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Slide 1
Slide 2
In April 2003 the Army Museum in Delft, The Netherlands, began preparations for a
book history session. This museum has a large 500.000 volume library about the history
of warfare, armies and weaponry. Besides there is a large collection of books with
topographical prints, and there is a large and very diverse print collection.
About half of all items in this unique library cannot be found in any other Netherlands
library. Many books are from our Royal archives and from the library of our first king,
William the first. Who reigned from 1814 till 1839.
One can imagine that there is quite a difference from a cultural history perspective
between a 17th century atlas from a private collection or the same atlas from the collection
of William the first.
Slide 3
During the preparations for this book history event one of the museums’ highlights, a
book about Napoleons travels and battles in Italy was selected to show to the participants
of this special event. This book was also shown a few years earlier at another book
history event. To the complete stupefaction of museum staff the book appeared to have
been robbed of 47 of 67 large folio size prints. Two years earlier it was still complete and
intact. Not only had 47 prints disappeared but many others were severely damaged by
what seemed to be a razor or sharp knife. Of this book only three complete copies are, or
rather were, known worldwide. One in the British Library, one in the French National
Library in Paris, and one in the Delft Army Museum.
Slide 4
The discovery of this terrible damage to a unique book also was the beginning of the
unmasking of the man who later appeared to have ruined, and stolen many books and
prints from the museum’s library: the curator Alexander Polman. Mister Polman made a
major mistake that finally would lead to his conviction and imprisonment. Upon the
discovery of the book Polman pretended to be very shocked and stated that he had never
before seen this book. That was a major mistake, for Polman himself presented this
unique book at a book history event two years earlier.
I will get back to this case later, but first I want to present a few general observations
about insider theft and the characteristics of staff members stealing from the collection
trusted to them.
Slide 5
Comparison of recent cases of insider theft, and reports about older cases lead to several
interesting conclusions.
Internal thieves appear to have common characteristics. It goes without saying that not all
thieves have all characteristics, but there really appear to be some common denominators.
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most of the time internal thieves have a long time working relationship with the
institution they work for, varying from some 10 to over 30 years.
they are very well trusted and in independent positions. This goes with the
specific profession of curators and librarians. Very often they are responsible for
the acquisition of new collection items, they are recipients of donations, they are
responsible for registration and they have unlimited access to depositories.
often the thieves are very valued experts in their profession and therefore beyond
any suspicion. The librarian of the French national Library who was arrested last
year was an international renowned expert of Hebrew manuscripts, and his wife –
also arrested – was an expert in Coptic texts and manuscripts. The Danish
librarian who was unmasked posthumously last year, was as a long term
employee beyond any suspicion.
Internal thieves play an important social role. They participate in trade union
negotiations, and perform an important role in the professional or private
community.
The curator of the Army Museum in Delft was very active in trade unions, and the
French librarian was a well known benefactor of an international children
organization.
These thieves really are the least expected people to be thieves of the collection in
the institute they work for,
they even participate very actively in solving the thefts; both in Delft, The
Netherlands, and in Paris, France, the thieves very actively participated in solving
the crimes. In Delft this participation was so transparent that it finally led to the
arrest of the curator.
when unmasked the institution gets the blame and peers are being accused of
stealing as well. The lawyer of the Delft curator defended his client by stating that
removing collection items from the library and museum almost was daily practice
in the museum, and that his client now seemed to receive the blame for the
museum’s chaotic organization.
Slide 6
Insider theft also is a case of swindling. The thieves almost never are the introvert,
remote colleagues with very little contact with co workers. Contrary, they are more
likely the ones communicating with everyone in a seemingly open way. Co-workers
are being misled as a daily routine. In the Army Museum the director was convinced
that his stealing curator was the pearl in the crown of his organization. He had big
plans with this talented man. However, during the investigation this man appeared to
be a born liar, and always out to create trust where trust should not be given. After his
arrest his 26 years young girlfriend was frustrated to read in the newspapers that her
friend was aged 36 and not 33 as he had told her. Age appeared very important to
him. A substantial part of his criminal earnings was invested in several hair implant
treatments. His behavior during the interview Ton Cremers had with him was almost
charming. He tried to gain confidence, and every time he was caught lying he was
most willing to admit and right away started to build new mystifications.
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More about this later, but first a few remarks about insider thefts.
