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Culture Without Context
Issue 18,
Spring 2006
UK
Zimbabwe
and Kenya
Egypt
Libya
Yemen and Syria
Iran
India
USA
Cambodia
Greece
Italy
Robert
Hecht and the J P Getty Museum
Israel
France
Bulgaria
Romania
Turkey
Guatemala
The market
Ethical debate
China
Raising awareness
Sources
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- Archaeologists and metal detectorists worked
together on an Anglo-Saxon site at Burdale, Yorkshire, in order to improve
relations and promote mutual understanding. The site was selected for the
experiment by staff at the University of York as it had already been
attacked by ‘nighthawks’ metal detecting illegally under cover of darkness
(‘We’re watching the detectors to preserve past’, Yorkshire Post, 30
May 2006).
- A code of conduct, agreed after months of negotiation
between metal detectorists and archaeologists, was launched at the British
Museum in May (see ‘Archaeologists and amateurs agree pact’, Guardian,
2 May 2006). Under the terms of the code, an estimated 180,000 metal
detectorists will agree to work only the top layer of disturbed soil (like
ploughed fields), operate with the land owner’s permission, report all
finds, and call experts in the event of seeing anything significant.
- Pretty much everyone in Britain was caught out by an
Amarna-style Egyptian alabaster statue bought by Bolton Council in 2003 for
the Bolton Museum and Art Gallery. The piece was authenticated by the
British Museum and came with documentation to show that it had been sold by
auction in Britain in the nineteenth century. Most of the £440,000 purchase
price was obtained from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the National
Art Collections Fund (NACF). It featured in the NACF’s 2004 ‘Saved’
exhibition of pieces bought with the help of NACF funds and was published in
Burlington and the Egypt Exploration Society’s Bulletin. It
turned out, however, to be fake, and in March two men were arrested in
Bolton on suspicion of forgery and several objects were seized. The house of
one of the accused was said to resemble a workshop, containing marble and
tools for working stone (J. Malvern, ‘The ancient Egypt statue from Bolton’,
The Times, 27 March 2006; M. Bailey, ‘How the entire British art
world was duped by a fake Egyptian statue’, Art Newspaper, May 2006).
- The Herald newspaper in Zimbabwe reported that
more than 1500 artefacts of archaeological and ethnographic interest have
disappeared from the Zimbabwe Museum of Human Sciences. Interpol are helping
with investigations into their whereabouts amid rumours of illicit export
and involvement of senior staff (see ‘Precious artefacts vanish from Zim
museum’, Independent Online, 1 June 2006).
- Senior curator of the National Museums of Kenya,
Abdalla Ali Allausy, has set up a working group to identify the location of
cultural material smuggled out of the country in the late 1970s and early
1980s, with the intention of securing its return. He added that the National
Museums are working with other government authorities to ensure that
cultural material and antiquities do not leave the country with tourist.
- Controversy erupted in March 2006 when the head of
Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr Zahi Hawass, claimed that a
nineteenth-dynasty mask in the St Louis Art Museum had been stolen from a
warehouse in Saqqara in the 1980s (J.E. Kaufman, ‘This mask belongs to
Egypt’, Art Newspaper, March 2006). Dutch experts claimed that the
mask had been excavated sometime between 1951–5, published in 1957, and
stolen sometime after 1985. St Louis director Brent Benjamin replied that
the museum bought the mask in 1998 for $499,000 from Phoenix Ancient Art,
co-owned by the brothers Ali and Hicham Aboutaam, and that Phoenix claimed
the mask had indeed been excavated in the 1951–2 season, but that an
unidentified Swiss person had seen it on the market in Brussels in 1952.
Zahi Hawass denied that this would have been possible. On 11 May the St
Louis Museum issued a statement asking Zahi Hawass to provide documentation
that would substantiate his claim (J.E. Kaufman, ‘“This mask is ours” says
St Louis Art Museum’, Art Newspaper, June 2006). Hawass responded
with a register entry recording the mask’s presence in Egypt in 1959, but
Benjamin was not satisfied.
- June 2006: An ancient Egyptian offering
vessel, made of alabaster and shaped like a bird, was removed from sale at
Christie’s New York after concerns were raised by the Metropolitan Museum of
Art that it may have been improperly exported from Egypt. The appropriate
authorities were contacted.
A report by the Supervision Authority in Libya describes
thefts of historical artefacts as ‘widespread’ (see R. Jawad, ‘Libya fears for
its stolen heritage’, BBC News, 28 April 2006, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4951770.stm).
- According to official
figures, 90 ancient artefacts have been stolen in Libya since 1988, but
heritage professionals say the figure is much higher as material is stolen
through clandestine excavations and from previously unknown sites uncovered
during seismic surveys by oil companies.
- Most of the thefts are from museums and sites where
the officials are older, untrained and underpaid — like Shahat in the south,
Sabratha near Tripoli, and Abikamash in the east.
- The ministries of justice and public security are
criticized for their lack of effort in finding the perpetrators.
