aica.ie / this time Momart gets burned
/
mummy man (Friday 19 January 2007)
Old
location, new look
AICA
Ireland, the branch in Ireland of the international
association
of art critics, has a new look and functionality to its website, which
will be launched officially next Wednesday. Check it out here.
"Secret payouts" for lost art
compiled by Marguerite White and
Cristina Martín de
Vidales
Momart
Ltd, one of Britain's leading art storage companies, is still feeling
the aftereffects of the May 2004 fire that destroyed a warehouse the
company rented from Goldstar Removals in east London (see our original
reports here and here). The
company
has settled out of court in a negligence suit filed by uninsured
artists and collectors who suffered considerable losses in the
fire. The overall losses of the fire have been estimated to
fall
between £30 million and £50 million, although an exact figure is
unknown.
The
filers, including artist Gillian Ayers, the husband of the deceased
Helen Chadwick, the heirs of Patrick Heron and novelist Shirley Conran,
claimed that the storehouse was not suitable for the storage of
"high-value fine art," and did not have an adequate fire-detection
system. While Momart has refused comment on the state of the
fire-protection and -detection systems in place, it is clear that the
company
would have had no control over the systems in the surrounding
buildings, where the
fire
originated. When legal action was announced in June 2005,
Ayers
said that the warehouse she toured when she agreed to store her work
with Momart was not the now-destroyed storehouse, rather it was an
up-to-date, clearly fire-protected facility. She also stated
that
bills and all other correspondence from Momart gave no indication that
her art was being stored anywhere but the main storehouse.
During
the aftermath of the fire, much of Britian did not see the accident as
a tragedy, rather it was seen by many as an ironic turn of events for
the pricey 'BritArt' work and artists. Many of the younger
artists
themselves also saw this event as something almost natural, like a
forest fire.
Although
he chose not to take part in the lawsuit, aproximatly 100 of the lost
works are said to have belonged to Charles Saatchi's collection,
including a £500,000 commission for a retrospective at his gallery,
namely Jake and Dinos Chapman's Hell.
Rather, Saatchi settled
with his insurers for around £10 million. Other lost works
included those from 1950s and '60s abstract expressionists,
such as
Ayers and Patrick Heron, as well as many of the conceptual artists of
the '90s, such as Tracy Emin, Damien Hirst and the Chapmans.
While
all claims have been settled for what is believed to be tens of
millions of pounds, an exact figure is not known as Momart has refused
comment on what is being called a "secret payoff."
One man against an illegal trade
compiled
by Cristina Martín de Vidales |
| Dr. Zahi Hawass; image held here |
Nefertiti's
bust and the Rosetta stone are some of the main
iconsfrom Egyptian culture which now are
located in European museums. These
pieces were acquired many years ago when few laws
existed about cultural heritage and probably nobody
really cared. Now things
have changed and people are aware about the pillage suffered
by most important classical civilizations.
Things are chaning. For example, Dr.
Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, has for a
long time ago had a dream, the restitution of
Egyptian artifacts, and now it seems he is getting close to making it
all come true. Towards this end he founded the
Department for Returned and Stolen Artifacts,
where they have compiled a database of all treasures allegedly stolen
from Egypt
since 1972. He has been writing letters all over the world,
to museums and universities, to let them know that he would cut
relations with them if they try to buy any stolen artefacts.
His
tactics, considered by some experts as a overly aggressive, are
creating controversy but also achieving results. In
2003 Switzerland had to returned 280 illegally exported antiquities to
Egypt and this November France has been warmed to collaborate in the
investigation of a Frenchman who was trying to sell hair from
Ramses II. And
as a big challenge he also demanded the return of the Rosetta Stone
from
the British Museum, declaring that
If
the British want to be remembered, if they want to restore their
reputation, they should volunteer to return the Rosetta Stone because
it is the icon of our Egyptian identity.
After two years, the British Museum sent
him a replica of the stone.
Anyway,
and against much adversity, Hawass is very determined and ready to take
the consequences.He wants to stop the illegal trading: "
If people are coming to Egypt, cutting inscriptions, and
damaging our monuments, I have to fight them," Hawass says.
On the
other hand, in theopinion of some experts, Hawass' plans are
not feasible. "Egypt can't claim objects after 150 years. It's
absolutely ridiculous," says Dietrich Wildung, director of Berlin's
Egyptian Museum.
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