Footnotes

Is this Maya style statue fake?

Mexico tells a French auction house, that a Maya statue is fake.
Grim times for arts funding at Universities in America.
Ancient graffiti prompts the question: do the vandals write history?
The Arts Council in England has been told to deaccession art by a parliamentary select committee.
Musty smells and preservation.
A critical view of the Cultural Property Implementation Act.
An antiquities collector opens his own museum in France. He started buying them seven years ago after discovering they were far less expensive than might be assumed.
An account of looting in Latin America.

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Footnotes

A Full Moon over the Parthenon

Authorities in Spain have published a catalog of stolen art here.
Judge Tompkins discusses the history of the Wedding at Cana, “the largest plundered painting on public display”.
Dutch arts cuts lead to speculation that European museums may have to adopt a more “American” funding strategy. Also, tax changes are aimed at encouraging arts philanthropy in the UK.
Antiquities in Egypt “still at risk“.
A painting stolen from a Croatian monastery 40 years ago has recently been attributed to Gossaert, even though the painting is still missing.
Martin Bailey tracks the response to thefts and looting in Egypt.
Brandeis will now renovate its Rose Museum.
Larry Rothfield suggests UNESCO should assist Egypt by offering expertise from “experts on using guards, guns, barbed wire, walkie-talkies, and the like to lock down sites and museums.”
The George Washington Capitol Archaeological Institute has announced an initiative to protect Egyptian antiquities from the illicit trade by identifying “specific actions that the U.S. government and international law enforcement authorities should take to help prevent the illegal trade”.

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Footnotes

I cannot recommend highly enough Catherine Schofield Sezgin’s terrific series of posts from UNESCO’s meeting commemorating the 40th anniversary of the UNESCO Convention, highlighting Mexico’s request for UNESCO leadership, Samuel Sidibé‘s presentation as one of the few African contributors, discussions with the Mexican and Canadian delegates, and passing out “Save Egypt” buttons.
Are changes in Britain’s tax rules worrying the art market?
The UK market may be off base in blaming Droit de Suite for its troubles.
81 objects were reported missing in Egypt.
The folly that was the Amarna Princess, purchased for £440,000 in 2003, but also faked by Shaun Greenhalgh, is on its way back to the Bolton Museum.
A wild dispute in Dallas over 1,400 major works.
Colossally bad advice: think about antiquities as an investment opportunity.
Bill Richardson comments on attempts to erode the Antiquities Act.
St. Hilaire analyzes the SLAM forfeiture actions.

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Footnotes

A Monumental Ewer from a Controversial Smithsonian Exhibit, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Archeologists are voicing their criticism of a planned Smithsonian exhibition of objects from a 9th century dhow which carried ceramics and other objects from China the middle east, because the underwater excavation conducted in 1998 did not gather enough archaeological context.
The city of Chandigarh in India, designed by Le Corbusier 60 years ago is being stripped of its fixtures and furniture for sale on the art market.
Mr. Brainwash is real, he’s being sued by Glen Friedman over the use of images of Run DMC, though Brainwash argues his use of the images fall under a fair use exception.
Carl Crites, a price setter for looted native american objects has pleaded guilty to three felony counts of trafficking, theft, and depredation of government property in the latest plea deal from the Four-Corners superindictment.
Vernon Silver asks whether the recent protests in Egypt have changed the repatriation debate.
The Cultural Property Research Institute will sponsor an examination of the Cultural Property Implementation Act on March 2011 in Washington D.C.
Afghanistan’s National Museum is slowly coming back after decades of conflict, though many of the most valuable objects cannot be displayed.
Studying the rubble of the Bamiyan Buddhas reveals how they appeared after their construction.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has returned a headdress to a Native American tribe in Alaska.

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Footnotes

The sacking of Carthage continues

Deposed dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali used and abused Tunisia’s cultural heritage to decorate his villas, including taking objects from the Bardo Museum, and looting archaeological sites.
The newest suit attempting to prevent the shifting of the Barnes collection relies on the documentary “The Art of the Steal”, but they still have no legal standing and might vexatious enough to force the Friends into paying the Barnes Foundation’s legal bills.
David Byrne writes beautifully about houses and bikes.
A case of University censorship of faculty art.
The heirs of Baron Mor Lipot Heerzog have filed suit in the United States seeking the return of works of art from Hungary. Hungary has asked the suit be dismissed.
Protesting the no-photo policy at the Musée d’Orsay.
Great news, a $500,000 grant for preservation of the Watts Towers.
Noah Charney sees two ways of looking at the Google Art project.
Stiff penalty because of a life of privilege: in Seattle an art dealer was sentenced to four years in prison (more than the standard range) for conspiring to steal art.
David Ascalon sets a groundbreaking precedent after his public art was altered, and he sought a remedy under the Visual Artists’ Rights Act.
Works by Monet, Marquet, and Boudin—recovered in Buenos Aires—after they had been stolen in 1999 and appeared on an interpol database.