- According to Guima Anag, chairman of the department
of archaeology, heritage professionals are hamstrung by lack of money and
excessive bureaucracy — which means that their systems are ‘outdated, weak,
inefficient, understaffed, under-funded and under-developed’.
- The return of items stolen from the museum of
Sabratha, which were confiscated in 2003 at the Egyptian border, has been
delayed because the Libyan authorities have been unable to provide
documentation proving they were from the Sabratha collection. They remain in
the museum of Alexandria.
- The culture ministry says other artefacts stolen from
Libya have been discovered in Egypt and talks on their repatriation are
ongoing.
- The culture ministry says it is building fences round
archaeological sites, installing surveillance equipment, and has asked the
General People’s Congress to pass strict laws regarding artefact theft.
- The Yemen Ministry of Tourism has developed a new
‘strategic plan’ to protect the country’s cultural heritage. Amongst other
measures, national borders will be monitored more closely to prevent
smuggling (see ‘New plan for protecting antiquities in Yemen’, Yemen
Observer, 26 March 2006).
- May, Yemen: Military police in the Al-Awad
district of Ibb province recovered ancient Humari and Sasanni period
artefacts from smugglers. The operation involved a criminal gang trying to
sell the objects to a US-based Yemeni (‘New archaeological discoveries in
Marib, smugglers caught’, Yemen Observer, 3 May 2006).
- June: 76 archaeological items that had been
smuggled from Syria to Lebanon in 2001 were returned according to a cultural
agreement between the two governments under the terms of the 1970 UNESCO
Convention. The objects had been found in the Baalbek area of Telya and the
Kesrouan area of Ghadir and Haret Sakhr following the arrest of Lebanese and
Syrian smugglers. They included sections of column, sculptures from various
periods and smaller architectural pieces.
- Police in Bafgh, Yazd province, seized a 20-cm-high,
soapstone goblet decorated with carved lions, scorpions and wolves. The
artefact had been stolen from Jiroft (see ‘Stolen ancient goblet of Jiroft
found in Yazd’, Cultural Heritage News Centre, 29 April 2006; also see ‘In
the news’, CWC, Issue 15 (2004), 8–9; ‘In the news’, CWC,
Issue 16 (2005), 13). Experts hope that the discovery will provide valuable
comparative evidence to bolster Iran’s international legal claims for the
return of other items they believe to have been smuggled from Jiroft, which
are currently in museums and galleries around the world.
- April 2006: The Iron Age cemetery of Pardis
Tepe near Varamin (southern Tehran Province), which was the site of
excavations by archaeologists from the University of Tehran and the UK
Universities of Leicester and Bradford, has been destroyed by looters.
Graves have been ransacked and fragments of human bone left scattered over
the site. Police have been investigating the looting (see ‘Smugglers destroy
Iron Age cemetery south of Tehran’, Mehrnews.com, 28 April 2006).
- Eleven rare artefacts were confiscated by authorities
in Tehran in April. The Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization of Ilam
Province, from where the objects were stolen, has written to the cultural
heritage police requesting their return. The objects, including metal items
like decorated arrows, a golden cup and an extremely rare silver mask,
believed to be 2800 years old, were looted from the village of Darreh Shahr.
Officials say the objects will be conserved, studied, then sent for display
to a museum (see ‘Stolen artifacts to return to Ilam’, Persian Journal,
19 April 2006).
Newkerala.com
(‘200 idols seized, antique dealer nabbed’, 28 April 2006),
reports:
- April 2006: Customs officers confiscated 25
ancient idols at a container depot in Sabarmati, allegedly booked in as a
consignment of household goods by a Belgian national who had left for
France. Police believe the city of Ahmedabad has for years been the base for
a gang smuggling antiques brought from Gujarat and Rajasthan.
- April 2006: Police in Gujarat seized more than
200 ancient marble and sandstone idols, the largest four feet tall, from an
industrial store owned by Ismail Memon. Some were allegedly stolen from Jain
temples. Memon was arrested for interrogation, and a complaint lodged
against him and two others (believed to be Thai) under the 1972 Antiquities
and Art Treasures Act.
- There were reports from Kutch of idols and statues
being looted from damaged temples and Jain shrines following the earthquake
in 2001.
- Following the discovery in May 2006 that hundreds of
antiquities were missing from the storeroom of the Patna Museum (which
houses Buddhist and Chinese artefacts), security is being stepped up. The
pieces were kept in two dilapidated rooms at the back of the museum (see
‘Night patrolling to be introduced on Patna Museum’, Times of India,
15 June 2006).
- Pennsylvania University professor of archaeology,
Brian Rose, has been working with US Central Command to set up a lecture
programme at military bases demonstrating to Marines operating in Iraq and
Afghanistan how best to treat archaeological material.
