01INTRODUCTION TO WORKING WITH CULTURAL OBJECTS AND MANUSCRIPTS Visa Immonen1, Suzie Thomas2, and Rick Bonnie3

1 n the tumultuous world of international (https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-8045922; see also https:// conflicts, systematic destruction of cultural conflictantiquities.wordpress.com/2015/06/07/ heritage, and worldwide routes of illicit trade syria--russia-iran-france-trafficking- in cultural objects and manuscripts, Finland might policing-capacity/). Iseem a safe haven, a sparsely settled country remote from the global channels of organized crime and This led to the arguments that works of art stolen by conspicuously stable. There are no large antiquities the terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and markets, and the country continuously holds top the Levant (ISIL) were being smuggled to Russia positions in the corruption perceptions index through Finland. However, after an investigation, published annually by Transparency International the item was cleared, and it was allowed to be (https://www.transparency.org/). Finland complies transported. Although there turned out to be no to the international conventions and legislation connection to ISIL, the possibility that Finland regarding cultural heritage, and what information is could somehow be connected, even simply as a place available on illicit cultural object trade activities has of transit, was raised for the first time. remained mostly anecdotal. Although mostly considered as a nationally Although much of this still remains a reality, the limited concern rather than one with transnational idealized picture of detachment from illicit trade implications (save the odd ‘metal detecting tourist’), on heritage has recently become increasingly the boom in metal detecting in the 2010s has also questioned and may on further reflection appear introduced debates around heritage crime and even too simplistic. Finland has a long eastern border illicit trade of archaeological finds to wider audiences. with the Russian Federation, which also constitutes Conversely, archaeologists have at the same time a hard border of the European Union (EU) and become more aware of the importance of hobbyists, Schengen Area, and the country has a significant private collections, as public interactions and even role as a trade transit area. Media interest in the sources of data for their work (Wessman, Koivisto possibility of Finland as a destination for dubious and Thomas 2016; Immonen and Kinnunen 2017). cultural material from elsewhere has only emerged in recent years. For instance, in June 2015, Finnish To assess the complexity of the issues of heritage Customs suspended the transportation of a 15th- crime, and Finland’s position in the networks of century Syrian work of art from Finland to Russia illicit trade of cultural objects, six researchers from the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Theology at the 1 Department of Archaeology, University of Turku. Email: [email protected] University of came together and launched 2 Cultural Heritage Studies, University of Helsinki. Email: a new research project in 2017. The team, consisting [email protected] of Suzie Thomas, Rick Bonnie, Helen Dixon, 3 Centre of Excellence in Ancient Near Eastern Empires (ANEE), University of Helsinki. Email: [email protected] Ulla Tervahauta, and Sanna Aro-Valjus with Visa 2 Immonen as the project’s PI, received funding from RATIONALE FOR THE BOOK the University of Helsinki Future Fund. In addition to a year of research activities, it allowed the team In Finland, Anri Peterzens-Nysten (2018) has to organize an international symposium ‘Working analysed the legal protection and return of cultural with Cultural Objects and Manuscripts’ (WCOM) property. She is particularly interested in the (https://blogs.helsinki.fi/culturalobjects/), with functionality of the legal recovery system. She argues additional support from the National Museum of that both the regulation and its implementation Finland and ICOM Finland. are developing in a twofold way. Peterzens-Nysten divides regulation and implementation into hard The symposium was held at the National Museum and soft forms. The soft law and implementation, of Finland in Helsinki on 5–6 June 2017. It gathered exemplified by voluntary return of cultural property, some 60–70 speakers and participants to discuss have quickly established their position alongside hard and debate issues regarding antiquities trafficking versions. The work of the WCOM group promotes a in Finland and the different responses from the similar approach in which the awareness of scholars museum, academic, and governmental communities. and professionals is of paramount importance. The keynote speakers were archaeologist and leading The symposium went some way to developing this researcher on illicit trade in cultural objects, Neil debate, but more is needed, and the presence of a Brodie, who works as Senior Research Fellow at publication inspired by the symposium ensures a the School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, longer term impact on a broader audience. specialist in international cultural heritage law, Patty Gerstenblith, a professor at DePaul University, The authors of the chapters in this book were selected Magnus Olofsson of the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, from among the speakers of the symposium, with a and the Northwest Semitic epigrapher and expert particular emphasis on the keynote addresses. The on forged inscriptions, Christopher Rollston from keynote speakers’ contributions have been previously George Washington University. In addition to published in English, but are now translated and international scholars, the symposium attracted made available to a Finnish-reading audience. They public interest, and news items on the symposium have proven to be seminal scholarly works on illicit and its issues were published in the national media trade and forgeries of cultural objects. By selecting channels.4 these articles for Finnish language publication, we 4 News items were published by MTV.fi, the internet want to connect national discussions on illicit trade news channel of the Finnish commercial television station of cultural heritage, and representatives of different (https://www.mtvuutiset.fi/artikkeli/uutissuomalainen-la- professional and specialist groups, with international hi-idan-ryostettyja-muinaisesineita-todennakoisesti-myos- debates and contemporary scholarship. suomessa/6454898#gs.M=si7CE), YLE Svenska; the news service of Finland’s national public broadcasting company (https://svenska.yle.fi/artikel/2017/06/06/finland- ar-oklart), and the regional newspaper Etelä-Suomen Sanomat genomfartsland-olagliga-konstskatter-i-vilken-utstrackning- (www.ess.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/art2374401). 3 Visa Immonen & Suzie Thomas. Photo: Eero Ehanti.

