Nation/World
University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, March 20, 1990
7
FBI launches quest for stolen art
The Associated Press
BOSTON — The FBI searched around the world yesterday for a dozen priceless artworks stolen from the Gardner Museum.
Authorities said it was the biggest theft of modern times — a $100 million-plus caper exceeded only by the looting of Germany's national bank at the end of World War II.
Agent Dennis O'Callaghan said he could not discuss any leads the FBI might have uncovered in the search for the works, including well-published stories by Rembrandt, Degas, Vermeer and Manet.
He said that no ransom demands had been received but that if any came they would be treated like a kidnapping. He would not elaborate.
But O'Callaghan, of the bureau's Boston office, was not optimistic that the art would be quickly recovered.
"Despite speculation, the sad part is this may wind up in a vault somewhere," he said. "Unfortunately, on valuable art objects, the track record (on recovery) isn't really good."
The objects of the search are paintings, drawings and an ancient Chinese vase stolen
Two men dressed as police officers persuaded two museum guards to let them inside, reportedly by telling the guards there was a disturbance in the area. They then overcame the
Value of paintings tops $100 million
guards, bound them with tape, disabled the security system and — after spending about two hours in the museum — made off with the lost.
A cleaning crew found the guards about six hours later.
Several of the pictures, including at least one Rembrandt, were cut out of their frames, which were printed.
The paintings ranged from the size of a postage stamp to the size of a deskton.
Police put the value of the missing paintings at a minimum of $100 million. The museum said they were worth "hundreds of millions," and most art experts agreed. No exact value can be put on the paintings because they have been off the market for nearly 100 years.
Some law enforcement officials were confident that the paintings would be recovered.
"It's not a smart theft," said Robert Volpe, a former New York City detective who is a private consultant specializing in the recovery of art works. "The pieces are too well documented. They're too well known. The fact that they came in and used violence, this is a little out of the
realm of the normal art thief. Most art thieves fashion themselves that they know how to steal.
"The first 48 hours are very crucial, and the next two weeks. If nothing happens, then we have a very different situation going down."
The Guinness Book of World Records lists the ransacking of the Reichsbank in April and May of 1945 as the most lucrative robbery in modern history, worth $3 billion in contemporary dollars. Guinness also notes that the Philippines government has accused former President Ferdinand Emanuel II and his wife, Imelda, of stealing between $5 billion and $10 billion during their time in power.
Probably the most celebrated art heist of all time was the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in Paris. It was recovered in Italy in 1913. Because no price has ever been established for the painting, the value of the theft has never been determined.
The pilfered works included two paintings and an etching by Rembrandt; three paintings and two charcoals by Edgar Degas; one painting each by Edouard Manet, Jan Vermeer and Govaert Flink; and a bronze beaker dating from the Chinese Shang Dynasty, 1,200-1,100 B.C.
Joseph Chapman, who established the FBI's art theft unit in the 1950s, said the art world was abuzz with concern that the theft could force a leap in insurance rates.
Report: S&L bailout to fall billions short
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Bush's savings and loan bailout will fall at least $30 billion and possibly as much as $162 billion short of the amount needed to clean up the industry, a congressional report indicated yesterday.
Legislation enacted in August provided $50 billion to close or sell failed thrift associations through 1992. However, $48 billion of that will be needed to cover losses at the 383 institutions seized by the government through March 5, concluded a report submitted by Rep. Bruce Vento, D-Minn.
Vento is chairman of an 18-member House Banking Committee task force tracking the performance of the agency, the Resolution Trust Corp.
Regulators expect the failure of an additional 225 to 295 S&Ls with losses of at least $32 billion to $40 billion, according to the report. In addition, 295 to 295 S&Ls are weak and may not recover on their own, it said.
Depending on the severity of the losses, the shortfall could rise as high
as $162 billion. Vento warned.
Bailout officials, however, said there would be enough money to last into next year. If there were a shortfall after that, money intended for repayments rises after 1992 could be reallocated to cover earlier failures, they said.
Vento praised Bush for proposing the bailout legislation last year but criticized him for not providing more money and accused him of relegating the $AL issue to a "policy backwater."
"Political courage has withered away as the administration has gotten a better look at the Grand Canyon-size hole. They . . . are hunkering down and playing political damage control," he said.
