[meteorite-list] Stolen Specimens from Iceland

[Zelimir Gabelica]

Dear Peter, listees,

Indeed, this is a terrible news, a real shame!

What can be done ?

We, as collectors and mineral (zeolite) lovers 
should (must!) act, through one way or another.

Personally as a natural zeolite collector and 
lover, I am ready to transfer the news (Peter's 
mail) to anyone who might be concerned closely or from afar.
As an active member of the International Zeolite 
Association (IZA) and elected member of two IZA 
sub-commissions, namely the "Synthesis 
Commission" and "Natural Zeolite Commission", 
also as a member of the International Natural 
Zeolite Association (INZA), I will now promptly 
alert the heads or responsible persons of these associations about the theft.

Believing that the stolen specimens can (most 
probably will) also readily reach the various 
collector's markets (mineral shows), it could be 
advisable to contact the main 
responsibles/chairmen of the forthcoming  mineral show in Europe and elsewhere.
I am personally in regular contact with the 
organizers of the Europe's top Munich show (next 
edition: Oct 31, Nov 01, contacts: Johannes & 
Christoph Keilmann), The (biggest in Belgium) 
Liege mineral show (Nov 6-8, contact Roger 
Warin), the future Ste Marie-aux-Mines show (Euro 
Mineral Expo, June 24-27, 2010, Michel Schwab) 
and, with the help of many friends, I am ready to 
contact many other show organizers in Europe as well.

I believe our List members from overseas can do the same for the US shows.

Finally, I will contact editors of the main 
European mineralogical journals (I do regularly 
subscribe to many of them) and encourage them to put a related advertisement.

Museum curators are possible candidates for 
contacts so I believe Peter can help here, by 
alerting his colleagues (or providing the appropriate addresses).

It would be also appropriate that a list 
describing the stolen specimens, possibly with 
pictures, be somewhere available (Peter, is there 
a web site available anywhere ?).

Zeolites from Berufjördur (Teigarhorn national 
park) are old and very valuable classics, world 
renown as true zeolite references. I have the 
privilege to owe a few (old specimens with 
genuine 19th century labels, most acquired in the 
1980', 1990's from show dealers and originating 
from well known German and/or French 
mineralogical museum duplicates). They are 
considered among the most aesthetic of the 
zeolites in the mineral kingdom. Moreover, 
Teigarhorn is also the type locality of epistilbite.
I am convinced we really must do something very 
promptly to try to stop thieves from dispersing 
this world heritage throughout the "wild market".

Thank you very much Peter!

My best,

Zelimir


At 10:07 21/10/2009, Peter Davidson wrote:
>Dear List Members
>
>I apologise for taking you a little off-topic (like that's never
>happened before!), but I would like to bring the following very
>disturbing news to your attention. I know from chatting to many of you,
>and I am thinking of people like Zelimir Gabelica, that not a few of you
>are keen on collecting minerals, especially zeolites, so this may be of
>interest to many of you out there. The message is:
>
>"Dear Peter
>
>Thank you for the information regarding the Meeting in Munich. Due to
>teaching duties I will arrive only later in the afternoon and I am not
>sure whether I can make it to the meeting.
>
>However, I would like to ask you for a favour: I just got notice from a
>Swiss geologist in Iceland (a former student of mine) that the Mineral
>museum at Teigarhorn in Djupivogur (Berufjord), in the heart of the
>zeolite find area, has recently been robbed and a significant number of
>mineral specimens have been stolen.
>
>http://www.mindat.org/mesg-56-156779.html
>
>http://www.mbl.is/mm/frettir/innlent/2009/10/17/um_500_steinum_stolid_a_
>teigarhorni/ (in Icelandic)
>
>According to this report 500 pieces valued around 120'000 US$.
>
>Christa Feucht is collecting any information regarding this incident for
>the museum there.
>Christa at feucht.ch
>phone +354 8659857 (Iceland)
>http://geothermal.is/employees/17
>
>It would be great if you could circulate this information among the
>members and perhaps mention this during the meeting.
>
>I hope still to make it to the meeting.
>
>With my best regards
>Beda (Hofmann)
>(Natural History Museum, Bern, Switzerland)"
>
>I would ask all of you to keep your eyes and ears open and to alert the
>authorities if you hear of anything. I would also ask you to please pass
>this message on to other mineral collectors, dealers and curators you
>may know.
>
>Many thanks for your attention
>
>Peter Davidson
>Curator of Minerals
>National Museums Collection Centre
>National Museums Scotland
>242 West Granton Road
>Edinburgh
>EH5 1JA
>Phone: +44 131 247 4283
>p.davidson at nms.ac.uk
>www.nms.ac.uk
>Salt of the Earth: famous faces with Scottish 
>roots, photographed by Craig Mackay. National 
>Museum of Scotland. Opening 16 October.
>
>www.nms.ac.uk/salt <http://www.nms.ac.uk/salt>
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Prof. Zelimir Gabelica
Université de Haute Alsace
ENSCMu, Lab. GSEC,
3, Rue A. Werner,
F-68093 Mulhouse Cedex, France
Tel: +33 (0)3 89 33 68 94
Fax: +33 (0)3 89 33 68 15