Reposted from NYtimes

The Berlin institution with a spectacular, but disputed, centerpiece
closes next week for a refurbishment that won’t be complete until 2037.Even wrapped in plastic, the Pergamon Altar is a striking sight. A
monumental structure with ornate friezes depicting a battle between giants
and gods, it was sculpted in what is now Turkey in the 2nd century B.C. and
is one of the most imposing known examples of antique art. Housed in
Berlin’s Pergamon Museum for over a century, the altar has long been one of
the main attractions in the German capital.
That is, when visitors can see it. The altar has been inaccessible since
2014, amid construction work on the museum’s north wing. On Oct. 23, the
rest of the museum — one of the most visited in Germany — will close for
four years. Although the altar room and north wing are set to reopen in
2027, other parts of the building will not be accessible for a further
decade.
 
The project comes at a delicate time. In recent years, European
institutions exhibiting archaeological objects from other parts of the
world, such as the Pergamon Museum, and the British Museum, in Londonhave faced increased scrutiny over the provenance of their exhibits. With
more than $1.5 billion of public money being invested into the Pergamon
Museum refurbishment, its leaders now face new calls to justify their work.
“The institution of the museum, as a product of the Enlightenment, is being
questioned,” Andreas Scholl, the director of the Pergamon’s antiquities
collection said during a recent tour of the site. “Nobody knows how the
debate will progress.”
The Pergamon Museum’s administrators, however, are betting that much will
remain the same in the next 14 years. In addition to structural work, the
renovations will add new spaces for exhibits and visitors, and update
infrastructure, lighting and climate control. But, as Scholl put it, “The
fundamental concept isn’t changing.”
“The institution of the museum, as a product of the Enlightenment, is being
questioned,” said Andreas Scholl, the head of the Pergamon Museum’s
antiquities collection.Credit...Lena Mucha for The New York Times
Opened in 1930 on Museum Island, in central Berlin, the building was
custom-designed to showcase the altar and several other spectacular items
of antique architecture, including parts of the so-called Ishtar Gate from
the ancient city of BabylonBut the building was built on oak pylons driven into unstable, sandy
ground, and Jens Küchler, the project manager in charge of the renovations,
said renewing its foundations was crucial for long-term stability. The
work, he said, is partly focused on a metal underground structure
stretching across the island that “holds up the building.” The Pergamon Altar has always been the museum’s most prized attraction.
Discovered in the 1870s by Carl Humann, a German engineer, its transfer to
Berlin was made possible by a series of agreements between Ottoman Empire
administrators and German officials that allowed Germany to retain a
portion of the artifacts that Humann and his collaborators discovered.

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Reposted from Ekathimerini

Five people on Crete are facing charges related to making up to €6 million by selling forged art works, attributed to well-known artists, to private individuals, collectors and auction houses overseas, following an investigation by police. The investigation of the five followed an incident in Sofia, Bulgaria, in February when authorities prevented the sale of a fake painting for €12 million. In searches that followed in houses and a warehouse in Attica, 10 paintings, seals, documents, certificates of authenticity and a metal oven for aging art works were found and confiscated. Experts deemed the paintings found in Attica to be entirely forged. The subsequent investigation found that the gang selling the paintings had been operational since at least 2014. The alleged members of the forgery gang range in age from 35 to 69 years.

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Reposted from BBC

Staff at the Royal Lancers & Nottinghamshire Yeomanry Museum noticed a number of items were missing when they arrived at work on Sunday. A search then revealed a hole had been drilled up through an archway to allow the thieves to reach into a display cabinet. Detectives described the raid as "audacious" and "well organized". Among the items stolen from the museum, in Thoresby Park near Ollerton, are a distinctive parcel and gilt rosewater dish - said to be the sister piece to the Wimbledon women's singles trophy. 

The Hurlingham Grand Military Polo trophy, statuettes of mounted soldiers and a cavalry trumpet were also taken. Nottinghamshire Police believe the burglary happened between 02:40 and 03:30 GMT on Sunday. Officers believe a small hole was drilled so a camera could be used to survey the display before a larger 25cm (10in) by 30cm (12in) hole was cut through the wooden floor and cabinet.

