[CPProt.net] Thefts at Everhart Museum part of growing problem in with the old dr. lori verderame

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Posted on Sat, Dec. 10, 2005 
 

Thefts at Everhart Museum part of growing problem in with the old dr. lori
verderame


IN THE WEE HOURS of the morning on Nov. 18, two works of art were stolen
from the Everhart Museum in Scranton.

A non-objective drip painting by Jackson Pollock (1912-56) in the abstract
expressionist's mature and characteristic style, on loan to the Everhart
from a private collector, was stolen from the Everhart's galleries along
with a 1984 late-career silkscreen by pop-art icon Andy Warhol (1930-87)
from the museum's permanent collection.

Scranton police said the sophisticated heist took less than 10 minutes from
start to finish. After breaking into the museum through a glass door at the
rear, the thieves removed the two major 20th-century American works of art,
leaving all other artwork and areas of the museum undisturbed. The heist
took place not far from a gallery where the Everhart was hosting an
exhibition of Pennsylvania Impressionist paintings on loan from Doylestown's
James A. Michener Art Museum. The paintings in the Pennsylvania
Impressionist exhibit remain intact.

Selling stolen art

As a specialist in 20th-century American art, a former museum director and a
certified art and antiques appraiser, I was asked to comment on the Everhart
theft for WNEP-TV Channel 16. I think that, as is the case with the
horrifying and growing number of art thefts on the world stage, it is
unlikely the Everhart pieces will surface anytime soon or that the thieves
will have an easy time reselling the masterpieces. Typically, stolen artwork
is stashed underground for many years, and within hours, it becomes nearly
impossible to resell. Why? Because stolen art is posted on the FBI's Art
Crimes List and the New York and London-based Art Loss Registry very
quickly. These art-crime watchdogs publicized the Everhart robbery to the
mass media, appraisers, auction houses, art dealers, curators and museums
worldwide just hours after the theft took place in Scranton. With such art
crimes, it is much easier to steal a major work of art from a museum than it
is to sell a famous and highly publicized stolen work of art.

The ABC WNEP TV interviewer asked me, "What did the Everhart Museum staff do
wrong in this case?" In my opinion, the Everhart did nothing wrong, but
security could ALWAYS be tighter in every museum.

Historically, every museum needs tighter security; however, budgets don't
always allow for the most updated technology or desired number of qualified,
round-the-clock staff. Everhart officials said that while an alarm sounded,
surveillance cameras were not working at the time of the 2:30 a.m. theft.
Unfortunately, the non-working cameras are only part of the security problem
in any museum and in the case of this museum robbery.

In most cases, art thefts in museums and other public institutions are
usually directly linked to insider information, knowledge of possible
security breaches and ease of access. In short, it's probable that the
thieves most likely knew the museum, its security shortcomings and that
valuable artwork was inside even though many locals were surprised to learn
that such precious and high-priced works of art were in their neighborhood
museum.

FBI's Top Ten

Based on actual sales records of similar pieces, the value of the stolen
artwork has catapulted the Everhart Museum theft to the FBI's Top Ten Art
Crimes list. The Everhart theft will be listed along with such major art
crimes as Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (1990, loss of $410
million), Sweden's National Museum (2000, $49 million), the Van Gogh Museum
(2002, $41 million), and the Iraqi National Museum (2003, $100
million-plus). The FBI unveiled its Top Ten Art Crimes list only days before
the Everhart heist took place. Interpol estimates that art crimes rank third
among worldwide property theft, costing an estimated $8.2 billion annually.

Comparative sales records indicate that another, somewhat similar Jackson
Pollock drip painting also produced in 1949 like the stolen Everhart piece
set an auction record for Pollock when it sold in 2004. Pollock's Number 12,
a 1949 oil on canvas sold from the vast collection of New York's Museum of
Modern Art, set an auction record for Pollock when it sold for $11,655,500
in 2004. Based on actual sales of similar Pollocks, the stolen Everhart
painting called "Spring's Winter," also an oil on canvas from 1949, has an
estimated value between $8 million and $10 million. The stolen Pollock,
"Spring's Winter," was one of only a few masterworks completed by the
post-war artist during a brief period of sobriety in the late 1940s. The
stolen Andy Warhol piece, a typical pop-art serigraph called "Le Grand
Passion" from 1984, is worth about $10,000.

Everhart history

The Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science & Art, in Scranton's Nay Aug
Park, was founded by Dr. Isaiah Everhart in 1908. A Scranton physician, Dr.
Everhart served in the Civil War and assembled a nationally recognized
natural-history collection of birds and animals native to Pennsylvania that
he donated along with estate funds to the museum that bears his name. After
Dr. Everhart's death in 1911, the Everhart Museum grew into the diverse
educational institution that appropriately serves its community with
exhibits from its esteemed natural-history and science component and
permanent collection of American art.

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