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Culture Without Context
Issue 9,
Autumn 2001
Thefts in India
University thefts
Crisis in Crimea
International conference
Chinese arrests
News from Angkor
Discovery and loss of
Gandharan culture
Schultz indictment
Italian developments
Television award
UNESCO underwater convention
Illicit antiquities in Greece
Agreements and returns
Museum matters
Reports from Peru
Smuggler’s story
Tales from the USA
Sources |
 Thefts in India
- A well-organized gang is believed to be
plundering 2000-year-old archaeological sites in Andhra Pradesh, India.
Reported thefts from the important, but remote, Buddhist stupa of
Chandavaram, include:
- 9 October 2000: Two nine-foot
long panels, one decorated with a carving of the Bodhi tree, the other
with the chaitra or Buddhist umbrella, were ripped from a cement platform
at the site museum.
- 2 February 2001: In a planned raid,
robbers arrived in a tractor, tied up two watchmen and removed three
nine-foot pillars, one with a representation of the Buddha as fire, from
the remote site of Gundlakamma.
- 23 March 2001: After two police
constables guarding the museum left for lunch, two watchmen were injected
with immobilizing sedatives allowing the gang to make away with three
more decorated pillars and a lotus medallion in broad daylight.
Archaeologists have since decided to remove
antiquities from the site to a more secure location in Chandavaram village,
although worries have been expressed about possible damage to the important
pieces due to lack of adequate storage conditions.
- Valuable antiquities from the ancient fort of
Timanpur, Karauli district, Rajasthan have apparently been looted for
several years, and transferred to dealers in Delhi and Mathura who
are part of an international smuggling chain. From there they were sent out
of the country, allegedly with the connivance of custom officials in Delhi.
The Daily Pioneer (20 November 2001) reports that the operation was
discovered when a man was arrested with an 800-year-old ashtadhatu statue
of Surya, weighing nearly 50 kg and stolen from the site six months ago. The
newspaper goes on to highlight the difficulties surrounding the
investigation
of the theft, with obstructive involvement from some senior politicians and
influential parties, and says that the police have a suspiciously poor
record for recovering such artefacts, with only 8 confiscated in the last 40
years. Looting and smuggling of antiquities is apparently the main
source of income for inhabitants of the six villages in the area, and
has increased markedly during recent drought conditions. Activities
are apparently divided between family and caste groups with a certain
section of the community utilizing their digging skills, and others taking
responsibility for paying middlemen.
University Thefts
On or around the night of 27 July 2001, 21 prehistoric
Native American Indian vessels, stone spear points, and replicas of painted pebbles
(most from Caddo Indian sites in northeast Texas, some from southwestern USA) were stolen
from the Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory. A reward of $10,000 has been
offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever stole the objects,
all of which were marked in ink with site numbers and accession numbers. Further
information, including photographs of many of the pottery pieces, is available on www.utexas.edu/research/tarl/theft.html
Crisis in Crimea
The Art Newspaper
(October 2001) reports an escalation
of looting and treasure-hunting of ancient Greek sites in the Crimea, southern Ukraine
as, since the fall of communism there nearly ten years ago, looters have become aware of
massive demand for antiquities in the West. At the same time economic factors, such as
increasing unemployment and low salaries, and also reduced policing have exacerbated the
situation. Spectacular finds by archaeologists, like those of Dr Viktor Zinko in the city
of Kerch, have increased international awareness of the historical riches of the area and
whetted looters’ appetites. Some facts emerging from the report include:
- looters responding to increased demand from private
collections;
- grave sites being illegally dug at the Russian city of
Krasnodar near Crimea;
- frequent reports of Ukrainian customs officials impounding
illicit antiquities;
- antiquities smuggled from Kiev and Moscow to New York and
London;
- Scythian gold found in southern Russia allegedly sold to an
Englishman for about $1000 per piece, but worth much more;
- a survey of respectable dealers in ancient Greek art of New
York’s Upper East Side which indicated that few Greek items from Crimea and Ukraine
were on sale, though all galleries said they knew of channels through which they could get
hold of such material.
