Antiquities – Page 15 – Illicit Cultural Property

Cleveland Museum of Art to Unveil its Apollo

Steven Litt reports on this bronze Apollo acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) in 2004 for a reported $5 million. It may be the only surviving original work by the Greek master Praxiteles.

In fact it is slated to be the centerpiece of the CMA’s renovated classical gallery. Given the CMA’s returns to Italy of a number of other objects, and the recent acquisition of this piece, there was a joint scientific study of the statue. Reportedly, evidence suggests the sculpture has been excavated for perhaps 100 years, though Greece has argued it was salvaged from the Adriatic in the 1990s and then illegally sold. The history of the object seems suspect to say the least. Its recent history stems from Ernst-Ulrich Walter, a retired German lawyer who said he found the statue lying in pieces when he recovered his family’s estate in the former East Germany.

It was then sold to a Dutch art dealer, then sold to the Phoenix Ancient art gallery which then sold it on to the CMA. We have no idea where or how this stunning statue was unearthed. What a tragedy that its history is unknown. This could be one of only 30 large bronzes from the ancient Greeks which survived to modern times, or it might very well be a forgery. There is no contextual information. Was it really in pieces for 100 years? There is no evidence it was stolen, looted or illegally exported. Rather, there exists a paucity of information about its origins and a curious recent history. That is not enough to base a legal claim, and the CMA are confident enough about the object that they ave decided to make it the centerpiece of their ancient galleries which opened Saturday. Yet the CMA have not been real eager to release all the collecting details for the bronze.

Prof. Patty Gerstenblith wonders at the end of the piece “I don’t know who they’re protecting by secrecy.” The question may be rhetorical, as we don’t know perhaps exactly how the bronze came to Cleveland, but the fewer questions the museum asks about the history of this bronze, the easier it will be for the museum to keep the bronze.

Steven Litt, Cleveland Museum of Art’s Apollo sculpture is a star with intriguing past, Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 20, 2010, http://www.cleveland.com/arts/index.ssf/2010/06/cleveland_museum_of_arts_apoll.html (last visited Jun 21, 2010).

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Indianapolis Museum of Art to Receive Loan of Roman Antiquities

An image of a Vigna Codini Columbarium

Some good news for Museums and nations of origin. The Indianapolis Museum of Art has issued a press release to announce a loan of ancient sculptures from the Museo Nazionale Romano beginning in January 2011. The loans are for a renewable two-year period and include three life-size portrait busts and a marble funerary urn from the Vigna Codini Columbarium, which the release describes as an important Roman tomb discovered in 1847.

Max Anderson of the IMA really nails the importance of these agreements when he states in the release that “American museums have few examples of ancient art which can be displayed with their complete context understood . . . The Vigna Codini Tomb contents from the Julio-Claudian and Flavian periods open a window to understanding that only long-term loans can provide, since the inadequate ownership history is no longer acceptable.” This is what a licit antiquities trade could be. We know where the objects originated, how they came to the museum; visitors will see the context; all in a “universal” museum.

The release notes that these are the types of loans the Memorandum of Understanding between Italy and the United States was meant to promote. Those interested in the MOU and the practical impact it has or has not had should look to the recent edited volume, Criminology and Archaeology (Simon Mackenzie and Penny Green, 2009). I review the volume in the Spring issue of the Journal of Art Crime. Of particular interest is Gordon Lobay’s contribution, which looks empirically at how the U.S.-Italy MOU has made an impact on the antiquities market—at least the observable licit market.

Italy to Loan Roman Sculptures to the Indianapolis Museum of Art, IMA (2010), http://www.imamuseum.org/sites/default/files/VignaCodiniFinal.pdf.

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

More Reactions to the "Medici Dossier"

Kimberley Alderman starts a discussion on whether Italy should release all the images in the “Medici Dossier”.

Christie’s is being criticized for leaving on the auction block three items which have been alleged by archaeologists and an Italian prosecutor to have originated from the famous and illicit antiquities trader, Giacomo Medici. Italy, however, has not submitted a formal request for repatriation of the objects to the U.S. government or even a title claim to Christie’s.

