Author: Derek Fincham
Will the Getty have to return “Victorious Youth”?
I’ve finished an essay looking at the question of whether Italy can successfully repatriate the “Bronze Statue of a Victorious Youth” (the Getty calls it the “Getty Bronze”). The answer? It is very likely if Italy can secure the assistance from the Federal Government. But Italy should have a very good case for receiving assistance because of a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty first signed in 1982, and renewed in 2010.
Here’s the abstract:
Italy has been engaged in an ongoing fifty year struggle to recover an ancient greek bronze. The “Bronze Statue of a Victorious Youth” has a remarkable story. It was lost at sea in the Adriatic in antiquity; found by chance in international waters; smuggled into the Italian seaside village of Fano; hidden first in a bathtub, then a cabbage field; smuggled and hidden in Brazil; later conserved in Germany and London; and ultimately purchased by the Getty Museum only months after the death of the Trust’s namesake. J. Paul Getty. Getty refused to allow his museum to purchase the statue during his lifetime without a thorough and diligent inquiry into the title history of the Bronze. A step the trustees of the Getty did not take when it acquired the Bronze.
The question is not whether the Bronze was illicit when the Getty trustees made the decision to acquire it. It most certainly was, and still is. The question now is whether the Getty will be able to continue to retain possession. In the press and in cultural property circles the Bronze is considered nearly un-repatriatable given this convoluted history. But an Italian forfeiture action in Pesaro has quietly set in motion a means by which Italy can reclaim the Bronze through a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty. This transnational forfeiture marks the creation of a useful new tool in the struggle to repatriate looted and stolen cultural objects. And perhaps more importantly the dispute signals a continuing trend in the importance of domestic law in source nations in cultural heritage law.
At present its a work in progress so please get in touch if you have any comments!
Fincham, Derek. Transnational Forfeiture of the “Getty” Bronze, (work in progress, 2013).
Chappell on Art Theft
Duncan Chappell uses the occasion of a loan exhibition of William Turner works on display at the National Gallery in Canberra—which does not include a couple of well-known stolen-then-recovered works.
He then discusses the persistent problem of stolen art:
Looting in Egypt at a level not seen since Baghdad in 2003
The AP reported last week that the Malawi Antiquities Museum in a city called Minya had been ransacked. There really is no other word for it. Stolen objects included a 3,500 year-old statue, jewelry, and an estimated 1,000 other artifacts.
Most disturbing of all: the thieves and looters ransacked the building “for days”. From the AP report:
Among the stolen antiquities was a statue of the daughter of Pharaoh Akhenaten, who ruled during the 18th dynasty. Archaeologist Monica Hanna described it as a “masterpiece.” Other looted items included gold and bronze Greco-Roman coins, pottery and bronze-detailed sculptures of animals sacred to Thoth, a deity often represented with the head of an ibis or a baboon.
Continue reading “Looting in Egypt at a level not seen since Baghdad in 2003”
Antiquities with good history are worth more
More anecdotal evidence perhaps that prices paid for antiquities reflects not only the intrinsic value of the object, but the quality of its history as well. Unprovenanced objects are not selling. Souren Melikian reports on the importance of a pre-1970 history for antiquities at recent auctions in Paris:
At Pierre Bergé on May 29, an Egyptian portrait painted in encaustic on panel of the type conventionally associated with the Fayum area rose to €1.46 million, or nearly $2 million, paid by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The portrait, datable to the years 54 to 68 A.D. on the basis of the hairdo, was owned by a European collector as early as 1968. A week later, it was the turn of Boisgirard-Antonini to score with Egyptian art. The wooden mask of a woman, with its ancient polychromy unfortunately altered by heavy waxing, realized 10 times the estimate, at more than €75,000. It had surfaced in the Paris trade in June 1912. Two lots down, the star piece in the sale, an Egyptian torso of the fourth century B.C. more than tripled its high estimate as it went over €2.26 million. Hieroglyphs carved on the back name a prince who was the governor of Upper Egypt. The inscription was debated at length in three separate German publications before World War II. At the end of a sustained bidding match, the room broke out in applause. The contrast with the dead silence that greeted scores of bronzes, some very fine, from ancient Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Yemen and other areas was striking. None were documented and the majority remained unwanted at low prices ranging from €1,000 to €5,000 euros. In five to 10 years, these hot potatoes may not even make it to the auction rooms.
- Souren Melikian, Antiquities, With a Proven Record, Drive Auction Market, N.Y. Times, June 14, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/15/arts/15iht-melikian15.html.
Will the Statute of Frauds Add Transparency to the Art Trade?
