Category: Antiquities

Antiquities Seized in Macedonia

The AP is reporting on a seizure of “dozens” of antiquities yesterday in Macedonia:

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Authorities have seized dozens of stolen ancient artifacts after raiding the homes of two suspected antiquities smugglers in southern Macedonia.

Police confiscated about 70 archaeological items, including coins, terracotta figurines, pieces of silver and bronze jewelry and amphora dating from the Hellenistic and Roman periods in the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C., police spokesman Ivo Kotevski said Wednesday.

They are believed to have been stolen from Isar, one of Macedonia’s largest archaeological sites in the south…

Macedonia has some 6,000 registered archaeological sites. Experts warn that since the country gained independence from Yugoslavia 17 years ago, the antiquities have become increasingly vulnerable to looters who use sophisticated navigation and excavating equipment.

I think the interesting aspect may be the difficulty the new Macedonian republic has had policing its archaeological sites. These former Yugoslav republics have had to dramatically ramp up their heritage protection after their independence. One wonders perhaps if they might begin to make calls for repatriation of objects?

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

AP: Antiquities Trade "Growing problem at US Ports"

Tamara Lush has an overview of antiquities coming through US ports:

_ On Monday, federal authorities will repatriate some 1,000 items, including a rare temple marker worth $100,000, to Iraq. On June 7, 2001, ICE agents in New York received information from the Art Loss Register that a Sumerian Foundation Cone, buried under a Babylonian temple, was being sold by auction at Christie’s New York. ICE New York agents seized the artifact from Christie’s and discovered that it, and several other items in the U.S., had been stolen from the Baghdad Museum and other locations at the end of the first Gulf War.

_ In May, four tons of fossils from Argentina — including 200-million-year-old dinosaur eggs, egg shell fragments, petrified pine cones and fossilized prehistoric crabs — were seized by federal agents in Tucson, Ariz. Authorities said a corporation based in Argentina had brought the fossils into the country. No arrests have been made, but the fossils were repatriated.

_ In February, an Army pilot was arrested and charged with stealing 370 pre-dynastic artifacts from the Ma’adi Museum near Cairo, Egypt, and selling them to an art dealer in Texas for $20,000. The artifacts, dating to 3000 B.C. and earlier, were originally discovered during excavations in Egypt in the 1920s and 1930s. The pilot, Edward George Johnson, pleaded guilty in June and is awaiting sentencing.

Lush does not follow her argument to its logical extension though. She notes the new AAM and AAMD guidelines, as well as the difficulty ICE agents and others have in establishing criminal wrongdoing. She fails to note looted antiquities can still slip through this patchwork regulatory framework because of the paucity of accurate provenance information given in antiquities transactions.

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

Complex Profile of Roxanna Brown


The LA Times Jason Felch has written a fascinating series on Roxanna Brown, the expert in Asian pottery who died in federal custody. She was the first person arrested in the massive searches in Southern California early this year.

These are highly-recommended for anyone interested in this investigation and the antiquities trade generally:

Part 1: a passion for art, a perilous pursuit

Part 2: Her career revived, scholar turns tipster

Part 3: Once an aid in a federal probe, antiquities scholar becomes a key target

It’s a nuanced picture of a complicated life which met a tragic end. A couple of things will jump out when you read the series. First, it seems she aided the initial stages of the federal investigation. However she wasn’t entirely forthright and it soon became clear that she was complicit in the criminal activity as well:

In an e-mail dated April 2002 that bears her name, she confirmed that she had received $14,000 in cash from Olson for a prehistoric bronze. Two months later, another e-mail from Brown advised Olson’s grandson of a Thai bank account to which additional money could be sent.

Brown’s role in the alleged scheme had continued even after she had helped investigators uncover it, the correspondence suggests.

Perhaps most disturbing though is the account of her federal detention, and her serious illness which perhaps could have been prevented with proper emergency care. In response Brown’s family has filed a lawsuit.

What emerges is one complicated story. Brown is a sympathetic figure in many ways, immersing herself in Asian culture and Buddhism; studying ancient ceramics, and becoming one of the World’s experts on the subject. But there are a number of indications that she violated the law, and was an active participant in smuggling and in the laundering of illicit antiquities.

The question I’m left with is: what training are antiquities experts given on the ethical obligations they have when they appraise and do scholarly work. Are there professional standards for antiquities experts outside the general AAMD or AAM guidelines?

