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Uncatalogued Collection
by Randy Garbin |
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April 14, 2003 |
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Seven years and still no catalogue. Few responsibilities have greater importance for most non-profit museums than fund raising and cataloguing. Incorporated in 1996, the American Diner Museum has neither engaged in a sustained fund-raising campaign nor has it catalogued its collection. While Daniel Zilka has spent a great deal of time and resources towards the acquisition of what may arguably be the most impressive collection of diner-related artifacts in the world, he has devoted comparatively nothing towards documenting this archive. By some estimates, Zilka, the museum’s founder and its current Executive Director, has assembled a collection of diner artifacts with an estimated market value of at least $150,000. Witnesses have described “boxes and boxes” of rare and valuable ephemera stacked high in his personal residence. Museum President, Robb Kok seems to believe this is the safest place to keep it for now. The law requires a non-profit museum to document its artifacts, citing history, appraised value, relevance to the chartered mission, and condition. Regulations governing non-profit organizations stipulate the museum’s responsibility to report these acquisitions to -- in this case -- the Rhode Island Department of Revenue and the Internal Revenue Service. Cataloguing means, among other things, a declaration of ownership. Leaving it, as Zilka has, in archive boxes stacked in his residence, relegates them to a state of limbo. Many of these items were put into Zilka’s care by people believing they would end up as part of the Museum’s collection, and yet many of these donors have not received letters of acknowledgment with independent appraisals for tax purposes. Some were explicitly loaned to Zilka for reproduction, but never returned.
If Zilka resigned tomorrow and chose to withhold these items, the Museum would find itself having to prove ownership of its own collection. This situation even jeopardizes the fate of items purchased for the museum by Zilka with Museum funds. In theory, the reimbursements should prove ownership, however should Zilka decide to simply walk away with anything now in his possession, the ADM might find itself forced to spend precious financial resources litigating for their return. Reimbursements without itemizations might prove nothing, and the legal struggle would only further hinder the museum’s ultimate establishment in a permanent home by both draining its treasury and disaffecting current and future members. The Director's bidding And what’s in that collection? This link (Adobe Acrobat required) takes you to a list of items purchased by Zilka via the five different aliases he has been known to use on Ebay just for the past year and a half. From at least 1998 to present, the following Ebay aliases have bid on behalf of the Diner Museum:
While there are several gaps in this history, the total just in this past year amounts to nearly $10,000. He has used Ebay for these purposes since at least 1998 and continues to do so. This link shows purchases made for the months of February and March, 2000 as “Dinerman.”. Zilka has retired or taken “Private” at least four of these aliases, Dinerman, FaithinPhysics, DivingforPearls, and AmericanDinerMuseum, in some cases after sellers posted unfavorable feedback notices claiming failure to submit timely payments. "SideofToast" belongs to Museum board member Gregg Anderson, who has also engaged in bidding on similar items on behalf of Zilka. Mosum, the alias responsible for the purchase of a Ward & Dickenson catalogue for $910.00, actually belongs to Ritu Gorczyca, but Robb Kok has acknowledged this purchase and reimbursement. Kok defended the prudence of this expense by asking, “How else are we going to get something like that?” Much of the remaining Ebay purchases include diner-related ashtrays, post cards, photographs, matchbook covers, photographs, advertising, and other ephemera. Granted, some of these may indeed be one-of-a-kind items, but exactly how much does the Museum need? And if it has no system for documenting these purchases, nor a secure place to store or display them, does it have any business continuing to acquire them? Is any photograph of this type worth $226.49, particularly when rotting hulks of diners in the collection still await restoration? And has the museum board established any limits on Zilka’s bidding? And why all the mystery behind the aliases? Even Kok professed no knowledge of the enigmatic “FaithInPhysics” moniker. Does anyone on the Museum’s board understand the extent of this activity? Finally, at what point does this proclivity and ability to collect become hoarding? But in answer to Robb Kok’s question, I would say simply respond: “If you act responsibly, people will give it to you.”
The Ebay purchases represent a small but growing percentage of the entire collection. In the past thirteen years, Zilka has engaged in a number of methods to add to the pile, and some can best be described as dubious. Though many allegations of unethical, if not illegal, activities remain unsubstantiated, this report verifies three specific cases. If these are indicative of Zilka’s methods of building a collection, it might explain his reluctance to document the archives. In 1999, Daniel Zilka began negotiations to procure the donation of the former Lackawanna Trail Diner while it stood dormant in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Apparently, before its ultimate sale to Gordon Tindall, Zilka came into possession of the diner’s builder’s tags attached to the outside of the diner’s doors. While the board had consented to Zilka’s attempts to have the diner donated to the museum, it had no knowledge of this particular “acquisition,” and Zilka never explained how these items came into his possession. In 1999, Zilka merely informed the board that he failed to procure this diner because of Tindall’s purchase, presumably putting the matter to rest. Then at Diner-Rama 2000 in Providence, Tindall came to ask Zilka for the return of his tags formerly affixed to that diner. According to several witnesses at the scene, Zilka initially dismissed the request, even denying possession. When pressed by fellow museum members who knew otherwise, he finally admitted to their possession in the collection. He then attempted to delay their return citing other more immediate obligations, but again, museum members persisted. Finally, Tindall, a dues paying member, got one of his two tags, but Zilka later denied his subsequent request to borrow and recast a specific piece of diner hardware for the restoration of the Lackawanna. Steve Harwin knew that he had a tag sitting in Zilka’s collection as well. When he brought his 1955 Silk City to Ralph Musi’s shop in Carteret, New Jersey in 1992, it arrived complete with its builder’s tag, menu boards, and booths. When it left the yard a year later, those items had disappeared. Around the same time, Zilka had contracted with Musi to restore the former Village Diner, depicted in the Baeder painting as the Blue Moon Diner.
