Culture Without

The Newsletter of the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre

Issue 20 , Spring 2007

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~ The Illicit Antiquities Research Centre is a project of the Mc Donald Institute for Archaeological Research. Editorial announcement stated UCL's intention to publish th e report's conclusions, but thi s has not hap­ pened. Furthermore, UCL has recently informed have been asked several times recentl y about several people (myself included) that the report I the genesis o f the government's Illicit Trade is a confidential document and that UCL is not Advisory Panel, whose report in December 2000 able to enter into di scussions about its subject is genera ll y considered responsible for the United matter. No ex planation has been offered as to Kingdom's accession to the 1970 UN ESCO Con­ why UCL appears to have changed its mind over vention. For once, it is a question I can answer pub Iication . with some degree of authority. In April 2000, the On 9 March 2007 th e Schoyen Coll ection IARC was working with Mauri ce Da vies of the announced th at it was to commence legal pro­ Museums Association towa rds a fina l draft of ceedings against UCL for the return of the bowls. Stealing HistDlY, a report commissioned by the These legal proceedings have now concluded. On Museums Association and ICOM-UK to recom­ 26 June 2007 the Schoyen Coll ection and UCL mend guidelines for museums poli cy toward s issued ajoint press rel ease announcing that 'UCL the trade in cultural and natural materi als. At a has no basis for concluding that title is vested reception, Maurice met Madelei ne Ho lt, who other than in the Schoyen Collecti on', and that was at the time arts correspondent on the BBC2 UC L has now returned the bowls and ' agreed to television current affairs programme Newsnight. pay a sum in respect of its possession of them'. Madeleine was in terested in covering our work Presumably payment was part of the settlement, on Newsni ght, and the three of us met to di scuss although it is not specifically stated. Pe rhaps a possible piece. It was screened on 12 April. non-publication of the report was another part? First there was a short documentary report on the It seems strange th ough. I f there is noth ing in illi cit trade, including interviews with Mauri ce the report to incriminate Martin Schoyen, and and myself, and hi ghlighting what were likely presumably there isn't or UC L would not have to be the recommendations of Stealing HistDlY. returned the bowls, th ere should be no problem Then there was a debate chaired by Jeremy Pax­ with its publication man, with Colin Renn·ew in the studio and the It is also strange that UCL has agreed to 'pay then Minister for Arts Alan Howarth on a li ve a sum ' to Schoyen in respect of possession when television link. After a few minutes discussion, Schoyen himself had deposited them at UCL fo r Alan Howarth announced hi s intention to set up study. Schoyen stands to make quite a profit from an expert advisory panel to consider the problems academic collaboration. Incantation bowls with involved and invited Colin Renn·ew to be a mem­ translated texts are offered for sale w ith prices ber. Colin Renfrew accepted and ITAP was born. anything up to ten-times those asked fo r bowls It was formall y convened on 24 May 2000 under without translations. The study and translation the chairmanship o f Norman Palmer. ofSchoyen's bowls at UCL will ha ve in creased their monetary value quite substantiall y. And then '-' The saga of the Schoyen incantation bowls UCL paid more on top. N ice business. ~ continues. I reported in the last issue that in 2004 University College London (UCL) con­ 9 This is the last issue of CIII/lIre Withollt vened a committee of enquiry to investi gate the ~ Con/ext. A fter 10 successful years, the provenance of 654 Aramaic in cantation bowls McDonald In stitute has decided that it will not belonging to Martin Schoyen that had been support the Illi cit Antiquities Research Centre deposited at UCL for study. The committee past 30 September 2007, and so the Centre will submitted its report in 2006. The ori gin al UCL close on that date.

2 Artefacts in the closet: tion named simply 'Trafficking'. The exhibition deals mainl y with the trafficking of people for displaying cultural objects cheap labour or sexual exploitation, but there is that are victims of illicit also a secti on that deals with the trafficking of cultural obj ects and the museum 's own part in it. trafficking The objects di splayed in this section are as stated in its introductory text: classic examples of the P ONTUS F ORSLUND ambiguous relationships between museum ethics, collectin g, and la ws for the protection of cu ltural he region of Sipi'm is kn own to museum objects. All the objects in th e exhibiti on have T workers worldWIde as th e provenance of their provenance in Latin Ameri ca, whi ch is the the in famous Moche objects th at were looted and museum 's trad itional area of interest. This section illegall y traded in the late eighties. Some artefacts of the Trafficking exhibition has a vivid sense of have been returned to Peru, but there are many ideological urgency about it. The museum has more still to be found in private coll ections and in inherited some ethical and legal baggage from the western museums. Although the looting of Sip an old Gothenburg Ethnographic, and this exhibition escalated in the late eighties, it had been endemic has provided an ideal opportun ity to tackle some fo r many years before that, so that th e majority of of the issues that such a legacy brings. these artefacts have lost their hi storical context. So, fo r exampl e, probably like many other This tradition of plullderin g and ill egal trade has exhibitions on hi stori c Peru , it displays an artefact distributed the Sipan objects all over the world. from the Sipan region dating back to the Chimu One is on display at the Museum of World Culture period (Fig. I). The artefact mi ght be a piece of in Gothenburg, Sweden. chai n ma il , but then aga in it mi ght not be, and the The Museum o f World Culture is a fai rl y new accompany in g label doesn't say anyth ing about museum, a product of the Social-Democratic its ori g in al purpose. The label does say, however, government's active cultural policies, that opened that it was smuggled out of Peru in 1972 and its doors to the public in December 2004. The sold to the museum. The sell er/donor has been museum owes its foundation to Gothenburg's kept anonymous and the protection of hi s or her Ethnographic Museum, a traditional museum of identity is probably due to fact that the export its time and once a part of Gothenburg Museum, of cultural objects was illegal in Peru, which whic h possessed rich co ll ections of objects could jeopardize the dealer's acti vities in the mainl y from South America. The instituti on was country, although the acqui sition was perfectly firml y establi shed as a leader in its geographical legal in Sweden. The questionable acquisition fie ld during the earl y decades of the twentieth of the object (it had been bought by the donor century by the museum director, th e professor in Peru from tomb robbers) has resulted in a and Baron Erl and Nord ensk i6ld . By the earl y weak informational context that raises questions 1990s, however, the museum was suffering and about its authenti city and cul tural meaning. The in need of reform to meet the standards required the n director of th e museum tried franticall y of a modern museum with a global perspective and retrospectively to gather information about and a mi ssion to encourage social incl usion and the artefact, but without any real success. It was dialogue. So, the Museum of Wo rl d Culture was exhibited in 1973, and now again in 2006, but in established and Gothenburg's Ethnographic Mu­ a context totall y different to that intended by the selllll ceased to exist, with th e ownership of the seller and the museum curator responsible for its collecti ons of the Ethnographic Museum being acqui sition transferred from the municipality of Gothenburg A not her g lass case features some classic to the state of Sweden. Nazca 11/Iaco vessels, with charming ani mal aes­ Ex hibitions at the Museum of World Culture thetics, purchased by the museum in 1932 from seek to contradict popular im ages of th e exotic a Swedish diplomat. Again the country o f ori gin and create awareness of current, pressi ng g lobal is Peru, but in this case more can be said of its issues like HIV/AIDS and trafficking. The latter acqui siti on and the dubious ethics of Gothenburg. issue is the theme of the newly opened exhibi- Maybe this fact is not obvious from the labels in 3 interesting to fi nd it inscribed with gold letters on a marble pl aq ue listing donors at th e former home of the Ethnographi c Museum, now the Gothenburg City Museum. Somc get th rown in jail fo r smuggling, others gct thei r name in scribed in gold on marble for public esteem at an institu­ tion of cultural heri tage. Hi s 1932 coll cction was ex hibited in the same year and now in 2006, again in a context totally di ffe rcnt to that intended by th e donor and the acq uiring museum curator. The pattern is recognized again in a nother glass case fi li ed with objccts from a 1975 coll ec­ Figure 1. Sipan object. ti on sold to the museum by a Swedi sh diplomat and government official, known after a television the glass case, but a museum educator wishing to in vesti gati on as the ' looti ng ambassador'. make tours and programmes a bit more infonna­ The exhibition has omittcd the names of sell ers tive has something to reveal. It must be common and donors because its purpose is to foc us on the for museums aroun d the world to have connec­ trafficking phenomenon, high li ghtin g the unclear tions with diplomats at th eir country's embassies relations that exist between ethics, laws and col­ and consul ates abroad. Often these forc ign-based lecting. Fi nger-pointing and the condemnation personnel a re fo und to be prominent donors o f of individuals are thought Ii kely to shi ft attention objects to museums, whi ch is the case here. But away from the wider pi cture o fwestcrn attitudes why diplomats? Why do we find these people to towards the trade of cultural objccts. Maintaining be donors and sc ll ers of cultural objects? Museum focu s by omi ttin g names does create curiosity directors and diplomats mi ght be found together as to reason, and a conspiracy-theori st mi ght in high society, smoking cigars and shari ng their suspect a discreet cover-up. Perh aps the names interests in art, hi story and c ulture. Maybe there aren't important, and could be counterproductive is a connection there. Perhaps too the difficult lo­ to the exhibi tion's aims, but th e fact that many gisti cs of transport should not be underestimated. collections have been bought and sold ill egall y There are many examples, and the 1932 coll ection and immorally by Swedish government officials from Peru is one, where cultural objects have cann ot and shoul d not be igno red as they are been smuggled through diplomatic channels. perfect examples of met hods and attitudes that The Swedish Consul General in Li ma, who might still be current today. was himself interested in the material culture of In re lati on to the main part of the Trafficking Peru 's heri tage, had contacts among hllaqlleJ'os, ex hibition, dealing with th e modern human slave grave robbers, who could provide him with arte­ trade, the section on illicit artefacts fee ls like a facts suitable for the Gothenburg Museum. The pale parenthesis - its urgency fail s in compari­ problem was o f course that the export of such son to the human misery on di splay in the rest of goods was against Peruvian law. The solu tion was the gallery. But somewhere, somehow, this kind a method sti II current today. It was easy to use the of traffickin g is also important , and the resources di plomatic bag, and in thi s case ship th e cultural must be found to stop it. The artcfact section of cargo as the personal belong ings o f a Swedish the exhibition does, however, provide a perfect envoy, who enjoyed diplomatic immunity, and resource for educators wishing to inform the pub­ declare it at the museum once it had arri ved in lic about tomb robbing, museum ethi cs, artefact Gothenburg. A seemingly elaborate scheme, but va lues, preventative laws, coll ecting, and g lobal probably standard practice. The label states that inequalities in wealth and power, and to discuss the Consul General wished to remain anonymous, th e issues in volved. The Museum of World Cul­ althoug h a search in the museum 's archives ture, like almost every other museum of its kind, quickly reveals hi s identity. He was wise to ask has many more artefacts in the closet. Its intention for anonymity considering hi s profession, and in rai sing these issues is honourable, but should although hi s name will not be exposed here, it is not be praised too highly. Other exhibitions in the 4 mu se um also includ e some questi onab le acq ui si­ mu seum ethi cs, and repatriation. They are, how­ tions where information to the visi tor is den ied ever, other stori es, but unlike th e Swedish Consul due to carelessness or budgetary constrai nts. Like Ge neral, th e Be nin bronze probabl y did not ask the borrowed roya l Beni n bro nze hcad, from the for its anonymi ty. It is an artefact on display with Ethnographic Muse um in Stockholm, th at stands its context still left in the closet. anonymous li ke a Swedi sh Consul Ge neral in a glass case with no informati on ava il ab le to th e P ON TU S F ORSLUND visitor unl ess revealed by an educator. There are Museum of World Culture numerous themes that cou ld be discussed through Gothenburg Sweden this object: African kin gdoms, Briti sh aggression ,

