[MSN] Turkey. 'If the thief is inside, no lock will hold'

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

'If the thief is inside, no lock will hold'
Sunday, September 10, 2006

ANKARA - Turkish Daily News

  Tourism and Culture Minister Atilla Koç said on Friday in reference to a
theft at the Uşak Museum that he has done everything possible since assuming
office to increase security at museums around the country, adding, however,
that no lock can stop a thief who is already inside the house. 

  Speaking in Malatya, where he was attending a ceremony, Koç said it was
the ministry that had uncovered the theft in Uşak. 

  An investigation sparked by a tip-off revealed that a winged seahorse
brooch in the famed Lydian Hoard at the Uşak Museum had been replaced by a
fake. 

  The embarrassment over the theft was compounded by the fact that the famed
2,500-year-old collection, known in Turkey as the Karun Treasure, was
repatriated only in 1993 after a lengthy legal battle with New York's
Metropolitan Museum of Art that reportedly cost Turkey $40 million. 

  Koç said: "The brooch is still in Turkey. Those who stole it took it to
Istanbul. The buyers beat them up and sent them back to Uşak without paying
them. It is obviously not a professional job. The buyers can't sell the
brooch. We may be able to capture them soon." 

  He said he agreed with criticism about museums lacking security. "I'm not
a minister who covers such things up. I fix them. We have huge deficiencies.
We are doing everything we can to address these deficiencies as soon as
possible. However, the most serious shortcoming we face is the lack of
experts. The archeologist I employ today needs 10 years to become a museum
curator. The culture minister a decade from now will thank me." 

  The Uşak Prosecutor's office charged 10 people, including a local museum
director, with embezzlement and artifact smuggling in the case involving the
theft of the piece. 

  According to reports Prosecutor Mustafa Çelebi said in his indictment that
"Museum Director Kazım Akbıyıkoğlu had 259 telephone conversations with the
suspects taken into custody for the theft."The indictment said Akbıyıkoğlu
had reached an agreement with the other suspects to sell the brooch. The
fake version was cast in an unknown location and the director replaced the
original with it. 

  The prosecutor demanded a 25-year prison sentence for Akbıyıklıoğlu.