Culture Without

The Newsletter of the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre

Issue 17, Autumn 2005

~ The Illicit Antiquities Research Centre is a proj ect of the Mc Donald Institute for Archaeological Research. Illicit Antiquities Research Centre

he Illicit Antiquities Research Centre (IARC) was established in May 1996, T under the auspices of the McDonald Institllte for Archaeological Research in Cambridge, England, and it commenced operations in October 1997. Its purpose is to monitor and report upon the damage caused to cultural heritage by the international trade in illicit antiquities (i.e. antiquities which have been stolen or clandestinely excavated and illegally exported). The enormous increase in the volume ofthis trade over the past twenty years has caused the large-scale plundering of archaeological sites and museums around the world. The TARC will raise public awareness of the problems caused by this trade and seek appropriate national and international legislation, codes of conduct and other conventions to place restraint upon it.

Culture Without Context is published twice-yearly. The next issue will appear in spring 2006. Subscription details are available from: Jenny Doole IARC McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research Downing Street Cambridge CB2 3ER UK e-mail: [email protected]

Front cover. Cover of the comic book Wrath of the Phantom Army (see p. 4).

Address for correspondence: Staff: ewe Editoria l Board, McDonald Institute for Archaeological fARC Director: Graeme Barker Research, Downing St , Cambridge, UK, CB2 3ER. fARC Researcl1 Director: Ne il Brodie http://www.mcdonald.cam.ac.uk/IARC/home.htm

fARC Researcher: Jenny Doole Correspondence relating to all aspects of the legal and illegal trade ewe Editorial Board: Neil Srodie in antiquities is welcome; we will make an effort to print reasonable, Augusta McMahon non-libell ous letters. No unsigned letters will be printed , but names Chris Scarre will be withheld upon request. Peter Watson © 2006 McDonald Institute for Archaeolog ica l Research ewe Designer: Dora Kemp Printed by Blu ePrint , Coldhams Road, Cambridge, UK, CB 1 3EW. ISSN 1464·1925 Tel : +44 (0)1223472400

2 By the end orthe first day, we rea lised that it would Editorial be im practical to attempt to survey the whole of the north bank, due to the limited time and resources ava il able. Consequently, we dec ided to concentrate on n March 2006, Scotland Yard reported that a SO-I11-wide stri p in the west orthe slope, stretching I three to fou r tons of artefacts plundered 225 m from the Hari Rud up to Qasr Zarafshan. From from Afghani stan have been seized over the last thi s intensive sample, we could extrapolate estimates for two years (Lamb 2006). It seems appropriate, the number of robber holes on rest of the hillslope. therefore, that thi s issue once more foc uses on By the end of the season, we had recorded 12 1 robber holes in th is 50-m-wide strip, amount ing to Afghani stan with an analysis and critique orthe a robbed area of 1245 m2 (II per cent of the area British Library's 1994 acqui sition of some Kha­ investigated - by way of comparison, a no rmal ar­ rosthi manu script fragments. One point made in chaeological excavation at a tepe site woul d generall y that paper is that it is diffic ul t to obtain re li abl e excavate onl y 1- 2 per cent of a site in the course of ev idence 'on the ground ' of the damage caused to many seasons). By multiplying the area of each rob­ ber hole by its max imum dep th , and dividi ng by hall' archaeological sites by commerciall y-moti vated (to take accoun t of th e slope), we estimate that the diggin g. We a re g rateful that David Thomas robbers have removed a min im um of 1310 m3 of de­ (U ni versity of Cambridge), who is Director o f the posi ts fro mlhis small area. Although the robber holes Min aret of Jam Archaeological Project (MJAP; are not regu lar, and our calcul ations use maximum see ewe, Issue 14, 16- 20), has all owed us to dimensions, we be li eve that this is a rea li stic figure, and probably an un derestim ation. Most orthe robber quote fro m hi s 2005 preliminary report where he holes are much dee per th an th ey currentl y seem, and is describing a fi e ld survey that took pl ace in com­ the large spoil hea ps downslope fl'om the robber holes bination with a remote-sensi ng analysis of looted probably conceal other illicit excavations. sites using satell ite imagery (to be published in About 69 per cent of the robber holes in vestigated lll ore deta il in Thomas & Gascoigne in press). contain defi nite or possible architecture; in add iti on to thi s in formation, we coun ted 386 sherds inlhe sa mpl e The lootin g of antiqui ties from Jam an d su rround­ I 111 x I m robber holes and 485 sherds on the sample ing archaeologica l sites has been severe, and the I m x I 111 spoi l heaps. Since the nOl1h bank or the da mage done is evident even fro m a di stance. Hari Rud is c. 150 m long, we estimate that there are As long as the number and location of the robber about 360 robber holes across the whole slope - thi s holes remain s un spec ified, it is very di fficu lt for th e is the scale orthe damage that the lootin g ofanli qlli­ National Afghan Institute of Archaeology (NA tA) ti es has done 10 the archaeological rema ins at Jam, on and UNESCO to mon ito r the sit ua ti on an d develop one slope alone. a cu ltura l heritage management plan fo r the site. In 2005, we attempted to use modern techn ology to ~ Another member of the MJ AP project, ass ist NA IA and UNESCO in thi s process. The ava il ability or high-resolution satelli te im ­ W la in Shearer (Uni versity College London) ages, in whic h each pi xe l represents 60 em all th e also provides what he call s an ' un substantiated groun d, and Globa l Pos iti oning Systems seemed accoun t' of the looting at Jam. to ofTel' one qui ck way of tackl in g thi s problem . A Il1 fo l11ml conversations with loca l people indicate th at generous gran t frotll the British Embassy in Ka bul there were two dist inct looting periods, organi sed by enabl ed us to buy two sa tellite im ages, and to de­ outside dealer networks: vote some of Ollr tim e at Jam to in ves ti gating this • Early- mid 1990s problem. We soon found th at we we re testi ng th e • Very late I 990s-carly 2000s li mit s of the technology, as wel l as our stam ina and During these peliods, the fol lowing objects are reported ba lance on the precari ous, steep slopes. to have beell remuved: We selected the north ba nk orthe I-I ari Rud as the Heyda11 Va/ley - al l excavated during 2000: focus for our pil ot study, as it has been part icu larly Two go ld bracelets shaped as dragons with open badl y aHccted by th e looting. The fi rst stage of the mou ths biting carved precious stones. st udy was to survey and record each robber hole we One gold neck lace n HlIlLlf~1c tlired as a dragon encountered. while scrambling across the va lley side. clutching and biting on to precioll s stones, prima­ \Ve did this in teams of two, measuring the maxim um rily tu rq uoise and lapis lazu li . length, breadth and depth of each robber hole, be­ Seven go ld and lapis lazuli rings. fore drawing a sketch plan, describ in g any visible Other un known gold and prec ious stone 3J1eHlcts. archi tec ture and cou nti ng ceramic sherds in sample Household goods made of brass, heavi ly deco­ I m x I m sq uares, in the robber hole and on the spoil rated (taken out during th e 111 id-1 990s). heap downslope. We also collected un usual diagnostic Bazaar' area. nor/II bank !-Iari Rud - taken out from sherds and objects, for fl ll1her analys is. the mi d-1990s onwards:

3 Painted glass vessels and window-panes. end ed. The Ministry of Informati on. Culture and A carved woodcn doo r fromthc castem part of th is Touri sm Guesthollse manager has been active in pre­ area, reportedly sold l'or $21 ,000 some Lime during venting the removal of other archaeo logicCl l material Lhe laLe 1990s. from Jal11: he rescued a carved wooden pane l, when SaJlgmel/w: behind Guesthouse - taken out from the loolers were disturbed excavat ing th e Islami c burial mid-1 990s onwards: at Khar Khoj . Thi s artefact has been ph otogmphed. • Intact cem mi cs. particularly bowls and jugs. drawn and recorded. bu t we we re unabl e to transport From across Ihe sile- taken out from the mid-1990s it safe ly to Kabu l for conservat ion because orits VCIY onwards: fragile state and the rigours of the jOlll11ey. We plan to 'Gabri ' - small carved bead neck laces and brace­ publi sh it in the jOlilTlallrali. lets, both comp lete an d damaged, manu f.:1c tured to It is obvious ly impossiblc to veri (y these accounts resemble snakes and dragons. or looted artefac ts, whi ch ma y we ll bc ex agge r­ ",0", oollk .Jalll flllei' ated, but should similar objects appear for sale on Mason's 100 15 in metal (taken out during the Illid­ the international antiquit ies market. or in mu se ums I9905). and private co ll ec tions, th eir provenance shou ld be 800 gold co ins in one ceram ic vesse l (taken Ollt studied vel)' ca reful ly. pre-I 999). Easl ballk Jam Rud and l\4inal'el Oil/ClOP - taken out References fromlhe lllid-1990s onwards: Lamb, c., 2006. Looted A fghan al1 smugglcd into UK. The • Cri ckeL- ball sized lumps or sulphur, which loca l Times 12 March. people burned as Harcs and fi reworks. Thomas, D.C. &A. Gascoigne, in press. Recen t archaeologica l /-Iebmw cemelel.J~ Koshkak - taken out pre-I 999: investigations onooting at Jam, Gh ur province, in JUit1wlli­ • Three ce rami c vessels contai nin g 2000+ go ld co ins. s/al/ .~ Cullural Herifage: ifS Fall and Survival, cd. 1. va ll Local peop le me adamant that the looting has now Krieken. Leiden: E.J . Brill.

Current activities of Heritage Watch, Cambodia

Dougald O'Reilly

urrentl y Heritage Watch is engaged in a C trai ning programme at the Roya l Uni versi ty of Fine Arts. Young Cambodian archaeologists are be in g taught resea rch methods and analysis by Heritage Watch staff. The project in vo lved a fie ld co mponen t whi ch in vo lved the survey and excava ti on of the looted site Wat Ja s. Regrettably little in situ informati on co uld be recovered from Wat Jas as the site had been completely destroyed by th e activiti es of looters. Thousand s of deep holes riddle the 120-ha si te wh ich contained an Iron Age (c. 500 Be- AD 500) cemetery. Looters are motivated to dig by the prospect of uncover­ ing carnelian, agate and sometimes go ld beads which are sol d to a mi ddl eman for sale on to Figure 1. Cover of Wrath of the Phantom Army. col lectors and dealers in Tha iland. The Heritage Watch project undertook a survey of the looted the distribution of Wrath of the Phal1fol/l Army, a area and co ll ected di sturbed cerami c materials comi c book that tell s the story of looting in a small and mapped th e entire site. Aerial photographs village. The Kh mer-language ve rsion is being dis­ we re also taken whi ch reveal the shocki ng extent tri buted for free in areas where looting is a se ri ous of lootin g at Wat Jas. problem. The organi za ti on has also produccd rad io Heritage Watch continues to pro mote the pres­ and te lev ision public servicc spots that are airing ervation of Cambod ia's cultural heritage through currently and will , hopefull y, be ai red on gove rn- 4 ment outlets in the near future. Ed ucation teams app lying for funds to work at Koh Ker Archaeo­ have also been working in areas where looting is logical Park, a grouping of temples northeast of prevalent, hosting large gatherings of loca ls. The Angkor dating to the tenth centUly. The Sustainable purpose of these sessions is outreach, explaining Development and Heritage Preservat ion Project the va lue and importance of cul tural heritage. seeks to involve the local community in heritage These ac ti viti es have been greeted positi vely and preservation in return for training in small business after meeting surveys indicate a change in par­ management, touri sm, craft production, Eng li sh ticipants' attitudes. Heritage Watch is currentl y language and land rights.

