February 16, 2003, Scotland on Sunday, "When great works of art become casualties of war," by Gale Iain,
OPEN any monograph on any artist, from Giotto to Warhol, and somewhere in the list of works you will invariably find a short but ringingly poignant word. 'Lost' is an art-historical commonplace and hardly surprising given the way in which over the past six centuries art has changed hands. But what exactly does it mean and how does it happen? A new book attempts to shed light on both questions.
Missing Masterpieces is a fascinating collection of art- historical detective stories, in which Gert-Rudolf Flick, sometime proprietor of art journal Apollo, examines the fate of 24 lost works of art. While much of the text would be too esoteric for all but the art-history scholar, it does raise broader questions.
Flick's book is a catalogue of cultural catastrophe. A sad and horribly frustrating aide-memoire to works which it is now impossible to see, and most of which, for lack of illustration, we are left only to conjure in the mind. In some cases, however, images do survive as engravings or copies and a picture emerges of the extent of our loss. And as it does we begin to ask, if this is what a mere 24 pictures represent, what are we missing in the 130,000 works of art---including pieces by Van Gogh, Monet and almost every world-class painter---currently noted by the Art Loss Register, the international record of missing works of art?
Perhaps the most telling lesson of Flick's book is on the way in which art goes missing. Theft, accident and mis-attribution are front-runners, but time and again it is violent conflict which is the underlying cause. Many works lost during the Second World War have recently been joined by cultural casualties from conflicts in the Balkans and Afghanistan. Flick's book, though, starts by looking back three centuries, to two earlier wars.
In the mid-17th century, as the Thirty Years War ravaged Europe and its art treasures, the English Civil War spelt similar calamity for Britain's art. The fabulous collection of Charles I was dispersed after the king's execution, and those of other proscribed aristocrats also suffered, not always from simple acts of violence. Flick laments the sequestration by parliament of the property of the Earl of Arundel and Duke of Hamilton, resulting in the selling-off of their collections. For it is when such well-kept collections are broken up that works go missing.
Of the king's own paintings, while some, including a few by Rubens, were thrown into the Thames, most were sold at Somerset House---to pay for the army that had defeated him. Others went to pay off royal debts. So Charles's plumber got a Titian, his builder a Correggio, and to his draper, one John Geere, went Van Dyck's group portrait of Charles's children and Titian's reportedly sublime portrait of Isabella d'Este. He was its last recorded owner.
If official policy destroyed Stuart Britain's important collections, disasters also came at a lower level as Puritan iconoclasts embarked on an orgy of destruction of religious art. The process was repeated a century later in Revolutionary France. Flick cites the destruction of Old Masters belonging to Louis XVI and examines how the sale of the collection of the soon to be guillotined duc d'Orleans resulted in the eventual loss of important works. Similarly, in 1917 the Bolsheviks vandalised much of Russia's imperial and aristocratic art collections and 30 years later the Nazis famously burnt works by so-called 'degenerate' artists, including Matisse, Gauguin and Picasso.
In our own time the process is echoed in the devastation wrought by the Taliban. And it's not just bigots who are to blame. Looting has always gone hand in hand with war. While the soldiery long saw it as a right, at the highest level looting was authorised to create new collections: in Napoleon's case, the Louvre. In the 20th century, with the occupying Nazis came a high command keen to acquire works of art. While Goering was the arch-connoisseur, thievery was rife and Raphael's famous Portrait of a Young Man, once in a Polish collection, was last seen in the hands of a Wehrmacht General.
There is, however, no room for complacency. For even without such self-interest, war can sanction cultural vandalism in the name of humanity. In February 1945 the British and Americans bombed Dresden, obliterating forever one of the gems of the Northern Baroque. Food for thought as we prepare to go to war against Iraq, home of some of the world's most important ancient monuments.
Remember too, though, the little-reported fact that when the twin towers went down on 9/11, some 300 Rodin sculptures from the collection of Cantor Fitzgerald were also reduced to rubble.
War, however it comes, as a clash of interests, a pre-emptive strike, a punitive mission or an act of terror, brings more than a terrible loss of human life. It brings a loss of art. A lessening of humanity.
Missing Masterpieces, Merrell, GBP 40
IAIN GALE. "When great works of art become casualties of war." Scotland on Sunday. 2003. HighBeam Research. (October 3, 2010). http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-12941481.html
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
"Lost art," by Bill Flynn,
January 1, 2003, NFPA Journal [National Fire Protection Association,] "Lost art," by Bill Flynn,
On September 11, 2001, America's loss extended beyond the overwhelming death toll to include countless artistic and historical treasures that can never be replaced
THE TRAGEDY OF September 11, 2001, is second to none in U.S. history, and Americans will forever remember the nearly 3,000 people who died that day. As if the catastrophic loss of life weren't bad enough, the terrorist acts also destroyed millions of dollars worth of art and historical artifacts in New York City and Arlington, Virginia. In fact, PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that property insurance claims alone will eventually reach billions of dollars in what the Insurance Journal has called the largest single insurance disaster in world history.
At the time of the incident, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were home to an estimated $100 million worth of art, historical archives, and artifacts. At least 500 corporations, non-profit organizations, and municipal, state, and federal departments or agencies also stored their records, archives, and libraries in those buildings. At the World Trade Center and nearby buildings alone, the property losses sustained by art and historical institutions are expected to reach tens of millions of dollars. At the Pentagon, which is self-insured, the attack destroyed 24 works of art from the collections of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps and considerably damaged another 40. The Pentagon library, although eventually recovering most of its collection, was out of commission for months after the disaster.
To assess the damage cultural and historic institutions in Lower Manhattan and at the Pentagon, the Heritage Emergency National Task Force commissioned a report entitled "Cataclysm and Challenge: Impact of September 11, 2001 on Our Nation's Cultural Heritage." The report describes the artwork, historical artifacts, archives, and libraries in the seven buildings of the World Trade Center complex and in adjacent buildings, and lists damage to the artwork at the Pentagon and to its library. The report was based, in part, on the results of a survey sent to 122 cultural and historic institutions in or near the World Trade Center aimed at assessing the level of damage they sustained, how prepared they were to cope with disaster, and how they responded in the aftermath of the attacks.
Jane Long, director of the Heritage Emergency National Task Force, says one of the most significant results of the survey was the discovery that collecting institutions need to do a better job planning for continuity of operations.
"The collections of some institutions were completely destroyed," Long says. "Other museums and archives, though, sustained relatively moderate damage initially, but the damage got worse over time because the institutions weren't prepared. It really was a surprising result, but there's a great need to be much more attentive to the continuity of operations following a disaster."
Long says the longer damaged artwork sits without attention, the more likely the damage is to worsen. Mundane issues at many institutions, such as the lack of cleaning equipment or materials needed to stabilize the environment, contributed to damage weeks after the initial attacks.
"It would seem that addressing this aspect of emergency preparedness is something virtually every collecting institution in the country ought to address" Long says.
The Heritage Emergency National Task Force, established in 1995, is a partnership of 34 federal agencies and national non-profit organizations, led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Heritage Preservation, Inc. The task force was founded as a result of the 1991 San Francisco earthquake and Hurricane Hugo in 1989 as a way to help libraries, museums, archives, and historical sites protect themselves from natural and other disasters. The task force preaches the need to develop emergency plans, teaches loss-mitigation techniques, and provides expert information on response and salvage when a disaster occurs. The primary financial supporters of the "Cataclysm and Challenge" report were the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Bay Foundation of New York City.
The extent of the losses
Among the artworks destroyed on September 11 were several by world-renowned artists, including Pablo Picasso, David Hockney, Roy Lichenstein, and Ross Bleckner. Cantor Fitzgerald, the bond brokerage firm on the 105th floor of Tower One that lost all its employees working in the building that day, also lost everything in its "museum in the sky" collection, including drawings, casts, and sculptures by the great French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Reportedly, this privately owned collection was worth millions.
More than 100 works of art owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey were also on display in the vast public spaces of the 16-acre (0.16-hectare) World Trade Center complex, including works by Alexander Calder, Louise Nevelson, Joan Miro, and Masayuki Nagare. Perhaps the most recognizable among them were two huge outdoor sculptures, Fritz Koenig's "Sphere for Plaza Fountain" and James Rosati's "Ideogram." After the attacks, virtually everything inside the buildings was gone, and only the Koenig piece, although badly damaged, survived outside, where it's on display again as a symbol of hope and survival. According to the Heritage Emergency National Task Force report, this public art was worth an estimated $8 million to $10 million. Copies of the report are available at www.heritagepreservation.org/NEWS/ Cataclysm.htm.
