Category: Antiquities

An OPEC for Nations of Origin? (LATE UPDATE)

OPEC is the organization of oil-producing countries which regulates their production, price, etc. A number of people have suggested that perhaps a similar movement should be adopted among nations of origin for antiquities loans, repatriations, and perhaps even licit sales. It would seem to be a terrific strategy for these nations to combine their efforts, so long as they can agree upon similar strategies. A few items in the news and among other blogs point to the emergence of such a collaboration.
First, Italy and Greece have continued their cooperation. The Greek Minister of Culture, Mihalis Liapis and Sandro Bondi, the Italian Minister for Culture have signed a memorandum of cooperation on cultural issues. As part of the agreement, the Nostoi exhibition will travel to the New Acropolis Museum in Athens in September, and there will likely be more pressure on institutions and private collectors to return objects, as David Gill recently noted with the news that Shelby White will return objects to Greece.

This news comes as Egypt continued its recent efforts and signed yet another agreement, this time with Ecuador. Egypt has already signed agreements with Italy, Cyprus, Denmark, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Jordan, Peru and Switzerland according to the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram.

I think we can take a couple of lessons from these efforts. First, it is another indication that UNESCO has had a difficult time building consensus, and the spread of these bilateral agreements is a sign the UNESCO Convention itself does very little if a signatory does not want to give much teeth to its accession.

Second, these repatriations and cooperation may be a very good thing, however the real test of these efforts remains how well sites are protected, and whether there remains a workable heritage management policy in these nations. Recent news out of Greece suggests they are not. It seems last month the Greek parliament has taken a step last month to allow divers to access the entirety of the Greek coastline. This would be very good for tourism, but how are the objects these divers find going to be managed or educated? How will sites be affected?


Pictured here of course is the Bronze Statue of a Victorious Youth, a statue found by chance in the Adriatic in the 1960s. How many more of these objects will be uncovered if the Greek coast is opened up to divers? I know very little about how the Greek waters are currently protected, but it would seem to me to be a poor policy which only criticizes foreign institutions and buyers while not properly protecting domestic objects and sites before they are exported.

LATE UPDATE:

David Gill has kindly noted in the comments, and on his blog that the report I noted above is out-of-date and most likely inaccurate. It seems Greece is not, of course, thinking about opening its coast to amateur underwater salvors. However, I think the underlying question I raised is still valid in Greece and elsewhere: what can and should be done about underwater sites and wrecks

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

Update on Wednesday’s Art Crime Panel

Wednesday’s panel at the British Society of Criminology was very engaging, and would have garnered a great deal of attention among cultural heritage scholars. But I’m sad to report that I’ve had considerably more folks email me to ask about the presentation than were actually present at the presentations.

Lucky for us, all of the papers we were discussing are published (or in my case will be soon).

My presentation was based on a forthcoming article in the International Journal of Cultural Property on the Treasure Act and the Portable Antiquities Scheme. I’ll shamelessly self-promote that when I have a copy available.

Simon Mackenzie‘s paper is: “Performative Regulation: A Case Study in How Powerful People avoid Criminal Labels” British Journal of Criminology 2008 48(2):138-153.

Carolyn Shelbourn’s presentation was based on a few articles:

Shelbourn, C “Time crime” – looting of archaeological resources and
the criminal law in England and the United States [2008] Criminal
Law Review, 204-213.

Shelbourn, C. Protecting Archaeological Resources In The United
States: Some Lessons For Law And Practice In England? [2007] Art
Antiquity and Law, 259-278.

Shelbourn C, Bringing The Skeletons Out Of The Closet? The Law and
Human Remains In Art, Archaeology and Museum Collections [2006] Art,
Antiquity and Law 179-198.

These two presentations were excellent and I enjoyed them a great deal. One problem with the current state of Heritage Law Scholarship, is that many of the best work is in specialty journals that can be hard to find. I think in particular a lot of the work by UK academics is underutilized by American authors because they don’t know about it. I’m working on a project which should help to correct a lot of those problems, and I’ll have a lot more to say about that in a few weeks hopefully.

Some of the journals, in particular Art, Antiquity and Law are not available electronically as far as I am aware. This is a real shame, and I think more authors should consider putting their work online so it can be accessed via sites like SSRN and others (or those journals need to consider putting stuff online). There are tradeoffs perhaps, and some Journals may not like stuff being given away, but I don’t see much point in writing articles if people are unaware of them or don’t read them.

