Daily hansan
60th Year, No.41
SECTION C
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Friday, Nov. 9, 1962
Homecoming Queen-1962
1962 HOMECOMING QUEEN — Barbara Ann Schmidt, Kansas City senior, will preside over the homecoming game and dance tomorrow afternoon and evening. Miss Schmidt, an elementary education major, is a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. Miss Schmidt has been a varsity cheerleader for three years,
but will miss this football game to accept the homecoming queen crown from Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe. She and her two attendants, Karen Jo Emel, Colby junior, and Anne Peterson, Clifton senior, have spent a busy week appearing on radio and television shows and fulfilling other social obligations.
In This Section
Trip to Alaska . . . Page 2 S U A . . . . Page 6
Role of the Critic. Page 4 Campus Politics Page 14
Manet Painting Is Damaged by Thief
By Jim Alsbrook
The "bungling" thief who stole the Manet painting from the KU Museum of Art in August was "incredibly stupid," William M. Ittman, Cincinnati junior and art history major who discovered the theft, said recently.
"The work has been irreparably damaged, for he cut the painting from the frame. I would feel much better if he had stolen the whole thing — frame and all — for then the work would be complete and whenever we get it back it would be as Manet saw it."
ITTMAN and a friend, Craig Craven, Stanberry, Mo., graduate student, were coming downstairs from the second floor of Spooner Hall August 31 when Ittman noticed the painting was gone. As he glanced into the museum's European Gallery he saw the empty frame which had contained the $40,000 Manet painting, "Line Campineau."
Ittman's attitude of anger and disgust is typical of those connected with the museum. Nobody there wants to discuss the purloined work and the subject is a rather delicate one.
KU people aren't alone in their concern. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the Lawrence police, KU police, and art museums throughout the world are sniffing vengefully for the culprit.
THE INSURANCE company is another interested party, for it has posted a $2,000 reward — $1,000 for the lawful recovery of the painting and another $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of persons criminally connected with the theft.
There is a bright aspect to the theft, however. It has drawn attention to the quality and quantity of the museum's art, carefully gathered through the years and displayed right under the noses of many unappreciative KU students.
In other parts of the nation, KU's collection is considered the finest university art collection in the midwest, said Marilyn Stokstad, associate professor of art history and acting director of the museum. She said the KU collection ranks close to those of such private schools as Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Smith.
THE KU MUSEUM of Art, established in 1928, is housed in a former library. It is the oldest university art museum in the Midwest and contains creations spanning the whole gamut of artistic expression: paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, engravings, ceramics, relief sculpture, decorative art pieces such as figurines, tapestries and bottles, and furniture.
The museum houses products from ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. Medieval Renaissance, Baroque and Modern art are represented. Mysterious-looking pieces from the Orient sit placidly surveying 20th Century Americans as they tour the gallery.
Various museum pieces have been acquired by purchase and by gift. The University, the Endowment Association and such private sources as the William B. Thayer Memorial Collection, the Maurice Jones Collection, the Burnap Collection and others have added substantially to the gallery.
KU's museum is principally a "teaching" collection rather than an "exclusive" one, for the directors and curators have sought to obtain typical representations of each age and media rather than sensational high-priced exclusives.
"WE DON'T HAVE the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, or the Bayeux Tapestry," Prof. Stokstad said. "But we do have a gallery in which the student and the art lover can find examples of nearly every mode and origin for about 2500 years."
The stolen Manet is valuable because it is the "first inspiration" of a second and final rendition now hanging at the Nelson Art Gallery in Kansas City, Mo. The painting, an oil on camvas, 23 by $17\frac{1}{2}$ inches, is a portrait of the daughter of Manet's physician. It was painted in 1878 when Manet was semi-paralyzed. It was a gift to KU from Charles Curry, Kansas City financier.
Many KU students of art and art history are from other states.
"The reputation of the gallery and the teaching staff is so good that I came to Kansas," one student commented.
Another said, "Various universities are noted for various strong points, and one of KU's strong points is its art department."
MANY FOREIGN students have visited the KU gallery and have seen centuries-old creations rendered in their homelands.
In recent years several distinguished authorities on art have visited the KU gallery and have spoken highly of its collection. Among them were the curator of the Victoria and Albert Museum of London, the curator of the Gallery of the Louvre of Paris and the director of the National Gallery at Washington, D.C.