A behind-the-scenes look at the news of Claremont, CA. We focus on city hall, city staff, and the so-called "Claremont 400" or "Preserve Claremonters" or "Claremonsters", those goofy, too-serious, power types that run most of the town's service organizations, charities, and city commissions. Claremont is indeed a unique place, and we'll try to bring a flavor of that absurd "uniqueness" to the outside world, as well as spotlighting some of the finer things about our city and region.
If you're looking for something to do during the week, the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum at Claremont McKenna College usually offers up interesting, thought-provoking speakers on a wide range of topics.
Here's what the Ath is offering up in the next two weeks:
Monday, October 31
John Bradley, author, Behind the Veil of Vice: The Business and Culture of Sex in the MiddleEast (2010) and Inside Egypt: The Land of the Pharaohs on the Brink of a Revolution (2008); "Debunking Five Myths About the Arab Spring"
Tuesday, November 1
Ananda Ganguly, Marcos Massoud Associate Professor of Accounting and George R. Roberts Fellow, CMC; co-author, Assurer Reputation for Competence in a Multi-Service Context (2007) and The Riskiness of Large Audit Firm Client Portfolios and Changes in Audit Liability Regimes: Evidence from the U.S. Audit Market (2004); "How an Accountant, Or Even You, Might Make Business Decisions: Some Evidence from the Laboratory"
Wednesday, November 2
Martha Wheelock, director, co-producer and writer of California Women Win the Vote (2011); teacher of American literature, ethics, and women's studies, Harvard Westlake School, Los Angeles; Diana Selig, associate professor of history, CMC; author, Americans All: The Cultural Gifts Movement (2008); Lily Geismer, assistant professor of history, CMC; "California Women Win the Vote: Film Viewing and Discussion"
Thursday, November 3
Daniel Kahneham, Nobel laureate in economic sciences (2002); Eugene Higgins Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Princeton University; and Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Public Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs; auhor, Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) and co-editor, Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment (2002); "Thinking, Fast and Slow"
Friday, November 4
Glenn Greenwald, author, With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful (2011) and Great American Hypocrites: Topping the Big Myths of Republican Politics (2008); "With Liberty and Justice for Some" (12:00 p.m.)
Monday, November 7
Leslie Bonci, director of sports nutrition, University of Pittsburg; co-author, Run Your Butt Off: A Breakthrough Plan to Lose Weight and Start Running (No Experience Necessary!)(2011) and author, Sports Nutrition for Coaches (2009) (12:00 p.m.)
Tuesday, November 8
Richard Haass, president, Council on Foreign Relations; author, War of Necessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars (2009) and The Opportunity: America's Moment to Alter History's Course (2006)
Wednesday, November 9
Hao Huang, associate professor of music, Scripps College; "Liszt Bicentennial Concert"
Thursday, November 10
Davis Campbell, senior research fellow, Center for Applied Policy in Education (CAP-Ed), U.C. Davis; Dean Vogel, president, California Teachers Association; Jed Wallace, president and CEO, California Charter Schools Association; Julia Brownley, State Assemblywoman (CA-41st District); Jeff Stark, vice president, Claremont Unified School District Board of Education; David Abel '68, chairman and managing director, VERDEXCHANGE Institute; "Is California K-12 Education in Crisis? If So, What Do We Do about It?"
New York Times columnist David Brooks will be speaking at Scripps College 7:30pm next Tuesday, February 8.
Brooks will speak at Garrison Theater as part of the Elizabeth Hubert Malott Public Affairs Program. Garrison is located at 231 E. Tenth St. His lecture is titled "The Social Animal Post Election."
Brooks is slowly making the rounds at the 5C's. In April, 2003, he spoke at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum and talked about McMansions and bobos (see below).
Book signing to follow in the lobby. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. Priority seating in Garrison Theater will be given to members of the Scripps Community with their Scripps ID. Limited seating will be available to others on a first-come, first-served basis. FMI: (909) 607-9372
David Brooks is a keen observer of the American way of life and a penetrating analyst of present-day politics and foreign affairs. He has become one of the prominent voices of conservative politics in the United States; with his elegance and finely tuned reason and wit, he engages both sides of the debate eloquently. Brooks is one of the New York Times's most widely read columnists and is a regular analyst on NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and NPR's All Things Considered.
Brooks was a founding senior editor of The Weekly Standard and has been a contributing editor at Newsweek and the Atlantic Monthly. He worked at the Wall Street Journal for nine years in a range of positions, including op-ed editor. He has written for The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, Forbes, the Washington Post, and many other periodicals. Brooks was a visiting professor of public policy at Duke University's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy and taught an undergraduate seminar there in the fall of 2006.
In his Elizabeth Hubert Malott lecture at Scripps College, Brooks will draw from his upcoming new book and the recent elections to paint a thorough and eye-opening picture of today’s political climate. His new book, The Social Animal: the Inner Roots of Character and Achievement, is due out in March 2011. In his previous two books, New York Times best-seller Bobos in Paradise and On Paradise Drive, Brooks describes what he calls “comic sociology”—depictions of how we live and “the water we swim in.” In Bobos in Paradise he coins a new word, Bobo, to describe today’s upper class: those who have wed the bourgeois world of capitalist enterprise to the hippie values of the bohemian counterculture. Brooks has a gift for bringing audiences face-to-face with the spirit of our times with humor, insight, and quiet passion. He is also editor of the anthology Backward and Upward: The New Conservative Writing.
We don't usually do product placements in here, but we received notice of an event that might be of interest to students at 2 of the 5Cs.
Tonight from 9pm to 11pm, the American Apparel store at the southwest corner of Indian Hill Blvd. and First St. is hosting a college night for students from Claremont McKenna and Scripps Colleges. They're offering 30% off all store merchandise, as well as $10 coupons to first 40 customers.
CHS STUDENTS TO CL CAMPAIGN: THANKS, BUT NO THANKS!
A reader sends word that the student paper at Claremont High School had an editorial urging a NO vote on the school district's $95 million Measure CL. One of the reasons the Wolfpacket cited for recommending a NO on CL was that it doesn't make any sense to fund operational costs with bond:
Though all of the 95 million dollars are supposed to go towards the Claremont schools, only about a third of the money will actually benefit schools. The high interest rate of the bond will result in increased prices for basic purchases--If the school was to buy a computer costing $1000, due to the interest rate, that computer would cost the school $3000.
The students are right on this count. Although the Claremont Unified School District and its superintendent, Terry Nichols, have refused to release the financing details for the bond, we do know that the bond proponents have acknowledged that the CL bond will be financed over 40 years and that the total costs, with interest payments, will approach $250 million. The district has essentially stipulated to that much.