The Port Authority also lost archives dating back to the 1920s that documented the construction of many New York City landmarks, including the World Trade Center itself. Among other artifacts that were destroyed were thousands of pieces from an eighteenth-century African burial ground and more than one million artifacts from the nineteenth-century workingclass neighborhood of Five Points.
In spite of these irreplaceable losses, stories of discovery and resourcefulness also emerged. "Bent Propeller," a stabile by Calder, was one of the best-known works of art at the World Trade Center. Officials assumed it had been destroyed along with the hundreds of other pieces, but shortly after the disaster, the artist's grandson, Alexander Rower, began distributing flyers describing the sculpture to recovery workers. Consequently, more than 35 percent of the sculpture has been recovered. Whether it can be reconstituted hasn't yet been determined.
Some cultural institutions near the World Trade Center survived the devastation, either through fate, as in the case of St. Paul's Chapel, or, in the case of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, through sound implementation of an emergency plan.
St. Paul's Chapel, which sits a block north of the World Trade Center site, is the oldest public building in continuous use in Manhattan and its only surviving colonial church. George Washington prayed there before his inauguration, and the first rendition of the Great Seal of the United States hangs above the pew where he knelt. Remarkably, the church survived with little more damage than a thick coating of dust and ash.
Even more inspiring is the story of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park City, just south of the World Trade Center. Just minutes after the first jet crashed into Tower One, the museum's fire alarm system began an automatic shutdown of outside air vents. When Lower Manhattan lost power several minutes later and the automated procedures stopped, the museum's engineers climbed onto the roof and manually closed the remaining vents, even as law enforcement began evacuating the area.
Two days later, when a few museum employees were allowed to reenter the building for a quick inspection, they found no damage to the structure or its collection, not even a speck of dust-all because the vents had been properly closed and the water turned off.
Other institutions weren't as lucky or prepared, and many suffered heart-wrenching losses. Two blocks south of the World Trade Center, on West Street, stood the West Street Building, built in 1907 by Cass Gilbert, a prominent architect of the early twentieth century who later designed the Woolworth Building, one of the first true skyscrapers. The West Street Building was the headquarters of the Helen Keller Foundation, and its archives contained rare documents on the causes and treatment of blindness, as well as photographs, historical files, first editions of books, and letters written by Helen Keller. The entire collection about this remarkable woman is gone.
On Cedar Street, a block away from Tower Two of the World Trade Center, stood St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. For nearly a century, this tiny church served the needs of the Orthodox Christian community on Lower Manhattan, housing the relics of St. Nicholas and St. Katherine and a magnificent collection of old gold chalices, candelabra, crosses, and icons. Several of the icons were gifts from Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. On September 11, the church and its contents were demolished. Recovery workers found twisted candelabra and several candles in the debris, the only physical evidence that St. Nicholas Church ever existed.
At the Pentagon, weeks passed before librarians were able to assess the damage to the institution's large military library and archives. Fires fed by jet fuel burned for nearly a week, and the library remained off limits for several more weeks while federal agents conducted their criminal investigation. By the time the librarians were able to return, they found the facility overgrown with toxic mold. Ultimately, library officials were able to save about 99 percent of the library's collection, and none of the historical material was damaged. Because of the disaster, however, about a month passed before American military experts had access to the library's crucial information about the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Survey results
Only 46 percent of the institutions the Heritage Emergency National Task Force surveyed had a written emergency plan and only 42 percent had staff trained in disaster response procedures. Sixty percent of respondents had a current collections catalogue or inventory, but more than half didn't keep any off-site record of their inventory. Had the destruction in Lower Manhattan been more widespread, many collecting institutions would have been left with no complete record of what they'd lost.
"The survey results show that there are significant gaps in preparedness," says Lawrence L. Reger, president of Heritage Preservation. "Quick-thinking staff members who turned off air-intake systems saved valuable collections from corrosive soot and debris. However, more than half the organizations surveyed had only minimal emergency response procedures. Our cultural heritage is vulnerable to potential future disasters."
In fact, 68 percent of respondents said their staffs could benefit from emergency management training, while 67 percent intended to create new emergency plans or revise existing ones. Although the events of September 11 were terrorist acts, rather than the "usual" emergencies, the study found that standard emergency plans and responses worked well and were actually the most effective in dealing with the resulting damage.
Ruth Hargraves, a FEMA official in the Clinton administration, was the project director for the report. As she followed up with survey respondents, she was surprised by the disconnect among groups of staff at some of the institutions. In most instances, Hargraves says, employees in the public affairs departments completed the survey. When she called to clarify a response, however, she was often referred to the security or engineering staff.
"When I asked questions, such as `when did they start to close the air vents' or `what kind of emergency procedures did they follow,' I kept getting a response such as `you need to talk to `Joe," the security guy,"' Hargraves says.
When she finally tracked down "Joe," she often found that he knew more about the institution's emergency preparedness plans than anyone else in the organization but that he was only a part-time volunteer.
The other issues that "shocked" Hargraves was the number of institutions that didn't keep a complete inventory of their collections at an offsite location. Of the responding institutions, 40 percent didn't have an up-to-date inventory, and more than 50 percent of the 60 percent that did have such a list didn't keep a copy of it off-site.
"That's an issue that we've really got to concentrate on," she says.
What we've learned
Based on the survey's findings and extensive follow-up interviews, the report offers some specific recommendations for emergency planning for cultural institutions. Key points include more staff training and complete, current inventories of collections. The report also calls for more effective communication between the emergency management and cultural heritage fields. It encourages professional associations, government agencies, and private foundations concerned about cultural heritage to make disaster management a priority and urges museums, libraries, and archives to begin a dialogue with local emergency officials before disaster strikes.
The report's recommendations are designed to address any type of emergency, and, according to Hargraves, should be adaptable to any cultural institution in the country.
For Allan Fraser, a senior NFPA building code specialist, the report's recommendations, though encouraging, are also frustrating because the tools needed to accomplish many of the report's recommendations existed well before September 11, 2001. He points, in particular, to NFPA 909, Protection of Cultural Resources, and NFPA 914, Fire Protection in Historic Structures.
"The performance-based guidelines in each code allow all kinds of planning between the cultural institutions and the local fire department. And the planning can get quite extensive and detailed," Fraser says.
According to Fraser, cultural institutions in Europe are decades ahead of those in the United States in developing workable plans to protect cultural resources. He cited the example of the enormous Schoenbrunn Castle in Vienna, Austria, where castle staff and the local fire department have worked out a highly detailed emergency plan.
"Not only do they have a plan in place, but they practice it," Fraser says. "In these drills, fire departments respond with six people aboard each piece of equipment. Half the crew starts fire suppression work while the other half goes into the castle and helps castle staff start packing predetermined art objects. Everyone knows exactly where they're going and what they're expected to do. Plans such as this one are in place at museums and other cultural institutions all over Europe."
In Scotland, for instance, fire departments have what he calls a "phenomenal" database tied into computers on fire apparatus. The data tell firefighters what needs to be done when responding to an emergency at any particular cultural institution.
"The database tells you that one particular castle has its own fire pond nearby," Fraser says. "At another, the data will tell you not to put a fire axe through a twelfth-century carved door at the front, but to go through a utility door at the side. It also tells firefighters, if they have to make choices, what they should save first."
Long, of the Heritage Emergency National Task Force, believes the disaster of September 11 was a "wake-up call" to cultural institutions throughout the country.
"The lesson about how the Museum of Jewish Heritage saved its collection hasn't been lost," Long says. "Collecting institutions all over the country are asking for copies of our report. And the need to develop an emergency plan that involves everyone, and then to practice it, is becoming a top priority among the biggest and smallest institutions."
Cultural Heritage Resources for Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Recover
American Institute for Conservation (AIC) Washington, DC (202) 452-9545
AIC provides referrals of conservation professionals to the public. The AIC disaster recovery page is at http://aic.stanford.edu/disaster/.
AMIGOS Library Council Dallas, Texas (800) 843-8482
Amigos Preservation Services (APS) are available to archives and libraries in the Southwestern U.S., primarily the states of Arizona, Arkansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, with planning activities and recovery from damage caused by various emergency situations, including natural disasters. Prior to, or following an emergency, APS can provide information, guidance, referrals to local resources and on-site assistance as required.
Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (215) 545-0613
Among its conservation programs, CCAHA provides surveys to assist organizations with preservation planning, workshops and seminars, internships, and emergency assistance.
Heritage Preservation Washington, DC (202) 634-1422
A founding partner of the Heritage Emergency Naltional Task Force.
