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Museum Director Indicted for Stealing NASA Artifacts
NBrooke271 writes "Max Ary, former Director of the Kansas Cosmosphere, has been hit with an eleven-count federal indictment, charging that he sold NASA space artifacts on loan to the museum, including an astronaut's in-flight T-shirt, a control panel from Air Force One and an Apollo 12 water valve for a personal profit of around $180,000. 'Mr. Ary, on behalf of the Cosmosphere, continued to sign documents reporting and verifying to NASA that the watch was still in its possession and collection,' said U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren. Ary currently serves as the Executive Director of Omniplex Science Museum in Oklahoma City, where he has taken a leave of absence. Read official statements from the Cosmosphere, the Omniplex, and Ary's attorney regarding the indictment."
1 - The prosecuters contend that Ary sold items and a figure of $180,000 is mentioned.
2 - Ary's lawyer mentions tens of thousands of items. The defense will be that he is at most guilty of careless management.
I have trouble putting 1 and 2 together. Presumably the prosecutors have disclosed their evidence to the defense. Do they have evidence that Ary sold anything to anyone? I think if they had any real evidence of that sort that Ary would quietly plead guilty and try for a reduced sentence. This has the smell of a case where all the evidence is circustantial.
I'm sure not calling this guy guilty without seeing a lot more evidence.
I am about to read the article, but I find this to be a horrible offense. Our national treasures are here for the entire population to enjoy. Anytime I hear about someone stealing or selling items of this type I am appalled. I can't believe that people can be so motivated my money. And it's only $180,000 that's not even that much.
Those who know, do not speak. Those who speak, do not know. ~Lao Tzu
An indictment not being a conviction, most news organizations would try and work the word "allegedly" into such a report as this one. But It seems /. is exempt from that kind of responsibility.
eh ... Fuck it ... let's hang him!
How are the brains wired in people who commit crimes like this? In an "honest" bank robbery, you are committing an obvious crime and only trying to conceal your identity. In fraud, you are creating a deliberate facade to hide what you are doing until you can safely vanish.
To sell highly visible pieces of property that you do not own, then lie quite openly (with documentation!) that you still have them, seems to require being out of touch with reality. How can you not get found out?
Do crimes like this indicate some mental issue, perhaps like kleptomania? I would be his driving force wasn't even the money, but some other compulsion or need.
Unfortunately, this is an urban legend. The reason not to use pencils is the tiny particles of graphite would get into the air, and that would be really bad to breathe, and also have an adverse effect on some systems.
Reality has a liberal bias
How Max got the job at the Cosmosphere is simple.
He built the place. It started out as a planetarium at a state fair, and Max (and Patty Carey) worked their asses off to make it one of the leading space museums in the world.
He is ANYTHING but a moron. He was one of the cageiest individuals around. He spent years combing junkyards in Florida, Huston, and Huntsville, finding gear that NASA had thown away when the program it was associated with was no longer funded.
He found the best people to restore the artifacts, and built a museum collection that was the envy of other space museums.
Before you spout off on the subject (and moderators, before you moderate this tripe as insightful) you might want to actually do some research on the history of the Cosmosphere.
All of that makes this EVEN WORSE - Max could have just as easily continued to do as he had done, locating artifacts in junkheaps, having Spaceworks (the artifact restoration arm of the Cosmosphere) restore them, and legally sell them. He didn't have to do this!
And if he did indeed misappropriate artifacts (and while it sure looks that way, do remember - he has not yet been convicted in a court of law), then that was not merely a carrer-limiting move, that was a carrer-ending move - no museum will ever touch him again.
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