So for every dollar we borrow and spend, we'll be paying back more than $2.50. The CUSD board of education's enabling resolution for this bond stated that some of the borrowed money from CL will go towards paying operational costs. It means a ream of paper that costs you and I $5.00 would end up costing CUSD $15.00.
Using the bond money in such a way is no different than using a credit card or borrowing against your house to pay for a car. And like a car, that computer the Wolfpacket editorial referred to is going to be worth much less by the time it's paid off. In the case of a computer, it'd be worth nothing at all, except as a collector's item. Ask yourself how much is your own computer going to be worth in 40 years?
We're surprised to see that many people associated with this extremely flawed district finance plan are affiliated with the Claremont Colleges. Pomona College president David Oxtoby, Harvey Mudd College president Maria Klawe, Claremont McKenna College president Pamela Gann, Claremont Graduate University interim president Joseph Hough, CGU president emeritus John Maguire, retired CMC president Jack Stark, and others like Pomona College professor David Menefee-Libey have all endorsed CL.
Yet, if those same parties tried to run their own institutions with bond money financed as proposed under Measure CL, the trustees of their respective colleges be screaming bloody murder. It's simply foolish to spend money in such a way, and the CHS students are on target with their commentary.
Incidentally, this reminds us of some information buried in that the pre-election polling commissioned at a cost of $35,000 by CUSD earlier this year. The poll, conducted by our favorite district consultant, Jared Boigon of TBWB Strategies, indicated that a bond would have less support among people with kids in Claremont Unified schools than it would with people who were older and who didn't have children attending the schools. We suspect that this is because the closer one is to the actual day-to-day workings of our school district, the less wonderful it actually is.
As they do with most things they want you to pay for, the Claremont 400 have romanticized our schools to the point that their idealized vision of our local schools bears no relation to the reality of the situation.
Here's the Wolfpacket editorial, courtesy of our reader:
That photo of Jeff Stark at the Labor Day campaign kickoff for Russ Warner, the Democratic candidate running against incumbent Republican David Dreier for California's 26th congressional district seat, reminded us of some Stark's own family history and how it's linked to Dreier.
Dreier, for those of you who don't know, got his undergraduate degree in political science from Claremont Men's College (now Claremont McKenna College) in 1975. Dreier later earned a masters degree in government from Claremont Graduate School (now CGU). He also worked as a director of corporate relations at CMC. In 1980, our district elected Dreier to Congress, where he has been ensconced ever since.
At CMC Dreier (photo, right) no doubt crossed paths with Jeff Stark's father, Jack Stark, who was CMC's president from 1970 to 1999. Dreier would have also met Jeff's mother, Jil Stark, who was the director of the Marion Miner Cook Athenaeum. It turns out that the Starks kept in contact with Dreier after he became a congressman.
We checked and saw that both of Jeff's parents donated to Dreier's campaign war chest. The Huffington Post's FundRace listed two donations for Jil, one in 2009 for $1,000 and one in 2007 for $1,150. Notice that the latter contribution Jil's trustee position with the now-defunct PFF Bank & Trust, a 116-year-old local institution that survived the Great Depression but couldn't survive our Great Recession.
Jack Stark, too, got into the act, throwing a $600 bone Dreier's way in 2009:
We noticed that the Starks' son Jeff is a registered Republican, so one would presume he's a Dreier supporter as well. That's why we were so surprised to see him caught at the Russ Warner event. We hear Jeff didn't stick around very long. Maybe word got out to Dreier's office. Or to Jeff's folks.
Next time, Jeff ought to send Ken Corhan in his place. Ken's much more slick when it comes to this kind of sneaking around.
The Claremont Unified School District's Measure CL campaign team seeks students to work with a paid campaign manager to work on the Yes on CL effort.
Campaign committee person and Claremont 400 aspirant Mike Seder, whom we've seen on several occasions, is a graduate of Claremont McKenna College and, in his search for able-bodied campaign workers, seems to have been in contact with at least one person at CMC's Rose Institute.
This came in over the wire from a couple sources:
DATE: Wed, September 8, 2010 10:53:27 PM TO: Claremont Insider[claremontbuzz@yahoo.com] SUBJECT: FW: Claremont campaign openings
From: Douglas Johnson [douglas.johnson@cmc.edu] Organization: Rose Institute of State & Local Government at CMC Reply-To: [douglas.johnson@cmc.edu] Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2010 13:54:57 -0700 To: XXX Cc: Mike Seder [seder@fairplex.com] Subject: Claremont campaign openings
A friend from the Fairplex is deeply involved in the current campaign in support of a parcel tax to support Claremont schools. The campaign has a firm doing strategic consulting, along with a board of prominent local supporters, but they are looking for student volunteers and a paid day to day campaign manager.
Do you know of students (or student organizations) who might be interested in spending some time helping with this campaign to help Claremont schools, or who want to get some experience in a campaign at the grassroots level? This is a great way to do this without having to travel far from campus. If you know of anyone interested, could you encourage them to contact Mike Seder (seder@fairplex.com)? Mike's both a great guy and CMC Class of 1982. If they have questions, I'm also happy to talk to them and share what limited info I have regarding the campaign.
Obviously, time is tight as campaign day's approaching rapidly. Thanks!
- Doug
Douglas Johnson Fellow Rose Institute of State and Local Government Claremont McKenna College o 909-621-8159 m 310-200-2058 douglas.johnson@cmc.edu www.RoseReport.org
Johnson's email seems to support the notion that the campaign is driven by "a firm doing strategic consulting," no doubt TBWB Strategies and consultant Jared Boigon, who has advised the CUSD Board of Education from the very beginning.
It also struck us as very strange that a conservative organization like the Rose Institute would lend itself to campaigning for a highly dubious $95 million school bond (not a parcel tax, Doug). You'd think that with Claremont property owners still paying off $30 million of the last, misspent school bond, the Rose Institute would be ideologically inclined to question the wisdom of tacking on another $95 million in bonded indebtedness, especially when that new money amounts to little more than a blank check for a district that has repeatedly failed to demonstrate any fiscal commonsense.
But then, these are strange times.
* * * * *
Coming Soon: You may wonder what the job description looks like for the above position. Check back this weekend.
* * * * *
Our spies tell us that the Yes on CL campaign is casting quite a wide net in its outreach efforts. For instance, a couple weekends ago, a group of Claremont High School students who are against the bond were at the Claremont Sunday Farmers' Market handing out arguments against the bond. We hear that the kids had a volunteer sign-up list.
Who signed up to help on the "NO" campaign? None other than than the ever-subtle, pro-CL Ken Corhan (photo, left), who was summoned to the scene by CUSD board member Jeff Stark. Shilling for failed Claremont City Council candidates isn't enough for the ol' Kenster. This just goes to show that the Claremont 400 can be relied upon to run the same plays, over and over.