extremi sts known for th eir violent crimes against Archaeologists, persons and property, is absurd and no substitute for reasoned argument. Unfortun ately, and pe r­ collectors, museums and haps not surprisin gly, behind th e rhetoric, the re is John Boardman ve ry littl e of substance and much that is factua ll y incorrect. NEIL B RODIE Boardman repeats the usuall y unfounded asse r­ tion th at 111 0st unprovenanced altefacts appearing ohn Boardman ha s recently offered us his on the l11arkct have not in fa ct been looted, but are J views on th e an tiquitics trade (Boardman 'chance find s'. Unu sua ll y, however, to substanti­ 2006). The issue, as he sees it , is cl ea r: a small ate hi s clai m, he provides exampl es drawn from clique of ' politica ll y-correct' and 'phi li sti ne' hi s ow n personal experi ence. He describes how archaeologists and legislators imbucd with a in the 1950s whi Ie on a wa lkin g tour of Boeotia 'fanatici sm of disgust' have cmb ark ed on a he was shown a sack full of Classica l fi gurines 'witch -h unt ' aga in st a broader constitu ency of by a f~l rl11e r who had fou nd them on hi s fi elds. co ll ectors and mu seum s. The ' rcstri cti ve prac­ The imp li ca ti on for the reader is that in Greece tices ' of thi s cli que producc a 'censo rship of coll ectable antiquities are regularl y found by sc ho larship' that is ' unrealistic ', ' unju st and chance and in sO l11e quantity. But archaeolog i­ dangerous ' . Meanwhil e, in thc ' rea l world', ca l research shows that thi s is not necessarily motivated by a 'spirit of discovery' an d a 'zea l so. Ovcr the past 30 years, the meth odology of for antiq ui ty', the co ll ectors and mu seums 'save fiel d survey has bee n de ve loped and refined as for scholarshi p and publ ic enjoymcn t' antiquities a tec hni que of diachroni c settl ement analysis. that wo uld otherwise be lost or destroyed, and Large tracts of land are wa lked systematica ll y ' blessed with perception an d sc holarl y expertise' by tea ms of archacologists, the locations of they 'share know ledge and information' de ri ved any artefact concentrations are noted and any f;·om their study of them. signifi ca nt artehlcts are recovered for study and Boa rdm an's di chotomy is poorly draw n as publicati on. Any sa leabl e artefact wo uld almost most museum s these days wou ldlinc up alongside certainl y be recovered for study, pub li cation an d hi s politi ca ll y-correct cli que of archaeo logists, curati on. The res ul ts of man y surveys co nd ucted whil e some archaeologists (incl udin g Boa rdman) in Greece have now bee n pub li shed. Objects of wo ul d throw in th ei r lot with the co ll ec tors. What schola rl y significance have been di scovered , and is striking about hi s paper though, as the above­ despite Boardman's claim to the contrary, no one mentioned quotes show, is that he couches hi s has ever cla il11 ed otherwise. But scholarl y sig­ argum ent in such emotive language. So metim es, ni fica nce and monetary va lue are not always the the accusations he makes are not worth y of a same thin g, and th e fact remain s th at systematic scholar of hi s standing; hi s claim , for exa mpl e, surveys ha ve not recovered the large quantities that the actions of archaeologists concerned to of sal ea bl e altefacts that Boardman 's an ecdote stop plunder are ' matchedl11ost obv iously by the wo uld pred ict. Of course, it is always poss ibl e wi Ider reaches of the Animal Ri ghts movements', that the very reason that such surveys have not 5 Boardman accuses archaeolo­ gists who oppose the illi cit trade of 'censorship of ori gi nal sc hol­ arshi p' and writes th at he was ' brought up to belicve that ce n­ sorship is wo rse than theft'. He is referring to the policy of some journals to refu se first publica­ tion of unprovenanced artefacts. But things are not always what they appea r. Some inforl11 ation abo ut thc pro ve nance of so-ca ll ed unprove nanccd artefacts l11u st Figure 1. Display of excavated artefacts in the Athens Metro. always be known, sOl11etil11es, as the case of the Judas Gospel ha s recovered such l11 aterial is that it had previously shown, a lot is known and will be published when been co ll ected by farl11ers and so ld. If thi s is the it is profitab le to do so. Most til11es, ho wever, case, it l11i ght introduce a severe reco very bias provenance-related inforl11ation is ne ver released into survey l11ethodology and di stort any hi stori­ into the public dOl11a in , which is why artefacts cal conclusions drawn frol11 survey data - one continue to labour under the epithet ' unprove­ of Gill and Chippindale's ' intell ectual co nse­ nanced'. Dealers argue that they keep provenance quences' - though Boardman does not elaborate secret so as to protect cli ent co nfi dentia lity or to on thi s possibility. hide the identity of a source. Sceptics argue it is Boardl11an goes on to say, however, that most to facilitate illi cit trade. Eith er way, cO l11l11 ercia l 'chance finds ' are probably thrown up by con­ practice is restricting the al110unt of provenance­ struction projects cuttin g through archaeological related inforl11ation be in g l11 ade available for sites, citin g hi s own observations in Athen s and acadel11ic research. Chi os. The l11 arket, he thinks, acts ben eficially It is thi s restriction of informat ion that con­ in such circul11 stances by resc uing artefacts that strain s acadel11 ic freedo l11 , not the publication would otherwise be lost. May be so, but it is hardl y policies of academ ic journals, and it does so in an idea l soluti on. A beller strategy is to ensure two ways. First, it obstructs the ab ility of aca­ that damage caused to archaeol ogica l heritage by del11ics to research either the antiquities trade or building is l11inil11i zed by approp ri ate proactive contemporary anti qu iti es collecting. Boardl11an intervention. PPG-16 was introduced in UK with mi ght be surprised to learn that th e trade has such a purpose in view, and is generall y consid­ beco l11 e a legitil11ate area of enq uiry for cril11i­ ered a success (Wainwright 2000, 926). Sil11 il ar nologists, sociologists and lawyers, who all find rules are now in place in Greece, and the construc­ the ir acadel11ic freedom seri ously curtail ed by ti on of the Athens Metro prov ides an exce ll ent the heavy ve il of cO l11m ercial secrecy. But there example of their utility. Sites encountered during is al so a second, 111 0re in sidi ous effect. Freedol11 tunnelling we re excavated and reconstructions might be defi ned as th e ca pacity for in for med of the excavations together with associated find s choice, and acadel11 ic fi·eedol11 can onl y be sa id are now il11 ag inative ly displayed in the relevant to ex ist when scholars are ab le to choose a course Metro stations of central Athens, where they are of research co nfident in their knowledge of its available for viewing free-of~charge by passers­ contexts and po ss ibl e consequ ences. Clea rl y, by (Figs. I & 2) (Pa rl al11a & Stal11po lidi s 2000). for unprovenan ced artefacts, such an inforl11 ed A better strategy surely for th e archaeologica l choice is not poss ible. Boardl11an deplores the heritage of Athens than site destru ction followed effects of non-publication on sc holarship, without by th e ' rescue ' of co ll ectable artefacts by foreign rea ll y knowing what l11 aterial dal11a ge is caused collectors, a better strategy at least for those l11 el11- by the trade. He ha s little to say about criminal bers of the public who spend 111 0re til11 e on the in vo lve l11 ent in the trade, and the social harl11 it Athens Metro than in the hOl11es of coll ectors. ca uses, other than to suggest that it l11i ght be less 6 im portant than censorship. Agai n, presum ab ly, he j ust doesn't know. Yet unti l the social and cri mina l relati ons of the antiq ui ties trade and the materi al damage it ca uses have been properl y ascerta ined by verifiab le research, whi ch at the moment is not possible, as mu ch because of the in transigence of collec tors and so me sy mpa th eti c academi cs and museum curators as it is becau se of the obstruc­ tion of dea lers, sc holars can only choose to study unprovenan ced Figure 2. Model straligraphy in the Athens Metro. artefacts in comp lete disregard or any possible co nsequences. Th e choice ca nnot be of publ ic money. Second, concerni ng scholarly said to be a free one, in the sensc ora kn owledge­ misdemcanours, presumab ly he does not mean ab le one, and it certai nl y can not be j usti fi ed by sc holarl y co ll usion with the ill icit trade but is an appea l to academi c freedom. referri ng to the problem of unp ubli shed exca va­ To ill ustrate what he sees to bc the regressive tions disc ussed earl ier in hi s paper. He is ri ght, attitude of archaeo logists towards un proven anced unpubli shcd excavations are a problem, and so antiquities, Boa rdill an uses the example of the are excavated sites that are inadeq uately ca red Iron Age GundestTu p cauldron, discovered in a for, but , aga in , hi s criti cism mi sses the ta rget. Jutl and bog in 189 1, though thought to have been Sin ce 200 I, with exactly thi s probl em in mind, the manu factu red so mewhere in eastcrn Europe. He IARC has been worki ng with Briti sh and Greek argues that i I' a simi lar object was to appear on the co ll cagues towards conse rving the Bron ze Age market today th en no journ al wo uld publ ish it and site of Ph ylakopi on the Greek Cycladic island no mu seum would acqui re it. Aga in though, this of Mc los and pub lishin g new materi al and in­ is not neccssarily co rrect. There is an cmergi ng formati on from the nineteenth -ccntury an d earl y consensus that unprovenanced objects (incl uding twentieth-cen tury excavat ions that were conduct­ th ose se ized by law enfo rcement agencies) should ed there. Perh aps Boardman is do ing sO llleth ing be do nated to th e most appro priatc museum or sim i lar? Finall y - bu ll ying muse ums? The IARC publ ic co ll ection ('repos itory or last reso rt ' or has closc and prod uctive relationshi ps with the 'safe have n'), where they will then bc avai labl e Internati onal Coun cil of Museum s (ICOM ), the for legitim ate study and publ icati on. Th is so lu ­ Muse um s Association (MA), and with keepers tion has been adopted by Briti sh muse ums wi th an d curators in the Briti sh Mu seum. The IARC's rega rd to artefacts of UK ori gin (OCMS 2005, report Slealing f-fislalY into mu se um acquisition 17) . Of course, collectors or dea lers migh t choose practices was an init iative of the Muse um s As­ not to donate obj ects to such collecti ons, but that soc iati on (MA) and ICOM -UK, not of the IARC, regrettable behav iour ca n hardly be blamed on and it was researched and written with their full archaeologists. support and participation. It is hard to see how Boardman has this to say about the Ill icit An- any ol' this mi ght constitute 'bull yin g' . ti quities Research Centre (IARC): For Boa rdman, the antiqu ities wo rld is not a I t might see m far more appro pr iate lar an in s! illlie in perfect one, but ameliorating practices and insti­ Cambr id ge. largely cl epe nd cn l upoll public money. tu tions have evo lved over the centuri es so that to spend its ti me ilwcsligating mi sdemeanours com­ mitted in the name of scholars hip. than to co nduct now it is as good it can get, and he criticizes those a wit ch-hull l ofco tl eclOrs and to bully museum s in who think it co ul d get better. But the Panglossian what seems an almost parano id attac k 0 11 peop le log ic of Boardman 's paper is shot through with in­ and objects (I'. 36). acc uracies and infelicities. One wo nders what hi s This sta tement is, qu ite simp ly, wron g in every re­ reaction woul d be if ca ll ed upon to peer review spect. First, the IAR C has never received a penn y a paper of simil ar standard in his ow n speciali st 7 area of C lassical art. It is hard to imaginc that he Departm en t for Culture. Media an d SporL would recommend publication. Parlallla. L. & N.e ll. S'alllpolidis (cds.). 2000. 71ie Cill' Belleath (he Cill'." Filld') From Excal"tlliolls/or fh e I\/el­ ropO /iUIII Raih~ ·(I.\· of A/h ellS. Athe ns: Greek Ministry Refercnccs of CultureI I,P. Goulandri s Foundat ion. Wain wrigh t. G. \V .. 2000. Time plea se. AII/iqllily 74. Boardman. J. , 2006. Arc haeo logists, coll ectors and IllUSC­ 909-43. U1 11S, in Who OWIIS Objec/s? The Elhics (mel Polilics oj" Col/eclillg CIIIII/I"al ;/rie/c/cis. cds. E. Robson, L. Treadwe ll & C. Gosden. Oxford: Oxbow, 33-46. NEIL B ROD IE DCMS , 2005. COlllbalillg IIlicil Trade: Dlle Diligellce McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research Gllidelille."-.fhl" lvll/sCUlI/s, Libraries and Archives 011 Downing Street Callee/jllg OIld BorrolVing ClI/lural j\4aterial. Lo nd on: Cambridge CB23ER