Musi informed Harwin that Zilka had taken the numbered tag and the menu boards. Attempts to retrieve these items from Zilka fell on deaf ears until board member Arthur Goody took it upon himself to get Harwin’s tag returned to its rightful owner. In 2001, Zilka finally found time to return the tag, but without explanation or apology. The menu boards allegedly remain in Museum storage. In 1991, renowned restaurant architect Morris Nathanson purchased the shuttered Everready Diner and donated it to the Culinary Archives and Museum at Johnson & Wales University. Unfortunately, the diner then sat outdoors and unsecured in a back lot belonging to the university for the next ten years. In that time while J&W pondered its new possession, the diminutive Worcester diner suffered the ravages of exposure, neglect, vandalism, and theft.
Though Zilka has denied it, Museum members assert that the parts of this diner now reside in the Museum’s collection. Zilka has already returned the stool tops he had no permission to take, but witnesses have reported seeing the diner’s menu boards and refrigerator doors in the Fall River warehouse in or near a box labeled “Everready Diner.” The J&W museum knows this and has demanded their return, especially since the diner now sits inside its own exhibit space and has initiated an effort to raise funds for its restoration. This situation illustrates just one of several reasons why the J&W museum has disassociated itself from Zilka and the ADM, and instead chose Richard Gutman to curate a five-year exhibit celebrating the role of the diner in restaurant history — all despite the fact that ADM president Robb Kok serves on the J&W faculty. Daniel Zilka has left behind him a long trail of ill will and disturbing allegations. Most reputable practitioners in the business, either in restoration or in diner operation, avoid anything more than a casual association — and even those ranks continue to shrink. Unfortunately, few contacted for this report will go on the record with their accusations. Former associates and board members often accompanied Zilka during his excursions and share his culpability. Most believed at the time that Zilka’s unscrupulous methods at least had good intentions and looked the other way. Indeed, to the layman’s eyes, most of these items look like junk. Creaky furniture, rusting restaurant equipment, decaying fixtures, random pieces of metal, and tattered photographs do not possess much intrinsic value by themselves. As part of a larger collection, however, they help illustrate a rich, colorful heritage. Executive mis-Direction Some of this activity occurred before the legal incorporation of a non-profit entity chartered to preserve this heritage. Now, in theory, the diner world should have a safe haven for these nearly forgotten pieces of history, while promoting itself as a reliable resource for restoration. Instead, its battered reputation engendered by misrepresentation, obfuscation, and mismanagement has thrown up insurmountable obstacles to the realization of this excellent idea. Anyone who sees this museum as the rightful caretaker of their vintage post cards, or their grandfather’s diner blueprints, or their family’s home movies of Mountain View sections in transit would do well to remember the fabled fox guarding the hen house. Despite Zilka’s assurances to the contrary, this Museum is guilty of a seven-year failure to set in place and adhere to a systematic procedure to document current and future acquisitions. This Museum has persistently failed to perform one of its most basic and vital responsibilities, while leading its membership and the general public to believe otherwise.
On March 27, 2003, the museum’s Vice President, Quentin Sanford assured me the Museum had purchased the "PastPerfect" software package, used by museums to catalogue their collections. Why, then on March 29, did Zilka appear at the offices of another Rhode Island museum asking for advice on the purchase of cataloguing software? Zilka has reported to members during meetings in 1997, in 1999, and in 2001 that the cataloguing effort had begun.Further, in a column by Jim Dempsey for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette published July 28, 2000, he again claimed this project was well under way. Dempsey quotes Zilka saying, ``We have hundreds of objects, and we're working with Bryant College to develop software so that we can start cataloging,” yet if any of this work was performed, no one has seen it. No one needs to “develop software” when off-the-shelf packages are readily available and in broad use by other museums. To take on any other responsibilities while this inventory awaits a thorough documentation indicates to us, as it should to the membership, how Zilka’s true intentions could conceivably lie somewhere outside the bounds of legitimacy. And anyone who contributes time or money to this organization for any reason other than the completion of this task only throws gasoline on the fire. Next: The End Game? |
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