|
Culture Without Context
Issue 4,
Spring 1999
Looting in Lebanon
Post-war Cambodia
-
International Response
Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Art Museum Directors
'Just returns'
Repatriation
Mosaics
Sevso Treasure
Museum Exhibitions
Hague Convention
Byzantine Artefacts from Cyprus
Smuggling in Egypt
Tourists in Mexico
Vincenzo Cammarata
Organized Crime
Pakistani Tiles
Looting in China
Hong Kong Antiquities Trade
Chinese Artefacts
Theft in Alaska
Peruvian Cloak Stolen
Sources |
Lebanon, recognizing that, as potential tourist revenue, its rich
archaeological heritage is worth 'the same as oil for other Arab countries', is
now counting the cost of 15 years of civil war. During this time a vast number
of objects were looted from museums and historic sites to be sold overseas or
incorporated into local private collections.
In March, in an atmosphere of 'scandal mania', the new government launched an
investigation into thefts, illegal deals and the squandering of state funds at
the Directorate-General of Antiquities. The enquiry culminated in the arrest,
five weeks later, of ex-Director-General of Antiquities, Camille Asmar,
and 3 of his colleagues for alleged embezzlement.
All archaeological sites and museums were surveyed in order to produce a list
of missing antiquities and legitimate owners of antiquities were encouraged to
register them so that a systematic list of artefacts, their provenances, and
their state of preservation could be drawn up, and ownership licences issued.
The revival of a 1932 law gave the enquiry team the status of a judicial police
force, empowering them to investigate and raid any shops, private businesses or
warehouses they suspected of holding stolen antiquities. Many of the properties
raided were owned by influential and political figures.
During the course of the investigation more than 10,000 antiquities were
recovered, most of which had either been stolen from archaeological sites or
sold by legal owners without permission. It was reported that:
- A white marble pillar believed to be part of the Roman temple in
Tall Araqa
was recovered.
- 7 thefts, including one of Roman silverware from Baalbek,
may have relieved the state of $400 million worth of antiquities.
- The castle of Sidon had been stripped of all moveable
historical items. Two cannons that once stood at the entrance were traced to
a businessman's villa.
- A gold-plate statue and basin from the Temple of Jupiter at
Baalbek had been smuggled abroad.
- Carved stones from the Hellenistic Temple of Nemesis at Akkar
were found. The temple was discovered and mapped in the 1970s, but the war
postponed plans for its restoration. It has since been reduced to a
scattering of rocks left by antique dealers who removed only the more
saleable, carved stones.
- The Central Investigations Department of the office for Combating
International Crime is also set to investigate the disappearance of a number
of artefacts allegedly stolen by the Israelis during their occupation of
South Lebanon between 1982-85 and also by militias in various other regions.
In April the government began to return many of the confiscated artefacts to
archaeological sites and museums throughout the country. The cost of transport
was billed to owners, excepting those who had reported their archaeological
holdings to the Directorate-General of Antiquities.
Events took an unexpected turn when the existence of a criminal ring
smuggling Syrian archaeological pieces abroad through Lebanon was
discovered. No arrests were made, but there are apparently strong suspicions
that the ring's leaders are big business tycoons. Mohammed Behboun, Culture
Minister, announced that there was 'proof of the existence of a smuggling
network' but the people involved could not yet be identified. Syrian Culture
Minister Najar Attar praised the antiquities campaign and vowed that Syria and
Lebanon would work together in this context.
In Cambodia, too, extra efforts are now being made to pick up the
archaeological pieces after 30 years of war, during which time the Khmer Rouge
systematically stripped many remote and unprotected Angkor-era temples. When the
northwestern region of Anlong Veng was taken by Cambodian
forces last year, they stumbled upon hundreds of abandoned statues, Buddha heads
and carvings hidden around jungle guerilla bases and waiting to be smuggled
across the Thai border. The authorities are now competing in a race against the
smugglers to recover the hoards, enlisting the help of former rebels to guide
them through the landmines planted in the areas where they are stashed.