Library of Congress Preservation Directorate Washington, DC (202) 707-5213
Emergency Drying Procedures for Water Damaged Collections. Concise information, broadly covers air-drying of paper, framed items, books, photographs, and recovery of water-damaged collections with mold.
Emergency Preparedness for Library of Congress Collections. This publication provides detailed guidelines for an emergency preparedness plan. Among the topics covered are risk assessment, communication systems, supplies and training
Minnesota Historical Society
St. Paul, Minnesota, Conservation Department, (651) 297-1867
Information on salvaging personal belongings, historic buildings and government records damaged by natural disasters. National Archives and Records
Administration College Park, Maryland (301) 713-6705
Vital Records and Records Disaster Mitigation and Recovery focuses on identifying and protecting records vital to conducting business under emergency conditions or protecting the legal financial rights of the Federal government. Also recommends policies and procedures for damage assessment and implementation of record recovery.
Northeast Document Conservation Center Andover, Massachusetts (978) 470-1010
A 1999 online Preservation Manual including worksheet for outlining a disaster plan, suppliers list, and salvage information. As part of its Field Service, NEDCC offers emergency assistance for institutions and individuals with damaged paper-based collections. NEDCC provides free telephone advice 24 hours a day if a disaster occurs.
SOLINET
[Sidebar]
Atlanta, Georgia (404) 892-0943
Web site, www.solinet.net, includes Contents of a Disaster Plan, Disaster Recovery Services and Supplies and list of Internet disaster resources.
The Upper Midwest Conservation Association South Minneapolis, Minnesota (612) 870-3120
A nonprofit regional conservation center working in the Upper Midwest. Emergency assistance is a high priority for the Field Services Department. Assistance in emergency preparedness planning is provided in the form of telephone consultations, onsite visits, and workshops. The Field Services Department is available 24 hours a day to assist in emergency response and recovery
BILL FLYNN is a frequent contributor to NFPA Journal.
Flynn, Bill. "Lost art." NFPA Journal. 2003. HighBeam Research. (October 3, 2010). http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-283219871.html
On September 11, 2001, America's loss extended beyond the overwhelming death toll to include countless artistic and historical treasures that can never be replaced
THE TRAGEDY OF September 11, 2001, is second to none in U.S. history, and Americans will forever remember the nearly 3,000 people who died that day. As if the catastrophic loss of life weren't bad enough, the terrorist acts also destroyed millions of dollars worth of art and historical artifacts in New York City and Arlington, Virginia. In fact, PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that property insurance claims alone will eventually reach billions of dollars in what the Insurance Journal has called the largest single insurance disaster in world history.
At the time of the incident, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were home to an estimated $100 million worth of art, historical archives, and artifacts. At least 500 corporations, non-profit organizations, and municipal, state, and federal departments or agencies also stored their records, archives, and libraries in those buildings. At the World Trade Center and nearby buildings alone, the property losses sustained by art and historical institutions are expected to reach tens of millions of dollars. At the Pentagon, which is self-insured, the attack destroyed 24 works of art from the collections of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps and considerably damaged another 40. The Pentagon library, although eventually recovering most of its collection, was out of commission for months after the disaster.
To assess the damage cultural and historic institutions in Lower Manhattan and at the Pentagon, the Heritage Emergency National Task Force commissioned a report entitled "Cataclysm and Challenge: Impact of September 11, 2001 on Our Nation's Cultural Heritage." The report describes the artwork, historical artifacts, archives, and libraries in the seven buildings of the World Trade Center complex and in adjacent buildings, and lists damage to the artwork at the Pentagon and to its library. The report was based, in part, on the results of a survey sent to 122 cultural and historic institutions in or near the World Trade Center aimed at assessing the level of damage they sustained, how prepared they were to cope with disaster, and how they responded in the aftermath of the attacks.
Jane Long, director of the Heritage Emergency National Task Force, says one of the most significant results of the survey was the discovery that collecting institutions need to do a better job planning for continuity of operations.
"The collections of some institutions were completely destroyed," Long says. "Other museums and archives, though, sustained relatively moderate damage initially, but the damage got worse over time because the institutions weren't prepared. It really was a surprising result, but there's a great need to be much more attentive to the continuity of operations following a disaster."
Long says the longer damaged artwork sits without attention, the more likely the damage is to worsen. Mundane issues at many institutions, such as the lack of cleaning equipment or materials needed to stabilize the environment, contributed to damage weeks after the initial attacks.
"It would seem that addressing this aspect of emergency preparedness is something virtually every collecting institution in the country ought to address" Long says.
The Heritage Emergency National Task Force, established in 1995, is a partnership of 34 federal agencies and national non-profit organizations, led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Heritage Preservation, Inc. The task force was founded as a result of the 1991 San Francisco earthquake and Hurricane Hugo in 1989 as a way to help libraries, museums, archives, and historical sites protect themselves from natural and other disasters. The task force preaches the need to develop emergency plans, teaches loss-mitigation techniques, and provides expert information on response and salvage when a disaster occurs. The primary financial supporters of the "Cataclysm and Challenge" report were the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Bay Foundation of New York City.
The extent of the losses
Among the artworks destroyed on September 11 were several by world-renowned artists, including Pablo Picasso, David Hockney, Roy Lichenstein, and Ross Bleckner. Cantor Fitzgerald, the bond brokerage firm on the 105th floor of Tower One that lost all its employees working in the building that day, also lost everything in its "museum in the sky" collection, including drawings, casts, and sculptures by the great French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Reportedly, this privately owned collection was worth millions.
More than 100 works of art owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey were also on display in the vast public spaces of the 16-acre (0.16-hectare) World Trade Center complex, including works by Alexander Calder, Louise Nevelson, Joan Miro, and Masayuki Nagare. Perhaps the most recognizable among them were two huge outdoor sculptures, Fritz Koenig's "Sphere for Plaza Fountain" and James Rosati's "Ideogram." After the attacks, virtually everything inside the buildings was gone, and only the Koenig piece, although badly damaged, survived outside, where it's on display again as a symbol of hope and survival. According to the Heritage Emergency National Task Force report, this public art was worth an estimated $8 million to $10 million. Copies of the report are available at www.heritagepreservation.org/NEWS/ Cataclysm.htm.
The Port Authority also lost archives dating back to the 1920s that documented the construction of many New York City landmarks, including the World Trade Center itself. Among other artifacts that were destroyed were thousands of pieces from an eighteenth-century African burial ground and more than one million artifacts from the nineteenth-century workingclass neighborhood of Five Points.
In spite of these irreplaceable losses, stories of discovery and resourcefulness also emerged. "Bent Propeller," a stabile by Calder, was one of the best-known works of art at the World Trade Center. Officials assumed it had been destroyed along with the hundreds of other pieces, but shortly after the disaster, the artist's grandson, Alexander Rower, began distributing flyers describing the sculpture to recovery workers. Consequently, more than 35 percent of the sculpture has been recovered. Whether it can be reconstituted hasn't yet been determined.
Some cultural institutions near the World Trade Center survived the devastation, either through fate, as in the case of St. Paul's Chapel, or, in the case of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, through sound implementation of an emergency plan.
St. Paul's Chapel, which sits a block north of the World Trade Center site, is the oldest public building in continuous use in Manhattan and its only surviving colonial church. George Washington prayed there before his inauguration, and the first rendition of the Great Seal of the United States hangs above the pew where he knelt. Remarkably, the church survived with little more damage than a thick coating of dust and ash.
Even more inspiring is the story of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park City, just south of the World Trade Center. Just minutes after the first jet crashed into Tower One, the museum's fire alarm system began an automatic shutdown of outside air vents. When Lower Manhattan lost power several minutes later and the automated procedures stopped, the museum's engineers climbed onto the roof and manually closed the remaining vents, even as law enforcement began evacuating the area.
Two days later, when a few museum employees were allowed to reenter the building for a quick inspection, they found no damage to the structure or its collection, not even a speck of dust-all because the vents had been properly closed and the water turned off.
Other institutions weren't as lucky or prepared, and many suffered heart-wrenching losses. Two blocks south of the World Trade Center, on West Street, stood the West Street Building, built in 1907 by Cass Gilbert, a prominent architect of the early twentieth century who later designed the Woolworth Building, one of the first true skyscrapers. The West Street Building was the headquarters of the Helen Keller Foundation, and its archives contained rare documents on the causes and treatment of blindness, as well as photographs, historical files, first editions of books, and letters written by Helen Keller. The entire collection about this remarkable woman is gone.