In the News with photographs dating from 1976 showing the controvers ial ' James ossuary ' (see ' In the News', ewe, Issue 12, 2003, 14; ' In th e JENNY D OOLE News', ewe, Issue 13,2003, 13; and ' In the News', ewe, Issue 16, 2005) on a shelf in USA Golan 's home in 1976. ln an enl argement, the whole of the conte nti ous inscri pti on can be • A boul der in scribed with ancient Nati ve seen. If accepted this evidence woul d place Ameri can petroglyph s was fou nd to have the anti quity in Golan's possession before the been stolen fro m federal land near Yuma in 1978 Antiquities Law brought a rchaeological May . .Judg ing from tracks left, th e thieves materi al into state ownership and would scup­ had dragged the 500 pound boulder to a per prosecution allegations that Golan forged vehicle (see' Boulder covered with petro­ the inscription after the beginning of2000 (see glyphs stolen near Yuma', 1. G i Ibert, 2 May 'Collector accused of forging' Jal11es ossuary' 2007, Yu ma Sun ; and ' Petroglyph boulder say old photos prove authenticity', A. Bar'kat, stolen ', I May 2007, US Department of the 9 February 2007, Haare/z) Interior, Bureau of Land Management) .

• Two thi eves sto le a coll ection of Nati ve Greece Ameri can arrowheads from a di splay in the McQuarrie Memori al Museum, Utah, • June saw the return to Greece ofa 1.3 metre during a midday rai d in May (see' Arrow­ marble torso o f a young man whic h had heads sto len from S. Utah museum ', B. been stolen fro m Gortyn, Crete 16 years Winslow, 24 May 2007, Desere/ Moming ago. The statue was d iscovered in the pos­ News). They signed into the museum with session of a dealer in Basel, Switzerland assumcd names, grabbed the framed dis­ fo ll owing a tip-off to Interpol. The Swiss­ plays, hid them under a cloth and walked based antiqui ties dealer was persuaded to out through a basement door in fro nt of vol unta ril y drop a ll claims to th e piece unaware museum staff. (see 'Swiss hand back stolen statue from C re te', 14 .June 2007, Swissinfo; a nd ' Greece recovers stolen ancient statue from Israel Switzerland', 14 June 2007, In/em otional Herald Tribune). Attorn eys for the defence in the tri al o f Israeli coll ector Oded Golan have presented the court 1338 undecla red antiquities, including

8 statues and vases and 12 coins , were dis­ acti ng as in termediary. The smuggling ri ng covered at a house in Corinth (see' Ancient was discovered durin g an investigati on into clay artefacts ... ' , V. Psomasana, 3 Jul y un derwater looters working in th e Bay of 2007, Kathimerini). Cadi z (see ' Raid s net 300,000 artefacts', D. Fuchs, 8 February 2007, The Observer). Greece is pl anning fresh measure to curb illi cit trade in antiquities and fak in g. Leg­ islation to be introduced in July will ensure South America closer coll aborati on between archaeolo­ gists and law enfo rcement, and create a More th an 400 In can and pre-Columbian special division within the Cul ture Mini stry artefacts were handed back to the Peruvian charged w ith tracin g stolen items abroad, government by the US authorities in June. all owing phone taps fo r suspects and pri son Worth millions of doll ars th ey included a term s fo r fakers (see 'Greece pl ans crack­ cape made from macaw and parrot feathers, down on antiques traffick in g', 9 .Jul y 2007, gold and sil ver jewell ery, a clay vessel be­ Khaleej Times) . li eved to be more than 3000 years old, and - of immense hi stori cal im portance - hvo quipus. Ugo Bagnato, an Ita li an arrested Albania two years ago, pled guilty to the sa le and receipt of stolen goods and is now due to In May, A lbani a put in an official request be deported after having served 17 months fo r the return fro m Greece of two headl ess in federal pri son. He had been selling the statues of Artemi s and Apoll o stolen fro m the items, some for as much as $2000, from the archaeological sites of Ph oeni ce and Butrin t, back of hi s van and initia ll y claimed to have whi ch were confi scated from a Greek and inheri ted them long ago fro m a Venezuelan an Albani an arrested in Greece in 1997. The acquain tance (see 'US hands back artefacts two, who tried to sell the obj ects in Athens, to Peru ' , W. Grant, 14 June 2007, BBC have since served a pri son sentence fo r their News; ' US returns stolen pre-Columbian offence (see' Albani a wants its stolen antiqui­ artefacts to Peru', 13 June 2007, Re uters; ties back', 24 May 2007, IOL). and ' US returns more than 400 pre-Colum­ bian reli cs to Peru ' , P Whori skey, 14 June 2007, Washington Post). Spain With the help of UNESCO and ICOM February 2007: In th e largest operation of its ( In tern atio na l Counc il of Museums), kind in Spain, 200 po li ce officers arrested 52 Peru 's In stitute of Cul ture (rNC) is creatin g peopl e, accused of lootin g 300,000 artefacts, an inventory of nati onal heri tage objects, incl udin g coin s, sculptures and mosaics, from whi ch it hopes will become a reference fo r 3 1 Ro man and Islami c sites in Anda lu sia, authorities attempting to identify stolen mainl y in the province of Sevill e. The obj ects antiqui ties. Peru will thus be the fi rst coun­ were confi scated from 68 fi ats and are said to try in Latin Ameri ca to create a cul tu ral have been ta ken at night with the aid of metal heri tage in ventory. Elsewhere in the worl d, detectors, excavati o n reports and manuals Afg hani stan and Iraq have already done so and, in some cases, the help of site guards. (' Peru 's c ul tural institute mulls in ventory The pi eces were to be sold to fo reign collec­ to protect national heritage', 17 January tors. Sma ll items were sent through the post, 2007, Living Peru). large obj ects were sent to Faro, Portugal and shi pped to Belgium with an Ita li an coll ector

