Tag: 11.16.05

Swiss police have seized paintings belonging to the Pushkin Museum. “The 25 paintings – part of a collection on loan to an exhibit in Martigny – were seized on behalf of a local firm which claims Russia owes it money. The Pierre Gianadda Foundation display, which included works by Manet, Renoir, Picasso and Matisse, was said to have been insured for $1bn (£597m). The company, Noga, said it was owed money for food deliveries in the 1990s.”

“Behind this shift, museum directors, curators and lawyers say, are broad changes in the way source countries are pursuing and enforcing cultural property claims – and the public’s perception of those claims. Caught in the cross hairs, museums face pressure to clean up their act and embrace rigorous standards for future acquisitions – and to return prized works acquired in past decades. ‘In the eyes of the public, there is a sense that the museum is a greedy hoarder of ill-gotten goods, in opposition to the legitimate claims of the powerless’.”

Ex-Getty curator Marion True appears in Rome for the start of her trial for trafficking in stolen antiquities. “True, together with art dealer Robert Hecht, denies two separate charges involving 35 artefacts bought between 1986 and the late 1990s. They include bronze Etruscan pieces, frescoes, and painted Greek Vessels. The Getty museum has stood by Ms True’s work. She left the court after the hearing without comment.”

A new survey of rural buildings in England says that “at least a tenth of all old buildings urgently need repairs, and thousands of listed buildings and structures are classified as in severe disrepair, many on the point of collapse. One survey suggests that within 20 years all the timber-framed farm buildings in Hertfordshire will either have collapsed, or been converted – a pattern which the authors suspect is mirrored across the country.”