- Dartmouth University classics professor, Roger
Ulrich, is also starting work developing training materials to help troops
preserve cultural heritage in Iraq and Afghanistan. The research, funded by
the Defense Department, will see a group of student researchers produce
guidelines for cultural resource management (see ‘Prof. to train soldiers to
preserve sites’, The Dartmouth, 26 April 2006).
- On 21 February 2006, the Italian Ministry of Culture
and the Metropolitan Museum of Art signed an agreement whereby the
Metropolitan will cede title to Italy of 21 antiquities in its possession,
and Italy will reciprocate by offering on loan objects of equal
significance. The Metropolitan denies any knowledge of illegal provenance
for any of the objects concerned. They include the Euphronios krater and the
so-called Morgantina treasure, a 15-piece set of Hellenistic silver. A
Metropolitan press release describing the agreement is available at
http://www.metmuseum.org/press_room/recent.asp?type=2. The Euphronios
krater will remain at the Met until 2008, and the Morgantina silver will
stay until 2010. The Boston Globe reported that the Italian
government had offered the Boston Museum of Fine Arts a similar deal (G.
Edgers & S. Pinto, ‘Italians extend art offer to MFA’, 17 June 2006).
- March (see ‘Artifacts trafficker pleads
guilty’, Honolulu Star Bulletin, 25 March 2006): In the first case to
be prosecuted under NAGPRA (the federal Native American Graves Protection
and Repatriation Act of 1990) in Hawaii, Daniel W. Taylor pled guilty to
conspiring to traffic in Native Hawaiian cultural items. Previously,
co-defendant John Carta had been charged with trying to profit from selling
the objects.
Some of the items were from the J.S. Emerson
Collection that had been acquired by the Bishop Museum in 1880 and
repatriated under NAGPRA to the Native Hawaiian group Hui Malama I Na Kupuna
O Hawaii Nei in 1997. Hui Malama then reburied them in the Kanupa cave. The
prosecution claims that on 17 June 2004, Taylor and Carta broke into the
sealed cave and stole 157 artefacts, most of which have now been recovered
with Taylor’s help. Also on 17 June, Taylor tried to sell a necklace for
$40,000 and offered a kupee bracelet in an Internet auction for $5600. On 26
June, an ancient kapa was sold to a tourist for $150, and a fisherman’s bowl
to a collector for $2083 on 11 July. When collectors noticed Emerson
collection numbers on items offered by Taylor they alerted the authorities.
Possible state charges may follow because of the large number of items
stolen, and investigators say they are now following leads on other similar
cases.
- Controversial collector
Shelby White has donated $200 million to fund a new Institute for Study of
the Ancient World at New York University (see New York University News, 3
April 2006; Science 311, 31, March 2006; Science Now, 28 March
2006; The Harvard Crimson, 6 April 2006). The donation, made through
the Levy Foundation, sparked criticism from students and some staff,
concerned that the Institute’s aims and autonomy, and the University’s
reputation, may be damaged by the connection with White’s antiquities
collection. She will serve as the Institute’s chairwoman of the board and,
according to NYU Provost David McLaughlin, may be given a permanent position
on the faculty’s appointment committee. Professor Randall White resigned
from the existing Center for Ancient Studies in protest over the donation
and its implications. McLaughlin said that White’s collection was a separate
issue from the gift.
The Levy Foundation also funds a programme based at
Harvard University supporting archaeological publication, but several US
institutions, including Bryn Mawr College, the University of Pennyslvania
and the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, have policies which explicitly
advise against accepting fund from the Foundation.
- June 2006: Vandals
who broke a window at the Canal Museum in Middletown, Ohio, made away with
two stone axes and a tomahawk.
- The convictions of two men, John Ligon of Reno and
Carroll Mizell, who were found guilty of theft of two petroglyphs from
government land in Arizona (see ‘In the news’, CWC Issue 14 (2004),
9), have been overturned by the appeals court in San Francisco, which said
the government had failed to prove the artefacts were worth at least $1000,
or that the thieves knew they were breaking the law. The situation
highlights the difficulties of affixing monetary value to clearly important
archaeological artefacts, and, according to lawyers and archaeologists
fighting the case, the ruling as it currently stands ‘effectively provides a
license to steal’ (‘Archaeologists, courts debate artifacts’ value’,
Contra Costa Times, 18 June 2006).
- Established collections of Native American artefacts
are increasingly a target for thieves, according to the Christian Science
Monitor (26 April 2006), which reports that such items are seen on sale
in Europe in ever increasing numbers.
- In 2005, more than 2500 ancient shell necklaces,
stone points, bones, and stone tools, comprising nearly half of the
collection at the Wolf Creek Indian Village in Bastian, Virginia, were
stolen. None have been recovered.
- In March 2006, the Antique Tribal Art Dealers
Association reported thefts of dozens of artefacts from a private home in
Fort Morgan, Colorado and a museum in Jackson, Wyoming.