9 Italy fro m a Roman tomb. Prosecutors said the di scovery was the result of a three-year • After receiving information about the di s­ investigation into a group of tomb robbers, covery of an ancient Greek temple during and that th ey beli eved th e tomb may ha ve construction work in the southern Ita lian been located in the nearby settlement of town ofCrotone in Calabria, po li ce in ves­ Lucus Feroniae (see ' Roman reliefs rescued tigations recovered more than 50 artefacts , from tomb raiders' , A. David, 24 January including columns and mosaics, which had 2007, Associated Press). been excavated from the site. Some had been dumped and some were being used In March, Italian poli ce recovered aroun d as decorative featu res in a new hotel. Two 300 ancient artefacts, including vases, jars in dividuals were identified for possibl e and cups, and thousands of fra"m'" ents , prosecuti on on grounds of failing to alert beli eved to have been ill egall y excavated authorities to the find and damaging the in central Ita ly. Six people were under site, and ill egal possession ofarchaeologi­ in vestigation in connection with the find cal artefacts, but were not arrested. Wo rkers (see ' Ita ly recovers hundreds of artefacts' , had been preparing to cement the site over 22 March 2007, BoslOI1 Globe). when police swooped. Archaeologists are now workin g on excavations in order to • Police in Sic il y made 35 arrests and placed understand the site better (see ' Ita li an con­ 77 people under in vestigation in a swoop struction crew investigated after ancient on smugglers, tomb raiders and collectors artefacts looted', 15 June 2007, Associated in January 2007. One of those arrested was Press). Sicili an tomb raider Orazio Pellegrino who was all egedly in contact with dealers and • Italian ' tombarolo', Pietro Casasanta, told coll ectors in other countries. During the the Associated Press ('Modern-day 'tomb international operation, stolen ancient coins raiders' feel the heat', A. David, 6 July and amphorae were found in an antiques 2007) that times have changed. He said: shop in Barcelona, Spain and in the home of a private coll ector in Zuri ch, Switzerl and. o that in the past he used to work the coun­ tryside outside Rome, openly during the Many of the stolen goods had been bought day with mechanical diggers, posing as by the Gorny and Mosch auction house in a construction worker; Munich, and the Lennox Gall ery in London (see ' Itali an police arrest tomb raiders, arte­ o that there used to be massive amounts of money goin g round, and very lax fact coll ectors', 3 1 January 2007, Deutsche survei Il ance; Presse-Agentur) o that now, increased monitoring of archaeological sites by authoriti es, inter­ national in vestigations and increasingly Former Yugoslav Republic of stri ct ethi cal guidelines for museums Macedonia and pressure on dealers, have changed the market; Experts warn that since the Former Yugoslav o that now there are no young recruits and Republic of Macedonia gained independence it is more difficult for tombaroli to sell 16 years ago, its ri ch archaeological heritage items. has become in creasin gly vulnerable to looters using sophi sticated equipment. Few sites are )aI1UGlJI 2007: Po li ce in Rome discovered said to remain undamaged by ITeasure hunters, a cache of 12 ancient marble relief pan­ both local and foreign, and there is Iittl e to els depicting gladiators, probably stolen stop them as the government can onl y afford

10 to employ one official to tack le the problem. According to Earth Times ('32 heritage Irena Ko li strk oska, head of th e archaeo logi­ id ols and artefacts go missin g', 6 May cal association of Macedonia, say that Iron 2007), data fro m the Min is try of Cul ture Age, Greek, Thracian, Roman and Byzantine in In dia ind icate that 32 protected works of sites are under threat, and that Macedoni an art have been stolen since 2004, probabl y bronzes are ve ry much in demand on the art to be smuggled abroad and probabl y, it is market, w ith even the small est sell in g fo r bel ieved, with official conni vance. They at least $ 1350. Pasko Kuzman, director of include a Shi vlin g fro m Bumzuva Cave, the Nati o na l Directorate fo r Protecti on of Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmi r; Cultural Heri tage, estimated that duri ng il­ a Jain image of Alathur from Ta mil Nadu; legal excavati ons at th e site of Isa r-Marvin ci , and an Anant Shesh idol from the Lax­ 2500 artefacts were stolen. Fifteen local men man temple in C hh attisgarh. In Madhya have been arrested for il legal excavation and Pradesh, 14 objects including II sandstone trade in m1efacts (see' Rogue diggers helping scul ptures and one stone scul pture were sto­ themselves to Macedoni a's ancient treasure', len; from Rajasth an 10 artefacts, in cluding 19 April 2007, Associated Press). seven scul ptures. Of the 38 missing objects, authori ties have recovered six. 17 of 18 idols stolen from the Patn a India mu seum (see ' In the News', C WC, Issue 19, 2006) but not incl uded in the above list • In dia is stepping up its efforts to protect have been recovered . the coun try's cul tural heritage and proac­ tive ly secure the return of artefacts illegall y removed and smuggled abroad. Deputy Nigeria Consul General A. R. Ghanashyam sa id that India has fo rged a closer re lationship Two German archaeologists told reporters of with US immi grati ons and customs, that the 'deplorable state' th at Nok cul ture sites strategies are bein g di scussed to protect have been reduced to by looting (see' Artefact vulnerable items in remote vil lages (some thieves ravage Nok culture' , IS Apri l 2007, of whi ch have never been documented), The Ti de). They said: that customs officials are starting to use o custodi ans at the museum in Nok vil­ new technology to monitor export sh ip­ lage had sold artefacts to feed their ments, and that in creased penalties fo r fam ili es; smuggling are be in g cons id ered as an o th e museum was not up to standard, be­ amendment to the 1972 Antiqui ties and Art ing a table with bits of artefacts; Treasures Act. He said that vill agers who o looters trenches, sometimes the size of previously would never have plundered footba ll pitches, have made th e sites thei r heritage now see the monetary va lue look like battl efields. on the global market. Director General of the National Commi ssion ICE special agent James McA ndrew for Museum s and Monu ments, Dr Joseph added that Indi a is one of a group of coun­ Eboreime, argued that the government was tri es, includ in g Thai land and Peru , who adopting a community-based, bottom-up ap­ have noticed the success of Italy, Greece proach to encourage local communities to and Egypt in recoveri ng stolen cultural preserve their heritage, as well as developing heri tage and are adopting a more proac­ laws and increasing official contacts. He said tive approach (see ' Ind ia, others, step up there was already a 'sil ent effort' bei ng made to anti quities scrutiny', B. I-lope, 20 April recover materi al from museums abroad which 2007, New York Sun). would have implications for securi ty at home. /VVVVVVVVVv'VV'

/I Iran from looters. Word of ri ch tOl11b s at the s~ encourages looters, driven by poverty. • Iran lost a High Court battle in London to The link between drug traffick ing and recover a co ll ection of items they claimed antiquities smugg li ng was laid bare when in had been looted from Jiroft wh ich were for Ju ne 2006 po li ce ra ided a house in the area sale at the Bakarat Ga ll ery (a lso see' In the and discovered a large amou nt ofl11arijua na News', ewe, Issue 15, Autum n 2004; and alongs ide 135 pieces of Mayan pottery. ' In the News', ewe, Issue 19,2006). The The report hi ghl ights the case of a judge rul ed that under Ira ni an law, Iran carved stela frol11 EI Peru- Waka, now on co ul d not show it had obtai ned va li d title to display in the Kil11be ll Art Muse ul11 , Fort the objects (see Iran loses fight fo r ancient Worth, Texas, and thought to have been relics, 30 March 2007, Th e Independent). saw n off and stolen by a Mexican logger and tra nsported frol11 the area on l11ule . Ki mbel l director, Til110thy Potts (now Central America Directo r of the Fitzwilli al11 Muse ul11 , Uni­ versity of Call1bri dge) acknowledged that • April: US Imm igration and Customs the except ionally rich piece was ' likely Enforcement (ICE) returned to Mex ico looted fro l11 its origi nal site in the I 960s, a carved figure fro m the state of Sina loa taken out of Guatel11a la and sold.' The whic h had been seized fro m a business­ Ki mbe ll have agreed to pay fo r a rep lica ma n enterin g the US at San Lu is, Ari zo na to be erected on the site. in Decel11ber 2006. Experts were unab le to establis h the exact age or origi n of the fig ure because of the loss of context and Pakistan provenance (see ' ICE returns plundered pre-Colombian stone carving to Mexico ', • Seven cases reporting 40 I l11 issing l11 useul11 24 Apri l 2007, ICE News Release). items have been registered by authorities in Pak istan si nce 1996 (see' Pak ista ni Archaeologist Lisa Lucero of New Mexico l11 useul11S plagued by theft', H. Farooq, 27 State Uni versity has descri bed he r tea l11 's April 2007, Daily Til11 es Paki sta n). Further efforts to un derstand the architectural de­ objects reported stolen inc lude: ve lopl11ent of the Maya ce remonia l centrc a 71 Ga ndharan pieces sto len frol11 the at Ya lbac in Be lize through ana lysis of Tax ila Archaeologica l Muse ul11 in 1965, ex posed stru ctures in the massive looters' of whi ch onl y II ite l11 s have been recov­ trenches - sOl11e 1110re than 30 ya rds long ered;. - that cut through the site. Ni ne trenches a 40 gold and bronze coins, and 12 bronze have been dug by thieves through the tel11- statues sto len frol11 the National Mu ­ ple-pyral11i d itself, two since the project seulll of Pakistan in Karachi in 1986, started in 200 I (see ' Archaeologists Ict and never fo und; looters do sOl11e of the wo rk', II February a 38 Indus seals and two tab lets, stolen 2007, USA Today). fro lll the Archaeologica l Museul11 in Mohenjodaro in 2002. In a report for NPR ra di o (see 'To mb ra iders Around 1400 pieces ofGandharan, Ind us, threaten Mayan city's history', J. Bu rnett, 5 pre-I ndus and Isla l11i c art were seized at Jul y 2007, npr.org), archaeologist Dr David Karachi port in 2005 with a fu rther 6 arte­ Freide l describes hi s efforts , alongside facts discovered by custO I11 S at Lahore in Guatel11 alan co ll eague Hector Escobedo, to 2006, 619 artefacts at Ka rachi airport in protect the site ofEI Peru-Waka in the Peten 2006, and 17 found in France.