Reports indicate that industrial-scale looting continues, ironically aided by
the safer conditions that now prevail, and orchestrated by corrupt Cambodian
military officers. In January, King Norodom Sihanouk called on the Prime
Minister to stop the theft, and a government task force has
been set up, on very limited resources, comprising officials from the Ministries
of Culture, the Interior and Defence. Cambodian and Thai armed forces have also
agreed to work together to stamp out cross-border crime. However, as efforts
increase to choke off the illicit trade through Thailand, a new smuggling route
has opened through Singapore.
- In December 1998 Claude Jacques, a French expert on Cambodian antiquities,
recognized a 4-ft-high stone inscription from the remote twelfth-century AD
temple of Banteay Chhmar on sale for $8000 in a Thai
antique shop. It was part of the loot from an extended raid on the temple
made late last year, organized by Cambodian military officials. Witnesses
report that several hundred soldiers worked for 4 weeks with heavy machinery
removing 500 square feet of bas reliefs, leaving a 36-ft-long breach in the
walls around the temple. Reports indicate that the officer responsible has
since been identified, although it is as yet not clear whether the looters
will be punished.
- A 10-wheel buffalo truck was impounded near the Cambodian-Thai border in
Prachin Buri province carrying 85 sacks which contained 117
sandstone carvings from the raid on Banteay Chhmar.
The driver is reported to have testified that Cambodian soldiers delivered
the pieces to him at a dawn rendezvous. The Thai investigator and a
provincial official said a Thai antiques dealer had ordered the artefacts to
be stolen and tried to bribe officials in Prachin Buri into declaring them
replicas. It appears that the dealer, who runs a luxury riverside showroom
in Bangkok, had a portfolio of photographs from Banteay Chhmar and would
order specific items to be cut from the temple walls. Cambodian authorities
are negotiating for the return of the frieze, which may take months.
- Also pending court proceedings in Thailand are seven pieces awaiting
restitution at Bangkok and Phimai. One, from a group of five items (only
three of which were genuine), was seized by inspectors in Bangkok's
antiques-market district. An inscribed stone attributed to Khmer King
Jayavarman VII, it is also from Banteay Chhmar
and of great historical significance.
- Carvings forming a 14-metre-long section of the walls at Banteay Chhmar
are still missing.
- UNESCO paid $800 for 61 ancient sandstone
carvings, either looted or confiscated from smugglers trying to
take them to Thailand, to be returned from Anlong Veng to the Siem Reap
conservation centre in May. Most came from Preah Vihear, a
mountain-top temple on the Thai border controlled by the Khmer Rouge until
last year. Ten were found decorating the hideout of Khmer Rouge commander Ta
Mok when he was finally captured in March.
- In late January, a 22-nation, 4-day meeting was held at
UNESCO which looked into the looting of Banteay Chhmar. The
committee also drafted an international ethical code for art merchants and
studied worldwide electronic dissemination of information on stolen art.
- On 20 May the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia
submitted a formal request to the Government of the United States seeking
protection of certain archaeological materials under Article 9 of the 1970
UNESCO Convention. The matter will be considered by the Cultural Property
Advisory Committee in June.
The Boston Museum of Fine Arts is once again in the
spotlight, accused by the Boston Globe and a group of eleven
archaeologists of acquiring looted artefacts after committing itself in 1983 to
an ethical acquisitions policy.
- Of 71 classical artefacts - including numerous vessels from Apulia, marble
busts, and a Greek vase from Tuscany - donated or sold to the MFA from
mid-1984 to mid-1987, only ten have any recorded provenance.
- Three of the objects - Apulian vases - are described in
the 1993 MFA book Vase Painting in Italy as among a 'host' of newly
discovered artefacts. The current Museum Director Malcolm Rogers has
confirmed that the vases had no known owners prior to their acquisition by
the Museum during the period 1987-91.