 Museum curator Steve Cox said: "It's disgusting that they've taken history from the people who have served and fought for this country. "The items they have taken are priceless to the museum. How do you put a value on history? "We're upset about it, but we're fighting back and we're going to rebuild from what's gone." Det Insp Luke Todd, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: "This was an audacious, planned, and targeted attack on what is a wonderful historic building and was clearly very well organised. "The items that were stolen are not only high in monetary value but also high in sentimental value not only to the military, but also to the wider community in the area. "These items are worth so much more to the museum than they are melted down in their silver form." He urged anyone with information about the theft, or who becomes aware of attempts to sell the antiques, to contact police. The museum, which also contains a range of firearms and other weapons, has checked its collection and accounted for all other items.

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Reposted from NYTimes

Several museums and collectors have surrendered artworks by Egon Schiele
to investigators who say they were looted. But others are asserting that
the evidence is inconclusive.For decades, several important museums and collectors ignored suggestions
that the works they owned by the Austrian master Egon Schiele had been
stolen by the Nazis from a Viennese cabaret performer, Fritz Grünbaum.
 
Instead, many embraced an alternative account told by a Swiss gallerist. He
said that in 1956, 15 years after Grünbaum’s death in the Dachau
concentration camp, he had come into possession of dozens of Grünbaum’s
Schieles.
The gallerist, Eberhard Kornfeld, said Grünbaum’s sister-in-law had
approached him, looking to sell a bunch of the Schiele artworks. Kornfeld
said he bought most of the 81 Grünbaum Schieles from her and put 65 of them
up for sale, an event that eventually led to more sales and resales and
caused the Grünbaum Schieles to end up in collections around the world.
But a New York civil court ruling several years ago and, more recently, the
findings of investigators working for the Manhattan District Attorney have
undermined the credibility of Kornfeld ’s account. The New York civil court
held that Grünbaum never willingly soldor
surrendered any of his works. In recent weeks the New York City prosecutors
were able to persuade several museums and collectors to surrender nine
Schiele works, valued at more than $10 million, to Grünbaum’s heirs.
 
Now the heirs, Timothy Reif, David Fraenkel and Milos Vavra, are pursuing
legal claims in New York that seek the return of 13 additional works by
Schiele held by three museums, the Albertina and the Leopold in Austria,
and the Art Institute of Chicago. The heirs argue in court papers that
these works, which include a well-known painting, “Dead City III,” held by
the Leopold, were also stolen from Grünbaum and were never in the
possession of his sister-in-law, Mathilde Lukacs.
Raymond Dowd, the heir’s lawyer, wrote in a federal suit filed in December
against the two Austrian museums that the Lukacs story has long been
derided by Holocaust scholars “as implausible because Lukacs was herself
imprisoned in Belgium during World War II after escaping Vienna.”
Kornfeld’s account was first publicly aired in 1998 when “Dead City III,” a
moody 1911 portrait of the Czech town of Cesky Krumlov where Schiele lived
in 1910, was briefly seized as looted in New York by then Manhattan
District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. The work was ultimately returned to
the Leopold museum in Austria.
Grünbaum was taken away by the Nazis, but some holders of art work he once
owned do not agree that his collection was also confiscated.Credit...Getty
Images William Charron, the lawyer who represents the Leopold Museum, declined to be interviewed. But in its court filings, the museum has argued that the plaintiffs are too late in making their claim and that the federal court in
Manhattan where the heirs filed their lawsuits does not have jurisdiction.
 