Slide 7
- Insider thefts may continue for many years; The Army Museum curator has been
stealing from the collection for over seven years, removing maybe over two
thousands prints, hundreds of books and most likely some 20 paintings. Since
some three years before his arrest he has been responsible for accepting
donations. The museum used to receive some 40 donations of collections items
per year. During his reign in the museum there were only very few donations. We
managed to find several letters in which donators were being thanked for their
gifts. However, the gifts themselves never reached the museum.
- The number of stolen items can be very vast. At the Army Museum curator’s
neighbor a small museum of items stolen from the museum was found. In
Copenhagen some 60 wooden boxes with stolen books were removed from the
house of a stealing librarian.
- It may take years before insider thefts are discovered. The thefts in Copenhagen
were not discovered until after the death of the stealing librarian when his wife
and son tried to sell stolen items through auction.
- Insider thefts never are expected to take place in one’s own museum, library or
archive, and sometimes for very long periods staff members remain convinced
that missing items may be misplaced and not stolen. Insider theft is a very
difficult phenomenon to deal with. Interviewing museum directors in Germany,
The Netherlands, and Belgium we are always confronted with the same reaction: I
do trust my staff, and we cannot check their actions for that would be a sign of
distrust, so they say. We always try to explain that trust should be based on the
system and not on individual staff members. There is really nothing against
random or even daily checks of staff leaving the premises like are done at the
Library of Congress in Washington DC.
- It appears quite easy to sell stolen books and prints to ‘reputable’ dealers, via
auction houses or E-bay. The Army Museum curator has been selling stolen
books and prints to the same antiquarian book and print dealer for some six years.
The librarian of the French National Library sold the items he stole through
dealers and private collectors in France. Finally a very unique stolen Hebrew
manuscript was sold through Christie’s in New York to a good faith buyer for
300.000 dollars, and the national library now has only one option left: put up the
money to buy it back.
The sale of stolen items over the internet sometimes leads to actions from alert
individuals and consequently to the start of investigations and the discovery of the thieves
responsible.
Slide 8
The thieving of Sherrie Shaw, former conservator of the National Museum of Naval
Aviation in Pensacola, Florida, was identified after a Navy “Black Widow” Cross
(shown left on top) offered for sale on the internet raised the suspicion of a military
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memorabilia collector. After contacting the museum the inventories were checked and
several items, including the Black Widow Cross, appeared to be missing. This August
Shaw was found guilty and faces up to 25 years in prison. Shaw keeps insisting that the
items she sold belonged to her own collection. She sold them because she felt having a
collection was in conflict with her job. Shaw worked at the museum for over 10 years
Slide 9
Last year it was made public that National Archives and Records Administration of
the United States is missing hundreds of historic documents and artifacts from its
various collections.
In April 2003 a civil war researcher noticed a letter written by Confederate Brig. Gen.
Lewis. A. Armistead, which he previously had viewed at the National Archives, was
being auctioned on E-Bay. This led to the identification of Howard W. Harner Jr, a
visiting researcher. Consequently this man was linked to the theft of more than 100 other
documents. In May of this year he was sentenced to 2 years in prison.
Also the thefts of archivist Shawn. P. Aubitz, who worked at the National Archives for 16
years, were discovered after an important document appeared for sale online. His thefts
included dozens of presidential pardons, a 1863 warrant to seize the estate of Robert E.
Lee and hundreds of autographed photographs of US astronauts. Aubitz was sentenced to
21 months in prison and a fine of over $73,000. Some of the pardons and the 1863
warrant have been recovered, but none of the photographs.
In response to these thefts and all other missing items the National archives have
upgraded their security measures towards employees and visiting researchers. This
includes an awareness campaign that urges the public, employees and researchers to
monitor auctions and internet sales and report suspicious materials to
‘[email protected]”.
Slide 10
In December last year it was discovered by the curator of the Swimming Hall of Fame in
Fort Lauerdale, Florida, artifacts were disappearing at a fast pace. At the same time, a
memorabilia collector from North Carolina contacted the Hall of Fame about some
medals of Weissmuller he bought through eBay. These medals were among the items that
were missing. On the right photographs of Johnny Weissmuller who dominated the
swimming Olympics in 1924 and 1928 and also is famous for being Tarzan in the
movies. On the left the man responsible for the theft of over 100 medals and cups. This
man, Paul Nicholas Cristow, alias Joseph Mancino, had been temporarily employed for
janitorial duties. Cristow was arrested after the police arranged a set up with the help of
the coin store the stolen items were taken to and is awaiting trial.