Reviewing the situation in Kerch, Dr Zinko registers his
despair over the destruction of ancient history, and emphasizes that proper development of
the exciting sites archaeologists have excavated, rather than the present policy of
backfilling, could generate tourism and income which would support the city and
archaeological research.
International conference
A four-day international conference entitled
‘Illegal Traffic in Archaeological Artifacts: Globalization of the Phenomenon’
was hosted by the Cultural Heritage Ministry and the Carabinieri in Rome, Italy in
June. Police and heritage officials from countries including Egypt, Tunisia, Cyprus,
Guatemala, France and Italy as well as dealers and lawmakers from UK, US and other market
countries were in attendance.
Chinese arrests
Seven farmers, arrested in China, have
confessed to robbing nine Ming and Quing Dynasty tombs in the suburbs of Beijing. Ancient
silver and jade artefacts have been found in the robbers’ temporary lodgings and
police are investigating further.
News from Angkor
Officials from Apsara, management authority for
Angkor and the Siem Reap region of Cambodia say that although they still lose something
to looters every day, their situation is better than elsewhere in the country. It is
suggested that Apsara could be more effective if they had full authority for Angkor,
without the involvement of the military.
Discovery and loss of Gandharan cultural heritage
- Zainul Wahab, a PhD student claims to have discovered an
important new Gandharan site in the Lakkar area of Mohmand Agency,
on the Pakistani–Afghani border. Influential local Maliks and tribal elders have been
requested by the government and Wahab to prevent looting of the site
before it can be officially designated a major heritage area.
- Dr Ihsan Ali, speaking at a three-day workshop on
Conservation and Museology at the University of Peshawar (May 2001), spoke of the desperate
situation facing archaeology in northwestern Pakistan where lack of funding and
subsequent staff shortages make it difficult to curb widespread illegal excavations and
conserve antiquities, even though the expertise is available. He highlighted his points
with the example of an ancient pot containing 10,000 rare bronze coins, looted and
found for sale in Lahore for just Rs10,000 (about £110). Only the pot was recovered.
- In the Art Newspaper (June 2001) Robert Kluyver of
SPACH (Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage) describes his
visits to antiquities dealers in Peshawar, Pakistan when he was offered
batches of well-made but fake Gandharan material and many real items,
including boxes of seventeenth-century Bamiyan frescoes, Roman glassware, stucco Buddha
heads and stone Buddhist bas-reliefs all from Afghanistan. He points out the irony of the
fact that recently, in the light of the Taliban’s edicts to destroy all
‘idolatrous’ images, these dealers in ancient material plundered from
archaeological sites and museums have in some quarters been said to be saving
Afghanistan’s cultural heritage and goes on to speculate whether such images,
especially those in Kabul Museum were in fact destroyed. If they were, insiders say it was
not done in public and no traces of debris were seen in the museum. The first-century
treasure of ‘Bactrian gold’, possibly worth hundreds of
millions of dollars and thought to have been hidden in the vaults of the National Bank in
Kabul was said to have been offered by the Taliban to their sponsor Osama bin Laden as
collateral.
Schulz indictment
In July, Frederick Schultz, president of
the Frederick Schultz Ancient Art gallery in New York, and former president of NADAOPA
(National Association of Dealers in Ancient, Oriental and Primitive Art), was indicted
in a Manhattan court on charges of conspiracy for allegedly trafficking
in antiquities illegally removed from Egypt. The indictment argues that Schultz
purchased Egyptian antiquities from a ‘Co-conspirator 1’
(according to Art and Auction magazine September/October 2001; widely believed to
be convicted British antiquities smuggler Jonathan Tokeley-Parry: see In The News CWC
issues 1, 4 &
6) who travelled to Egypt between 1990 and 1994 purchasing
ancient artefacts from farmers and builders and illegally exporting them. It is argued
that Schultz bought consignments allegedly knowing their origins and sold them claiming
they had come from old collections such as the Thomas Alcock collection.
