MSN-list Digest, Vol 7, Issue 86 Send MSN-list mailing list submissions to 	msn-list@te.verweg.com To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit 	http://duvel.te.verweg.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/msn-list or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to 	msn-list-request@te.verweg.com You can reach the person managing the list at 	msn-list-owner@te.verweg.com When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of MSN-list digest..." archive of the list: http://msn-list.te.verweg.com/ . Today's Topics:    1. Art and Police Powers (Museum Security Network Mailing list)    2. Another Omaha church is reporting the theft of a valued piece       of art. (Museum Security Network Mailing list)    3. A Bone to Pick: Paleontologists Attack Christie's Fossils       Sale (Museum Security Network Mailing list)    4. Vol de 22 vases prestigieux de la c?l?bre collection Harrach       ? Vienne (Museum Security Network Mailing list)    5. Thieves target Aboriginal art       (Museum Security Network Mailing list)    6. Kunstr?uber in Wien erbeuten Vasen im Millionen-Wert       (Museum Security Network Mailing list)    7. The heist of the century (Museum Security Network Mailing list)    8. Stolen 'Scream' may undergo surgery       (Museum Security Network Mailing list)    9. Thieves Take 3-Foot Statue Of National Revolutionary War Hero       From Moorings At Hale Homestead (Museum Security Network Mailing list)   10. MORE than 40 indigenous paintings,	worth hundreds of       thousands of dollars and stolen from Melbourne	galleries over the       past 18 months,	are thought to have ended up in the lucrative art       markets of Europe	and the US, where supply sources are much       harder to (Museum Security Network Mailing list)   11. Woman caught on camera stealing hospital art       (Museum Security Network Mailing list) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 11:20:53 -0400 (EDT) From: Museum Security Network Mailing list  Subject: [MSN] Art and Police Powers To: msn-list@te.verweg.com Message-ID: <1313.68.81.242.194.1176304853.squirrel@email.powweb.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" The Heat on the Beat And the Artists on the Street-Part 1 By Charles Vincent Sabba Jr. Rahway News Record- Rahway Arts District Column April 12, 2007    I have been approached by a couple of readers of this column who have expressed their bewilderment about a cop who is devoted to art. This inspired me to write this two part article about artist encounters with the law and two art loving police officers who are great characters in the history of art: NYPD Detective Robert Volpe, who was known as the "Art Cop," and Commissioner Zamaron who at the beginning of the 20th century befriended many of the legendary artists of Monmartre and Montparnasse, Paris.   The artist colonies of Monmartre and Montparnasse were made up of many different nationalities.French, Italian, Dutch, Mexican, Scandinavian, Russian, Spaniards, to name a few. The artists of Montmartre and Montparnasse had a special friend and protector named Zamaron. Commissioner Zamaron was the officer in charge of foreign nationals at the Prefecture of Police in Paris. He was an ardent art lover and always came to the assistance of the artists in need, especially his personal favorite, Maurice Utrillo. When off duty, this police officer would seek out his artist friends at the cafes such as the Dome and the Rotonde for drinks and good intellectual conversations. His friend's paintings covered the walls of his police station office; there he proudly displayed works by the Italian Modigliani, the Lithuanian Kikoine, the Belarus-born Lithuanian Soutine, the Montmartre native Utrillo, and Utrillo's mother, Suzanne Valadon. There was another, less honest officer named Descaves in Paris who loved art as well. Descaves would shake down the artists for their art works. Once in a while he would take a painting and pay a tiny installment after instructing the artist to stop by his office for the remaining sum on a future date. Of course the artists knew better not to do so. The honorable Zamaron was constantly protecting the artists from the dirty Descaves.   As you can imagine, the artists kept Zamaron quite busy. Modigliani and his pal Utrillo were constantly being picked up for drunk and disorderly conduct; Utrillo was an alcoholic and drank eight liters of wine a day. Both Picasso and Alfred Jarry (but Jarry was a more frequent violator) cocked and waved their pistols in the faces of drunken adversaries at the slightest insult and they loved to shoot out the gas lamps that lined the streets. In fact, pistol packing was in vogue in the artist quarters of those days; Picasso carried a browning every where he went, which he shot in the air in festive drunken folly and fired out of his bedroom window every morning as an alarm clock to awaken his friends. While dueling was illegal in this era, fistfights were not considered gentlemanly behavior, so the artists resorted to crossing swords and cocking pistols quite frequently. These neighborhoods, and a few of the cafes located in them, were breeding grounds for the popular anarchist movement. A number of illegal anarchist newspapers were being printed and distributed there. The artist Juan Gris was erroneously arrested after police officials mistakenly identified him as an anarchist named Garnier, who was a main suspect in a band of political bombers in Paris.    One of the most famous police encounters involved Picasso and the poet Guillaume Apollinaire after the Monalisa, which was painted by Leonardo DaVinci, was stolen from the Louvre on Aug 21, 1911. Both Picasso and Apollinaire were both brought in for questioning as suspects in this crime. In 1907, a friend of Apollinaire's named Ge'ry Pieret, stole several valuable artifacts from a storeroom at the Louvre, simply by placing them under his overcoat and walking out. Pieret was a former boxer from Belgium who turned to writing. Both Picasso and Apollinaire bought objects from Pieret and later denied knowing they were stolen. Picasso's lover, Fernande Olivier, stated that Pieret warned Picasso on the day he bought two small Iberian heads, not to display them but to keep them hidden from view. Picasso kept the objects in an inconspicuous place, fully aware of their illicit nature.    After the theft of the Monalisa, Pieret sold his story, along with a full confession and a statuette from the museum, to the Paris-Journal. Pieret wanted a little cash and some notoriety. The article further humiliated the Louvre and implemented Picasso and Apollinaire; both were overcome with fear and contemplated throwing the artifacts into the Seine. Picasso was brought in for questioning, where he turned over the artifacts he possessed, and was released. Apollinaire was arrested on Sept 7, 1911. He was not released until Sept 12, 1911. Apollinaire was extremely frightened and hated his stay in a cell, however, for years after the fact, he would boast of being the only man in France to be arrested for the famous crime. The real culprit, Vincenzo Perugia, was arrested for this crime on Dec 11, 1913 in Florence, Italy. Perugia declared he was an Italian patriot and only stole the Monalisa so he could return her to Italy where she belonged. He incorrectly believed that Napoleon Bonaparte stole the painting from Italy as war loot and couldn't stand seeing her in French hands.   In my next article I will introduce Robert Volpe to you; Bobby was an artist, a dedicated art lover, an NYPD art theft investigator and a protector of New York artists, collectors and dealers. In fact, many people in the N.Y. art world called him their archangel.  