She offers some strong comments from attorney William G. Pearlstein:

What the Italians are doing is outrageous. They are deliberately withholding the Medici files from the public, allowing hot pieces to remain in circulation and then playing up every seizure for maximum publicity value. They continue to play the role of victim when actually they have became cynical predators on American institutions that want nothing more than to do the right thing.

David Gill responds with his typical pointed questions about diligence for buyers, Christies, and collecting histories. I think many good points are made here, and we need to have an open conversation about what role the market and auction houses can or should play in this trade. Damage is done, demand remains high, and the current rules aren’t preventing destruction or producing an honest market. I’ve argued that auction houses need to be held to a higher standerd, because they act as heritage market makers, and the fact that an object comes up for auction means something, and is an important event in the history of an objects such that increased liability should attach when these objects are found to be lost or stolen.

David Gill, Christie’s, the Medici Dossier and William G. Pearlstein Looting matters (2010), http://lootingmatters.blogspot.com/2010/06/christies-medici-dossier-and-william-g.html (last visited Jun 7, 2010).
Kimberley Alderman, Is Italy “Asking For It” By Refusing to Release the Medici Photographs? Three items at Christie’s raise questions « The Cultural Property and Archaeology Law Blog, http://culturalpropertylaw.wordpress.com/2010/06/06/is-italy-asking-for-it-by-refusing-to-release-the-medici-photographs-three-items-at-christies-raise-questions/ (last visited Jun 7, 2010).

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Princeton Curator the Focus of Criminal Investigation

In 2007 Princeton University Art Museum agreed to return four antiquities to Italy, and hold four others on loan for four years. This came during a wave of negotiated returns from American museums like the MFA Boston, the Met, the Getty, and others.

Now the N.Y. Times is reporting that Italian prosecutors are focusing on Michael Padgett, an antiquities curator at Princeton University along with Edoardo Almagià, an antiquities dealer.

It should come as no surprise that Italian authorities are investigating Almagià, as ICE agents seized “archaeological material” from his apartment in 2006. More surprising perhaps are the charges brought against Padgett, the curator at Princeton. Charges were brought against Marion True, a curator at the Getty, whose trial has been slowly progressing for the last five years. There were indications or perhaps only assumptions that she would be the lone curator charged.

This should be an interesting investigation to watch develop. The True investigation has certainly had a dramatic impact on the antiquities trade.

From a practical matter, I wonder what was contained in the settlement agreements with Italy and these museums. Was there no discussion of immunity for curators who may have acquired some of these objects which are being returned?

Hugh Eakin, Italy Focuses on a Princeton Curator in an Antiquities Investigation, The New York Times, June 2, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/arts/design/03curator.html?pagewanted=all (last visited Jun 3, 2010).

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Why Can’t the Public see the Medici Polaroids

The Euphronios Krater, which passed through Medici

I’ll offer my best guess, and invite any comments below. First, a little background. In 1995 authorities seized a number of looted antiquities and photographs from the freeport warehouse of Giacomo Medici. The investigtion was chronicled in Peter Watson’s The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities–From Italy’s Tomb Raiders to the World’s Greatest Museums. These photographs continue to play a role when antiquities are auctioned, particularly when auctioned objects correspond to these photographs. They are released intermittently. Francesco Rutelli discussed a few of them at the ARCA Conference in July of 2009.

David Gill calls these antiquities “toxic” and cautions dealers and auction houses to perform “ultra-rigorous due diligence searches” when these objects correspond to the Medici polaroids. Mark Durney has confirmed with the Art Loss Register that the Medici archive is registered on its database, but “it only has half of the total number of photographs that were said to have been seized from Medici’s warehouse”. Mark then asks how many pictures (and more importantly how many discrete objects were photographed): “Were there in fact 4,000 photographs recovered from Medici’s warehouse?” So we have a rough estimate of some 14,000 images, only some of which may have been included in the Art Loss Register. Mark asks:

Why have the estimated 14,000 photographs seized from various Swiss warehouses not yet been made available to the public? Clearly, one of Interpol’s intentions when it opened its database to the public in August 2009 was to increase the public’s awareness of a fast-growing problem. Full and open disclosure of significant photographic evidence related to looting and the illicit antiquities trade, such as the Medici archive, would be in the interests of preserving cultural heritage. Only then will we be able to publicly examine the realities and challenges inherent in that goal.