Among the items allegedly obtained illegally were a head of Amenhotep III, which
was sold for approximately $1.2 million and a Sixth Dynasty limestone figure which offered
for $825,000. Supporters of Schultz claim that Tokeley-Parry (if it was he) misled the
dealer into believing objects did come from old English collections. One possible avenue
for the defence may be to challenge the legal precedent set in the 1977
case of United States v. McClain when the US Court of Appeals used Mexican rather
than US law to define what constituted stolen archaeological property. If convicted of
conspiracy Schultz faces a maximum sentence of five years in jail, and either $250,000 in
fines or twice the gross gain or loss resulting from the crime, whichever is
greater.
Italian developments
- August: A court in Enna, Sicily gave 80-year-old Renzo
Canavesi di Sagno a two-year jail sentence and L12.7 million fine for his part in
smuggling the so-called Getty Goddess. The 2500-year-old marble statue of
Aphrodite was found by a pensioner (who was spared jail in return for helping
investigators), stolen from Morgantina in 1970 and transported to London via Switzerland,
where it was bought for £7.5 million from an unnamed dealer by the J Paul Getty Museum of
Malibu. In the 1980s Canavesi di Sagno received £290,000 for arranging shipment to the
dealer in Switzerland. Only the statue’s feet, hands and face are now considered
genuine, her bust and legs are fakes believed to have been commissioned
by looters from a Roman forger in 1972 to increase the value of the piece. The statue was
returned to Italy in 1999.
- The Carabinieri recently retrieved
a Roman statue of Diana from the US after a seven-year international
investigation.
- In July, 29 people (including housewives,
bank tellers and labourers) were arrested under suspicion of smuggling
bronze statues, ancient coins and artefacts worth £13.2 million.
Television award
In September the Swedish Television documentary ‘On the Trail of the Tomb Robbers’
(See CWC issue 7 but note that the programme
was shown on Channel 2, not Channel 10) was awarded the prestigious Prix
d’Italia television award in a competition open to contributions from
European countries. The jury unanimously chose the programme, entered
under the title ‘Heritage for Sale’, because of the strength of its
investigative journalism and importance of its subject matter, praising the strong
narrative and clever irony with which its message was delivered.
UNESCO underwater convention
On 2 November 2001 the Plenary session of
the 31st General Conference adopted the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the
Underwater Cultural Heritage (see
Editorial) by 87
affirmative votes. Four states voted against, 15 abstained, and the United States, an
Observer, gave a statement of its views.
Illicit antiquities in Greece
- Greek newspaper Kathimerini (6 September 2001)
reports growing concern that archaeological sites and museums in the country are
vulnerable to thieves owing to lack of security personnel and systems.
- From 1987 to early 2001 the fraud squad and department
responsible for illicit trade in antiquities reported 23,007 ancient artefacts
impounded from traders.
- Coins are easiest to steal because they
can be easily hidden, and 12,504 ancient Greek, 1697 Byzantine and 357 Roman coins are
known to have illegally entered the antiquities markets, the majority originating from
Macedonia.
- Appointment of daytime guards for museums
has been frozen since 1995 and of night guards since 1992.
It is hoped that planned injections of funds before the
date of the 2004 Olympics in Athens may improve the situation.
- In July police confiscated a marble statue of a
bull which had been looted from the Vravona area, near ancient
Brauron, eastern Attica. Three men were arrested in a coffee shop in
Markopoulo where they were allegedly waiting for a buyer.
- Between 13 August and 9 September 2001, ancient
objects (including at least seven 17 cm tall marble statuettes of females and
sphinxes hacked from a throne), were stolen from a royal tomb in Vergina,
northern Greece. The fourth-century bc tomb of Eurydice, mother of King
Philip and grandmother of Alexander the Great was excavated by Manolis Andronikos in the
late 1970s, is not open to the public and is visited only by officials in the presence of
archaeologists, or by maintenance staff for a monthly humidity check. Evening shifts for
24-hour day guards had recently been abolished during the summer owing to staff shortage.
There was no sign of a break-in, the theft being discovered during an official tour. All
the objects had been photographed which it is hoped will make any potential sale more
difficult.