Slide 11
Insider theft is not a new phenomenon.
Already in 1954 the Victoria & Albert Museum in London was confronted with an
employee that had been stealing from the collections for about two decades. This man,
Nevin, stole about 2500 objects, including musical instruments, ceramics, prints,
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paintings and 98 Japanese swords. At the time of discovery no stock-taking had taken
place for 16 years. Nevin was sentenced to three years in prison for the thefts.
Also, there have been insider thefts at the Amsterdam City Archives many years ago.
Last year the oldest known stock paper, stolen from this archive, was offered for sale by a
German investment group.
In January of this year an assistant curator from Calcutta in India was arrested after he
broke into the museum and stole a Buddha bust. He was ‘nailed’ on his fingerprints.
Also in January a former depository worker of the Museo Nacional de Arte de
Cataluña was sentenced to 4 years in prison. The investigations into this man started in
1999 after it was noted that he offered for sale archaeological objects and engravings of
the Italian architect Piranesi that originated from the museum. The Piranesi prints he tore
out of the books from the museum and put for sale at an antiquities dealer. This dealer
was sentenced to one and a half year in prison.
Last month the former curator of the Danish Museum of Art & Design in Copenhagen
was sentenced to 13 days in prison. This man stole over 100 objects, including delicate
porcelain and glass objects, portrait paintings and a 2000-year old Japanese kimono
ornament. The police believe that he stole the artifacts and one of his woman friends
arranged for them to be sold at auctions abroad and in antique shops in Denmark.
Also last month, the Former director of an Antiquities Department of Egypt, Abu
Shanab, was sentenced to life time imprisonment, which in Egypt equals 25 years. He
was found guilty on taking bribes and supplying smugglers with certificates that said
genuine antiquities were fakes. Under Egyptian law, only fake antiquities can be
exported.
Last week the Carabinieri arrested Giuseppe Ghilarducci, the Director of the Archive
and Museum of the Cathedral of Lucca in Italy. He is charged with receiving and
selling stolen property. Two chalices found were stolen in Rome and Terni. Also the
found a 15th century canvas by Giovanni Marracci that is stolen from the Gello church in
Pescaglia. Ghilarducci is granted home arrest and the investigations will continue.
Slide 12
Michel Garel had been working at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris for 30
years when he was arrested last year for stealing a very valuable 13th century manuscript.
Garel was an internationally esteemed specialist on Hebrew manuscript and author of
several publications. Next to his work he was very active in an international children
organization.
The manuscript, called manuscript number 52, was sold by Garel to a dealer, and Garel
himself signed a permit to allow this manuscript to leave France. To make sure that the
manuscript would not be recognized the stamps were removed, pages were taken out and
borders were cut. These changes to the manuscript were seemingly made by a
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professional hand, so it is very well possible that Garel was helped by someone unknown
yet. The good faith buyer of this manuscript sold it at a Christie’s auction in New York to
another buyer who took the manuscript to Jerusalem. In spite of the changes made to the
manuscript it was recognized by a scholar in Jerusalem who warned the French national
library. This led to the arrest of Garel and his wife who is regarded accomplice in the
theft of at least 5 valuable manuscripts. Garel’s wife too was an esteemed scholar,
specialized in Coptic writings. The present owner of the valuable 13th century manuscript
bought it at Christie’s for 300.000,00 US dollars, and is willing to sell it for that price to
the National Library.
Already a few years it was known that books and manuscripts had disappeared from the
Hebrew collection at the National Library. A stock taking in 2004 showed 30,000 books
and almost 1200 of the most precious documents of the National Library are missing
since the previous major shelf reading in 1947.
Last June Garel appeared in court for the theft of 25 rare manuscripts and 121 pages torn
14,15 and 16th century books and incunabula. Garel withdraw his initial confession. Now
he claims he is being used as the perfect scapegoat for a massive security breach at the
library.
Last year the Danish Royal library managed to recover 75 boxes with books from the
home of a former employee. The librarian retired in 2000 and started to sell books he
stole while working at the library. After he died his wife and son continued selling the
stolen items. In total 80 rare manuscripts were put on the market through Christie’s in
London and Swann in New York, for the equivalent of 1,50 million US dollars. Some
600 additional works were sold through other channels.