In the legal profession, we are constantly reminded of our ethical obligations and the consequences for violating those rules. If lawyers violate them, they are sanctioned and if they violations are serious enough they are removed from the profession.

Brown did her graduate work when she was in her fifties at UCLA. Are there programs to instill ethical rules in these experts? I’d be very grateful if folks would drop me an email or leave a comment if these do exist, and if they don’t whether they should.

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

Antiquities Seized in Peru


Authorities in Peru have seized 740 pre-Columbian antiquities which were being sold in a souvenir shop in Cuzco. The antiquities shop was located across the street from Cuzco’s Incan Museum. This would seem to be the kind of thing Peruvian officials should be monitoring, and perhaps they were. However it seems it was actually an international news agency which reportedly spotted a promotional video, and the Peruvian Foreign Affairs Ministry was notified about the objects.

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

"Acquiring and Maintaining Collections of Cultural Objects: Challenges Confronting American Museums in the 21st Century" Chicago

Forthcoming Symposium at De Paul in October:

8th Annual Symposium
Acquiring and Maintaining Collections of Cultural Objects: Challenges
Confronting American Museums in the 21st Century

Museums face increasingly difficult challenges in collecting cultural
objects-challenges that must be dealt with in ways that are consistent
with best practices. On October 16, 2008, DePaul University College of
Law will hold a major conference where leading experts will examine the
basic rules of nonprofit museum governance and how those rules apply to
the growing challenge of collecting cultural property in light of new
laws, court decisions and professional ethical guidelines; evolving
museum practices and standards in collecting antiquities; sovereign
immunity and immunity of art works; and the need for further standards
for donor/collector museum relationships.

OCTOBER 16, 2008
DePaul Center, Room 8005
1 E. Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois
8:30 AM – 5:30 PM

Registration

www.law.depaul.edu/museum http://ciplit.cmail2.com/l/499054/615d46d4/j>

Co-sponsors

Andrews Kurth LLP http://ciplit.cmail2.com/l/499054/615d46d4/t>
The Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation
http://ciplit.cmail2.com/l/499054/615d46d4/i>
Herrick Feinstein http://ciplit.cmail2.com/l/499054/615d46d4/d>

DePaul University College of Law is an accredited Illinois MCLE
provider. The Symposium has been approved for 6 hours of CLE credit.

Featured Speakers

Joseph Brennan
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/museum_info/executive_profiles_brennan.htm>
, Vice President and General Counsel, Field Museum of Natural History

Patty Gerstenblith
http://www.law.depaul.edu/faculty_staff/faculty_information.asp?id=16>
, Professor, DePaul University College of Law

Julie Getzels, Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, Art
Institute of Chicago

Gary T. Johnson, President, Chicago Historical Society

Thomas Kline
http://www.law.depaul.edu/centers_institutes/ciplit/museum/kline.asp> ,
Partner, Andrews Kurth LLP

Stephen J. Knerly, Jr. Esq., Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP

Jennifer Kreder
http://www.law.depaul.edu/centers_institutes/ciplit/museum/kreder.asp>
, Professor, Northern Kentucky University Chase College of Law

Richard Leventhal
http://www.law.depaul.edu/centers_institutes/ciplit/museum/leventhal.as
p> , Professor, University of Pennsylvania

Jane Levine, Senior Vice President and Worldwide Director of Compliance,
Sotheby’s

Louise Lincoln, Director, DePaul University Art Museum

Dan Monroe
http://www.law.depaul.edu/centers_institutes/ciplit/museum/monroe.asp>
, Director, Peabody Essex Museum

Rhoda Rosen, Director, Spertus Museum

John Russell, Professor, Massachusetts College of Art and Design

Howard Spiegler, Partner, Herrick Feinstein, New York

Martin Sullivan, Director, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery

Susan M. Taylor, Former Director, Princeton University Art Museum

Stephen Urice, Professor, University of Miami School of Law

Laina Lopez, Attorney, Berliner Corcoran & Rowe

————————————————————————
———–

Program starts at 8:30 a.m. and reception will follow at 4:30 p.m.