- Following an anonymous
call on 9 May to Heritage Watch’s ‘Heritage Hotline’ (set up in August 2005
to facilitate reporting of looting or archaeological discoveries), the
Cambodian temple of Preah Khan, where nearly every carving has been hacked
from the walls, was saved from further destruction. Heritage Watch contacted
the Ministry of Culture following the call, which warned that powerful
officials had mobilized a team of armed thieves to go in search of statues
missed by earlier looters and metal-detect valuable bronzes. It emerged that
30 such men had been involved, but they left the temple alone when
provincial authorities, including police and military personnel arrived. The
temple, in Preah Vihear province, is unguarded and therefore vulnerable.
- Dougald O’Reilly of Heritage Watch estimates that at
the current rate of looting most of Cambodia’s pre-Angkorian sites will be
completely destroyed within three years.
- According to Greek police
figures, 90 people were arrested on charges of antiquities smuggling in
2004, compared with 89 in 2005. More than 2800 objects were seized in the
greater Athens area in 2004, and over 800 in 2005 (see ‘Greece facing
‘explosive’ situation with illegal digs’, Kathimerini, 29 March
2006).
- According to Public Order Ministry figures, 60
illegal sales of antiquities were reported in 2004, compared with 75 in
2005.
- Greek police announced their largest ever discovery
of illegal antiquities, on 13 April at a villa on the tiny Aegean island of
Schinoussa, south of Naxos. (see A. Carassava, ‘Illegal antiquities cache
prompts Greek inquiry’, New York Times, 19 April 2006; CBS Arts, 18
April 2006; Kathimerini, 15 April 2006). According to archaeologists
inventorying the collection, it contains 280 items dating to many periods
and from around the Mediterranean, some hidden and some openly used as
decorations. A 30-metre-square chapel had been built on the six-acre site,
constructed of ancient architectural fragments from various eras. Other
items were a headless Roman statue of Aphrodite, a carved marble
sarcophagus, three marble busts and two granite sphinxes. The villa belongs
to Dimitra Papadimitriou of the wealthy shipping family, but is reported to
have been owned previously by London dealer Robin Symes and his business
partner, the late Christos Michailidis, Papadimitriou’s brother (see
P.
Watson, ‘The fall of Robin Symes’, CWC Issue 15 (2004), 20–22).
Police officers had previously raided a villa owned by the Papadimitriou
family in Athens on 12 April.
Further investigations at the Schinoussa villa
revealed what might have been a workshop for producing copies (‘New clues
unearthed in complex antiquities case’, Kathimerini.com, 19 April 2006).
Greek media immediately began to speculate about a
link with Greek items in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Culture
Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis said there was no evidence for this, but seals
and packaging found on the island could be signs of commercial trafficking.
Documentation found during the raid also indicated that many of the items
had been purchased at Sotheby’s or Christie’s between 2001 and 2005,
although none had been declared on entry into Greece.
- In late April, Constantinos Grispos, former mayor of
Schinoussa and caretaker of the Papadimitriou villa, was arrested after four
ancient amphorae were found at his home. He said he had retrieved them from
the sea himself, and they are believed to be unconnected with the earlier
antiquities haul.
- In March, 60 antiquities were seized during raids on
two homes on the nearby island of Paros, one of which belongs to Marion
True, former curator of the Getty. True claims the 29 antiquities were
already in the villa in 1995 when she bought it. The Greek authorities
expressed their intention to press charges against True (A. Carassava,
‘Greek officials planning to bring charges against ex-curator’, New York
Times, 5 May 2006).
- Police in the United Kingdom confiscated several
antiquities in the possession of a London dealer on the request of Greek
authorities. A team of Greek archaeologists will travel to London to
investigate their provenance and possible illegal removal from Greece.
- While in London, Greek police also discussed the
implications of the massive seizure of antiquities on the island of
Schinoussa. They fear that publicity surrounding the case may cause dealers
to sell on illegal items quickly, and believe that as the Schinoussa find
may be part of a much bigger case it could lead to further breakthroughs.
Greek police are also currently in close contact with their Italian
counterparts.
- June: the United Kingdom will return to Greece
a rare Roman coin, depicting Brutus, which had been in the possession of the
UK-based Classical Numismatic Group. It was handed over to the Greek Embassy
in London following an operation by British customs at Stansted airport. Two
Greek men leaving Britain after a single day’s visit were stopped and
discovered to be carrying a large sum of money, which had been received in
payment for the coin. The Greek government claimed the coin back under the
terms of the EU Directive on the Return of Cultural Objects Unlawfully
Removed from the Territory of a Member State. Eric McFadden, senior director
of the Classical Numismatic Group, said he had bought the coin from two men
in good faith, although one had been associated with the late Nino Savoca,
who was known to deal in illicit antiquities. McFadden told the Times
(see D. Alberge, ‘Swoop by customs returns Brutus to scene of the crime’, 15
June 2006): ‘One does not refuse to deal with someone because he has a
slightly dodgy background’.