were made at the tim e to make sure these items had The circumstances and not been part of the collection of that in sti tution; however, with the civil war continuing, it was not consequences of the possible to contact in stit uti ons in Afghan istan to di sc ll ss the scro ll s. (The currelll scholarly position British Library's 1994 remains that 'No reliable information is available as acquisition of some to the circumstances, location and datc or th e dis­ covery of the manuscripts and associated material s '; Kharosthi manuscript Sa lomon, Richard. Ancielll Buddhis! Scrolls from Galld/Jam, Bri tish Library, 1999 [page 20]). fragments As perhaps the only body wi th the necessary spc­ ciali st expel1i se, and Hlccd wi th thc very real prospect Neil Brodie that the scro ll s wou ld di sintegrate ent irely and be lost to research forever, the Library took the difficult decision whi ch it consid ered juslif"iab le under th ese n 2004 a documentary programme made for ci rclim stances to acqui re these lInp rovenanced items. I the No rwegian television co mp any NR K In view or th e absence or clea r provenance, and the clai med that the British Library's 1994 acq ui si­ possibility of fu tu re claim s for res ti tution, til e Libraty tion of some Kharosthi manuscript fragments had did not apply Grant-in -aid in the acquisition of the created a market for central As ian manusc ripts scrol ls. Instead, a benefactor fllnded the acqu isition in full cognisance of til e background and ill recognition and triggered off a campaign of looting in Af­ of the conservati on rescue im perative. This approach ghani stan and perhaps also in Pakistan (Lunden was sanctioned by the Librmy's Di rector orSpecial 2005, 7). The British Library (BL) refused to Collections at the time. The Board is aware of the answer the claim on screen and has not answered unc lear provenance orthe scro ll s. si nce. The BL had also failed in 2003 to answer The skilled conservation wo rk undertaken by the Library subsequentl y has meant that thi s ma­ a letter from the IARC requestin g information teria l has remained available to the intcrnational about the acqu isiti on. Docum ents relatin g to sc holarly communit y. The Library has also been the acqui siti on obtained from the BL under th e vcry ac ti ve in inform ing scholars about th e scro ll s 2000 Freedom of In formation Act, together with and their significance (in fact th cy wc re featured ongoing pub li ca ti on of the manu script fragments, in th e cover photograph of th e Library'S 1995/96 Annual Report). now throw more li ght on the ci rcum sta nces of the Followi ng th e Tim es report (' Library pressured acq uis iti on and its consequences. The BL has also to return scroll s'. Monday 13 September 2004) th at supplied a statement on th e acquisition. a documentary by th e Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation had ra ised th e issue of th e Library's British Library statement ownership of th ese Kharosth i scro ll s and th at th c Library was facing calls for th eir return from th e The scroll s - wriuen 011 birch bark in th e ancient script or Kharosthi in the language ofGandhara, an Government of Afghanistan . th e Library met with important centre of early Buddhism in central Asia the Deputy I-lead of Mission at the A fghaJ1 Embassy which straddled the western borders of Pak istan ill November 2004 to set out the background to the and the eastern borders of Afghanistan - ca me to Briti sh LibralY's acquisiti on of the scro ll s with a th e Library in 1994 at a li me of great uncertainty in view to opening a dia logue with the Government or A fghani stan 0 11 th e iss ues rai sed. [ havc attached A(ghani stall. The Library was approached by a r c pu ~ a copy orthe lett er sent to Dr Abdul Wa hab follow­ tab le London dea ler for adv ice 0 11 th e conservation orlhe scroll s whic h had been forced into a number in g, what was, a constructi ve mccting. To date the of modern pi ck le jars. Knowing thm th e Kabu l Embassy has not yet taken up th e Library's ofTer to Mu sellm had been looted. I understand that checks in spect the manuscript s ill S;III. 5 British Library documents A letter dated 9 May 1994 from the BL to pre­ The covering letter supplied with the documents sumably Dealer 2, though name and address have notes that 'there appears to be no substantive been redacted, asks if a donation agreement can be contemporaneous documentation relating to the concluded. It also asks for a copy of a photograph authorisation by the Library's senior management of what remained of an earthenware pot carrying of the acquisition' or 'to the provenance checks a Kharosthi inscription and confirmation that the that were undertaken at the time'. The letter also pot would be part of the putative donation. notes that the BL's interpretation of two exemp­ An internal e-mail exchange dated to 11 May tions in the Freedom of Information Act has 1994 seems to have decided the acquisition. The caused several items of information to be redacted exchange repeated the account of provenance from the documents. The documents fall into two - the scrolls had been found in an earthenware distinct groups. The first group dates from the jar carrying a Kharosthi inscription that had been period April to October 1994 and relates to the dug up by a farmer near Jalalabad - but also acquisition of the scrolls. The second group dates noted that this account was simply what Dealer from August to November 1995 and relates to the 2 had been told by another dealer, presumably negotiations that led up to the establishment of the Dealer 1, and that in fact the scrolls could have joint British Library/University of Washington been found anywhere in Afghanistan, Pakistan Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project (EBMP). A or Tajikistan. This e-mail exchange also reveals few miscellaneous documents were also supplied, that Dealer 1, who had brought the material to including a letter written to the London embassy London, was Pakistani and at the time was doing of Afghanistan in November 2004. regular business with Dealer 2. The advisability The earliest document is what appears to be of accepting the manuscripts as a donation was an internal memorandum dated to 28 April 1994. discussed. Against acceptance was the fact that It records that two pickle jars containing rolled­ there were ownership claims outstanding against up birch bark scrolls had been deposited at the the BL by India and Pakistan for material in pre- BL, followed by a further 11 jars containing 1947 collections, and that in general the BL would similar scrolls. It also notes that discussions had not want to accept material that might have been taken place within the BL about the source of smuggled out of an Asian country. In favour of the scrolls and that concern had been expressed acceptance it was argued that the prime consid­ that the BL could 'run into political trouble with eration was to preserve the documents before they illegally exported material'. Various unspecified disintegrated further and to make them available telephone and verbal enquiries into the scrolls' to scholarship. The suggested solution was that, provenance had ascertained that they had prob­ 'in the interests of scholarship', the BL should ac­ ably been discovered in an inscribed pottery quire the scrolls as a donation but be prepared to jar in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and brought to consider any future claims for restitution should the UK by a dealer (no name provided, hence­ it be clearly shown that they had been illegally forth Dealer 1). Once in the UK, the scrolls had exported. been offered to another dealer (name redacted, An internal communication dated to 28 July henceforth Dealer 2), but the high asking price 1994 reveals that Dealer 2 had bought the manu­ had caused him/her to refuse them. At a second scripts from Dealer 1 for £ 10,000, and could not meeting between the dealers, Dealer 2 had been therefore afford to donate the material to the BL. alarmed at the damage caused to the documents Various purchase options were outlined. Subse­ over the intervening period - they had been quent documents make clear that because of their soaked in some sort of liquid 'consolidant' and deficient provenance the BL was not prepared then packed in cotton wool in the pickle jars to purchase the manuscripts outright, but would and sealed with brown adhesive tape. Dealer 2 be keen to acquire them as a donation from a had agreed to take two of the jars on approval benevolent third party 'sponsor'. to the BL, and subsequently the remaining 11. A letter dated 11 August 1994 approaches a The BL then undertook tentative but ultimately potential sponsor (name and address redacted, successful conservation measures on scrolls henceforth Sponsor). It describes the manuscripts from the first two jars. as being in the hands of a 'well-wisher', and em- 6 phasizes the BL's concern that the manuscripts The first document from the second group is should be properly conserved and made available an internal note appropriately entitled' Kharosthi to scholarship. No mention seems to have been manuscripts: update'. It records a preliminary made in this letter of the uncertain provenance meeting that had taken place in July 1995 be­ and doubts over title, though one sentence has tween BL staff, Professor Richard Salomon of the been redacted. University of Washington and a name-redacted An invoice for £ 10,000 (presumably from individual, presumably Dealer 2, about the pos­ Dealer 2) dated 1 September 1994 and addressed sible research and publication of the manuscripts. to the BL records that' I confirm that we have full A name-redacted sponsor had agreed to part fund title to sell these scrolls'. There is nothing in the the work if the University of Washington would documents supplied by the BL to suggest that any be prepared to match his contribution. Other other documentary proof of title was received. possible sponsors were also discussed. The note The fact that the invoice was addressed to the records that during Profesor Salomon's stay a BL makes clear that the BL must have bought the name-redacted person, again presumably Dealer manuscripts with money donated by the Sponsor, 2, had donated a 'fourth clay pot', suggesting and did not accept them as a gift after independent that three other pots had by then already been purchase by the Sponsor, as originally intended. accepted by the BL. The issue of provenance was This transaction seems confirmed by a letter of only briefly touched upon with mention of 'the 14 September from the BL to the Sponsor ac­ vendor's reference to Jelalabad'. knowledging receipt of a cheque for £ 10,000 that Another possible clue to provenance is of­ had made the purchase possible. Thus what had fered in a study proposal for the joint British originally been offered to the BL as a donation Library/University of Washington EBMP dated was ultimately acquired through purchase. to 2 October 1995 where the pickle jars that The first group of documents is concluded originally contained the manuscripts were iden­ by a 'Note for the file' dated 2 October 1994. tified more precisely as 'Pakistan pickle jars' . A This note recognizes that 'acquisition of items heavily redacted sentence in this document also without clear provenance is contrary to the records that the BL had received another dona­ BL's accepted good practice in carrying out tion allowing it to buy four clay pots that were its collection development responsibilities as a probably contemporary to the manuscripts, and publicly-funded national cultural institution. It that the Sponsor had by then donated £ 18,500. can only be justified in very exceptional cases.' A minute dated 30 October 1995 ofa visit to the It goes on to state that the acquired scrolls did University of Washington by BL staff to negoti­ constitute an exceptional case, because of their ate the terms of the proposed joint EBMP reveals brittleness and their urgent need for conservation that a name-redacted private sponsor had pledged (noting again the damage that had been caused £75,000 to the project. An undated document that to the scrolls by their storage and transport in was probably written about the same time notes the pickle jars), together with the fact that they that the project sponsor was the same sponsor who were already in London. The note also confirms had supported the purchase of the scrolls. By 15 that attempts made by the BL to establish the November 1995 the project had been agreed. provenance of the scrolls had been unsuccessful, An internal memorandum of 29 March 1996 but that they must have come from either eastern records that the BL had purchased 26 potsherds Afghanistan or western Pakistan (the territory inscribed in Kharosthi from a name-redacted of ancient Gandhara). The note also makes clear person, as wei I as something referred to as Pot that the BL had by then explained the problem of 5, which was presumably a fifth pot thought to provenance to the Sponsor, and that the Sponsor accompany the previous four. would not demand the return of his/her money As already noted, the letter accompanying should a future claim on the material by a foreign the BL documents states that there appears to be institution or country require their restitution. no documentation on record at the BL relating In November 2004 the Art Newspaper revealed to provenance checks. The simple reason for that the Dealer 2 was Robert Senior and that the this absence might be that no real provenance Sponsor was Neil Kreitman (Bailey 2004). checks were made. In several of the documents , 7 when concerns are expressed about deficient jars, but it is thought that they might have been provenance the suggested course of action is discovered inside one of the clay pots (pot D). The to ask Dealer 2 if more information might be basis for this surmise is a photograph said to have forthcoming. No other checks are mentioned. be taken in 1993 that 'became available' after the Clearly there are people who know more about BL purchase (reproduced as Salomon 1999, pI. the trading history of the scrolls than is generally 5). It was not revealed where the photograph was admitted, Dealer 1, for example, who brought the taken, how it was known to have been taken in manuscripts to Britain, but no attempt seems to 1993, nor how it 'became available', though it has have been made to interview them, or through since been said to have been taken by Japanese them to make further enquiries in Pakistan. antiquities dealer Isao Kurita in 1992 in Pesha­ war (Matsuda 2000, 99). Nevertheless, although British Library press release the photograph was most likely taken at a point On 26 June 1996 the BL issued the following of transit rather than at the point of discovery, it press release announcing the establishment of was taken as evidence that the scrolls had been the EBMP: discovered in pot D, though it was also accepted The British Library has acquired birch bark scrolls 'remotely' possible that the scrolls might have which are believed to be the earliest known Bud­ been placed together in the pot by the discoverer dhist manuscripts. The Library was able to make the or a subsequent handler (Salomon 1999, 21). purchase with help from an anonymous donor. The scrolls contain sixty fragments of about 25 No other evidence relating to findspot or find texts from various parts of the Buddhist canon. They constitution was forthcoming. It is not certain are written in Gandhari, the language of the ancient that all or any of the pots were found together, region ofGandhara (modem Afghanistan/Pakistan), and indeed from the inscriptions on pots Band an important centre of early Buddhism with links to C it seems that they were discovered at different East Asia along the Silk Route. Birch bark is one ofthe most fragile mediums for sites (Salomon 1999, 153). After full considera­ writing on and the task of unrolling the scrolls was tion and evaluation of all the information made a delicate and complex one. The British Library's available to him, Salomon's tentative verdict on conservation experts at the Oriental and India Office provenance - and he was careful to say that it Collections have now completed this work. is provisional - was that the scrolls probably The scrolls are written in an ancient script 'Kha­ rosthi' and Prof Richard Salomon, one ofthe world's originated in a Buddhist monastery located on the leading Kharosthi experts, is leading a project to lalalabad Plain in eastern Afghanistan, possibly study the scrolls which he has described as being in the neighbourhood of the village of Hadda potentially 'the Dead Sea scrolls of Buddhism'. (Salomon 1999, 20, 83, 177, 181). The Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project has now been set up between the British Library and the University of Washington in Seattle - the British Discussion Library has digitised the birch-bark documents; and The archaeological case for not acquiring and the university has created 2 post-graduate research studying unprovenanced artefacts is based assistantships to work on the project. There are plans upon two arguments. First, the artefacts' reli­ for a series of publications over the next decade. The ability and value as historical documents are British Library has secured a further donation from the same source to support this research. hopelessly compromised by the destruction of contextual relations and associated material that Preliminary publication their unrecorded extraction has caused. Second, The first publication of the EBMP was the prelim­ their acquisition and study will create or sustain inary publication of the BL scrolls which revealed a market conducive to further unrecorded and more about their nature and the circumstances of destructive excavation. Thus any knowledge their acquisition (Salomon 1999). The material gained through the acquisition and study of comprises between 21 and 32 fragmentary birch unprovenanced material is inherently unreliable bark scrolls carrying Gandhari texts written in and outweighed by the loss to knowledge caused Kharosthi (Salomon 1999,20). The BL had also by the