- October 2001: In one of the richest seizures of
illicit antiquities by Greek police in the last decade, several hundred metal,
terracotta and stone objects ranging in date from seventh century bc to the
Middle Ages were found buried in the yard of a holiday house in Apsalos,
near Pella, central Macedonia, belonging to a 42-year-old record shop owner, and further
objects impounded from his home in Thessaloniki. The man said the extraordinary collection
(including bronze helmets, axes, spearheads, a fragmentary shield, jewellery, 1718 silver
and copper-alloy coins, a probable forgery of a Cretan ‘goddess’ figurine, and
1000 pottery fragments) were the product of 20 years of excavating and collecting,
and were mainly from Macedonia with some bought from foreign antiquities smugglers. Police
are looking for accomplices.
- Vassilis Zacharatos was charged with illegal
possession of antiquities on 17 October when seventeenth- to nineteenth-century
ad icons were found in his Athens optician’s shop. More icons, and silver and
copper-alloy Classical, Byzantine and Egyptian coins were also found at his home.
Agreements and returns
- A ceremony in Seattle, USA on 2 August marked the
return of hundreds of pre-Columbian artefacts to the governments of Mexico, Peru and
Panama. The items were among a seizure of over 900 objects originally confiscated
by Seattle US Customs special agents from Frank Stegmeier (see
In The News CWC issue 7), who was charged under the
National Stolen Property Act with transportation and sale of stolen items valued at more
that $5000. Stegmeier escaped, was returned to the US from Panama in 1998, and
subsequently negotiated a civil Settlement Agreement with the governments
of Mexico, Peru and Panama under which terms the material is being returned.
- In June, the US Customs Service announced the recovery
and return of archaeological material from El Salvador, valued at $100,000 and
including pre-Columbian polychrome pottery which had been seized at point of entry in San
Francisco. The return was the first to take place under the terms of the bilateral
Memorandum of Understanding between the governments of USA and the Republic of El Salvador
signed in 1995 and amended in 2000.
- Following legal action in civil courts in
the UK begun in 1997 by the Iraqi Interests Section, an agreement has
finally been reached regarding a piece of relief looted from the Palace of
Sennacherib, Nineveh (see
CWC issue 1).
The alabaster carving had apparently been bought in good faith by Sholom
Moussaieff from Geneva dealer Nabil Asfar (see
In the News CWC issue 3), and was later recognized
in London when Moussaieff applied for an export license to take it abroad. Four
other Sennacherib pieces which had also been noticed on display in the palace on
Kouyunjik in 1995 are still missing.
- A first-century BC marble bust of Roman Empress
Livia, discovered in the possession of New York dealer Robert Hecht
when it was offered for sale in 1995 has been returned to Butrint,
Albania, the site from which it was excavated during Luigi Ugolini’s excavations
between 1928–31 (whose excavation area is now pitted with looters holes). The bust
was stolen from the site museum in the early 1990s (museum thefts were one symptom of the
turbulent times which marked the overthrow of communism in Albania in 1991) and smuggled
through Greece or Switzerland to the USA. After years of civil unrest, this
return was finally organized by the Directors of the new International Centre for Albanian
Archaeology with the help of the Albanian Embassy in the USA and Hecht and will remain at
the Institute museum in Tirana, until Butrint museum is renovated. Some other objects
looted from Butrint in the early 1990s, were later seized by Greek customs authorities and
await repatriation from Thessalonika while at the site itself the Butrint
Foundation, with grants from the Miflin Trust, is organizing security patrols and
developing educational programmes emphasizing the importance of local
archaeological resources in terms of tourism revenue and future economic development.
- The British Museum facilitated the return
to Sudan of a stolen ancient Egyptian statue after Derek Welsby,
assistant keeper in the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan was asked to appraise it by
a Sudanese man describing himself as a medical doctor resident in the Midlands for six
years. The carving in hard, black stone of Heqa-emsasen, a seated mid fifteenth-century bc
viceroy, is 20 inches high and believed to be worth about £10,000. It seemed unlikely
that it had been exported legally, and the man — who claimed he had been asked to
bring it to Europe for sale by a friend who had excavated it near Barkal — said he
had got it through Khartoum airport by bribing customs officials and placing it in his
wife’s luggage so that he would not be caught in case of discovery. Welsby, left in
temporary possession of the piece, identified it as having in fact been excavated by
American archaeologists in 1916. It was stolen from the new Khartoum National
Museum, the Jebel Barkal in 1995. Although arrested by Scotland Yard, the man
attempting to sell the item was later released due to lack of evidence.