Leave it to Corhan to think he's so clever he'd be able to plant himself as a mole in a No on CL organizing party. Why can't he just be like the Insider and let the clandestine information come in over the transom unasked for? A word to the wise: When it comes to the Claremonsters, trust no one.
Now that the Claremont Colleges are back in session and are abuzz with activity. The CC Calendar lists all of the goings on:
POMONA COLLEGE ART AND LECTURES
The Pomona College Museum of Art has a pair of exhibit opening receptions this Saturday. The museum's located at 330 N. College Ave. You can get all the details here, or you can call (909) 621-8283 for more information.
Steve Roden: when words become forms
Now through December 19, 2010 Opening Reception: Saturday, September 11, 4-6 p.m.
A Conversation with Steve Roden and Michael Ned Holte: Thursday, October 7, at 8 p.m. in the Museum, followed by a book signing and reception.
Project Series 41: Ginny Bishton
Now through October 17, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 11, 4-6 p.m. Artist Lecture: Wednesday, September 22, at 3 p.m. in the Museum
Pomona College is also hosting a landscaping working shop by the Sustainable Claremont Water Action Group. The city of Claremont may want to send some representatives to learn about irrigation.
Landscaping with Beautiful Native Plants and Efficient Irrigation
Saturday, September 11, 2:00-3:30pm Hahn Building, 420 Harvard Ave. Call (909) 607-2768 for information
The event features three landscapers who specialize in native plants.
EVENTS AT SCRIPPS COLLEGE
The Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery on the Scripps College campus will host an opening reception this Saturday. The gallery is located at 251 E. Eleventh St. Admission and parking are free. For information, call (909) 607-2029.
Luminous Line: Contemporary Drawings in Metal Point
Now through October 17, 2010 Opening Reception: Saturday, September 11, 4-6pm Artist Lecture: Susan Schwalb, Monday, September 13, at 7pm. in the Hampton Room, Mallot Commons
Scripp's Clark Humanities Musueum has two ongoing exhibits. The museum is located at 981 Amherst. For information, call (909) 607-3397:
Rendering the Female Subject
Rendering the Female Subject features works on paper, ceramic pieces, and wood sculptures from the Scripps Permanent Collection. The selection includes Pre Columbian terracotta figures, Satsuma ware, Andy Warhol polaroids, an Alison Saar print, an acrylic painting by Jamini Roy, and much more.
Student curator: Aleedra Price under the supervision of Professor Mary MacNaughton and Kirk Delman.
Now through October 13, 2010 Exhibit reception: Wednesday, September 15th in the Clark Humanities Museum from 4-5pm.
Imaginary Travel to Exotic Lands
Now through October 13, 2010
Paintings and engravings, drawn from the permanent collection of the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery.
As part of its Fall 2010 seminar, "Engagement: Mind, Body, and Soul," the Humanities Institute at Scripps offers a couple events tonight and next week:
Flow and the Quality of Life
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Professor of Psychology and ManagementClaremont Graduate University
Wednesday, September 8, 2010 - 6:00 p.m. - Boone Recital Hall
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology in the School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences at Claremont Graduate University. Professor Csikszentmihalyi is the director of the Quality of Life Research Center (QLRC). The QLRC is a non-profit research institute that studies "positive psychology"; that is, human strengths such as optimism, creativity, intrinsic motivation, and responsibility. His books include the bestselling Flow, Being Adolescent, The Evolving Self, and Creativity. He is a member of the American Academy of Education, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Leisure Sciences.He is noted for his work in the study of happiness and creativity, but is best known as the architect of the notion of “flow”- a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation - and for his years of research and writing on the topic. He is the author of many books and over 120 articles or book chapters. Martin Seligman, former president of the American Psychological Association, described Csikszentmihalyi as the world's leading researcher on positive psychology.
NO IMPACT MAN Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein, Directors USA, 2009, 93 min Co-sponsored by Pomona for Environmental Activism and Responsibility (PEAR)
Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 5:30 p.m. - Garrison Theater
Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein's film provides an intriguing inside look into the experiment that became a national fascination and media sensation, while examining the familial strains and strengthened bonds that result from one man’s decision to completely eliminate his personal impact on the environment for one year and his wife’s struggle with their radical lifestyle change.
UPCOMING AT THE ATH
M.M.C. Athenaeum 385 E. 8th St. Claremont, CA 91711-6420 (909) 621-8244 Fax: (909) 621-8579 athenaeum@claremontmckenna.edu
Claremont McKenna College's Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum begins its Fall speaker series Thursday with writer David Oliver Relin.
Below we've posted the speakers for September. The programs start at 6:45pm, except where noted.
Thursday, September 9
David Oliver Relin, journalist; co-author, Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time (2007); "Three Cups of Tea and See How They Shine"
Tuesday, September 14
Haley Scott DeMaria, author, What Though the Odds- Haley Scott's Journey of Faith and Triumph (2008); "Swimming Back from Paralysis"
Wednesday, September 15
Robert Thies, piano; gold medal winner (1995), Second International Sergei Prokofiev Competition, St. Petersburg, Russia; artist on album Live in Recital (2006); Gary Bovyer, clarinet; music faculty, Cal Poly Pomona; Roger Lebow, cello; music faculty, Chapman University, Pomona College, Claremont Graduate University; "Brahms in His Final Years"
Thursday, September 16
Michael Eisner, former CEO, The Walt Disney Company (1984-2005); founder, The Tornante Company; co-author, Working Together: Why Great Partnerships Succeed (2010) and Work in Progress: Risking Failures, Surviving Success (1999); "An Evening with Michael Eisner"
Friday, September 17
James Fuller, professor emeritus of art, Scripps College; "Art Opening and Reception" (3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.)
Monday, September 20
Ken Mehlman, partner and head of Global Public Affairs, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company (KKR); "Why Would A Global Industry-Leading Leveraged Buyout Firm Suddenly Go Green?"