circumstances of its extraction and the acquired four inscribed clay pots (pots A-D) and consequences of its study. In the case of written 26 inscribed potsherds (Salomon 1999, 15). The materials, however, the first argument could lose scrolls had arrived at the BL in 13 glass pickle some of its strength, as the artefact or document 8 might in itself contain historical or linguistic surviving fragments what had been lost prior to information whose reliability and value are not original deposition, and what had been lost since compromised by the absence offind context. The (Salomon 1999, 70). Some idea of what might Rosetta Stone is the classic example. Thus when have been lost during their excavation can be considering the acquisition of unprovenanced gained from an interview conducted by the NRK written material it would appear that there are programme with a shepherd near the Pakistani two questions that need to be answered. First, town ofGilgit. He told of the devastation caused does the intrinsic information contained in the on the ground by one gang of looters who had document outweigh what has been lost through visited his area looking for ancient manuscripts its excavation and trade? Second, is the acquisi­ - pots were broken into pieces to retrieve manu­ tion likely to legitimize or otherwise promote a scripts and more than 500 manuscript fragments market in the material in question? were left behind scattered on the ground (Lunden Non-specialists are not in a position to judge 2005,5). No doubt this scenario has been repeated the historical or linguistic importance of the BL at many sites in Afghanistan, including wherever Kharosthi manuscripts, but it is hard to escape the it was that the BL scrolls were discovered. It is impression that they are in fact a bit of a disap­ impossible to estimate how many manuscripts pointment. In the BL's June 1996 press release have been destroyed, or what archaeological and reproduced above, Salomon was quoted as saying architectural damage accompanied their extrac­ that he thought the scrolls might potentially be tion. The Buddhist site of Hadda itself and its 'the Dead Sea scrolls of Buddhism'. An internal museum are said to have been destroyed by a BL document dated 18 October 1996, however, combination of fighting and looting in the 1980s was less optimistic, suggesting that 'they are (Lee 2000). The Buddhist literature and the mo­ unlikely to revolutionise Buddhist studies in the nastic landscape ofGandhara have no doubt both way the Dead Sea Scrolls pushed back the date suffered grievously during the hunt for saleable of a Hebrew bible and enabled the reconstruction manuscripts, but just how grievous the damage of the pre-Christian history of Palestine'. This actually is will only become clear when the politi­ downbeat assessment was later echoed by Salo­ cal situation normalizes and it becomes possible mon, when with the benefit of preliminary study once more for archaeological projects to work in he stated that 'The survey of the new fragments the area and to assess the damage. carried out to date ... has revealed nothing that is In its statement the BL does not address startlingly at odds with early Buddhist doctrine archaeological concerns about the destruction as previously understood, nor is there much rea­ of context and material or about the economic son to expect that further analysis will turn up nexus of its acquisition. Instead the acquisition anything that will be' (Salomon 1999, 9). is justified by reference to the so-called 'rescue But if it is hard to assess the real significance argument' - the scrolls would have disintegrated or importance of the scrolls, it is no easier to if the BL had not moved to acquire them, and as a ascertain what material damage might have been positive result of the BL's intervention they have caused by their recovery and trade. It is clear now been expertly conserved and made available that the scrolls were damaged by their transfer to the scholarly community. No assessment is into the pickle jars and during their subsequent made of what damage might have been caused transport. Another photograph said to have been by the initial recovery and subsequent trade of taken in 1993 of a fragment out of pot D showed the scrolls, nor of the effect on the market of several lines of text that no longer survived when their acquisition, or of how scholarship may have the fragment was studied after its acquisition by suffered in consequence. The BL develops the the BL (Salomon 1999,21, pI. 6). There was also rescue argument further in a letter dated 22 No­ a large amount of 'debris' recovered from the vember 2004 to the Afghan Embassy in London jars, said to be significant for study of two of the that makes reference to the BL acting in a 'world scroll fragments (Salomon 1999, 52). It was also stewardship' role by providing a 'safe haven' for discovered, however, that the scrolls had probably the manuscripts. These are concepts that are glar­ already suffered damaged before being buried in ingly absent from the new DeMS due diligence pot D, so it was not possible to ascertain from the guidelines for museums, libraries and archives on 9 collecting cultural materal (OCMS 2005). The around Hadda, although the exact provenance is basic principle underpinning these guidelines is unknown (Salomon 2003, 73-4). On its website, clear. Museums (including libraries) should only the EBMP estimates that the amount of material it acquire material if it is legally and ethically sound has available for study has 'approximately tripled (OCMS 2005, 4). While these guidelines have since the project began in 1996'. no retrospective force it is clear that in future But the fact that the BL collection was acquired the BL should not use the 'rescue argument' as a before those of Scheyen and Senior and apparently justification for acquiring any material with such heralded a flow out of Afghanistan of Gandharan a dubious provenance. manuscripts does not in itself prove that the BL The BL statement also reveals an interesting created the market. As noted above, archaeological ethical twist of the rescue argument when it de­ sites around Hadda were looted in the late 1980s, scribes Dealer 2, who mediated the acquisition, and if manuscripts first began reaching Britain as 'reputable'. It seems a curious use of the term soon after that time they might have been sold to describe a dealer who approached the BL with anyway without the BL's acquisition. Neverthe­ material he believed to have been smuggled out less, for some collectors and institutions the BL ofAfghanistan, but when the dealer is considered must surely set a legitimizing example, and ifit had to have taken part in a 'rescue' his reputation acted firmly when first offered the scrolls by pub­ remains intact and is even enhanced. licly rejecting their acquisition and denouncing the The most controversial allegation of the NRK illegal removal of manuscripts from Afghanistan, programme, however, was that the BL acquisition it would surely at least have exerted a dampening triggered of a campaign of looting in Pakistan effect on the market. By failing to take such timely and Afghanistan. The allegation was based on the and decisive action it is probably true to say that testimony of a London-based Pakistani smuggler, the BL is a least partly responsible for what pres­ who claimed that when manuscripts were first ently seems to be a buoyant market in smuggled discovered in Afghanistan, it was not certain that manuscripts. there was a market for them. In the past looters Another worrying consequence of the BL's had been intent on recovering sculpture and ar­ acquisition might be its role in the establishment tefacts for the 'art' market, and manuscripts were and continuing support of the EBMP, which has something new. He maintained that this situation now turned into a small academic industry for changed after the BL acquisition when manuscripts processing unprovenanced manuscripts from had come to be targeted too. The N RK allegation Afghanistan or Pakistan. While the scholarship can probably never be verified, though there is and industry of the EBMP are beyond reproach, independent confirmation that the BL's acquisition it appears to be working in an ethical vacuum. prompted the Norwegian collector Martin Scheyen Its website claims that the project has 'placed the to start assembling his several thousand Buddhist highest priority on publishing the manuscripts as manuscripts including 238 fragments written in quickly as possible without compromising appro­ Kharosthi script (Matsuda 2000, 99). priate scholarly standards', but nowhere is there It is clear that the BL manuscripts probably any consideration of the ethical implications or comprised the first large collection of its kind material consequences of studying material that to appear on the market in recent times. With has in all probability been removed illegally out the exception of a single manuscript that was of Afghanistan. discovered in 1892, at the time of their acquisi­ It is not clear what involvement the BL tion the BL scrolls constituted the only known currently has with the EBMP, and whether it corpus of Gandharan Buddhist literature. Since is continuing to provide financial or expert then, a lot more material has appeared, including support. It is known that the so-called Senior the Scheyen collection, and, interestingly, the so­ collection which is being studied by the EBMP called Senior collection of 24 birch bark scrolls was conserved at the BL (Salomon 2003, 74), or scroll fragments also in Kharosthi script. These presumably sometime after 1994, though it has scrolls are the property of Robert Senior and not been made public whether this was a com­ are said to have been found inside an inscribed mercial arrangement or in any way connected to clay pot that may have been discovered in or the BL's acquisition of its own scrolls. It is now 10 government policy in the UK that libraries should Thus the current scholarly position is that it is not acquire or borrow material that has been il­ highly probable that the scrolls came from Af­ legally excavated or illegally exported since 1970 ghanistan and indeed they are currently listed on (OeMS 2005,4)1, and if the BL is continuing to the EBMP's website with a 'Hadda' provenance. support the trade in such material by contributing The government of Afghanistan should not be money or expertise to the EBMP, or facilitating asked to 'evidentially substantiate' what has such support, it should stop immediately. already been accepted for the purposes of scholar­ As a result of the NRK programme, in Novem­ ship, and the BL should start negotiations now to ber 2004 the BL approached the Afghan Embassy arrange for the return of the scrolls to Afghanistan in London and indicated that it would be prepared when conditions permit, or at least as an interim to return the scrolls to Afghanistan if the Afghan measure to transfer title. government could 'evidentially substantiate' a The looting and destruction of archaeological claim for restitution. But it is clear that for the sites are now common accompaniments of mod­ purposes of scholarship the BL and the EBMP em warfare, and the fate of cultural material from have already been happy to accept an Afghan prov­ war zones that is thrown thrown up on the inter­ enance. The BL is wrong to claim in its statement national market, particularly the fate of written that the current scholarly position is that there is materials such as the Buddhist manuscripts from no reliable information available as to the prov­ Afghanistan that are the subject of this paper, enance of the scrolls. The Salomon quote the BL continues to pose problems for the international statement provides is incomplete. The complete community. The BL chose to 'rescue' the Kha­ relevant section of text is as follows: rosthi manuscript fragments by buying them, but No reliable information is available as to the cir­ it has since been criticized for that decision on the cumstances, location, and date of the discovery of grounds that its purchase might have exacerbated the manuscripts ands associated materials. This is highly regrettable, as the loss of a proper archaeo­ an already parlous situation. logical context seriously diminishes their scholarly The archaeological perspective developed value. To a certain extent, however, this damage can during this paper is that it cannot be known what be undone, since some of the missing information has been lost to scholarship as a result of the can be partly reconstructed through comparative scrolls' extraction and trade and thus the value research. A few of the relevant points concerning this are introduced briefly in this section, and these of what has been 'saved' by their acquisition issues are discussed at greater length in the relevant cannot be judged. But there is also a public se­ places in the following chapters. curity dimension. The NRK programme alleged As to the original provenance of the jars and that one Pakistani antiquities dealer then living scrolls, oral reports, received indirectly, suggested in London had in the past dealt in guns and that they had come from Afghanistan. Although such reports are by no means necessarily reliable, drugs and had subsequently maintained contacts subsequent analysis of these relics has confirmed with the Taliban regime, exchanging weapons that they are very likely to have come from eastern for artefacts (Omland in press). Links between Afghanistan. The abundant Buddhist stupa sites in artefact looting and the mujahideen and other the lalalabad Plain (the ancient Nagarahara) and armed groups in Afghanistan have been known particularly those in the neighbourhood of the vil­ lage ofHadda have yielded many specimens of both since at least the mid-1990s (McGirk 1996; Lee inscribedjars and Buddhist manuscripts in Kharosthi 2000), 'most notably in the east near the Hadda script that seem closely to resemble the new materi­ museum' (Dupree 1996,47), and it has since been als, although few of the former and none ofthe latter claimed that within Afghanistan the purchase have ever been properly published. Thus, as will be and subsequent sale abroad of looted antiquities discussed in sections 3.2 and 3.4, the new relics can be presumed to have come from somewhere in this is being used to launder drugs money (Kluyver region, possibly from the Hadda area itself. Given the 2001). To be fair, back in the early 1990s the BL difficult conditions that have prevailed in this area for was probably unaware of these possible connec­ many years and continue to do so as of this writing, it tions between the drugs, weapons and antiquities has been impossible to investigate the matter on-site trades, but unfortunately today when considering or even to obtain any kind of reliable information about it, so that for the foreseeable future at least, we an acquisition of unprovenanced material the must be content with this circumstantial but highly exercise of due diligence must extend beyond probable hypothesis. ensuring the legitimacy ofan object to investigat- 11 ing the affi li ati ons of dealers and the destin ati on References of any money that may change hands. It is not Ba il ey, M., 2004. Briti sh Li bra ry accused of buyin g smug­ clear fro lll the documents supplied by the BL if gled scroll s. Art Newspaper 152 (November), 5. Dupree, N. H., 1996. Museulll un der siege. Archaeology the name of Dealer I is known to them, whether March/April , 42- 5 1. he mi ght be the same dealer identifi ed in the N RK OeMS, 2005. COll1baling IIlie ;{ Trade: Due Diligence programme, or ifthe BL is aware of who hi s prin­ Gllidelilles lor ,HUSCIIII1S, Libraries and Archives 011 cipals mi ght be in Pa kistan and Afg hani stan. Col/ecting and Borrowing Cultural Nlatcrial. Depart­ The BL has consistentl y defended its acqui si­ ment 1'0 1' Cult ure, Media and Sport. Kluyvcr, R., 200 I. The drug trade in antiquities. Al'l News­ tion of the scroll s by claiming to have acted in the paper 11 3 (April), 8. interests of scholarship. But there are scholars in­ Lee, D. , 2000. Hi story and art are bein g wiped out. Ar! terested in subj ects other than Buddhist literature, Nell'spaper 10 1 (March), 3 1. subjects that are arguably more sociall y relevant. Lu nden, S., 2005. Skriftsa ml eren [The Man uscript Co ll ec­ The cultural and materi al damage caused by the tor]. CullUre WilllOlI! COl/lexl 16, 3- 11. Matsud a, K. , 2000. New Sa nskrit fragments o f' th e Sad­ extracti on of the scrolls and th e legal , economi c dh anllap u.n.d arii kasull tnl in th e Scheyen Coll ecti on, and social contexts of th eir trade and reception Norway. Jourl1al q/Oriel1lal Sludies 10,97- 108. are a ll legitimate areas o f study for archaeolo­ McGi rk, T. , 1996. Ayear of looti ng dangerously. llldepelld­ gists, sociologists, criminologists and lawyers, eJlf 01/ SUlldcO' 24 March. and by fa iling to enter into a full and open debate Om la nd, A. , in press. Claimi ng Ga ndhara: legitimi sin g ow nership ofBuddhi stl1l alluscripts in the Scheyen col­ about the circumstances of their acquisiti on the lect ion , Norway, in Ar' alld Archaeology in J~ fgl/{lI1 is'an. BL has in effect helped to stymi e scho larship. its Fall ond Survival, cd . .1 . van Kri eken. If the resources th at have been expended on the Sa lomon, R. , 1999. Ancielll /JlIddhis t Scrol/s./i'OlJI Gal/d· conservati on and study of Buddhist manu scripts harC/. Lon don: British Lib ra ry. recently moved out of Afg hani stan had been used Sa lomol1 , R. , 2003. The Senior manu scripts: anot her col· Icc ti on of Ga ndharan Buddhi st scro ll s. JOllrJlal (?/the in stead to in vestigate their trade, the interests of Americllli Orienwl Society 123 , 73- 92. scholarship and of th e publi c would both have been better served. NEIL B ROD IE McDonald In stitute for Archaeologi cal Research Note Downing Street I. The Briti sh Li brary is recolllme nded in the OeMS Ca mbridge guidelines as a source of specia li st advice 0 11 th e is· CB23ER Slie of due d iligence despite its re lu ctance to engage in discuss ion about the acq ui sit ion of the Kharosthi manu scri pt fragment s.

