Looting matters

Giacomo Medici: conviction upheld

2009-07-15T21:13:00.005+01:00

There was a press release this afternoon about the outcome of Giacomo Medici's appeal against his conviction for handling antiquities ("Italian art dealer's looting conviction upheld", AP July 15, 2009). The sentence has been reduced from 10 to 8 years.

The report continues:

Medici, who denies any wrongdoing, said after the closed-doors hearing that he would appeal the ruling to Italy's highest court. He remains free pending the appeal.

In a 1995 raid on Medici's offices in Switzerland, police found a trove of artifacts and photos of antiquities, many still in pieces and covered with mud, which authorities later traced to museums and collectors worldwide.

Authorities maintain thousands of Roman, Etruscan and Greek treasures were stolen or clandestinely dug up across Italy in the last decades, then smuggled out of the country and sold by dealers such as Medici.

Rome's campaign to recover the looted art has pushed top museums, including the J. Paul Getty in California and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, to return dozens of pieces in exchange for long-term loans of other treasures.

The Medici probe also sparked other court cases, including the ongoing trial of former Getty curator Marion True and art dealer Robert Hecht, accused of knowingly acquiring dozens of allegedly looted ancient artifacts.

Both deny any wrongdoing.

Steve Scherer ("Rome Court Upholds Conviction of Antiquities Dealer", Bloomberg July 15, 2009) comments on a procedural error in the original trial that related to the Sarpedon krater.

The 2004 procedural error raised in Medici’s appeal was that the trial judge at first declared in a verbal sentencing that Medici was innocent of handling the Met objects, and then later said he had made a mistake. The judge pronounced him guilty when he submitted his written conviction.

Mike Boehm ("Dealer who sold antiquities to Getty loses looting appeal", LA Times July 15, 2009) extends the report to reflect on Marion True:

True has not denied that she bought works for the Getty from Medici and Hecht but says she acted in good faith, not knowing they had been dug and exported in violation of laws safeguarding Italy's ancient artifacts.

Antiquities from Iraq continue to surface

2009-07-15T12:02:00.003+01:00

Images of the looted archaeological museum in Baghdad in the wake of the second Gulf War alerted the initial community to the issue of archaeological material passing into the market. There were swift moves to protect cultural property; these included the UN Security Council Resolution 1483 to Protect Iraq's Heritage.

Professional bodies such as the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) have kept a close watch on developments (see Earthwatch for Iraq). Professor Brian Rose, president of the AIA, made a trip to Iraq in April 2009 to see for himself the damage sustained to archaeological sites as well as the objects in the Iraq Museum (see story from Archaeology magazine). Indeed his report was optimistic: "A girls' school group entered the museum as we were leaving, and it was good to hear the halls filled with their laughter and enthusiasm."

Some 15,000 objects were stolen from the National Museum in Baghdad during 2003. Some 6000 pieces have been recovered in various countries (for example, United Arab Emirates, Germany, Jordan) and are in the process of being returned; the Iraq Museum reopened in February 2009. Assessments are being made of the scale of looting at archaeological sites. John Curtis of the British Museum has been able to undertake a short study in southern Iraq but conceded that damage had been sustained further north.

Iraqi antiquities continue to be offered for sale in spite of all the publicity. Professor Neil Brodie has quantified the internet sales of cylinder seals and cuneiform tablets that are likely to have been derived from Iraq (details). He counted over 300 tablets available for sale on a single day in September 2008.

In December 2008 Christie's in New York had to withdraw gold jewellery from its auction as the lot appears to have been derived from Iraq (details). Other objects have been seized after appearing at an antiquities fair at Maastricht (details).

Within the last month there has been a major story in the German press about a gold vessel, seized from a dealer in Munich, that appears to have come from one of the royal cemeteries at Ur (details). German authorities handed it over to Michael Müller-Karpe of the Römisch-Germanische Zentralmuseum in Mainz for study. Müller-Karpe, a leading expert on metalwork from Iraq, has retained the piece at the request of the Iraqi embassy in Berlin because there are fears that the object could evade repatriation if German courts felt that there the evidence was not compelling (Andreas Ulrich, "Leichtes Spiel für die Antikenmafia", Spiegel Online 26 June 2009).

The international community—archaeologists, museum curators, dealers, collectors, and the general public—need to remain alert to the continuing problem.

The Parthenon Marbles: an unstoppable moral and practical case?

2009-07-14T21:50:00.002+01:00

Neil MacGregor of the British Museum was talking about the Parthenon marbles on tonight's Front Row on BBC Radio 4 (details and BBC iPlayer).