Tuesday, September 21
Jeffrey Bergner, president and managing financial partner, Bergner Bockorny, Inc.; former staff director, Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs (2005-2008); author, The New Superpower: Germany, Japan and the United States in the New World Order (1991) and co-editor, The Taiwan Relations Act: A Decade of Implimentation (1989); "The Rhetoric and Reality of the Obama Administration"
Wednesday, September 22
Angelika Niemz, Arnold and Mabel Beckman Professor, director of research, Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences; co-author, Specific versus Nonspecific Isothermal DNA Amplification through Thermophilic Polymerase and Nicking Enzyme Activities (2008) and Isothermal DNA Amplification with Gold Nanosphere-based Visual Colorimetric Readout for Herpes Simplex Virus Detection (2007); Nina Karnovsky, associate professor of biology, Pomona College; co-author, The Impact and Importance of Production in Polynyas to Top-trophic Predators: Three Case Histories (2007) and Foraging Behavior of Little Auks in a Heterogeneous Environment (2003); Jean Doble, research director, Amgen, Inc.; Stephanie Cropper, M.D.; obstetrician and gynecologist; "Women in Science and Medicine: Can You Achieve Work/Family Satisfaction?" (panel 12:15 p.m.)
Wednesday, September 22
Stephan Haggard, Lawrence and Sallye Krause professor of Korea-Pacific studies, U.C. San Diego Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies; co-author, Development, Democracy, and Welfare States: Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe (2008) and Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform (2007); "Whither North Korea?"
Thursday, September 23
Kirby Daley, senior strategist, Newedge Prime Brokerage, Newedge Group (Hong Kong); "The Economic Outlook for Asia in the "New" Global Economic Environment" (12:00 p.m.)
Thursday, September 23
Claudia McKay '99, microfinance specialist, Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP); Mike McKay '99, former country director, Baobab Health Malawi, "From the Ath to Africa: Two CMCers Share Their Decade of Experiences Abroad"
Monday, September 27
Matthew Crawford, research fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia; contributing editor, The New Atlantic; author, Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work (2009)
Tuesday, September 28
William Beezley, professor of history, University of Arizona; co-author, Mexicans in Revolution, 1910-1946: An Introduction (2009) and author, Mexican National Identity: Memory, Innuendo, and Popular Culture (2008); "Mexican Revolutionary Culture: Indians, Anthropologists, Intellectuals, and Calendar Girls"
Wednesday, September 29
Maria Contreras-Sweet, founding chairwoman, Promerica Bank (2006); former California Secretary of Business, Transportation, and Housing (1999-2003)
Update--Sunday, August 22. See end of post in red.
In June, when the Claremont Unified School District was still negotiating with the Claremont Faculty Association, Wes Woods II had an article in the Daily Bulletin about the heated nature of the contract talks.
One interesting point that came out in Woods' article was the amount CUSD spent on the law firm that represents the district:
The school district's Los Angeles-based law firm, O'Melveny & Myers, also has been an issue for the union. Tonan said the firm spent about $149,000 in reduction in force hearings in 2008-09, while the union's firm spent about $28,000.
A union flier was shared with the media, union officials and the school district that indicated Claremont Unified's attorney Framroze M. Virjee (image nearby) was paid $765 an hour for every hour he was at the bargaining table. Virjee's law firm, O'Melveny & Myers, was paid more than $535,000 in 2008- 09 and more than $365,000 in 2009-10 by Claremont Unified.
That's right. CUSD spent $900,000 on legal expenses in the past two years. That's almost 1 percent of the district's November Measure CL bond, and you can bet that some of the money the bond generates will somehow end up compensating the district for their legal expenses.
As we're discovering, there's real profit (or cost to taxpayers) to be found in the education business, at least in consulting and contracting work. In return for those expenses, administrators and teachers alike avoid the level of sacrifice they ask property owners - the ones footing the bill - to make, and the elected school board officials get to continue to play their self-indulgent fiscal games. The trade off is that schools are more expensive to run but are in no substantial way better than they were last year or the year before that.
It's a little like the inverse of Moore's Law. CUSD's costs relative to performance are falling. Or maybe it's just a manifestation of Baumol's cost disease.
* * * * *
A couple quick comments:
Since Woods' article in late-June, CUSD and the CFA have agreed to a contract that calls for the union to accept larger class sizes in the middle and high school grads and to concede $1.58 million in health and welfare benefits over the next two fiscal years. In exchange, the union has agreed to support the November Measure CL bond with the understanding that they will get their former benefits back if the bond passes - an arrangement that allows both parties to circumvent the law requiring such school bonds to not be used for administrative or teacher salaries - at least, that's what CUSD officials have said.
O'Melveny & Myers is a true legal heavyweight. The firm, which is the 19th largest in the world, has for partners such luminaries as former Reagan White House Counsel Arthur B. Culvahouse, Jr., and former Clinton Administration Secretary of State Warren Christopher.
Claremont is more than a little familiar with O'Melveny & Myers. Former CMC trustee Louis Caldera, who served as U.S. Secretary of the Army from 1998 to 2001 and who lost his most recent White House job in 2009 after a PR flap, is an O'Melveny alumnus. And CMC retained O'Melveny to conduct an investigation into the Nazi stolen art controversy involving CMC history professor Jonathan Petropoulos a few years ago.
Update, Sunday:
Saturday's Claremont Courier touched on this issue. On page 5, The Courier describes an offer at last Thursday's School Board meeting by Marcie Gardner, a Chaparral parent, to help look for a cheaper law firm. As an aside, that ought not to be too hard.
Gardner is quoted, "One area that seems out of control within the district is legal fees, and I say that because I'm a lawyer and I have quite a bit of experience with things related to education. The hourly rate that is being paid by the district for an attorney is double and sometimes triple the going rate of what these services would cost in the open market." [emphasis added]
We also received a cryptic email from a reader on this general topic, and we can't help but read it as also casting aspersions on the ol' Insider:
The reader writes:
900,000 is a lot but how much of that 900,000 was tied to defending Tonan's personal lawsuit against the district? How much was tied to the negotiations that were dragged out to ridiculous lengths only to be settled after Tonan's lawsuit was settled? A settlement, mind you, that could have been reached 6 months ago if it were not for Tonan's conflict of interest.
There is more out there that you are ignoring. I'm wondering if it's intentional.
--Outside Claremont We asked for additional info, and the reader was good enough to give us one specific that appeared on page 6 of the 2010-2011 Claremont Courier Almanac, sent with the paper a week or so ago (our reader refers to the personal lawsuit between the Tonan family and the district):
Settled for 75k I heard. Settlement between the union, that Tonan heads, and CUSD came immediately afterwards.
One view is the Tonan dragged this out, at great cost, until the issue with his wife was settled...
--Outside Claremont Notice the walk-back from the main point: "One view is..." Our reader isn't even saying that's what he believes. We hold no brief for Joe Tonan or the merits of his case. The fact is, we never understood nor were given a cogent story on the Cynthia Estep-Tonan dismissal. It seemed both sides were scurrying for cover and obfuscation in that one. (to readers who don't know what we're talking about, we don't blame you. You'll have to look at back numbers of the Claremont Courier from Spring 2010 to see articles on the brouhaha accompanying Ms. Estep-Tonan's dismissal as a school nurse by CUSD.)