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

Presentation Tomorrow At British Society of Criminology Conference

Tomorrow afternoon I will be presenting a short paper at the British Society of Criminology 2008 Conference in Huddersfield along with Carolyn Shelbourn and Simon Mackenzie. It should be a great panel, I’m looking forward to both the other presentations, and I’ll post a short summary of my talk and the panel on Thursday. For any who may be attending, the information on the panel is here:

1.7 ART CRIME: UK AND US RESPONSES TO ANTIQUITIES LOOTING

Simon MacKenzie, University of Glasgow
PERFORMATIVE REGULATION: THE CRIMINALISATION OF
DEALING IN ILLICIT CULTURAL OBJECTS AS A CASE STUDY OF
THE INTERSECTION OF POLITICAL AND TRADE INTERESTS.

Carolyn Shelbourn, University of Sheffield
MAKING THE PUNISHMENT FIT THE CRIME – ‘ARCHAEOLOGICAL
VALUE’ AND THE ASSESSMENT OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL
PENALTIES FOR ‘TIME CRIME’ IN THE UNITED STATES.

Derek Fincham, University of Aberdeen
CAN INCREASED CRIMINAL PENALTIES EVER SUBSTANTIALLY
IMPACT THE ILLICIT TRADE IN ANTIQUITIES: WHAT THE US CAN
LEARN FROM UK CULTURAL POLICY

Chair and panel leader: Simon MacKenzie, University of Glasgow

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

Portrait of Wally Forfeiture Progressing

Martha Lufkin has news of some movement in the Portrait of Wally civil forfeiture proceeding currently underway in Federal District Court in Manhattan.

[Judgment] on a long-running lawsuit in New York which helped launch a world outcry over Nazi-looted art at museums and prompted many institutions to begin examining their collections for history of Nazi theft, has been postponed to let the US government review new evidence. On 3 June the schedule was suspended on a case brought by the US government in 1999 to seek confiscation of Egon Schiele’s Portrait of Wally from the Leopold Museum in Vienna, under the US National Stolen Property Act. The US says the Leopold knew that the art was stolen by a Nazi in 1939 from its Jewish owner, Lea Bondi. The case, which the parties had asked the court to resolve without a trial, is before the federal district court in Manhattan.

It’s true that the Portrait of Wally dispute has probably caused some museums to re-examine their collections, but its also been pointed to as a risk to art loans and traveling exhibitions. It also puts a lot of power in the hands of prosecutors when they can use a forfeiture proceeding like this, as the government essentially brings suit against the object itself, with the benefit of far lower burdens of proof. Historically, federal prosecutors have intervened on behalf of source nations or claimants when they have potential claims. It’s a very useful thing for claimants to get this kind of assistance in these cases. I’m very interested to know what new information may be coming to light.

My understanding of the facts in this case indicates its a difficult case for the prosecutors to prevail. Hopefully a resolution is pending, as the work has been in storage for nearly a decade now.

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

Why Repatriations Really Happen

With all the talk about the new AAMD guidelines, James Cuno’s arguments, and the like, it may be worth remembering why antiquities get sent back to their country of origin: simple evidence of a crime committed.

The wave of antiquities which were sent back to Italy in the last few years are the direct result of a massively successful criminal investigation which had solid photographic evidence that some of these masterworks (such as the Euphronios Krater) were looted and smuggled. It’s an open question whether individuals at the acquiring museums could have been subject to criminal penalties, however

Lee Rosenbaum appears to have completely missed the point in her attempt to arrange a “ceasefire in the antiquities wars“. She argues the AAMD needs to decide “[w]hat should its member museums do about all those objects they already own that wouldn’t have entered their collections had the new standard been applied at the time of their acquisition?” She advocates a 1983 cutoff, the year Congress passed the Cultural Property Implementation Act which implemented the 1970 UNESCO Convention in the US. This seems to me like a bad idea. Commenters and museums seem concerned with cataloging their collection and worrying about what objects they currently have which might end up being shipped back (or might be subject to a public dispute). Perhaps cataloging these objects might make the institutions or others feel better about what might be at risk, when the real problem was the complete ignorance of the law and good practice at the time these objects were acquired.

