[MSN] Laxity, not larceny: Artifacts back. Missing items turn up in hotel lost-and-found, to historical society's chagrin

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Laxity, not larceny: Artifacts back

Missing items turn up in hotel lost-and-found, to historical society's chagrin

12:00 AM CST on Saturday, December 8, 2007

By DAVID FLICK / The Dallas Morning News
dflick at dallasnews.com

A happy ending has rarely left so many people angry or embarrassed.

Sure, 21 missing artifacts, which the Dallas Historical Society feared had been
stolen, were safely returned this week.

But it turns out they weren't swiped.

They'd been sitting unclaimed for three weeks in the lost-and-found of a Dallas
hotel.

Last week, the artifacts, which included Santa Anna's dress spurs and a Bible
from a pioneering Dallas family, were reporting missing.

"Everything has been returned, and it's all in good condition. We have it in a
secure area of the offices," Michael Duty, the society's executive director,
said Friday.

The artifacts were boxed up after being on display at a Nov. 15 awards ceremony
at the Hilton Anatole.

Dallas police Detective W.B. Prettyman, who investigated, said the artifacts
were discovered that same day in the hotel parking lot and turned over to Hilton
security.

He said he has concluded that the artifacts were misplaced rather than stolen.

That conclusion might have brought smiles and sighs of relief. Or so you would
think.

But Garry Brown, for one, is angry and wants someone to apologize.

Mr. Brown, producer of the Fox television show Prison Break, contends that
society officials implied that a show employee might have stolen the items
during filming at the Hall of State on Nov. 19 and 20.

Instead, he said, he was told that the incident resulted from bungling by the
society itself.

"I was told [by Detective Prettyman that] their employees were the ones who
boxed it up and left it in the parking lot," Mr. Brown said.

"We're upset, and we deserve an apology from Michael Duty. We were accused of
potentially stealing the artifacts when we had nothing to do with it.

"They were irresponsibly misplaced by historical society employees."

Detective Prettyman denied telling Mr. Brown that historical society personnel
were at fault.

"What I told Fox was that the historical society people boxed it up, they
carried it out to the parking lot, they had responsibility for getting it back
to the museum and that it was found in the parking lot," he said.

He added heatedly: "Fox needs to get a life. I have 100 other cases I'm dealing
with."

Mr. Duty nonetheless issued an apology.

"We deeply regret any implication that the missing items were the result of
actions of the film crew," he said.

Mr. Duty said the society's own investigation wasn't completed.

He said Anatole security employees contacted Detective Prettyman on Thursday to
say they had the items.

They were returned to society officials later that evening in the same box in
which they had been packed, Mr. Duty said.

Tyler McDonald, the Anatole's marketing director, confirmed that the items had
been sitting in the hotel's lost-and-found since Nov. 15 but said he did not
know how they were found, who turned them over to security or why police were
not notified until this week.

The loss of the artifacts was not widely known until late last week, after
society personnel discovered they were missing and contacted police.

Antiquary experts have said thefts of historical artifacts are uncommon, in part
because their authenticity is hard to prove without documentation.

In addition, institutions missing artifacts are likely to issue alerts – making
it hard for thieves to sell them.

The only theft suffered by the Dallas Historical Society in recent years was
when a shirt that once belonged to Elvis Presley was stolen from a display case
during the 2005 State Fair of Texas. The thief returned it the next day, citing
a stricken conscience.