Anyway, the reader makes a valid point by inference. Total district legal cost equals average hourly rate times number of billed hours. Ms. Gardner says the average hourly rate is too high; our reader implies that the number of billed hours is higher than necessary.
Both are easily within the control of the School Board: Hilary LaConte, Jeff Stark, Mary Caenepeel, Beth Bingham, and Steven Llanusa. Get a less stratospheric attorney and don't get involved in labor disputes where you are having some one like good old Fram (see above) bill you north of $700 per hour and then have to write a check to your employee for $75K.
Our daddy always told us that the party that had to write the check was the party in the wrong.
Now that the primary elections are over, the November general election for the 59th Assembly District, which includes Claremont, is shaping up. Republican Tim Donnelly will square off against Democrat Darcel Woods.
The money race usually tells a lot, though this year the dynamics may be different. Donnelly won a very close primary race over Chris Lancaster in June. Donnelly's margin of victory was 631 votes and can be viewed as a sign of grassroots voter discontent this year with Donnelly, a self-described "tea party Republican," beating his party's insider candidate. Lancaster spent far more money than Donnelly ($167,000 to $23,500, respectively), but Donnelly still won.
According to the California Secretary of State's records, as of June 30 Donnelly's campaign had $626.78 in cash. The largest donor was Anna McBride in Palm Desert, who donated a total of $3,400.
Darcel Woods' campaign reported raising a total of $22,575 for the period from 1/1/10 to 6/30/10. Woods had $3,789.35 in cash remaining at of June 30. Woods' big contributors were unions:
Service Employees International Union United Long-Term Care Workers Local 6434 State PAC - $7,800
United Domestic Workers of America Action Fund - $3,900
SEIU Local 721, CTW CLW State and Local - $3,900
Service Employees International Union 121RN PAC - $1,500
UAW Region 5 Western States PAC - $1,000
California Teachers Association for Better Citizenship - $500
United Transportation Union PAC - $500
The money Woods has raised is almost certainly an indication that Democratic Party supporters feel that Woods has a chance against Donnelly. This is certainly a change for an assembly district that has traditionally been a safe Republican seat. With redistricting on the horizon, it's likely that whatever replaces the 59th will be much more evenly divide between the two parties, so if Woods were to get in, she would presumably have an incumbent's advantage in subsequent elections.
A win by Woods might put a crimp in Claremont Mayor Pro Tem Sam Pedroza's long term plans. We suspect Pedroza may have been planning his own campaign in the 59th or its successor district. If Pedroza were ever to get elected from this area, he'd break a long losing streak by Claremont city council members in state legislative races. Sandy Baldonado, Al Leiga, and Corey Calaycay all failed in their bids to get represent our area in Sacramento.
The Daily Bulletin has an article today on the 59th Assembly race that mentions the idea that Woods may be able to appeal to moderate Republicans in the district. However, CMC's Jack Pitney thinks the election dynamics this year favor Republicans, and that may blunt any advantage Woods would traditionally have with moderates over Donnelly:
This is the kind of race where Democrats might have a very strong shot in another year," said Jack Pitney, a Claremont McKenna College political science professor who has said Democrats are battling Republican momentum this year. "But even so, it's not completely out of reach for them."
If Woods wins, she might represent the final vote Democrats in the Assembly need to solidify a two-thirds majority, an important benchmark in California politics. That thinking played a part in the union's decision, [SEIU-United Long Term Care Workers Local 6434 spokesman Wyatt] Closs said.
ADAMS ON SOCIAL NETWORKING
Speaking of the 59th district, current Assembly 59 representative Anthony Adams was quoted in the Daily Bulletin today. You'll recall that Adams chose not to seek reelection after angering Republicans for supporting last year's state budget agreement. Because he was one of a handful of Republicans in the state legislature who crossed the aisle to get the budget passed, Adams drew the ire of a good many Republican voters and would probably have faced a tough primary campaign.
The Bulletin article quoted Adams' comments on the possible regulation of campaign-related content on social media sites like Twitter or Facebook. The Bulletin piece said that California's Fair Political Practices Commission asked one of its subcommittees to look into the issue. The commission will consider the suggestions from the subcommittee next week.
Here's what the Bulletin said about the recommendations (we've included the Adams' quote):
Campaigns would face the same disclosure rules they do now, such as identifying who is financially behind an ad, but, for the first time, they would apply to Internet communication.
The report draws a line between paid political activity and unpaid grass-roots efforts. Political commentary by people unconnected to a campaign would not be affected, nor would sending or forwarding e-mails, linking to websites or creating independent websites.
....
"In order to keep our system honest, we need watchdogs," Adams said. "What these disclosures end up achieving is putting watchdogs, self-appointed or otherwise, in a position to maintain some integrity in the political campaigning area."
Jack Pitney, by the way, was quoted in this article as well.
Claremont's Architectural Commission announced the winners of the City's Excellence in Design Awards. Six of the seven winning designs were on or affiliated with the Claremont Colleges. The City's website listed the award winners:
Winners of 2009 Excellence in Design Award Announced (May 12, 2010)
The Claremont Architectural Commission has announced the winners of the 29th Annual "Excellence in Design Awards," a program designed to recognize recently completed projects that best reflect the City's standards of design excellence. Seven projects have earned awards in the categories of New Construction, Renovation, Addition, Sustainable Landscaping, and Restorative Landscaping.
The Architectural Commission will formally recognize the award winners at its meeting on Wednesday, June 9, 2010. The meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chamber, 225 W. Second Street. The public is invited to attend.
The Winners are: - Claremont McKenna College - Biszantz Family Tennis Center - 601 E. Foothill Boulevard Commercial Building Claremont University Consortium - - Honnold Library - Scripps College - Sicilian Court - McDermott Building - CGU Residence - Shafer Residence
Packrats all over Claremont are gearing up for a buying spree tomorrow at the annual City Yard Sale. In a sign of the fiscal times, the City is no longer hosting the event. Instead, the Claremont High School Softball Boosters will be in charge of the annual community yard sale in Cahuilla Park. The yard sale begins at 8am.
Citywide Yard Sale May 15, 2010
Please note the change in this event!
This event will now be offered by the Claremont High School Softball Boosters and will no longer be offered by the City of Claremont. The 2010 event will take place from 8 am to 11 am at Cahuilla Park 1775 N. Indian Hill Blvd. (corner of Indian Hill and Scripps Ave). For more information please contact the Claremont High School Boosters at (909) 450-1730.
WILDERNESS PARK CLOSED NEXT WEEK
City Manager Jeff Parker's weekly report informs us that the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park will be closed next Monday through Wednesday for what has become an annual training exercise.