On Cedar Street, a block away from Tower Two of the World Trade Center, stood St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. For nearly a century, this tiny church served the needs of the Orthodox Christian community on Lower Manhattan, housing the relics of St. Nicholas and St. Katherine and a magnificent collection of old gold chalices, candelabra, crosses, and icons. Several of the icons were gifts from Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. On September 11, the church and its contents were demolished. Recovery workers found twisted candelabra and several candles in the debris, the only physical evidence that St. Nicholas Church ever existed.
At the Pentagon, weeks passed before librarians were able to assess the damage to the institution's large military library and archives. Fires fed by jet fuel burned for nearly a week, and the library remained off limits for several more weeks while federal agents conducted their criminal investigation. By the time the librarians were able to return, they found the facility overgrown with toxic mold. Ultimately, library officials were able to save about 99 percent of the library's collection, and none of the historical material was damaged. Because of the disaster, however, about a month passed before American military experts had access to the library's crucial information about the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Survey results
Only 46 percent of the institutions the Heritage Emergency National Task Force surveyed had a written emergency plan and only 42 percent had staff trained in disaster response procedures. Sixty percent of respondents had a current collections catalogue or inventory, but more than half didn't keep any off-site record of their inventory. Had the destruction in Lower Manhattan been more widespread, many collecting institutions would have been left with no complete record of what they'd lost.
"The survey results show that there are significant gaps in preparedness," says Lawrence L. Reger, president of Heritage Preservation. "Quick-thinking staff members who turned off air-intake systems saved valuable collections from corrosive soot and debris. However, more than half the organizations surveyed had only minimal emergency response procedures. Our cultural heritage is vulnerable to potential future disasters."
In fact, 68 percent of respondents said their staffs could benefit from emergency management training, while 67 percent intended to create new emergency plans or revise existing ones. Although the events of September 11 were terrorist acts, rather than the "usual" emergencies, the study found that standard emergency plans and responses worked well and were actually the most effective in dealing with the resulting damage.
Ruth Hargraves, a FEMA official in the Clinton administration, was the project director for the report. As she followed up with survey respondents, she was surprised by the disconnect among groups of staff at some of the institutions. In most instances, Hargraves says, employees in the public affairs departments completed the survey. When she called to clarify a response, however, she was often referred to the security or engineering staff.
"When I asked questions, such as `when did they start to close the air vents' or `what kind of emergency procedures did they follow,' I kept getting a response such as `you need to talk to `Joe," the security guy,"' Hargraves says.
When she finally tracked down "Joe," she often found that he knew more about the institution's emergency preparedness plans than anyone else in the organization but that he was only a part-time volunteer.
The other issues that "shocked" Hargraves was the number of institutions that didn't keep a complete inventory of their collections at an offsite location. Of the responding institutions, 40 percent didn't have an up-to-date inventory, and more than 50 percent of the 60 percent that did have such a list didn't keep a copy of it off-site.
"That's an issue that we've really got to concentrate on," she says.
What we've learned
Based on the survey's findings and extensive follow-up interviews, the report offers some specific recommendations for emergency planning for cultural institutions. Key points include more staff training and complete, current inventories of collections. The report also calls for more effective communication between the emergency management and cultural heritage fields. It encourages professional associations, government agencies, and private foundations concerned about cultural heritage to make disaster management a priority and urges museums, libraries, and archives to begin a dialogue with local emergency officials before disaster strikes.
The report's recommendations are designed to address any type of emergency, and, according to Hargraves, should be adaptable to any cultural institution in the country.
For Allan Fraser, a senior NFPA building code specialist, the report's recommendations, though encouraging, are also frustrating because the tools needed to accomplish many of the report's recommendations existed well before September 11, 2001. He points, in particular, to NFPA 909, Protection of Cultural Resources, and NFPA 914, Fire Protection in Historic Structures.
"The performance-based guidelines in each code allow all kinds of planning between the cultural institutions and the local fire department. And the planning can get quite extensive and detailed," Fraser says.
According to Fraser, cultural institutions in Europe are decades ahead of those in the United States in developing workable plans to protect cultural resources. He cited the example of the enormous Schoenbrunn Castle in Vienna, Austria, where castle staff and the local fire department have worked out a highly detailed emergency plan.
"Not only do they have a plan in place, but they practice it," Fraser says. "In these drills, fire departments respond with six people aboard each piece of equipment. Half the crew starts fire suppression work while the other half goes into the castle and helps castle staff start packing predetermined art objects. Everyone knows exactly where they're going and what they're expected to do. Plans such as this one are in place at museums and other cultural institutions all over Europe."
In Scotland, for instance, fire departments have what he calls a "phenomenal" database tied into computers on fire apparatus. The data tell firefighters what needs to be done when responding to an emergency at any particular cultural institution.
"The database tells you that one particular castle has its own fire pond nearby," Fraser says. "At another, the data will tell you not to put a fire axe through a twelfth-century carved door at the front, but to go through a utility door at the side. It also tells firefighters, if they have to make choices, what they should save first."
Long, of the Heritage Emergency National Task Force, believes the disaster of September 11 was a "wake-up call" to cultural institutions throughout the country.
"The lesson about how the Museum of Jewish Heritage saved its collection hasn't been lost," Long says. "Collecting institutions all over the country are asking for copies of our report. And the need to develop an emergency plan that involves everyone, and then to practice it, is becoming a top priority among the biggest and smallest institutions."
Cultural Heritage Resources for Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Recover
American Institute for Conservation (AIC) Washington, DC (202) 452-9545
AIC provides referrals of conservation professionals to the public. The AIC disaster recovery page is at http://aic.stanford.edu/disaster/.
AMIGOS Library Council Dallas, Texas (800) 843-8482
Amigos Preservation Services (APS) are available to archives and libraries in the Southwestern U.S., primarily the states of Arizona, Arkansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, with planning activities and recovery from damage caused by various emergency situations, including natural disasters. Prior to, or following an emergency, APS can provide information, guidance, referrals to local resources and on-site assistance as required.
Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (215) 545-0613
Among its conservation programs, CCAHA provides surveys to assist organizations with preservation planning, workshops and seminars, internships, and emergency assistance.
Heritage Preservation Washington, DC (202) 634-1422
A founding partner of the Heritage Emergency Naltional Task Force.
Library of Congress Preservation Directorate Washington, DC (202) 707-5213
Emergency Drying Procedures for Water Damaged Collections. Concise information, broadly covers air-drying of paper, framed items, books, photographs, and recovery of water-damaged collections with mold.
Emergency Preparedness for Library of Congress Collections. This publication provides detailed guidelines for an emergency preparedness plan. Among the topics covered are risk assessment, communication systems, supplies and training
Minnesota Historical Society
St. Paul, Minnesota, Conservation Department, (651) 297-1867
Information on salvaging personal belongings, historic buildings and government records damaged by natural disasters. National Archives and Records
Administration College Park, Maryland (301) 713-6705
Vital Records and Records Disaster Mitigation and Recovery focuses on identifying and protecting records vital to conducting business under emergency conditions or protecting the legal financial rights of the Federal government. Also recommends policies and procedures for damage assessment and implementation of record recovery.
Northeast Document Conservation Center Andover, Massachusetts (978) 470-1010
A 1999 online Preservation Manual including worksheet for outlining a disaster plan, suppliers list, and salvage information. As part of its Field Service, NEDCC offers emergency assistance for institutions and individuals with damaged paper-based collections. NEDCC provides free telephone advice 24 hours a day if a disaster occurs.
SOLINET
[Sidebar]
Atlanta, Georgia (404) 892-0943
Web site, www.solinet.net, includes Contents of a Disaster Plan, Disaster Recovery Services and Supplies and list of Internet disaster resources.
The Upper Midwest Conservation Association South Minneapolis, Minnesota (612) 870-3120
A nonprofit regional conservation center working in the Upper Midwest. Emergency assistance is a high priority for the Field Services Department. Assistance in emergency preparedness planning is provided in the form of telephone consultations, onsite visits, and workshops. The Field Services Department is available 24 hours a day to assist in emergency response and recovery
BILL FLYNN is a frequent contributor to NFPA Journal.
Flynn, Bill. "Lost art." NFPA Journal. 2003. HighBeam Research. (October 3, 2010). http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-283219871.html
"Cantor Fitzgerald Regains Its Grip,"
September 8, 2002, New York Post, "Cantor Fitzgerald Regains Its Grip,"
-- A bronze hand, missing two fingers and discolored by the inferno that destroyed the World Trade Center, sits in Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick's office.