- One of the objects is a rare and archaeologically important
Mycenaean terracotta idol.
A major MFA benefactor told the Boston Globe, anonymously, that the
museum often turned a blind eye to any evidence that objects had dubious origins
and even implied that the MFA itself was complicit in helping to alter
provenance information.
An MFA spokesperson chose not to take issue with the allegations, but said
the museum does not agree that it acquired the artefacts without exercising due
diligence. Controversial retired curator, Cornelius C. Vermeule III, also
asserted the MFA 'tried to do due diligence' but Alan Shestack, MFA director
1987-94, acknowledged that in the past procedures were not as vigorous as they
might have been. The Museum has previously bought material from Robert Hecht and
accepted tax-deductable donations from Robin Symes, Torkom Demirjian, Leon Levy
and Shelby White, Maurice Tempelsman and Jonathan Kagan.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York has raised $150
million of private funding to redisplay its unparalleled collection of Greek
antiquities. The Art Newpaper notes that every one of the new galleries will
contain recent acquisitions, and that in the US most museums,
including the Met, continue to acquire unprovenanced antiquities.
The Association of Art Museum Directors, USA, decided in
January to revise its code of ethics. The present code, last
revised 9 years ago, contains loopholes which allow museums to remain in wilful
ignorance of an object's past and it does not address the 1970 UNESCO
Convention. It is also unclear on issues surrounding the import of objects
exported illegally from their county of origin, an action which is not in itself
in direct contravention of US Law. Museum directors have said they would welcome
clearer guidelines.
The risks inherent in acquiring unprovenanced pieces are clearly
demonstrated by the number of recent 'just returns'. Over the last few months a
varied selection of stolen antiquities were welcomed back to their countries of
origin - in some cases after encouragement from the courts.
- On 5 February, the J. Paul Getty Museum returned to Italy
3 objects shown to have been stolen. The decision was not prompted by legal
action.
- Fifth-century BC Attic red-figure kylix. Made by
Euphronius, painted with scenes of the Trojan War by Onesimos, and
regarded as one of the museum's finest pieces. It was purchased from a
European dealer in 1983 but was subsequently proven to have been illegally
excavated from the Etruscan cemetery of Cerveteri.
- Second-century AD copy of a head of Diadoumenos by Polykleitos.
Acquired in 1996 through the combination of gift and purchase of the
Fleischman collection, it soon became clear that it was referenced and had
been stolen from an excavation store-room in Venosa. (Janet Grossman noted
in her contribution to A Passion for Antiquities, which catalogued the
Fleischman collection, that the head was unpublished. As only about 25 per
cent of the pieces featured in Passion were previously published, one can
only wonder what revelations lie ahead.)
- A torso, part of a second-century AD statue of the god Mithra.
Bought from a European dealer in 1982 who claimed it to have been in an
English collection for many years, it appeared, intact, in a blurred
photograph as part of the Guistiniani Collection and may have been broken up
for sale.
- On 4 March Boston businessman William I. Koch announced
that he would return the 'Elmali Hoard' - 1661 illegally
excavated coins - to Turkey. A settlement was reached on the eve of the
trial, following a decade-long court battle. Turkey's Minister of Culture,
the Hon. Istemihan Talay, praised Koch's decision and vowed to continue
Turkey's vigorous efforts to recover the other coins from the hoard and all
other antiquities stolen from Turkish soil. Mr Koch was presented with a
medal and thanked for safeguarding the coins during the lawsuit.
- After another successful suit by New York lawyers Lawrence Kaye
and Howard Spiegler, 26 April saw the return to Turkey
of an intricately carved walnut panel from the Sultan's prayer gallery of
the thirteenth-century AD Great Mosque in Divrigi, a
UNESCO-listed heritage site. Believed to have been lost along with 4 other
panels in a fire in 1997, it was offered for sale by London art dealer
Oliver Hoare at the International Asian Art Fair in New York, March
1998. The US government sued Hoare for its return under the terms of its
1983 ratification of the UNESCO Convention. Turkey also alerted Scotland
Yard to the other three panels in Hoare's possession, and they too will
shortly go home.
