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February 11, 2014

Tuesday, February 11, 2014 - ,,, No comments

The Monuments Man of the Walters Art Museum: Michael Kurtz and Melissa Wertheimer spoke about the life and work of Marvin Chauncey Ross


Niclaus of Haguenau and Matthias Grünewald.
Isenheim Altarpiece.  1512-1516.
Unterlinden Museum, Colmar, France.

By Kirsten Hower, Social Networking Correspondent and List-Serve Manager

The Monuments Men were the unsung heroes of the Second World War who have lately achieved some very belated fame through literature, especially Robert M. Edsel’s Monuments Men (Preface, 2009) and Saving Italy (W.W. Norton & Company, 2013). Even Hollywood has caught on to the great story of the Monuments Men with the rather belated release of George Clooney’s new film. While the books and the movies help to give their audiences a perspective on the work of these men during the war, museums are stepping forward with stories of their personal heroes that staffed their museums until leaving for the war.

The Walters Art Museum hosted a talk on Sunday, February 9th, about the life and work of Marvin Chauncey Ross who was their first curator of Medieval Art and Subsequent Decorative Art and a Monuments Man. Ross is credited with finding, among many works, Matthias Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece in the Alsatian château of Haute Koeningsbourg.

Ross, sadly, was not there to tell his own story as he passed away in 1975, but Michael Kurtz and Melissa Wertheimer were there to do so in his stead. Kurtz, who is the former Assistant Archivist for Records Services at the National Archives, is the author of America and the Return of Nazi Contraband: The Recovery of Europe’s Cultural Treasures (Cambridge University Press, 2009) and discussed the 345 men and women that made up the “Monuments Men.” His talk, titled “Against the Odds: America, the Monuments Men, and Saving European Cultural Heritage,” gave a brief overview of the goals and struggles of the Monuments Men during and after the Second World War.

Wertheimer, a Walters’ archivist assistant, shared her knowledge of Ross’ experiences in the “Monuments Men” that she uncovered while going through the Walters archives that hold 15 cubic feet of papers left behind by Ross. Her talk, titled “Archival Treasures of a Monuments Man,” gave an interesting perspective on the lives of the Monuments Men. Knowing Ross’ occupation during the war, Wertheimer hoped to find his work and correspondence in the archives. After a few false starts and a chance discovery in Ross’ “miscellaneous” documents, she found what she was looking for: letters between Ross and George Stout, as well as other Monuments Men. Additionally, Wertheimer discovered fifteen papers that Ross had written about the issues faced in the war by the Monuments Men, including “War Damage in Chartres” which was published in the College Art Journal.

Wertheimer is intent upon continuing her research into the life and relationships of Marvin Chauncey Ross. One can only hope that she continues to find as many gems as she has so far!

February 9, 2014

Sunday, February 09, 2014 - ,, No comments

Judge Arthur Tompkins returns to teach "Art in War" for ARCA's Postgraduate Certificate Program in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection

In 2014 Judge Arthur Tompkins will be teaching his Art in War course for the 5th consecutive year. Judge Tompkins began his work with ARCA back in 2009 when he traveled to Amelia for the first of a two-part presentation at the International Art Crime Conference to discuss a possible pathway to creating an International Art Crime Tribunal. In 2010, as well as presenting the second part of his proposal to the conference Judge Tompkins first taught his Art in War course. This year his course will run from June 30-July 2 and July 7-July 9. 

Judge Tompkins has been a District Court Judge in New Zealand for 17 years. He gained his Bachelor’s degree in Law from Canterbury University, in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1983, and subsequently graduated Masters in Law, with First Class Honours, from Cambridge University, England, in 1984. Over the years he has taught the Law of Evidence, and presented at numerous conferences and workshops on a variety of topics, including expert evidence, the intersect between law and science in the Courtroom, and most extensively in relation to forensic DNA and forensic DNA Databanks, in New Zealand, China, England, Ireland, France and Mauritius. He is an Honorary Member of Interpol’s DNA Monitoring Expert Group. This year he was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of Pitcairn Island.