© NEW YORK POST is a registered trademark of NYP Holdings, Inc. NYPOST.COM, NYPOSTONLINE.COM, and NEWYORKPOST.COM are trademarks of NYP Holdings, Inc. Copyright 2002 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
Original date: Sept. 8, 2002
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=167&ved=0CDAQFjAGOKAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Faccounting.smartpros.com%2Fx35266.xml&ei=qBUzTIDkN4K78gbso8SqAw&usg=AFQjCNFGZwdD87AIpFcMG0qXixbmNFZiOw&sig2=vlWP5Nc8WxtFjgRmCeUIMg">"http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=167&ved=0CDAQFjAGOKAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Faccounting.smartpros.com%2Fx35266.xml&ei=qBUzTIDkN4K78gbso8SqAw&usg=AFQjCNFGZwdD87AIpFcMG0qXixbmNFZiOw&sig2=vlWP5Nc8WxtFjgRmCeUIMg">
-- A bronze hand, missing two fingers and discolored by the inferno that destroyed the World Trade Center, sits in Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick's office.
One of several casts made in the early 1990s of company founder Bernie Cantor's palms, the hand that fell a quarter of a mile to earth serves as just one reminder of the horror and human loss from the Sept. 11 attacks on America.
About one-quarter of the more than 2,800 people killed in New York that day worked for the bond broker or one of its subsidiaries.
One year later, Lutnick says, the company has firmly found its grip.
"It was so beyond sadness," said Lutnick, recalling that clear, bright blue September morning.
Cantor, its electronic trading subsidiary eSpeed, and energy unit TradeSpark lost 658 people - every person who had arrived at work by 8:45 a.m., and about two-thirds of its New York staff of 1,050 - before American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the north tower just below Cantor's offices on the 101st through the 105th floors.
Famous for its nepotism, the company lost 20 sets of siblings.
Late getting to work after driving his son to kindergarten, Lutnick scrambled to the base of the north tower and waited in vain to find an employee who made it out. He lost his brother, Gary, and his best friend, Doug Gardner.
"The events of September 11th were unthinkable," Lutnick said.
At his current third-floor offices in a modest Manhattan skyscraper on 57th Street, about 100 stories closer to the ground, Lutnick is relaxed, dressed in a crisp blue Oxford shirt, black slacks, his thinning black hair slicked back.
Another bronze hand in Lutnick's office that survived the World Trade Center catastrophe retains its coal-black color and shine. It was reminiscent of the hue on what was once the world's largest private collection of Rodin sculptures, which was mostly destroyed in the attacks.
Long lionized as one of the toughest traders on Wall Street and demonized in the days shortly after the attacks for swiftly cutting lost employees from company payrolls, Lutnick says he remains fiercely loyal to the families.
"This isn't Harvard Business School analysis, this is the real thing," Lutnick said. "Our friends got killed and of course the people who work here are going to be completely committed to them. What else would they be?"
A promise made to victims' families to pay out 25 percent of Cantor's profits for five years fell on deaf ears to critics who believed the company would fail. But it gave eSpeed workers a clear mission, Lutnick said.
The company, together with additional money raised by the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund, will have paid out about $28 million to the families by this Sept. 11. The company has promised to cover health care benefits of the victims' families for 10 years.
But Lutnick does not just beam about the Cantor "family" and the promises he intends to keep. He huffs and puffs about being back in business.
A wide flat-panel screen displays rapid-fire news headlines and frenetic and flickering bond market quotes, as Lutnick bolts up out of his chair to point out eSpeed's stock price. At around $9.40 Friday, the stock trades above where it closed the day before the hijackers destroyed the twin towers.
Miraculously, eSpeed's system was back online two days later and eSpeed turned its first profit in the last three months of 2001. The company has been profitable since.
Cantor, through eSpeed, has also clung to its title as the leading middleman between big banks and securities firms in the $3 trillion U.S. government bond market.
Reviled in the past by those who suggested he aggressively seized control of the company in 1996 from his mentor Bernie Cantor when Cantor was ill, Lutnick says Sept. 11 transformed him into a fund-raiser and part-time counselor.
"Did I change? Of course. But the direction I went was the only one that my heart and my mind would let me go," Lutnick said.
Lutnick points to a framed montage posted on his office wall of eSpeed's top management, prepared before Sept. 11 for an annual report package but never published.
Lutnick says he now spends Thursday and Sunday nights with Michael Gardner, Doug's son, together with his own son. Lutnick's wife, Allison, organizes monthly gatherings of the 46 fiancees who lost their partners-to-be and the 38 women who had babies since the attacks.
"It will forever hurt," Lutnick says, sinking down a bit in his chair, the ends of his fingers touching one another below his chin. "It will be a nightmare that will never go away."
Reuters
About one-quarter of the more than 2,800 people killed in New York that day worked for the bond broker or one of its subsidiaries.
One year later, Lutnick says, the company has firmly found its grip.
"It was so beyond sadness," said Lutnick, recalling that clear, bright blue September morning.
Cantor, its electronic trading subsidiary eSpeed, and energy unit TradeSpark lost 658 people - every person who had arrived at work by 8:45 a.m., and about two-thirds of its New York staff of 1,050 - before American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the north tower just below Cantor's offices on the 101st through the 105th floors.
Famous for its nepotism, the company lost 20 sets of siblings.
Late getting to work after driving his son to kindergarten, Lutnick scrambled to the base of the north tower and waited in vain to find an employee who made it out. He lost his brother, Gary, and his best friend, Doug Gardner.
"The events of September 11th were unthinkable," Lutnick said.
At his current third-floor offices in a modest Manhattan skyscraper on 57th Street, about 100 stories closer to the ground, Lutnick is relaxed, dressed in a crisp blue Oxford shirt, black slacks, his thinning black hair slicked back.
Another bronze hand in Lutnick's office that survived the World Trade Center catastrophe retains its coal-black color and shine. It was reminiscent of the hue on what was once the world's largest private collection of Rodin sculptures, which was mostly destroyed in the attacks.
Long lionized as one of the toughest traders on Wall Street and demonized in the days shortly after the attacks for swiftly cutting lost employees from company payrolls, Lutnick says he remains fiercely loyal to the families.
"This isn't Harvard Business School analysis, this is the real thing," Lutnick said. "Our friends got killed and of course the people who work here are going to be completely committed to them. What else would they be?"
A promise made to victims' families to pay out 25 percent of Cantor's profits for five years fell on deaf ears to critics who believed the company would fail. But it gave eSpeed workers a clear mission, Lutnick said.
The company, together with additional money raised by the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund, will have paid out about $28 million to the families by this Sept. 11. The company has promised to cover health care benefits of the victims' families for 10 years.
But Lutnick does not just beam about the Cantor "family" and the promises he intends to keep. He huffs and puffs about being back in business.
A wide flat-panel screen displays rapid-fire news headlines and frenetic and flickering bond market quotes, as Lutnick bolts up out of his chair to point out eSpeed's stock price. At around $9.40 Friday, the stock trades above where it closed the day before the hijackers destroyed the twin towers.
Miraculously, eSpeed's system was back online two days later and eSpeed turned its first profit in the last three months of 2001. The company has been profitable since.
Cantor, through eSpeed, has also clung to its title as the leading middleman between big banks and securities firms in the $3 trillion U.S. government bond market.
Reviled in the past by those who suggested he aggressively seized control of the company in 1996 from his mentor Bernie Cantor when Cantor was ill, Lutnick says Sept. 11 transformed him into a fund-raiser and part-time counselor.
"Did I change? Of course. But the direction I went was the only one that my heart and my mind would let me go," Lutnick said.
Lutnick points to a framed montage posted on his office wall of eSpeed's top management, prepared before Sept. 11 for an annual report package but never published.
Lutnick says he now spends Thursday and Sunday nights with Michael Gardner, Doug's son, together with his own son. Lutnick's wife, Allison, organizes monthly gatherings of the 46 fiancees who lost their partners-to-be and the 38 women who had babies since the attacks.
"It will forever hurt," Lutnick says, sinking down a bit in his chair, the ends of his fingers touching one another below his chin. "It will be a nightmare that will never go away."