- Denver Art Museum has given back a carved wooden
lintel
taken from the Classic period site of El Zotz in the Petén region of
Guatemala. Stolen from pyramid temple I, between 1966-68, it was
purchased by the museum in 1973 before US legislation was introduced
prohibiting the importation of Pre-columbian art. The rare carving depicts a
ruler in war regalia and will now be displayed at the Museo Nacional de
Arqueolog’a e Etnolog’a in Guatemala City.
- The Asia Society, New York, agreed, after 15 years of
negotiation, to return an eleventh-century AD sandstone relief
of a mother and child to India. The sculpture, bought by
the Society's founder, John D. Rockefeller 3rd, in 1978 from a London
dealer, was discovered to have been stolen from a provincial museum in
Dhubela, Madhya Pradesh state. Believing that Rockefeller purchased the
piece in good faith, the Asia Society asked the Indian Government to pay for
its return and insurance.
Other returns of antiquities also hit the headlines recently.
- Important antiquities, smuggled out of Egypt in the early
1990s by convicted dealer Jonathan Tokely Parry (see:
'In the News', CWC issue 1), were handed over to Egyptian officials by
Scotland Yard on 11 March. Antiquities officials have met with
representatives of Scotland Yard to try to hammer out a memorandum of
understanding on retrieving stolen artefacts which, if it were approved,
could serve as a 'model for co-operation with other countries, such as the
US and France, where many pieces end up'.
- In April, the Canadian Government restored to Syria
39 1500-year-old mosaics from a group of 86 impounded by customs
between 1991 and 1998. Most are already back in Syria. The
first 54 mosaics were imported from the Lebanon in 1991, declared as
handicrafts valued at only Cdn$200,000. 32 more arrived in 1996 and were
judged by archaeologists to be genuine and to have been hacked from floors
at the same archaeological sites - believed to be ecclesiastical buildings
in Apaneia and Epiphaneia in northwestern Syria. No criminal arrests were
made as officials were able to proceed more quickly under civil law. McGill
University archaeologist John Fossey commented that 'Canada has been
regarded as the back door to get things into the United States' but has now
sent a clear message that, for antiquities smugglers, times are changing.
Still on mosaics, the trade magazine Minerva has reported that two
mosaic sections acquired by the Ménil Collection, and now on
extended loan to Rice University, Houston, appear to belong to a polychrome
floor section looted from a Roman building at Zeugma, southeast Anatolia.
They depict the two principals in the ancient Greek novel Metiochos and
Parthenope, and appear to be a Roman version of an earlier Hellenistic
painting. Other mosaics were stolen from a well-secured area of the site during
an organized raid in the summer of 1998.
The Marquess of Northampton is rumoured to have received
compensation in excess of £15 million in an out-of-court settlement of his
long-running dispute over the Sevso Treasure. The Marquess had
sued his former law firm Allen and Overy, and his former lawyer Peter Mimpriss,
for damages over their advice regarding his purchase of the collection of
fourth-century AD Roman silver. Since it has proved impossible to ascertain the
original findspot of the hoard - earlier claims by Lebanon, Croatia and Hungary
have all been dismissed in a New York Court hearing - its fate will be decided
by Lord Northampton and his trustees.
Recent museum exhibitions have emphasized problems caused by
archaeological looting.
- December 1998-February 1999, the National Archaeological Museum in
Athens
displayed a range of artefacts giving an impression of life and religious
practices in the late Neolithic. The main body of the exhibition consisted
of 53 gold pendants and beads confiscated from smugglers in
October 1997. Honorary museum director, Katie Demakopoulou, pointed out that
we cannot be certain if the artefacts constituted a hoard during ancient
times, or were the result of the looting of one or more graves, or even of
where they came from. One of the two men arrested in 1996 claimed to have
inherited the material from his aunt on the Greek isle of Andros. The police
informant whose tip-off led to the recovery of the material later received a
reward of 136 million drachmae.