If you're curious to see where the exercise will take place, you can see the grove L.A. County Fire has worn into the hills on the west side of Thompson Creek. Rather than changing the area they practice in, L.A. County Fire has used the exact same area each time for their exercise. Every year, the firefighters use a trail that they created by tromping around the hillsides, and all that activity, together with erosion, has resulted an unintended, permanent feature.
This was Jeff Parker's blurb on the subject:
WILDERNESS PARK FIRE TRAINING EXERCISE
On May 17, 18 and 19, the Los Angeles County Fire Department is conducting its annual wildfire training exercise in the City of Claremont Wilderness Park. This exercise will begin at 8:00 AM and conclude at 1:00 PM each day. During this time, the Claremont Wilderness Park will be closed. Mills Avenue north of Mt. Baldy Road will also be closed, except to residents.
MAY BUDGET WORKSHOP
Claremont will hold another budget workshop on Saturday, May 22 in the City Council chambers at 225 W. Second St. The workshop runs from 1pm to 4pm, and the public is welcome and encouraged to attend. This is your chance to take partial ownership of your community's financial decisions. Here's the info from the City:
May 22 Budget Workshop (Mar 25, 2010)
The City Council has scheduled a Budget Workshop on May 22 from 1pm to 4pm to address the budget shortfall in 2011-12 Fiscal Year. The City Council approved staff recommendations for staff and program reductions for fiscal year 2010-11 resulting in a reduction of $1,318,727 in expenditures. In fiscal year 2011-12, staff has projected a $750,000 shortfall which is dependent on several undecided factors. These factors include the outcome of the State Redevelopment lawsuit, negotiations with labor unions, and the California State budget. At the late May workshop, staff will give an update on these factors, and provide additional reduction recommendations if necessary.
In case you were thinking state and local finances were going to be in better shape this year, think again. The Sacramento Bee's Capitol Alert had this budget news today:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will release his revised spending proposal for the 2010-2011 fiscal year today.
The outlook? Not so good. Here's what we know so far:
Cash commitments from federal officials have amounted to about $3 billion -- far less than the $6.9 billion in federal aid Schwarzenegger counted on in his January proposal.
Last month's drop in personal income tax revenues ruined any chance of a "May surprise" revise -- the state ended April about $1.3 billion short ofrevenue projections.
The governor's office has warned of "absolutely terrible cuts," including to social services programs.
Democrats say they want "everything on the table," including tax increases to close the gap. Republican leaders and Schwarzenegger say the topic of taxes is a non-starter.
The bottom line: Get ready for another long budget fight.
Bee colleagueKevin Yamamura reports today that one proposal expected to be included in today's revision would revive a plan to house some 15,000 nonviolent felons incounty jailsinstead ofstate prisons. Read more on that here.
The big rollout of the governor's proposal, set for 1 p.m. at the Secretary of State building, will be broadcast live here.
The academic year has wound down, and next weekend we say goodbye to another group of graduates from the Claremont Colleges. May they recall their bright college days in Claremont with fondness.
Here's the slate of speakers for next week's commencement ceremonies:
Friday, May 14th
Baccalaureate Ceremony The Claremont Colleges 3:30pm - 4:30pm Bridges Hall of Music, Pomona College 150 East Fourth Street, Pomona College Please contact the Office of the Chaplains for questions regarding this event.
Speaker: Jacqueline Powers Doud, Ph.D., President, Mount St. Mary's College, Los Angeles Alumna, Claremont Graduate University
Commencement speaker: Heidi Hartmann, president and founder of the Institute for Women's Policy Research and research professor at George Washington University.
Commencement speaker: David R. Walt, Robinson professor of chemistry and professor of biomedical engineering at Tufts University.
Claremont McKenna College 2:00pm Pritzlaff Field Claremont McKenna College South of 9th St. and Claremont Blvd. (909) 621-8117
Commencement Speaker: Henry Kravis '67; founding partner of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and CMC Trustee.
Sunday, May 16th
Pomona College Commencement 10:00am Marston Quad Pomona College College Ave., between 4th and 6th Streets (909) 621-8131
Commencement speaker: Janet Napolitano, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, former Arizona governor, former Arizona Attorney General
Scripps College 10:00am Elm Tree Lawn Scripps College 345 E. 9th St. (909) 607-1870
Commencement Speaker: Speakers: Sue Monk Kidd, New York Times best-selling author, The Secret Life of Bees,; and her daughter Ann Kidd Taylor, co-author, Traveling With Pomegranates.
Harvey Mudd College Commencement 1:30pm Harvey S. Mudd Quadrangle Claremont University Consortium East Tenth Street and Dartmouth Avenue Claremont, 91711 (909) 621-8125
Speaker: Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, longtime president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and advocate for promoting education within underrepresented groups.
We tried. We really tried to avoid a certain multi-ethnic golfer's ubiquity, but in the end we could not. His mighty public relations reach extended even to Claremont.
A reader sent us a link to a CBS News video of reaction to Tiger Woods' press conference last Friday in which he issued a public apology for his indiscretions. Several members of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's golf team were interviewed for the story. The piece aired on Friday's CBS Evening News, and their website has the story posted.
Here are some quotes from the CBS News report:
"I think it was just shocking and kind of upsetting," said Scripps College student Kristina Block.
They watched as Woods tried to claw his way out of his moral hazard, apologizing to his business partners, his foundation and the young golfers who idolized him. Some were forgiving.
"Everyone makes mistakes, and he realizes his mistakes," Block said.
Some felt for his wife.
"You're giving someone your heart, and he tore it out of her," Claremont McKenna College student Brittany Isobe said crying.
Some were still angry.
"No amount of apology or words is going to eradicate what he did," said Claremont McKenna student Kacie Curd.
We're not quite sure about the new usage for the term "moral hazard." It certainly reduces the Elin-Tiger marriage to a transactional relationship.
''Le Quai Malaquais et l’Institut'', 1903 Basler Zeitung image
The story of the Camille Pissarro painting we've been following took a strange twist in London yesterday. The painting, stolen from the family of Gisela Bermann-Fischer by the Nazis in 1938, was restituted to her and then placed for auction at Christie's Impressionist/Modern Evening Sale. The work was expected to fetch upwards of $2.46 million.
The Pissarro, which was the only piece in the auction that failed to sell [correction: of 44 lots offered, 30 sold. We regret the earlier error.], was removed from sale shortly before the auction began, according to an article posted on the Times of London's TimesOnline website. Apparently the Pissarro was one of two lots withdrawn prior to the sale.