Reuters
© NEW YORK POST is a registered trademark of NYP Holdings, Inc. NYPOST.COM, NYPOSTONLINE.COM, and NEWYORKPOST.COM are trademarks of NYP Holdings, Inc. Copyright 2002 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
Original date: Sept. 8, 2002
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=167&ved=0CDAQFjAGOKAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Faccounting.smartpros.com%2Fx35266.xml&ei=qBUzTIDkN4K78gbso8SqAw&usg=AFQjCNFGZwdD87AIpFcMG0qXixbmNFZiOw&sig2=vlWP5Nc8WxtFjgRmCeUIMg">"http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=167&ved=0CDAQFjAGOKAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Faccounting.smartpros.com%2Fx35266.xml&ei=qBUzTIDkN4K78gbso8SqAw&usg=AFQjCNFGZwdD87AIpFcMG0qXixbmNFZiOw&sig2=vlWP5Nc8WxtFjgRmCeUIMg">
"Witness: September 11 tribute Remains of a day of devastation..."
September 8, 2002, Sunday Mail (Glasgow, Scotland) , "Witness: September 11 tribute Remains of a day of devastation; The world's fifth and sixth tallest buildings were crushed into 1.6 million tons of smoking concrete and steel, a tomb for 2801 innocent victims. The statistics compiled during the painstaking recovery operation tell their own horrific story,"
[Also published in Time Magazine: http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020909/anumbers.html ]
6 years, 8 months
Time it took to build the World Trade Center, from 1966 to 1973.
1 hour, 42 minutes
Time it took to destroy the towers, from the first impact to the second collapse.
180 mph
Speed at which a Boeing 707 could hit the towers but still not destroy them, under the official engineering plan.
475 mph and 595 mph
Estimated flight speeds of the two Boeing 767 jets which hit the towers.
0.9
Magnitude on the Richter scale of the earthquake-like tremor caused by Flight 11 hitting the North Tower.
2.3
Magnitude of the tremor caused by the collapse of the North Tower.
980 degrees C
Estimated temperature of the fires ignited by the jet fuel.
550 degrees C
Temperature at which steel loses half its strength. It melts at about 1370 degrees C.
60
Police officers killed - 37 Port Authority and 23 NYPD.
343
New York firefighters killed; 60 were off duty.
658
Cantor Fitzgerald employees killed.
10
Bystanders killed by falling debris.
19,858
Body parts recovered from the site; 4598 have been identified.
10.5
Tons of gold recovered from the Bank of Nova Scotia vault (current value; pounds 79million).
3
Auguste Rodin sculptures recovered from the rubble.
144
Rings among the 65,000 personal items recovered from Ground Zero. Other items include 437 watches, 77 necklaces, 119 earrings and 80 bracelets.
4
Autographed baseballs found.
16
People who escaped the South Tower from above the floors where the plane hit.
0
People who escaped the North Tower from above the floors where the plane hit.
18
Survivors found in rubble: 12 firefighters, three police officers, three civilians. All were found by September 12.
92
Bomb threats phoned in to police in New York City on September 11.
6
Looting arrests in New York on September 11.
pounds 2.6billion to pounds 4billion
Expected total payout of government compensation to victims' families.
pounds 1,490,664
Government estimate of the value of a 25-year-old man with one child, earning pounds 35,000 a year at the time of his death.
pounds 960,000
Average payment to first 25 families who applied.
1350
The number of vehicles crushed under the falling towers. They ended up in a mound at Staten Island's Fresh Kills landfill.
76 per cent
New York school pupils who reported that, six months later, they still thought frequently about September 11.
3.6 million
Estimated number of tourists who will have visited Ground Zero by the end of this year.
6400
American flags sold by Wal-Mart on September 11, 2000.
116,000
American flags sold by Wal-Mart on September 11, 2001.
"Witness: September 11 tribute Remains of a day of devastation; The world's fifth and sixth tallest buildings were crushed into 1.6 million tons of smoking concrete and steel, a tomb for 2801 innocent victims. The statistics compiled during the painstaking recovery operation tell their own horrific story.(Witness September 11 tribute)." Sunday Mail (Glasgow, Scotland). 2002. HighBeam Research. (October 3, 2010). http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-91181969.html
[Also published in Time Magazine: http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020909/anumbers.html ]
6 years, 8 months
Time it took to build the World Trade Center, from 1966 to 1973.
1 hour, 42 minutes
Time it took to destroy the towers, from the first impact to the second collapse.
180 mph
Speed at which a Boeing 707 could hit the towers but still not destroy them, under the official engineering plan.
475 mph and 595 mph
Estimated flight speeds of the two Boeing 767 jets which hit the towers.
0.9
Magnitude on the Richter scale of the earthquake-like tremor caused by Flight 11 hitting the North Tower.
2.3
Magnitude of the tremor caused by the collapse of the North Tower.
980 degrees C
Estimated temperature of the fires ignited by the jet fuel.
550 degrees C
Temperature at which steel loses half its strength. It melts at about 1370 degrees C.
60
Police officers killed - 37 Port Authority and 23 NYPD.
343
New York firefighters killed; 60 were off duty.
658
Cantor Fitzgerald employees killed.
10
Bystanders killed by falling debris.
19,858
Body parts recovered from the site; 4598 have been identified.
10.5
Tons of gold recovered from the Bank of Nova Scotia vault (current value; pounds 79million).
3
Auguste Rodin sculptures recovered from the rubble.
144
Rings among the 65,000 personal items recovered from Ground Zero. Other items include 437 watches, 77 necklaces, 119 earrings and 80 bracelets.
4
Autographed baseballs found.
16
People who escaped the South Tower from above the floors where the plane hit.
0
People who escaped the North Tower from above the floors where the plane hit.
18
Survivors found in rubble: 12 firefighters, three police officers, three civilians. All were found by September 12.
92
Bomb threats phoned in to police in New York City on September 11.
6
Looting arrests in New York on September 11.
pounds 2.6billion to pounds 4billion
Expected total payout of government compensation to victims' families.
pounds 1,490,664
Government estimate of the value of a 25-year-old man with one child, earning pounds 35,000 a year at the time of his death.
pounds 960,000
Average payment to first 25 families who applied.
1350
The number of vehicles crushed under the falling towers. They ended up in a mound at Staten Island's Fresh Kills landfill.
76 per cent
New York school pupils who reported that, six months later, they still thought frequently about September 11.
3.6 million
Estimated number of tourists who will have visited Ground Zero by the end of this year.
6400
American flags sold by Wal-Mart on September 11, 2000.
116,000
American flags sold by Wal-Mart on September 11, 2001.
"Witness: September 11 tribute Remains of a day of devastation; The world's fifth and sixth tallest buildings were crushed into 1.6 million tons of smoking concrete and steel, a tomb for 2801 innocent victims. The statistics compiled during the painstaking recovery operation tell their own horrific story.(Witness September 11 tribute)." Sunday Mail (Glasgow, Scotland). 2002. HighBeam Research. (October 3, 2010). http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-91181969.html
"Out of this has come a community," by Theresa Tedesco,
September 7, 2002, National Post, "Out of this has come a community," by Theresa Tedesco, (Financial Post),
The reminders are constant: the memories like glowing embers that burn hot and slow in the mind of Howard Lutnick.
The 41-year-old chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald LP emerged as one of the most unforgettable and controversial figures in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center Sept. 11.
The brash treasury bond trader with the slicked-back hair, who had seemed the embodiment of the financial might of New York, had been reduced to public displays of sobbing. At times, he appeared overcome with grief and guilt.
"It was a nightmare and when we wake up every morning, it's still there," he said, in an interview with the Financial Post this week in his midtown Manhattan office. "At Cantor Fitzgerald, our hearts were ripped apart and the remnants are still there. From the minute I wake up to the last moment before I go to sleep, it's in my every waking moment. There is nothing in-between."
Sitting in his corner office, about a hundred blocks north of the scene of the carnage, Mr. Lutnick is relatively composed heading into the first anniversary of the attacks. A Rodin sculpture of a hand, with three fingers missing, sits on a desk, recovered from the rubble at Ground Zero.
Cantor Fitzgerald's new U.S. headquarters are modest, 80,000 square feet over five floors in a decidedly low-brow building. Mr. Lutnick's office is on the third floor.
"Did we do that on purpose?" he asks, anticipating the obvious question. "You're darn right we did."
His day began at breakfast with one of the families who lost a loved one employed at Cantor Fitzgerald. By the end of the day, Mr. Lutnick will have had similar meetings with at least two other grieving families. For the past year, his routine has been an average of three meetings or telephone chats a day, each at a minimum of 20 minutes, and his rule is that he never hangs up first.
"There's so many," he says, rattling off the casualty statistics by rote---658 employees perished, or two-thirds of the company's 1,050 employees in New York. He hired about 200 of them personally.
Among the fatalities, 165 senior partners at the firm; his 36-year-old brother, Gary; 20 family pairings; 48 others who had been engaged to be married.
http://business.highbeam.com/435424/article-1G1-94666176/out-has-come-community
The reminders are constant: the memories like glowing embers that burn hot and slow in the mind of Howard Lutnick.