In the News of receiving and illegall y exporting sto len antiquities (' In the News', ewe, Issue 16). JENNY DOOLE The court reconvened in December and dates were set fo r further proceedings in 2006 eM. Robert Hecht and the Getty Lufk in , 'Ex-Getty antiquities curator appears in Ita li an court', Art Newspaper, December On the 16 November 2005 in Rome, antiq­ 2005). The tri al itself, however, was largely uiti es deale r Robert Hecht and J.P. Getty overshadowed by the associated media furore M useum curator Marion True were charged as intern al Getty documents and evid ence in court with conspi.·ing to receive stolen produced in court duri ng the tri al of Medici a rt and, in the case of Hecht, with the illegal were made avail able to the press, in cluding a export of antiquities. The charges arise out handwritten ' memoir' of Robert Hecht, seized of evidence obtain ed during the in vestigation duri ng a raid on hi s Pari s apartment in 200 I. of Ita li an antiquities dealer G iacomo Medici, In September 200S , the Los Angeles Tirnes who was himself convicted in December 2004 gain ed access to hundreds of pages of what

12 the J. Paul Getty Museum described as stolen the Fleischman objects to Italy in 1999 after it documents. The documents offer insights into was discovered that they had been stolen from Getty acquisitions and acquisitions policy as an excavation storeroom ('In the news', ewe, far back as 1985 (J. Felch & R. Frammolino, Issue 4). 'Getty kept items to itself in probe', Los An­ On the basis of evidence assembled during geles Times, 2 September 2005; J. Felch & R. the investigations of Medici and Hecht, Italy is Frammolino, 'Getty had signs it was acquir­ now demanding the return of42 allegedly sto­ ing possibly looted art, documents show', Los len objects from the Getty, including a further Angeles Times, 25 September 2005). 11 objects from the Fleischman collection. The In one 1985 memo the then acting Cura­ Los Angeles Times claims that an internal Get­ tor of Antiquities Arthur Houghton wrote ty review in 2001 discovered that as many as that three objects under consideration for 82 objects had been acquired through Medici, acquisition from Maurice Tempelsman had Hecht and Symes, despite doubts about their been excavated illegally in Italy and passed honesty that had existed at least since the 1985 onto the market through Medici before being Houghton memo. The Times also claims that bought by Tempelsman through the mediation the same review discovered some potentially of Robin Symes and Robert Hecht. Despite incriminating documents, but that they had not this knowledge, the Getty acquired the objects been made available to the Italian prosecutors, for $10.2 million. When contacted by the Los despite a Getty claim of full cooperation. Angeles Times, Deborah Gribbon, who was the In reply to the Los Angeles Times' al­ Getty's deputy director at the time, defended legations, the Getty stated that it had never the acquisition on the grounds that the infor­ knowingly acquired an object that had been mation offered in the Houghton memo could illegally excavated or exported illegally from not be verified and that at the time patrimony another country. laws were little known and seldom enforced. In 1995 the Getty adopted a revised acqui­ One year later, in 1986, Houghton resigned sitions policy, and there is no evidence in the his position in protest over the Getty's acqui­ published documents that the Museum has sitions policy and what he called 'curatorial since acquired anything in contravention of avarice'. that policy. In a 1987 document the then CEO of the In October 2005 Marion True resigned Getty Trust, Harold Williams, described Robin her position as Curator of Antiquities at the Symes as a 'fence', though Williams now says Getty for reasons totally unconnected to that it was a hypothetical characterization the Italian trial. In 1995 she had bought a adopted during discussions that preceded the holiday home on the Greek island of Paros 1987 adoption of the Getty Museum's first with a $400,000 loan obtained with the help formal acquisitions policy. Nevertheless, de­ of Christos Michailidis, partner of long-time spite this policy, in 1988 the Getty paid Robin Getty supplier Robin Symes. The loan was Symes $18 million for a 400 Be south Italian or judged to have contravened Museum rules on Sicilian statue ofAphrodite, with the minimal possible conflicts of interest (R. Frammolino provenance of a Swiss private collector (See & J. Felch, 'Getty curator resigns in loan flap' , 'Aphrodite', ewe, Issue 11). Los Angeles Times, 3 October 2005). In 1996, the Getty acquired the Fleischman Hecht's memoir seized in 2001 apparently collection. The documents show that the contains a new account of the provenance of Museum paid $20 million for 33 pieces and the famous Euphronios krater, which was sold received the remainder as a donation valued by Hecht to the Metropolitan Museum for $1 at $40 million. Most of the objects in the million in 1972 (J. Felch & R. Frammolino, Fleischman collection had no provenance, 'Italy says its proven vase at Met was looted', and many had been obtained through Medici, Los Angeles Times, 28 October 2005). At the Hecht and Symes. The Getty returned three of time, Hecht said he had bought the krater