4 The rest of the contributions are by Nordic-based antiquities are being plundered and smuggled, are scholars. Their texts are in English in order to highly critical of the Convention as it does not provide wider international audiences with access to provide help in recovering cultural objects that were the specific challenges and points of similarity in the removed prior to the Convention. Other deficiencies Nordic countries. Hopefully this provides an impetus of the Convention could be, however, resolved in the to create and strengthen international scholarly and ways in which it is implemented. professional networks of communication and co- operation in the fight against illicit trade in cultural Neil Brodie (article in Finnish) addresses the objects and manuscripts. troubled relationship between the illicit trade in cultural objects and academia. The improper removal To enhance the accessibility of these texts, they are of cultural objects from their original context causes published in open access form. We are extremely irreversible damage to scholarly knowledge and thankful to the Finnish Museums Association, cultural identities, as well as harming the local which took the book into its online publication economy and self-governance of communities. series. This platform enhances the distribution and Brodie emphasises the contribution which impact of these important texts among Finnish academic scholarship can make in understanding professionals, experts, and students. and preventing heritage crimes. However, scholars also need to make their own ethical commitments clear and sustainable. They should not handle INTRODUCTION TO CHAPTERS unprovenanced objects in misguided efforts to merely extract or salvage information from them, The 1970 Unesco Convention has a long history and academic work cannot be isolated from the rest of implementation in the United States and other of society and its financial transactions. There is no market nations, as Patty Gerstenblith (article ‘morally neutral’ or ‘outside’ position in working with in Finnish) points out. It was motivated by the cultural objects and the antiquities market. limitations of cultural property protection established by international conventions in the aftermath of The Museum of the Bible was opened tothe the Second World War. Especially the looting of public in Washington D.C. in November 2017. archaeological heritage led to the 1970 Convention The acquisition policy of the museum became an tackling the illegal trade in artworks, antiquities, and object of public scrutiny (Moss and Baden 2017), ethnographic objects. Although many nations have and in 2018 it was reported that some of the alleged joined the 1970 Convention, especially during the Dead Sea scrolls in its collection were revealed to past twenty years, its implementation has been a be forgeries (https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/22/ highly complex issue, and often not very effective. us/bible-museum-fake-scrolls/index.html). Forging At the same time, many countries from where texts was already known in the ancient Middle