- A display of Scythian gold, usually kept in storage owing
to lack of resources, was mounted at the local lore museum in
Simferopol, Crimea in an attempt to attract sponsorship and to call
attention to the problems of archaeologists in the region. Archaeological
expeditions have been halted owing to lack of financing and tomb thieves are
making use of the situation to excavate grave goods and ship them abroad. It
is reported that three chambers were robbed of $300,000 of treasures last
September alone.
On 26 March, after two gruelling weeks' negotiation 'during which things
often looked very bleak because of deep-seated differences between States' a new
Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural
Property in the Event of Armed Conflict was adopted by unanimous
consensus. Eighty-four national delegations signed the 'Final Act' of the
conference - which was also attended by non-governmental organizations -
although this does not commit a State to ratify the new treaty. The meeting
enabled the international community to clarify and reinforce measures to counter
the alarming new increase in - often deliberate - damage and loss caused to
cultural material since 1990 in war zones such as Afghanistan, former
Yugoslavia, Cambodia and Somalia.
Under the terms of the Second Protocol:
- More precise provisions are brought to the concept of 'military
necessity' and to better heritage protection in situations of civil and
domestic conflict.
- In response to significant demands, an improved system of
sanctions to punish perpetrators of crimes affecting cultural
heritage has been adopted.
- A committee supervising the implementation of the Convention will meet
once a year and consider applications for financial assistance from a
(voluntary contributions) fund to be established.
- The International Committee of the Blue Shield,
a UNESCO-linked world non-governmental organization for joint emergency
co-ordination and response, is formally recognized.
The formal signing ceremony was held on 17 May, but a minimum of 20 States
must ratify before the Protocol comes into effect. This could take some time,
since most would require new primary legislation to be passed. English and
French texts are available on the UNESCO Web site (http://www.unesco.org/).
 Byzantine
Artefacts from Cyprus
As mentioned in the Editorial, the US Government in April
imposed emergency restrictions, under Article 9 of the 1970 UNESCO Convention,
on the import of Byzantine ecclesiastical and ritual ethnological
material from Cyprus unless accompanied by an official export permit.
The move was made in response to requests from the Cypriot government and
recommendations from the Cultural Property Advisory Committee.
Egyptian authorities have arrested Sheik Taj Al Hilali, the
controversial Mufti of Australia's Muslim community, for
alleged involvement in archaeological smuggling. It is alleged
by Egyptian police that he paid thousands of dollars to 10 people who have been
arrested on smuggling charges, intending to carry antiquities abroad to be sold.
Four of those arrested are also accused of murdering a police officer who
discovered them on a clandestine dig in Qena, 640 miles from Cairo, in southern
Egypt. The Sheik has denied any wrongdoing, has volunteered a statement to the
authorities and claims he is a victim of circumstances which his enemies are
exploiting. Although the Mufti was allowed to leave Egypt temporarily in March
the investigation continued and he is now obliged to stay in the country pending
his next court hearing in May.
The need for increased public awareness was highlighted by two
contrasting tales of tourists in Mexico.
- On a visit to the Maya ruins of Palenque, young Canadian Pascal Hudon,
aged 20, foolishly acquired 20 small clay figurines from a local man. Not
realizing he had broken Mexican law (according to which all pre-Hispanic
artefacts are archaeological treasures and the property of the state), he
even more foolishly asked agents at a police road block if they considered
the hoard genuine, whereupon he was charged with theft and jailed while the
authorities considered deporting him. After more than 6 months in Chiapas
jail, during which time Hudon went on a hunger strike in protest, he was
finally released in April two days before an official visit by the Prime
Minister of Canada and after his relatives paid a fine of Cdn$1200.