- The new director of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los
Angeles has recommended to museum trustees the return to Greece of four
artefacts — a gold funerary wreath (acquired for the museum in 1993 and a
centrepiece of the collections), a stone torso, a tombstone and a votive
relief. The museum has not admitted any wrongdoing while the Greek
government claim the pieces were illegally excavated.
- A 60-year-old shop owner in Iraklion, Crete, was
arrested in June after antiquities, including an ancient funeral tablet, two
vases, 27 ancient coins and six icons, were found in his possession. At
present, there is no indication that the case is connected to international
smuggling.
- Rachel Sanderson of Reuters (‘Getty trial spotlights Italy tomb raiders’, 12
December 2005) interviewed Italian archaeologist Francesco Racano who works at
Arpi, a Hellenistic and Roman cemetery in south Italy. He told how he arrives at
work at 8 am in time to see the tombaroli leaving, and they return at 4 pm when
he departs. As many as eight four-person gangs, armed with metal spikes, wire
and metal detectors, might be working at any one time. Racano reported one
failed night-time theft at Arpi when an attempt to lift a stone column with a
crane failed and smashed the column. Previously robbed tombs are now being
re-opened by tombaroli and stripped of their frescoes. He also said that on one
occasion local farmers had informed the police, but their crops had been burnt
in a successful attempt at intimidation.
- In January, the United States and Italy extended for a further five-year period
the Memorandum of Understanding that imposes US import restrictions on
archaeological material representing the Pre-Classical, Classical and Imperial
Roman periods of Italy.
- In April, New York police handed over a head from a first-century
ad stone statue of Dionysus to New
York’s Italian consulate. The head had been severed from its torso in 1983 and
passed through a Japanese museum before being offered for sale at Christie’s in
December 2002. It was recognized and Christie’s contacted the police.
- In June, journalists were shown an Etruscan tomb near Veio, north of Rome,
believed to be the oldest known frescoed burial chamber in Europe and dating
back to at least the seventh century bc.
An Italian man arrested as part of the police operation against the ‘Mozart’
smuggling ring, but who is
now working with the authorities, revealed it to archaeologists in May. The
frescoes depict roaring lions and migratory birds, and have for the first time
provided archaeologists with information on decorative techniques described in
ancient texts. Archaeologists also discovered various objects overlooked by
looters because of a partial ceiling collapse, including decorated Greek vases,
a sword and metal spits, a two-wheeled bronze chariot and brooches, a spindle,
and other objects which may have belonged to a female buried in the chamber (E. Povoledo, ‘Accused tomb robber leads police to ancient tomb in Italy’,
New
York Times, 17 June 2006).
- Peter Watson, co-author of the Medici Conspiracy, told
Archaeology
magazine in a June interview that archaeologists in Italy believe looting is
down by half since the Medici network has been broken.
- The Rome trial of Robert Hecht and Marion True (see
‘In
the news’, CWC Issue 17 (2005), 12–15) resumed on 16 December when the
prosecution witness Maurizio Pellegrini, an expert on the analysis of documents,
discussed correspondence in which True had thanked Medici for providing details
of provenance about three Protocorinthian jugs. Pellegrini claimed that Medici’s
access to this information shows him to have been in contact with tombaroli, and
that True must have known it (E. Povoledo, ‘Tempers heat up at trial in Italy on
antiquities’, New York Times, 17 December 2005).
The trial
continued on 29 March 2006. A note said to be written by Robin Symes was shown
to the court stating that the fourth-century
bc Greek statue of Aphrodite
acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1988 from Symes probably came from
southern Italy or Sicily (see ‘Aphrodite’, CWC Issue 11 (2002), 24–6).
Another hand-written note, this one from Italian Renzo Canavesi, claims that he
sold the Aphrodite to Symes for $400,000 and that his family had first acquired
the piece in 1939.
On 7 April 2006, the prosecution alleged a
conspiracy between Symes, Medici, Hecht, the Sicilian antiquities dealer
Gianfranco Becchina and the New York and Geneva based dealers Ali and Hicham
Aboutaam (F.C. Gattinara, ‘Evidence of Getty Venus’s illicit origin shown to
court’, Art Newspaper, May 2006). On 26 April the prosecution further
alleged that Becchina had sold antiquities smuggled out of Italy to the Merrin
Gallery of New York (A. David, Associated Press, 26 April 2006).
On 31 May 2006, the prosecution presented
photographs of two marble griffins lying in the boot of a car partly wrapped in
newspaper. The griffins are now in the Getty. The prosecution alleged that the
Getty bought the pieces from Maurice Tempelsman in 1985 for $6,486,004, with
Robin Symes acting as intermediary (E. Povoledo, ‘Photographs of Getty griffins
in car trunk shown at Rome trial’, New York Times, 1 June 2006).
On 18 June 2006, the Los Angeles Times
claimed that an internal review carried out by the Getty has established that
350 Classical artefacts were bought from dealers under suspicion or convicted of
trading in stolen artefacts (J. Felch & R. Frammolino, ‘Getty’s list of doubts
multiplies’). This figure is in addition to the previously identified 52 pieces
(see ‘In the news’, CWC, Issue 17 (2005), 13). When approached by the
Times, the Getty declined to comment.