Rahway News Record- Promoting Art in the Community: www.new-jersey.ws/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=67 ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 06:46:23 +0200 From: Museum Security Network Mailing list  Subject: [MSN] Another Omaha church is reporting the theft of a valued 	piece	of art. To:  Message-ID: <001d01c77cbd$857fb1f0$907f15d0$@org> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii" April 11, 2007 Art stolen from another Omaha church Another Omaha church is reporting the theft of a valued piece of art. The Rev. Will Howell of First Covenant Church at 201 N. 90th St. said Wednesday that police have been contacted about a missing charcoal sketch of "The Head of Christ" by artist Warner Sallman. It had been a prized possession of the church since the artist donated it during a visit. "I can't imagine someone walking around with a stolen picture of the head of Jesus Christ," Howell said. "It would have to be someone with pretty much no morals." The theft may have occurred as early as last October, Howell said. The picture had been hanging in the back of the church. The picture's value is hard to assess, he said, although the church valued it at $50,000 in the report to the Omaha Police Department. Sallman first drew "The Head of Christ" in 1924 for the cover of the denominational magazine of the Evangelical Covenant Church while he was living in Chicago. He did several variations of the painting over the years, and the first oil version was done in 1935 for the 50th anniversary celebration of the Evangelical Covenant Church. Eileen Brown, of Brown's Art Consultants and Appraisals in Omaha, said Sallman often visited churches in the Midwest and re-created the famous picture while talking about his faith. Brown said her father, a pastor in Muscatine, Iowa, told her about Sallman's visit to their Nazarene Church during the 1930s. "(Sallman) gave away all of his work," Brown said. "There's no record of any of his works having been sold commercially because he gave them all away. "When you come right down to it, the picture is priceless because you can't get another one." Sallman died in 1968. First Covenant Church becomes the sixth Omaha church to report an art theft since last summer. Paintings from All Saints Episcopal Church, Immaculate Conception Church, St. Thomas More Church and St. Joseph Church also have been taken, and none has been recovered. Most recently, a 300-year-old painting, "The Virgin Immaculta" valued at $100,000, was stolen from St. Cecilia Cathedral. Officer David Spizzirri, a spokesman for the Police Department, said law enforcement agencies specializing in art thefts are assisting in investigating whether the recent thefts are connected. "The FBI, the New York Police Department and Interpol have joined the Omaha department's major crimes unit in the investigation," Spizzirri said. Investigators have notified eBay and local art dealers of the thefts. Anyone with information about any of the thefts is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 444-STOP. http://www.omaha.com/ ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 06:46:23 +0200 From: Museum Security Network Mailing list  Subject: [MSN] A Bone to Pick: Paleontologists Attack Christie's 	Fossils Sale To:  Message-ID: <001f01c77cbd$8774f240$965ed6c0$@org> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii" A Bone to Pick: Paleontologists Attack Christie's Fossils Sale  By Gregory Viscusi April 11 (Bloomberg) -- Visitors to Christie's International's Paris auction hall are being greeted by the upright skeleton of a 2.3 meter (7 1/2 feet) prehistoric cave bear, poised to strike with his four fangs and full set of eight molars.  The bones of the creature, which lived in what's now Siberia before the last ice age ended about 10,000 years ago, will be auctioned April 16 along with those of an even larger mammoth, a woolly rhinoceros, and about 80 smaller fossils.  Paleontologists are taking a similarly aggressive stance about the sale, the first of its kind for France and Christie's.  ``When you sell a skeleton in an auction, you are taking something away that should be available for science,'' said Jean-Louis Hartenberger, a professor at the University of Montpellier. ``You encourage looting.''  Christie's estimates the bear will sell for 20,000 euros ($26,900) to 25,000 euros. The mammoth, which stands 3.8 meters tall and is 4.8 meters long with his tusks, may fetch 150,000 to 180,000 euros. The rhino, whose resin horns aren't original, may go for 55,000 to 65,000 euros. All three were found in Siberia.  Those prices aren't worth paying given that the origin of such skeletons is dubious, said Michel Guiraud, curator at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.  ``Specimens sold in these sort of sales are usually not from scientific digs and there's generally no documentation about where or how it was found,'' Guiraud said. ``The scientific value of natural history specimens resides in the information that accompanies them.''  Export Licenses  Guiraud said there's no way to tell if the skeleton is from a single animal or a composite.  The pieces come from ``European collections,'' aren't composites and have Russian export licenses, said Eric Mickeler, Christie's scientific adviser for the sale. The buyers will receive official documents with details of the digs. The smaller fossils come mostly from the collection of Jean Bouhanna, a veterinarian from Nice.  ``It's alarming and dishonest to say every mammoth must be in a museum or an institution,'' Mickeler said. ``There are already plenty, and all that can be said or written about them has been.''  The sale record for a prehistoric creature's bones was $8.4 million for the largest Tyrannosaurus Rex found, a 90 percent complete skeleton dug up in South Dakota. It was bought by Chicago's Field Museum with backing from McDonald's Corp., Walt Disney World Resort and private donors. Called ``Sue,'' it has been on display since 2000.  Smuggled Fossils  ``Although laws in France allow for scientists to rely on benefactors and private funds for their purchases, they maintain a conservative and passive attitude,'' Mickeler said. ``It's a shame that once again France is behind.''  The U.S. isn't spared from similar polemics, said Roger Thomas, secretary of the Paleontological Society and a professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  ``There's no doubt that high prices paid for fossils encourage theft from museums and university collections,'' he said. There is ``a vigorous black-market trade in fossils smuggled out of countries like Canada and Germany where fossils are treated as antiquities.''  There is a long tradition of museums buying at auctions, starting with the British Museum acquiring the first specimen of the fossil bird Archaeopteryx, discovered in 1860, Thomas said.  Meteorites and Butterflies  ``The commercial market does from time to time cause important specimens to be lost to science,'' he said. ``On the other hand, it also encourages discovery of specimens that might not otherwise have been found.''  The April 16 sale has about 500 lots, including meteorites and butterfly collections, ceramics and porcelains from the 17th to the 20th centuries, as well as tapestries, furniture and some minor old-master paintings.  Still, 14 of the 15 highest-estimated items are prehistoric, including a mammoth tusk for 8,000 to 12,000 euros. At the other end of the scale are fish fossils starting at 400 euros. The most expensive non-prehistoric item is a Louis XIII ebony cabinet estimated at 20,000 to 30,000 euros.  To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net  Last Updated: April 11, 2007 01:30 EDT http://www.bloomberg.com/ ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 06:46:23 +0200 From: Museum Security Network Mailing list  Subject: [MSN] Vol de 22 vases prestigieux de la c?l?bre collection 	Harrach ? Vienne To:  Message-ID: <002601c77cbd$89da0b60$9d8e2220$@org> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1" Vol de 22 vases prestigieux de la c?l?bre collection Harrach ? Vienne  AFP 11.04.07 | 18h06   ingt-deux vases d'une valeur estim?e entre 500.000 et 1 million d'euros issus de la plus grande collection priv?e d'objets d'art d'Autriche, ont ?t? vol?s dans la nuit de mardi ? mercredi dans un palais de Vienne, a indiqu? le fond? de pouvoir des propri?taires de la collection. Ces pi?ces, qui n'?taient pas prot?g?es par un syst?me d'alarme et devaient prochainement ?tre expos?es ? Hongkong, selon la m?me source, font partie du patrimoine de l'une des familles les plus riches de la grande aristocratie de la monarchie austro-hongroise, les comtes Harrach. Les 22 vases, dont le plus cher vaut 95 000 euros, mesurent pour certains pr?s d'un m?tre de hauteur et p?sent jusqu'? 