The museum said in its legal filing that it is also relying on a federal
court decision in which the judge ruled against the Grünbaum heirs in a
dispute over another Schiele. That judge found that the lawsuit was also
filed too late and that documents provided by Kornfeld supported his
account of having bought the works from the sister-in-law, Lukacs. (The
heirs have challenged the authenticity of those documents, which include a
receipt said to have been signed by Lukacs.)
The Art Institute of Chicago, which holds the Schiele drawing “Russian
Prisoner of War,” and is being sued separately by the Grünbaum heirs, has
also argued that the claim is time-barred and that the earlier federal case
decided that the Nazis had never seized the collection. The drawing in
Chicago is also the subject of a seizure order by the Manhattan district
attorney’s office, which the museum is contesting. The Art Institute has
countersued the Grünbaum heirs for “a declaration of title” to the artwork.
Spokesmen for the Leopold and Albertina museums, which are owned by the
government of Austria, declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
A spokesman for the Art Institute wrote in an email, “We are confident in
our legal acquisition and lawful possession of this work.”
 
So far, Reif, a judge on the U.S. Court of International Trade, and
Fraenkel, a former commercial banker, have secured the return of more than
a dozen Schieles they argue were taken from Grünbaum. (Vavra is retired and
lives in the Czech Republic.)
The return of seven Schieles was announced in late September by
Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan District Attorney, whose office convinced three
museums and two collectors to surrender the works. The Museum of Modern Art and the Morgan Library in New York were among the group that returned
works, as was the art collector and former U.S. ambassador to Austria,
Ronald Lauder. He gave back a watercolor, “I Love Antithesis,” a
self-portrait of the artist created in 1912. In an interview, Reif said the seven Schieles will be sold by Christie’s, in two sales this month, with the proceeds going to the Grünbaum Fischer Foundation, which supports underrepresented artists. More recently, three additional institutions, the Carnegie Museums, in
Pittsburgh; the Allen Memorial Art Museum, at Oberlin College; and the
Vally Sabarsky Trust in New York have agreed to surrender Schiele artworks formerly owned by Grünbaum.
 
Grünbaum assembled his collection of Schiele after the artist’s death in
1918 from the Spanish flu. The New York investigators have agreed with the
plaintiffs that Grünbaum’s wife was forced to turn over his art collection
to Nazi officials when her husband was imprisoned in 1938. Investigators
say there is evidence that the Nazis, who viewed Schiele’s work as
degenerate and thus disposable, put it in a warehouse in Austria. The
investigators have not addressed specifically how they believe Kornfeld
obtained the Schieles, if not from Lukacs. But in a press statement they
pointed to a longstanding business relationship Kornfeld had with the son
of the art dealer Hildebrand Gurlittwhom the Nazis assigned the task of selling off “degenerate art.” Kornfeld, however, has said that, instead of being diffused in multiple sales, that most of the Grünbaum Schieles were maintained as a collection, one ultimately held by Grünbaum ’s sister-in-law who was herself persecuted by the Nazis and fled Vienna for Brussels in 1941. By Kornfeld’s account, the Schiele works escaped with her.

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Reposted from ARTnews

A Russian airstrike on the strategic Black Sea port of Odesa wounded at least eight people on Sunday night and damaged one of the city’s major art institutions, Odesa officials reported.

According to a statement from Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, a missile launched by Russia caused significant damage to the Odesa Fine Arts Museum, one of the most important Tsarist-era palaces in Odesa’s historic city center. 

“On November 6, the Odesa National Art Museum turns 124 years old,” Andriy Yermak, head of the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in a statement.” On the eve of Nov. 6, the Russians ‘congratulated’ our architectural monument with a missile that hit nearby.”

A video posted by the Odesa city council to social media showed shattered windows and a ruined interior of the once-stately structure; outside, workers assess craters gouged in the streets by the air strikes. The city’s port infrastructure also took damage, with strategic warehouses and vehicles carrying grain set on fire.

Odesa, a centuries-old crossroads for European and Asian cultures and cherished for its architectural landmarks, including the Odesa Opera House and the 19th century Tolstoy Palace, has been the target of Russian bombing since its invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. That July, an aerial assault on the city resulted in the destruction of part of the Odesa Museum of Modern Art and Odesa Museum of Fine Arts. UNESCO condemned the destruction “in the strongest terms” and has funded repairs to both museums and financed efforts to digitize artworks and provide protective equipment.

The historic center of the city was declared an endangered World Heritage Site earlier this year following a formal appeal from Zelenskyy to the United Nations.