On 22 June 2006, the Getty announced that it
had agreed with Italian authorities to return ‘a number of very significant
pieces’ to Italy, though no details were released (T. Wilkinson, J. Felch & R.
Frammolino, ‘Tentative agreement reached to return some Getty art to Italy’, Los Angeles Times, 22 June 2006).
Overshadowed by judicial events in Rome, in Jerusalem the
trial of Oded Golan, Robert Deutsch and Rafi Brown continued (see
‘In the news’,
CWC Issue 16, (2005), 14), where they stand charged with faking a series
of historically significant artefacts. Charges against two other people were
dropped. In May, key prosecution witness Shlomo Moussaieff, who is a leading
collector of West Asian antiquities, took the stand. He described buying several
pieces from the accused that the prosecution allege to be fake, or to have been
elaborated with fake inscriptions to increase their value. Moussaieff himself
believes the objects are all genuine (M. Kalman, ‘Trial sheds light on shadowy
antiquities world’, Boston Globe, 16 May 2006).
France’s new ethnographic Musée du Quai Branly opened in
June 2006 in Paris (http://www.quaibranly.fr/index.php?id=1). It houses 267,417
ethnographic objects; 236,509 are from the Musée de l’Homme, 22,740 from the
Musée national des arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie, and an additional 8168 objects
have been acquired since 1998. According to continents, 97,372 objects are from
the Americas, 70,205 from Africa, 54,041 from Asia, and 28,911 from Oceania.
Only 3500 objects are on display, but the museum has set a new standard of
public access by providing an on-line catalogue of its collections, including —
unusually — information about donors and provenance, that will form a primary
resource for research into the history of ethnographic collecting.
- According to the Middle East Times (‘Looter-smugglers ravaging Bulgaria’s
cultural history’, 5 April 2006), treasure hunting in Bulgaria has escalated
rapidly since the fall of communism and ensuing economic hardship.
- Looting has become a profession around the village of Archar in northwestern
Bulgaria (the ancient Roman site of Ratsiaria) where 99 per cent of the
population are unemployed.
- Treasure hunting reached feverish levels there in 2000. Bulldozers worked the
area at night, and two people were killed under piles of earth that they were
sifting for treasures.
- The area around Archar now resembles ‘the surface of the Moon’.
- Around 3000 cases have been lodged against looters at the Vidin regional court,
but there have been few convictions because of slow and ineffective legal
processes.
- According to Bozhidar Dimitrov, director of the National Historical Museum in
Sofia, two-thirds of 15,000 fourth-century bc to third-century
ad
burial mounds in Bulgaria have now been plundered.
- When caught in possession of artefacts, looters simply say they are on their way
to the museum.
- Ancient coins and jewellery worth $1.5 million were stolen from the Veliko
Tarnovo museum in February and have probably now been smuggled abroad.
- Dimitrov believes that the 1969 antiquities law needs updating as it does not
regulate private collections (since at the time everything belonged to the
state) and that new police powers to deal with treasure-hunting are necessary.
- Polina Slavcheva and Boryana Dzhambazova investigated treasure-hunting in
Bulgaria for an article in the Sofia Echo (‘Reading room: opening the lid
on Bulgaria’s cultural treasure trove’, 3 April 2006) which revealed that:
- More than 200,000 treasure-hunters, driven by the hope of monetary gain, are
‘working’ on about 1000 archaeological sites in Bulgaria, with few monuments and
sites left untouched.
- Politicians have moved the law in favour of private collectors and legalized
collections in the past six years.
- The recent theft of artefacts from the Veliko Turnovo Museums has led to public
debate over the future and protection of Bulgarian heritage.
- The Prosecutor-General has ordered an investigation into the collections of Vassil ‘The Skull’ Bozhkov and Dimitar Ivanov.
- Public opinion seems to agree with a report from the Italian Balkan research
centre, which concluded that Bulgarian collections amassed from the 1990s are
sourced directly from illicit excavations and are allegedly used for money
laundering.
- A 2005 law now offers patrons of the arts tax, interest, customs and other
benefits as well as a listing on the Culture Ministry’s Internet site.
- Protection of cultural heritage has been underfunded since the fall of
communism, leading to examples of looting like that at Muglizh where two tombs
were ransacked by thieves, while five Thracian royal tombs near Kazanluk were
looted because of delayed, or lack of, action by the Ministry of Culture.
- An expert at the National Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments
told Sega newspaper in 2005 that looters sell artefacts to dealers who then make
a 2000 per cent mark up.
- Archaeologists are frustrated because, unlike them, looters work all year round,
do not have to wait for research funding, operate in large teams, with six,
eight or 10 people ‘working’ at a time, covering sites with holes from 20 cm to
8 m in diameter.