He was asked by Mark Lawson is there was now an "unstoppable moral and practical case" to return the Parthenon sculptures to Greece. Did MacGregor think that the opening of the Acropolis Museum changed the issue?

There was a resounding "no".

MacGregor seemed to suggest that it was "a good thing" for "half" the sculptures to be in Athens and the other portion to be in London. He suggested that the idea of reuniting the architectural sculptures from this dismembered fifth century BCE Athenian building in a single archaeological museum within sight of the Parthenon was a "political" issue.

He also commented that in Britain it was possible to separate politics from cultural issues.

Mainz and the gold vessel

2009-07-14T21:30:00.003+01:00

I commented yesterday on the gold vessel that may have been derived from a royal cemetery on Ur.

The story continues today in the German press ("Schutz des Erbes", Allgemeine Zeitung 14 July 2009). Michael Müller-Karpe has now written to the German Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, about the way that recently surfaced antiquities from Iraq but also Turkey continue to pass through Germany. (See also my comments on "Germany: 'it's like an antiquities laundry'", November 12, 2008)

The scale of the problem is highlighted by today's Stuttgart sale that is reported to have had some 28 objects that appear to have been derived from Iraq.

Will Germany take the issue of cultural property seriously?

Gold vessel from Ur - or is that Troy?

2009-07-13T21:35:00.003+01:00

I have been following the case of the gold vessel that is said to have surfaced at Münzenhandlung Gerhard Hirsch Nachfolger of Munich, Germany during 2005. The piece was seized by the German authorities who asked Michael Müller-Karpe of the Römisch-Germanische Zentralmuseum in Mainz, a leading expert on metalwork from Iraq, to study it. Among Müller-Karpe's publications is his Metallgefäße im Iraq 1 (Stuttgart 1993).

Müller-Karpe concluded that the piece was similar to objects found in the royal cemetery at Ur. There is the possibility that the gold vessel had been looted subsequent to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The gold object remains with Müller-Karpe at the request of the cultural attaché at the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin. Dieter Peulen of the German customs would like it to be returned.

The piece has been discussed by both Nathan Elkins and Paul Barford.

But there are further questions to ask.

Who consigned the gold vessel to the Munich coin-dealer?

What is the basis for the dealer suggesting that the vessel came from Troy?

I also observe that the coin-dealer is a member of the International Association of Professional Numismatists (IAPN). This organisation, based in Brussels, is one of three bodies involved in a legal suit against the US Department of State over the import of antiquities to the USA.

The Scottish Parliament on the Parthenon

2009-07-10T21:17:00.002+01:00

Among the motions and amendments for the Scottish Parliament on Monday June 29, 2009 was this:

S3M-4498 Hugh O’Donnell: The Opening of the Acropolis Museum in Athens—That the Parliament congratulates the Greek people and Government on the opening of the eagerly awaited Acropolis Museum in Athens, which will house artefacts covering the Greek bronze age and Roman and Byzantine time periods; notes that part of the space is specifically designed to accommodate the Parthenon Marbles, and urges the British Museum to enter into negotiations with the Acropolis Museum with a view to returning the Parthenon Marbles to their original home.

Supported by: Rob Gibson, Mike Pringle, Bill Kidd, Jim Tolson, Gil Paterson, Christina McKelvie, Sandra White, Alasdair Morgan, Jim Hume

Parthenon sculptures on Twitter

2009-07-10T21:01:00.004+01:00

The British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles has launched its Twitter site. BCRP's press release (July 9, 2009) had a response to Neil Macgregor from Professor Anthony Snodgrass,

"Let us have a sensible negotiation on the issue of the Parthenon Sculptures, between equals, without any prior stipulations about ownership and possession. Only then can the possibilities for the transmission of the sculptures to other countries, whether physical or virtual, be seriously discussed,"

Image © David Gill

The Journal of Art Crime: volume 1

2009-07-10T13:22:00.003+01:00

The first volume of The Journal of Art Crime edited by Noah Charney and published by the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art (details here).

There is much in the volume with a series of regular columns including my own, "Context Matters: Archaeological and Antiquities Crime".

Timothy Rub on loans over ownership

2009-07-09T18:58:00.005+01:00

I was struck by a reported comment of Timothy Rub, the out-going director of the Cleveland Museum of Art (Steven Litt, "Losing director could make for great partnership", Plain Dealer (Cleveland) July 5, 2009). Rub spoke at a conference at the end of June and "made a convincing case for long-term loans as a way for countries seeking to control illicit trade in antiquities to share national patrimony". He is quoted:

"Access might not mean ownership."

