Museum staffer claims security still penetrable

University Museum officials rejoiced yesterday at the return of its stolen Empress Dowager crystal ball and 2000-year-old Egyptian statue, but according to one museum official, it would be almost as easy to steal an artifact from the museum today as it was three years ago. The museum official, who requested anonymity, said the museum improved security for several of its more important collections, but other areas of the museum still have security problems. He said yesterday that security is particularly weak in the Chinese Rotunda, where the crystal ball was originally displayed. With the exception of electronically-locked glass doors at the opening of the third floor rotunda, there is virtually no meaningful security in the area. But University Museum Director Robert Dyson defended the museum's security system, saying that the charges of lax security came from a disgruntled employee. "To say security is the same today as it was then is absolutely incorrect," Dyson said. "I think the museum has made great strides in developing security." Dyson said that because thousands of people pass through the museum in a year, it is difficult to maintain air-tight security. "It is particularly hard [to maintain security] with an institution like this," Dyson said. "The alternative is to seal up the collections." Dyson said he would not respond to specific charges of weak security, explaining that divulging information about particular systems would further jeopardize the museum's collections. But the official pointed out several specific areas where he believed security was lax. He said the one camera on the east side of the rotunda is "a dummy camera," meant simply to deter thefts, and that it does not record events in the rotunda. The official said some rooms were equipped with advanced security after the thefts in 1988 of the crystal ball, the statuette of the Egyptian god Osiris, and a Sri Lankan mask. After the theft of the ball, "people got the message that this place was a joke," the official said, adding that just two weeks later, the mask was stolen during museum hours. He said that when "press came down and asked 'Why were all of these things being stolen?' " museum officials put in better security. Dyson said that when the thefts occurred, he was asked by reporters about security, but could not respond. The museum official also said that, because the Chinese Rotunda is the site of many banquets, it would be "easy" for someone to hide from security when workers make a final check of the area before locking up. The official said that after being locked in the rotunda, the burglar could "go nuts" with all of the artifacts. The only difficulty, according to the official, would be getting out of the rotunda. Although he refused to tell exactly how the burglar might leave the rotunda, he said it is really "very easy." The official said that at night, a skeleton crew supervises the museum, and that University Police are also assigned to the museum, but that the number of security officials is far fewer than the amount needed to ensure against theft. Dyson challenged any outsider to find a second exit from the rotunda, adding that several museum officials have been locked into the rotunda in the past and have had to call out to the security desk to be let out. The museum official also said it would be simple for someone to steal artifacts from the large collection stored in the basement and sub-basement of the museum. "A graduate student or work-study student who wanted to take a shrunken head could put it in his knapsack and walk out," he said. He said the University would probably not miss the stolen artifact for years because of the sheer number of artifacts in the museum basement and because many of the items have not yet been cataloged. Dyson admitted that there would be "no way to prevent" a person from picking up a "small item" from the large collection in the museum's basement. He added that the museum, because it is also a teaching institution, relies on the honesty and integrity of the students who work with the stored collections. Dyson said that in any museum, there are always items which are not cataloged.

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