- Smilian Todorov, cultural anthropologist at the Southwestern University in
Blagoevgrad, says he has given up distinguishing between looters, collectors and
archaeologists. The separation between the groups is blurred, with collectors
like Ivanov having shown his collection and paying rent to the National
Archaeological Museum, and Bozhkov openly admitting he buys recently looted
material, but arguing that he is saving Bulgaria’s culture.
- But Todorov points out that looters, often driven by poverty, avoid damaging
archaeological excavations and sometimes sprinkle holy water over graves they
have despoiled.
- A Rousse newspaper reported that a treasure hunter’s defense in court was his
and his wife’s unemployment combined with the need to support their baby.
- On 24 June the Sofia News Agency reported that police raids in the northern town
of Knezha recovered 4000 Roman and Byzantine coins and an assortment of other
artefacts.
- An article in the Sunday Herald (‘Raiders of the
lost art’, 25 June 2006) reports that, in Romania, looting gangs using modern
technology such as metal detectors are damaging archaeology as they search for
the legendary treasure of King Decebalus, hidden in
ad 106 and never found by the Romans.
- The damage to archaeology in the region is escalating, and Dacian expert Jerome
Carcopino says the quest has led to a flood of illegally excavated Dacian gold
on the international black market.
- Archaeologist Mihai Castian has compiled a map of looting in the area. He
believed that treasure-hunters are now concentrating on the village of Cetatuia,
Hunedoara county, having previously attacked Cucuis, particularly the castle of
Colnic, Glajarie, Golu and the castle of Sibisel.
- 33 recent illegal excavations have been recorded on archaeological sites in Hunedoara county.
- The trial of six alleged smugglers in Deva, Transylvania, has shed some light on
the scale of plunder. Authorities claim they had links to international dealers
such as an Austrian from Linz, codenamed ‘Mozart’ (See
‘In the news’, CWC,
Issue 17 (2005), 17).
- Since 1990, more than 20,000 Dacian coins have been smuggled out of Romania and
sold on the art market for more than €20 million. A further 7845 gold coins, and
190 smuggled golden artefacts have been returned.
- The accused have become virtually untouchable by law, allegedly protected at
high levels by politicians and the secret service, who are now being sub-poenaed
to give evidence.
- May (Turkish Daily News, 15 May 2006): The Culture and Tourism
Ministry released a list of hundreds of cultural artefacts stolen from museums,
collectors and archaeological sites in the country. The objects ranged from
prehistoric to Ottoman era items, and the largest category was handwritten
books.
- Following an anonymous tip off to a government official in Usak, western Turkey,
it was discovered that objects from the Croesus Treasure (also known as the
Lydian Hoard, and previously displayed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art as the
East Greek Treasure) had been replaced by fakes. The Croesus Treasure had been
returned to Turkey in 1993 following a lengthy and expensive court case with the
Metropolitan, at which time Turkish museum curator Kazim Akbiyikoglu was hailed
a hero. Akbiyikoglu is now under arrest, along with six others, for the alleged
theft of several items, including the centrepiece gold brooch, which is shaped
like a winged seahorse.
Akbiyikoglu has responded that one
piece was already missing when the material arrived in Usak from the Ankara
Anatolian Civilisations Museum in 1996, and that the substitute of a fake for
the seahorse brooch could have happened at the Metropolitan (‘Museum head: the
‘treasures of Croesus’ were incomplete when I got them’, Hurriyet.com.tr, 13
June 2006). The case has galvanized the culture ministry to investigate and
inventory museums and it appears several others have suffered losses.
- In June, Ali Yigit, manager of a museum store at Kahramanmaras in south-central
Turkey was arrested when it emerged that 545 ancient coins in the collections
had been swapped for fakes.
- The case has also bolstered the arguments of collectors and dealers that the
safest place for valuable antiquities is richer countries, and that theft alone
is not sufficient reason for their repatriation (see ‘Were Turkey’s stolen
treasures and inside job?’, Time, 14 June 2006).
June 2006: Archaeologists
and officials were surprised and delighted when a Maya carved stone box that had
been looted from a cave shrine was anonymously returned in a box to the Ministry
of Culture. An unsigned note, apparently from a private buyer, indicated that it
had been purchased in good faith, and only later was it learned to have been
stolen following a high-profile enquiry and publicity campaign launched when the
theft was noticed in April. Archaeologist Brent Woodfill believes pressure from
the campaign was risky, because such publicity often causes stolen objects to
disappear for years, but may in this case have contributed to the swift return
(see ‘Priceless Maya stone vessel looted in Guatemala’, National Geographic
News, 5 May 2006; ‘Looted Maya treasure returned anonymously’, National
Geographic News, 9 June 2006).
Quoted in the New York Sun (14 April 2006) Hicham
Aboutaam of Phoenix Ancient Art says:
- The company sells on average 50 pieces annually at prices ranging from $5000 to
$5 million, although he would not divulge how much it makes per year.
