[MSN] Museums Feel the Pinch of Stolen Art

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*Museums Feel the Pinch of Stolen Art*

*Sunday Times* (Johannesburg)
NEWS
October 8, 2006
Posted to the web October 9, 2006

By Nashira Davids
Johannesburg

MORE than 14,000 heritage objects have been stolen from museums, 
galleries, castles and even churches across South Africa in just four 
years.

To combat the looting of the country's treasures, no fewer than six 
government departments and cultural organisations have joined forces to 
nail criminals in the business of cultural robbery.

The Stolen Heritage Objects Awareness campaign is now in full swing. 
Next week all museums, galleries and even police stations will exhibit 
posters showing six of the country's most-wanted stolen artworks -- in 
the hope that someone might have information on where to find them. The 
list includes:

•An oil-on-canvas painting by the late Gerard Sekoto entitled The 
Gardener. It was stolen from a university in the Eastern Cape in 1999;

•Another Sekoto masterpiece, Hotela Bantu, stolen in the same year from 
the same university collection;

•Pierneef's Near Golden Gate, which was ripped from a wall in the SABC's 
Johannesburg headquarters last year. Its estimated value was R5-million;

•A ceramic jar stolen in Cape Town in 2004. The jar is a Catholic piece 
from the 17th or 18th century;

•An animal totem sculpture by Henriette Ngako snatched in Pretoria last 
year; and

•A Moses Seleko sculpture called The Gumboot Dance, also stolen in 
Pretoria last year.

Gerhard de Kamper from the South African Museums Association said: "The 
theft and smuggling of heritage objects was flagged by Interpol as one 
of the top three problem areas in the world."

He said paintings, ceramics, period posters and even poison bottles 
dating back to the 18th century were stolen daily -- but these thefts 
are often not reported to police.

Galleries, De Kamper said, were especially guilty of failing to report 
theft because they feared it would be bad for business if word got out 
that valuable pieces were stolen from under their noses.

Private collectors were also not willing to make public just how many 
valuable pieces they had -- or went missing.

This made it hard to determine exactly how many heritage objects had 
vanished over the years, he said.

Before the launch of the campaign in Pretoria, police compiled 
statistics from reports between 2001 and 2004.

"Statistics show that 14009 objects were stolen from museums, libraries, 
parks, research centres and churches. These are the latest figures 
available. And yet things disappear at an alarming rate.

"But this is not the exact figure. These are only figures based on those 
who decided to come forward to report thefts," he said.

Irwin Langeveld, an official in the Department of Arts and Culture, 
conceded that the plan of action might be rather late.

"Our movable heritage objects are at risk of being looted and moved out 
of the country and we have to find ways to protect it. The process is 
starting at a late stage, I acknowledge, to try to find ways to prevent 
this from happening," he said.

While experts like De Kamper said thefts of valuable pieces at 
Parliament were a well-known problem, Langeveld said it wasn't known 
exactly what had been stolen because "we don't know exactly what there 
is at Parliament".

In the past the Sunday Times revealed that a valuable tea set, a R200000 
diamond ring and several paintings had vanished from Parliament.

But Parliament has never had a full-time curator to oversee its 
collection of artworks, furniture or even cutlery or crockery.

According to Langeveld, all national government departments and many 
local government offices owned artworks and heritage objects. Now it is 
up to the South African Heritage and Resources Agency to account for 
every piece.

With funding from the Department of Arts and Culture, it has embarked on 
an audit of all government buildings to compile a national list of 
items. These will go into a database, which will be used by customs and 
port officials.

"The idea is to train authorities like the SA Police Service and customs 
and port authorities to spot valuable pieces ... As soon as they spot an 
object they will access the database," said Langeveld.

The department also announced recently that it was ratifying the Unesco 
convention on the protection of underwater heritage to hamper the sale 
of cargo which might be taken from shipwrecks.

"According to archival material, South Africa has 3000 shipwrecks 
[along] its coastline, but the locations of only approximately 300 
wrecks are known," it said in a statement.

Superintendent Bernadine Benson, head of the Endangered Species Unit, 
said it was easy to steal from museums because they could not afford 
sophisticated surveillance systems.

And there was little success in catching criminals.

"That is exactly why we launched this campaign, not only to sensitise 
police but the public too."

Benson said often South African heritage objects surfaced in Europe or 
on online auction sites.

Captain Ben Janse van Rensburg from Interpol South Africa said this week 
14 stolen South African items were added to the Interpol list, bringing 
it to a total of 45.

Also this week, several World War Two medals and a marble plaque were 
reported missing.

Janse van Rensburg said Interpol was investigating four people in South 
Africa running syndicates but he couldn't elaborate.

And the most problematic province, he said, was the Western Cape. "This 
is where objects are stolen, but also where heritage objects from other 
African countries surface. It is smuggled to the Cape where it is sold."

http://allafrica.com/