- In January, however, tourists were the heroes of the day when they
informed the authorities of a man who had offered to sell them genuine
ancient artefacts. Police located the suspect on the Mexico-Tulancingo
highway in Hidalgo, but he fled as they approached, dumping three plastic
bags which were found to contain 39 pre-Hispanic objects including 4 ceramic
candelabras, 3 decorated earthenware boxes, a figurine mould, a stone pestle
and the handle of an incense burner. These were confirmed as genuine, 'of
incalculable value', and reportedly came from the pyramid city of
Teotihuacan, just outside Mexico City.
The world's largest collection of allegedly stolen antiquities was
discovered, late last year, at the home of Vincenzo Cammarata, in Enna,
Sicily. Despite 12 months of enquiries, officers were unprepared for
the array of archaeological treasures recovered: more than 30,000 Phoenician,
Greek and Roman antiquities worth about £20 million, most probably plundered
from the ruins of Morgantina, in central Sicily. Cammarata is
now in prison facing charges of stealing archaeological relics and
collaborating with the Mafia, but denies the charges, claiming that
every artefact is registered with the local department of the Ministry for
Cultural Affairs. Five others were arrested on charges of conspiracy and
receiving stolen goods, including two lecturers from the University of Catania,
Giacomo Manganaro from the Department of Ancient History and Salvo di Bella.
Authorities believe Cammarata, well-known for his wealth and connections, was
'the nerve centre behind the sacking of Italy's archaeological sites'.
Investigated after a tip-off from criminal supergrass Maurizio Sinistra, he
appears to have been the first point of contact for tombaroli selling their
illegal finds. It is alleged he would invite Mafia bosses to dine and value
stolen antiquities for them, keeping some for himself or selling them on to
international dealers on the black market. The investigation is important not
only for the organized crime connections revealed but also because
specific information is emerging about every stage of the illicit trade,
including precise smuggling routes out of Sicily through Switzerland and the UK
to America.
Cammarata sometimes sent antiquities to Gianfranco Casolari in San Marino,
who is suspected of providing false provenance documents for pieces which he
sold through his auction house (AES Rude), some apparently to western museums.
Museum directors and collectors everywhere now have a chance to examine their
records for any pieces bought from AES in case they need to follow the fine
example set by the J. Paul Getty Museum and return them to Italy.
In April it was reported that Silvio Raffiotta, the Chief
Prosecutor of Enna, is also under investigation following accusations by a
colleague of valuing looted archaeological material. Raffiotta, in the past
known for a number successful campaigns against antiquities smuggling, denies
the charges. He is a close personal friend of Vincenzo Cammarata.
Links between organized crime and the illicit trade in art and
antiquities are being reported with increasing frequency.
- In January Spanish police broke up a major international
art-smuggling ring
which had planned to trade stolen masterpieces for cocaine.
- Colonel Cyril Radev, chief of the police branch assigned to fight
organized crime in Bulgaria
(CSBOP) has stated that historic artefacts worth nearly $1 billion
were saved last year from illegal export to the West. He cited the figure as
part of a general assessment of CSBOP's work during 1998. A source familiar
with the activities of the unit told Radio Free Europe that since 1985
25,000 artefacts have been stopped at the border, but this number
is believed to represent only 30 per cent of what has been lost. Buyers are
mostly collectors from Austria, Germany and Belgium.
Jemima and Imran Khan are to sue Pakistan's customs
authorities for defamation after she was charged in January with smuggling
antique tiles out of the country. Jemima claimed that the charges were
ridiculous and being used to discredit her husband by political enemies.
Thermoluminescence testing and examination by experts in London are reported to
confirm that, far from being 'of paramount archaeological significance' as
Pakistani authorities claimed, the tiles are modern.
Looting in
China
Reports indicate that Chinese authorities continue to take
drastic measures in their attempts to curb widespread looting.