50 kg, selon les d?tails fournis par le fond? de pouvoir Josef Payer. Deux ?tag?res avec une trentaine d'oeufs Faberg?, dont le plus cher vaut 22 000 euros, ont ?galement ?t? d?rob?s, selon lui. Depuis des d?cennies les collections du palais Harrach, notamment celles de porcelaines et de tableaux, sont quotidiennement ouvertes au public. Les cambrioleurs, des professionnels selon la police, se sont introduits dans le palais Harrach par une entr?e secondaire dont la porte en verre a ?t? fractur?e, selon M. Payer. "Les cambrioleurs sont certainement venus avec une voiture pour transporter ces vases dont le plus haut fait 92 cm avec un couvercle. Je n'aurais jamais cru qu'on allait les voler", a-t-il pr?cis?. En 2003 le plus grand vol d'objet d'art de l'histoire de l'Autriche a eu lieu au Kunsthistorisches Museum, le mus?e national des Beaux-Arts ? Vienne : la pi?ce d'orf?vrerie Renaissance "La Saliera", un chef d'oeuvre du sculpteur florentin Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) d'une valeur de 36 ? 50 millions d'euros, y a ?t? d?rob?e par un voleur ayant agi seul.  http://www.lemonde.fr/ ------------------------------ Message: 5 Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 06:46:23 +0200 From: Museum Security Network Mailing list  Subject: [MSN] Thieves target Aboriginal art To:  Message-ID: <001e01c77cbd$86607500$93215f00$@org> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii" Thieves target Aboriginal art Security footage showing two men gaining access to the Aboriginal Art Galleries of Australia in Spring Street, Melbourne, on February 1 by smashing a side window with rocks: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/thieves-target-aboriginal-art/2007/04 /11/1175971144714.html# April 11, 2007 - 4:37PM Police believe a gang specialising in stealing Aboriginal art has struck again, this time stealing $80,000 worth of art from a city gallery. Police said in the early hours of last Wednesday thieves smashed the front doors of the Kimberly Art Gallery in Flinders Lane. "Once inside the thieves have selected 10 artworks, valued at a total of $80,000," police said. And at 5am on Friday March 30, two men broke into a High Street art gallery, stealing four paintings. The paintings, valued at a total of $14,000, were recovered a short time later in an abandoned vehicle. "This is the third time this particular gallery has been targeted. Previously stolen were two very distinctive works Possum & Kangaroo and Body Paint." Art dealers are warned to be on the lookout for anyone trying to sell Aboriginal paintings. The latest burglary is just the latest in a string of thefts to hit Melbourne galleries specialising in Aboriginal art. "It is estimated that the thieves have stolen in excess of $250,000 worth of Aboriginal art since December 2005," police said. The same thieves are believed to have targeted the Aboriginal Art Galleries of Australia in Spring Street, Melbourne, on February 1, when two men gained access to the gallery by smashing a front window. On that occasion two paintings worth $40,000 were stolen. It's believed the same thieves attended this gallery a year earlier when $120,000 worth of aboriginal paintings were stolen in February 2006. On January 9 this year thieves smashed the front glass door of Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings in Bourke Street and stole 20 unframed paintings. Police believe the same thieves struck the High on Art Aboriginal Gallery in Armadale on January 19, 2007, which was also burgled in October 2006 and December 2005. Melbourne Criminal Investigation Unit's Detective Senior Constable Rebecca Hall told theage.com.au the thieves appear to be more opportunistic, rather than deliberately targeting valuable Aboriginal art. "Whether they've got knowledge of what they're actually taking is debatable, because one of the owners did state to me that there was more valuable paintings nearby and they were just left (behind)." Detective Hall said selling the stolen artwork could be hard within Australia, but not overseas. "I spoken to some of the art gallery owners and they're at a loss as to where they are going . . . it could be going overseas, but it's difficult to say where it's going." Police are warning art dealers to be on the lookout for anyone trying to sell Aboriginal paintings. theage.com.au ------------------------------ Message: 6 Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 06:46:23 +0200 From: Museum Security Network Mailing list  Subject: [MSN] Kunstr?uber in Wien erbeuten Vasen im Millionen-Wert To:  Message-ID: <002501c77cbd$89b9d930$9d2d8b90$@org> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1" Kunstr?uber in Wien erbeuten Vasen im Millionen-Wert  WIEN - Bei einem spektakul?ren Kunstraub in Wien haben Diebe Vasen im gesch?tzten Wert von bis zu einer Million Euro erbeutet. Die Kunstr?uber brachen in das Palais Harras in der Innenstadt ein und stahlen dort in der Nacht zum Mittwoch mehrere wertvolle Vasen. Wie das . Einige der Vasen waren nach Angaben des Unternehmens, dem die Kunstwerke geh?ren, bis zu einem Meter hoch und bis zu 50 Kilogramm schwer. Auch kostbare Faberg?-Eier seien gestohlen worden. Die Polizei nahm Ermittlungen auf.  Es habe sich offensichtlich um Profis gehandelt, die mindestens zu zweit am Werk gewesen seien, erkl?rte die Polizei. Die Kunstobjekte geh?ren dem Grafengeschlecht der Harrach, einer der wohlhabendsten Adelsfamilien der ?sterreichisch-ungarischen Monarchie. Im Palais Harras in Wien ist seit 1994 das Kunsthistorische Museum untergebracht. Seitdem findet dort regelm?ssig Sonderausstellungen und andere Kulturveranstaltungen statt. http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/ ------------------------------ Message: 7 Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 06:46:23 +0200 From: Museum Security Network Mailing list  Subject: [MSN] The heist of the century To:  Message-ID: <002401c77cbd$89509010$9bf1b030$@org> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1" The heist of the century  For more than 30 years, he was the scourge of the world's art thieves. Working deep under cover, often for months at a time, FBI special agent Thomas McShane recovered $900m of stolen art - from Rembrandts lifted in France, to Van Goghs snatched in Manhattan. But the biggest heist of all left him and his team confounded. And the case remains unsolved to this day...  Published: 11 April 2007  If you take a look at Interpol's list of the top five criminal enterprises in the world, number four might surprise you. Art theft. Interpol, the international police agency based in France, has determined that stealing, copying, and reselling pretty works of art is only exceeded by the much uglier businesses of illicit drugs, arms smuggling, and money laundering.  