In his seminal 1982 article, Harvard Law Professor Paul Bator noted that the art trade is shrouded in mystery. In the thirty years since Bator examined the international art market, little has changed with respect to the basic information which is made available when works of art are bought and sold at auction. Auction house catalogues typically include little more than a cursory “this work is from a private collection”. That may change, at least in New York when the State’s highest court will take up a recent auction dispute.
Continue reading “Will the Statute of Frauds Add Transparency to the Art Trade?”
Federal agents have seized $100m from Subhash Kapoor
Jason Felch reports that Federal agents have seized a whopping $100 million in art in the past couple years from Subhash Kapoor. Kapoor, an American citizen, is subject to potential criminal charges for dealing in looted and stolen art: a pending criminal trial in India; and he may be prosecuted in the United States as well.
Felch reports on the staggering number of esteemed Museums which have purchased material from Kapoor since:
Since 1974, Kapoor and his Madison Avenue gallery Art of the Past have sold or donated ancient art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Norton Simon Museum, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Toledo Museum in Ohio and others. Abroad, his clients included the Musée des Arts Asiatiques-Guimet, Paris; the Museum f¿r Indische Kunst in Berlin; the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto; the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore; and the National Gallery of Australia. To date none of the museums has been accused of possessing stolen art or conspiring with Kapoor. Several have acknowledged having objects from Kapoor but declined to comment on the ongoing investigations.
This is a staggering array of objects and some very fine Museums.
The piece demonstrates how integral federal forfeitures are in policing the art and antiquities trade in the United States. Whether all that art will be repatriated to Southeast Asia remains to be seen, but the institutions which have material which passed through Kapoor would be wise to start preparing a strategy for the inevitable questions which will arise. Right now he looks to be as big an alleged antiquities smuggler as any of the names we’ve seen deal in art from Europe or even some of the notorious dealers in looted Mediterranean antiquities.
- Jason Felch, Feds pursue Manhattan art dealer suspected of smuggling, L.A. Times, June 11, 2013, http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-asian-artifact-smuggling-20130611,0,3469733.story.
ARCA’s Fifth Annual Conference, June 21-23, Amelia
After the jump, a list of the speakers and award winners, the full conference schedule is available here.
Toby bull, Senior Inspector, Hong Kong Police Force, “Property of a Hong Kong Gentleman, Art Crime in Hong Kong – Buyer Beware”;
Ruth Godthelp, PhD Candidate Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam, Senior Police officer art related crime, Amsterdam Police, “The nature of crimes against Arts, Antiques and Cultural Heritage: A description of art-related crime in the Netherlands”;
Saskia Hufnagel, Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security, “Shifting Responsibilities: The Intersection of Public and Private Policing in the Area of Art Crime”;
James Moore, retired trial lawyer and student of Caravaggio, “The Outrageous Theft of Caravaggio’s Masterpiece The Nativity with Saint Francis and Saint Lawrence“;
James Bond, ARCA Alumnus, Certificate 2011, “The Theft of Rare Books from the largest Home in the United States”;
Chris Dobson, Former Master Armourer to the Royal Armouries at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, “Claiming Fake ‘Fakes’ in the Trade in Arms and Armour”;
Stefano Alessandrini and Derek Fincham will lead a discussion on the Fano Athlete/Getty Bronze;
Joris Kila, Senior Researcher at the University of Amsterdam, ARCA award winner 2012, “An update on Armed Conflict and Heritage”;
Nicholas M. O’Donnell, Partner with Sullivan & Worcester LLP, “American Wartime Art Restitution Litigation in the 1990s and Beyond– Has it All Been Worth it?”
Jerker Rydén, Senior Legal Advisor Royal Library of Sweden, “Skullduggering in the Stacks: Recovering stolen books for the Royal Library of Sweden”;
Judith Harris, author and free-lance journalist, regular contributor to the New York monthly ARTnews, “The Role of Collectors”;
Felicity Strong, PhD Candidate, University of Melbourne, “The mythology of the art forger”;
Joshua Nelson, MA Candidate in Art & Visual Culture, University of Guelph, “Framing the Picture: The Canadian Print Media’s Construction of an Atypical Crime and its Victims”;
Theodosia latsi, MA in Global Criminology, Utrecht University, “The Art of Stealing: The Case of Museum Thefts in the Netherlands”;
Verity Algar, Art History Student, University College London, “Cultural memory and the restitution of cultural property: Comparing Nazi-looted art and Melanesian malanggan”;
Giulia Mezzi, PhD Candidate University of Reading, “The origins of Cultural Heritage Protection in Italy, a historical survey”
Carrie Johnson, JD Candidate South Texas College of Law, “Cultural Property in Crisis: Whose Burden is it?”