The 41-year-old chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald LP emerged as one of the most unforgettable and controversial figures in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center Sept. 11.
The brash treasury bond trader with the slicked-back hair, who had seemed the embodiment of the financial might of New York, had been reduced to public displays of sobbing. At times, he appeared overcome with grief and guilt.
"It was a nightmare and when we wake up every morning, it's still there," he said, in an interview with the Financial Post this week in his midtown Manhattan office. "At Cantor Fitzgerald, our hearts were ripped apart and the remnants are still there. From the minute I wake up to the last moment before I go to sleep, it's in my every waking moment. There is nothing in-between."
Sitting in his corner office, about a hundred blocks north of the scene of the carnage, Mr. Lutnick is relatively composed heading into the first anniversary of the attacks. A Rodin sculpture of a hand, with three fingers missing, sits on a desk, recovered from the rubble at Ground Zero.
Cantor Fitzgerald's new U.S. headquarters are modest, 80,000 square feet over five floors in a decidedly low-brow building. Mr. Lutnick's office is on the third floor.
"Did we do that on purpose?" he asks, anticipating the obvious question. "You're darn right we did."
His day began at breakfast with one of the families who lost a loved one employed at Cantor Fitzgerald. By the end of the day, Mr. Lutnick will have had similar meetings with at least two other grieving families. For the past year, his routine has been an average of three meetings or telephone chats a day, each at a minimum of 20 minutes, and his rule is that he never hangs up first.
"There's so many," he says, rattling off the casualty statistics by rote---658 employees perished, or two-thirds of the company's 1,050 employees in New York. He hired about 200 of them personally.
Among the fatalities, 165 senior partners at the firm; his 36-year-old brother, Gary; 20 family pairings; 48 others who had been engaged to be married.
http://business.highbeam.com/435424/article-1G1-94666176/out-has-come-community
"Sept. 11: Art Destroyed, Created in NYC," by Frederick W. Winship,
September 5, 2002, United Press International, "Sept. 11: Art Destroyed, Created in NYC," by Frederick W. Winship,
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-67146966.html
NEW YORK -- The collapse of the World Trade Center towers last Sept. 11 destroyed paintings and sculpture valued at as much as $100 million but also gave birth to a new form of art inspired by the terrorist attacks.
While insurance companies are still processing claims for fine art losses, some of the city's museums are collecting material from the Ground Zero site and photographs of the catastrophe for exhibition now and in the future. The New York Historical Society initiated this new display category last November with a show titled "New York September 11 by Magnum Photographers," a selection of the photo agency's video and still photography of the event.
Most of the art that was virtually atomized in the fiery collapse of the Twin Towers belonged to companies with offices in these buildings and several peripheral structures that were damaged. But some of the most important works had been created to beautify the World Trade Center and its plaza when they were completed in the early 1970s.
The plaza centerpiece was a large polished brass globe by Fritz Koenig, which miraculously escaped destruction although it suffered damage. It has been removed to a city park site at Broadway and Battery Place for display in its battered condition as a memorial to the Sept. 11 tragedy and may eventually be returned to the Twin Towers site when it is rebuilt, according to a City Parks Department spokesman.
Another public art object, "Modern Head," a 30-foot sculpture by Roy Lichtenstein was also found in the ruins and is currently being restored, but none of the other commissioned pieces were found. These include another Lichtenstein, a painting from his "Entablature" series of the 1970s, Alexander Calder's 25-foot "Red Stabile (1991)," Louise Nevelson's "Sky Gate, New York," a 1975 painted wood relief, and Joan Miro's " 1974 "World Trade Center Tapestry" designed for the No. 2 Tower mezzanine.
Other important corporate art collections destroyed were those of the Cantor Fitzgerald investment company, Deutsch Bank, the Merrill Lynch brokerage, and Fred Alger Management, another investment firm.
Most of the companies in the World Trade Center complex collected contemporary art but Cantor Fitzgerald was noted for its collection of bronzes by the great 19th century French sculptor, Auguste Rodin, whose work was avidly collected by the firm's late founder, George B. Cantor. One of the memorable photographs of the disaster site showed a shattered leg and foot from one of Cantor Fitzgerald's Rodins.
"These losses have been a very touchy subject, what with putting an evaluation on the lost pieces and making insurance claims," said Judi Jedlicka, president of Business Committee for the Arts, Inc., a non- profit group that links companies to the arts. "No one wants to talk about it, really, perhaps because the loss of life at the World Trade Center was much the greater loss."
Dietrich von Frank of AXA Nordstern Art Insurance, one of the major insurers of the lost art, estimated that as many as 400 companies suffered losses of art.
"I wouldn't be surprised if in the end these losses were in the range of $100 million," he said. "There are a few companies with losses in the tens of millions."
One monument in granite from the center's plaza that was shattered but retrieved was the memorial sculpted by Elyn Zimmerman to commemorate the six lives lost in the 1993 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Zimmerman said the fragments of the memorial, which was part of a fountain installation into which visitors tossed coins for good luck, will eventually be installed in a museum.
The Museum of the City of New York and the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History have taken the lead in collecting and preserving artifacts and images that document Sept. 11, and some 33 museums and other institutions around the country have come up with suggestions that are now being acted on or evaluated. Many artifacts already have been stored away for future display.
One of the outstanding exhibits so far is the Museum of the City of New York's "Manhattan Skyline" that included a number of images of the Twin Towers, including a 1992 folding screen in the Japanese style by Jonathan Shackleton showing the towers picked out in indigo on a gold leaf ground beneath a silver moon.
Other exhibits have been mounted by the International Center for Photography, the Bronx River Art Center, and a number of private galleries in Manhattan's SoHo and the East Village. A dozen wall murals depicting Sept. 11 by virtually unknown artists have cropped up around the city, the most striking one on a block-long wall facing the Long Island Expressway in Queens featuring four firemen raising a flag, a giant eagle, and the face of Miss Liberty.
(This article is part of UPI's Special Package on the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks).
"SEPT. 11: ART DESTROYED, CREATED IN NYC." United Press International. 2002. HighBeam Research. (October 3, 2010). http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-67146966.html
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-67146966.html
NEW YORK -- The collapse of the World Trade Center towers last Sept. 11 destroyed paintings and sculpture valued at as much as $100 million but also gave birth to a new form of art inspired by the terrorist attacks.
While insurance companies are still processing claims for fine art losses, some of the city's museums are collecting material from the Ground Zero site and photographs of the catastrophe for exhibition now and in the future. The New York Historical Society initiated this new display category last November with a show titled "New York September 11 by Magnum Photographers," a selection of the photo agency's video and still photography of the event.
Most of the art that was virtually atomized in the fiery collapse of the Twin Towers belonged to companies with offices in these buildings and several peripheral structures that were damaged. But some of the most important works had been created to beautify the World Trade Center and its plaza when they were completed in the early 1970s.
The plaza centerpiece was a large polished brass globe by Fritz Koenig, which miraculously escaped destruction although it suffered damage. It has been removed to a city park site at Broadway and Battery Place for display in its battered condition as a memorial to the Sept. 11 tragedy and may eventually be returned to the Twin Towers site when it is rebuilt, according to a City Parks Department spokesman.
Another public art object, "Modern Head," a 30-foot sculpture by Roy Lichtenstein was also found in the ruins and is currently being restored, but none of the other commissioned pieces were found. These include another Lichtenstein, a painting from his "Entablature" series of the 1970s, Alexander Calder's 25-foot "Red Stabile (1991)," Louise Nevelson's "Sky Gate, New York," a 1975 painted wood relief, and Joan Miro's " 1974 "World Trade Center Tapestry" designed for the No. 2 Tower mezzanine.
Other important corporate art collections destroyed were those of the Cantor Fitzgerald investment company, Deutsch Bank, the Merrill Lynch brokerage, and Fred Alger Management, another investment firm.
Most of the companies in the World Trade Center complex collected contemporary art but Cantor Fitzgerald was noted for its collection of bronzes by the great 19th century French sculptor, Auguste Rodin, whose work was avidly collected by the firm's late founder, George B. Cantor. One of the memorable photographs of the disaster site showed a shattered leg and foot from one of Cantor Fitzgerald's Rodins.
"These losses have been a very touchy subject, what with putting an evaluation on the lost pieces and making insurance claims," said Judi Jedlicka, president of Business Committee for the Arts, Inc., a non- profit group that links companies to the arts. "No one wants to talk about it, really, perhaps because the loss of life at the World Trade Center was much the greater loss."