In the US, the Federal Bureau of Investigation concurs. My former employer believes that art theft now exceeds $5bn (?2.65bn) a year - and counting. None of this surprises me. I've spent the past 35 years tracking pilfered paintings across the planet. For 22 of those years, I was the FBI's main art theft undercover agent. Few knew, even within the bureau, because I operated in the shadows buried under multiple aliases. One of the things I learned early on is that there are two contrasting reasons why art theft and forgery is such a bullish growth industry. The soaring value of classic paintings has combined with a comparatively minuscule legal risk, to create a landscape that has become every criminal's dream job. With the auction price of a single Picasso topping $100m in 2004, the sky is now the limit in this crazy, highly specialised industry. Yet the legal statutes haven't remotely kept up with the unprecedented temptation to cross over to the dark side. Someone could snatch the Mona Lisa off the wall of the Louvre in Paris, sell it in New York's Central Park for a cool $350m, get caught a week later, and expect to be given no more than 18 months or so for the "sale and transportation of stolen property". While stealing Leonardo's heavily guarded masterpiece might be an absurd example, what about that Monet the rich guy down the street has in his study? It might only produce a mere $10m, but most people could survive on that. It's my estimation that every day, thousands of people gaze at the beauty of a stolen painting. They're everywhere, right under our noses: big, framed, lavishly pigmented lottery tickets hanging on walls like the proverbial money growing on trees. Take my word for it; many stolen paintings are kept in open view, and they could be anywhere. I've seen nearly $300m worth of classics in the oddest places. A Van Gogh at a grimy gas station. A Picasso in a $20-a-night roach motel. A Rubens in the back of a beat-up van. A Rembrandt in the bathroom of a small antique store. Two more Rubenses spinning down from a hotel balcony, plunging to the grass below. You name it... *** ON 18 MARCH 1990, as Boston's boisterous St Patrick's Day parties were winding down, two men dressed as city police officers pulled off the biggest art heist in modern history. Since then, the ice-cold case has grown into one of the most frustrating mysteries imaginable. Who were the thieves? Who, if anyone, were they working for? Why did they take what they did - 11 assorted artworks worth an estimated $200m in 1990 dollars - and leave behind a wide array of historic masterpieces that might have doubled or tripled the value of their haul? Most of all, where are those 11 irreplaceable paintings, drawings, and etchings today, and why hasn't a single one surfaced in nearly two decades? In the early morning hours of the day in question, a dark-haired pair of alleged Boston patrol officers, each sporting what were later believed to be fake moustaches, knocked on the office door in the rear of the internationally famous Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, at 2 Palace Road, Boston, Massachusetts. They informed the security guard who greeted them that they were responding to a call regarding a disturbance in the compound, caused by a marauding group of celebratory teenagers. The story was a ruse to get inside. The visitors, dressed in authentic police hats and coats adorned with shiny silver badges, asked the security guard if anyone else was working that morning. He responded that his partner was making the rounds in the building. The cops asked him to summon the second guard. When he arrived, the officers announced that they had a warrant for the first security guard's arrest, and proceeded to handcuff them both. "Gentlemen," the officers announced once the guards were secured, "this is a robbery." The security guards were taken to the basement, where they were separated, then elaborately trussed-up with duct tape around their hands, ankles, mouths, chins, and heads. The robbers even taped over the handcuffs, blocking the keyhole. Two additional pairs of handcuffs were produced. They were used to secure the guards to structures in the basement. Throughout the ordeal, the soft-spoken, apparently unarmed robbers asked the guards if they were comfortable, and if any of the bindings were causing excessive pain. They then took the men's wallets, removed their driver's licences, and informed them that they now knew where they lived. The implication being that the security officers should not go out of their way to help in the subsequent police investigation, or else. "Don't tell anybody anything," one of the robbers said. "If everything goes right, you'll get a nice reward in a year's time." (No such gift was ever reported.) The Gardner Museum had an elaborate computerised tracking system that noted the time various doors were opened. From the records, the robbers arrived at 1.24am, and spent 24 minutes securing the guards. After that, they immediately travelled to the second-floor Dutch Room Gallery in the maze-like building to begin lifting a very specific group of paintings off the walls. They took Vermeer's The Concert; Rembrandt's A Lady and Gentleman in Black; Rembrandt's The Storm on the Sea of Galilee; Rembrandt's Self Portrait etching; and then two quizzical works, Govaert Flinck's Landscape with an Obelisk that for centuries had been attributed to Rembrandt; and even more inexplicably, a drab, 10in Chinese bronze beaker known as a ku from the Shang Dynasty dating to 1200-1100BC. The oil paintings ranged in size from the two large Rembrandts - Lady and Storm - checking in at 4.3ft x 3.6ft, and 5.3ft x 4.3ft respectively, to the tiny Rembrandt etching, which was little more than a postage stamp at 1.75in x 2in. A fourth Rembrandt, a larger and more valuable self-portrait, was anchored tightly to the wall and offered resistance. When the crooks finally pried it down, they realised that it was painted on wood, not canvas, and couldn't be cut from a frame and rolled up. They had to leave it behind. Ruffled and insulted, the great master sat across the room, "watching" as the rest of the event transpired. After that mixed bag, the duo went to the Short Gallery on the other side of the room and honed in on five extremely quizzical works by Degas: La Sortie de Pesage, a pencil and watercolour on paper; Cortege Aux Environs de Florence, a pencil and wash on paper; Three Mounted Jockeys, a black ink, white, flesh, and rose wash on paper; Program for an Artistic Soir?e; a charcoal on white paper; and Program for an Artistic Soir?e II, an unfinished version of the previous work. The above selections have had experts shaking their heads for decades. With the almost unlimited quantity of priceless oils available to them, including Titian's The Rape of Europa, which itself might be worth $300m alone today, why did the thieves ignore the Raphaels and select this bizarre collection of pencils, washes, charcoals and inks from a prolific artist like Degas who flooded the market? Those particular works by Degas are mediums, which can sometimes be purchased for mere thousands on slow days at the neighbourhood auction house. As if to send a message, or to display an odd sense of humour, the robbers made another astounding choice, taking a bronze, gilded, 9in x 7in metal eagle known as a finial from the top of a Napoleonic flag jutting out of a case. The relic is so insignificant it's usually not included in the list of stolen works - which actually totalled 13 when figuring in the ku and the finial. The Gardner Museum offered the thieves more than 2,500 pieces of ancient art, including oil paintings, sculptures, furniture, manuscripts, books, silver, photographs, textiles, artefacts, and relics, some dating back 30 centuries, and the pair took a weathered flagpole ornament? After those head-scratchers, the robbers returned to the first floor Blue Room and made a more logical selection, Manet's Chez Tortoni, a small, but traditionally more valuable, oil on canvas that was 10.5in x 13.5in. Having their fill - and leaving more than a billion dollars worth of historic masterworks behind - the duo left the building one at a time at 2.41am and 2.45am, exiting separately for reasons only known to them. The computer records indicated that the pair never bothered to venture to the third-floor galleries where the prized Titian, the Raphaels, and countless other Italian masterpieces hung untouched. Were they unaware that the Titian was up there - in The Titian Room? *** BECAUSE OF A quirk in the otherwise elaborate security system, the theft wasn't discovered until the morning shift of guards arrived at 8am. They found the security station unmanned, so they called the police. The late-shift crew was then discovered hog-tied in the basement. Although the alarms had engaged, and times were recorded when the