12 In June 2007, Italy returned to Paki stan • Two Iraqi s and a Syri an were arrested in 96 ancient artefacts, including decorated May try in g to smuggle Iraqi antiqui ties bowls, vases, miniatures of zebu s, coin s, worth Dh2 million in to the United Arab pl ates and musical instruments, dating from Emirates th ro ugh Khor Fakkan port (see 3300 to 1800 Be. They were seized while ' Smugglers of Iraqi antiquities arrested ' , on sal e at a trade fa ir in Milan and had 28 May 2007, ClIl/ Ne ws) . been smuggled as modern Thai art fro m southwestern Paki stan and southeastern The Kufa Museum, close to th e south­ Iran (see ' Italy returns ancient smuggled ern city of Karbala, is tryin g to recover items to Pak istan' , 25 June 2007, Canoe hundreds of objects, including in scribed news). in cantati on bowls, pottery and coin s, whi ch were stolen fo ll owin g th e 2003 Coali tion In January, th e US returned to the Paki stani in vasion. The museum also suffered some government a group of artefacts seized looting during the 199 1 Gulf War. It is lob­ by US Customs agents when th ey passed by ing the Iraqi authoriti es to ask th e Briti sh through Newark , New Jersey in a crate government and poli ce to seize artefacts labell ed ' decorati ve items' in September belongin g to the museum (see ' Ransacked 2005. An in vesti gation revealed th at there provin cial museum seeks lost treasures', S. were mi srepresentations in th e shipping al-J aberi , 25 February 2007, Azzaman) . docum enta ti on whi ch wrongly li sted Dubai as country of ori gin , but US authoriti es will not release the name of the recipient (based Sudan at a pri vate address in Flanders, Morri s County) who abandoned the shipments. 12 peopl e were arrested by Suda nese a u­ London-based deal er John Eskenazi sa id th ori ties for smugglin g two entire mummies that one of the pi eces, a statue of th e ' Starv­ ('Sudan arrests 12 mummy smugglers ' , 16 in g Buddha ' was a bad fake, but Pakistani June 2007, Sudan Tribune). experts determined the pi ece to be genuine and expressed th eir hopes that infonna­ tion from the seizure may lead to furth er United Kingdom recoveri es of stolen artefa cts in the future (see ' Starving Buddha sculpture returned to In May, HM Revenue and Customs officers Paki stan ', M. Lufkin, 22 March 2007, The returned to Turkey an imp0I1ant pi ece - a Art Newspaper; and ' Seeking the truth on Roman ring made of iron and sil ver, conta in­ a Buddha's trail ' , B. Donohue, 4 February ing a gemstone engraving of Lucius Verus, 2007, The Star-Ledger). co-emperor with Marcus Aurelius, thought to ha ve been taken from an archaeological dig at Ephesus. It was seized after it was Iraq taken to Derby museum for a valuati on. No­ one has been prosecuted for stealing the ring According to an arti cle published in the (see ' Roman ring handed back to Turkey', Lebanese newspaper As Safir(ApriI 2007) 22 May 2007, BBC News). Interpo l in Beirut seized an obj ect looted from the Iraq Nati onal Museum in Bagh­ Engli sh Heritage and the British Museum dad in 2003 fro m a house in the city. The ha ve commissioned Oxford Archaeology to ancient carved head was noticed on a TV produced a £ I 00,000 report on the probl em programme as part of the interi or design of of ill egal metal detecting, or ' nighthawk­ the house. ing', in Britain (see 'Night metal detectors

13 ' looti ng Brita in",.I. Copping, 7 Jul y 2007, and bought jointl y by two Athens museums Sunday Telegraph). - the Byzantine and Chri stian Museum and th e Benak i. The Chri sti e's sa le went ahead, • Nighthaw kers du g 3 1 holes in one ni ght but the di sh fai led to find a buyer, poss ibly into a Roman vil la site under excavation beca use of the controversy. London dealer by archaeo logists (from Lind um Heri tage Sam Fogg claim ed he had co nsigned the and Bishop Grossetest Un ive rsity Co l­ item on behalfofanother (un named) dealer lege Lin co ln ) just north of Lincoln. The and that there was ev idence that it had been archaeologists sa id th e thi eves were li ke ly in circul ation before 2000, although he to have found little of monetary va lue, but dec li ned to provide proof (see 'Bul garian have destroyed the integrity of the site. All rel ics spark an international scuffle' , 22 metal ha s now been removed from th e site May 2007, Internatianal Herald Tribune). (see 'Thieves damage Roman vill a site', 10 '/uly 2007, BBC News). A Bu lgarian parli amentary commi ttee is worki ng drafting a new cultural heritage law to protect the country's exceptionall y Bosnia rich heritage. Over the past 15 years around 10 draft bills have been sent to Parliament, Archaeo logist Snj ezana Vasilj is celebrating none of whi ch were approved. There are winning a re search grant to scienti fica ll y co nfiicts of opini on between special ists explore two Ill yrian ships discovered under about whether to model legislation on the eight metres of water in a small lake in the more or th e less liberal laws that ex ist in marshl and nature reserve of Hutovo Blato. different Eu ropean countries (see' Preserv­ The marshl ands were the site of intense Greek ing our patrim ony', E. Grancharova, 15 and Roman occupation, but since the 1992- 95 January 2007, The Sofia Echo). Bos nian wa r have seen more activity by th ieves than by archaeologists, so th e grant is cause for celebration (see ' Bosnian archaeolo­ Turkey gists 'dig in ' to struggle with looters', 20 May 2007, Middle East Times). May 2007: Istanbul Anti-Fi sca l Crim es teams carried out raids on antiques shops in the city and co nfi scated 366 ill ega ll y held Roman Bulgaria and Byzantine coins and artefacts. One shop­ owner claimed to have purchased pi eces from Following an urgent request fro m Bulga ri an a Bulgarian woman, and sa id that he had been prosecutors to UK authoriti es, the sa le of a plann in g to hand them over to a mu se um (see rare twelft h-century sil ver di sh at Christie's ' Poli ce raids turn up ancient coi ns, jewelery', London, was tempo rari ly halted. Na ide n 24 May 2007, Today's Zaman). Blagnev gave Bulgarian authorities a de­ tailed descripti on of hi s ill egal excavation of the piece, along with another 12 sil ver di sh­ Cambodia es, nea r the town of Paza rdj ik in December 2000. He was miffed when, having seen the Timothy McDonald , a reporter for ABC net­ dish on the front page of a Bulgarian newspa­ work (see ' PM - Angkor Wat reli c fo r sale on per with an estimated price of $600,000- $ I eBay', 17 May 2007, ABC online) chall enged million, he reali zed it was being so ld for eBay on the auction ofa piece of reli ef, adver­ more than 60 times as much as he was paid ti sed as fro m Angkor Wat. eBay spokesman for the whole treasure. Bu lgaria claims that Dani el Feil er sa id that the occasional ill egal another nine di shes were part of the same set

14 item may slip through eBay monitorin g pro­ Museum objects in North Korea have been cedures and that if the item was fake th en vu lnerable to theft and smuggling abroad in the sell er, based in Thailand, was li kely to be recent years, and some of those found to be caught. involved havc been executed. In 2006 a group of22 people were caught stealing 500 kg tombstones from royal tombs, Museum ethics for secret transport to China where they ra ise hi gh prices. The tombstones were retrieved • Indiana Museum of Art Director Maxwell with the help of Chinese authorities, the Chi­ L. Anderson an noun ced in May that the nese dea lers fi ned heavil y. The North Korean museum wil l no longer accept or buy ar­ ri ngleader, a national security agent, commit­ tefacts which left their country of origin ted suicide (see 'Golden Buddha stolen from after 1970 unless there is proof that they Haeju Museum, North Korea', K . .J. Hyun , 16 were exported legall y. In The Arl Newpa­ May 2007, The Daily NA.). per he stated ' It is our hope that the IM A's moratorium w ill encourage other major col lecting in stitutions around the world to Yemen take a similar step, along with coll ectors and dealers. A uni versal moratorium would According to a report on Independent On­ seriously impact on the clandestine trade line ('Smugglers target ancient treasures of in antiquities' (see 'Art museum limits its Yemen ' , 26 March 2007): antiquities acquisitions', W. Smith, May • Yemen's official Saba news agency sa id 2007, The Indianapolis Star). that in 2006 authoriti es prevented 1026 ancient artefacts being smuggled from the • In February 2007, fo ll owing threats of an country via Sanaa airport and two border exhibition boycott by the Greek govern­ cross lIlgs. ment, the Louvre withdrew a request to • Illi cit trade peaks at times of internal up­ borrow a statue of Apollo the Lizard Slayer heaval, such as the 1994 civi l war, and the from Cleveland M useum. The provenance current on-off fig hting between govern­ of the statue, said to be by Praxiteles, has ment fo rces and rebels in the northwestern been a source of controversy si nce its ac­ province of Saada. quisition from Phoenix Ancient Art (see • C ulture mi nister Khaled al-Ruweishan 'Editori al', CWC, Issue 15, 2004). Hi cham said: Aboutaam of Phoeni x Art said the Louvre's o some fo reign embassies and cultural decision was unfortunate and claimed the councils are involved in smuggling, as Apollo has been proven to have been in well as corrupt local officials; circul ation for over a century (see ' Do o the mi nistry had spent more than 100 you know where that art has been?', R. million rials (half the mininstry's budg­ Stodghill, 18 March, New York Times). et) buying back thousands of antiquities and manuscripts to prevent them being smuggled abroad; North Korea o that because efforts to protect antiquities he believes 90% of the material offered On the ni ght of II May 2007, golden Bud­ on the black market may be fake. dha statues and ancient pottery were stolen • Hi sham Ali al-Thawr, head of the antiqui­ from the Haeju Museum, North Hwanghae. ti es protection department at the General Border auth orities were quickly alerted and Antiquities Authority said: were monitoring known smuggl ing routes to o that illegal excavation and smuggling intercept the pieces. is most prevalent and is a particular

