See You in September, Saint Sebastian By Marci Janas
			APRIL 12, 2000--Saint Sebastian is being bundled off to Amsterdam. The Allen Memorial Art Museum's evocative oil painting by Hendrick ter Brugghen, Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene, will be one of the highlights in an exhibition marking the bicentennial of the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands. The exhibition, The Glory of the Golden Age: Masterpieces of 17th-Century Dutch Art, will be on view from April 14 to September 17. The Allen's ter Brugghen is one of a select group of works chosen to supplement the Rijksmuseum's own collections in the display. Lucille Stiger, the Oberlin museum registrar, has organized St. Sebastian's travel plans, and Marjorie "Betsy" Wieseman, curator of western art before 1850, is the courier for the painting's journey to Amsterdam. Wieseman is supervising all aspects of its handling, from making sure that the work is packed and crated in a responsible manner to watching the airline handlers load it into and out of the jet's cargo bay. "A work has to be oriented properly into the cargo area of the plane," Wieseman says. "If it's a painting, I have to make sure that it's oriented with the skinny end toward the front of the plane to minimize damage in case of impact. And because cargo is packed in containers that rest on pallets, I have to make sure that the painting is not sharing a pallet with something containing hazardous chemicals or sharp objects." The preflight checklist for a work of art being sent on loan is just as rigorous. Wieseman says that the physical condition of the object itself is scrutinized to assess whether it can withstand the stresses of travel. The slightest question that a journey might place a work in jeopardy will keep it home. Whether the object is needed at home--either for an exhibition, for classes, or for other programming--also determines its availability to others. The College's needs have primacy. Once the work has "passed the gate," says Wieseman, the museum then screens the proposed borrowing institution. "We need to assess who wants the work and for what purpose. We receive many requests for pieces for exhibitions that don't make sense to us, or that don't have sufficient scholarly merit. Because many pieces are requested frequently, we look carefully at each proposed exhibition to determine whether it will add significantly to our knowledge of a particular piece." Also critical is the quality of the borrowing institution's facilities. Questionable security or climate-control standards--regardless of an exhibition's scholarly worth--will keep a work at home. The Rijksmuseum passed the stringent criteria. And in return for St. Sebastian, the Oberlin museum is receiving, on temporary loan, two of the Rijksmuseum's paintings. Wieseman will deliver St. Sebastian to the Rijksmuseum and will return with the Paternal Admonition by Gerard ter Borch, and the Portrait of Moses ter Borch, a collaborative work by Gerard and Gesina ter Borch. The works will form the centerpiece of an exhibition Wieseman is organizing for June 20 through October 1 at the Allen.
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