Picking a date is not helpful, nor does Rosenbaum offer any reason why Congressional action in 1983 is a watershed moment for museum directors and curators. When she says “It’s only a matter of time before other source nations follow Italy’s lead” she ignores the fact that Italy has been so successful because they had the evidence. Without the proof not other nation will be able to achieve Italy’s success. There are countless other examples of this, the Sevso Treasure being the most prominent.

David Gill seems to understand this, and he shares my skepticism of this 1983 date. He points out that the returns to Italy represent only 1% of the objects in the Geneva Polaroids.

Picking an arbitrary date will not end the controversy, nor will it protect any more antiquities currently at risk. We need a cooperative coordinated approach which rests on a transparent market and loan procedure which works in conjunction with law enforcement and customs officials of many nations.

In Part II, she makes a few seemingly simple suggestions for future repatriations. One in particular is a collossally bad idea: that when objects are returned museums should give a “[d]etailed disclosure of why the museum has relinquish[ed] the objects”. (David Gill thinks this is a good idea as well).

This will never happen, and probably shouldn’t in most cases, because museum directors would potentially be admitting criminal wrongdoing and might open themselves up to criminal prosecution or investigations by State Attorneys General. I could perhaps see an argument for a detailed disclosure when an object which has been in a collection for 50 years or more, but for the short term acquisitions, museum directors would be making a collossal mistake. Would Marion True have been better served about telling Italy how and why objects acquired under her watch were returned to Italy?

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

Cuno and Conforti on KCRW

James Cuno and AAMD President Michael Conforti appeared on KCRW‘s The Politics of Culture a couple of weeks ago to discuss the new guidelines and their views. It’s a short discussion, and not much of it is new but I found it interesting nonetheless. It serves as a good overview of Cuno’s book, and an overview of the new guidelines. Thanks to Kwame Opoku for passing this along.

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

Now Jordan Sends Antiquities to Iraq


Syria sent 40 objects stolen from the National Museum back to Iraq last month, and now Jordan will return 2,466 objects, including gold coins and jewelry back to Iraq, the AFP is reporting.

That’s a staggering number of objects, most of which were seemingly seized by Jordanian customs officials. One wonders how many objects slipped through these checkpoints and will soon be sold as “intercultural” style objects?

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

The New AAMD Guidelines

While I was on my blogging holiday in recent weeks, the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) set a new ethics policy for how art museums should collect antiquities. The AAMD issued a policy which stated essentially that in most cases a museum should not acquire an object unless evidence exists that the object was outside its “country of probable modern discovery bofeore 1970, or was legally exported from its probably country of modern discovery after 1970.”

Much of this is old news to many of you, but I found Randy Kennedy’s NYT article to be a very good summary of the new guidelines, with reactions from Prof. Patty Gerstenblith. I also saw that Mark Feldman, a negotiator of the original 1970 Convention had a very interesting Letter to the Editor, in which he welcomed the new measures, but cautioned that they “may not solve the problem”.

The debate has shifted now to encompass the date of 1970 as a cutoff, though these ethical guidelines are not hard and fast rules. They are guidelines, and art museums can derogate from them freely, though they do so at their own peril. They of course run grave public relations and financial risks when they do so, but this was already the case in recent years, as evidenced by the oft-mentioned repatriations to Italy from the MFA Boston, the Met, the Getty, Princeton, and elsewhere.

Souren Melikian has a follow-up article for the International Herald Tribune, and ties these new guidelines to the shifting antiquities market, though I don’t think this shift has much to do with the new guidelines.

At Christie’s, a sale of antiquities held on June 4 opened with sundry sculptures and other works of art from Ancient Egypt collected by the Swiss Egyptologist Gustave Jéquier, who died in 1946. Extraordinary prices were achieved for the greatest rarities from a collection that did not raise provenance questions.

The auction was only into its second lot when a limestone carving of a coiled snake, 19 centimeters, or 7½ inches, across, shot up to $338,500. This was more than 15 times the high estimate. Executed in the late 3rd to mid-2nd millennium B.C., the sculpture carries a royal dedication inscription to the god Osiris that enhanced its importance, and the Jéquier provenance guaranteed that any institution could acquire it without fear of being faced one day with a restitution lawsuit.