Such a statement is a move towards a position of stewardship of the archaeological record, a position I have been advocating here. Rub is now standing in marked opposition to senior museum figures such as James Cuno and Philippe de Montebello who have been vocal advocates of "ownership".

Perhaps before he leaves Cleveland Rub could release the collecting histories of the objects returned to Italy.

Cleveland Museum of Art: Objects in Rome

2009-07-08T16:01:00.004+01:00

The fourteen antiquities handed back to Italy by the Cleveland Museum of Art have gone on display in Rome ("Art back home in Italy after stay in Cleveland", cleveland.com July 8, 2009). Although the collecting histories have yet to be released, it is clear that the identifications were made from the seizure of photographs and documents in raids on the premises of dealers in Switzerland.

Looted Shipwreck off Sicily

2009-07-01T21:12:00.000+01:00

ANSA has reported on the recovery of five 1st century CE Roman transport amphorae from the sea off the island of Filicudi in the Aeolian islands ("CC Messina recuperano anfore Romane alle Eolie", June 24, 2009). The containers had apparently been removed from the wreck and then hidden in an underwater crevice nearby.

Parthenon marbles in European context

2009-06-30T22:49:00.000+01:00

I have earlier commented on the way that the New Acropolis Museum will display the architectural marbles from the Parthenon within sight of the fifth century BCE temple on the Athenian acropolis. You will be able to wander down the south slope, past the theatre of Dionysos and straight into the museum.

At least to see part of the surviving sculptures. The rest are on the display a little further away.

At least for the moment.

Image derived from Google Earth.

Euphronios: The Lost Chalice by Vernon Silver

2009-06-29T10:59:00.000+01:00

Vernon Silver has produced a remarkable book from his Oxford University doctoral research: it is a page turner. (I noted the acknowledgment to lunches with Colin Dexter author of the Inspector Morse novels.) It concentrates on the Euphronios cup that passed into the Bunker Hunt collection. However, the Sarpedon krater also features prominently.

I do not intend to write a full review here, but it would be appropriate to share some of the points. If anybody is in any doubt about the level of destruction caused by the looting process in order to supply the market they need to read The Lost Chalice. The account of the search for antiquities at Greppe Sant'Angelo at Cerveteri in Tuscany is sickening. This does not represent the casual finding of artefacts during agricultural work; it is the deliberate ransacking of ancient tombs in the search for saleable material.

Silver helped me to understand Giacomo Medici and The Lost Chalice provides a different position to that found in The Medici Conspiracy by Peter Watson and Celia Todeschini. It also allowed me to make sense of snippets of information about the market in Rome during the 1960s where "minor" antiquities were fed (relatively) openly onto the market while the major objects were taken for sale outside Europe.

The background to the fragmentary krater showing Herakles and Kyknos that was returned to Italy by Shelby White is reviewed. (I was interested to note who was advising Leon Levy about his purchases of Greek pottery.)

There is also information about the Sabina statue that was returned from Boston. It makes sense of the statement that it had once formed part of "an aristocratic family collection in Bavaria".

One of the strengths of this study is Silver's meticulous interviewing of key figures involved in the saga.

Harper Collins

Keeping the marbles will now be terrible PR for Britain

2009-06-25T15:29:00.002+01:00

Rowan Moore, the architecture critic for London's Evening Standard, has written a piece on his visit to the New Acropolis Museum in Athens ("Now let's return the Elgin Marbles", June 24, 2009). He is not totally enthusiastic about the new building:

You enter, under a vast, clumsy portico, an elephantine proboscis propped on three thumping columns. Throughout the building, architecture gets in the way of the exhibits. There are too many fat columns, and thick joints between panels, and holes cut in walls and ceiling for purposes of acoustics or lighting. The serene sculptures are interrupted with too much visual noise.

He also objects to the "pointless vandalism" of demolishing the Art Deco buildings that stand between the museum and the archaeological zone.

But the building has persuaded him of one thing:

Standing there on Sunday, as the first members of the public flooded in, and armed with all the arguments of a London patriot, I felt my objections melting away. It is partly that the Parthenon sculptures form a single work of art, which has been arbitrarily dismembered. This work can never be completely restored but there is still much to be gained from having as much as possible in one place. Like a shattered figure, it is good to reconnect the head to the neck to the torso, even if the feet and hands are permanently lost. To be more mundane, keeping the marbles will now be terrible PR for Britain. Each person who visits the new museum will see the same story: here is a great family of sculptures kept apart by the grouchy Brits, still exercising their imperial rights of loot and pillage. Most of all, the Greeks have shown, by building the museum, how much the marbles mean to them.