- In January, Gao Yunliao, a farmer, was reported to have
been executed
for stealing a Buddha statue from the famous Longmen Grottoes in
Henan
province. Three accomplices received unspecified prison terms. The group
broke the Tang Dynasty statue into three pieces while loading it onto a
truck and and then buried it at Gao's home.
- Also in Henan in January, a museum worker in Nanyang City
was sentenced to death for stealing and damaging
Qing Dynasty relics.
- In April farmer Chen Mengxing from the northern province
of Hebei was given the death penalty for stealing and
accidentally shattering Beijing's oldest Buddha statue,
officially listed as a rare relic since 1957. Accomplices Liu Xueru and Wang
Liqiang were sentenced to life imprisonment. When the heist went wrong, the
fragmented sculpture was hidden in the backyard of Liu Xueru's home. It has
now been repaired and safely stored in the Beijing Carved Stone Art Museum.
Chen Menxing was also found guilty of stealing a rare Ming Dynasty relic
from a temple in Shouyang county in Shanxi Province.
Meanwhile, the The Art Newspaper carries reports of hard times on
Hollywood Road, the antiquities trading area of Hong Kong,
where a shrinking supply is decimating the trade. Two decades of unrestrained
looting are blamed: it is believed that thieves in China may have exhausted the
number of graves which can be unobtrusively excavated (although the situation
could reflect hoarding or collecting in China). This has led to the appearance
of more forgeries - many of which have reached Western markets, as was seen by
the 500 fake Chinese antiquities still presumably at large in the UK (see: 'In
the News', CWC issue 3) and a reduction in market confidence.
Dealers say, however, that Chinese premier Zhu Rongji's current crackdown on
smuggling has left them unaffected, and smuggling kingpins have opened slick new
shops in Hollywood Road since it is safer for them to operate in Hong Kong than
in China, where looting is now a capital offence (see above). Illicit
antiquities appear to be routed through corrupt officials or private syndicates
in Guangdong, who smuggle them into Hong Kong. More sensitive
items are sent through the Portuguese territory of Macau, where
officials are alleged to be less 'clean and efficient' than those on the Hong
Kong border.
At the New York International Asian Art Fair in March, dealer
Guiseppe Eskenazi
produced some spectacular, previously unseen (and of course unprovenanced)
early Chinese objects. These included a very rare example of a massive,
Shang-period bronze bell, and two Tang-period lokapalas, or tomb guardians
which, despite their ferocious appearances, had clearly failed in their allotted
tasks!
Ian Martin Lynch has the dubious honour of being the first
person to be prosecuted in Alaska under the 20-year-old
Archaeological Resources Protection Act. He pleaded guilty to stealing
1400-year-old human remains
from a cave gravesite in southeastern Alaska, which he discovered on a
deer-hunting trip in 1997. Although he knew the theft was classed as felony, he
described the find as 'really cool' and wondered if the site might be named
after him. He now faces a possible six-month prison term and may have to pay
$10,000 to restore the site.
At the municipal museum of Arequipa, southern Peru last
December, someone took off with a pre-Inca ceremonial cloak
made of parrot feathers and worth $100,000. They covered the crime up with a
chicken-feather substitute and it was only discovered when museum officials
noticed that the garment had lost its usual shine. The police were clearly
dealing with a thief with a conscience, however, since the cloak was quickly
recovered, following an anonymous tip-off, in a nearby church confessional box!
The Art Newspaper
ArchaeologyAnchorage
Daily News
Associated Press
Athens News
Australian Broadcasting Company online
Boston Globe
CNN interactive
Electronic Telegraph
Lebanon Daily Star
Museum Security Network
Nando Media
New York Times
Reuters
Sydney Morning Herald
The Times
Toronto Star
UNESCO
United States Information Agency
The Village Voice worldwide
We are always pleased to receive relevant press clippings and
news items.
First posted July 1999; Page
design updated September 2006 |