/3 from a Lebanese dealer and that it had been In further response to the Italian allegations, in Lebanon since before World War Two (and the Boston MFA stated that it had acquired thus before the enactment of Italy's 1939 pat­ through purchase or donation 116 objects rimony law). However, in his memoir, Hecht from Robert Hecht, the last piece in 2004 as recounts that he bought the krater from Medici a gift in honour of the retiring curator John for $380,000, although both Medici and Hecht Herrmann, and that it intended to contact the now deny that this was actually the case. Hecht Italian authorities about the material in ques­ claims it was a fiction designed to increase the tion (G. Edgers & S. Celeste, 'Case in Italy memoir's saleability. The Italian prosecutors suggests MFA received stolen art. Museum also have a sworn statement from Marion True says it received no proof', Boston Globe, 4 that Dietrich von Bothmer, former curator at November 2005; G. Edgers, 'The MFA is ap­ the Metropolitan, once showed her on an aerial proaching Italian authorities', Boston Globe, photograph the location of the Etruscan tomb 5 November 2005). at Cerveteri where the krater was found, an On 10 November, three objects (a sixth­ occasion denied by von Bothmer. century BC tombstone from the Sicilian The Italian authorities also claimed to Greek settlement of Selinunte; a krater from have identified pieces sold illegally by Medici Paestum dated to about 340 BC; and a bronze through Sotheby's at several museums (V. Etruscan candelabrum) arrived in Italy from Silver, 'Smuggling ring used Sotheby's 110 the Getty. They had been on the list of 42 times, Italian probes show', Bloomberg.com, objects that Italy wants returned, and were 4 November 2005). The museums are: returned by the Getty voluntarily (V. Silver, 'Three "illicit" antiquities from Getty Mu­ Metropolitan Museum of Art (8 pieces, seum returned to Italy', Bloomberg.com, 10 - including the Euphronios krater) November 2005). Boston Museum of Fine Arts (22 pieces) On 22 November, the Metropolitan's direc­ Princeton University Art Museum (1 piece) tor Phillipe de Montebello met with Italian Cleveland Museum of Art (1 piece) government officials to discuss Italian claims Toledo Museum of Art (1 piece) on 22 objects in the Metropolitan's collection: Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (6 pieces) the Euphronios krater, 6 other pots, and the Munich Antikensammlungen (2 pieces) Morgantina silver, a collection of 15 pieces Miho Museum (1 piece) of silver thought to have been removed il­ A Tokyo museum (2 pieces) legally from the site of Morgantina in Sicily. A draft agreement was announced whereby Many of these pieces appear on Polaroid pho­ the Metropolitan would cede title to Italy of tographs seized during the 1995 police raid on any object for which there is incontrovert­ Medici's warehouse showing what appear to ible evidence that it was illegally excavated be freshly excavated artefacts. Further pieces in Italy. If an object was to be be returned to known from the photographs have been identi­ Italy, Italy would provide on loan an object of fied at the Boston MFA and the Minneapolis equal importance (E. Povoledo, 'The Met may Institute of Arts (1. Felch & R. Frammolino, settle with Italy', New York Times, 24 Novem­ 'Several museums may possess looted art', ber 2005). Incontrovertible evidence might, Los Angeles Times, 8 November 2005). however, be difficult to come by. Writing for When contacted about these allegations, the Bloomberg.com, Vernon Silver suggested that Metropolitan, Boston and Princeton claimed to apart from the Euphronios krater there is in comply with guidelines drawn up by the As­ fact little direct evidence to link the six pots sociation ofArt Museum Directors (V. Silver, identified on the Medici photographs with il­ 'Tomb-robbing trials name Getty, Metropoli­ legal excavations in Italy ('Italy lacks proof tan, Princeton Museums' , Bloomberg.com, 31 Met's antique pots were looted, papers show', October 2005). 30 November 2005).

14 On 23 November it was reported that Latin America Greece was about to join the fray by lau nching legal action against the Getty fo r the return In Se ptember the World Monuments of four pieces said to have been exportcd il ­ Fund launched a large-scale conservation lega ll y (R. Frammolino & J. Felch, 'Greece project for seven Precolombian sites on vows legal action again st Getty', Los Angeles the Yucatan Peninsul a, Mexico. One aspect Times, 23 November 2005). will fo cus on arrestin g th e destabilization of structures caused by years of lootin g at Ek Balam. UK • Two Mayan stone tablets, di scovered in , December 2005: New due diligence a looters trench at the site of La Corona, guidelines for museums, gall e ri es and northern Guatemala in April by archae­ libraries were published by the UK govern­ ologist Marcell o Canuto, may be further ment. They are avai lable on the Intcrnet at proof that the site is 'Site Q ' . Over the http://www.culture.gov. uklN R/rdon Iy res/ last 40 years, scholars have speculated as 72 1E9365 -38BE-4AF8-BF8D-B E5B4BF8 to the location of Site Q as large numbers B21 CIOICombatinglllicitTrade_ v5. pdf. of antiquities taken from its carved monu­ ments ha ve appeared on the art market. In an interview with Archaeology magazine (A pril 2005) Roger Atwood, author of • After a two-month in vestigation working Stealing HistOlY: Tomb Raider'S, Smllgglers, with Florida police, US Immigration and and the Looting ofth e Ancient World (New Customs Enforcement made their largest York: St Martin's Press, 2004) describes ever seizure of 322 Precolumbian arte­ how he first came into contact with ar­ facts (i ncluding gold jewellery, pottery and chaeological looting in the earl y 1980s, texti les). One arrest was made in Miami. whil e working on a di g on the Chann el Island of Guernsey, UK. During that time • After a trek to archaeological sites in the he and other archaeologists were requ ired highlands of Peru, explorer Sean Savoy to sleep in tents on the si te to protect it from spoke out about damage caused by loot­ coin hunters. ing. In an interview with the Associated Press (6 September 2005 , MSNBC.com) • In October, Vernon S il ver of Bloomberg. he said that at Gran Saposoa, a Chachapo­ com interviewed Doreen Stoneham, who yas metropolitan complex north of Lima, directed Oxford Uni versity'S Research a carved stone head had been hacked from Laborato ry for Archaeo logy a nd th e an important structure and at another site, Hi story of Art's thermo lu minescence au­ previously unknown to the scientific team, thentication service from 1970 to 1997. She more than 50 stone cut tombs had been recalled being Hown out to Switzer'land in wantonly destroyed with pi cks and axes. the mid-I 980s by two Italian tombaroli to sample for testing an Etruscan sarcophagos • In Aug ust 2005, C usto ms and Border that had been di scovered in Italy. She sug­ Pro tection officers at Colu mbus port, New gested that such practices were 'OK at the Mexico, discovered two metates (grinding time' (Y. Sil ver, 'Tomb-robbing trials name stones, el ated to c. AD 1200- 1450) in the Getty, Metropolitan, Princeton Museums', boot of a 1997 Chevrolet Suburban pass­ Bloomberg.com, 31 October 2005). ing fro m Mexico to the US. The ancient obj ects were wrapped in blankets under other items. The dri ver, a man from the Midland-Odessa area sa id that he had fo und

/5 them, and was not charged with possession pages of gold in scribed with cuneiform, a of stolen property as officers would have gold statuette of an ibex, gold and bronze to prove he was aware he was committing jewell ery and buttons, stone and bronze a crime. The metates were returned to the statuettes, two stone spindle whorls, and Mexican Consul ate in EI Paso. some sil ver items. The farmer who all eg­ ed ly found the treasure while pl oughing in Rudbli r was also arrested. Iran • Oscar White Muscarella, in an article in The Guardian ( 14 November 2005) reports the Bulle/in o./, /he Asia Ins/i/u/e 15 (2005, on escalating tension between farmers 173- 98) summal'izes the published and in the hills of Khuzestan, southel'll I ran other sources currently available regard­ and the C ultural Heritage Department. ing the recentl y discovered ancient Jiroft The area is believed to be the si te of the culture, Iran, and its plunder (see ' In the ancient Persian c ity of Jond ishapour, News', CWC, Issue 15), He suggests that which authorities would li ke to excavate lack of clear information about the circum­ and promote as a symbol of national pride. stances of confiscation of 'Jiroft' material Not onl y have pla ns to acquire farm land is hindering study of the assemblage, and by compulsory purchase and to pl ace bans that forgeries could have entered the corpus on cultivation infl amed local opini on, but in Iran before material was smuggled out feelings are running high since crimin al of the country. charges have been pressed again st dozens of farmers for a ll egedly damaging parts Ali Mahforuzi, director of the C ultural of the site digging fo r antiquities to sell. Heritage Center, Mazandaran province, Cultural Heritage officials claim looting is northern Iran, has recorded unprec­ rife, an argument strengthened by the fre­ edented levels of illicit excavation in the quent posting of adverti sements for metal area. He says (Cultural Heritage News detectors in local towns and villages. Agency, 30 July 2005) that in one 1000 m' area, evidence of more than 250 illicit • Archaeologists at the ancient cemetery of excavations was found, and a staggering Tul Ralesh in G ilan Province are struggling 100,000 were di scovered and recorded in to work out how many illegal excavations a I OO-kilometre stretch from the provin cial are happening at the site sin ce looters have ca pital, Sari, eastwards. He wa rns that more di scovered a new way to wo rk . According sites will be harmed if cultural heritage to director Mohammadreza Khalatbari, the guards do not start protectin g the area,

robbers are tunnelling between graves, so ~ that one looter's pit can lead to five or ten other graves. He beli eves they are dealing Former Yugoslav Republic of with pro fessional looters at the site, who will Macedonia onl y be stopped when a permanent police presence is made available (see Mehrnews. The Directorate for Protection of C nltlll'al com, 25 October 2005). Heritage in Macedonia says that illegal ex­ cavation has escalated to a larming levels in OC/ober 2005: Tehran police announced the country, especia ll y sin ce independence in the seizure of 24 Achaemenid (first-mil­ 199 1 (see Balkan Crisis Repor/, No. 575, 16 lenniumllc) items, which had been sold to September 2005). smugglers fo r transfer abroad. The objects, recovered from th e ' bagh-e Feyz' di strict, • Between 1995 and 2003 around 2500 arte­ included a remarkable book made of eight facts stolen from the Iron Age site of Isar

I() Marvinci, southeastern Macedonia were Thieves broke off and stole several pieces recovered, presum ably a tiny proportion from the fountain, including the boar 's of what has been lost. snout-shaped prow of the carved gall eon. Archaeologist Vikto Lilcic thinks that there One of the pieces was later found in a is not an ancient site of the 5000 or so in plastic bag in the south of the city. Had it the country not damaged by looters. not been broken, it may have been worth up Even a small item oflron Age Macedoni an to €4000 on the black market. Similar thefts bronze can make € I 000 on the black mar­ have been reported in recent months, and , ket, and first- to seventh-century jewellery pi eces have been found following tip-offs and coins are also in demand. (see ANSA.it, 2 1 September 2005). • The Interior Ministry has filed charges again nationals from Greece, Serbia and • October 2005: Italian police said that, elsewhere. acting on a tip-off from archaeologists The authorities are hampered by legal in Rome, they had arrested five alleged loopholes, understaffing and lack of equip­ tomb robbers and/or collectors in pos­ ment. session of 600 ancient artefacts and traced around 3000 more illicit antiquities to the Linz home of an 82-year-old Austrian tour Italy guide nicknamed 'Mozart', who they allege employed the five. He was not arrested due • 71 artefacts were recovered by police to hi s advanced age. The objects were said from two locations in the city of Porto to ori g inate mainly from sites around Torres. One group of obj ects (i ncluding Rome and in clude gold, sil ver and ceramic millstones, pestles and farming imple­ obj ects, marbles, bronzes, and large Etrus­ ments) seems to have come from a large can vases. In a video of the raid, officers and organized Nuragic settlement (c. 2000 were seen di ggi ng up bin bags containing Be) and shows signs of damage caused by dozens of vases. The tour director claimed large-scale farm machinery, despite the his pieces were merely sherds, and had been fact that such sites are in theory protected bought at fairs during his 40-year career. by law. The other objects in cluded pieces of marble fri ezes from an imperi al Roman temple, coins, and tombstones. According India to AGl (30 November 2005),judgin g from the pedestal marks on its base one item, the December 2005 (Free New Mexican): 28 bust of an imperial woman, may have been ancient Jain idols, from among 53 which stolen from a museum. were stolen from Sri Digambar temple at Hansi in October, were recovered and a In June 2005 police in Ve rona recovered man arrested at Bhiwani. The accused around 3000 Roman artefacts (i ncluding man, who was on bail for attempted murder coins and jewell ery) during a series of raids. and all egedly also in possession of ill egal They are beli eved to have been ill egall y ex­ arm s, said that he had plmUled and executed cavated from sites in Italy and Bul garia. the robbery with three fri ends he had met in ja il , and that they had intended to sell the September 2005: Roman police announced idols to intern ational smugglers. their belief that the removal of a piece of carving from the 'Fontana della The Archaeological Survey oflndia (AS I), Navicella' (Little Ship Fountain) near the as part of their efforts to curb antiquities Colosseum - an apparent act of vanda li sm smuggling, are pl anning to document un­ - was in fact a commissioned art theft. protected monuments in a country-wide

