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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."
What 'watch'?
Sounds more like mismanagement, if it was still reported as present, yet missing or damaged.
Though a href="http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/ks/press/apr2005/a pril7a.html">this looks pretty damning and has more of the detail.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
How much is that in $2 bills?
I'd personally like to thank the people who made sure the keyboard loses USB focus (or whatever it is) every few seconds and drops keystrokes.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Submitter here. Incidentally, I used to work at the Omniplex when Mr. Ary was in charge. We were very excited when he came to the museum; we had heard that he practically built the Cosmosphere with his bare hands. He pioneered the Smithsonian Affiliate program, one of the best ways for museums to get their hands on great government collections. This indictment has come as a shock to everyone.
Free messageboards and more! Your girlfriend's seen myWang
drop the Apollo 12 water valve and step away from the car!
Starsucks
I heard that NORAD tracks all kinds of space junk.
I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
In the interest of promoting more enlightened discussion, the news release from the DOJ regarding this case can be found here.
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How do stupid people get such jobs? I mean, the guy sells NASA stuff, then keeps signing papers that say he still has them. Didn't he wonder if someday NASA might want their stuff back, and when they found out it was gone, who they would look to first?
Don't take life so seriously. No one makes it out alive.
I wonder what kind of van you could trade for that?
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
Museum personel always felt something was Ary...
Anyone got a URL for the ebay-auction of that stuff?
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 $180,000 that's not even that much.
Those who know, do not speak. Those who speak, do not know. ~Lao Tzu
Is this how Seinfeld got the astronaut's pen that writes upside-down?
One man's Funny is another man's Offtopic.
An indictment not being a conviction, most news organizations would try and work the word "allegedly" into such a report as this one. But It seems /. is exempt from that kind of responsibility.
eh ... Fuck it ... let's hang him!
The Cosmosphere is one of my favorite museums. For the midwest, there is no better air and space museum. Aerospace technology and innovation is huge in Kansas, but there are a lot of people around here that can't go the the Smithsonian in DC or the EAA museum in Wisconsin. I would be very disheartened to learn that the allegations against Mr. Ary are true. The collection at the Cosmosphere is fantastic, and I hope there isn't any other fallout from this.
It's surprising how much some people will pay for a tap. A tap! I should go buy some water valves, scratch off the brand name and write NASA on it with a marker. The only thing more reliable than a get-rich-quick scheme, is the stupidity of people.
This is an example of how much money the private space industry can make. This guy made US$ 180,000 without even leaving the planet...
Amazing
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Who the hell would buy this crap? $180,000 for this junk?
Oh, I must have that water valve! Jeeves, fetch me my coat and have the Rolls Royce ready!
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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.
They also have a planetarium and IMAX theater, but the museum is the real draw for me. It's a walkthrough the history of space exploration, from the early experiments of Goddard and Von Braun, to the German WW2 missle programs, the cold-war era space race, up through the Shuttle, ISS, and Space Ship One.
The on-site restoration and replication studio does amazing work. They produced most of the props for the Apollo 13 movie. They later restored the Apollo 13 command module and the "Liberty Bell" Mercury module (which had sat on the ocean floor for decades) They received a retired SR-71 plane, and added on to the building to display it in the lobby.
If you're anywhere near Hutchinson, Kansas, it's well worth driving out of your way to see.
Redundancy is good And also good.
Yep, I'm sure a water valve, a control panel, and a filthy t-shirt will get them real far. McGyver's got nothing on the Iranians.
Hmm...now this makes me wonder about the true reasons why the Omniplex is in such mess.
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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You cant alter it, improve it, use it.
Do you think the private collectors who probably bought this are going to alter, improve or use it? No, it'll be in a glass case that only one guy can look at, instead of tens of thousands of people.
I think precisely the opposite, private (i.e. for personal use only) collections of objects of this sort should not be allowed or at least be discouraged (unless the object in question is of secondary importance), because the guy who really wants to see these objects often can go to a museum like the rest of us. Or start a museum and let other people see the objects.
Ayn Rand was as big of an idiot as Marx was. They where both clueless. ,and improving public property. So here are also concrete examples that the statement is wrong.
"thing about "public" property is that its definitely not "public". You cant alter it, improve it, use it."
Really? I go and use mountain bike trails at a local park that a club built. That is "Public" land. Do you not use your streets? Public property also. Never go to a park or a beach? Never helped to pick up trash at a park or beach? Helped to build a playground. Here are a few concrete examples of people using, altering
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When he arrived at the museum he made a lot of sweeping changes without really consulting anyone. He fired most of the upper level people and replaced them with people he worked with in Kansas and I believe in Houston as well.
His changes affected the character of the Omniplex in a detrimental way. The focus seemed to shift from educating people to making money. His management & leadership were piss-poor and had a negative effect on morale that trickled down to us lowly types who actually had to interact with visitors. Turnover was high all throughout the employee structure, and in the summer I worked there no less than 8 people were fired (the total staff is under 100).
I hope that he is forced to leave and that his groupies he brought in leave too. Good riddance.
The items alledged to be sold are obviously very rare, some must be on-off pieces, and anything made for the govt. is going to have a serial # on it.
A museum curator is going to have a record of each object, its serial #, description, photos, restoration record, provenance, etc. etc... That's what curators DO!
So while it's fun to grab a pitchfork and torch and join the mob, let's step back a bit and see how the evidence plays out here.
"Hey Fred, wasn't the Spirit of St Louis hanging up there before?"
"Ahhhh, I think it is out at the cleaners."
By the way, if anyone approaches you in a parking lot with a genuine V2 rocket in the back of their van it is ok to be suspicious.
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But does not indictment means you are accused, and now it is the job of the prosecutor to proove the accusation : aka he is not yet judged ? If this is right then you have no ground of putting a statement like "he stole" or "he is a moron". Reserve your judgement until the end of the prosecution. And moderator, how can you moderate the parent post as insightful ? the guy has only been charged, not yet judged ! Is innocent until proven guilty only empty words in the US ??
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