So many of these photographs have not been publicly released. Some may not even have been given to the ALR. Why not? I’ll offer my best guess. Because if there is a publicly available, search-able database of these Medici images, then there is a limited effect to the images. They can only be used to limit the sale of objects which were actually looted and photographed. By reserving and holding on to the images, the authorities now have a kind of “penumbra” to impact the market for the antiquities which have been photographed, but also any object which might plausibly have passed through Medici’s warehouse.

But this causes its own problems. There are not really any negative consequences when an auction house puts an object up for sale and then is asked to withdraw it. There may be some negative publicity, but surely this must be factored into the cost of auctioning these objects. What a mess of a market.

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Auction Houses and the Sale of Heritage

“You have to know the dirty tricks, there are dirty tricks”.

So says Claude Pariset an antiques dealer from Champagne, discussing the art trade in the New York Times yesterday.

A number of recent stories of this ilk continue to show why the auction house system of the sale of art and antiquities, with its anonymous sellers and buyers has had devastating consequences on our heritage. As I’ve argued, these auction houses play an important role in the market, know exactly what they are doing, and yet the anonymity continues to shield their practices, and allow for the sale of looted and stolen pieces of heritage.

First, an update on the wrongdoing at the Hôtel Drouot auction house in Paris. Late last year French authorities had uncovered stolen artworks, and an art-trafficking network. Now there are further reports of corruption, including faking bids, collusion to keep prices down, and theft as well.

This comes as Bonham’s auction house tries to find some antiquities to sell in its auction today. It has withdrawn a marble statue which was included amongst the notorious Medici polaroids. It has also withdrawn some Roman funerary sculptures that bore signs that they had recently been illegally excavated, pictured above. An Anglo-Saxon stone was also removed from auction.

After concerned authorities and archaeologists contacted Bonham’s, these objects have all been withdrawn from auction. But that does not mean they won’t be sold again privately, and does not mean that we know who the sellers were.

Scott Sayare, Chatter of Swindles and Scams at Auction House, The New York Times, April 26, 2010.
Dalya Alberge, Roman sculptures withdrawn from auction amid fears they are stolen, The Guardian, April 27, 2010.
Mike Pitts, Save our Anglo-Saxon stone!, The Guardian, April 24, 2010.

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Student Note on "Cultural Pragmatism"

Matthew Hoffman, J.D. candidate at the University of Iowa has an article, Cultural Pragmatism: A New Approach to the International Movement of Antiquities, 95 Iowa L. Rev 667 (2010). Here is his abstract:

ABSTRACT: Since World War II, the debate between cultural internationalists and cultural nationalists has shaped international cultural-property law. Recently, some American museums, engaged in their enduring struggle to balance a mission of public education and scholarly study with the increasing risk of acquiring artifacts of disputed provenance, began to promote a middle ground of “cooperation, mutual understanding, and respect” between acquiring museums and source countries that builds upon the goals of the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. This new approach, defined here as “cultural pragmatism” attempts to bridge the impasse between advocates of the two opposing doctrines that has resulted from the adversarial climate following the Second Circuit’s decision in United States v. Schultz and the new power of foreign patrimony laws to reach antiquities imported into the United States. This Note analyzes the new approach and offers the classification system of the Japanese Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties as a means to its further implementation.

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Yet Another Suicide Connected to Four-Corners Antiquities Investigation

The informant who was instrumental in the federal antiquities investigation in the Southwest has committed suicide. This comes after two others accused of wrongdoing killed themselves.

From the AP:

The undercover operative who helped federal officials build a case against more than two dozen people for allegedly looting American Indian artifacts in the Southwest has apparently committed suicide.

Two defendants in the case killed themselves last year.

Police say 52-year-old Ted Dan Gardiner shot himself Monday at a home in a Salt Lake City suburb. He shares the name, date of birth and address of the man identified in court documents as the informant in the case that led to indictments against 26 people.