works were removed, the museum had only internal signals that did not alert an external police or security company. That notification was supposed to have been accomplished by the manual pressing of a "panic button" at the main security desk. By neutralising the security officers at the start, the knowledgeable robbers had eliminated outside intervention. When the arriving police and security guards checked the facilities, they learned that the thieves had taken the video from the surveillance recorder, turned the first-floor camera away from the security desk, and tore off and removed a computerised printout that reported all the alarm and door engagements. A disk that held the printed information remained, as did the computer's internal hard drive. That enabled investigators to simply reprint the information that was taken. It was also determined, to everyone's horror, that some of the paintings, including Rembrandt's Storm and Gentleman had been cut from their frames and stretchers and probably rolled up, which would cause the ancient paint to crack and flake. (A Vermeer, stolen in Brussels in 1971, was not only rolled up, but the thief sat on it in a cab, all but destroying it.) Taken as a whole, the theft was puzzlingly schizophrenic. On one hand, there was an extensive knowledge of the Gardner's security operation, a solid understanding of art when considering the first three primary targets, and a cleverly devised plan that worked without a hitch. In contrast, there were the baffling subsequent selections, the weird secondary artefact choices, and the confusing attempt to blot out the computer records by taking a printout, but not the disk containing the information. Were the thieves geniuses or dunces? Or, was there an agenda involved that no one has ever figured out? What about the festive date chosen for the headline-grabbing event? Was the Irish holiday selected in deference to Isabella Stewart Gardner herself, a globe-trotting party girl who opened the grand museum in 1903 on New Year's night? Even more intriguing, was this a theft that eliminated all the crass monetary values and returned to the very crux of art itself? Meaning, were the thieves working from a childlike Christmas list of things someone simply saw and liked during a casual trek through the museum? *** THE MEDIA BROUGHT out their biggest headlines, reacting to the intrigue, the drama, the $200m to $300m figure, and the famous names involved. Putting Vermeer, Rembrandt, Degas, Manet, and even Napoleon in the same sentence makes for a star-studded cast. As expected, for the general public at least, Govaert Flinck was like the answer to the routine multiple choice question, "Which name doesn't belong in this group?" Flinck, a 17th-century Dutch technician, was a student of Rembrandt who copied his style so well that many of the Rembrandts in the world are actually Flincks. Even after being included in such lofty company, his paintings aren't wildly popular and sell for five figures when they occasionally appear on the market. Which begs the question: did the thieves really want a Flinck, or did they fail to read the inscription and think it was another Rembrandt? If they were limited by time and carrying ability, why did they choose Flinck over Titian? Or, did they simply like the painting? The Flinck dilemma aside, the robbery remained huge international news. Everybody was shocked and horrified - everybody except award-winning Time magazine art critic Robert Hughes, who stuck up his nose and produced one of the classic art snob dismissals of all time. Positioning himself as the ultimate authority, the bestselling author ripped into the thieves as Neanderthals, the media as ignorant troglodytes, the museum itself for caring a whit about such mostly insignificant pieces, the museum's condition, the museum's security, the police, the French, greedy art auction houses, and even the great artists themselves for producing so much inferior junk. "It seems quite clear that the thieves had very little idea of what to go after, since the glory of the Gardner Museum is its Italian paintings, starting at the top with Titian's Rape of Europa, regarded by some as the greatest single Italian Renaissance canvas in the US... This was more the Gang That Couldn't See Straight." This is where I disagree. It's my belief that these thieves, either by their own devices, or working from a specific list, took exactly what they wanted, right down to the silly little eagle on Napoleon's flag. *** I WAS SUMMONED to Boston on the Monday after the weekend robbery. Walking through the museum, and reading all the reports, I came across two curious items that were potentially revealing. There was a five-minute period just prior to the thieves' arrival in which the computer system was dormant. From 12.39am until 12.44am, the machine recorded no activity. When the system reactivated at 12.44am, alarms indicating a glass break and a fire went off on the fourth floor, a residence area where, according to the computer, the thieves never ventured. The readings were checked by the security guard, deemed a malfunction, and the alarm reset. That kind of pre-theft distraction was the calling card of both the Irish Republican Army, a band that was noted worldwide for art thefts dating back decades, or its rival loyalist group, the Ulster Volunteer Force, which was starting to follow suit. What was the IRA/UVF doing in America, one might ask? Was this really America, might be the best answer. Boston, like so many US cities, is filled with ethnic pockets that are deeply rooted in the culture and politics of the "old country". Boston is so Irish even some of the Italians speak with a brogue. The city has long crawled with IRA and UVF agents, either hiding out, recruiting, lobbying, or raising money for the cause. Boston's notorious Irish Winter Hill mob, headed by the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted fugitive James "Whitey" Bulger, has at times wielded more power than the traditional Patriarca Italian Mafia that supposedly controls the city from its headquarters in Providence, Rhode Island. Whitey had strong IRA ties, along with compromised law enforcement officers inside the Boston police department, and, unfortunately, Boston's FBI office. The deadly mob boss, who didn't go on the lam until 1995, could have easily given his IRA pals a pair of authentic Boston police uniforms - or even arranged for a duo of legitimate cops on his payroll to pull off the heist. Nine years earlier, Martin "The General" Cahill, a Dublin mobster with loose ties to the UVF, hit the famous Sir Alfred Beit collection at Russborough House in Blessington, Ireland. This was the same palatial 18th-century Palladian mansion/museum, robbed by the IRA a decade before. Cahill's gang used a glasscutter to make a hole in a large French window, opened the shutters, deliberately set off the alarm, altered it in some manner so it wouldn't go off again, then hid outside in the grass as the police and security checked it out. Once the coast was clear, they returned and lifted 18 paintings worth $40m, including a Vermeer and the usual Rubens, Goyas, and Renoirs, along with the same exact Gainsborough, Madame Baccelli, that the IRA had grabbed 12 years earlier. The matching modus operandi in each case was the alarm tripped within an hour of the thieves' entry. In the Gardner heist, however, there was no indication of how an accomplice could have entered the building clandestinely and scurried to the fourth floor undetected prior to the robbers' official entry at the main security station 40 minutes later. There was, however, an employee who failed a polygraph, quit his job, and didn't bother to return for his last pay cheque. The person denied any participation in the robbery, and no connection beyond his highly suspicious behaviour was ever established. Residents celebrating St Patrick's Day in the area reported seeing a medium-sized, light-coloured vehicle parked near the museum from 12.30am to 1.15am. Two men were inside that fitted