Two Arrests in Hermitage Thefts; Reforms Promised

There's been a lot more news on the Hermitage theft case than reported in the NY Times article posted today on ArtsJournal.

On its own website, the Hermitage Museum has cautioned journalists "to exercise greater caution in dealing with unofficial information with respect to the investigation underway," so I will give you these links with that foregoing caveat:

Here's the coverage from Reuters and from the Associated Press.

The Hermitage says that "several objects" have been recovered and are being examined for identification. it also acknowledges that "the practice and system of inventory-keeping no longer satisfy the needs of the times: they correspond neither to the technical possibilities afforded by modern technology nor to the role played by the human factor."

The St. Petersburg museum also promises the following reforms, the last of which seems problematic at best: "to sharply raise the level of attention given to the role of curators and to monitoring the fulfillment of all internal rules and orders; a radical change in the schedule and priorities of internal checks and expert appraisals; sharp curtailment of access to storerooms by museum staff; serious limitation on the number of exhibitions."

Security enhancement? Of course.
Exhibition curtailment? Why?

All the press reports say that two men have been arrested in connection with the thefts. The NY Times and Reuters accounts say that the two men have confessed to the theft of the 221 missing objects. Some accounts say that the two men are the husband and son of the deceased curator who had been in charge of the museum's Department of Russian Culture, from which the objects were stolen. They identify that curator as Larisa Zavadskaya. But the Hermitage's press spokesperson told Steven Lee Myers of the Times that it did not appear to be likely that the dead curator's husband was one of those arrested. There must be a right answer to this question, and the Hermitage should provide it.

In its latest statement, dated Aug. 6, the Hermitage said that the results of its post-theft analysis of its security systems and inventory procedures for stored artworks would "be published next week."

The positive lesson of this quick police work is that thieves cannot pillage one of the world's preeminent museums and expect to get away with it. The negative message of this sorry episode is that they were able to do it in the first place.

CultureGrrl's previous reports on this case are here, here, here, here and here,