"Pot hunting" and absentee archaeologists?

2009-06-24T22:21:00.004+01:00

I was interested to read the Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial on the "pot hunting" episode in the Four Corners region (June 21, 2009).

No one is endorsing wanton vandalism of such sites or artifacts. But it would be useful and realistic if a cooperative, rather than an adversarial, approach allowed quick surveys of such sites, with the most archaeologically promising being set aside for near-future professional digs, with residents told "Harvest the rest if you can."

How do all such artifacts -- even those unknown and undiscovered -- automatically become the property of absentee archaeologists who may never even show up?

The piece then points to two voices for the collecting lobby: Kate Fitz Gibbon and Peter Tompa (see my comments here).

Praise to "Doug" for leaving his thoughts on the Editorial:

The first false assumption is that the looted items "belong" to long dead peoples. Archaeological objects on federal lands belong to all Americans.

Second, an archaeologist who excavates such things never "owns" what he or she excavates. These items are strictly controlled, and the object's ownership goes to the federal government which often stores such objects in state museums. Implying that this is not the case belies a deep ignorance of the laws regarding public lands.

Ownership is the non-issue. Archaeology promotes good stewardship of our cosmopolitan cultural resources.

Survey on antiquities

2009-06-24T10:25:00.002+01:00

Cherkea Howery, a graduate student at NYU, is conducting a survey on "Informing Audiences: Public Perceptions of Illicit Antiquities".

Click here to take part.

The results of the survey will appear on her blog.

Antiquities, ancient coins and changing attitudes in North America

2009-06-23T21:38:00.002+01:00

Over the last few years over 100 antiquities have been returned to Italy from major North American museums. The piece that attracted the most publicity was the Sarpedon krater by Euphronios; it was returned by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Other items include a Roman portrait statue of Sabina, and quantities of pottery made in Apulia, southern Italy. These voluntary returns, offered without active legal action, have done much to restore the patinated reputations of museums.

The Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) that serves as an umbrella organisation for museums has now changed its policies on the acquisition of undocumented antiquities. The AAMD now advises constituent organisations not to buy objects that are unknown prior to 1970, the date of the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. A public object registry has been launched by the AAMD with the object of letting interested parties check what is passing into public collections. (The scheme has had limited use since its launch with a total of four items in the register by mid-June 2009.)

Some senior figures in the North American museum world --- for example, James Cuno --- have continued to voice their disquiet over the changing situation. But such views appear to be in a minority. Museum curators who handle archaeological material understand the issues and are aware of the level of destruction sustained by archaeological sites around the world to supply "museum quality" objects for the market.

The growing realisation that action needs to be taken about the antiquities market has been reflected in the work of the US Cultural Property Advisory Committee (CPAC). The most noticeable action was over antiquities from Iraq in the wake of the Second Gulf War and the looting of the Baghdad Museum. However there have also been memoranda of agreement with countries such as Italy, China and Cyprus.

The workings of CPAC are now under scrutiny. A Freedom of Information Act suit (FOIA) was filed against the US Department of State back in November 2007; this was in response to the restriction on the imports of ancient coins from Cyprus. This action was supported by three bodies: the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild (ACCG), the International Association of Professional Numismatists (IAPN), and the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG).

The purpose of the FOIA suit is made clear on the ACCG website:

The State Department recently imposed unprecedented import restrictions on ancient coins from Cyprus—requiring importers of even a single common coin of “Cypriot type” to provide unfair, unworkable and unnecessary documentation.

Why have these bodies taken such action against the US Department of State?

The IAPN, based in Brussels, Belgium, states on its website:

The IAPN is a non-profit organisation of the leading international numismatic firms founded 1951. The objectives of the Association are the development of a healthy and prosperous numismatic trade conducted according to the highest standards of business ethics and commercial practice.

The PNG describes itself as follows:

The PNG is a nonprofit organization composed of the world's top rare coin and paper money experts. As numismatic professionals, our primary mission is to make the hobby safe for collectors and investors by maintaining rigid standards of excellence for our member dealers.

This is clarified as follows:

The Professional Numismatists Guild, Inc. is the only numismatic organization in the United States that restricts its membership to dealers who possess and demonstrate three essential qualifications: Knowledge, Integrity and Responsibility.