17 heritage mapping project. A data base of and antiquities affairs, Hashem AI Hashe­ antiquities in state and private possession mi , demanded an amendment to the will also be drawn up and is also expected country's draft constitution to bring Iraqi to be a useful tool. cultural heritage under central govern­ ment protection. The drafting committee argued that after thorough di scussion, they Provenance problems had decided that local authorities should have responsibility for supervising and The Christian Science Monitor (7 November protecting antiquities and sites in their 2005), reporting on pressures facing mu­ respective regions. seums iu the light of current high-profile cases concerning acquisition of allegedly • According to the Institute for War and Peace illicit antiquities (see Getty case), relates a report (No. 350, October 2005) two men case study from dealer Hicham Aboutaam were arrested in Nasiriyah, Iraq in posses­ of Phoenix Ancient Art. An 80-year-old sion of seven ancient Sumerian artefacts. woman arrived at their offices offering for Twenty-six others were also charged and sale two items which she said her step-father fined in connection with the thefts. had obtained from the tomb ofTutankhamen. Although she had no papenvork to back up her claim, research by the dealers showed that the Israel objects were genuine Egyptian antiquities ­ although not from that particular tomb - and • July 2005, northern Israel: After two­ that her step-father Frank Compton had been months' surve illance and the discovery researching hi s Encyclopaedia in Egypt at the of antiquities (including coin s, jewel­ same time as the tomb was opened. The owner lery and ancient cosmetic utensil s) worth signed a notarized affidavit to this effect and thousands of dollars in hi s home, officers with this documentation the pi eces were so ld from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) to an anonymous major US museum. questioned an Israeli Arab under police warning. The man had been seen meetin g suspected ill egal antiquities dealers. Iraq • Following a complaint from the IAA , • A local not-for-profit 'culture and en­ Professor Hanan Eshel of Bar-Han Uni­ vironment' group in the city of Kut, versity was arrested in November 2005 southern Iraq, has rescued 287 objects suspected of buying pieces of a Leviticus looted from the local museum following scroll (Bar Kokhba period 13 2- 13 5 CE) negotiations with locals - mainl y fami­ from three West Bank Bedouin for $3000, lies li vin g near the museum. Abdulridha and not reporting the purchase to the IAA. Dawood sa id he hoped to form similar Eshel and a PhD student, Roi POI'at, who groups in other provinces and launch a was all egedly shown the items, were re­ nation-wide campaign to protect Iraqi leased after questioning. A third person, heritage (Azzaman, 7 December 2005). said to have provided funds, was also be­ in g questioned. The scroll has now been In August 2005, Ir'aqi police arrested 17 handed to the IAA. Eshel claims he bought people in the town of Bathaa, west of the scro ll pieces to save them, and had Nasiri yah, on charges of antiquities theft them photographed at a poli ce laboratory and smuggling. afterwards, which the police deny.

• In October 2005, Iraqi minister for tourism

18 Investor concerns gists have di scovered 30 ancient wrecks in the past five years, which are now protected Business Week online (26 September 2005) by coast guards, compared with five found reports: in the previous decade. o That dwindling supplies and rising demand for antiquities which can be • In October 2005, a collector from Patras traded legitimately, caused by tighter was charge with illegal trading in an­ controls and heightened awareness, have tiquities when ancient coins (Byzantine, pushed up prices in auction houses. Roman, Venetian and Ottoman) were found o Interest in East Asian religion and by state inspectors at hi s city-centre antiqui­ practices has also increased demand ties store. for Asian antiquities. o Selim Dere of Fortuna Fine Arts, News January 2006: Three Iranians were ar­ York says that prices for Gandharan rested by Greek authorities for allegedly material have risen 25 per cent in two attempting to sell three ancient Greek years as it is hard to come by. coins for € 17,000. Photographs of hundreds o Hicham Aboutaam of Phoenix Ancient of similar coins were also seized, as well Art, New York, comments that people as a knife and some hashish. are surpri sed how affordable antiqui­ ties are compared to modern art and jewellery. Bulgaria

• In December 2005, following court ac­ • December 2005 (Sofia NewsAgency): Two tion, businessman Fran~ois Pinault was men from Silistra, Bulgaria, were caught ordered to pay Egyptologist Luc Watrin by police trying to sell 61 ancient coins €26,OOO ($30,000) as unpaid fees for re­ to a man from Razgrad. During subsequent search on a statue of Sesostris III bought searches of apartments owned by the latter, by Pinault in 1998 for $500,000, Pinault further artefacts were recovered, including now believes the statue to be modern and gold, sil ver and bronze coins, bronze orna­ has been fighting to get the sale annulled. ments and a piece ofThracian pottery.

Greece Spain

• Giorgos G li goris of the Hellenic Police Three commercial divers from Britain who Force's anti-trafficking unit spoke to the were arrested in Galicia, Spain in May BasIon Globe ( II September 2005) about 2002 will face charges which could lead looting of underwater sites off the Greek to six years imprisonment. They had won coast. He claims that some looters pose as a contract to salvage 220 tons of tin from wealthy tourists crui sing on yachts, and the nineteenth-century Dutch cargo vessel that the ri se of Internet auction houses the Friesland, but are accused of exploring has enabled criminal gangs to launder il­ the remains of the nearby w,-eck of a sev­ li cit antiquities. Katerina Delaporta of the enteenth-century galleon, the Dom Pedro. Department of Marine Antiquities added Investigators found minimal disturbance and that current availabi li ty of high-tech search nothing of va lue missing from the sites, and equipment means that thieves often beat the divers from Force 9 Salvage insist that state archaeologists to wrecks. In face of the onl y items retrieved were of nominal the ri se in thefts, however, state archaeolo- value and for identification purposes_

/VVVVV'v'VVVVV'

19 USA quires that Thesaurus refund customers a possible $ 100,000 to $200,000 because • The Daily Citizen (20 August 2005) reports they misrepresented th e age, authenticity on the connection between arrowhcad and value of ceramic items of Asian art hunting and methamphetamine abusc. so ld through their Seattle store and on Arkansas County Sheriff Pat Garret says eBay. The Attorney General says the set­ that he expects to find arrowhead collec­ tl ement sets clear standards, serves notice tions whenever he is searching homes of to a ll sellers that such mi srepresentation suspected methamphetamine users. Meth­ is unlawful , and reminds consumers to amphetamine user Toby Young suggests 'do their homework ' before buyi ng such that the tedium and concentration required objects. (see http://www.consumeraffairs. when hunting for ancient artefacts appeals com/news04/2005/wa_ antiq ues. h tml). to those who need something to focus on while high. He says he has spent 30 hours • In November and December 2005, SVA a week searching, and on some ni ghts ran Sculpture Building, New York presented a into a dozen or so others in the same situ­ solo exhibition by C harles Vicent Sabba ati on. According to Young, co ll ections are Jr. often traded among drug users and dealers although he sold hi s to collectors for $ 1250 in order to raise lawyers fees. _ 1-,: . •.-~4. ' Arizona state archaeologists opened an 1 • in vestigation in December 2005 after signs .. of looting were discovered in the floor of a twelfth-century pit house in Pictur'c Canyon, east of Flagstaff. They suspect that the looters were di sturbed because they left behind a shovel and torch, and would have been unlikely to find artefacts as the site had been thoroughl y excavated in th e Photo: Charles Sabba early twentieth century. Designed as a ' visual investigation into the ' In the News', CWC, Issue 14 reported that global art markets underwo"ld' , it com­ Nickolas Grcer of Kayenta, Ari zona was pri sed oil paintings, sculptures, video and sentenced in February to three months' va ri ous mi xed media. In the large street-front probation, in cluding 180 days of home window space was an in stallation whi ch recre­ confinement whereas according to th e ated an illega l archaeological dig, with a harpy February 24, 2004 press release from the tearing pages out of a hi story book. Behind the United States Attorney District of Ari zona ' dig' an oil painting featured another harpy, Mr Greer was sentenced to three years depi cted as a parody of Marion True, and a probation as well as the 180 days of home dragon symbolizing the Italian police. Letters confinement. between Mari on True and her co-defendant Robert Hecht surrounded the painting. In side, • In October 2005, the Washington Attorney anoth er in stallation recreated a crime scene General 's Office settled charges with symboli zing the theft of the Euphronios krater Thesaurus Fine Arts prohibiting them and its subsequent sale to the Metropolitan from selling antiques in Washington and Mu seum of New York. requiring th em to pay more than $350,000 in penalties and costs. The settlement re-

20 Cambodia Ethiopia

• In October, at Angkor Wat, Heritage October 2005: The Ethiopian government Watch opened a two-month exhibition publicized its ongoing efforts to stem theft to educate tourists about the di sastrous and smuggling ofthe country's cultural her­ effects of looting and of buying illicit an­ itage. As well as a campaign to raise awareness tiqui ties. among both to uri sts and locals, and increased vigil ance, the Ethiopi an Touri sm Commission • Terressa Dav id of Heritage Watch (AFP, is working quickly to preserve and document 23 September 2005) says that increased important cultural obj ects as part of a $5 mil­ protection at Angkor Wat, together with li on World Bank-funded scheme. sustained demand for Cambodian antiq­ uities, has meant that looters have moved their activities to other temples and sites. Syria Especiall y hard-hit are poor regions along the Thai border, such as Banteay Meanchey Antiquities stolen from Syria three years ago prov in ce where whole cemeteri es have were recovered in November, 2005, fro m two been ransacked. Syri ans a ll egedl y tryin g to smuggle them into Germany from Switzerland. The obj ects, Meanwhile, C ulture C ambodia (3 0 dating from 2000 Be to the Ottoman era, in­ September 2005) te ll s of a community cluded coin s, jewellery, glassware, ivory tools, education programme fo r vill agers and arrowheads, pi eces of mosaic and cuneifo rm­ schools in the vicinity of the temple of in scribed pl ates. The haul has been returned Phn om Chi sQI·, north of Phnom Penh. Un­ to Syria where a committee ha s been formed like similar sites, the building is more or to study them and th ey will be di spl ayed in less intact. museums. Bassam Jammous, directo r general of Antiquities and Museum Department told • In October, police and government offi cials newsfromrussia.com (http://newsfro mrussia. expressed concern at unabated looting com/world/2005/ 11 /07/67143. html) that ne­ of cemeteries in Banteay Meanchey and gotiati ons are underway to secure the return of Oddar Meanchey province. They say other antiquities - four stolen mosaic tablets peopl e from neighbouring di stri cts have - from France. been ransacking graves fo r the last three years, but don't really make much profit and some make no money at all. The gov­ Egypt ernment argues that provin cial authoriti es must do more to stem looting in their areas • T hree Old Kingdom Egyptian statuettes of responsibili ty, but Cambodia Daily (3 1 were recovered during a police opera­ October 2005) reports the deputy pol ice tion in G iza. The statuettes were fo und to chi ef of Banteay Meanchey prov in ce in­ be mi ssin g after they were loa ned to the sistin g that looting is on the wane, while Egyptian Museum fo r an exhi biti on. Two the deputy governor of Oddar Meanchey men who had been working as part of a province claim ed that illegal di gging had team renovating the museum basement stopped there since poli ce arrested more and so not subject to usual security checks, than 30 looters in Banteay Ampil distri ct apparently macle off w ith the obj ects. in September. They were deta ined for two They circul ated photographs to antiquities days to attend an anti-l ooting initiative. traders and were arrestecl by Tourism and Antiquities Poli ce when, fo ll owing a tip-