5 East, as Christopher A. Rollston points out in his aware of this problem and aim to address the issues contribution (appearing in Finnish) on epigraphic at hand. forgeries. This practice was also known throughout Antiquity and the Middle Ages, up to the present Raila Kataja discusses her long experience at the day. Some of these forgeries have been produced by National Museum of Finland, which functions competent scholars, and many of them have been administratively as part of the Finnish Heritage considered as genuine by scholars for long periods Agency, as the licencing authority. The movement of of time. Importantly, as Rollston concludes, most of cultural objects is conditioned on the one hand by EU modern forgeries surface on the antiquities market. regulations and, on the other, by Finnish legislation. This emphasises the role of scholars in working only The latter emphasises, instead of monetary value, the on properly provenanced cultural objects. national or cultural value of goods as an assessing criterion There are two licencing authorities, the In his contribution, Magnus Olofsson focuses on Finnish Heritage Agency and the National Gallery, the present Swedish efforts to curb international but neither of these institutions have staff specialised heritage crimes. There the national legislation has in licencing. Based on Kataja’s experience, cultural been effective in controlling the export of cultural objects are increasingly transported from Central objects out of Sweden, but the entry of illicit Europe to Russia via Finland. The greatest challenges antiquities are (still) not properly addressed. A are posed by the lack of adequate resources to inform particular problem rises from the high number of the public, and to support both customs and police institutions involved in heritage crimes. Developing work on heritage crimes. better communication between these organizations as well as informing audiences beyond them is For museums, one of the international institutions important, Olofsson argues. He calls for better that plays an important role in preventing antiquities cooperation between heritage institutions and trafficking is the International Council of Museums universities to produce better understanding of (ICOM). ICOM helps in the preservation of cultural heritage crime. heritage and advances museum matters in society. Starting from a personal reflection of a 2006 visit to In her chapter, Josephine Munch Rasmussen Tadmor/Palmyra in Syria about the role and issues looks at the implementation of legal measures against of encyclopaedic museums, heritage decisions, and antiquities trafficking in Norway during recent years. cultural heritage trafficking, Eero Ehanti discusses Building upon the case of the Norwegian private the wide range of measures ICOM has implemented collector Martin Schøyen, Rasmussen explores in in order to cultural heritage crimes in and outside particular how scholars have acted as facilitators of of museum contexts. Such measures include the the antiquities market. Ultimately, she argues that publication of so-called ‘Red Lists’ of endangered academics and their institutions should be more cultural objects, a database of national legislations