For more information go to www.law.depaul.edu/museum
http://ciplit.cmail2.com/l/499054/615d46d4/1> or contact:

Ellen Gutiontov, Esq., Associate Director CIPLIT
eguti…@depaul.edu or (312) 362-5124

Vadim Shifrin, Assistant Director, CIPLIT
vshif…@depaul.edu or (312) 362-8415

DePaul University College of Law
http://ciplit.cmail2.com/l/499054/615d46d4/h>
25 East Jackson Boulevard * Chicago * Illinois * 60604 * 312.362.8701

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

Returning a Stolen Eye

Zahi Hawass has announced Switzerland will return a 19 inch eye from this statue of Amenhotep III, according to AFP.  The statue was uncovered in 1970, and the eye was stolen in 1972.  Hawass said the eye was sold to an American antiquities dealer; who auctioned it at Sotheby’s; then it was bought by a German antiquities dealer; and it ended up in a museum in Basel, Switzerland.  That’s the typical journey of a stolen or illegally excavated antiquity. 

It’s a very good thing this eye is being returned — seemingly in an amicable way.  The wire story raises more questions though:  will the Swiss museum receive loans or other compensation; who are these dealers; are they still buying and selling objects. 

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

On Art Crime

Last week Noah Charney had a very good article in ARTINFO on the four main types of art crime, including art theft, forgery/deception, vandalism, and antiquities looting. He argues art crime is increasing:

For centuries, art crime was relatively harmless, at least from the perspective of the global economy and international crime. Forgers fooled the occasional buyer, tomb raiders dug up what archaeologists didn’t have time to reach, and the occasional nonviolent thief would steal for reasons more often ideological than fiscal. Even vandalism was dismissed as part and parcel of the ravages of war.

But since the Second World War, art crime has evolved into the third-highest–grossing annual criminal trade worldwide, behind only the drug and arms trades. Most art crime is now perpetrated either by or on behalf of organized crime syndicates, who have brought violence into art theft and turned what was once a crime of passion (think of Vincenzo Peruggia‘s stealing the Mona Lisa in order to repatriate it to Italy, or Kempton Bunton‘s stealing Goya’s Portrait of the Duke of Wellington as a protest against taxes on television sets) into a cold business. Art crime now funds, and is funded by, organized crime’s other enterprises, from the drug and arms trades to terrorism. It is no longer merely the art that is at stake, and it is no longer a crime to be admired for its elegance.

I think he’s right on for the most part. I think we can apply some pressure to one of his assertions, that is often mentioned in the press. I don’t think there’s any way to state with confidence that art theft is the third-largest grossing criminal activity, as I’ve argued before. Something like automobile theft surely cracks the top 3 in terms of mere monetary value. But I do think if we incorporate the intangible or cultural value of works, then perhaps art theft (including antiquities looting) may in fact be near the third-largest.

(Hat tip: Art Law Blog)

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

No Cosmopolitanism in Iowa?


There has been a surprising amount of uproar over the University of Iowa considering deacessioning this work, Jackson Pollock’s Mural. Tyler Green and Lee Rosenbaum have both weighed in, both fairly critical of the potential sale. I can see their point, these works develop a presence in a way, and people have a relationship with a work of art that continues to bring them back to an art museum. However, circumstances change, and there are some very good reasons for considering the sale or partial transfer of a work of art. I tend to agree with Donn Zaretsky on this when he says:

I know I seem to lack the deaccessioning-outrage gene, but my first reaction to hearing about a possible deal with the DMAC is, “What’s so bad about that?” If $100 million or so could go to the University to help it deal with its flood-related problems, with the Pollock moving a mere 115 miles down the road (plus a promise to “allow UIMA to show the painting occasionally”), how exactly does that amount to a catastrophe?

Indeed, there may not be anything wrong with such a decision, and we can’t know what artists or benefactors would have wanted these museums to do with these works when confronted with serious financial pressures. However I find it very interesting that many of the calls for anti-deaccessioning are very contrary to the kind of art cosmopolitanism and sharing of art and culture that many have advocated, notably James Cuno.

In theory the idea of sharing art and culture is a very good idea, but there are always complications, and in the end local communities, arts patrons, and even large nations want to keep their art. People don’t like to see beautiful works leave, especially under bad circumstances — like they may not be protected from looters adequately, or people are breaking the law, or a catastrophic flood has forced them to.

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

Community Archaeology Conference

Via the Portable Antiquities Scheme Blog, I noticed there is an upcoming community archaeology conference in early 2009:

Community Archaeology in South West England
Free Conference held at Exeter University on the 21st of February 2009.