Last December an employee of the National Library of Stockholm committed suicide
after admitting that he stole valuable works from the Stockholm University Library, the
National Library and the Uppsala University’s Carolina Rediviva library. As a known
librarian he was able to move relatively freely in many libraries. He also spent some time
working at the Carolina Rediviva library.
Slide 13
Max Ary, former President of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, is charged
with counts ranging from money laundering to theft and sale of artifacts including items
received on loan. About a year after Max Ary resigned after 27 years of service an
internal audit showed that more than 100 artifacts were unaccounted for in the
Cosmosphere’s collection. Among them 26 items on loan from the NASA (National
Aeronautics and Space Administration). Also Ary failed to inform NASA of the loss of
an Omega mockup astronaut’s watch valued at $25,000, even after an insurance claim
was submitted and a payment was made for the loss.
Ary has pleaded innocent to all charges and in return Ary is now also suing the
Cosmosphere. Last week he filed a suit claiming the Cosmosphere owes Ary hundreds of
thousands dollar and also holds artifacts that belong to Ary personally.
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Slide 14
Insider theft in heritage institutions does not always concern collection objects:
A former University of Texas at San Antonio library employee was found guilty this
March on stealing over 200,000 US dollar in fines for overdue or lost materials. This
scheme took place over a six-year period of time.
A former Boston Children Museum employee admitted to have been stealing $200,000
in a payroll scheme that lasted five years, starting just four days after her first day on the
job. She was sentenced last May to 18 months in prison to be followed by three years
supervised release.
Also last May, the former director of the Phenix City-Russell County Library has
admitted stealing $70,000 in library funds over a three year period. The thefts were
uncovered in a city wide audit last year.
A manager at the Whitney Museum of American Art dodged jail time by pleading
guilty to the theft of $850,000 in ticket sales. The Whitney museum's manager of visitor
services, stole the money from January 2002 to July 2004 by selling tickets to visitors and
then voiding the sales and pocketing the cash. Investigators found about $800,000 in a
safe. The fact that she could make restitution helped her case.
Slide 15
Also facility workers often have unsupervised and unrestricted access to collection
storage areas:
This month truck driver, Anthony Porcelli Jr, pleaded guilty to stealing a Jean-Michel
Basquiat painting from a warehouse at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The
Police identified Porcelli after reviewing video surveillance tapes. The untitled Basquiat
painting is shown on the upper left side with a District Attorney standing next to it.
In April of this year a Picasso (‘Nature morte a la charlotte’) missing for over a year from
the Centre Pompidou in Paris was recovered. It turned out to be stolen by a drug
addicted museum worker and was recovered from behind a wardrobe in a house in Paris.
Last month two former employees of a Bridgeton art shipping company pleaded guilty
to stealing more than 130 works of art, including works of Picasso, Matisse, Dali, the
Kooning and Archipenko. The works of art, which belonged to a Florida couple, had
been sitting in storage since 1994. The theft was discovered after a man bought eight
works from one of the offenders and came in contact with the real owners.
Slide 16
Also this month a Malaysian artist, Raja Azhar Idris, found out his shop assistant had
been stealing works of art since he was hired. He first realized something missing when a
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fellow artist asked him for a work he had in display for him and he could not find it. A
friend told he had seen it in an auction house and subsequently he went there to look.
When he arrived he found his shop assistant operating his own art shop. Over a period of
4 year a total of 20 paintings, glass works and handicraft were stolen. It is suspected that
the arrested shop assistant is part of a syndicate headed by an art collector, who sells
stolen art at low prices to auction houses and individuals. The police will continue to
investigate the extent of the syndicate’s operations and if more art galleries have fallen
victim to them.
Slide 17
Last May Hendrikus Van Leeuwen appeared in court for the theft of over 2000 objects
from the Australian Museum in Sydney. Already in 1997, just after Henk started to work
as pest controller in the museum, staff noticed a leopard pelt missing. As a pest
controller, Henk received unsupervised access to the entire collection of 13 million items.
His thieving spree continued for over 5 years.