- His recent run in with the law after being found guilty of wrongly completing US
Customs documentation when importing an Iranian silver rhyton (see ‘In the
news’, CWC, Issue 14 (2004), 12), was a ‘wake-up call’ and has not
affected business with 2005 being a record year for sales.
- Fewer objects are being traded because of problems providing documentation, but
those rare pieces with good verifiable provenance are fetching ever higher
prices.
- Some long-term collectors have withdrawn from the antiquities market because of
recent controversies, but newcomers have joined hoping for increased returns
because of the risks.
Lawrence E. Stager, an
archaeologist at Harvard University (and board member of the Shelby White-Leon
Levy Program for Archaeological Publications), has drafted a statement against
publishing restrictions on inscribed objects, which has been posted on the
website of the Biblical Archaeology Review. By May, it had been signed by
more than 100 scholars from the United States and Europe. The statement argues
that publication guidelines preventing scholars publishing unprovenanced
antiquities are causing them to ‘close their eyes to important information’ and
censoring knowledge, and that such restrictions are ‘scare tactics’. (see H.
Eakin, ‘Archaeologists debate whether to ignore the past of relics’, New York
Times, 2 May 2006).
Representatives of the associations who issued
the publications guidelines, the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and
the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR), argued that they had been
misrepresented and that the rules are more flexible than Stager’s statement
implies. Recently ASOR adopted a special policy allowing publication of
unprovenanced cuneiform texts from Iraq with the prior approval of the Iraqi
State Board of Antiquities. The AIA recently revised their policies to allow
their journal to publish unprovenanced antiquities when such publication was
highlighting looting issues.
- At New York’s Asia week in March there was a panel discussion of China’s current
application to the USA for an import embargo to be placed on Chinese artefacts
under the terms of the Cultural Property Implementation Act. Concern was
expressed by the New York trade community that the growing antiquities market
inside China itself would limit the effectiveness of any US action (C. Picard,
‘Dealers lobby against US embargo on Chinese imports’, Art Newspaper, May
2006).
- Chinaview (‘Tomb robbers hit 1/3 of archaeological sites’, 11 May 2006)
reports on the escalating destruction of archaeological sites in China:
- Of 25 archaeological sites nominated to be the Top Ten Archaeological
Discoveries of 2005, archaeologists said 10 had been damaged and looted in the
past two years.
- Song Jianzhong, deputy director of the Archaeological Institute of Shanxi
Province, described the situation of the 3000-year-old Western Zhou Dynasty
tombs in Jiangxian County.
- Archaeologists rushed to the site on hearing of tomb robbing.
- They carried out rescue excavations on 191 tombs. An estimated 100 of the
possible 300 tombs at the site remain unexcavated.
- 11 had been looted.
- In one, tomb robbers had left a bronze artefact wrapped in newspaper.
- Nine looters holes in the tomb led archaeologists to speculate that three or
four groups of thieves may have been active there in the past two years.
- Lin Liugen, director of excavations of tombs in Jiangsu Province, said the
interior structure of tombs has been ruined, and many artefacts stolen.
- Archaeologist Zhang Zhongpei blames people’s ignorance and corruption.
- Shan Jixiang, director of the State Administration of Culture Heritage, has
suggested that a special police task force is set up to protect cultural
heritage.
- A survey 20 years ago indicated that there were more than 400,000 archaeological
sites in China, but it is estimated that a third have now been destroyed by
human activities. Archaeologists would like to see the study updated to assess
the present situation.
A multi-media, travelling exhibition about illicit trade
of antiquities in Greece, Cyprus and the world, is to be displayed at four
European archaeological museums (in Athens, Nicosia, Corinth and Nemea). The
exhibit, organized by Anemon, the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre, the
Cyprus Department of Antiquities, the 37th Ephorate of Antiquities (Corinth) and
the University of the Aegean, with the support of the Culture 2000 programme of
the European Union, includes multi-media touchscreen displays, interactive games
and video screenings, and is designed to reach a diverse audience. It will be
supported by educational activities and a press campaign. For further
information visit www.anemon.gr.
- Africast
- Anemon
- Archaeology
- Art Newspaper
- BBC News
- Boston Globe
- Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
- CBS News
- Christian Science Monitor
- Contra Costa Times
- Cultural Heritage News Centre, Iran
- The Dartmouth
- The Guardian
- The Harvard Crimson
- Heritage Watch, Cambodia
- Honolulu Star Bulletin
- Hurriyet.com.tr
- Independent Online,
Zimbabwe
- Kathimerini
- Los Angeles Times
- Mehrnews
- Metropolitan Museum of Art New York
- Middle East Times
- Museumsecurity.net
- National Geographic News
- New York Sun
- New York Times
- New York University News
- Newkerala.com
- Persian Journal
- Reuters
- Science Now
- Sofia News Agency
- Star Bulletin
- Sunday Herald, Romania
- Time
- The Times
- Times of India
- Turkish Daily News
- Yemeni Observer
- Yorkshire Post
First posted December 2006 |
