Displaying items by tag: security

An Oscar Murillo canvas was taken from the exhibition “Forever Now: Painting in an Atemporal World" at MoMA last week by a visitor, a MoMA representative has officially confirmed.

"Last week, one was removed by a visitor," press director Margaret Doyle told artnet News in an email.

Doyle further claimed that MoMA security identified the visitor and it was "quickly returned without incident or damage to the work" and that all eight of the canvases by Murillo in the show "are on view in the galleries."

A government audit of 1,218 French museums has revealed that some 80% do not know the full contents of their collections, with many collections facing further serious hazards, Libération reported. The preliminary document, released Wednesday after eight months of research and ahead of a full report due at the end of the year, cites several shocking oversights; for example, the Louvre is critiqued for storing Classical sculptures in a subterranean chamber that could not be properly evacuated in the event of an overflow of the Seine river. Noting instances of theft, the report states that numerous collections are kept under insufficient security measures. Issues of provenance related to World War II looting continue to plague several institutions, the report adds, blaming inadequate resources for the incomplete cataloging and other issues.

On Wednesday, February 19, three individuals attacked two auctioneers and two assistants with tear gas outside the famous auction house, Hôtel Drouot, in Paris. The assailants made off with a briefcase holding jewels worth at least €300,000. The robbers were picked up by their getaway driver and were unsuccessfully pursued by the police.

Hôtel Drouot, which specializes in fine art, antiques, and antiquities, has been criticized in the past for security issues. In 2010, the auction house’s union of art handlers was charged with the theft and receipt of stolen goods. An investigation was conducted after the scandal and France’s Minister of Justice, Michele Alliot-Marie, commissioned a report that chided Drouot for its “opaque structure” and “minimal governance.”

After the recent incident, Drouot released a public statement stressing their commitment to anti-theft measures.

Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts will present the seminar “The World of Art and the Fine Art of Crime” this fall from October 14 to October 18, 2013. The seminar will be helmed by retired art crime specialists from the FBI and Scotland Yard and will explore issues relating to art management, operations and collecting, famous art crimes, and international repatriation efforts.

The seminar will include lectures by two renowned art crime investigators – Richard Ellis, a former detective with New Scotland Yard who helped lead the Art & Antiques Squad for over a decade, and Virginia Curry, a former FBI undercover agent and Art Crime Team member who has worked on a number of high profile cases. The daily talks will be complemented by trip to museums, galleries, and auction houses to speak with various arts managers. Topics will include security and provenance issues, Nazi thefts during World War II, the looting of Native American art, and issues of rightful ownership.

“The World of Art and the Fine Art of Crime” has been made possible by the Meadows School’s division of Arts Management and Arts Entrepreneurship.

Washington, D.C.’s Smithsonian Institution, which is comprised of 19 museums and 9 research centers devoted to the “increase and diffusion of knowledge,” has seen an rise in troubles relating to their storage system. The Smithsonian currently has 130 million objects ranging from paintings and furniture to skeletons in their storage and maintenance facilities, many of which reside in damaged containers or poorly organized archives. During a recent audit, the National Museum of American History was allegedly unable to locate 10% of their collection.

The Committee on House Administration held a hearing on Wednesday, July 17th to discuss the challenges facing the care of the Smithsonian’s collections of art, archival footage and delicate objects. Smithsonian Inspector, General Scott Dahl, claimed that the institution is still employing poor storage space that was built in the 1950s and never intended for long-term use. A report from the Smithsonian’s inspector general in 2006 showed that not only were the storage facilities inadequate, but that security and inventory controls were lacking, leaving some of the country’s most precious treasures susceptible to theft or misplacement.

The Smithsonian has been working to fix their storage and maintenance issues for the past seven years and has invested $462 million in collections management and $390 million in facilities improvements. However, ongoing budget cuts have made fixing these issues once and for all, increasingly difficult. In addition, a large portion of the Smithsonian’s budget is currently being used to digitize the museum’s collection, which could take years.

A significant painting by Thomas Cole (1801-1848), the English-born American artist who founded the Hudson River School, will be sold to benefit the Seward House Museum in Auburn, New York. Portage Falls on the Genesee (1839) was given to the American politician William H. Seward (1801-1972) while he was the governor of New York prior to the Civil War. Seward went on to serve as Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.

The painting, which depicts what is now Letchworth State Park in western New York, has been a part of the Seward Museum’s collection for decades. Seward’s home and contents were donated to the Fred L. Emerson Foundation in the 1950s by Seward’s grandson, William Henry Seward III. The Seward House opened to the public in 1955 and became a registered National Historic Landmark in 1964. The museum became a fully independent, not-for-profit museum in 2009 and the Cole painting was retained by the foundation.

The recent discovery of the painting’s value and the subsequent need for greater security prompted officials to put the work up for sale. Funds from the sale will be split between the Emerson Foundation and the Seward House Museum. The museum plans to use its portion of the proceeds to further its preservation mission. Portage Falls on the Genesee is being kept in a secure storage location until the sale is official.  

A member of the canine unit recovered four paintings stolen from South Africa’s Pretoria Art Museum in a private cemetery on Tuesday, November 13. While the paintings still need to be verified, police officials are almost certain they are Maggie Laubser’s Cat and Petunias (1936), JH Pierneef’s Eland and Bird (1961), Irma Stern’s Fishing Boats (1931), and Hugo Naude’s Hottentot Chief, all of which disappeared after an armed robbery took place at the museum on November 11. Gerard Sekoto’s Street Scene (1939) is still missing.

The Pretoria Museum closed after the heist and will re-open on November 20 after officials finish a number of updates to the institution’s security system. The robbers entered the museum as paying visitors on Sunday but there is no surveillance footage as the museum’s security cameras had stopped working earlier in the week.

The victim of a devastating art heist that took place last Friday, the Kunsthal Museum in Rotterdam claims their security system is not to blame. The Museum’s director Emily Ansenk shot down allegations that a rear emergency door had been left open. However, police are investigating whether or not there was someone in the museum after hours that could have opened the door for the thieves, as there were no signs of forced entry.

After robbers swiped seven artworks including paintings by Picasso, Matisse, and Monet, the Kunsthal became the subject of intense scrutiny. The Museum admitted to Dutch police that there were no security guards on duty when the robbery occurred. An external security firm was the first to respond when the Museum’s alarm went off. Museum officials claim that their security system, which relies solely on alarms and security cameras, is state-of-the-art.

Late on Friday, police released three grainy surveillance photos of the burglars exiting the Museum out of a back door. While their faces were not visible, police hope that the bags the thieves were carrying are recognizable. Police proceeded to post leaflets around the neighborhood, asking potential witnesses to step forward.