The Times article states that the sale was halted because a nephew of Bermann-Fischer, one Itai Shoffman, was disputing the painting's restitution and sale. The article said that Shoffman is the grandson of Hildegard Fischer, who was the younger sister of Bermann-Fischer's mother Brigette. Shoffman claims that Hildegard was the black sheep of the family and that her heirs are entitled to half of the proceeds from the sale of the Pissarro:
According to Mr Shoffman, her grandson, Hildegard Fischer was the “black sheep of the family”. She had a disability and by the time she and Hedwig joined the Bermanns in America in 1941, she also had a daughter, Monika, later Mr Shoffman’s mother, born out of wedlock.
According to Christophe Paul, a lawyer in Berlin specialising in inheritance cases, a handwritten will from 1933 proves that her parents wanted their estate to be divided equally between Brigitte and Hildegard. A letter written in 1946 indicates that Hedwig wanted Hildegard to inherit the Pissarro if it was ever found.
Mr Shoffman told The Times that Ms Bermann-Fischer knew the other half of her family well but had excluded them from all matters relating to the Pissarro. He said: “It feels like such a deceitful act. She’s taking away the last remaining legacy of the family and holding it for her own benefit.”
The Times piece reports that the two parties were trying to negotiate a settlement on a split of the money from the sale and that Shoffman said he wanted 50% but was only offered 20%. We can't say at this point what all this means, though we do note that Gisela Bermann-Fischer did spend 500,000 Swiss francs and countless years of searching to recover the painting, so she might quite naturally feel a sense of entitlement to a larger piece of the pie.
We also wonder if the the disputed inheritance might have been a factor in the negotiations Claremont McKenna College history professor Jonathan Petropoulos and German art dealer Peter Griebert had with Gisela Bermann-Fischer, who has accused the two men of threatening her with the loss of her painting forever in their failed attempt to extract a finder's fee from her in January, 2007.
"I always endeavored to return the painting in question by Camille Pissarro to the person whom I believed was the rightful heir," [Petropoulos] said.
Could Petropoulos and Griebert have known about the other heir? The quote certainly seems to imply that Petropoulos may have questioned Bermann-Fischer's claim to the painting. If so, it's certainly possible that Petropoulos or Griebert or someone associated might have tried contacting Itai Shoffman. We hope we hear more about this aspect of the story in the future.
Some time last year, the painting, Le Quai Malaquais, Printemps, found its way back into the hands of its rightful owner, Gisela Bermann-Fischer. You'll recall that the painting had been looted by Nazis in Vienna in 1938 and didn't resurface until 2007, when it was discovered inside a Swiss bank safe controlled by Nazi art looter Bruno Lohse.
CHRISTIE'S TO AUCTION PAINTING
Bloomberg's Catherine Hickley reports that having at last been reunited with the Pissarro, Bermann-Fischer now plans to sell the painting at auction through Christie's International in London. Christie's estimates the painting's worth to be between £900,000 - £1,500,000 (around $1.48 million to $2.46 million).
The Pissarro will be sold next Tuesday, June 23, 2009, in the Impressionist/Modern Evening Sale, which marks the start of the summer art season.
The importance of Pissarro’s letter was not lost on Bruno Lohse and François Daulte, who quoted it in the 1984 Lausanne description of the painting. It’s also quoted in the auction catalogue on Christie's website. Although we are aware of only three surviving paintings in this series — one of them painted in morning sun and currently in a private collection, another in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg — the Fischer Pissarro has the youngest spring growth on the trees and turns out to have been painted first. Pissarro died later in 1903, making these the only Pissarro paintings which show significant portions of Paris’s Left Bank and academic quarter.
You may want to go ahead and spend the $40, plus $7 shipping and tax, for the catalogue. It may be a collectible someday and it holds a good deal of local interest. You can order an auction catalogue from Christie's in New York at 1-800-395-6300, Monday - Friday, 9:00am - 5:00pm local time.
Christie's apparently no longer automatically sends a follow-up letter containing a list of prices realized at the actual auction, but you can request one be sent (free of charge) when ordering a catalog. Auction catalogs are often more collectible if this information is kept with them.
The auction description describes the painting as "property restituted to Gisela Bermann Fisher" and tells us some remarkable details about the painting’s history. In the provenance section, we learn that the painting went to Pissarro's son, Georges Manzana-Pissarro, following the painter’s death in 1903. Within just a few years, Manzana-Pissarro had sold the painting to the Bernheim-Jeune gallery (pointedly not to Durand-Ruel, his father's longtime dealer, with whom Pissarro had broken just before 1903). Bermann-Fischer's grandfather, Samuel Fischer, acquired the painting in 1907 on the advice of the legendary art dealer Paul Cassirer, and it remained in the family until the Nazis confiscated the painting.
After that, the trail gets a little murky. According to the catalogue materials, the work was sold in 1940 by the Dorotheum, the collaborationist Vienna auction house, as a painting by "Paul Emile [sic] Pissarro." Two other notorious Nazi art dealers, Eugen Primavesi of Vienna and Hans W. Lange of Berlin, handled the painting before it was passed on to Bruno Lohse, though no date of sale (or exchange) is listed. The catalogue says that the painting went to storage in Zurich (no date is given) and was then restituted to Bermann-Fischer as part of a settlement agreement with Schönart Anstalt, the trust in Liechtenstein that had been controlled by Lohse.
The literature section lists several references to the painting not typically seen in auction listings:
Elise Viebeck's March 13, 2008, piece in Claremont McKenna College's Claremont Independent didn't make the Christie's catalogue, but perhaps should have. Her article led to Petropoulos' resignation as director of the CMC Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights, one of CMC's ten endowed research institutes. Last month, CMC Trustees voted to change the name of the institute to The Center for Human Rights Leadership, though according to a press release on the CMC website "its focus on human rights and the Holocaust won't change."
Viebeck won the Eric Breindel Prize, arguably the most prestigious honor in college journalism, for her groundbreaking reporting on the Pissarro affair, and she was the first to illuminate the role of the Art Loss Register in the case. Unlike the previous year's winner of the Breindel prize, also from CMC, Viebeck's award received no mention on the CMC website. Why was that?
The catalogue's exhibition list is certainly brief. There is only one entry, the 1984 exhibit in Lausanne, Switzerland, which we have speculated may have been a trial run by Lohse to see if anyone was watching for the painting. Other than that, the painting has never before been shown in public (though it would have been seen in the Berlin home of Samuel Fischer by many cultural notables of the era, including future Nobel laureates Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse, both published by S. Fischer Verlag).
Catherine Hickley's Bloomberg article noted that Bermann-Fischer seems to be thinking the same thing we did regarding the Lausanne exhibition:
“I don’t think we’ll ever find out from where to where the painting was transported over the years,” Bermann-Fischer said. “It truly was hidden. I think the exhibition at l’Hermitage Lausanne in 1984 was a test run, to see whether the original owners or any heirs were still on the lookout for the paintings and would make a claim.”