What makes your course relevant in the study of art crime?

Art has always suffered in times of war – right down through all the many centuries from the first recorded instance of plundering of art during wartime – the taking of the Stele of Hammurabi by the Elamites from Babylon to Susa in the 12th century BCE - to the disastrous shelling of the Crac des Chevaliers in the ongoing Syrian conflict. And the crimes against art committed during wartime span the full spectrum from the vast, organised and systematic plundering of art by Napoleon and the Nazis, to the opportunistic ‘souveniring’ of art by individual soldiers amid the chaos of the battlefield, and everything in between. How societies have sought to prevent to lessen such crimes, and to provide some degree of redress, in the past provides valuable insight and guidance as to what might be done in the future.

What will be the focus in your course?

The first half of the course covers a historical survey of art crimes during war. We start with Classical Antiquity, including the sack of Corinth by the Romans, then jump forward to the Fourth Crusade and the pillaging of Constantinople. From there we move forward a few centuries again, to the Thirty Years’ War, and from there to Napoleonic France.

On Day Two, we start with the First World War, move through the Second World War, and end with the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So, (and this sounds much more daunting than it actually is when we do it) we cover over 2000 years in two days …!

The half day that ends the first part of the course is devoted to Libraries – including the libraries at Alexandria, the Library of the Palatinate, the Bosnian National Library, and the US’s Library of Congress. I am hopeful that this year there will also be a guest presentation by one of ARCA’s alumni on another fascinating library’s history.

The second half of the course concentrates on the legal response to what has happened over the centuries. We look at a variety of public international and private legal responses, including the Laws of War, the various Conventions aimed at protecting art and cultural heritage, non-binding international agreements and the like, and then issues arising from private claims to recover looted or stolen art. We end the course with a look at other forms of possible redress, and some selected student presentations to the class.

Do you have a recommended reading list that students can read before the course?

I recommend that students read the classic work of scholarship in this area, Lynn Nicholas’ The Rape of Europa, and also either or both of Robert Edsel’s books on the Monuments’ Men. And this year in particular, I would also suggest they go see the George Clooney/Cate Blanchett movie, ‘The Monuments Men’. How Cate Blanchett portrays one of my personal heroes of the fight against art crime in war, Rose Valland, I will be fascinated to see!

I would also recommend, as a way of reading themselves into the historical ambience of a couple of parts of the course, Geraldine Brook’s People of the Book, and Sara Houghteling’s Pictures at an Exhibition, are both fictionalised accounts of events we cover in the course.

Finally, and these are three personal favourites relating to various aspects of the course, I would point folk to Baez’s A Universal History of the Destruction of Books, Freeman’s The Horses of St Marks: A Story of Triumph in Byzantium, Paris and Venice, and O’Connor’s The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.

February 7, 2014

Friday, February 07, 2014 - ,, No comments

The Monuments Men: George Clooney's Movie Opened in North American Theaters Today, Think "Oceans 12" meets "The Train"

by Catherine Sezgin, ARCA blog Editor

The morning screening of George Clooney's "The Monuments Men" in Pasadena today attracted a larger audience that other art crime related recent films ("The Trance" and "The Missing Piece". This movie is not a foreign film or a documentary (for that you can see "The Rape of Europa" on Netfix or DVD) but a Hollywood project populated by popular film actors such as John Goodman, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, and Cate Blanchett. After a sobering opening of the dismantling of the Ghent Altarpiece, the gathering of the Monuments Men team leads me to describe the film quickly as "Oceans 12" meets "The Train" featuring another handsome actor, Burt Lancaster, and both of those movies reached a wide audience.

As for a 'review' of this movie, I prefer overheard comments. During the closing credits, the woman sitting next to me offered her unsolicited opinion: "Leave it to Clooney to find this and bring it to us." Overheard from a stall in the women's restroom: "If nothing else, it gets you interested enough to investigate it."