21 off, they sold them to an undercover agent f .. om a tomb in the Valley of the King~ for LE500,000. Luxor, was returned to Egypt in JU 'I ~ I 2005. Professor J. Graves of Cali fo rnia • In August, seven people we .. e convicted State Uni versity posted the piece back with for thei .. pa .. t in a massive antiq uities a letter explaining that he was returning it smuggling operation, and three were on behalf of his late friend, who had fe lt acquitted (' In the News', CWC, Issues guil ty about having taken it during a visit 13 & 15). Four of th e seven, in cluding to Egypt in 1958. a Swiss citi zen and a German Egyptian, were convicted in absentia. Abdel Karim In October 2005 a Briton was a .... ested Abu Shanab, formerly head of a govern­ in Egypt after Islamic manusc .. ipts were ment depaltment responsible for inspecting found in his luggage during check-in for antiquities traders, was sentenced to life a flight to Pari s. imprisonment for theft of record s fro m the Supreme Coun cil of Antiquities and facilitating the smuggling (by tak ing bribes Ethics and providing false certificates identifying genuine objects as fakes), as we ll as other [COM Neil's, 2005, no. 3 is devoted to and sentences to run concurrentl y. The group entitled Ethics and He .. itage. It includes ar­ are believed to have stolen around 57,000 ticles on evolving perspectives, ICOM 's fight items from state warehouses. against illicit traffic in cultural heritage, legal aspects, and international partnerships and the In July 2005, the Supreme Coun c il of situation in Iraq. For more informati on go to Antiquities identified 22 Inte .. net sites h tlp:/I icom. museu mi. adve .. tising Egyptian antiquities fo .. sale, and 13 in October 2005. Items which had apparently gone mi ssi ng from Cairo Uni ve r­ Sou .. ces sity's Faculty of Archaeology museum , the Addis Ababa Tribllne storehouse of the Faculty of Arts, and from AFP an archaeological site at Marina on the nOlth Agc llzia G iornalistica Italia 111-11111'0111 Weekty coast were offered for sale. Details were A I-Mendhar forwarded to Public Funds Prosecution. ANSA.it Arkansas D(li~)' Citizen • A draft of a new Egyptian antiquities Azzaman law, which would replace the current Law BalkclIl Crisis Report aBC News 11 7/1983, is awaiting the approval of the Boston.com People'sAssembly (seeAI-Ahmll1 Weekly, 27 Bureau of International Informat ion Programs, Octo b e l ~2 November, 2005, Issue no. 766). US Departm en t of State Under the tell11S of the new draft, penalties Busilles Week online fo .. smuggling, stealing, hiding, collecting Cambodia Dai~}' Chinaview 0 .. owning authentic artefacts without COnSlll11Cra n-a i rS.col11 pe .. mission will be doubled 0" t .. ipled to CullUral Heritage News Agency, Iran .. ange from 25 yea .. s to life imprisonment Elpasotim cs.com with hefty fines. The new law wi ll all ow Free New J\4exicall clemency in return for in formation about Haarelz.colll Immigrat ion and Customs Enforce ment, antiquities crimes that leads to convictions. US Department of HOl11 elnnd Security In stitu te far War and Peace Reporting • An alabaster block inscribed with hiero­ IOL.eom glyphs and other carvings whi ch was stolen Jerusalem Post

22 Kathimcrini The Canadian Press KUNA The Guardian LA Times The Independent Middle East Tim es The Indian Expres,\' Ncws rromru ssi a.colll The Tim es Reu ters Th e Tribune Th e II rt Newspaper Washingtol1 Post

A tainted temple bell from - ' in thi s case illic it trade is out of the question' - and advised the NMA to give a green light fo r Cambodia? the purchase. The Brabant Museum Foundation accepted the advice, and the Carillon Museum Jos VAN BEURDEN was abl e to go forward. ' What more do you want?' asks Dr Andre Lehr, ach museum has its own ethical guidelines fOrlner curator of the museum and responsible E for acquiring objects. Many museums try to fo r the deal. 'A prominent dealer and th e positive sct an exampl e, and the slightest doubt about the advice of the Ethical Commission! ' Moreover, provenance of an obj ect w ill cause its acqui siti on the bell is according to him ' not part of the cul ­ to be rejected. But sometimes a museum prefers to tura l heritage of Cambodia. It helps us to get to look the other way. That becomes easier when the know other cultures.' Lehr produces here hi s own Ethical Commission of the Netherlands Museum dcfinition of cultural heritage, as he explained to Association does not deli ver proper advice. mc: ' Rembrandt's Nigh/wa/ch, the Borobudur In 2004 the Carillon Museum in th e vill age and Angkor Wat, yes th ose are cultural heritage, of Asten in the Dutch province of North Brabant but not this be ll .' bought a second-century Be bronze temple be ll Ye t someone who reads carefully the advice fro m a ntique dealer Ma rcel N ies in Antwerp, of the Eth ical Commission could get an uneasy Belgium. According to Nies, the 12 inch high bell feeling. To start with, the year in which the object comes from Battambang in Cambodia and shows left Cambodia, 1969, rai ses some questions. It is characteristics of the Vietnamese Dong-Song according to the Commission 'just before the date culture. In order to be able to pay for the bell, of the 1970 UNESCO Conventi on, which arranges th e Carillon Museum appli ed for and recei ved the protection of stolen or unl awfull y exported subsidi es fro m the Brabant Museum Foundation cultural heritage'. The year 1970 is often used and the Rembrandt Association. According to as a watershed year: for objects acquired before Nies, the bell had been exported to Thailand in 1970 no very di fricu lt questions about provenance 1969, in 2000 it had arrived in Italy and since arc asked, but for all acquisiti ons after that date 2003 it had been in Belgium. Accordin g to the provenance should be in vesti gated. 'Alth ough the Carillon Museum such bell s can be purchased in Commission is aware of doubts that could arise Thailand without any problem, and permission from the accidental succession of the dates 1969 to export an object like this from Thailand is not and 1970, it has not been able tu find a reason to requi red. These bells are sold and sent all over doubt the information that has been offered by the the world. They can indeed be found for sale on deale r. ' Yet talking with N ies, he now says that the Internet. the year 1969 is only ' most probable'. He is not The Brabant Museum Fo undation was not cer­ completely sure, ' but I am not worri ed about it' . tain about the acqui sition. It therefore approached A second question concern s the certainty the Ethical Commission of the Netherlands with wh ich it is asserted that no permission was Museum Association (NMA) and asked for it needed for th e export of the bell fro m Cambodi a to check whether the museum had studied the to Thailand. Upon inquiry with deputy director provenance in a credible and carefulmannc r. The I-lab Touch of the National Museum of Cambodi a, Commission fi nally came to a positive concl usion whi ch is responsible for the issue of export per-

23 mits. and Eti enne Clement, head of the UNESCO may we ll regard thc 1925 leg islati on as hav ing mission in the Cambodian capital Phn om Penh , re mained in force and its lack of enfo rcement it appears that ancient obj ects cann ot be exempt during the Khmer Rouge regime as simpl y due to from li censing requirements. Based upon e-mail the 11lctual situati on, rather than an abrogation' . In exchanges with both of them, it can be concluded short, th e Dutch mu seum co uld have, accordin g that Cambodia has had, since the yea r 1925, a to its own ethi cal code, acquired th e ancient bell law whi ch determines that art obj ects are onl y to onl y if the Ca mbodian authoriti es had permitted leave the country with a permi t. In 1925 Cambo­ it to do so. dia was a French co lony and in the law a broad At least one member of the NM A's Ethi ca l definiti on of 'art obj ects' is applied; thus Andre Commi ss ion did not share the pos itive conclu­ Lehr 's asserti on that the bell does not belong to sion. This member argues that the museumncvcr Cambodia's cultural heritage is contestable. should have bought the bell. He ' would have becn Some ex perts doubt whether th e 192 5 law in favour of asking the opini on of the governm cnt still is legall y valid. In her 2004 study Pillag­ of th e co untry of origin in order to overcom e the ing Cambodia: the Illicit Traffic in Khlller Art, one-sidedness of th e in fo rmati on ava ilable to the Masha Lafont states that the old laws ha ve lost purchaser'. In the twenty-first ce ntury, it is a bi t their validi ty, since they were aboli shed by th e out of touch th at neither the Carill on M useumnor Khm er Rouge. Thanks to the cooperati on of th e the Ethi ca l Commi ss ion have done so, parti cu­ UNESCO offi ce in Ph nom Penh, however, I have larl y since Ca mbodi a has had for years an activc recei ved a message from Tara Gu tman, legal ad­ poli cy to curb the illicit trade in art and anti quit ies viser of th e Coun cil of Ministers of Cambodi a, and to pro tect its ow n cultu ra l heri tage. Lafont who points to artic le 139 of th e new Constitution menti ons in her stud y 17 examples of smu gg led of 1993 whi ch determ ines that laws and standa rd obj ects that have been restored to Cambodi a. That documents 'shall conti nue to be effecti ve unt il should have rung a bell. altered or abrogated by new tex ts'. Lyndel Prott, form er Director of UNESCO's Department of Jos VAN BEURDEN Cultural Heritage and presentl y a law professor Utrecht in Australi a, confirms Gutm an's interpretati on. The Neth erl ands She wri tes: ' In my view the present governm ent [email protected]