- July: Egyptian officials announced the
return of a carved stone head, possibly depicting Nineteenth Dynasty princess
Merit or Queen Nefertiti, which had been smuggled to Britain by Jonathan
Tokeley-Parry during the 1990s (see In The News CWC issues
1, 4 & 6). The piece was traced with help from Scotland Yard and
Egypt continues to work with the FBI to recover other items from the US. Objects stolen by
Tokeley-Parry are also believed to be in Switzerland.
- August: Following interventions by Dutch
archaeologists, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York returned to Egyptian
authorities a 3300-year-old limestone engraving of Pharaoh Seti I feeding a
child, which had been stolen from a store room near the Pyramids about 60 years ago.
Museum matters
- The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (17 August and 2
September 2001) and Fort Worth Weekly have been asking questions about a white
alabaster statuette of a male figure carved in Sumerian style which was bought (but not
displayed) by the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth late last year for
$2.7 million, but subsequently returned to the sellers (the Abutaam brothers of
Phoenix Soho dealership in New York) for an ‘amicable’ refund. There is
confusion as to how and why this situation arose, which has resulted in the Weekly
branding Timothy Potts, director of the Museum as ‘secretive’. Potts went to
considerable lengths to trace the provenance of the piece (which apparently stretched back
to a connection with a European museum in the 1950s) before the purchase but it is alleged
that the sale was rushed through (possibly to get a discount) and problems arose
afterwards — although whether these related to the origin or authenticity of the
piece (or its provenance) is not known. Potts emphasized the inherent difficulties in
authenticating ancient stone artefacts, and maintains that ‘the major consideration
in this case was our assessment of what this object would contribute to the Kimbell’s
collection compared to other outstanding acquisition opportunities that had come along
since its purchase’. (It has not yet been made public what these acquisitions
opportunities were.) Whatever the truth about this particular object the affair, as Andrew
Marton, art critic of the Star-Telegraph points out, highlights both the ‘highly
secretive nature of the international art and antiquities market’ and the
current pressure on institutions, whether private or public, to set a good example.
- Manus Brinkman, Secretary General of ICOM
(International Council of Museums) was also adamant in an interview with the Art
Newspaper (September 2001) that museums must set standards with regard to
illicit traffic issues, and also raise awareness. He cited the Nok terracottas
purchased unethically by the Quai Branly collection and now on display in the Louvre (see
In The News CWC issue 7) as a controversial example
and discussed the moral complexities of ‘saving’ looted material smuggled
out of war-torn Afghanistan.
- Melik Kaylan, writing for Forbes.com
(18 July 2001), draws attention to the alleged history of a sixth-century bc sarcophagus
made of terracotta, decorated in the style seen on artefacts from Clazomenae near modern
Izmir, Turkey and now in the collection of the J Paul Getty Museum,
Malibu. Kaylan argues that before its acquisition by controversial former curator Jiri
Frel, the object’s history is unknown (certainly the Getty Museum has not
published any clues) and some believe it to be the result of the first episodes of illicit
digging at Clazomenae in the mid to late 1970s (the second coincided with
official excavations from 1979 onwards). It is alleged that the piece was smuggled
through well-known routes via Munich, largely controlled by the ‘Munich
Mafia’ who are described as ‘a loose confederacy of Turkish smuggling
groups’ in the city. Major names are mentioned as the alleged broker and restorer.
The Getty Museum responded to the allegations, claiming there is no basis for questioning
the provenance.
Reports from Peru
- The Gold Museum in Lima, Peru closed in
July following reports that up to 85 per cent of objects in its famous,
largely unprovenanced collection, said to be amassed from burial sites and other
excavations, may be fake. The daughter of founder Miguel Mujica de
Perez-Palcio, said that the institution had already, during the last six months, identified
2300 (10 per cent of the total) modern forgeries. She added that unscrupulous
sellers had taken advantage of her father’s old age and failing eyesight. A spokesman
for Peru’s Consumer Protection Commission indicated that, if the claims were true,
the museum may not meet the necessary conditions to be classed as a museum,
and added that experts from the Catholic University, Lima are now studying the artefacts.
