[MSN] Thefts Focus Attention on Lax Security at Turkey's Museums

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June 13, 2006 New York Times



Thefts Focus Attention on Lax Security at Turkey's Museums
By SEBNEM ARSU

ISTANBUL, June 12 ‹ The theft of some rare artifacts from a remote museum is
focusing attention on how casually Turkey guards its art treasures, even
ones it once fought to reclaim from institutions abroad like the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Turkey is home to around 3,000 ancient cities and is thought to have more
ancient Greek artifacts than modern-day Greece. The government runs 93
museums and more than 140 open-air archaeological sites. But a shortfall of
funds makes it difficult to guard those museums and sites or even to catalog
their contents accurately.

The country's culture and tourism minister, Atilla Koc, announced recently
that an undisclosed number of objects ‹ part of the Lydian Hoard, a trove of
objects recovered from the Met in 1993 after a long legal battle ‹ had been
stolen from a museum in Usak in western Turkey and replaced with copies. The
government prosecutor's office said this month that nine people, including
the director of the museum, had been detained as suspects.

And on Friday Mr. Koc (pronounced coach) acknowledged at a news conference
that 43 objects were missing from the one of the country's best-patrolled
museums: the Topkapi Palace Museum here. He declined to specify which items
had disappeared or to estimate their value, saying only that they had been
reported missing in a recent report by ministry inspectors. "We assigned a
committee in May to do research on the missing objects, and punishment will
follow the final results," Mr. Koc said. He refused to elaborate.

Ahmet Tirpan, the chairman of the country's Archaeology Association, which
is based here, said he was not surprised by the latest revelations.

"Thieves have already made into most of the museums in Turkey and stole
numerous invaluable pieces, which did not receive as much media attention as
the objects from the Lydian Hoard collection did ‹ because they were not
returned from the U.S." Mr. Tirpan said. "I'll bet the objects missing from
Topkapi will be the stock of conversation of few intellectuals for some
time, and then be forgotten."

That the heist in Usak is viewed as an inside job is of little comfort to
government cultural officials as they contend with international
embarrassment and, more serious, the nagging scarcity of funds. Just 1,500
people make up the staff of the country's museums, 700 fewer than the
ministry's official guidelines suggest.

"We know that these are not very bright figures," said Orhan Duzgun,
Turkey's director general of museums and cultural resources. "After all,
it's always an issue of sufficient budget, and we are on the Finance
Ministry's waiting list."

In its current budget the Culture Ministry is allotted $66 million to cover
museum administration costs, archaeological digs, salaries of art experts
and laboratory workers who maintain the collections and guards who patrol
galleries and warehouses.

Although 78 of the country's 93 state museums are equipped with electronic
security systems, archaeologists in the field assert that those systems
often malfunction or are insufficient.

Thorough museum inventories, crucial to security measures, are rarely taken
in Turkey's museums. And of the objects that have been documented in display
cases or in warehouse storage, experts say, many were registered by
unqualified workers lacking critical reference information.

"Vases from both the Byzantine and Neolithic periods, for example, might
have been listed under the category of 'vases,' without any details," Dr.
Tirpan said. "This makes it impossible to track these objects individually
and acts as an open invitation to internal or external theft."

As in many other archaeological source countries in the region, open-air
sites lack security guards for round-the-clock security, although most
looting occurs there.

Last year emergency funds were shifted from tourism to help fill the gap in
museum staffs, allowing officials to hire 80 archaeologists and art
historians on a freelance basis. But many more are needed.

Of the 93 state museums, 9 are closed for lack of funds, although that is an
improvement from the 31 that were closed the previous year. Opening the
doors is considered a big risk when staffs are minimal.

The theft in Usak has also raised questions about the reliability of the
personnel who are hired. "You can maintain external security," Mr. Koc said,
"but we haven't yet invented a tool to protect museums from the people
inside."

Like Italy and Greece, Turkey has been aggressive in seeking the return of
looted or stolen objects that make their way into museum collections abroad.

The Lydian Hoard, the 363 objects returned by the Met, is a collection of
the artwork of the Lydian kingdom, which flourished in western Asia Minor in
the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. under the rule of King Croesus, whose
name became synonymous with riches. It includes pitchers, bowls and ladles
and jewelry of gold, silver, carnelian and glass; among the items known to
have been stolen from the Usak museum was a golden brooch in the form of a
hippocampus, a winged sea monster.

The pieces were acquired by the Met through a series of gifts in the 1960's.
A few years later the Turkish government charged that the objects had been
looted from tombs in the Usak area just before the museum acquired them. The
Turkish government did not institute its formal legal action until 1987.
Negotiations dragged on for years before the Met handover in 1993.

Ozgen Acar, an arts specialist whose studies on the Lydian Hoard helped
Turkey stake its claim, said that the Usak theft was part of a larger
picture involving an overwhelming threat to Turkey's national heritage.

He has pleaded for financial support from the international community,
especially Western nations with high per capita incomes. "If there is an
issue of protection in any country, wealthy in heritage but poor
financially, it should be the responsibility of the nations poor in heritage
but rich in finance to extend a helping hand," he said.

Turkey is a candidate for European Union membership, but that status does
not confer access to financing. Still, its candidacy has had an impact on
cultural legislation here, since Turkey must adopt legal reforms to align
its museum management standards with those of European Union nations.

A law adopted in 2004 foresees a shift of authority to the local government
offices from the Culture Ministry in Ankara, the capital, not only to bypass
the bureaucracy but also to give the museums the freedom to raise their own
funds in cooperation with local officials.

Management of the 23 high-profile museums overseen by the Culture Ministry
will be restructured with a three-director system, separating management,
promotion and fundraising functions.

Since the reforms were adopted in 2004, only the Topkapi Palace Museum has
been accorded a professional manager. The finance ministry has not yet
approved additional staff positions for the other museums.

"Laws do not mean anything unless there is a strong mentality and public
awareness that holds all together," said Orhan Silier, chairman of the
History Foundation, another Istanbul-based institution. "Public
consciousness is what protects a nation's historical heritage."

Some cultural champions look to the young generation as a potential champion
of the preservation of Turkey's cultural past. But few museums have reached
out in a concerted way to the young.

"Museum visits are terribly primitive in Turkey and teach the child
absolutely nothing," Mr. Silier complained. "When museum visits mean
entrance from one door, strolling around in silence with strict orders not
to touch anything around and exiting from the back door, one cannot possibly
expect these children to grow into culturally conscious citizens."

As for disappearing artifacts, the Culture Ministry regularly posts updates
at its Web site, www. kultur.gov.tr. Experts warn that these figures are
doomed to rise if immediate measures are not taken.

Dr. Tirpan of the Archaeology Association said, "Turkish people should see
beyond the fame of the collections and be educated to demand better care of
our heritage, if not for themselves, for the world's future generations."




   
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