the description of the thirtysomething robbers. The first was about 5ft 10in, medium build, with a shiny fake moustache, short dark hair, and square gold-framed glasses. The second man was taller and heavier, about 6ft 1in, 200lb, with "puffy" collar-length black hair and the same type of fake moustache. They were not, however, described as wearing police uniforms - at least not then. Continuing my on-site inspection of the castle-like museum, I wondered anew why the grand Titian wasn't taken, and why the ku and finial were. It again seemed like part theft of the century, and part fraternity prank. Looking closer, I noticed a small dent in the wall above the now finial-less Napoleonic flag. The crooks had banged the eagle against the wall in the process of yanking it off, possibly damaging it. That was telling. Not only were they determined to take the curious item, they apparently had a hard time doing so. From a psychological profiling perspective, I reconsidered the possibility that the culprits were real cops. They had acted with the confidence and gumption of men who had worn the badge and blue uniform before, and knew the respect the symbols commanded. A notation buried in a file mentioned that the pair each wore standard black police radios on their hips, live transmitters that crackled with authentic police activity, including the array of codes dispatchers use to designate particular crimes. The "cops" additionally acted like men who knew their way about a crime scene investigation lab. The FBI CSI types went over the place with a fine-toothed computerised comb and came up with nothing, not a fingerprint, footprint, hair, DNA sample, clothing fibre, nothing. The duct tape was the kind that can be purchased anywhere on the planet with no tracing codes. The handcuffs, surprisingly enough, were nearly as prevalent, available everywhere from security supply stores to S&M sex shops. The robbers operated completely off the CSI radar - a neat trick considering that the security guards said they weren't wearing gloves. If the suspects had outfoxed the lab techs because they were indeed real Boston Blues who knew the score, what a hornet's nest this was going to be. Either way, the disguise was an extremely effective ruse. *** THE SPECULATION CIRCLED back around to Bulger and/or Ireland's notorious General. Was Cahill in town? That was easy enough to check and dismiss, unless he was travelling under an alias, which he wasn't known to do. In fact, like most mobsters, he was mostly provincial and territorial. Plus, there was no indication that his previous art robberies had brought him anything but the same grief his predecessors quickly discovered - no buyers stepping forward to take a chance on anything so well known. Whoever was responsible, the key to solving it was the same as always - follow the money to the oil. The law enforcement strategy was for everybody to pound their informants. That was especially true of me, as my sources were directly connected to the art world. The problem was, a $1m reward had them all salivating. Nobody was going to give up their lottery ticket by admitting they didn't know anything. Most didn't even wait until we called, jumping on the phone and informing us that they "might" know something. All they needed, they kept repeating, one con man after the other, was a little up-front flash money to get the ball rolling. The grifters were hustling up a storm as fierce as the one in Rembrandt's missing sea painting. Needing a new identity to deal with them, I became super 1990s art dealer Thomas Russell, international man of money and action. I put out the word far and wide that I was in the market for Vermeers, Rembrandts, Degas and Manets, baby! I'd even be interested in paying top dollar for a Chinese ku, or a French finial once waved by a general with a severe short guy's complex. That is, if anybody out there just happened to have any of those things. While waiting for the leads to filter in, I hit the files and read everything I could about New England art thefts. Some of the cases I knew well, like the Fogg Museum coin heist from decades past. I also took refresher courses in the techniques of Rembrandt, Degas, Manet and Vermeer in case I had to start inspecting the rash of forgeries that often materialise after a sensational theft. I noted with interest that Vermeer was a tavern owner with lots of kids, two things that probably were instrumental in keeping his production numbers so low. Of all the tips that flooded in, only three or four were deemed worth pursuing. One pointed to a noted Boston fence who was spreading the word that he had a bead on the Gardner art and could broker the deal. I phoned him as Tom Russell, shady art dealer extraordinaire, and listened as he tried to work me for a $20,000 finder's fee - paid up front. Since he had some credibility with the Boston agents, we agreed to have a sit down at a ritzy Pier 4 restaurant, my treat. When the time came, he never showed. We wrote it off as another attempted hustle. The unusual no-show was the beginning of a disturbing trend. One of the local agents had some solid contacts with the IRA, and nothing came through with them either. Another Boston agent was in tight with Bulger, who was actually a long-time FBI informant dating back to when he was a street punk. That extremely rare inside connection nonetheless failed to produce any worthwhile information. I was starting to get a really bad feeling about what was going on - on both sides of the law. With such a wealth of informants, including a top mob boss, how come nobody knew anything about such a major theft? Where was the traditional "mob blessing" required to operate in someone's territory? *** THAT QUESTION WOULDN'T be answered until a decade later. In 1999, a federal investigation headed by Judge Mark Wolf accused 18 Boston FBI agents and supervisors of handling informants in an illegal manner. That set off one of the worst scandals in bureau history. Special Agent John Connolly, the man closest to Bulger, was subsequently convicted in 2002 of one count of racketeering, two counts of obstruction of justice, and one count of making a false statement to the FBI. He was found innocent of the even nastier charges of leaking information that led to the deaths of three informants. "Today's verdict reveals John Connolly for what he became, a Winter Hill Gang operative masquerading as a law enforcement agent," said US Attorney Michael J Sullivan. Connolly was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Connolly's supervisor, John Morris, confessed to receiving payoffs, and to leaking information to Whitey about police investigations. He was granted immunity for testifying against Connolly. Suffice it to say, the informant tips coming into the Boston field office regarding the Gardner theft were no doubt being finely screened. It may also explain why a legitimate source may not have even bothered calling, and why my fence stood me up. It's only natural to assume that one of the main functions of a police officer or a special agent on the mob's payroll is to tip them off regarding the activities of undercover agents. On the positive side, the lead investigator who caught the case and worked it for more than a decade, Daniel J Falzon, was a squeaky-clean kid of 26 whose father, Frank, was a well-respected San Francisco homicide detective. Falzon was completely out of the loop of the older Connolly and his group of long-time cronies, and was never suspected of any foul play. "It wasn't a task, it was a passion, and it still is," Falzon told a reporter in the late 1990s. "You get involved in something like this, it's part of your life. It's part of you." *** AS TIME PASSED, the lid on what happened at the Gardner Museum closed tighter than a Scotsman's wallet. The tips became fanciful. We were told by someone with an Aristotle Onassis/Jackie Kennedy complex that the theft was done on behalf of a Greek tycoon who wanted the art as a gift for his new high-society girlfriend. That lead went nowhere. Another