The Odesa Museum of Fine Arts housed more than 12,000 works before the war, but nearly the whole collection was transported for safekeeping by the museum employees in February 2022.

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Reposted from BBC

Two Just Stop Oil protesters have been arrested after glass protecting the Rokeby Venus painting at the National Gallery in London was smashed. The Met Police said two activists had been arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage. Just Stop Oil named the pair as Hanan, 22, and Harrison, 20, and said safety hammers were used to smash the glass. Meanwhile, police said about 100 Just Stop Oil protesters were arrested after slow marching in the road at Whitehall. The vandalized artwork, by Diego Velazquez in the 1600s, was previously slashed by suffragette Mary Richardson in 1914.

Following the latest incident, Just Stop Oil (JSO) said: "Women did not get the vote by voting, it is time for deeds not words. It is time to Just Stop Oil. Politics is failing us. It failed women in 1914 and it is failing us now. New oil and gas will kill millions. If we love art, if we love life, if we love our families we must Just Stop Oil." There had been reports that activists had targeted the Cenotaph memorial - action that has been criticized by MPs and the mayor - but the group and the police have denied these claims. Sadiq Khan and Labour's shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, both said that targeting the monument was "unacceptable" in X posts now deleted. Tory party deputy chairman Lee Anderson said that JSO were "now stuck to the Cenotaph" as he shared a picture on social media site X. 

The activists said they had been moved to the base of the monument after shutting down traffic on Whitehall, an account supported by one officer at the scene. The Met Police confirmed that there were no offences linked to the Cenotaph and no protester glued themselves to the road. They added that the arrests were made for breaching section 7 of the Public Order Act at various points between Trafalgar Square, Parliament Square and near to the Cenotaph. Protesters failing to engage with officers can be arrested under section seven of the Public Order Act introduced this year. It states that an arrest can be made if their actions "interfere with the use or operation of any key national infrastructure in England and Wales". 

The government said the new measures would not ban protests, but "only prevent a small minority of individuals from causing serious disruption to the daily lives of the public". Human rights group Liberty responded to the arrests, saying: "The use of this new power is a dangerous escalation of the attack on the right to protest, with protesters potentially facing up to a year in prison for standing up for what they believe in. "These arrests are a clear attempt to criminalize people for exercising that right. The government, in passing these new laws, has tried to make it even harder for the public to stand up to power." A series of Just Stop Oil protests have taken place in recent days, including on Wednesday when more than 30 people were charged after blocking Earl's Court Road.

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Reposted from The Art Newspaper

The terms of reference record that “the ongoing detailed audit of affected objects is likely to take longer” than the compilation of the
review’s report, suggesting that identifying the losses will be a complex
operation.
 The review is also responsible for recording “failures of controls,
processes or policies” which contributed to the losses and to make
recommendations for improvements. Significantly, they will also examine the
performance of the board of trustees to examine “whether actions taken or
not taken” were reasonable and whether improvements should be made.
 It was not until last October that the BM’s board of trustees, chaired by
former chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne, received proper
information and began to take the allegations seriously. In January 2023,
the Metropolitan Police were finally called in to investigate and the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport was informed about the gravity of
the loss.
 The independent review will now liaise with the police. Bilson, the
museum’s head of security, is to be responsible for “coordinating support
for the criminal investigation”.
 Finally, the review will establish and carry out a program to attempt to
recover the antiquities, which may involve “civil litigation against
persons suspected of possessing missing affected objects”. This suggests
that further recoveries could take a long time.
 The report of the independent review is due to be presented to the next
meeting of the BM trustees, which is expected to be held in early December.
It will also be submitted to the secretary of state at the Department of
Culture, Media and Sport, Lucy Frazer, and her permanent secretary,
Susannah Storey. This indicates that the issue has caused deep concern to
the government.
 In the meantime, BM staff and external individuals have a duty of
confidentiality in assisting the review. The co-chairs will have “the right
of immediate and unrestricted access to all records, assets, personnel and
premises” to obtain information. Along with Osborne, the chair of the audit
committee of the trustees, Vivian Hunt, will also play an important role in
monitoring the review process.
 The review report “will be kept confidential”. The museum’s trustees will
only be able to publish it in whole or part with the approval of the three
co-chairs.

