Library calls cops over Springsteen collection
BY NANCY SHIELDS COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU DECEMBER 11, 2008
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ASBURY PARK The Asbury Park Public Library has asked police to help get back
about
$30,000 worth of Bruce Springsteen memorabilia that was removed in 2007 to be
microfilmed in Pennsylvania.
The library board of directors filed a complaint dated Dec. 9 charging theft of
library
materials and naming Bob Crane of Maryland, who led the Save the Palace and
Save Tillie
efforts, and Dan Toskaner of New York as the two people who picked up 1,334
items
March 14, 2008, from the OCLC Preservation Resources microfilming facility in
Bethlehem,
Pa.
The items never made it back to Asbury Park.
Crane and Toskaner are members of the board of directors of the Friends of the
Bruce
Springsteen Special Collection, a nonprofit organization formed in 2004 to
support and
promote the collection housed at the historic city library since 2001,
according to the
complaint.
It was in their status as members of the Springsteen board that Crane and
Toskaner were
allowed to take the materials to be microfilmed in September 2007. The
memorabilia,
which included worldwide magazine articles, books, tour programs and high
school
yearbook photos, evidently are mired in a dispute over ownership.
According to the complaint that police are investigating, the materials were to
be returned
immediately. The library sent letters in March, April, May, August and October
and an
ultimatum in November.
In May, 208 items were returned, though about 1,120 were still missing, library
officials
said.
"The value of individual items taken varies widely, but it is our very
conservative estimate
that the value of the stolen property is $29,520," the complaint states.
By late Wednesday afternoon, it appeared the library board's decision to go to
the police
might have helped instigate a resolution.
"The documents will be returned before the end of the week," Crane said in a
telephone
interview. Toskaner could not be reached for comment.
"The board of trustees just wants to protect themselves legally," library
Director Robert
Stewart said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "At the time they took these
items to be
microfilmed, the library board was the custodian for the collection. It was
under our care
and management."
"We told them (Crane and Toskaner) if they want to discuss the future of this
being
relocated somewhere else, just first bring the stuff back," Stewart said.
Stewart and Crane were in agreement Wednesday that the original 744 documents
that
Crane turned over to the library in 2001 when the collection began were indeed
a gift.
Crane took a tax deduction on them.
Crane said Wednesday that the collection held 6,500 documents in all, and
contended that
only the original 744 were gifted.
"We're saying the stuff in the library, we own," Stewart said. "There's a
dispute."
According to the complaint, a grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission
paid for
the materials to be microfilmed.
"This is so ridiculous," Crane said. "What this is an extension of is an
ongoing attempt to
make sure to resolve ownership of part of the collection and to make sure that
the
environmental condition in which the collection is held meets proper
environmental
standards."
"Until some of those issues are resolved, we were holding on to some of those
materials
that were never gifted to the library," Crane said. "They belong to members of
the Friends
and people who donated through us to the collection."
"That's what we've been trying to resolve," Crane said. "Instead of meeting
with us and
sitting down with us, they went to the police."
The two sides have tried to resolve the issue over the past year but were
unsuccessful. The
library board insisted that the materials be returned before more talks take
place.
"They knew what this place was like when they insisted it be set up here,"
Stewart said. "I
don't know if they have some other place in mind."
"Of course we're not going to drop the charges until everything is back and we
make sure
it's the original stuff," he said. "It probably will take us weeks to check out
1,300
documents."
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