In 2003 the ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) started investigating
the great amount of missing specimens of the museum. During a raid at the premises of
Van Leeuwen and accomplice the ICAC discovered many skins, skeletons and preserved
bodies with features in common with the missing items. Some even had the museum tags
still attached. Among them even a stuffed lion that was first exhibited in the museum in
1911. Henk was not only a passionate private collector. He also ran a business that sold
skulls and in 2002 he approached the city council to inquire about establishing a
Zoological institute that should be competitive with the Australian museum.
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Slide 18
April 2003 a shock went through the Army Museum Delft, The Netherlands when it was
discovered that a most valuable and extremely rare book was robbed of almost all of its
prints, and the remaining prints were severely damaged. This was the start of an
investigation that did last for some 8 months and that ended with the conviction of the
stealing curator. During the investigation it appeared that that some 2000 prints and 22
paintings went missing. Numerous books disappeared, or were robbed of their
illustrations.
The Army Museum’s library is not only a very specialized library; it also contains items
that are very unique and not available in any other library.
The photograph you are seeing now is a portrait of the stealing curator – Alexander
Polman - giving a speech after the thefts were discovered. This speech was given at a
special museum event. He started his speech with a small statement saying that it is a real
privilege to work in a museum, and that it is an absolute shame that anyone working in a
museum would dare to steal from its collection. It was not until a few weeks after this
speech that Mr. Polman was unmasked to be a thief himself.
Slide 19
May 2003 Ton Cremers was invited by the general director of the museum to talk about
the thefts they experienced. During this conversation it turned out that 22 of his staff had
free access to the library’s and print room depositories. There was an electronic access
control system but at the same time staff was in the possession of keys. At random they
used their keys or their electronic cards to enter the depositories. So, the electronic
history of access was useless. Besides, this history was erased weekly from the digital
files.
Mr Polman, the stealing curator, was the most zealous worker of all. Everyday he was the
first to arrive in the museum and about the last to leave. Besides he worked many
weekends. Later on, after he had been arrested, it appeared that when h was alone early in
the morning he started his looting of prints out of books and out of the print collection.
Before his colleagues arrived he rolled the prints and put them in the trunk of his car
parked at the inner court of the museum. The general director was advised to not allow
staff to park their cars any longer at this inner court, or to make sure that security
performs random checks on leaving cars. Most unfortunately this advice was not
followed.
Mr Polman was the only responsible for the print collection and was given a job updating
the registration of the collection. What he really did was steal some 2000 prints from the
collection and sold almost all of those to the same antiquarian book dealer. We will never
know how many prints were stolen, for Polman also made the old handwritten
registration disappear. Of the old registration of topographical prints nothing is left.
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Polman was also responsible for the acquisition of prints that were presented as a gift to
museum workers leaving for another job, or who had been employed by the museum for
many years. These prints were bought by Polman at the same antiquarian bookshop were
he sold the prints he stole. So, the museum really paid for prints that were stolen from it’s
own collection. After Polman was arrested buying stolen prints from the antiquarian
fence appeared to be another one of Polman’s mistakes. One staff member offered a print
took it to the museum and it could be proofed without any doubt that this print was taken
out of one of the museum’s books.
Slide 20
June 2003 it still was not known who was the one who had been stealing from the
museum’s library and print room. It was also not known how many books and prints were
missing, and it was not known at all that 22 paintings left the museum.
Ton Cremers offered the museum director to interview each and every staff member with
access to the library’s and print room depositories. In three days time 22 staff members
were interviewed. One can imagine that there was very little time to interview each
individual staff member, and that a very direct interviewing technique was demanded.
However all of these interviews took place in a very friendly way. Except the one with
Mr Polman. He kept twisting his statements again and again and appeared to be a born
liar. The morning after this interview took place Ton Cremers invited him to speak to
again, and advised him to leave his job at the museum. Which he did. After a few weeks
he resigned.
During the interviews we received information that one of Polman’s colleagues had seen
a book at Polman’s neighbor that might very well be from the museum. It took several
weeks to get a search warrant from the district attorney and one very early Saturday
morning the DA, military police, and Ton Cremers went to search this neighbors place.
That turned out to become a very fascinating visit. The book was found very quickly and
belonged without any doubt to the Army Museum. However, there was more. This three
story house was full of watercolors, paintings, framed prints and photographs. All of
which this neighbor had bought from Mr. Polman. He was quite frank about the source of
his collection but not able to convince the DA that he bought all of these at good faith. So
this man was arrested. At the same time it was decided that Mr. Polman who lived two
doors further was arrested as well. A truck was ordered and a small museum had to be
moved. So the search for just one book finally led to the recovery of a small museum.