15 problem in tribal regions, such as AI­ • In February, ICOM (International Council Jawf, Marib and Shabwa where ancient of Museums), with the support of the US sites are unprotected and the people Department of State Bureau of Educational ill-informed about the value of their and Cultural Affairs, launched a Red List heritage; of antiquities at risk in Afghanistan. The o that pre-Islamic remain s of the Maeen initiative follows their Red Lists Africa, civili zation in AI-Jawf have now been Latin America and Iraq and is available totally destroyed in the search for sale­ from their WWW site at: http:// icom. able artefacts; museumlredl i s t/a fgh an i sta n/en/ i ndex. o that many smuggled antiquities have html (also see 'Treasure troves and lack of been recovered through official channels supervision turn Afghanistan into looter's from countries such as Britain, Jordan, paradise', 2 February 2007, International Oman and Saudi Arabia; Herald Tribune). o that a special unit set up in late 2003 to combat smuggling monitors every exit port and works closely with security forces to protect sites; o that around 3- 4 pieces are seized at Sanaa airport every week; o that the special unit have helped in the prosecution of smugglers. Director of Sanaa's national museum, Ab­ dul Aziz al-Jandari, blamed the upsurge in looting on poverty and ignorance. Algeria

Afghanistan EI Moudjahid ('Smuggling headache for Algerian authorities', II February 2007, The According to News International (' Af­ Media Line) reports that: ghanistan's ancient treasures a worrying 250 ancient artefacts were confiscated from modern-day trade', 20 March 2007): tourists visiting the Sahara region in Janu­ o many Pakistanis are buying illicit Bac­ ary, according to Reuters. The objects were trian antiquities that are openly on sale seized at Tamarasset Airp0l1. in northern Afghanistan; o archaeologist Philippe Marquis says that • Three people were arrested in January with around 70 per cent of the site of Tepe a reported 98 items, stolen from the Dje­ Zargaran was plundered in the 1990s; brine Museum in Tassili National Park. o two policemen in the ministry of culture were killed last summer by looters; o problems include high-level corruption, China and rampant building development. Police in X'ian, Shaanxi Province arrested • More than 1000 items gathered for safe­ two local farmers who li ved among the ruins keeping at a private museum in Bubendorf, of Chang' an City (Western Han Dynasty 206 Switzerland for the last decade (see' Edito­ Be-AD 24) after receiving reports ofthefts from rial ', CWC, Issue 8, 2001) were returned the site. Huang Wei, director of the adminis­ to Afghanistan in March (see 'Afghan art, tration 's relics protection department sa id that artefacts returning to country', 16 March more than 100 holes were found which were 2007, Post Ch ronic/e).

16 then backfilled by bulldozer. The far mers /l/dep elldeJ1l On I i ne were accused of stealing tile-ends, which are indyslar.col11 rare, protected by the State and can be sol d IlIlenwlional Herald Tribune Kathill1erini fo r up to 500 yuan ($62) - the eq uiva lent Klw/e'4i ]7l11 es online ofa month 's wages (see ' Ruin raiders target Living Peril ancient relics in Shaanxi', 28 February 2007, Th e ill/edia Line People's Daily ). JlIliddle Eas/ Tim es The Nell' }ork SIIII /V"VVVVVVVVVV'- New }ork Tim es So urces Th e NeHlS II/Jerl/Clliol/al Tlte IIr' Newspaper np l' radio As Solir The Observer Associated Press People~' Dai~lI on line A ustral ian Broadcasting Corporat ion (ABC online) Pas! Chronicle Azzaman.com Th e Sofia Echo BBe News Th e Star-Ledger. New Jersey 8 0SI011 Globe Slit/ail Tribune Canoe news Sill/day Telegraph Th e Daily Nor,h Korean Sw iss In fo Dai~) ' Tillles, Pak istan Th e Tide on line Deseret J\4orl1il/g Ne llis Today s Zaman Deutsche Presse-Agcntur US Immigration and Cu stoms Enforcemem Earlh Tillles USA Today gul ('n ews.com The WashillgfOlI Pas! /-/aarel= YIIIHa Slill

Book review: The J\IIedici CO llspiracy. The Illicit Joumey of Looted A lltiquitieslj-ollllf(/~) I \ TOlllb Raiders to the World's Gre(l/est Museullls by Peter Watson & Cecilia Todeschini (2006, New York, Public Affa irs, ISB N- IO ; 1-58648-402-8) THE MED ICI VINNIE N 0 RSKOV CONSP I RACY

