page_title: Operation Savoy
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Savoy / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: The Australian Museum along William Street
context_page_description: Operation Savoy was an Independent Commission Against Corruption investigation into thefts of zoological specimens from the Australian Museum by Hendrikus ‘Hank’ van Leeuwen. The investigation initiated in September 2002 and spanned for five months. The investigation resulted in the retrieval of over 2000 items van Leeuwen had stolen from the Museum, which was 'the largest theft of Museum holdings ever perpetrated in Australia'.
  The Commission made findings of corruption against van Leeuwen, which resulted in criminal charges. He was sentenced to 7 years in prison on 20 April 2007, with a non-parole period of five years. At the time, this was the longest jail term that came as a result of an ICAC investigation.
  The Museum also made institutional changes, on the recommendation of the Commission, to prevent such events from happening again in the future.
context_section_description: Hank van Leeuwen became interested in collection and taxidermy of animals as a child in the Netherlands. He moved with his wife and two children to Australia in 1981.
  He was employed in a temporary role as an Assistant Conservator at the Australian Museum by David Horton-James, the head of Material Conservation at the Museum, on the 2 December 1996. In the role van Leeuwen was primarily a pest controller, managing insects that could potentially damage collection items. This role gave him unrestricted and unsupervised access to the all of the Museum's 13 million zoological specimens, across its main College Street location and its external storage facility at Marrickville. He was also granted similar access to Museum vehicles, in order to transport himself and the pest control equipment between sites.
  Van Leeuwen began stealing items 3 to 4 months into his role. In early 1997, Museum staff started reporting that zoological specimens had started going missing. The Museum believed these disappearances to be the result of thefts, with van Leeuwen being a primary suspect. Museum management decided against an active internal investigation, concerned such a move would contravene government harassment policy without more definitive evidence. In 1998, Museum management informed the police of the missing specimens, however, the police ‘found no evidence against van Leeuwen’ and ‘were unable to establish if in fact items had been stolen’. On the recommendation of the police, the Museum upgraded and increased security, over the course of 1998 to 1999, however, this had little impact in reducing van Leeuwen's thefts.
  After van Leeuwen impressed Professor Michael Archer, the Museum's director, with his casting skills, he was moved to the palaeontology division as a moulder and caster on the 16 October 1999. This limited his work to a small space at the Museum's College Street site and resulted in him losing his unrestricted access to the Museum's zoological specimens. His stealing continued, however, his thefts became more opportunistic.
  An inventory was conducted in February 2002 of the Museum's CITES material, which noted 339 mammals, 32 reptiles and between 32 and 46 fish specimens were missing.
caption: Australian Museum, College Street site
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