I'm not going to ruin your entertainment by talking about what happens in the film so let me discuss some of the questions I had leaving the theater: Did any of the real members of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section (informally known as the Monuments Men) die while searching to recover the art Hitler had systematically stolen from European museums and private Jewish collections (the answer is yes)? The Monuments Men website, sponsored by Robert Edsel, viewable on this page lists members of the MFAA and is trying to gather biographical information and photographs to commemorate those who served.

What is the true story of saving Michelangelo's Bruges Madonna and Child? How did the Monuments Men really find the salt mine hiding the art masterpieces? Were the Soviets in the Trophy Brigade really on the trail of the Monuments Men racing to recover art that would not be returned to European countries but be used as compensation for the 20 million plus Russian lives lost during the war? And I want to know everything about Rose Valland, the French woman initially jailed as a Nazi conspirator for her work in the Jeu de Paume where Nazis collected and confiscated Jewish art collections.

You'll have some questions of your own to add. As for me, I'm diving back into my iBook copies of The Rape of Europa (Lynn Nicholas) and The Monuments Men (Robert M. Edsel with Brett Witter) until I can take my kids back to the see the movie -- because even my teenagers have said they'll see the George Clooney movie on art theft.

UPDATE:

ARCA blog subscriber Paul Lahaie, Massachusetts, wrote in with his observations: The movie does a fairly decent job of following the book. Battle scenes, showing how the Monuments Men [via personal letters to their wives] battling military bureaucracy and achieving more than anyone thought they would. The book and move critics say the same thing -- not enough art. Tough! The audience clapped until the end of the film credits.

 Here the University of Iowa profiles Monuments Man George Stout, an UI alum and the future director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. 

Friday, February 07, 2014 - ,,, No comments

ARCA Founder Noah Charney Writes on "Inside Hitler's Fantasy Museum" for The Daily Beast

Published in The Daily Beast on February 7, 2014, "Inside Hitler's Fantasy Museum":
Before World War II’s start, Hitler was driven to create his dream museum containing all his favorite Aryan-approved art. Noah Charney on how the Monuments Men had to unravel the thousands of objects plundered by the Fuhrer’s minions—and what they learned from Napoleon. 
When Monuments Men Robert Posey and Lincoln Kirstein walked into the white-washed cottage in the German forest that housed Hermann Bunjes, the Harvard-educated one-time SS officer and art advisor to Herman Goring, they learned of an elaborate plan involving the wholesale looting of Europe’s art treasures. Bunjes, hiding in fear of reprisals against SS officers by angry German citizens, told these fellow art historians about the ERR—the Nazi art theft unit—and about Hitler’s plan to create a city-wide museum in his boyhood town of Linz, Austria: a “super museum” that would contain every important artwork in the world, including a wing of “degenerate art,” a sort of chamber of horrors to demonstrate from what monstrosities the Nazis had saved the world. It was news to Posey and Kirstein, who had to restrain their shock. The Monuments Men had heard rumors of art theft and looting throughout the war, but had no idea of the scale (some estimate that around 5 million cultural objects were looted, lost, or mishandled during the war), the advanced level of organization (scores of Nazi officers and hundreds of soldiers were assigned exclusively to the confiscation, transport, and maintenance of looted art and archival material), and the ultimate destination of the choicest pieces—the Führermuseum. It was years into the war, when this encounter took place, and only then did the Monuments Men finally realized what they were up against. Bunjes further detailed a number of hiding places for looted art, including the famous salt mine at Altaussee, in the Austrian Alps, which contained some twelve-thousand stolen artworks, the mother-load destined for the Linz museum. Posey and Kirstein were on the hunt for The Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck, the most influential painting ever made and the most-frequently stolen, but could hardly believe what they were hearing. Yes,The Ghent Altarpiece was the number one target that Hitler wanted as the centerpiece for his museum, both because of its beauty, fame, and importance but also because it had been forcibly repatriated to Belgium from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles, and seizing it back would right this perceived wrong against the German people. But here was the chance to save not just this painting, but tens of thousands of artworks.
You can finish reading this article by going to the article on The Daily Beast.