Is this alliance of three organisations in reality acting over freedom of information? Could there also be an implicit commercial interest in the liberalisation of the market in ancient coins?

The US State Department, as Defendant in the case, seems to suspect ulterior motives and made this statement in their formal reply (dated May 19, 2009):

Consequently, Plaintiffs’ claims that they are advocating the public interest are properly viewed with some skepticism given ACCG’s “two phase” “coordinated plan” to attempt to rescind the import restrictions, which would commercially benefit a number of its benefactors, who appear to be U.S.-based dealers and brokers of ancient coins.

This statement has been refuted by the Plaintiffs (the ACCG, the IAPN, and the PNG).

In April 2009 the ACCG tested the agreements with Cyprus and China by deliberately bringing a set of ancient coins in the USA by air ("Coin Collectors to Challenge State Department on Import Restrictions", PR Newswire May 13, 2009).

As mandated, U.S. Customs detained the coins upon arrival. The ACCG now plans to use this detention as a vehicle to strike down the unprecedented regulations banning importation of whole classes of ancient coins. The collectors' advocacy group claims that, among other abnormalities, the decision process for these agreements was orchestrated contrary to the spirit and intent of governing law.

The ACCG seems intent on criticising a policy that is intended to offer some protection to the archaeological heritage of Cyprus and China by placing restrictions on the movement of material that may have been derived as a result of illicit diggings on archaeological sites.

So will the legal action and test case merely serve to inflame the situation? Do such actions present to the world an image of North American collectors of archaeological material (and that includes ancient coins) who are more interested in owning objects than preserving archaeological contexts and integrity?

Papoulias: Now is the time ...

2009-06-22T13:45:00.002+01:00

The President of Greece, Dr Karolos Papoulias, has been quoted in the New York Times ("Greece presses its case", June 22, 2009) in the wake of the opening of The Acropolis Museum. Speaking about the Parthenon he is quoted:

It's time to heal the wounds of the monument with the return of the marbles which belong to it.

Shaded Marbles

2009-06-20T22:22:00.000+01:00

To mark the opening of the New Acropolis Museum in Athens.

Shaded marbles is also available here.

Congratulations on the Opening of the New Acropolis Museum

2009-06-20T11:15:00.000+01:00

Looting Matters: The New Acropolis Museum Opens in Athens, Greece

2009-06-19T22:30:00.001+01:00

Looting Matters: The New Acropolis Museum Opens in Athens, Greece

"A catalyst for the return of the Parthenon Marbles"

2009-06-19T21:57:00.004+01:00

On the eve of the opening of the New Acropolis Museum there have been some more quotes from key figures (Elena Becatoros, "New Acropolis Museum highlights missing marbles", AP June 19, 2009).

Dimitris Pantermalis, the museum's director, is quoted over the Parthenon sculptures:

This was an act of barbarism that can be corrected ... It's not an issue of pointing a finger at the British Museum, but of building bridges ... that can correct the unfortunate historic event of 1800.

Antonis Samaris, the Hellenic Minister of Culture, commented on the opening:

In essence it will be a constant, silent denunciation of the Parthenon Marbles' continued absence ... [The new museum] is a catalyst for the return of the Parthenon Marbles.

The alternative view is expressed by Hannah Boulton, the press officer of the British Museum, who restates the position of the universal museum:

I think they belong to all of us. We are all global citizens these days ... The Acropolis Museum is obviously going to be a fantastic new museum. ... It's obviously going to be wonderful to finally be able to see all the sculptures that remain in Athens on public display ... But ... here in the British Museum, they can tell this equally important, although different story about ancient Athens' place, in world cultures.

The Parthenon Marbles: Athens or London?

2009-06-18T12:35:00.002+01:00

Here are some thoughts on the display of the Parthenon marbles recorded live on the Athenian Akropolis.

Is a video blog helpful? Please leave your thoughts.

Displaying the Parthenon Sculptures

2009-06-17T21:44:00.004+01:00

From Saturday it will be possible to stand in the upper gallery of the New Acropolis Museum and look across at the Parthenon. Archaeological material from the range of sites within the Acropolis area will be on display as part of a coherent scheme.

Mithraic Relief Recovered in Italy

2009-06-16T17:57:00.002+01:00

There is a report that Italian police recovered a second century CE relief of Mithras back in March ("Italy police recover looted relief of Roman god", AP June 16, 2009). The raid took place on a private house near Rome.

It seems that some sort of transaction was about to take place as a Japanese private collector was involved.