How is numismatics portrayed in the daily media?
It’s actually quite easy for an auction house to get into the daily media. All you need is a result with lots of zeros and an excellent press agency. If there is also a great story connected with the coin, only the outbreak of war in Europe or a scandal in the royal family could prevent it from being reported. This is because the coin trade has stories to tell that people love: stories of treasures and fairy-tale riches that every reader would like to have for themselves. The fact that gold still shines is also no disadvantage.
Is this the image of numismatics that we want to convey?
The problem I see here is that we pretend in the media that the majority of collectors can afford to compete for a coin worth 1.9 million Swiss francs. We know that this is not the case. Our environment sees things differently.
The most recent example of this misconception was provided to me by a so-called ‘expert’. An editor from the otherwise reliable Swiss broadcaster SRF asked Austrian gem dealer Thomas Schröck what the thieves might do with the precious items they stole from the Louvre. The answer came straight away: it was probably a theft to order. Only a wealthy collector could be behind it. The editor asked how big the market for such historical
jewellery was. The ‘expert’ replied: ‘The market is only as big as the number of peculiar people who like to keep such things in their bedside table or safe.’ Okay, now we know: collectors are peculiar people who like to give their collectibles a goodnight kiss before they retire peacefully to bed. And then they dream about which museums they can rob next.
The answer came straight away: it was probably a commissioned theft. Only a wealthy collector could be behind it. The editor asks how big the market for such historical jewellery is. The ‘expert’ replies: ‘The market is only as big as the number of peculiar people who like to keep such things in their bedside table or safe.’
Okay, now we know: collectors are peculiar people who like to give their collectibles a goodnight kiss before they retire peacefully to bed. And then they dream about which museums they can rob next.
The fact that a well-known author in his field can dare to spout such nonsense, and that a reputable media outlet is willing to publish it, is because Schröck is picking up on an image that the public is familiar with from many films.
Media reports such as those about a coin worth 1.9 million Swiss francs reinforce this perception. The daily media only report on collectors who are able to spend absurd sums of money. And the collective imagination assumes that a man who spends 1.9 million Swiss francs on a coin would also resort to illegal means to secure it.
Cultural assets have a material value
The fact that the reality is quite different is lost in the media noise. The hypothesis that it was the evil collector who tempted a few innocent thieves to steal from the Louvre has long since been disproved. No surprise there! Anyone who follows reports of cultural property theft knows that the pattern is different. Objects with high material value that are easily accessible and can be dismantled into their components without risk are stolen. When gold is melted down, you can’t tell whether it was previously a crown or part of a deceased person’s tooth. The same applies to jewellery. However, particularly large items have to be broken up a little. It can be done. It is done. Otherwise, it would be too conspicuous.
Modern crooks follow this pattern. Some break into the Louvre or the Bode Museum, others into the display case of a regional museum in Langres or Manching. Still others specialise in chalices and patens from churches, which are just as poorly protected as the gold coins in many museums. Oh yes, coins are of course particularly popular with thieves. Nothing is easier to melt down.
The penalties awaiting these offenders are such – at least in Germany – that a thief would rather accept them than hand over his loot. The Manching crooks received between four and seven years. Their defence lawyer demanded an acquittal on the grounds of insufficient evidence right up to the end. And that despite the fact that one gang member still had a gold nugget in his trouser pocket when he was arrested.
100 ducats from 1629: €40,000 or CHF 1.9 million?
And now to the value of the piece auctioned at NAC. Yesterday, it was worth CHF 1.9 million in collectors’ hands. If a thief were to steal it today, he would be delighted with a melt value of almost €40,000. For the average person, that’s still a tidy sum.
We can be sure that the buyer will take sufficient precautions to ensure that his coin does not end up in the melting pot. I’m not always so sure about museums. I’m not talking about naivety, laziness or habit, but about a chronic lack of money. The fact that a museum saves on security is not obvious. Or let’s say it only becomes obvious when it’s too late. In addition, criminal gangs today use such brutal force that a normal museum curator cannot even imagine it.
Remove all gold from the display cases?
The simplest solution to prevent theft would, of course, be to remove all gold coins from the display cases. They would be protected from brazen thieves in the cultural property protection room. A few pictures could be posted on the internet.
This has been done with rhino horns, by the way. Because they were a popular target for gangs of thieves, natural history museums replaced the real horns with plastic ones. No problem. After all, visitors came to see the rhino, not the rhino horn.
It’s more difficult with gold coins. They are particularly fascinating to the general public. Probably because the value of gold is simply easier to understand than the historical message of a coin. In practical terms, this means that our exhibitions lose their appeal if we leave out the gold coins.
It is therefore a curatorial balancing act to decide how many and which gold coins to place in secure display cases. In my opinion, we should not do without gold altogether. Although the trend is towards object-free museums, the fascination with the original remains unbroken.
A meaningful life without any risk is not possible, even for museums. There have always been thefts – often from cultural property protection rooms, incidentally. And objects often only become really well known after they have been stolen. Or had you heard of the Celtic treasure and Manching before?
Text and image: Ursula Kampmann