Friday, February 07, 2014 - ,, No comments

Lipinski Stradivarius, Milwaukee: Steven Yaccinio for The New York Times grabs quote from victim and reports on violin expert

In "Stradivarius Is Recovered Unharmed After Theft" (February 6), Steven Yacchino for The New York Times quotes Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra's concertmaster Frank Almond who was shocked by a taser gun on the night of January 27th before thieves stole the Lipinski Stradivarius violin loaned to him.

“This is just one more unbelievable chapter in that violin’s life,” said Frank Almond, the concertmaster, expressing gratitude for the work of law enforcement officials.
[...] 
In an interview Thursday evening, Mr. Almond, who was out of town when the police located the Stradivarius, said he thought he would never see it again and was shocked when he heard it was not damaged. He expected to use it at a concert in Milwaukee early next week.
An expert has performed on the Lipinski Stradivarius since it's recovery, Yacchino reported:
Stefan Hersh, a violin expert who appraised the instrument in 2012, said he had been contacted by the F.B.I. and went to Milwaukee on Thursday to authenticate the instrument. Seeing no damage, he performed a piece by Bach on the 300-year-old Stradivarius, a private concert for the police.

February 6, 2014

Thursday, February 06, 2014 - ,,,,, No comments

Lipinski Stradivarius, Milwaukee: Highlights from the Milwaukee Police press conference on the theft and recovery of the violin loaned to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra

By Lynda Albertson

During today’s noon press conference regarding the theft and recovery of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra's Lipinski Stradivarius, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said: “There are good days and there are bad days. Today is a good day.” Barrett then went on to state that the investigation into the recovery of the violin was due in large part to the model cooperation between the Milwaukee Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and the helpful citizens of the city.

Chief Edward Flynn of the Milwaukee Police Department indicated that during the course of the investigation officers followed up on various tips phoned in to both the police department’s tip line and others phoned in directly to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

In investigating several possible leads the Milwaukee Police Department and members of the FBI's art squad, including Special Agent David Bass looked into local “taser” buyers in the Milwaukee area.  In the course of their research the self defense products firm Taser International provided information to investigating officers which included the name of one Michigan purchaser, Universal Knowledge Allah, who’s identity proved critical in the arrest and recovery of the Stradivarius.  

Following the execution of five separate search warrants, officers detained three suspects.  Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn described those arrested as two men ages 41 and 36 and one  32 year old woman, who was later described as being the possible driver of the get-away car. 

While two of the subjects brought in for questioning were not directly named during the official law enforcement press conference, the following three individuals were listed by Wisconsin News and Radio Station 620WTMJ as the three individuals brought in by the police for questioning yesterday:  Universal Allah, Salah Jones and Latoya Atlas.  One of these three suspects, Salah Jones, is a 41-year-old Milwaukee resident once linked to the theft of the $25,000 statue "Woman with Fruit" by Nicolas Africano from the Michael Lord Gallery on November 7, 1995.

Conversations with one of the three detainees led to police requesting a sixth search warrant Wednesday night, February 5th for a home located on E. Smith Street on Milwaukee's south east side.  Upon executing the search warrant, the Lipinski Stadivarius was recovered in what appears to be good or excellent condition stored in a suitcase in the house's attic.

The residence where the violin was recovered appears to have been an acquaintance of one of the detained individuals brought in for questioning.   Police did not indicate to reporters that this individual had any involvement in the theft. While no formal charges have yet been filed, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm indicated that charges are likely to be filed against at least one of the suspects as early as Friday. 

No information was available at the press conference regarding whether or not any of the leads in the recovery warranted all or part of the $100,000 reward offered by an anonymous donor for information leading to the safe return of the Lipinski Stradivarius.

Here's a link to the announcement by the Milwaukee Police regarding finding the Lipinski Stradivarius violin.