'Nobody gets off scot-free' Ap ril 2003 when the last staff le ft the Museum. and 16 Apri l, when the US arm y's C Company A review of Thielles of Baghdad by Matthew secured the compound. Bogdanos with William Patrick. Thc book is authored by Matthew Bogdanos. (New Yo rk , Bl oomsbury, ISBN 1-58234-645-3) (w ith William Patrick, whose contri buti on to the fi rst person narrati ve is uncl ca r). Bogdanos D AVID THOMAS was the US Marine who, whilst hcadin g a multi­ agcncy counter-tcrrori sm unit in Basra , ru shcd lthough President Bus h declared that ' major hi s team to Baghdad on hearing reports of th c A co mbat operations in Iraq ha ve ended" on lootin g. Wi th limited cooperat ion from all sides. I May 2003 , th e suffe ring of the Iraqi peo pl e th ey set abo ut unravellin g th e compl ex sequence co ntinues, with over 34,000 in surge nt attac ks of events. in 2005-' Co ntroversy persists, surroundin g th e In the Auth or's Note, Bogdanos states th at hc justifi cations fo r the war, events during and after disli kcs people who go to war and write boo ks the confli ct and the most appropri ate way and abo ut themselves - thi s book is a personal ac­ time for th e Coal ition forces to di se ngage . The count ' with candor and withollt bi as or agend a' samc ca n be sa id about the looting of the Iraq (the auth or's emphasis), relating to a team effort Mu seum , although Th ielles a/Baghdad attem pts and celebratin g the courage of servicemen , Ira­ to set the record straight on the events betwee n 8 qi s and journ ali sts, amongst oth crs. Consideri ng 24 the selection of quotes on the book's dust cover, Museum. For reasons I have never been able and its somewhat provocative title, this reader to ascertain, the BSAI decided not to back our wondered whether the 'complexity' Bogdanos proposal. When the Iraq Museum was looted identifies in the Museum staff applies to the a year later, the lack of accurate, up-to-date author(s) too. inventories and photographic records of many Indeed, Thieves ofBaghdad is far from being of the Museum's objects severely hampered the the staid forensic investigation of the events of investigation. nine days in April 2003 that it might have been. Core to the central theme of Thieves ofBagh­ The tale deviates from initial iInpressions of the dad, the looting of the Iraq Museum, are the Museum in the first two introductory chapters, to following questions: Bogdanos's childhood in New York, a detailed • What really happened between 8-16 April? eye-witness account of 9/1 I, and his active serv­ • Who was involved? ice in the subsequent so-called 'war on terror' in • How many of the objects were stolen and how Afghanistan. Bogdanos then recounts his team's many have since been retrieved? counter-terrorism investigations in southern • What can be done in future to curtail the illicit Iraq (thus perpetuating the US administration's trade in antiquities? blurring of 9/1 1 and the invasion Iraq), before Bogdanos's agenda, for every author has them, reaching the supposed heart of the matter, the are to dispel the myths and inaccuracies surround­ looting of the Iraq Museum, by the end of Chapter ing the reporting of the looting, and to counter 8. These contextual chapters undoubtedly offer what he regards as the knee-jerk reactions of much of interest to the contemporary and/or many prominent Mesopotamian archaeology military historian, as well as the general reader, scholars. Although he has already done this in a but little of relevance to the archaeologist, which, 50-page paper in American Journal of Archae­ considering Culture Without Context's raison ology 109 (2005)3, Bogdanos obviously felt the d'etre, was my primary focus in reviewing this need to reach a more general audience, and to his book. credit he is donating the royalties from Thieves Given some of the antipathies running through of Baghdad to the Iraq Museum. Thieves ofBaghdad, I should state my biases at The investigation's teasing out of the events this point - I was at the time, and remain, firmly in the Museum is thorough, as you would expect opposed to the war in Iraq, and I am happy to from a District Attorney of note. Bogdanos pro­ place myself within the group of' educated non­ poses a convincing theory that the crime scene military skeptics' that the author holds in such encapsulated the theft of three different categories contempt. That said, I have also experienced my of objects ('marquee' items removed from the home town (in Northern Ireland) being blown galleries; random thefts from the above-ground up by terrorists, although significantly fewer storage areas; and high-value, smaller items resources and less will-power were devoted by looted from the secured basement storage areas) the USA to 'hunting down and smoking out' such and three different groups of perpetrators (profes­ operatives and their backers prior to 9/11. sional thieves, targeting pre-ordered collectors' My archaeological fieldwork in Afghanistan lists of prestige items; petty thieves and mob is somewhat less covert than Bogdanos's mission looters venting anger at institutions associated there, and I have never been to Iraq, although I with the Ba' athist regime; and 'insiders', that is have worked on data from excavations in Iraq. corrupt and/or coerced members of the Museum In March 2002, as part of the Nimrud Database staff). In his professional life, Bogdanos states Project, I proposed that the British School of that he inhabits the binary universe of guilty or Archaeology in Iraq (BSAI) should apply to the not guilty: 'No one is treated with suspicion, but British Academy for funding to create a unified everyone is a suspect until proven otherwise.' catalogue of all the objects from N imrud, many (p. 133, author's emphasis) - the concept of of which are in museums and collections scat­ innocent until proven guilty does not seem to tered around the world. This project would have register, possibly because he is a prosecutor. It included the collation of data on, and digital is also noteworthy that the book is riddled with photography of, the Nimrud objects in the Iraq references to 'the bad guys', although as early 25 as p. 14 he states that 'Nothing hinders a good Some readers might quibble over the extrapo­ investigation more than trying to affix moral la­ lations and 'leaps of faith' concerning the extent bels such as good or bad, right or wrong, to the of military activity in the Iraq Museum com­ actions or actors in the mystery you are trying to pound, or question why, if the basement looters solve' (author's emphases). did have Museum staff accomplices, they did not Bogdanos also uses Thieves of Baghdad to anticipate the lack of electricity - were they re­ repeat his stout defence of the actions of the ally so incompetent and/or under-resourced that Coalition's ground troops during the 'chaos of they did not bring a single torch, and thus had to regime change', reserving some of his most with­ rely on makeshift lighting from burning hunks of ering criticisms for journalist and archaeologist foam? Whatever, the archaeological world has to 'armchair generals' - an example of those in his be thankful that the keys, which 'torment' (p. 277) sights is Prof. (sic.) Eleanor Robson, whose arti­ Bogdanos so much, appear to have been dropped cle in The Guardian of 18 June 2003 Bogdanos and lost amidst the disarray of boxes, preventing describes as being 'wrong in every respect' (p. the theft of thousands of more artefacts. 200), but the quote Bogdanos uses is not precisely Bogdanos is convinced of the, at best, com­ 4 accurate - court cases have been lost for less. plicity of some Museum staff to some of the His plea for archaeologists not to fall into the trap thefts (suspicions stated as early as p. II and oft of using hyperbole when talking to the media (p. repeated thereafter), and at the end of the book, 274) is somewhat ironic in the light of this exag­ he alludes to whom the guilty ones might be. To geration! my non-legal mind, this section of the book (pp. Bogdanos notes that American archaeologists 276-8) verges on the libellous and in one case briefed the Pentagon prior to the war about the offensive - none of the Museum staff have for­ threats to Iraq's cultural heritage, as did British mally been charged nor given the chance to clear archaeologists, and accepts that criticism of the their names and reputations. delay between the first appearance of Coalition Ultimately, the success of any investigation forces near the Museum on 12 April, and secur­ is determined by its results. Bogdanos presents ing the compound on 16 April is fair, although he details of how many objects were stolen, and how assures the reader that nothing was taken during many have since been recovered, although it is this period. The primary blame for the looting unclear why he uses figures dating to December does lie with the looters, and as Bogdanos de­ 2003 for some of these data. One conviction tails, the looting of antiquities does have a long for attempting to import artefacts from the Iraq history, particularly in times of conflict. Many Museum into the USA is discussed, and other museums around the world do possess artefacts international customs seizures are briefly men­ that by modern standards were acquired by tioned. But '... at least 8,500 pieces - many looting - a disturbing number of these objects of them truly priceless - are still missing' (p. have been acquired in recent years, when the 271). well-worn explanations/excuses for objects with Bogdanos and his team should be congratu­ vague or no provenances have been unaccept­ lated for their efforts to unravel the complexity able. And whoever used the Iraq Museum as a of the case and the retrieval of thousands of the military outpost did break the Geneva and Hague looted objects. He is totally justified in correct­ Conventions and protocols which' ... absolutely ing the inaccurate figures and reports that were prohibit the military use of otherwise protected bandied about in the aftermath of the looting, and cultural sites ... ' (p. 202, author's emphasis). to feel irritated by the antagonism some archae­ Presumably, although he neglects to mention ologists and others have directed his way, rather it, Bogdanos is similarly outraged by the Coali­ than at his employers. tion's establishment of a military camp on part Thieves of Baghdad makes a valuable con­ of the archaeological site of Babylon and all the tribution in demonstrating the benefits that can resultant damageS, particularly since he made a be derived from different agencies and academ­ detour to Babylon whilst en route to Baghdad, ics working together in the pursuit of the illicit to impress upon his team the importance of the trade in antiquities. His call for a four-fold global cultural heritage of Iraq. strategy to address the problem is, in my opin- 26 ion, eminently sensible. Bogdanos should also party files and identification cards in the Museun be commended for raising the touchy subject of compound (p. 15) is sinister, whereas the fact tha archaeological involvement in Iraq, as the brutal­ he was declared medically non-deployable an( ity of the regime became clear (see also Steele shredded the evidence after gaining possession 0 6 2005, 55-61 ), although he neglects to mention a 'second opinion' (p. 60) is merely an exampl( that Donald Rumsfeld twice met Saddam during of his circumvention of what he regards as pett) 7 the 1980s , when Iraq was the West's ally against military bureaucracy. More serious, given hi~ what was perceived as Islamic fundamentalism emphasis on due process, international law anc emanating from Iran. As Bogdanos rather frus­ the sanctity of crime scenes is his confession tc tratedly notes: 'In truth, everything about the war having disturbed one of Saddam's mass graves~ had become politicized and "spun" long before albeit to give succour to a grieving mother, and we ever got to Baghdad. Everyone had his or her the fact that his team confiscated over $9 million own agenda ... ' (p. 195). during their investigations in the south of Iraq, The narrative flows well and has been gener­ and repatriated the money (surely the rightful ally well-edited - most readers would probably property of the people of Iraq?) back to US mili­ not pick up on the occasional errors that caught tary Camp Udari in Kuwait (pp. 106-7). my eye: for example, the comment that Iraqis had Ultimately, however, as Bogdanos somewhat invaded two other Arab countries (surely he is not defensively says in the case of the evacuation a referring to Iran as an Arab nation?! p. 141); the burnt Iraqi girl, his team did what they could, and reference to the Hazara being around in Afghani­ the archaeological world should be grateful for stan during Alexander the Great's campaigns that. (p. 71) is dubious - many Hazara trace their ancestry back to Chingiz Khan's Mongol hordes; Notes and to say that the Taliban filled the vacuum after I. http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/05/0 1/bush. transcript! the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 index.html. 2. http://news.bbc.co.ukll/hi/world/middle_ (p. 67) is simplistic - Mullah Omar cited the east!4736768.stm. movement's birth as dating to July 1994. 3. The pdf fi Ie of the report can be downloaded from: http:// Whether you buy (in both senses of the word) www.ajaonline.org/index.php?ptype=content&aid=5 this book will depend on your empathy (or lack 4. Bogdanos inserts the word 'nest' in his quote - cf. Dr Robson's original text, available at: http://www.guard­ of) for the central character, which despite his ian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,979734,00.html. protestations, is Bogdanos himself. He repeatedly 5. See Dr John Curtis's summary report of the damage states that he is not a hero, and seeks to present a done to the archaeological site, available at: http://www. 'warts and all' portrait, although his references to thebritishmuseum.ac.ukliraqcrisis/reports/babylon. Alexander the Great (p. 167) and Eliot Ness (p. htm. 6. Steele, C., 2005. Who has not eaten cherries with the 91), and abundant, inevitably selective, quotes devil?, in Arclzaeologies of the Midde East: Critical from Classical authors and philosophers verge on Perspectives, eds. S. Pollock & R. Bernbeck. Malden the tedious. The frequent vignettes of ' Bogdan os, (MA): Blackwell Publishing Ltd. the family man' are of questionable relevance, 7. National Security Archives: http://www.gwu.edu/ other than to remind armchair generals of the -nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/. personal costs of serving one's country. DAVID THOMAS To my mind, examples of Bogdanos's blink­ Department of Archaeology ered view of the world and internal contradictions University of Cambridge are strewn throughout Thieves ofBaghdad- for example, the discovery of smouldering Ba'ath

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