European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 7, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Metropolitan museum of Art director Thomas moving right says Italy can recover greek vase below for $1 million. It s still in new York. Dpi by Robin Stafford United press International culture Crooks Are plundering Italy s unique Art heritage at the rate of one theft every 43  steal paintings drawings sculptures jewelry artefacts and furniture. And when they be taken everything off the Walls they sometimes take the Walls too. There Are some 12,000 Art thefts a year. More than 50, 000 works have been stolen since the end of world War ii and there is no end in sight As rocketing Art prices make cultural crime an increasingly profitable business. Italy s cultural heritage is so vast stretching from ancient roman times through the Renaissance to the present Day that full cataloguing is impossible. The National office of Fine arts estimated in 1971 that if All italian Art works were sold they would raise $36 Bil lion. That figure would be at least double  has 232 National and More than 300 local museums with Only 4.000 guards and a handful of proper alarm systems to protect them. Even easier targets Are Italy s 72,000 churches Many of them containing priceless works of Art protected by an aged Sacristan by Day and a Rusty mortise lock by night. The usual technique is for thieves to hide in the Church until Nightfall and take their time picking through the paintings statuary and altar pieces. In this Way Caravaggio Giorgione bellinis and tin Toretto have vanished. In a secular age the roman Catholic Church s punish ment of instant excommunication for Church plunderers no longer has a deterrent effect. Indeed there have be encases of Parish priests supplementing their meager in comes by Selling a 16th-Century statue or two. Authorities have suggested that churches which cannot adequately protect their treasures turn them Over to state museums but Bishops question if they would be any safer there. Another source of artefacts is the multitude of Etrus can greek and roman ruins and tombs. Last year in the ruins of Pompeii thieves Cut out and hauled away a Sec Tion of Wall covered with ancient frescoes. Eight years ago police near Rome found an entire roman Temple that had been hidden in a barn for 40 years. Even when thieves Are caught they Are difficult to hold in Italy s porous prisons. Picture framer Elio Pazzaglia 34, confessed to the 1975 Art theft of the Century when he climbed scaffold ing left by workmen against the Ducal Palace in Urbino lowered a folding ladder inside and made off with a Price less Raphael and two Piero Della Francesca. Sentenced to 42 months in jail after the works were re covered in Switzerland Pazzaglia did one Day of his term before escaping. Some things Are difficult to steal such As Leonardo a Vinci s last supper which is frescoes on a Wall of Milan s Church of St. Mary of Grace. But even that is being attacked by a mildew that will destroy it unless urgent action is taken. Carabiniero display paintings recovered Iris in a police raid on a priest s Home. 15th Century altarpiece by Mantegna wast from the St. Zenon Church in Verona. Page 14 the stars and stripes ancient frescoes on the outdoor Walls of the Pompeii ruins Are gradually disappearing under the Sun and rain. There is still a running Battle Between italian Art officials and the new York metropolitan museum of Art Over its $1 million Purchase of a 2,500-year-Oldgreek vase known As the Euphronius Krater. The italians claim it was illegally excavated from an archaeological site North of Rome in 1971 and smuggled out of the country. The metropolitan museum says it bought the vase from a lebanese who said it had been in his family for 50 years. Museum director Thomas Hoving said in 1974 he would let the italians have it for $1 million. It is still on show in new York. Rodolfo Siviero the government s chief Art theft investigator who has recovered 3,000 works plundered by the nazis during world War ii says Italy is being looted by about 50 big timers who commission thefts for specific works. He discounts popular theories about millionaire Art collectors keeping stolen works for their own private pleasure. A collector wants to show his things off says Siviero and when he does Well get them Back if it takes a  he May be right about the lifetime. This summer police recovered a Madonna enthroned by Francesco Bis Solo. It was stolen from a Church i Northeast Italy in 1924. Thursday a Century Mitre set with precious stones Tolen from this Silver bust of St. Panfilio Rona Italy. Police said it was priceless. 