I I... H!,~oc Jo,,,on· "f 1. ..."rJ An'''IU'''r> large clay pot once used fo r mi xi ng wine . "' .. hal!. r..w...... ' .. "" \o'G.U".~. , ... ,\~ A and water in ancient At hens at drink ing parties and later reused as funeral eq uipm ent for a wea lth y Etru sca n has become th e sy mbo l of the ri se and fa ll of the modern trade in an ti qui­ ti es. Bought by th e Metropolitan Mu se um of Art in 1972 for th e neat price of $1 mill ion, it enormous amount s of money for aestheti ca ll y initiated the boom in the antiqui ties trade of the pl eas in g objects with out any documentation or 1970s and 1980s th at culmin ated in th e au ction security about their authenti ci ty. Its modern hi s­ sa le of the Hun t Co llection in 1993. In 2006 the tory has become just as interesting and important Metropolitan Mu seum ann ounced the retu rn of as its ancient one. In fact , we will never be ab le the vase to Italy. But actuall y, we do not know to reconstruct what rea ll y happened to the vase, where the vase comes from. Some arc haeo logists in ancient or in modern times. As Watson's book sti ll believe the vase to be a modern forgery, shows, there are several versions of the modern produced fo r a demanding market willing to pay story and no hard evidence at all - onl y the 17 memories of those involved and these memories investigations some of the suspects mentioned a are quite different. memoria by Robert Hecht, one of them explain­ The Medici Conspiracy is the exciting docu­ ing that Hecht seems to have written down his mentation of the many years' investigations by personal history of antiquities dealing. During a the Italian Carabinieri that led to the fall of some raid by the French police in February 200 1 on the of the major players in the late-twentieth-century apartment of Hecht's ex-wife in Paris, the diary illicit antiquities trade. It raises questions about the was found (chapters 11 & 12). The content of the credibility of the antiquities trade itself. That be­ diary is being used as evidence in the ongoing ing said, from a Inuseum perspective, it also raises trial of Hecht and the former curator of antiquities questions about the role of the press and the media of the lPaul Getty Museum in Malibu, Marion more generally in cOlnbating the illicit antiquities True. And it confirms the close relations between trade. In Denmark, the book has made an important Hecht and Medici. contribution to recent research conducted by two Danish newspapers, and I shall come back to this The evidence from the warehouse issue at the end of this review. Two important sets of evidence were discovered The book begins with the acquisition of the in Medici's warehouse: documentation of sales Euphronios krater in New York, and throughout the to galleries and museUlns in the form of invoices book this story is revisited and rewritten in light of and letters, and thousands of photographs of ar­ new evidence. This new evidence is the result of a tefacts. hnportantly, some individual objects are series of events, many of them accidental, that oc­ illustrated by a series of photographs, showing: curred during the ] 990s. The first was the robbery 1) the object covered with earth; 2) the object of the Melfi vases in January 1994, recovered later cleaned and restored with visible restorations; and the same year frOln the Munich villa of the Italian lastly 3) the final restoration of the object. Thus dealer Antonio Savoca. Continuing the investiga­ the same object is documented from excavation tion, the Carabinieri found a so-called organigram to sale, and some are even photographed in their drawn by Pasquale Camera, a suspect who was new hOlne, the acquiring museum. Analysis of the accidentally killed in a car crash the same year. photographs has revealed the acquisition history This organigram has been key to understanding the of a nUlnber of objects in European and Ameri­ workings of the Italian antiquities trade. On top of can museums and caused some of the recent the organigram as contact to museums and deal­ returns by American collections, for instance by ers is one name, Robert (Bob) Hecht, underlined, the Boston M useUln of Fine Arts.l The associ­ and below his name a network of other names of ated documentation does not reveal whether the people involved in the trade, but clearly defining buyers sawall of the photographs, but as they Hecht's two main sources, Gianfranco Becchina are important evidence of authenticity, I would and Giacomo Medici. guess they did. However, if this evidence is turned The second event was the surfacing of a sar­ around, such a series of photographs could also cophagus in one of Sotheby's auction catalogues be used to authenticate a fake, an aspect Watson in ] 995, stolen from the church of San Saba on does not consider. the Aventine and recognized frOln the Carabinieri The combined analysis of the documentation Art Squad's list of stolen artworks. Sotheby's was found in the warehouse and the objects still there, forced to identify the consigner, the Swiss COlnpa­ together with some (sic) cooperation ofSotheby's, ny Editions Services, whose administrator revealed revealed how Medici would send batches of mate­ that the company's owner was Giacomo Medici. rial to Sotheby's, though sometimes objects did not Medici's warehouse in the Geneva Freeport was sell because of high reserve prices (chapter 10). raided by the Swiss police in Septelnber 1995. The After objects had been offered two, three or four three rooms contained a large number of antiqui­ times without selling, Medici bought some ofthem ties and documents. The analysis of this material himself. This is not allowed according to Sotheby's has revealed the inner workings of the interna­ rules, but using intermediaries it was no problem at tional antiquities trade over the preceding 25 years. all for Medici. Considering the close cooperation The third event was the discovery of the between Medici and a number of other antiquities diary of Robert Hecht. During the Carabinieri dealers, it is not surprising that this practice was 18 used. Watson considers some reasons for it and If we believe the 'true' version, the krater offers several very interesting suggestions: the fact surfaced with Giacomo Medici. During a raid on that the object has been sold at auction gives it a Giacomo Medici's house at Santa Marinella, north good pedigree, and buying back objects that would of Rome, in 2002, the Italian police found another not otherwise sell because they are over-priced set of photographs, this time appearing to contain sets a market precedent for future sales. But what several photos of the Euphronios krater. In fact, is also of importance is that many of these pieces the photographs turned out to show three different are what the antiquities market would categorize kraters, two of which were modern forgeries. One as 'unimportant' objects: common, minor, not was actually seen in the villa, only half the size of very expensive objects. Medici would never send the krater in New York (p. 200-202). Thus copies expensive material to Sotheby's, but it is difficult were made - but were these copies of an ancient not to see his use of auction sales as a means to original or of a modern forgery? manipulate the price structure of the market more Watson mentions that five previously unknown generally. And this was not the only time Medici vases by Euphronios appeared between 1970 and used intermediaries. It was more the rule than the 1990 - three craters (one in Munich, the one exception, and the use of triangulations involv­ in the Metropolitan, and one in the possession ing intermediaries to hide the identity of a seller of Shelby White who bought it at the Hunt sale seems to have been a common occurence in the in 1990) and two cups (one bought by the Getty antiquities trade during the last 30 years. Watson Museum in 1983 and returned to Italy in 1999,2 is able to demonstrate how intermediaries were the second decorated with the same subject as used when selling to museums in order to make the Metropolitan krater, the death of Sarpedon, the provenance more digestible. also offered at the Hunt sale. It was bought by Giacomo Medici and found in his warehouse dur­ The Euphronios krater again - the new ing the raid and accidentally broken by the police) evidence? (p. 130).3 Watson suggests that the vases may The diary of Hecht contains two versions of the have been discovered at a sanctuary dedicated Euphronios krater story. The so-called 'true' ver­ to Hercules found in Cerveteri in 1993, because sion connects the krater to Medici, who sold it many of the vases show Heracles (p. 202). This to Hecht for 1.5 million Swiss francs in Decem­ thesis is, however, not very convincing. First of ber 1971. Felicity Nicholson at Sotheby's then all, because most studies trying to link images estimated the vase to be worth only $200,000 on Greek vases with the cult of the sanctuary in dollars, so Hecht began a search for a museum which they have been found have not produced buyer, starting in Copenhagen, where the museum convincing results. Secondly, though many of curator in charge, Mogens Gjedesen (identified the vases are broken, there are enough fragments in Hecht's diary as M Gyp; p. 170) tried to raise to allow a fairly complete reconstruction, par­ the money but failed. Hecht then turned to Diet­ ticularly for the Metropolitan's krater. Complete rich von Bothmer, first going to New York with vases are very rarely found in sanctuaries and photographs, and subsequently showing the vase several complete vases by one painter have as far to three representatives of the Metropolitan in as I know never been found. This kind of material Zurich in June 1972, where it was being restored is found in tombs, not in sanctuaries. (not in July 1971 as stated on page 176). In the middle of August, the Metropolitan's director Fragments of time Thomas Hoving offered Hecht $1 million for Another aspect dealt with by Watson is the often the vase, a price he accepted. Shortly afterwards ignored trade in ceramic fragments (chapter 15). Hecht brought the vase to New York, presenting Watson identifies the unusual acquisition habit of Hoving with an invoice stating that the krater the Getty in acquiring many fragments, mostly in came from Dikran Sarrafian, a Lebanese dealer. order to reassemble them into entire vases. During The diary's second version of the Euphronios a ten-year period, the Getty acquired at least 1061 acquisition is interpreted as Hecht's 'official' ver­ fragments, 119 of them donated by Dietrich von sion of the story, giving a more prominent role to Bothmer. Anyone who has visited von Bothmer the background story of Dikran Sarrafian. in his office in the Metropolitan has most prob- 19 ably seen his private collection of fragments. And them back, and by the time the vase is cOinplete the Getty is just one of the many institutions to it might then be considered too late to register a which von Bothmer has donated fragments - often claim. In any event, the trade in fragments is one because they fitted incomplete vases already in of the ways the trade shows its real face: dealers collections. Another example of this type of ac­ are not interesting in saving the past, they are quisition, occurring by exchange between the Villa only interested in earning money. Giulia Museum in Rome and the Metropolitan, is described by Daniela Rizzo (p. 222).4 The trade The Danish connection in fragments is one of the important features of Since the publication of the book, the Dan­ the 'invisible' market - as Watson rightly points ish media have shown an increased interest in out, they do not appear for sale at auctions or in the subject. Denmark has been one of the re­ the galleries. They are very often used as 'extra' ally slow countries when it comes to ratifying goods in transactions - as gifts from dealers. the international conventions, both the 1970 Watson thinks that fragments are not especially UNESCO Convention and the 1995 UNIDROIT important in a scholarly or academic way, but Convention. The 1970 Convention was ratified even ifhe is right in pointing out that most schol­ by Denmark in 2003, but the Danish case shows arly books favour illustrations of entire vases over how ratification can be worthless if it is not imple­ those of fragments, the latter are important when mented by law. In summer 2006 two journalists vase painting is considered aesthetically. It has together with a Swedish colleague visited the often been emphasized that for connoisseurs of Danish auction houses. They showed pictures of vase painting the fragment helps to focus concen­ antiquities frOin Afghanistan and China and asked tration on the drawing, free from the distractions whether the auction houses would be willing to of shape.5 However, in stressing the commercial sell thein, as in Sweden this would not be possible value of fragments, Watson is making a very because they had been smuggled. All the auction important point. The value of attribution is quite houses answered that they had no problems with obvious: buying an unattributed fragment for handling a sale, and because Denmark did not c. $400, attributing it to the Berlin Painter, and introduce any ilnport restrictions when ratifying then donating it to a museum might provide a tax the 1970 Convention, it would not be illega1. 7 The reduction of $2500. Historically, attribution has auction house story was followed up by articles been closely linked to the market for vases. The on Danish museUins acquiring objects without first scholars to promote this line of research were legitimate provenance. One was the Ny Carlsberg those who made a living out of dealing, like for in­ Glyptotek that had bought a number of objects stance Paul Hartwig (1859-1919) who published through Robert Hecht and is mentioned several the first volume on Attic red-figure cups in 1893, times in his memoir as the Copenhagen Museum. based primarily on his own collection.6 What is The other was the David Collection, a private mu­ much more alanning about the trade in fragments, seum for Islamic Art. The main case has been an however, is the evidence of fresh breaks. Clearly, Etruscan chariot bought by the Glyptotek in 1970. vases are sometimes broken because it is easier This is mentioned by Watson as a set of Etruscan to transport a bunch of pottery sherds in an old silver chariot fixtures Hecht bought from Medici plastic bag from an Italian supermarket than a at $63,000 and sold to Mogens Gj0desen (iden­ fine, whole vase which must be carefully packed tified by Watson as Giddesen) for $240,000 (p. in order not to damage it. And it seems that at 168). In the new exhibition of the Etruscan col­ times the fragments are offered in small groups lection that opened in summer 2006 the chariot intermittently over a period of time in order to is displayed as a new restoration made in close increase prices. Watson, however, suggests other cooperation with Italian archaeologists from the reasons: it is cheaper for a museum to purchase University of Rome, who in 1972 had excavated a vase as fragments than to purchase it whole (p. the tomb in the Sabine village of Eretum where 229); and more seriously, museums can 'test the the chariot had been found. Thus the origin of water' by acquiring fragments over a prolonged the finds in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek had been period of time, as the country of origin will not be known for years and the find complex has been so aware of accumulating fragments as to claim published,joining the objects in Copenhagen with 20 the objects today ex hibited in th e archaeologi cal Notes museum in Sabina.' The Italian in vestigator in 1. The Basion Museum of Fine Art s ha ve publi shed a list the Medici case contacted the Danish Ministry of of th e 13 objec ts the muse llm returned to Italy in 2006 on th eir home page. sec http://www.l1lfa.orglcoll ec­ Justice (not the museum!) in 2003 fo r information ti o ll s/illdex.asp'lkey=2656 (viewed t t April 2007). about the acquis ition of the chariot. Unfortunate­ 2. Archaeology 52. 3 May/.l ull e 1999. 1'. Watsoll. 1999. ly, the request was mistranslated by the Mini stry Euphronios kyli x upcimc, Clllfilre lVir/lOlI! COllfexl no. 5.4. which read it as a req uest for return, and because 3. The Metropo li ta n Musell m tried to acquire thi s vase of the expired limitation period dismissed it. In

