[MSN] Art treasures were stolen, Cuban government believes. But curator says he's 'never even heard' of Cuba's wish to have collection returned.

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Art treasures were stolen, Cuban government believes
 TheStar.com - Travel - Art treasures were stolen, Cuban government believes
 
But curator says he's 'never even heard' of Cuba's wish to have collection
returned

August 30, 2007 
Vivian Macdonald
Special to the Star

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.-No one's saying much about it but a quiet tug-of war
seems to be going on over a collection of precious Cuban art treasures
housed here.

The collection was given to the Museum of Arts and Science in Tuscawilla
Park in the 1950s by then-Cuban president Fulgencio Batista.

But was it a private collection or did it belong to the Cuban people? The
Cuban government says Batista, who was ousted by Fidel Castro in 1959, stole
art and also bought paintings and sculpture with money from the nation's
treasury. And it is said to want the collection back. 

"I've never ever heard that," says curator David Swoyr. "As I understand it,
these were his (Batista's) paintings in the national gallery" of Cuba. 

There is no official word on the Daytona collection. Calls to the Cuban
embassy in Ottawa were not returned.

During his rule, Batista and his wife owned a home in Daytona Beach,
building the collection that became his legacy to the city. They created the
Cuban Foundation to oversee the collection and grandson Roberto is still a
member of the foundation board and lives in the area.

The Cuban art collection is said to be the largest outside that country,
containing rare 18th, 19th and 20th-century maps, documents, lithographs,
paintings and sculpture. It originally consisted of 27 paintings, 45
ceramics, items of folk culture, photos of Cuban architecture and industry,
and some ornate furniture but more has since been donated.

The Museum of Arts and Sciences also has impressive collections of African
art, European and Chinese decorative arts, the Nancy and Gilbert Levine
Collection of 19th-century jewellery and the Olga Hirshhorn collection of
130 Ashante gold objects. 

"I had gone to see Olga Hirshhorn about some bronze figures," says Swoyr,
with a grin. "She sent me up to the attic and when I unwrapped them, they
were gold.

"I told Olga - they're gold. `Oh, well, just take them,' she said. 

"Imagine, gold!" 

At the other end of the building is the eclectic Root collection, the gift
of an eccentric family who had moved from Indiana to Daytona Beach.

"They owned the patent to the Coca-Cola bottle," Swoyr explains. "Their
glass company designed and made the first Coke bottles and they actually had
the rights to package Coca-Cola.

"So the wonderful Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta is all about the syrup and the
stuff in the bottle, and we're all about the bottle and the packaging." 

Naturally, there's a collection of Coke memorabilia, including a delivery
truck bought in 1922 for $15.

The museum also owns Gamble Place, the Spruce Creek hunting lodge once owned
by James Gamble, the son of a founder of Procter and Gamble, and credited
with inventing Ivory soap.

Jan McCormick, curator of history responsible for the Spruce Creek site
tells us about Ivory soap.

"It was actually one of the workers who forgot to turn off the blenders when
they went to lunch so it was whipping and beating and mixing and when they
came back from lunch, instead of throwing out the soap, they went ahead and
made up the bars and sent them out and forgot about it.

"A little bit later, they were contacted by the distributor who said,
`People are asking for more of that floating white soap.'" 

James Gamble was among "the first snowbirds down here," says McCormick. 

"He loved to hunt and fish and when he discovered the land at Spruce Creek
(west of Daytona Beach), he was enchanted."

"He ran across the owner, George Lefman, in 1898, planting a citrus grove.
They went into George's shack and when they came out, George Lefman had $600
and James Gamble 150 acres."

Close by is a small log house with a large stone chimney called the Snow
White house. 

Built in 1937 by Gamble's son-in-law, Judge Alfred Nippert three months
after the release of the movie version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,
it is a replica of the Black Forest-style home of the seven dwarfs and
includes a stairway to nowhere, with seven tiny headboards bearing the names
Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy and Sneezy.

"I think he (Nippert) had the soul of a child," says guide Carole Benge.

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