By Bill Anderson

The recent [2017] seizure of a 2,300 year-old Roman vase that had long been on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art shined a spotlight on an attitude that pervades the art market and affects not only looted antiquities but stolen art, as well. If there was any suspicion by the Met that the vase was looted and illegally transported out of Italy we won't know.  They certainly should have connected the dots since the dealer through which the piece originally passed was convicted 10 years ago for having brokered another vase to the Met that was looted and returned to Italy.

 

It's too easy for a museum to look the other way and claim problems with provenance or nonexistent records. Museums throughout the world are no doubt in possession of an unfathomable number of artifacts and relics that rightly belong to the country of origin.

 

When it comes to stolen art and artifacts the circumstances are a little less gray but some of the players no more virtuous. Granted it would be hard to find any institution willing to purchase The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, maybe the most iconic of the paintings stolen from the Gardner, or the Bacon's or Warhol's, stolen in the last year in Spain (several are still missing) and Missouri respectively (all still missing). We can only hope they haven't been destroyed.

But works of lesser artists and other artistic objects can be laundered in various ways to find themselves without proper provenance or with vague identities. In particular, too little effort is applied to finding rightful owners of artifacts of historical or religious significance.

The UNESCO convention has placed pressure on institutions to apply more rigorous standards to identifying the origins of a piece that may have been looted. Applying the convention to stolen art that is privately held and sold is more difficult, leaving sellers and buyers to their own ethical restraints. And where enough money is involved, restraints can soften considerably.

With too many people willing to look the other way the opportunities to succeed with theft increase.  We only hear about what people want to publicize, which is just the tip of the iceberg. Protecting your assets by having a properly blended security system that is always on is the only prudent defense against theft.

 

Bill Anderson is a Founder/Partner in Art Guard. For nearly a decade, Art Guard has been a leader in providing innovative, cost-effective security solutions for the protection of art and cultural assets in a wide array of institutions, facilities and private collections around the world. Reprinted with permission. Originally published August 2017.

 

MS 222: Care of Photographs

June 18 to August 3, 2018

Instructor:  Gawain Weaver

Description:

Photographic materials cover a diverse range, everything from the daguerreotypes and wet plate negatives of the 19th century to the gelatin silver, chromogenic and inkjet prints of the 20th and now 21st century. Care of Photographs offers a broad introduction to the history, technology, identification, and care of these and other photographic materials. Topics include environmental monitoring, the effects of temperature and relative humidity, and the importance of cold storage for certain photographic materials. It is intended to help those caring for photographic materials to gain a better understanding of their collections and how to care for them.

 

MS 205/206 Disaster Plan Research and Writing

July 2 to August 24, 2018

Instructor: Terri Schindel

Description:

Every museum needs to be prepared for fires, floods, chemical spills, tornadoes, hurricanes and other disasters. But surveys show 80 percent lack trained staff, emergency-preparedness plans for their collections, or both. Disaster Plan Research and Writing begins with the creation of disaster-preparedness teams, the importance of ongoing planning, employee safety, board participation and insurance. Participants will learn everything they need to draft their own disaster-preparedness plans. They also will be required to incorporate colleagues in team-building exercises. A written disaster-preparedness plan is not only a good idea, it's also a requirement for accreditation. In the second half of the course, instructor Terri Schindel reviews and provides input as participants write plans that outline the procedures to follow in various emergencies. The completed plan prepares museums physically and mentally to handle emergencies that can harm vulnerable and irreplaceable collections. You will have a completed institutional disaster-preparedness and response plan at the end of the course.

 

MS 207: Cataloging Your Collection

July 2 to 31, 2018

Instructor: Peggy Schaller

Description:

Cataloging may not be the most exciting museum task, but it is among the most important. Without a clear knowledge of your holdings, you can't protect, care for, research or exhibit them. Without knowledge of an item's history, you can't properly appreciate its value to your museum. Cataloging Your Collection covers all details needed to catalog a collection. Procedures for handling, measuring and describing all types of objects and materials are discussed in detail. Participants receive sample forms and learn the best practices for numbering artifacts, performing inventory and assessing the condition of objects. Participants practice describing everyday objects and cataloging items from their own collections or households.

 

July 2 to August 10, 2018

Instructor: Christina Cain

Description:

The only thing worse than mice or cockroaches in your kitchen, is finding them in your museum collection. Participants in Integrated Pest Management for Museums, Libraries and Archives learn low-toxicity methods of controlling infestations. IPM is the standard method for treating incoming items and monitoring holdings. Integrated Pest Management for Museums, Libraries and Archives discusses how infestations occur, helps identify risks, provides feasible mitigation strategies, discusses the different techniques of treating infested materials, and helps you complete an IPM plan and monitoring schedule for your institution. The course covers pest identification, insects, rodent, birds, bats, other mammals and mold infestations, as well as other problems raised by participants.

 

MS 267: Museum Ethics

July 2 to 31, 2018

Instructor:  Peggy Schaller

Description:

This course will examine the role of ethics in museums and related institutions. Topics addressed will include the differences in ethics, laws, and morals; what ethics are and where they come from; the ethical codes that museum professionals follow; how ethics affect professional practices; why ethics are important; and how ethical standards can help museums and related institutions better serve society. Participants in the course will gain an understanding of the importance of ethics in professional museum practice, how codes of ethics are written and why they are important, and will develop an understanding of the most significant codes of ethics subscribed to by museum professionals.

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