Gardiner worked with the FBI and the Bureau of Land Management for more than two years, coordinating deals with artifacts collectors, dealers and diggers in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.

Gardiner’s father and his son told The Associated Press on Tuesday that they could not explain his death. The FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office in Salt Lake City declined comment.

Two defendants — a Santa Fe, N.M., salesman and a prominent Blanding, Utah, physician, James Redd — committed suicide after their arrests in June.

Gardiner, an antiquities dealer, offered in 2006 to help federal authorities set up what turned into a long-running sting operation in the black-market trade in prehistoric relics. Court papers say he was typically paid $7,500 a month for secretly recording transactions across the Southwest for more than two years.

He was still being paid for helping agents prepare for court cases, and he was to receive more money if he had testified. Gardiner had received $162,000 in payments plus expenses, for a total of $224,000, when most of the arrests were made in June.

Federal authorities and Gardiner, who also ran an [artifact] authentication business, have insisted he was never in trouble with the law.

Unified Police Sgt. Don Hutson says a preliminary autopsy shows Gardiner’s gunshot wound was probably self-inflicted. An officer fired a round during a standoff Monday night, but it didn’t hit Gardiner.

Deputies were called to Gardiner’s home Saturday night on a report that he was suicidal, Hutson said. Gardiner was transported for mental health treatment and his gun was taken away. Gardiner used another gun Monday night.

Gardiner’s father, Dan Gardiner, declined further comment Tuesday, handing over the phone to one of Ted Gardiner’s sons, who said, “We don’t know any more than you.” The son declined to give his name.

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Piecing Together the Origin of Ancient Gold

Interesting story on some ancient gold jewelry currently held by the University of Pennsylvania. Twenty of the gold objects are on display at the Bowers Museum. The Bowers website touts these objects as Trojan gold excavated by Heinrich Schliemann. However the history of the objects is unknown:

George Allen of Hesperia Art, a few blocks from Rittenhouse Square, approached the museum with a rare opportunity: the chance to purchase 24 gold pieces that he said were from ancient Troy.
Allen had no evidence to back up his claim that the gold was of Trojan origin, other than what the museum’s curators could see with their own eyes. The earrings and other baubles were in the same style as the famous objects found by Schliemann.

The pieces were so similar that initially the curators thought they might be from the Schliemann collection – which was still missing, its loss mourned by art historians worldwide.

In addition, the objects for sale bore tantalizing similarities to golden artifacts from another ancient stronghold: the royal Mesopotamian city of Ur, in what is now Iraq. Scholars already had theorized the existence of a trade network between the two civilizations. The new items, though they lacked a paper trail, seemed to support that theory.

“The purchase of this collection is urgently recommended,” Penn curator Rodney Young wrote in a March 1966 memo to the museum’s board.

Young also acknowledged that the items had an unsavory aspect, probably having been “looted by peasants and dealers.”

Museum officials decided to buy the pieces, for $10,000. But evidently they had misgivings.
Four years later, in 1970, the museum announced it would no longer acquire undocumented objects, arguing that such acquisitions encouraged the “wholesale destruction of archaeological sites.”

Tom Avril, Tracing ancient roots of Penn Museum’s gold, PHILADELPHIA ENQ., January 31, 2010.

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Cyprus Antiquities Smugglers Discovered

Police in Cyprus have detained ten people over the weekend and are looking for five more after the discovery of an international antiquities-smuggling ring believed to be the largest such discovery in Cyprus’s history. The objects seized may be worth more than 11m euros, and include pottery, coins, figurines, some of which may be 4,000 years old. Many of the objects may have originated elsewhere, and authorities now are attempting to determine the origins of many of the objects. The BBC points out that Cyprus was an important crossroads in the ancient Mediterranean, with armies and merchants from Egypt, the Roman Empire, Persia, and others. This may make it difficult to trace the origin of these objects, many of which could plausibly have originated from dozens of modern-day nations. The smugglers of course were likely to have disguised or destroyed any evidence of the history of these objects.

Cyprus smuggling ring broken up, BBC, January 25, 2010.

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com