who bought it in good faith.
  • Shaun Greenhalgh, the extremely talented forger who sold fake masterpieces to British museums and auction houses, was recently sentenced to prison, along with his octogenarian accomplice parents.
  • Since the FBI’s Art Crime Unit’s inception in 2004, $142 million worth of art has been recovered, yet an estimated $8 billion is lost each year in art and cultural property crimes.
  • An agreement has been reached between the United States Government, private corporations and preservation societies that will protect carvings on Utah’s Nine Mile Canyon.
  • East Asian remains were found in a 1 CE Roman necropolis, which suggest that there could have been East Asians in Italy before a formal delegation from the Han dynasty made it’s “First Contact.”
  • More deaccessioning thoughts from Judith H. Dobrzynski since her January 2nd article “The Art of the Deal” in the New York Times.
  • Mark Durney points looks at whether art theft is seasonal.
  • Slate looks at the power of civil asset forfeiture, a tool often used by prosecutors in art and antiquities regulation.    
Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.