Stopping art thefts

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32977, 25 July 1972, Page 10

Stopping art thefts

(From HOWARD WILLIAMS. in Brtuaelt)

Art experts from more than 20 nations will be joined by international police chiefs for a three-day conference in Brussels in September in an effort to stop international trafficking of stolen works of art.

The conference, which will take place on September 13, 14 and 15, is being organised by U.N.E.5.C.0., and is being backed by Interpol, the international police organisation. U.N.E.S.C.O. and Interpol statistics show that there has been a big increase in international art thefts in recent years.

Last year, in Italy alone, according to these statistics, more than 4760 valuable works of art were stolen from churches and museums. In the last three years nearly 10,000 works of art stolen in Italy have been found in other countries or en route to other countries.

The September conference in Brussels is the brainchild of Belgium’s 49-year-old Minister for Dutch Culture (Mr Frans Van Mechelen).

The Minister became personally interested in art thefts last year, when he led investigations into the theft of the seventeenth - century Johannes Vermeer painting, "The Love Letter,” and subsequent art thefts in Belgium. "The Love Letter” was on loan to Belgium from Holland for an exhibition commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Benelux economic union, which groups together Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg. It was stolen by a restaurant waiter, 21-year-old Mario Rooimans, who demanded £l.6m for Bangladesh refugees before he would return the painting. The money was never paid, and when the painting was

eventually recovered—from a pile of cow dung—it was seriously damaged. While the average man-in-the-street tended to admire the Robin Hood romance of the adventure, the art world was shocked—not only because of the irreparable damage done to the painting, but also because of the ease with which Rooimans accomplished the theft.

With below-average education and without any help. Rooimans had literally walked away with the prize exhibit of a Governmentsponsored show. He later told investigators that he walked into the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels during the hours of the exhibition, saw the painting and decided to steal it. Instead of leaving when the doors of the Palais des Beaux Arts were closed for the night, he hid in a cleaner’s closet.

During the night, he ripped the painting from its frame and waited for the doors to open again in the morning, when he left with the Vermeer under his raincoat.

Mr Van Mechelen then ordered a secret study on the security of all Belgian museums and churches with valuable works of art, and found that it would be just as easy—and often much

easier—for a thief to get away with art treasures from all over the country. Further investigations showed that the Belgian situation was typical for Europe. And while these investigations were going on. the Belgian authorities were also looking at possible ways of stopping stolen works of art from entering and leaving the country. Because of the formation of the Common Market, frontier formalities between Belgium and her immediate neighbours have been reduced to a minimum.

These two points, therefore—security at places housing valuable works of art and cutting down the possibilities for international trafficking of stolen works of art—will be predominant at the September conference. Announcing the basic plans for the September conference, Mr Van Mechelen emphasised that, as yet. there were no fixed ideas about the agenda.

However, the Minister added: “The experts will discuss more efficient ways of protecting museums. ’ and they will exchange information on the most up-to-date electronic security systems and the training of security personnel. "Among the other points. I will bring up the question of standardising national laws governing certificates of origin and sale, the strengthening of Interpol, and a better co-ordination between national police forces.”

The Belgian Government is also planning to ask each member country of U.N.E.S.C.O. to draw up a national inventory of the most important works of art —whether owned privately or not.

If this fist is combined with universally - accepted certificates of ownership and sale, the Belgian Govern ment believes, art thieve> will have a nearly impo sible task in selling “hot art treasures.