Thursday, February 06, 2014 - ,,, No comments

Lipinski Stradivarius Theft, Milwaukee: Local television station WTMJ-4 breaks the story that Police Found Violin

WTMJ-4, Milwaukee's local television station, reported this morning "Police recover stolen Stradivarius violin":

CREATED 6:03 AM
MILWAUKEE -- Milwaukee police have recovered the rare Stradivarius violin that was stolen from Concertmaster Frank Almond on Jan. 27, multiple sources tell TODAY'S TMJ4's Jermont Terry.
Three suspects were arrested Wednesday in connection with the theft.
Our sources said one of the suspects took detectives to where the instrument was being held at someone's residence on Milwaukee's east side Wednesday night.
The violin is now at Milwaukee police headquarters and is in good condition.
Police will hold a news conference at noon on Thursday to announce further details.
Check back to TODAY'S TMJ4 to watch the conference live at noon. 

Here's a link to the YouTube video posted by TMJ4 with Jonah Kaplan reporting on the recovery of the violin from police headquarters.

Photo released by Milwaukee Police Department of Chief Edward Flynn’s announcement following the arrests of the three suspects.  Live coverage of today's police press conference at 12:00 Noon CST is available on TMJ4's Milwaukee streaming site here.

The valuable and rare Stradivarius was stolen from Frank Almond on January 27, 2014. The suspect used a stun gun to disable Almond, who subsequently dropped the instrument. The thief then  escaped in a maroon minivan driven by an apparent accomplice.

According to the website stradivarius.org Stradivari designed and crafted more than 1,000 violins and instruments during his lifetime, only 650 of which are still in existence today.

Thursday, February 06, 2014 - ,,,, No comments

Lipinski Stradivarius Theft, Milwaukee: WTMJ-TV and Journal Sentinel report Milwaukee Police Have Found Violin

Ashley Luthern of Milwaukee's Journal Sentinel in "Stolen Stradivarius violin recovered, sources say":
The 300-year-old Stradivarius violin that was taken in an armed robbery last month has been found, law enforcement sources told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The Milwaukee Police Department is scheduled to hold a news conference on the investigation at noon Thursday but had not publicly confirmed that the violin was recovered.
WTMJ-TV reported Thursday morning that the violin was recovered overnight on Milwaukee's east side and is said to be in good condition.
During a Wednesday news conference, Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn said there was a "good chance" the violin was still in Milwaukee.
Milwaukee police have arrested three suspects in connection with the theft and have referred the case to the Milwaukee County district attorney's office. Charges are expected to be filed Friday, according to the district attorney's office.
The three suspects — two men, ages 42 and 36, and a woman, 32 — were arrested Monday morning at their respective Milwaukee residences and remained in police custody Wednesday. One of the suspects has been linked to a prior art theft.


Thursday, February 06, 2014 - ,, No comments

The Monuments Men: Museums Ride the Publicity Wave of the Monuments Men Action Film to Tell the True Story

The new George Clooney action movie The Monuments Men, inspired by the men and women who served in the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section during World War II, is also energizing museums to reach out to their communities about the true story.

