Page 77 - EXPOTIME!Sept2017

Discussed in the web

According to http://www.uib.no/aktuelt/109802/inn- ilar.
bruddet-på-universitetsmuseet-i-bergen and the muse- I like to point out another matter I have mentioned else-
um's Facebook commentaries, the precise number of where: To upload things by halves like 93 pictures of
stolen objects, which, by the way, were not part of the guessed 400 on several websites or social networks does
current exhibition, is still unknown. Up to now only a few not make things better than publish it on one single pub-
photos with short object descriptions could be compiled, lic space. It only binds human resources ...
a more detailed, complete list of the objects stolen from
the (temporarily relocated?) magazine will follow. Kind regards
C. Mueller-Straten
Kind regards
Jan Selmer Good morning,
j.selmer@zeitensprung.de
in the Norwegian press harsh criticism arose meanwhile
Dear Mr Selmer, because of the lack of safety precautions ‒ why not in-
viting thieves by putting a ladder to the window etc.
It is important, that more than a week later the museum https://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/norsk-museum-
does not know exactly what was stolen. The mentioned rundstjalet-ekspert---de-kunne-like-gjerne-satt-opp-
400 objects are therefore rather an educated guess. it stige-til-tyvene/68621953
can also be only 300, but also 450 ...
Apparently the responsible persons do not have a sys- Kind regards
tem, with which one locates changes of location of in- Jan Selmer
ventaried objects. Otherwise you could determine the j.selmer@zeitensprung.de
stiolen objects within an hour by a database query using
a negative exclusion. The prerequisite for this is, how- UPDATE: The University Museum informs that the number
ever, that the objects have all been inventoried and re- of stolen items is more than 400. Meanwhile (September 14,
cordings of them exist. And this is really amazing for the 2017, i.e. about one month after the theft) about 176-200
importance of these objects for the museum. pictures and drawings (depending on the social media which
In addition, the space was not sufficiently secured. The proves the quoted argument) were uploaded including pic-
tures which show lots (like several coins or broken excavated
objects were already in the museum possession for a pieces). This means that the museum was unable to upload
long time and are well restored. It is all the more sur- within a month at least 45% of the guessed number of heisted
prising how long it takes. objects. Descriptions are still missing, and the published list
I have the impression that the theft is done with knowl- is not a complete list and consists of no deeper descriptive in-
edge on the actual state of security in the museum - a formation. The police have been able to detect DNA traces of
bit too many coincidences. If the objects are not, as ex- two adults and is in the process of matching these with known
pected, still photographed and inventoried, it will be sequences. Museum director Henrik von Achen had to promise
difficult to retrieve the objects. Many are also quite sim- "that something like this will not happen again."

Photos supplied by The Bergen Police
77

EXPOTIME!, issue August/September 2017