The interview gives some insight into why, after so many years of searching, Bermann-Fischer would now want to sell the Pissarro:
Vincent Landon, WRS: Why are you auctioning it?
Gisela Bermann-Fischer: Why shouldn’t I?
Vincent Landon, WRS: After spending so long, sort of, tracking it down?
Gisela Bermann-Fischer: Well I think looking for it, after it had been looted from my parents’ house in Vienna, certainly it was not the aim of selling it, it was a finding it—that was my aim. It was like looking up my own history, or a heritage. I was quite small when we fled Berlin, and later on we fled Vienna, and then we fled again [to Sweden and then on to the U.S., per the recent Bloomberg article].
So, let’s say, a lot of things I didn’t know… So it was not just a search for this painting, in order to go ahead and then make it [in]to money, it was sort of searching what happened in those times. And they didn’t just loot this painting, they looted everything that was in the house—my rule[??] books, my piano exercise books—everything was gone. And from there on I realized it was a loss altogether for me, too: the friends, and the house, and my bed, and my home. So that kept me going, to see ‘how did the Nazis go about all of this?’
GERMAN PROBE CONTINUES
The Bloomberg article also tells us that the safe in which the Pissarro was stored for so many years was sealed by prosecutors "as part of a continuing three-nation probe into associates of Lohse suspected of extortion and money-laundering." It goes on to say that the two men who approached Gisela Bermann-Fischer in 2007 remain under investigation by German authorities:
The men, an art dealer and an art historian, are under investigation on suspicion of extortion, according to Munich prosecutor Hans-Joachim Lutz. The dealer is also under investigation for money-laundering and breach of trust.
Though the two Lohse associates aren't named in the article, the only two men who had such a meeting with Bermann-Fischer would have been Munich art dealer Peter Griebert and CMC's Jonathan Petropoulos, who strictly speaking is a professor of history, not an academically-trained art historian. You may recall they were initially acting on behalf of the Art Loss Register, of which Christie's is, ironically, a part-owner.*
The ALR was set up to allow victims of Nazi looting to register their art works pro-bono in order to aid in their restitution. According to a March, 2008, Jewish Chronicle article, Griebert and Petropoulos had been hired by ALR in the hopes that his connections to Lohse could help them land a commission for helping recover the Pissarro.
At some point between the time Gisela Bermann-Fischer registered the Pissarro with ALR and the meeting that she had with Griebert and Petropoulos in Zurich in January, 2007, ALR changed its policies on providing information regarding WWII-era looted art. ALR was now requiring a substantial finder's fee. Bermann-Fischer maintains that when she balked at the paying that fee, Griebert and Petropoulos tried to cut their own deal with the implied threat that if Bermann-Fischer did not pay up, the painting might disappear forever.
Although an internal investigation by CMC cleared Professor Petropoulos of any apparent wrongdoing, Elise Viebeck at CMC's Claremont Independent obtained emails from Petropoulos to Griebert that seem to support Bermann-Fischer's account. Viebeck quoted parts of the emails in her own article:
"If Frau Fischer and Dr. Kueckelmann choose not to engage us, then we cannot say what will happen to the painting," Petropoulos wrote on February 6, 2007. "It would be difficult to give her the names and locations without any compensation. That just won't happen."
"[H]er response is so irrational, it is hard to make sense of it all," he added in an email the next day. "She simply cannot recover the painting without us. At least, I don't know if she would discover on her own the identity of the holders and their current location. We need to keep that in mind. She needs us."
Petropoulos insisted, further, on their original demand for 18 percent. "As we have stressed, we had a deal with Frau Fischer for this amount (and we also hold all the cards right now)," he wrote on February 15, [2007].
Despite CMC's efforts to exonerate Petropoulos, if the information in the most recent Bloomberg article is accurate, it would appear the German investigation into Griebert's and Petropoulos' dealings with Bermann-Fischer is ongoing. Whatever the case, one thing is clear: the legacy of the Holocaust remains with us, even today, sixty-four years after the end of the war in Europe. Catherine Hickley says in her recent Bloomberg article that an almost incomprehensible number of artworks were looted by Nazis from victims like Bermann-Fischer's family - well over half a million pieces. The Art Loss Register has 70,000 missing works still listed. This was the largest art heist in modern history, and it has gone largely unpunished. As Bermann-Fischer put it in the Hickley article:
“There are probably thousands of paintings, still in safes, waiting for the passing away of the last possible claimants,” Bermann-Fischer said.
Bermann-Fischer's quest for the Pissarro may be over, but for many other families, the search goes on. In her World Radio Switzerland interview, Bermann-Fischer reminisced about another lost heirloom:
Vincent Landon, WRS: Where did this painting hang when you were a child? Can you remember it hanging in any…
Gisela Bermann-Fischer: Well, it was in a living-dining room of the house, lovely little old house in Vienna. And there were several paintings on the wall in this dining room. At the time people hung paintings very high up on the walls—I don’t know why—and to me of course being quite small, it seemed even higher. The perspective was very weird. So what I remembered about the painting was more or less the bottom of the painting, but it didn’t interest me that much. There was a Corot there, with a tremendous red flower—that I remembered even more vividly.
* * * * *
*In spite of the nearly 70 years searching for her painting, Gisela Bermann-Fischer (we've decided) must be very forgiving - or tolerant - to choose Christie's as her auctioneer. Not only does Christie's (which is privately-held) have a financial interest in Art Loss Register, which was keen to exploit Petropoulos' relationship to Bruno Lohse in an effort to obtain a lucrative finder's fee, but the auction house twice put on the block the Corot that had until recently been in Lohse's secret Zurich vault with the stolen Pissarro. Femme assise, tenant une Mandoline, a study painted by Corot early in his career, failed to find a minimum bidder at Christie's London Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale on June 20, 2006, where it was offered as the "Property of a European Collector" with an estimate of $375,000 - $560,000 (£200,000 - £300,000). The Corot was offered a second time by Christie's on April 12, 2007, this time in New York in an auction of 19th Century European Paintings and Orientalist Art, but despite the Corot's significantly-reduced estimate of $200,000-$300,000 it once again failed to find a minimum bidder. So who is the mysterious "European Collector" trying to sell a painting from Lohse's secret safe? We're sure there's an explanation, and can't help but think the auction house has been as cooperative with European investigators as it has been with Gisela Bermann-Fischer in preparing next Tuesday's sale of her Pissarro.
Femme assise, tenant une Mandoline (1826-1828), Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot
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