wild goose chase took me to Canada. I was dispatched to Toronto to meet with this Little Caesar character with a French accent, an Edward G Robinson-looking yoyo who claimed, see, to have an in, see, with the guys who have the goods, see. Little French Caesar set up a meeting with the guys, see, and they didn't show either, see. The next wild goose led me to New York, where this giant African-American guy tried to sell me a painting purportedly by Samuel Finley Breese Morse, the man who invented the Morse code. I didn't even know Morse was an artist. The painting was garbage. Bubba said he'd only tell me about the Gardner theft after we did the Morse code deal. Right. And we'd do The Da Vinci Code deal after that. After a few weeks of this run-around, I again sensed that something was terribly wrong in Boston, and that nothing was going to get done as long as I stayed there. I retreated to Oklahoma, and worked my national and international sources without having to report to the nosey Boston supervisors. I narrowed my suspects down to a pair. The first was a man named Brian Michael McDevitt, a noted con man who had attempted to rob similar paintings from the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York, a decade earlier. McDevitt, who was living in Boston at the time of the Gardner robbery, had devised an elaborate plan for the New York caper. He and the night manager of the Queensbury Hotel where he was staying, Michael Brian Morey, dressed themselves in Federal Express uniforms, hijacked a Federal Express truck, kidnapped the female driver, knocked her out with ether, and headed to the Hyde. The express mail carrier ruse was going to be their cover to get inside the museum. The scheme was foiled when they became stuck in traffic, and the Hyde closed before they could get there. Police officers responding to the vehicle theft found an elaborate diagram of the museum in the truck, along with 14 pairs of handcuffs, duct tape, medical tape, and sharp instruments the pair admitted would have been used to cut the paintings from their frames. Convicted of unlawful imprisonment and attempted grand larceny, they spent less than a year in jail. McDevitt, who fitted the description of the larger of the Gardner robbers, except for his thinning red hair, was brought in and interrogated. He naturally denied it. His alibi for the night in question bounced, and he refused to take a polygraph. When brought in, he was discovered to be clean-shaven for the first time in eight years. His easy-to-identify bushy red beard was gone, and his short red hair could have been muted under a "puffy" dark wig. An extremely interesting tid-bit in McDevitt's file was the fact that he was a flag aficionado. In the mid 1980s, while attending the University of Massachusetts, Boston, McDevitt spearheaded an effort to raise money, purchase, and display more than 100 flags around the institution to reflect the diversity of its student body. That sure sounds like a guy who, in mid-robbery, would have taken the time to try and filch a Napoleonic flag and its capping finial. Still, other than a pile of compelling circumstantial evidence, we had nothing that enabled us to hold him. My second theory involves the IRA or UVF. If they did the job, the paintings more than likely ended up overseas. From there, they were either sold in Japan, or to someone in one of the Arab nations. Back in Boston, the empty frames from the Gardner theft still hang in the museum. Isabella Stewart Gardner collected the valuables herself during her frequent trips to Europe in the 1880s. Her will decreed that nothing would ever be removed from, or added to, her Venetian-style palace. That means the empty spots on the walls, and the dent from the eagle, will remain until they are filled with precisely what was there before. That should be the policy of all museums. The empty spaces should forever stand as enduring reminders of the beauty, and irreplaceable history, that's constantly chiselled away by growing legions of thieves. This is an edited extract from 'Loot: Inside the World of Stolen Art' by Thomas McShane and Dary Matera (Maverick House, ?8.99) http://news.independent.co.uk/ ------------------------------ Message: 8 Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 06:46:23 +0200 From: Museum Security Network Mailing list  Subject: [MSN] Stolen 'Scream' may undergo surgery To:  Message-ID: <002701c77cbd$8a082040$9e1860c0$@org> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii" Stolen 'Scream' may undergo surgery By Spie Mellgren ASSOCIATED PRESS April 12, 2007  OSLO, Norway      The theft-damaged Edvard Munch masterpieces "The Scream" and "Madonna" may require treatment by an eye surgeon to remove tiny splinters of glass during their restoration, the Munch Museum's director said yesterday.      "That is one of the options under consideration," Lise Mjoes said after testifying at a court hearing in Oslo.      She said an eye surgeon has skills and equipment to remove glass fragments without damaging the surrounding area.      The paintings were recovered by police on Aug. 31, about two years after they were stolen by masked gunmen in a brazen daylight heist at Oslo's Munch Museum. Both were damaged and are being repaired.      Last month, an Oslo appeals court upheld the conviction of three men for taking part in the robbery, and yesterday it began hearing testimony ahead of their sentencing. The prosecution demanded prison terms ranging from seven to 12 years. Sentencing is expected April 23.      In yesterday's testimony, Miss Mjoes described the damage to the paintings as the result of the heavy-handed theft and two years of improper storage. She said the damage was the same as previously described by the museum: scrapes, holes, loose paint and moisture damage.      She said because the frames and glass on both works had been broken during the theft, tiny glass fragments were embedded in the paintings, with "Madonna" being especially hard hit.      "We want to get those out to prevent them from causing more damage later," Miss Mjoes told the court, adding that the museum might ask an eye surgeon to remove the glass.      After the hearing, she said a painstaking process of assessing the damage to the paintings and deciding the best approach to repairing them was still under way. Miss Mjoes said no decision had been made on when to start the restoration work or how long it would take to complete it.      The city-owned Munch Museum has demanded that the thieves pay $262,000 for the restoration process and $213,000 for lost income as a result of the theft.      Although the paintings are broadly considered priceless, prosecutors in the original trial demanded that the thieves pay $123 million in compensation. That demand was dropped after police recovered the paintings in a secret operation they still refuse to discuss.      "The Scream" and "Madonna" were part of Munch's "Frieze of Life" series, in which sickness, death, anxiety and love are central themes. The artist died in 1944 at age 80.      There are four versions of "The Scream," probably Munch's best-known work, depicting a waiflike figure apparently screaming or hearing a scream.  