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Footnotes

The Reception of the French Ambassador Jacques-Vincent Languet, Comte de Gergy, at the Doge’s Palace, by Canaletto

Loans from Russia are at risk because of another dispute over a Federal District Court ruling over the Schneerson Library, a collection of books and religious texts which the Chabad movement wants removed from Russia and located in its headquarters in Brooklyn
Noah Charney offers cost-effective security advice.
Catherine Sezgin continues her interviews and summaries of contributors to the Journal of Art crime with David Gill, Ton Cremers, and Jennifer Ann Minton.
Utahns overwhelmingly supported the 2009 artifact looting investigations, despite the state’s politics.
A stolen work surfaces in Canada.
High praise for a frank discussion of deaccessioning.
Google takes us to museums now.
Google also reveals archaeological sites in the desert.
Guy Wildenstein, a member of President Sarkozy’s “First Circle” is under investigation after allegations that 30 works in his collection may have been stolen.
An interview with Mark Durney.

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Footnotes

Is art in America in bad shape? Stephen Colbert probably says no.

The arts in America are ailing.
In San Francisco a homeless man with mental illness who stole 40 prints and works of art from the San Francisco Botanical Gardens library, and objects different institutions was sentenced to four years probation after he entered a guilty plea.
Donn Zaretsky notes the hypocrisy in deaccessioning.
Does the “insane wealth of socially worthless Wall Street zillionaires” produce a climate for the “worthless” works of Damien Hirst?
Robert Wittman is organizing a paid seminar (for $2,500) from June 12-17 on art recovery, security, and protection.
Will the Baghdad Museum open its doors this Spring? The $13 million provided by the U.S. government through the Iraq Cultural Heritage Project should help with better security. Though they could have saved a lot of trouble with more care eight years ago.
Also, a new documentary is on the way, “Road to Nasiriyah” which has “stunning footage” of the looting of Iraq’s archaeology.

Here’s the New York Times’ video of damage and restoration at Babylon:

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Footnotes

Boy George (yes that one) agreed to return a looted icon to Cyprus after the church community saw the icon in a TV interview.
Switzerland’s Federal Culture Office is calling for a simplified and more accessible provenance research process, particularly with respect to Nazi-era spoliation.

“Portrait of a Young Woman” perhaps by Peter Paul Rubens

Three works—a Samuel Peploe, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, and Federico Barocci—were missing after an audit of the Glasgow Museums collection. They have been recovered after a curator saw the Corot listed in a catalog.
The United Kingdom’s Culture Minister Ed Vaizey announced yesterday that this work has been denied export temporarily, in the hopes a domestic buyer will purchase the work.
Rutgers University’s Zimmerli Art Museum has voluntarily agreed to return a work confiscated by the Nazi’s to the grandson of the original owner.
Plans to draw tourists to the Roman city of Jerash in Jordan.
Tip of the iceberg: the British Museum kept 99% of its collection in storage during 2009-10 (via).
The import restrictions on certain objects from Italy have been announced. Let the rational appraisal begin.

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Footnotes

A bas-relief in Babylon (via NYT)

Finally, work has begun to help preserve and restore Babylon after so much neglect.
Bernard Frischer in an Op-Ed for the New York Times argues more museums should sponsor more archaeological excavations.
Two works by Polish artist Julian Falat, looted by the Nazis from Poland were located in New York in 2006 and were formally seized and slated for to Poland in December after an investigation by ICE.
“[N]o one had done anything to secure these ancient excavations since they were excavated” said Claudio D’Alession, mayor of Pompeii, discussing the ancient site in Newsweek.
A valuable porcelain object known as the “Nereid Sweetmeat Stand”, taken from a Dresden Museum some time during World War II will be returned to a German family.
Art and a war criminal on the run.
More on Art Title Insurance.
Chris Marinello of the Art Loss Register tells CNN art theft is a crime of opportunity.
Interested in buying shares of a work of art?

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Footnotes

The temple of Poseidon at Sounion in Greece is in desperate need of restoration, yet garnering enough funding is difficult because “Monuments don’t vote”.
28 works by Picasso were stolen from a moving van over the weekend. Was it ¡Feliz Navidad!(because the keys were left in the storage van’s ignition) or a well-organized theft with details provided to the criminals?
And a French Electrician announces he has 271 works by Picasso, allegedly a gift by the artist.
Fisk University will appeal the latest ruling in its attempts to sell a partial interest in works of art donated by Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz.
Was a video pulled from the National Portrait Gallery because of tighter funding for the arts in the near future?
A French court has ordered the return of seven Alexander Calder sculptures to the artists estate.
Another plea bargain in the Four Corner’s investigation.
Troops headed to Afghanistan are taught how to respect cultural heritage sites during a two-day program at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Is art-title insurance on the way?
130 forged works found in Lisbon.

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com