Most interestingly: none of the recovered items was reported missing at the museum.
The neighbor appeared to have a Porsche sports car in his garage. This car was given to
him by a retired Dutch army colonel who lives in Scotland. This opened another track,
this time to Scotland. Polman and his neighbor paid several visits to Scotland, and sold
two of the museum’s paintings to this retired colonel. After long negotiations these
paintings returned to the museum, but not until the museum paid compensation to this
good faith buyer.
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Slide 21
Polman’s neighbor was part of a group of military personnel and collectors of military
artifacts. This group visited very expensive clubs in London, United Kingdom, on a
regular basis. Polman by far did not make enough money at his job as curator, but was
very eager to also drive a sports car and join this gang to London. During three or four
days visits they spent over $5000,00 dollars each. Polman is not on this photograph, but
his neighbor is at the far right. In the middle is a Dutch general wearing his uniform in
London against army regulations.
During the investigations there appeared to be several links to high ranking soldiers, and
to board members of the museum. Several co workers in the museum appeared to have
bought museum items from Polman without knowing these came out of the museum’s
depositories. They could have known, but no questions were asked.
Some of these finally were forced to leave the museum.
Slide 22 to 31 Photos.
Slide 32
For some six years Polman has been selling books and prints to the same antiquarian
book dealer. Estimates are that this man bought over 1000 prints. He knew Polman was
working as a curator at the Army Museum for Polman did buy prints as well, and the
book dealer wrote invoices in the name of the Army Museum. Most unfortunately the
District Attorney granted us just one single afternoon to search this book dealer’s shop
and storage. The DA really was not interested in the recovery of stolen goods, but only in
the arrest of a possible fence. The bookdealer was arrested, but set free again after one
day.
We were very much convinced that numerous prints in his two story shop belonged to the
Army Museum. However, the bookdealer appeared to suffer from many senior moments.
He really could not remember which prints he bought from Polman, but as soon as we
were convinced that certain prints were from the museum all of a sudden his memory
returned and he knew exactly these prints were not from the army museum. During the
visit together with the DA some 50 prints were recovered.
After very long negotiations we were allowed to return to the bookshop for a second
search, this time without the police and the DA. Upon arrival we discovered that the
dealer had cleaned his complete shop and storage area, and only very few suspected
prints remained.
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Slide 33
Lessons learned.
We all know that security belongs to the core business of cultural institutions like
museums, libraries and archives. Too often insider thefts are not part of risk assessments.
It is a problem one prefers not to think about. It is not true that protection against insider
theft means distrusting staff. Contrary. Protection against insider theft protects the
working environment and those working in the museum, library of archive.
In the Army Museum we have been able to observe not only the destruction of a
fascinating and very rare collection, but also the destruction of working relationships.
Now, almost three years after these thefts were discovered there still are a lot of negative
emotions and there still is distrust.
People blame one another for not noticing the thefts. Some still support the imprisoned
curator and regard him as the victim of an imperfect organization. Others feel a lot of
aggression against this curator.
It was a very good decision of the general director to make a display of ruined books for
staff only. Some museum workers have looked at this display for a very long time in total
silence. Others stood there crying.
Worst of all is that for many years to come museum staff will be confronted with
damaged books. If something is stolen it will be out of sight and possibly forgotten.
These damaged books will always be there to remember a curator who was able to steal
uncontrolled for many years.
Slide 33
And what happened to Mr Polman? December 2003 Mr Polman was convicted to 26
months imprisonment and as additional condition he was convicted not to work as a
museum curator for six years. His neighbor was convicted to 60 days social labor and
appealed. This case is still pending.
It was not only until May this year that this book dealer and fence was convicted to 150
hours penal labor.
Slide 34
The Museum Security Network disseminates news on security and safety issues and
cultural property protection through two mailing lists: the Museum Security Network
mailing list and the Cultural Property Protection Net mailing list.
These mailing lists are a free service for cultural heritage managers world wide. Over
2000 members from 90 countries receive several times a week information over incidents
with and the protection of cultural heritage. Via following web-address one can subscribe
to these: www.museum-security.org Also the archives are accessible on this web-address.
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