7, 1978 Art auction under Way at rotheby s in London. Not by de Blanche associated press i retain is losing a unique Art heritage As wealthy foreign collectors and museums especially americans buy up National treasures and take them out of the country. Multimillionaire american Paul Mellon for one already has bought up a staggering collection of British Art treasures 100 constables 70 Turners 41 Gainsborough 42 Hogarth and dozens More. One major work leaves Britain every month. Official statistics show that Between 1953 and 1976, it was Only one a year. Last year works Worth $467.5 million in Art left Britain for the United states Switzerland West Ger Many and the Netherlands. Those trying to keep the paintings at Home say britons Are forced to sell by inflation the Pound s decline against most other currencies and punishing taxes especially the inheritance taxes that also have caused the Sale of some estates and the opening of others to the Public to maintain the costly Upkeep of the aristocratic Homes. They charge the labor government is doing Little to Stop the Drain. The government Points to cutbacks in almost All areas As a result of the nation s weakening Economy and says it can t spend much on Art. One irony is that not All the Art works leaving Are strictly British. Some came from other countries in the Days of the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries acquired by Means other than auction bids. In this sense said one expert Many of the treasures Are not of British origin but British by Conquest and  conservationists however consider Britain s Art wealth whatever its origin part of the nation s past. One Art historian called the Art Drain the Wanton destruction of a unique National  Dame Veronica Wedgwood of the Art collections fund warned without government action. What has taken centuries to accumulate could be taken from us in a few  government s own reviewing committee on the Export of works of Art also stressed recently it is a cause of concern that the loss to the National heritage has increased in recent  prime minister James Callaghan s labor government wrestling with economic problems did Chip in $20,900 recently to Stop a Canaletto from going to Mellon. But Bri tons such As tax exiled electronics millionaire Daniel Mcdonald had to pick up the rest of the $516,000 Price tag. The Rescue operation was the conservationists say a rare  Leggatt a prominent London dealer said things generally have been going downhill since 1971 when the government refused the National gallery s request for 2 million pounds then Worth $4.8 million to keep Velas Quez s Juan de Pareja portrait in Britain. The painting top of the gallery s Stop list of works that should not leave the country was sold to new York s metropolitan museum for 2.3 million pounds or $5.5 Mil lion. Since then dozens More works have gone and the sunday times charges the system for preserving the National heritage is clearly not  americans and others bought Many Choice lots at the $11.4-million Sale of lord Rosebery s treasures at ment More Castle last year. West germans were the big spend ers last june when Robert Yon Hirsch s collection went for $34.2 million in history s richest Art Sale. The British were particularly galled because the germans were bankrolled with $20 million in Federal and museum funds to retrieve works from the German born tycoon s collection. Despite the Drain experts estimate Britain s Art wealth is still Worth 3 billion pounds or $5.7 billion Dol Lars and includes some of the world s finest old masters. Furniture rare books and Antiques. The conservationists Point to taxes As a major reason behind the Sale of Britain s Art Treasury to foreigners. Lord Rosebery for instance sold off his Century old col Lection to meet inheritance taxes and keep his estates to Gether. The conservation lobby has helped delay a government plan to impose a wealth tax that would in crease pressures on owners to sell. But the threat remains. Leggatt one of the founders of a group called heritage in danger said in an interview the Root of the problem we re facing is this severe fiscal oppression. This makes it almost impossible for British owners to keep their works of Art whereas the americans. Get tax conces Sions for buying works for museums. We have to face the fact that our political masters Don t consider our artistic heritage to be of any import  the government has an estimated $34.2 million in the National land fund set up to preserve Britain s heritage of Art but officials say Public spending Cut backs preclude using it to save paintings. The government has helped by refusing Export licenses for works bought by foreigners allowing time for Money to be raised to keep the Art in Britain. Among famous works saved this Way was Titian s death of actaeon sold by lord Harewood Queen Elizabeth ii s Cousin in 1971. The National gallery with some government Aid raised $4.08 million in a National Appeal to Stop the 400 year old venetian work from going to the late j. Paul Getty s museum at Malibu Calif. The stars and stripes Page 15