http://www.washingtontimes.com/entertainment/20070411-101220-1198r.htm ------------------------------ Message: 9 Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 07:13:26 +0200 From: Museum Security Network Mailing list  Subject: [MSN] Thieves Take 3-Foot Statue Of National Revolutionary 	War Hero	From Moorings At Hale Homestead To:  Message-ID: <005c01c77cc1$4d3d8c00$e7b8a400$@org> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii" http://www.courant.com/hc-ctnathanhale0411.artapr11,0,6429365.story?coll=hc- big-headlines-breaking  Nathan Gone, Feet Secure  Thieves Take 3-Foot Statue Of National Revolutionary War Hero From Moorings At Hale Homestead  By STEPHANIE SUMMERS Courant Staff Writer April 11 2007 COVENTRY -- As a spy, Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale was hanged by the British. As a statue, he's been cut off at the ankles ... and stolen from his historic family homestead. Thieves removed the 3-foot bronze sculpture of Hale, leaving behind only his shoes and the statue base, sometime between March 29 and April 4, Antiquarian and Landmarks Society officials said Tuesday. The statue was the work of eminent New England sculptor Bela Lyon Pratt, whose pieces also adorn the Library of Congress, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Yale, Harvard, the Connecticut state Capitol and myriad other sites. "What a shame," said Sheryl Hack, executive director of the society, which owns the Hale Homestead and eight other house museums. "Is it a prank? Is it serious? It certainly is disrespectful." Ben Wilson, the society's building conservator, discovered the theft April 4 when he walked from the house, where he stays overnight for part of each week. "If you don't look for it, you wouldn't necessarily see it," he said Tuesday, because the brown and green figure is nestled in leaves and plants near a stone wall in the crux of the L-shaped house. Hale grew up in the older part of the house, which adjoins the main structure built the year he was hanged in 1776. At first Wilson thought it might be a prank akin to stealing a garden gnome, but then realized the thieves had to really want the 100-pound sculpture to go to so much trouble. "Nathan Hale is a beloved Connecticut figure, so possibly it was a Hale fanatic," he said partly in jest, adding that Coventry citizens have a deep affection for the Hale heritage. The society just wants the statue of the national and state hero, best known for saying at his hanging, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country," to be brought back to the homestead. If that happens, no questions will be asked. There will be no hanging, no amputation at the ankles, no prosecution, they say. The society has a twin of the statue from the same Pratt cast in storage but would not use it to replace the stolen one, Wilson said, adding that he did not know its value. "The significant thing is that it was stolen and it's Nathan Hale. It would be like stealing a piece of the Statehouse," he said. Coventry Police Chief Mark Palmer speculated it could have been removed by tying a rope to it and pulling it with a vehicle. Police have notified other jurisdictions and plan to check with metal dealers, although Palmer said he doubted legitimate enterprises would consider buying such a piece. Palmer said anyone with information should call the anonymous police tips line at 860-742-2400 or the main number, 860-742-7331. Hack, who worked at the Canterbury Shaker Village in New Hampshire before coming to the antiquarian society more than a year ago, said a 1790s granite watering trough was stolen from that historic site but was returned after a strong public plea was made. "We'd like to hear a hue and cry that it's not only important to us but to the residents of the state - that it's really important to bring Nathan back." Contact Stephanie Summers at ssummers@courant.com.   ____________________________________ Museum Security Network Museum Security Consultancy Ton Cremers Postbus 3213 3003 AE Rotterdam +31 10 2233897 +31 6 242 246 20 toncremers@museum-security.org _______________________________________ ------------------------------ Message: 10 Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 07:13:26 +0200 From: Museum Security Network Mailing list  Subject: [MSN] MORE than 40 indigenous paintings,	worth hundreds of 	thousands of dollars and stolen from Melbourne	galleries over the past 	18 months,	are thought to have ended up in the lucrative art markets 	of Europe	and the US, where supply sources are much harder to To:  Message-ID: <005d01c77cc1$4e6fa360$eb4eea20$@org> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii" Stolen art on global markets Corrie Perkin  April 12, 2007  MORE than 40 indigenous paintings, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and stolen from Melbourne galleries over the past 18 months, are thought to have ended up in the lucrative art markets of Europe and the US, where supply sources are much harder to trace. International buyers, keen to get into one of the world's hottest art movements, are less likely to demand authenticity papers if it helps them purchase an indigenous painting.  Most of the late-night heists have involved more than one person. At each robbery, the galleries' windows or doors have been smashed, activating security alarms. The thieves then appear to have grabbed paintings randomly before making their getaway.  Since December 2005, there have been eight break-ins at different Melbourne locations, including the High on Art Aboriginal Gallery in Armadale, which has been hit four times.  The other galleries are the Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings, the twice-burgled Aboriginal Art Galleries of Australia, and last week Kimberley Art.  The robbery last week occurred at about 2am on April 3. Thieves stole 10 works valued at a total of $80,000.  Detective Senior Constable Rebecca Hall of Victoria Police said yesterday: "We want to alert art dealers and buyers in relation to these paintings, to be on the look-out if a painting doesn't have a certificate of authenticity."  Claude Ullin is the owner of High on Art. "I'm shattered," he said yesterday.  "I can't sleep at night and I leave the mobile phone by the bed expecting to get a phone call saying I've been burgled again."  Mr Ullin said he believed the perpetrators had little or no understanding of indigenous art. In the last break-in they left behind a painting worth $65,000 that was right next to where they entered the building.  "It's just a smash-and-grab situation," he said. "If they knew anything about the work at all, they would be taking other primary works."  The alarming spate of thefts has prompted renewed calls for the federal Government to act quickly in its proposed shake-up of the industry.  Yesterday, police released images of the stolen Kimberley Art paintings - the same day the Government's Senate committee inquiry into the indigenous art and craft sector held its final hearing. The inquiry's much-awaited report will be released in June.  "If works are stolen, hopefully it will force people to introduce 21st century technology methods of tracking artworks as a deterrent," Aboriginal art advocate Colin McKinnon said. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/ ------------------------------ Message: 11 Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 07:13:26 +0200 From: Museum Security Network Mailing list  Subject: [MSN] Woman caught on camera stealing hospital art To:  Message-ID: <005e01c77cc1$4fa51620$eeef4260$@org> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii" Woman caught on camera stealing hospital art >From staff reports Article Last Updated: 04/11/2007 03:54:21 PM PDT REDWOOD CITY - Police are searching for a woman who swiped $1,600 worth of paintings from Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City. The theft, which was carried off in the early afternoon of March 21, was caught on tape by a hospital security camera. Video footage indicated that the woman looked directly into a security camera, then brazenly removed a painting from a hospital hallway wall and carried the art into a nearby women's restroom. The woman then left the bathroom to remove another painting from the wall and walked out of the hospital's north exit with both paintings. The artwork, both privately owned by local artists, were on display at the hospital. The paintings - a landscape and painting of "a dog looking upward," according to police - are valued at $800 each. Anyone with information about the crime is asked to contact Redwood City Police at (650) 780-7100. http://www.insidebayarea.com/ ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ MSN-list mailing list MSN-list@te.verweg.com http://duvel.te.verweg.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/msn-list End of MSN-list Digest, Vol 7, Issue 86 ***************************************