Vento said Bush's silence on the issue amounted to a vacuum but acknowledged that legislators were unlikely to fill the vacuum by proposing on their own to spend more on the bailout.
Economist group predicts decline in interest rates during the spring
He said most of the additional money likely would come from taxayers.
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Interest rates have peaked and should start falling during the spring, a group of private economists predicted yesterday.
Members of the Shadow Open Market Committee said they thought that a variety of consumer and business loans would decline in coming months, reflecting a sluggish economy and declining inflationary pressures.
The economists forecast that banks' prime lending rate, the benchmark for many business and consumer loans, should drop from 10 percent to 9.5 percent or perhaps as low as 9 percent by summer.
Fixed-rate mortgages, which are about 10.25 percent, will fall to 9.8 percent by mid-year and will remain stable in the rest of 1990, the outlook predicted.
Jerry Jordan, senior economist at First Interstate Bancorp of Los Angeles who compiled the group's
forecast, said weakness in the economy would encourage the Federal Reserve to loosen its grip on credit in coming months.
The panel forecast that the federal funds rate, a bellwether interest rate for judging the impact of Fed actions, would dip from 8.25 percent down to 7.5 percent by mid-year.
The group meets twice a year to assess actions of the Federal Reserve.
Various business and consumer rates have been rising since the first of the year, with the government's 30-year bond jumping from an average of 7.9 percent in November; and December to around 8.5 percent currently.
Those rates should fall back to 8 percent, the economists forecast, and remain there through 1991.
The shadow committee was upbeat on the prospects that the economy would be able to avoid a recession this year, although the forecast called for economic growth to remain sluggish, reflecting previous credit-tightening on the part of the Federal Reserve.
Inflation, which jumped sharply early in the year because of severe winter weather, will begin moderat- erate in spring and rise at a slower pace than in 1989.
"A soft landing has been achieved." Jordan said.
The shadow committee meets twice a year to assess actions of the Federal Reserve, whose chief policy-setting body, the Federal Open Market Committee, will meet next week.
The shadow committee is composed of monetary economists who focus on the Fed's control over the money supply as a determining factor in the economy's health.
SEWAGE POSES RISKS: Sewage dumped at sea poses a significant health risk to seafood lovers and swimmers who can pick up bacteria and viruses, said an international report released yesterday about the world's oceans.
The contaminated sewage can cause hepatitis, cholera, polio, gastrointestinal illnesses and possibly AIDS, the report said.
The United Nations-sponsored report said coastal waters were the most vulnerable and abused. They are threatened by contaminated sewage, runaway coastal development and excess nutrients such as phosphates and nitrates, which are killing fish and altering plant life.
FIGHTING IN S. AFRICA At least 26 people died in Black factional fighting and clashes with police in South Africa, including 15 men killed when a mob destroyed a Zulu tribal chief's compound, police said yesterday.
Police reported that 11 other
Nation/World briefs
people were killed yesterday and Sunday, most in factional fighting in Natal. Police firing shotguns killed two men in separate incidents yesterday while breaking up protests in Black townships, they said.
REFORMS IN BRAZIL Riot police in Brazil guarded banks and supermarkets yesterday as Brazilians began to adjust to radical economic reforms that included a new currency and an 18-month partial freeze on savings accounts.
The measures were announced Friday by President Fernando Color de Mello to fight rampant inflation that has soared as high as 2.700 percent.
Under the vigilance of federal police, supermarkets began to lower prices to meet government limits. Prices shot up by as much as 200 percent last week in anticipation of a freeze, but the new economic plan rolled back prices to last Monday's levels and set maximum prices for 103 staples.
MISTRIAL REFUSED: A federal judge yesterday denied a mistrial motion by John Poindexter that was triggered by a reference in open court to testimony Poindexter had given Congress under a grant of immunity.
The information in the reference was not new at all, said the judge in Poindexter's Iran-contra trial.
With Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., on the witness stand, prosecutor Dan Webb asked about a document, signed by then-President Ronald Reagan, indicating that missiles had been sent to Iran in 1985 to try to win the release of U.S. hostages held in Lebanon.
Webb asked whether Poindexter ever reported destroying the document.
"He did," Hamilton said in front of the jury.
No part of the case against Reagan's national security adviser may be derived from his testimony to Congress, given under a grant of immunity from prosecution.
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classic suspense
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Showtimes Tuesday
Wednesday
March 20 8-21 at
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Tickets available from
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