Book review: 1999). A single shipment. $20 million. The value Art and Arc1weology of' Afghanistall: its Fall of the Peshawar seizure is cl early an estimate, and Survival (Handbook of O riental Studies perhaps it woul d be more accurate to say it was 14) edited by Juliette van Krieken-Pietcrs worth something in the region of$ 10 - 20 million, (2006, Le iden: Brill , ISBN-I 0: 90-04-1 5 182-6) but the point is that the monetary va lue of a sin­ gle shipment of illicit antiquities might possibl y NEIL B RODIE outweigh the value of a ll intern ational aid so far offered to Afghani stan fo r heritage conservation, Here's an interesting statistic: on pages 59- 60 of C learly, some people are making a lot of money this book Chri stian Manhart of UNESCO reckons out of Afghanistan 'S cultural heritage, but not that sin ce 2002 governments and foundations much is going back to Afghani stan. worldw ide have donated something in the region T hese statistics offer an in sight in to the dam­ of $ I 3 million towards the conservation and re­ age that has been caused to Afghani stan's cultural cuperation of Afghanistan's cultural heritage. The heritage by three decades of outside political largest governmental donations have been from interference and cultural indifference. The chap­ Japan (just over $3 million) and Italy (about $ 1.7 ters in this book investigate the reality behind the million). Why is the statistic so interesting? Be­ statistics, but the picture that emerges is no more cause it makes for an interesting compari son with comfortin g. Overviews by Warwick Ball (chapter another statistic: in 1999 Pakistani poli ce seized a 2), Nancy Hatch Dupree (chapter 5) and Nadia shipment of25,000 Afghan/ Pakistani antiquities Tarzi (chapter 9) describe in detail the present at Peshawar airport, estimated to be worth $20 state of Afghanistan's cultural heritage and the million on the open market (Levy & Scott-C lark problems it faces. Chapter 10 shifts focus when

21 David Thomas and Alison Gascoigne attempt a chapter I by Brendan Cassar and Ana Rodriguez quantitative assessment of the damage caused to Garcia and chapter 13 by Juliette van Krieken­ one single site by illegal digging. They present the Pieters. SPACH's controversial decision in 1994 to results of a survey conducted in the vicinity of the purchase pieces known to have been stolen from Minaret ofJam where they discovered that robber the Kabul Museum with a view to placing such holes account for 11 per cent of the surface of the material into safe storage until conditions were surveyed area. Sometimes the losses have been favourable for its return to Kabul forms the backdrop mitigated by previous scholarship. In chapter 8 for an important discussion about 'safe havens', Kosaku Maeda describes and interprets the mural which might prove to be, for non-Afghan special­ paintings in the area of the Bamiyan Buddhas that ists at least, the most significant feature ofthe book. were recorded in the 1960s, but destroyed when Juliette van Krieken-Pieters describes a safe the Buddhas were blown up in 2001. haven as a 'place of safe deposit for endangered There are, however, some bright spots, in­ cultural objects' (p. 214). Kurt Siehr identifies cluding restoration work at Baghe Babur and the four circumstances when safe havens might be mausoleum ofTimur Shah in Kabul described by necessary: (i) for protection of material during Jolyon Leslie in chapter 11. The reconstruction wartime, either within or outside the affected and reconstitution of the Kabul Museum is dis­ country; (ii) similarly for protection from natural cussed in chapter 4 by Carla Grissman. In 1989, disasters; (iii) for the storage of stolen or illegally­ the Museum's exhibition material was secretly exported material that has been recovered outside evacuated into safe storage at the Central Bank its country of origin, until such time as it can and the Presidential Palace. In later years, it be returned; and (iv) for the storage of stolen or il­ came to be believed, falsely, though was widely legally-exported material that has been recovered reported, that this material had been stolen. In outside its country of origin, when the country of 1993, the Museum building was badly damaged origin is unknown. Siehr emphasizes that material during fighting and its contents looted. What re­ deposited in a safe haven outside the country of mained of the collections in 1996 was transferred origin is on loan, it must be stored safely accord­ to the Kabul Hotel. In 1998, work commenced ing to accepted international standards and be repairing the Museum, with UNESCO support, returned when conditions permit. Unfortunately, and in 2000 the building was reopened, only for Siehr is less clear about who should decide when the situation to deteriorate again in March 2001 conditions permit, and what should happen to when, under the orders of the Taliban Mullah recovered material for which there is no definite Omar, many pieces remaining in the Museum country of origin (his circumstance (iv». were vandalized or destroyed. After the eviction The obvious and most appropriate inter­ of the Taliban from Kabul in 2001 work started national judicial authority would seem to be again repairing the Museum building and as­ UNESCO, but Lyndel Prott's discussion of the sessing the damage. By 2003 the Museum was UNESCO position in relation to material ille­ working and the material moved out in 1989 and gally-exported from Afghanistan highlights some thought lost was revealed and found to be largely of the difficulties involved. UNESCO is bound intact. Plate 1a of the book shows the broken and by international law, and beyond that cannot take shell-damaged fac;ade of the Museum as it looked action which contravenes its own conventions in 1996, and the transformation in the Museum's and normative standards, which means it could fortunes by 2005 is obvious from the equivalent not support SPACH's purchase of stolen mate­ view of the newly repaired and decorated fac;ade rial. In 2001, however, UNESCO did decide to presented in plate lb. support the Swiss Afghanistan Museum-in-Exile, The work of the Society for the Preservation of on condition that the material stored there would Afghanistan's Cultural Heritage (SPACH) since 'not be used for commercial purposes', and that its foundation in 1993, operating in what were UNESCO would decide when it was safe for often hostile conditions, has clearly been central material to be returned to Afghanistan. Thus, in to the recovery effort, and it is appropriate that ac­ the case of Afghanistan at least, UNESCO was counts of its activities are provided by members in willing to arbitrate the return.

22 Van Krieken welcomes th is decision by tan MuseuI1l whi ch UNESCO beli eves to have UNESCO and its poli cy as outlin ed in a 200 1 been ori ginall y stolen from Jalalabad Mu seum. statement, but asks so me criti ca l questions. She The Metropolitan's position is that it is keeping points to an ambiguity in the wo rding of the the piece safe, but has not communicated with statement when it asserts that 'UNESCO sup­ UNESCO about plans for its return to A (ghanistan. ports non-profit organizations working to take Simil arl y, in chapter 14, Atle Om land critici zes cultural objects into safe custod y. It will not the Schoyen Collection's claiI1l to have 'rescued ' itse lf purchase objects that are bein g illicitly­ Buddhist manuscripts from the Taliban. trafficked '. Van Kri eken questions whether this Museums that refuse to acquire unprovenanced might mean that UNESCO is prepared to support artefacts and professional organiza ti ons and non-profit organizations, such as SPACH, that are indi viduals that refuse to study them for fear of purchas ing material. That being so, she feel s th at supporting the market and stimulating looting are UNESCO should be clearer about just what ex­ sometimes criticized for wilfull y ignoring valu­ actly ca n be purchased, and reiterates the SPACH able hi storical documents, wh ich, it is sa id , wi ll positi on that only material known to ha ve been simpl y disappear from view. The concept of the stolen from museums should be bought. Prott an­ safe haven shows this cri ticism to be unfounded. swers firm ly that UNESCO does not endorse the Unprovenanced materi al thought to be stol en or purchase of material with dubious provenance. ill ega ll y-exported from its country of origin can Van Kri eken also argues strongly that th e be held in safe storage abroad until such time as it co ll ections of the Kabul Museum should have is returned to its country of origin (S iehr's circum­ been moved into safe storage abroad, either be­ stance (iii)). PerI1li ss ion to study the material while fore or after the outbreak of hostilities (S iehr 's it is in storage or after its return can be obtained circum stance (i)). Prott provides so me hi storical from the legitimate authorities. The American exampl es of cultural obj ects being taken into safe Schools of Ori ental Research have recently ad­ storage abroad during times of war, but again vocated thi s solution for the large nUI1lbers of highlights the probleI1l s facing UNESCO in Af­ previously unknow n cuneiforI1l tabl ets that are ghani stan. Once the Taliban had se ized power the currentl y appearing on the market. But while thi s juridical government had very li ttle auth ority 'on­ so luti on might work for material with a known the-ground ' within Afghanistan and so it would country of origi n, the situation as rega rds materi al have been difficult to arrange safe transport. She with no known country of origin (S iehr 's circuI1l­ also points out that in both Afghanistan and Iraq stance (iv)) is still in need of some clarification. museum staff kept significant parts of the collec­ tions of the respecti ve national museum s safe by Reference moving theI1l into secret domestic storage, and Levy. A, & C. Sco tt-Clark, 1999. Loote rs take millions in suggests it to be a good precautionary measure. A fghan treasures. Sunday Tim es, 11 Jul y. SOI1le authors clea rl y have mi sgivings that the arguI1lent of safe haven I1light be abused by some NEIL BRODIE in stitutions or individuals as a justification for McDonald In stitute for Archaeological Research acqu iring stolen or illegall y exported materi al. Downing Street Camb ri dge Prott refers to a Bodhi sattva in the Metropoli- CB23ER

Staff: Address for correspondence: fARC Director: Graeme Barker ewe Editorial Board, McDon ald In stitute for Archaeological Research , Downing St, Cambridge, UK, CB2 3ER. IARC Research Director: Neil Brodie hllp:llwww.mcdonald .cam.ac.ukJIARC/home.htm

IARC Researcher: Jenny Doole Correspondence relating to all aspects of the legal and illegal trade in antiquities is welcome; we will make an effort to print ewe Editorial Board: Neil Brodie Peter Watson rea so nable, non -libellous letters. No unsigned letters will be printed, but names wjJJ be withheld upon request. ewe Designer: Dora Kemp © 2007 McDonald Institute for Archaeologica l Research ISSN 1464-1925 Printed by BluePrint, COld hams Road, Cambridge, UK, CB1 3EW. Tel: +44 (0)1223472400

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