[MSN] An Artful Theft, Sawtooth is beefing up its security

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An Artful Theft, Sawtooth is beefing up its security

By Ken Keuffel
JOURNAL ARTS REPORTER
Sunday, March 4, 2007


Call it the case of the stolen signature. Last weekend, a thief entered the Sawtooth Building on Marshall Street and stole a page from a book on display. Gone in a rip was a hand-written note by Pablo Picasso, probably worth thousands of dollars.

No one saw the theft. And no one seems to have seen exactly what happened Friday when the signature was quietly returned.

Kevin Simmons, the security guard, was outside eating some Bojangles' fast food and enjoying the last rays of sunshine on a warm evening when he saw a man enter the building. He said that he followed the man inside and roamed about Sawtooth in search of him. But the man had already disappeared. When Simmons came back to his desk, the Picasso-signed note was on his desk.

Eden Betz is the coordinator of galleries for the Arts Council of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County. (The council owns the Sawtooth Building and is responsible for securing the art in its three galleries.) She was in the Sawtooth Building when the note was returned.

"It's a happy ending to a terrible week," she said.

Simmons said he thinks he knows the man who returned the note but wouldn't name him. Council officials say that the detective in charge of the case of the pilfered Picasso-signed note is on vacation until Tuesday and will interview Simmons when he returns.

Milton Rhodes is the council's president and chief executive. Before the note was returned, he said he was "very disappointed" and acknowledged serious shortcomings in Sawtooth's security.

"We have somebody who sits at the front desk to watch the galleries," he said. "Evidently, they didn't see what happened. I can't put my finger on it. It happened on the weekend - I think on a Saturday."

The note was on the back of the cover page of Picasso in the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, a large paperback book from 1972, which was to have been displayed in "The Julian Collection: A Passion for Art and Crafts." The book, which was perched on a pedestal under a partially sealed Plexiglas case, was not taken, just the Picasso-signed page.

The "Julian Collection," organized by Piedmont Craftsmen, is on view in the Eleanor Davis Gallery through March 30. (See the exhibit preview on F-3 in today's Arts & Entertainment section.) It features art that originally belonged to Ira and Ruth Julian, two art collectors from Winston-Salem who are now deceased.

The note, signed "XX Picasso," says: "To Ira, thanks so very much - my undying gratitude for keeping Ruth - I have enough problems!"

Betz called the contents of the note "a joke."

"He had many lovers and multiple wives," she said.

Of course, the note isn't worth anywhere near the reported $66 million price tag of the two Picasso paintings that were taken last week from the Paris residence of the artist's granddaughter. But it could have fetched a nice chunk of change.

Jane Doub, Piedmont Craftsmen's executive director, said that the note could be worth as much as $12,000.

Chandler Gordon isn't so sure. He has handled lots of Picasso-signed books as the owner of a rare- and used-books store in Asheville called The Captain's Bookshelf. He said that the note might be worth $2,500 - if it hadn't been ripped out of the book. It's now worth less than that, he said.

"His signature isn't rare by any stretch of the imagination," Gordon said. "It's just desirable."

In any event, larceny has been reported six times at the Sawtooth Building since 2002, according to police records. Several factors account for the latest theft:

• Security at the Sawtooth is minimal.

Though the building and the galleries are alarmed, only one person keeps an eye on things at the front desk when the building is open. The person is responsible for three galleries, and one of those is on a different floor. All sorts of people come and go each day, from homeless people in search of a place to wash up to students attending a class at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art. And a number of receptions are held at the Sawtooth Building on Marshall Street.

• There are no surveillance cameras.

• For whatever reason, perhaps a breakdown in communication, patrons were able to view the "Julian Collection" before it had been completely assembled and officially opened to the public. The show opened Friday.

"If the show's not ready to open, it should not have been open," Doub said. "On a Saturday, especially, it would have been locked and closed to public."

• Doub seemed to accept some responsibility for the theft. At one point during the show's installation, she said, she needed to get a label for the book from which the noted page was stolen. While she went to get the label, she glued some of the case to the pedestal with silicon aquarium sealant. She didn't bolt the case to the pedestal because she was missing some screws. This made it easier for the thief to pry open the case and get to the book.

Rhodes said that he would be working to beef up security at the Sawtooth Building. "We're looking at employees and how careful they are, and we are re-evaluating our security procedures," he said.

"Reynolda House is high security," Rhodes said. "We are low security. Somewhere in between is where we need to be."

Rhodes said that Reynolda House's head of security, Matthew St. John, "has agreed to assist with the development of our security." St. John could not be reached for comment. The security at Reynolda House Museum of American Art includes, in addition to alarms and surveillance cameras, a staff person on each floor where art is shown.

Doub is trying to refocus attention not only on the "Julian Collection" but also on what the Julians stood for.

"They were well known," she said. "They spent money on art.... This was something they believed in buying. To them, it was an investment, in more ways than one.... This needs to be celebrated. There are a lot of people who collect in Winston-Salem; we're lucky. There's a whole new generation out there that does not value that concept. They value technology stuff, the big-screen TV stuff."

As for the note, Doub said its current owners want the person who stole it found and prosecuted.

"They said, 'What he did was wrong and doesn't need to do it again,'" she said.

Doub said she might include the note in the show, probably during a reception on March 10, "if the police don't need it for something and the owners say it's OK."

Count on somebody watching the note like a hawk.

• Ken Keuffel can be reached at 727-7337 or at kkeuffel at wsjournal.com.

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