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Reposted from RAAJJE

The government has reached the decision to submit the text of the ‘UNESCO 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property’ for approval from the People’s Majlis. President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih reached the decision to sign the treaty empowering the protection of cultural and archaeological objects, following a meeting with his Cabinet of Ministers held on Tuesday. The cabinet recommended to sign the convention, following discussions on a paper submitted by the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Heritage.

The ‘UNESCO 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property’ is a treaty that empowers the protection of cultural and archaeological objects. A total of 143 nations have signed the treaty so far. Prohibiting and preventing the illicit import, export, and transfer of ownership of cultural property has become crucial due to the ongoing loss of cultural and archaeological legacy impacting the studies of history and historical events of Maldives. Maldives' signing the convention will pave the path for easier efforts to prevent similar incidents from reoccurring and obtain technical assistance from UNESCO in these areas. The pact makes it more feasible for unlawfully acquired antiques and papers to return to the Maldives, in compliance with current laws and regulations. Further, it will facilitate the implementation of Act No. 2019/12 (Heritage Act) and the rules issued in connection with this act.

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Reposted from MA

The museum sector has been the target of several climate protests this week. Museums and galleries are on alert after protesters from the climate activist group Just Stop Oil damaged a painting at the National Gallery.

In the incident on 6 November, the two activists used emergency safety hammers to smash the glass protecting The Toilet of Venus (1647-1651) by Diego Velázquez. Better known as the “Rokeby Venus”, the nude painting was famously slashed by the suffragette Mary Richardson in 1914. The activists entered Room 30 in the gallery just before 11am to vandalize the painting. One of them then declared: “Women did not get the vote by voting; it is time for deeds not words. It is time to Just Stop Oil. “Politics is failing us. It failed women in 1914 and it is failing us now. New oil and gas will kill millions. If we love art, if we love life, if we love our families we must Just Stop Oil.” The room was cleared of visitors and the two protesters, named by Just Stop Oil as Hannan (22) and Harrison (20), were arrested by police on suspicion of criminal damage. In a statement, the National Gallery said: “The painting has now been removed from display and is being examined by conservators. “Room 30 was reopened just after 12.30pm with A Dead Soldier, Italian (17th century) replacing The Toilet of Venus.”

Just Stop Oil has vowed to continue with its strategy of civil resistance and direct action until the UK Government commits to ending new fossil fuel licensing and production. Meanwhile, activists from the environmental action group Extinction Rebellion demonstrated outside the Museums Association Conference 2023 in Newcastle-Gateshead on 7 November in protest at the fossil fuel stance taken by the Science Museum Group (SMG). The group's director Ian Blatchford was speaking at the conference. Protester Anne Blair-Vincent said: "I’m deeply saddened that the Science Museum continues to accept sponsorship from fossil fuel companies which are driving the climate emergency." The SMG has strongly defended its position on fossil fuel sponsorship, saying that energy companies will be key players in finding solutions to the climate crisis. In light of the protests, the heritage insurance group Ecclesiastical has urged museums and galleries to be vigilant and review their security arrangements, and to take proactive steps to protect artworks and exhibits from being targeted.

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Reposted from Equal Times

In September 2023, one year after the launch of the PROCHE project, Bart Ouvry, director of the Africa Museum, the former colonial museum built by Leopold II near Brussels, travelled to Kinshasa to strengthen cooperation and cultural exchange programs between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Belgium.

Led by Célia Charkaoui, PROCHE is a project looking into the origins of the works and objects currently in the museum’s collections, the vast majority of which come from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Plundered by Belgian colonialists, these collections bear witness to a violent colonial past. Today, they could not only provide fertile ground for reconstructing history but also for reparation between the two countries.

This new cooperation is part of a wider series of programs launched by a number of European institutions, in France, the Netherlands and elsewhere, in response to requests from the countries colonized.

