Court told poor security at museum

JAKARTA (JP): A court hearing on the theft of paintings at the National Museum yesterday revealed poor security at the museum. Safety regulations were frequently violated, witnesses said.

A member of building management at the museum who testified at Central Jakarta District Court said no one was allowed entry to museum storerooms without the curator's permission and an escort.

Kalam Sarjono, a management staff member, said, "That's what regulations say, but in reality I've noticed people come and go... so I'm not sure."

Defendants were museum employees Supandi and Bambang Widoyono, accused of stealing 25 paintings by renowned artists such as Basoeki Abdullah and Raden Saleh.

Kalam also said that it was impossible for the defendants to enter the storerooms because they didn't have keys.

Kalam said both defendants' worked at the museum repairing paintings. Every time they worked on paintings, he said, they would get written permission from the curator, and would be accompanied by a security guard.

"The head of the museum and the curator should be the only people who have keys," he said. "But in case of an emergency, such as a fire, a key is also kept at the security post." The key was placed in a box with other keys, Kalam said.

Two security guards testifying yesterday said they only knew of the 25 missing paintings from newspaper reports.

So far the police investigation and court hearings have not revealed the exact time of the alleged crime, but only that valuable paintings were found missing on Oct. 9.

The security guards said on Oct. 6 they discovered that an alarm in one of the storerooms where paintings were kept was not working.

"At that time we tried notifying the curator, but we were unsuccessful." The earliest they reported the alarm malfunction was on Monday, Oct. 9, one of the guards said. On that day the curator found the artwork missing.

The trial was adjourned until next week to hear more testimony. (12)