The phenomenon repeated itself as a fragmentary bas-relief carved in the second half of the 14th century B.C. came up. Christie’s thought that the limestone slab, which only preserves the upper part of two character’s heads, might sell for $15,000 to $20,000 plus the 25 percent sale charge. It ended up at $182,000…

A day later at Sotheby’s, bidders were even more willing to pay enormous prices for desirable antiquities that could irrefutably be proved to have reached the West well before 1970.

An elongated alabaster vessel from 6th century B.C. Etruria, reportedly dug up at Vulci, was unusual rather than breathtakingly beautiful with its four female masks carved on the base and the bust of a goggle-eyed woman ghoulishly smiling at the top. But it had been illustrated in 1963 in the magazine Antike Kunst. The alabastron, as containers of this type are called, nimbly climbed to $40,625, more than triple the estimate

I think it is certainly right that reliable provenance information which can establish a solid ethical basis for acquisition will certainly drive up the price of objects. This was already the case though, before the new guidelines, as the sale of objects from the Albright-Knox museum already has shown.

However, it is worth noting that some of this provenance evidence can be manufactured aor forged, and has often been done in the past. Continued scrutiny of the antiquities trade is needed, despite these new ethical guidelines. I’m not sure much has really changed. There is still no definitive account of which objects had been discovered or unearthed before 1970.

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

Looting in Southern Illinois

Len Wells of the Evansville Courier Press had an interesting article Sunday on the looting of Native American burial grounds in Southern Illinois.

“We noticed a trail going out through a wheat field and followed it,” said John Schwegman of Metropolis, Ill., who works with the Kincaid Mounds Support Organization. “We found they had dug a hole about 6 feet long, 4 feet deep and 3 to 4 feet wide.”

Schwegman said the same site had been looted last summer. The hole was filled in then, but it was targeted again this spring.

“We believe there are at least two, and maybe more looters working, since they were working two holes at the same time,” Schwegman said. “They’re pretty bold, since they parked their vehicles in our own parking lot.”

Investigators said the looters have dug three holes in the Pope County ground and a fourth one a short distance away in Massac County. Pieces of broken flint and stones were discovered near the holes after looters abandoned the sites. The first holes were discovered about six weeks ago.

The Kincaid Mounds Historic Site consists of 105 acres in the heart of the Kincaid Mounds Archaeological Site. Portions of the site extend to private property north and east of the site. The state property has been designated a National Historic Landmark and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Portions of the site had been excavated, but not the area targeted by the looters. The $2,000 reward is a good incentive, but the odds appear slim that these objects will be found or the culprits caught. This kind of theft carries criminal penalties under the National Stolen Property Act, as well as the Archaeological Resources Protection Act. However these criminal measures will likely not assist in bringing these looters to justice, and the huge land area makes patrolling this and other Native American sites – which would allow officials to catch the looter in the act – difficult and impracticable.

Can we consider eliminating the market in these objects? Yes, but for many objects found on private land in the United States, not associated with burial grounds or religious practices, it is legal for individuals to excavate. I’m not aware of how many native American objects are purportedly found on private land, I’d expect most objects come from National Historic Places, or Federal or State parks which have been set aside, and are protected de jure, but this may not always result in de facto protection.

There is a tendency perhaps to get too focused on looting which just occurs in Italy or the Mediterranean. The reality is it takes place everywhere, and the current legal and policy measures aimed at stopping it are having some effect, but much more can and should be done. Perhaps more scrutiny of the Portable Antiquities Scheme in England and Wales could help alleviate some of these problems…

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

Forthcoming IAL Seminars in London

For those of you in the UK in July, there are a couple of promising seminars taking place which the Institute of Art and Law has alerted me to:

3rd July (afternoon) in London: Good faith, Due Diligence and Ethical Imperatives in Art and Antiquities Dealing.

17th and 18th July in London State Immunity, Anti-Seizure and Customary International Law. Day One of this seminar will consider International Law and cross-border claims to cultural objects, whilst Day Two will focus more particularly on Anti-seizure statutes and safe conduct for itinerant art. Whilst the discussions on the two days will clearly interconnect and complement each other, a limited number of one-day places will be available on each day.

Further information on these seminars, together with online booking facilities, can be found at www.ial.uk.com. Alternatively, you can contact us directly on info@ial.uk.com or +44 (0)1982 560666.

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