For abstract submissions and registration please see their website or contact Faye Simpson at fs216@exeter.ac.uk.

The South West of England has a plethora of innovative community archaeology projects working within the region to provide archaeological outreach to local communities. These archaeological outreach and education projects are varied in both there approaches and organisation. They range from ‘grass roots’ projects initiated and organised by interested amateurs, individuals and local societies, to ‘top down approaches’ by commercial archaeology firms and universities. Furthermore, they include a range of hands on activities such as standing building surveys, historical research, field-walking, oral history projects, excavations and finds processing, to name just a few.

As hosts, the Heritage Lottery Fund and University of Exeter’s Exploring Archaeology Project (XArch), provides the means in which the conference can act as a forum to discuss the variety of community initiatives in the South West of England, and assess how they work in practice. It will also open up communication between these different individuals, groups and organisations as to where the future lies for community archaeology in this region, and investigate the possibility of partnerships between these groups and projects.

Abstracts for papers should be no longer the 200 words in length and should be received by the 30.09.08.

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

Protection, Preservation and Commodification

Italy has been making tremendous strides of late in securing the return of objects. A major tenet underlying these successful repatriation claims has been the idea that by cutting off buyers of illicitly excavated objects, and by ensuring objects are not entering major museum collections, the demand for the illicit trade will be substantially reduced.

This is an important policy shift, and has unquestionably altered the cultural property policy landscape. However I think its worth asking if nations like Italy are following through with their aspirations, and if everything is being done to preserve sites and archaeological context. It stands to reason that more nations of origin will be adopting this Italian strategy, but we should ask ourselves if perhaps these efforts are looking at only one part of the problem.

In fact as I tried to point out last week, it looks like more nations of origin will be banding together and attempting perhaps to negotiate as a bloc, in much the same way that OPEC has dominated the world’s supply of oil. TIME Magazine’s Richard Lacayo in his “Looking Around” blog responded to my assertion by rightly pointing out that “OPEC is powerful because it sits on top of a natural resource that, at the end of the day, the world requires. Antiquities source nations have…..antiquities.”

He’s right of course that there isn’t nearly the same demand for antiquities as for a commodity like oil, but nations of origin do need market states in a number of ways which aren’t often fully appreciated. Italy, though it was very forceful in its recent negotiations with the Getty, the Met, and the MFA Boston chose not to use all of the legal ammunition it perhaps could have, and even reached very generous reciprocal loan agreements in exchange for the repatriated objects. The obvious question is: why be so accommodating if there were such powerful ethical principles and photographic evidence which called for the return of these objects?

The answer I think is that these nations need good relationships with other nations, and one of the major reasons is the enormous tourist dollars visitors from America (and elsewhere) can bring to these nations. Capitalizing on this tourism can have a heavy price however.
Adam L. Freeman has an excellent article on Bloomberg in which he details the struggle Italian authorities have had in properly caring for Pompeii (pictured above), “Chunks of frescoes depicting life in the Roman city are missing, carried away by visitors or eroded by the elements. Graffiti is gouged into walls. Tourists ignore signs forbidding flash photography as they take pictures of erotic designs inside the Lupanare, an ancient brothel.” This all comes as Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi attempts to cut expenditures, with the Culture Ministry likely to receive heavy cuts after the former government cut protection by 20 percent this year already. In fact, Italy has declared a state of emeregency for the ancient city and appointed Renato Profili former head policeman for Naples to oversee the situation.
Profili is quoted “It’s obvious that there is an emergency in a country like Italy where there’s so much to protect and so little money to do it.” This despite the 33 million euros generated by all the tourists who visit the city.

Other nations are having similar struggles. Robert Turnbull a few weeks ago in the New York Times details a museum/retail mall development in Cambodia near Angkor Wat, pictured here.

There aren’t easy answers of course, but merely returning objects to nations of origins won’t by itself protect sites, heritage and context.

The valuable tourist dollars which these sites bring in can help alleviate the situation, but it also carries with it the distasteful tradeoffs, such as the commodification of heritage, and the wear-and-tear which millions of visitors will always cause. Hopefully nations of origin will be able to move beyond the dramatic repatriations, which are a necessary step, and continue to work to preserve the sites themselves.

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