6 and institutions regarding cultural heritage, and the connecting to the wider discourse, which for several creation of standardised object descriptions. decades now has been developing. As we have noted elsewhere (Thomas et al. 2018), although Finland is For hundreds of years cultural heritage has been a small country and most certainly only a relatively collected and trafficked away from their indigenous small contributor to the global challenge of the contexts into Western museums focused on ‘world’ movement of unprovenanced cultural material, there heritage. In recent decades, however, museums and are nonetheless loopholes which at present could scholars have shown more consideration on the issues be tightened. A key challenge for policy makers to involved in the movement of cultural objects from address is the lack of import regulation for cultural their original localities, which has led to an increase objects. We also note that while relatively little in repatriation cases. Anni Guttorm discusses and ‘traffic’ makes the records of enforcement agencies reflects upon several such repatriation cases within such as the Customs authorities, there is a noticeable Finland, in which Sámi collections that were held increase in dubious cultural material surfacing in at several museums across the country have been Finland, including fakes purporting to be from Syria and are being brought back to Sápmi; the Sámi and Iraq. There are also serious issues with regard Homeland. She also reflects upon the importance of to ethical standards for research, meaning that the these repatriations to the Sámi community and the provenience of objects and manuscripts that come impact that it has had on the work of Sámi Museum under study is often – innocently in most cases – Siida. ignored. This breeds complicity in scholars who perhaps have no idea that their individual actions Finally, Nidaa Dandachi, formerly a curator at are helping to facilitate illegal trafficking and other Homs Museum in Syria and now living in Finland, nefarious activity. presents her study of the way that the looting and trafficking of cultural property from Syria was The issue of a lacking import legislation has been presented in the Arabic media. In particular she recently received broader attention within the traces how the narrative alters over time as more framework of the EU. This was mostly done in becomes known about the processes involved in relation to the role the illicit trade in cultural goods the looting and smuggling, but also how political appears to have on terrorist financing, notably in alignments and pressures affect the stories that connection with the news surrounding looting journalists tell. activities by ISIL. As a result, since February 2016, the EU started work on implementing an EU-wide import legislation. On 17 April 2019, the Parliament FINAL MESSAGE and the Council accepted the regulation 2019/880 “on the Introduction and the Import of Cultural It is our aim for this volume to contribute to the Goods” with a sole focus on cultural goods (incl. growing awareness and debate within Finland, while archaeological objects and manuscripts) brought 7 into the EU from third nations (European Union, cultures and areas across the world. While export 2019). legislation requires expertise on national levels primarily, enforcing import legislation would require The import prohibition on illegally obtained a much vaster knowledge of cultural goods across and exported cultural goods will go into force the world. for all EU member states on 28 December 2020 (European Union, 2019, Art. 3(1)). Enforcement While larger destination countries for cultural of this regulation will be carried out by the national goods within the EU (e.g., France, Germany, the authorities through import licenses for archaeological Netherlands) may have resources available to build objects over 250 years old and for cultural elements such expertise, smaller EU countries, including from protected monuments or sites and through an Finland, may experience more difficulties checking importer statement for cultural goods over 200 years imported cultural goods as the resources for this old and a value exceeding 18.000 EUR. The articles experience are minimal. Hence, the authorities in relating to this enforcement, however, will only come these countries have to rely to a large extent on the into effect when an EU-wide centralised electronic expertise across its museums, research institutes, system to ensure easy exchange of information and universities. The impact of not being able to between the different EU member-state authorities enforce the legislation coherently across its member has been created, at the latest by 28 June 2025. The states may have, as a result, an effect on the way implementation of this new EU regulation likely illicit trafficking flows enter the EU, by which those requires future changes to the Finnish legislation member states with the least capacity may get the with regard to the competent authorities ( Juha largest number of imports of cultural goods. The Maaperä, Finnish Heritage Agency, pers. comm.). centralised electronic system that is currently being built may, hopefully, alleviate our concern. EU Regulation 2019/880 is a strong action by the EU to combat the illicit trade in cultural goods, not We hope that this volume and the symposium that only into the EU but across the world. It is, of course, inspired it will go also towards opening up discussion our hope that the regulation succeeds in the aims for of what contribution Finland can make in the global which it was created. That said, we expect that the struggle against the illegal trafficking of cultural reality of enforcing such a broad legal instrument objects, keeping in mind the cultural, material and will have problems, especially related to the smaller other damage this causes. As part of the WCOM EU countries and the potential effect it may have project, we aim to introduce new research ethics on changing trafficking networks. The particular to the academic community in Finland to enhance problem relates to the available expertise evaluating awareness among scholars of best practice and of the archaeological, historical, and artistic objects from impact of their actions.

8 The chapters in this volume represent a barometer Peterzens-Nysten, Anri. 2018. Kulttuuriesineen suoja: Laittoman of the current state of knowledge and practice in kulttuuriesineen palauttaminen kansainvälisenä ongelmana. Finland and also further afield. In this way we shed PhD diss., Helsinki: Helsingin yliopisto, oikeustieteellinen light on Finnish issues and procedures for a national tiedekunta. and international readership, while introducing topics and research that is perhaps much better Thomas, Suzie, Rick Bonnie, Helen Dixon, and Visa Immonen. known abroad to readers here in Finland. As a 2018. “Researching Cultural Objects and Manuscripts in a Small dynamic topic and issue, many of the challenges Country: The Finnish Experience of Raising Awareness of Art may change over time – perhaps dramatically so. Crime.” Arts 7 (2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/arts7020019 However, without the initial awareness of the negative side effects of illicit trade in and movement Wessman, Anna, Leena Koivisto and Suzie Thomas. 2016. of cultural objects and manuscripts, we cannot hope “Metal Detecting in Finland: An Ongoing Debate.” Open to affect change positively. Archaeology 2 (1): 85–96. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/opar- 2016-0006

REFERENCES

European Union. “REGULATION (EU) 2019/880 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 17 April 2019 on the Introduction and the Import of Cultural Goods.” Official Journal of the European Union L 151 (2019). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv: OJ.L_.2019.151.01.0001.01.ENG

Immonen, Visa and Joonas Kinnunen. 2017. “‘Quidditching’, and the Emergence of New Heritage Identities – Amateur Metal Detecting in Finland”. Public Archaeology 15 (4): 1–23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14655187.2017.1352188

Moss, Candida R., and Joel S. Baden. 2017. Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

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