Alesia Koush, Foundation Romualdo Del Bianco-Life Beyond Tourism in Florence, MA Candidate at the University of Cologna under Prof. Luciano Carrino, “The Right to Culture”; and
Cynthia Roholt, JD Candidate South Texas College of Law, “Human Remains: Permission and Plastination”.
The conference will open with cocktails at Palazzo Farrattini on Friday evening, June 21. The speakers will present at Chiosto Boccarini on Saturday and Sunday. Imbedded in the conference will be tthe ARCA Award Presentations: Art Policing and Recovery Award to Sharon Cohen Levin, Chief of the Asset Forfeiture Unit in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York; Art Protection and Security Award to Christos Tsirogiannis, Archaeologist, Illicit antiquities researcher, University of Cambridge, former member of the Hellenic Ministry of Justice; Eleanor and Anthony Vallombroso Award for Art Crime Scholarship to Duncan Chappell, Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney, Australia; and the Lifetime Achievement in Defense of Art to Bianco Nino Norton, Consultant Petén Development Project for the conservation of the Maya Biosphere Reserve, Ministry of Environment of Natural Resources/BID, Delegation of World Heritage Guatemala, Treasurer ICOMOS Guatemala, Presently serving as a Council Member for ICCROM.
To attend, please just RSVP to me at derek.fincham@gmail.com
Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com
That Picasso Vandal was Sentenced to two years in prison
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In the informal straw poll I’ve taken with Houston artists, art student and all-around jerk Uriel Landeros is universally reviled.
In June last year he spray painted a work by Picasso, woman in a Red Armchair, at the Menil here in Montrose. His lawyer attempted to partially defend the crime by arguing he was making an artistic statement. I find that a particularly unconvincing defense, as it seems the sentencing judge did as well.
A video of the damage was posted on youtube and Landeros fled to Mexico. But he turned himself in at the border in January, and agreed to plead guilty to a graffiti charge. He was sentenced to two years, but with his 5 months already served he may be eligible for parole soon. Glasstire reports that he may be planning to return to the University of Houston for his final semester.
Here’s hoping he’s denied admittance to Houston’s museums. And he can’t use this notoriety to further his art career.
- Paula Newton, Picasso Vandal Sentenced to Two Years, Glasstire (May 21, 2013).
Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com
Jason Felch Updates the Southland Antiquities Investigation
In Sunday’s LA Times, Jason Felch reports on a languishing federal antiquities investigation. In 2008 there was a loud showy raid on five museums in Southern California, including: the Bowers Museum, the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, the Mingei Museum, and the LA County Museum of Art. We are now five years since those raids, which resulted in the seizure of 10,000 objects, but has not resulted in any objects being returned, or even in any prosecutions. At least not yet. Which is strange, because if agents display such force in searching and seizing material in a simultaneous early morning raid, surely that investigation should bear fruit.
One reason for that is the death of those under investigation. Some of those are the result of natural causes. But not the sad death of Roxanna Brown—a witness for investigators and later a target—who died while in federal custody, in a shameful display of federal mismanagement. Here is a full history of Brown:
Roxanna Brown’s story: Part I, Part II, Part III and settlement.
Many who follow this investigation probably echo Prof. Stephen Urice, professor at the University of Miami Law School, who is quoted:
I’m baffled . . . Given the amount of illicit antiquities moving through the U.S. borders, these guys are really hacks. Surely there must be more significant people out there.
Felch reports that a criminal case against two men will begin in June: Robert Olson, aged 84; and Marc Pettibone, 62. Prosecutors allege that both men conspired to bribe officials in Thailand to secure export, and that the objects were then sold in the United States. And they would then use inflated appraisals for the objects and would secure excessive tax deductions for their donation.
All in all a troubling story on many levels. Few would dispute the staggering amount of objects which are being removed from Southeast Asia. But the prosecution and this investigation may be even more troubling. Its been a long investigation, with some very bad outcomes. The tragic death of targets of federal investigation is a growing trend in antiquities prosecutions. Think also of the three suicides which took place after the display of federal force in the four-corners antiquities investigation.
We can’t of course blame federal investigators and prosecutors entirely, but they do share blame here, and if as many argue we are using these prosecutions to deter future smuggling, looting, and tax fraud, well the deterrent impact is very much in doubt. Criminologists can articulate this better than I, but a well-established truth that irregular regulation, even one which results in custodial sentences, cannot effectively deter. And when there is such a pall of controversy over these federal investigations, it may actually ossify the attitudes of individuals in the trade that they are being unfairly and unjustly targeted.
- Jason Felch, Stolen-artifacts case has cost much, yielded little, critics say, Los Angeles Times, May 18, 2013.
Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com