Although Belgium’s colonial rule of the DRC officially ended in 1960, when it gained independence, the country’s colonial history and its impact are as topical today as ever. In November 2022, the Congolese minister of culture, Catherine Kathungu Furaha, presented a decree, which has since been approved, calling for the repatriation of the goods, archives and human remains still owned by Belgium, the vast majority of which are in the collections of the Africa Museum.

The decree has led to the establishment of a national commission for the repatriation of these items, as well as more intensive exchanges between the National Museum of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Kinshasa and the Africa Museum. A future bilateral agreement between the DRC and Belgium is also being discussed.

While the repatriation of goods stolen during the colonial period is a key issue, the word ‘restitution’ in the DRC refers to a much broader concept. The term refers more readily to a long process involving not only the reconstruction of history but also the reconstitution of knowledge, particularly among local Congolese communities.

Five researchers are currently working in the archives of the Africa Museum as part of the PROCHE program, for a period of three months, to gather information enabling the history of the objects to be retraced, so that they can be handed over to the families, villages and communities to whom they belong.

The example of the Suku Kakuungu mask, currently on display at the Kinshasa museum as part of an indefinite loan from Belgium, shows that the choice of objects and the framework for their restitution should come from the DRC.

Placide Mumbembele, a professor at the University of Kinshasa and a specialist in restitution issues, explains that this loan, and the tensions it has reignited between certain communities, illustrate the extent to which the exchanges are still very unilateral. He suggests that this should be redressed, not only by including local Congolese communities in the discussions, but also by starting with the repatriation of one symbolic object per province, which amounts to 26 objects in all, as soon as possible.

More than just a physical transfer of looted objects, it is a matter of governance. For instance, an immediate symbolic transfer of ownership would reverse the balance of power, as the DRC would be lending the objects to Belgium, rather than the other way round.

The law passed in Belgium in June 2022, recognizing “the alienable nature of property linked to the colonial past of the Belgian state and establishing a legal framework for its restitution and return”, together with the Belgian King’s visit to Kinshasa, is viewed in the DRC as inadequate, and even as evidence of North-South relations still based on an unequal balance of power. The fact that archives (photographs, diaries, etc.) and human remains are excluded from the Belgian law on restitution reveals a clear lack of cooperation.

In this regard, Placide Mumbembele notes that in Europe, “restitution is still presented as a transfer from North to South, whereas it should be a two-way flow, an exchange of goods and ideas”. He mentions ways of addressing this, such as holding scientific colloquiums on Congolese soil, so that knowledge can also be spread from South to North, as well as inter-museum loans, putting African and Western museums on an equal footing.

Financing research and heritage conservation and preservation is another key issue, as highlighted by the scientific committee of the National Museums Institute of the Congo (IMNC). As Henry Bundjoko, director of the National Museum of the Democratic Republic of Congo, points out, “the expertise of the Congolese, through their knowledge of the terrain and communities, is crucial in filling the historical gaps left by colonization”.

The focus must therefore be on open dialogue, with multiple voices, between Belgian and Congolese museums, between their scientific experts, and also between Congolese civil society and Belgium’s institutions, which must be prepared to listen to this plurality of views.

Research into the origins of objects, access to archives and scientific work on the heritage that is still in Belgium are key to establishing equal and lasting relations; this work must therefore be assessed and implemented by Congolese researchers, who are in direct contact with the source communities.

With the launch of the SMART project at the Africa Museum, work is being done to promote “ethical management and the empowerment of museum and material heritage networks in the DRC”. The aim is to provide institutional support, through training, academic reinforcement and technical assistance, for Congolese museums and people in the cultural sector.

As part of the provenance research, the history of the objects that have been analyzed can now also be retraced, thanks to a small pink pictogram entitled “provenance”, which provides a complete history of the objects.

For Amzat Boukari Yabara, a Beninese-Martinican historian specializing in Pan-Africanism, the initiative is essential. Museums, he says, “should not be art museums but history museums”, with an objective that is educational, not a fetishization of exotic objects presented to Europeans.

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