The Frick Museum's website has a section on "The Frick During World War II":
The Monuments Men were a multinational group of 350 men and women who volunteered for military service in order to protect monuments and other cultural treasures from destruction during World War II. In civilian life, many of them were museum directors, curators, artists, architects, and educators. These dedicated men and women tracked, located, and ultimately returned to their rightful owners more than five million artworks and cultural items stolen by Hitler and the Nazis. Their role in preserving Europe’s cultural treasures was without precedent. 
The Frick Art Reference Library in Wartime 
The story of the Monuments Men in Europe has become increasingly well known, but few are aware that another group of dedicated art historians were engaged in “the fight for art” on American shores. In 1943, William B. Dinsmoor, a Harvard professor and Chairman of the American Council of Learned Societies, established the Committee on the Protection of Cultural Treasures in War Areas. Made up of thirty volunteer American and European scholars, the committee was charged with creating (and distributing to the Allied armed forces) maps and lists of important monuments to be spared during bombing raids. Headquartered principally at the Frick Art Reference Library, which had been involved in the preservation effort as early as 1941, Dinsmoor’s committee was responsible for coordinating information gathered from myriad sources and compiling it into a master index that listed the historic buildings and important works of art in each occupied country. In 1943 the library closed its doors for six months — the only time in its ninety-three-year history that it has done so — in order to support the committee’s research and generate the photography required to prepare more than 700 maps. Even before the end of hostilities, the Frick staff and its resources also played a vital role in the research needed for the recovery of stolen and looted art, which became a top priority of Dinsmoor’s committee and its parent Washington-based Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in Europe. Indeed, even today, researchers — with the help of the Frick Art Reference Library’s vast resources — continue to piece together information to help reunite works of art and their rightful owners.
 The Fine Art Museum of San Francisco is presenting an online Google talk tomorrow:
As part of the renewed interest in the heroic efforts of the Monuments Men, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco are presenting an online Google Art Talk this Friday, February 7 with other experts discussing their real life connections to the feature film "The Monuments Men," opening Friday. Thomas Carr Howe, Jr. (1904-1994), the director of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco from 1939 through 1968, played a significant role in the events depicted in the upcoming film, which focuses on a group of museum professionals sent to Europe to save cherished art works stolen by the Nazis during World War II. 
Beginning Saturday, February 8 in Gallery 14, the Legion of Honor will exhibit a painting recovered by the Monuments Men. The painting, Portrait of a Lady (ca. 1620) by Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) was at one time in the possession of Hermann Goering. It was later returned to its rightful owners and subsequently given to the Legion of Honor by the Roscoe and Margaret Oakes Collection. 
Read more at http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwart/article/Fine-Arts-Museums-of-San-Francisco-Present-Online-Google-Talk-27-20140206#gg1fMPKjeRXLeLxG.99

Thursday, February 06, 2014 - ,,,,,, No comments

Anniversary of the Ducal Palazzo Theft 1975: “Paintings stolen from palace” (Associated Press, 1975)

Associated Press headline “Paintings stolen from palace” on February 6, 1975 announced a robbery at the Ducal Palace in Urbino. This is what the Associated Press published on February 6, 1975:
URBINO, Italy (AP) – Three priceless paintings by the Renaissance masters Raphael and Piero della Francesca were stolen early today from the Ducal Palace in Urbino. Police said it was the “greatest art theft in modern Italy.” 
The police said the thieves climbed a scaffold erected on the palace wall for restoration work, broke a window and escaped with Raphael’s La Muta (The Mute Girl) and Piero della Francesca’s Madonna of Senigallia and The Flagellation of Christ. The canvases were taken from their frames, which were left behind. Officials said the value of the paintings could not be estimated since it had been years since a work by either painter has come on the market. Although Raphael is the more popular of the two, the paintings by Piero della Francesca were considered among the best examples of that 15th Century master’s work still in existence. Officials said the three paintings would be difficult if not impossible to sell since they are so well known. There were two theories: that the thieves had been commissioned by a collector who would keep the paintings for his secret enjoyment, or that they would try to collect ransom for their return. 
The Ducal Palace is now a museum. 
Bruno Molaioli, Italy’s former director-general of fine arts, said the stolen Raphael “is a masterpiece of the master’s Florentine period when the young Raphael was still under the influence of Leonardo da Vinci.” 
He said the two paintings by Piero della Francesca “represent two pillars in the painter’s brilliant career.” 
Raphael was born in Urbino in 1483. Piero della Francesca was born in San Sepolcro, in the Umbrian region of central Italy, around 1420. 
Italian art officials said recently that thefts of art from Italian museums, churches and private collections were averaging four or five a day. Last year the national police said a total of 2,420 art works were stolen in the first four months of 1973, and most of them are still missing.
The "Ducal Palace" (English) is identified as "Palazzo Ducale" (Italian) in Urbino in the region of Marche. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the hometown of Raphael.

Piero della Francesca's Senigallia Madonna was on display at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts through January 6, 2014. Here's a link to more information about the painting and the exhibit, including an 18-minute video on The Carabinieri Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage which recovered the paintings one year after the theft when the thieves could not sell the well-known artworks. 

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