- In June Aero Condor, the Lima-based
airline which provides most tourist flights over the Nazca Lines in southwestern Peru, was
set to launch the Nazca patrol, a partnership with local police to track
and catch tomb robbers using brand new ultra light aircraft. Tourism companies which make
their livings from the Nazca remains are said to be increasingly worried about the effects
of widespread archaeological looting on their livelihoods. Local Peruvian archaeologists
and police have been trying, with virtually no resources, to research and protect the
area, but looting has escalated in recent years to such an extent that
tomb robbers apparently do not even try to hide their activities. The Washington Post
(20 May 2001) reports one incident when two thieves were seen ripping open a 2000-year-old
Nazca tomb near Cahuachi in broad daylight and blames recession and record unemployment as
one reason for the increase in illegal excavation.
- In May a c. 4500-year-old skull was stolen
from Peruvian archaeological excavations of ruins near Caral 120 miles
north of Lima.
Smuggler's story
Speaking to Newsweek magazine (May 2001) in an
article entitled ‘Just out of jail: a smuggler’s story’, Jonathan
Tokeley-Parry (see In The News CWC issues
1, 4 &
6 & above)
argues that his activities, which involved smuggling ancient artefacts out of Egypt
disguised as cheap souvenirs, were acts of preservation. Using the
example of the Elgin Marbles, he says that had done what he did a century ago, he would
have been knighted. Now out of jail, Tokeley-Parry is apparently writing his memoirs and
afterwards may return to work on an unfinished doctoral thesis on ethics.
Tales from the USA
- David Pollack, archaeologist for the Kentucky Heritage
Council, estimates that 90 per cent of the 15,000 known prehistoric sites
in the state have been damaged by looters.
- The scale of looting nationwide in the USA is such that the
US Geological Survey is now omitting archaeological sites from new
editions of topographical maps.
- Modern technology, such as radio-relayed
infrared heat sensors, metal detectors and motion sensors are being used in Mammoth
Cave National Park and Big South Fork National Recreation Area, Kentucky, to
alert park officials when looters are in action.
- Brad McDougal, a federal criminal investigator staked out Mammoth
Cave, in Western Kentucky during the summer and caught a looter.
But in four hours digging it is estimated that the man destroyed 4000 years of
stratigraphy.
- In July, Kentucky man Sean Long was sentenced to
two months of house arrest, 18 months of probation and 100 hours of community
service, having admitted to trafficking in human remains of Native Americans. He
was arrested the morning after offering to sell three skulls, more than 2000 years old, to
undercover FBI agents for $900. The agents bought one and later confiscated the others
along with about 50 grave goods. During the investigation Long talked of conducting frequent
excavations of Indian burial grounds, and had even videoed a 1999 looting
trip to Pilot Rock although he pleaded guilty only to charges of selling the
skulls. It was the first time federal prosecutors in Kentucky had used the Native American
Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and only the fourth time the Act had been
used in a criminal prosecution east of the Mississippi. The prosecution was welcomed by
Preoria tribal chief John Froman, but condemned by Long’s supporters who believe him
to be the victim of a bad law and overzealous prosecutor. The skulls and grave objects
will be reburied by Preoria tribespeople.
Sources
- abc News.com
- Ananova
- Art and Auction
- The Art Newspaper
- Associated Press
- Athens News
- BBC News
- British School of Archaeology in Iraq Newsletter
- Daily Pioneer (India)
- Dawn
- Evansville Courier and Press
- Excite.com news
- Forbes.com
- Fort Worth Weekly
- Forth Worth Star-Telegram
- The Guardian
- India Today
- Kathimerini
- Middle East Times
- Minerva
- New York Post
- Newsweek
- People’s Daily, China
- Reuters
- Staffan Lunden
- The Times
- UNESCO
- University of Texas
- US Customs Service
- US Department of State
- Wall Street Journal
- The Washington Post
- Yahoo! news
First posted April 2002; Page
design updated September 2006 |