Dietrich von Frank of AXA Nordstern Art Insurance, one of the major insurers of the lost art, estimated that as many as 400 companies suffered losses of art.
"I wouldn't be surprised if in the end these losses were in the range of $100 million," he said. "There are a few companies with losses in the tens of millions."
One monument in granite from the center's plaza that was shattered but retrieved was the memorial sculpted by Elyn Zimmerman to commemorate the six lives lost in the 1993 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Zimmerman said the fragments of the memorial, which was part of a fountain installation into which visitors tossed coins for good luck, will eventually be installed in a museum.
The Museum of the City of New York and the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History have taken the lead in collecting and preserving artifacts and images that document Sept. 11, and some 33 museums and other institutions around the country have come up with suggestions that are now being acted on or evaluated. Many artifacts already have been stored away for future display.
One of the outstanding exhibits so far is the Museum of the City of New York's "Manhattan Skyline" that included a number of images of the Twin Towers, including a 1992 folding screen in the Japanese style by Jonathan Shackleton showing the towers picked out in indigo on a gold leaf ground beneath a silver moon.
Other exhibits have been mounted by the International Center for Photography, the Bronx River Art Center, and a number of private galleries in Manhattan's SoHo and the East Village. A dozen wall murals depicting Sept. 11 by virtually unknown artists have cropped up around the city, the most striking one on a block-long wall facing the Long Island Expressway in Queens featuring four firemen raising a flag, a giant eagle, and the face of Miss Liberty.
(This article is part of UPI's Special Package on the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks).
"SEPT. 11: ART DESTROYED, CREATED IN NYC." United Press International. 2002. HighBeam Research. (October 3, 2010). http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-67146966.html
"Sept. 11 cultural losses tallied," by Alpert I. Lukas,
June 4, 2002, AP / (Bergen County, NJ) Record, "Sept. 11 cultural losses tallied," by Alpert I. Lukas,
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-53395227.html
"Sept. 11 cultural losses tallied -- Twin Towers held big historical trove,"
[Exact verbatim article as the June 4, AP Online, "Report Details Artifacts Lost 9-11," by Alpert I. Lukas,]
NEW YORK - First editions of Helen Keller's books. Sculptures by Auguste Rodin. Artifacts from the African Burial Ground. Thousands of photographs of Broadway, off-Broadway, and even off-off-Broadway shows.
All were lost - along with thousands of other important works of art, photographs, negatives, artifacts, and historical documents - when the World Trade Center towers collapsed, a new report shows.
"In emergencies, sometimes there is simply nothing you can do," said Lawrence L. Reger, president of the group that released the report. "There was stuff put in vaults that were simply vaporized."
The report, by Heritage Preservation, a Washington, D.C.-based cultural preservation organization, surveyed 57 museums, archives, and cultural institutions close to the trade center site. It focused on the scope of what was lost in lower Manhattan and at the Pentagon during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Within and around the Twin Towers were some of the world's best-known pieces of art, such as Fritz Koenig's "The Sphere" and the Rodin collection in the offices of Cantor Fitzgerald, the bond-trading firm that lost 658 of its nearly 1,000 employees on Sept. 11.
The Koenig sculpture, which sat in the concourse between the towers, was badly damaged and now serves as part of a temporary memorial in nearby Battery Park.
"It was next to a miracle that the Koenig sphere survived in any way, " Reger said.
But most of the Rodins did not survive. Those that did were badly damaged.
Aside from the works of art, thousands of important historical photographs and documents also were lost.
Almost the complete Port Authority of New York and New Jersey archive of papers, photographs, and blueprints detailing the construction of the World Trade Center and dozens of other city landmarks was destroyed.
Nearly 40,000 of photographer Jacques Lowe's negatives, detailing John F. Kennedy's presidency, were lost when 5 World Trade Center was heavily damaged in the attack, destroying the bank vault where they were stored. Lowe's family estimated that the negatives were worth nearly $2 million.
"Most people did not think that the World Trade towers had such a variety and such a wide breadth of historical items," Reger said.
But the Heritage Preservation report also showed that hundreds of thousands more items were saved by quick thinking and well-thought- out emergency plans.
"The good news is that people really took common-sense action, and that helped save quite a lot," Reger said. "Most of those who did that had some kind of plan, but we do think too many institutions don't have proper planning."
Reger said museums and archivists can learn a lesson by looking at how some cultural institutions within the disaster area managed to safeguard their collections. For example, just across the street from where the towers once stood, administrators at the Museum of Jewish Heritage had to climb to the roof and manually crank the vents closed when power was lost. As the towers burned in the background, they stayed to turn off water valves, despite being ordered to leave by the police.
When they returned, not a trace of dust - which can be lethal to artifacts - was found inside the museum, despite all of lower Manhattan's being covered in a thick layer of it.
Illustrations/Photos: PHOTO - ASSOCIATED PRESS - Fritz Koenig's "The Sphere" in the rubble of the World Trade Center in September. It had been in the concourse between the towers. Keywords: NEW YORK CITY, BUILDING, DISASTER, ART
LUKAS I. ALPERT, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. "Sept. 11 cultural losses tallied." The Record (Bergen County, NJ). 2002. HighBeam Research. (October 3, 2010). http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-53395227.html
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-53395227.html
"Sept. 11 cultural losses tallied -- Twin Towers held big historical trove,"
[Exact verbatim article as the June 4, AP Online, "Report Details Artifacts Lost 9-11," by Alpert I. Lukas,]
NEW YORK - First editions of Helen Keller's books. Sculptures by Auguste Rodin. Artifacts from the African Burial Ground. Thousands of photographs of Broadway, off-Broadway, and even off-off-Broadway shows.
All were lost - along with thousands of other important works of art, photographs, negatives, artifacts, and historical documents - when the World Trade Center towers collapsed, a new report shows.
"In emergencies, sometimes there is simply nothing you can do," said Lawrence L. Reger, president of the group that released the report. "There was stuff put in vaults that were simply vaporized."
The report, by Heritage Preservation, a Washington, D.C.-based cultural preservation organization, surveyed 57 museums, archives, and cultural institutions close to the trade center site. It focused on the scope of what was lost in lower Manhattan and at the Pentagon during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Within and around the Twin Towers were some of the world's best-known pieces of art, such as Fritz Koenig's "The Sphere" and the Rodin collection in the offices of Cantor Fitzgerald, the bond-trading firm that lost 658 of its nearly 1,000 employees on Sept. 11.
The Koenig sculpture, which sat in the concourse between the towers, was badly damaged and now serves as part of a temporary memorial in nearby Battery Park.
"It was next to a miracle that the Koenig sphere survived in any way, " Reger said.
But most of the Rodins did not survive. Those that did were badly damaged.
Aside from the works of art, thousands of important historical photographs and documents also were lost.
Almost the complete Port Authority of New York and New Jersey archive of papers, photographs, and blueprints detailing the construction of the World Trade Center and dozens of other city landmarks was destroyed.
Nearly 40,000 of photographer Jacques Lowe's negatives, detailing John F. Kennedy's presidency, were lost when 5 World Trade Center was heavily damaged in the attack, destroying the bank vault where they were stored. Lowe's family estimated that the negatives were worth nearly $2 million.
"Most people did not think that the World Trade towers had such a variety and such a wide breadth of historical items," Reger said.
But the Heritage Preservation report also showed that hundreds of thousands more items were saved by quick thinking and well-thought- out emergency plans.
"The good news is that people really took common-sense action, and that helped save quite a lot," Reger said. "Most of those who did that had some kind of plan, but we do think too many institutions don't have proper planning."
Reger said museums and archivists can learn a lesson by looking at how some cultural institutions within the disaster area managed to safeguard their collections. For example, just across the street from where the towers once stood, administrators at the Museum of Jewish Heritage had to climb to the roof and manually crank the vents closed when power was lost. As the towers burned in the background, they stayed to turn off water valves, despite being ordered to leave by the police.
When they returned, not a trace of dust - which can be lethal to artifacts - was found inside the museum, despite all of lower Manhattan's being covered in a thick layer of it.
Illustrations/Photos: PHOTO - ASSOCIATED PRESS - Fritz Koenig's "The Sphere" in the rubble of the World Trade Center in September. It had been in the concourse between the towers. Keywords: NEW YORK CITY, BUILDING, DISASTER, ART
LUKAS I. ALPERT, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. "Sept. 11 cultural losses tallied." The Record (Bergen County, NJ). 2002. HighBeam Research. (October 3, 2010). http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-53395227.html
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