Culture Without
The Newsletter of the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre Issue 9, Autumn 2001 ,
Editorial 3 On-line auctions 4 CHRISTOPHER CHIPPIN
Thailand theft 13
The mystery of the Persia JENNY DOOLE 14
In the News JENNY D OO LE 16 Time crime: protecting the past in the United States 24 ROBERT HICKS A holy cross and the necessity for international conventions 30 Jos VAN BEURDEN
@ The Illicit Antiquities Research Centre is a project of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. Illicit Antiquities Research Centre
he Illicit Antiquities Research Centre (lARC) was established in May 1996, T under the auspices of the McDonald Institute 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 intel11a tional trade in illicit antiquities (i.e. antiquities which have been stolen or , clandestinely excavated and illegally exported). The enormous increase in the vol ume of this trade over the past twenty years has caused the large-scale plundering of archaeological sites and museums around the world. The lARC will raise public awareness of the problems caused by this trade and seek appropriate national and intern ational legislation, codes of conduct and other conventions to place restraint upon it.
CU/lure Wilhoul CO lllexl is published twice-yea rl y. The next issue wi ll appear in spring 2002. Subscription details are availabl e from: Jenny Doole IARC McDonald In stitute for Archaeological Research Downing Street Cambridge CB2 3 ER UK e-mail: [email protected]
Front cover. Anti-footing poster from Virginia, USA.
Staff: Address for correspondence: fARC Director: Colin Renfrew CWC Editorial Board , McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Downing St, fARC Co-ordinator: Neil Brodie Cambridge, England, CB2 3ER IARC Researcher: Jenny Doole http://www-mcdonald .arch.cam.ac.uk/IARCI CWC Editorial Board: Neil Brodie home.htm Augusta McMahon Correspondence relating to all aspects of the Chris Scarre lega l and illegal trade in antiquities is welcome; Peter Watson we wi ll make an effort to print reasonable, non libellous letters. No unsigned letters will be CWC Designer: Dora Kemp printed, but names will be withheld upon request. ISSN 1464-1925 © 2001 McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research Printed by BluePrint, 6 Clifton Road, Cambri dge CB1 7W6. Tel : +44 (0)1223472400
2 Licensed archaeo logical excava tions employ quali Editorial tied, trained , and experie nce d archaeo log ists wo rkin g on behalf of recogni zed academic or rc scmch in stituti ons. A ll antiquiti es un covered ill excavation s are, by law, the property of the Stat e n 2 November 200 I the Convention on/he or Israe l, at least sin ce th e 1978 Antiquiti es La w O Protection of/he Underwater Cllitural Her was passed. Therefore, liccnscd excavations are not itage was adopted by the pl enary session of the a so urce of goods far antiqu ities dea lers. The con 31st General Conference of UNESCO. It will tradi ctory situation th at ex ists is that in spite of the fa ct tha t dea ling in antiqui lies is lega l, th e source enter into force three months after it has been for deal ers' ware s mu st cl earl y be illega l exc ava ratified by at least twenty States. Th e Conven tion s as onl y a small er propo rti on of antiquiti es tion aim s to secure protection of underwater arrive in the mark et place as a res ult of theft from cultural heritage, which is defined as: ' ... all traces IllUSC UIllS and lega l excava ti on s. In plainlerms, th e of human ex istence havi ng a cultuml , hi stori ca l so urce of many an tiquiti es is robbery! « hit p:/ /www.i sralltique.o rg. il/eng/ncws. hi ml>, or archaeological character whi ch ha ve been par accessed t G November 2001) tially or totall y underwater, pcriodically or continuously, fo r at least 100 yea rs ... '. Thus al Clea rl y, th ere is a loophole in Israeli law whi ch though thi s latest UNESCO Conventi on (which all ows the legal ex port of antiquities obtained has been in preparation fo r four years) ga ined its through unli censed (ill egal) excavation. This is initial impetus from co ncern s raised by the co m where ethi cs and th e law part company. It may mercially-motivated plunder of shipwrec ks, it is we ll be lega l to buy antiqui ties with an Israe li designed to protect submerged settl ements and ex port li cence, but ca n it be justifi ed given their other cu ltural landscapes as we ll. It makes provi obviously suspect source? sion for the protecti on of heritage in both territori al and intemational waters. 9 In the last issueof CWCwe noted that John News of the convention is ava il ab le at: ~ Eskenazi had been trave lilng and unava Ji
The demand 1'01' 3 gramme of the same name whi ch aims to alert investi gati on (i ncluding practical exercises), stat law enforcement officers to th e problem and utes and regulations available for the prosecu mobili ze an effective response. The most recent tion of a rc haeolog ica l c riminals, a nd th e seminar took place in Richmond from 30 July to preparation of cases for presentation in court. The 3 August 200 I when th e Federal Bureau of In 48 participants included FB I agents, archaeolo vestigation in conjunction with the Common gists, customs officers, park rangers and other wealth of Virginia's Departments of Criminal federal and state agents. This programme is now Justice Services and Hi storic Resources held an well-establi shed and successful , and provides a Archaeological Law Enforcement Class. Over the model that could usefully be emul ated both five days participants attended day school and throughout the United States and in Europe. were assigned reading fo r the evenings. Topics included the nature of archaeological crime, its NEIL B RODIE On-line auctions: a new a fake) - even though Ih e seller is commonly venue for the antiquities anonymous so the buyer does not know who they have bought from. market 2. Does the seller actua ll y own it with 'clean ti tl e', so the buyer will indeed then possess it? CHRISTOPH ER CHIPPI NDALE & Again , the purchaser can hope to rely on the auction-house to dea l with these issues. D AV ID W.J. GILL 3. Will the purchaser pay and will the sell er be paid? Once again, the auction-house looks af or a century the market in antiquities has had ter thi s, usually by the simple tactic of not F three main venues: public auctions, sales handing the purchase over until it has been from dealers whose stock may be publ icl y an paid for irrevocably. nounced or di splayed by one means or another, Dealers address the same issues in similar ways, and private transactions. The Internet has now and - like the aucti on-houses - provide th e provided a fourth venue, in the web auctions that comfort of their reputation and of membership have become an establi shed market-place, and of trade associations. where antiquities are a standard and even a con Thc Internet, famously un structured, has to spicuous class of obj ects. What is the market in deal with th ese issues as e-commerce finds its antiquities on the web? What form does it take? steadier place after the e-boom and then e-bust How does it resemble and differ from the estab of 20001200 I. E-commerce is working well for li shed marketing forums, especially from the commodities like airline tickets, where the pur conventional auction, since the web markets de chaser casily understands what they are buyi ng cl are themselves to be on-line auctions rather than withoul needing to see anything. Antiquities are on-li ne dealers? harder, since so much depends on the exaci de In any commercial transaction, parti cipants tails, and th ese being fairly described. How does want reassurance on three fronts: the buyer know if th e sell er is who they present I. Exactl y what is the object being sold, in what themselvcs to be? And th e sell er the buyer? condition, and is it what it purports to be? Con Thi s article sketches the present statc oflwo ventional physical auction sales, whi ch for fine on-line outfits that sell antiquities. Interested read and expensive antiquities in London and New ers w ill get a good idea a lso by spend ing York have for many years been dominated by hal f-an-hour on-line with them at www.ebay.com Sotheby 's and Chri sti e's, provide the obj ect and www.sothebys.com. They are described and itself for in spection; and assurance is given their oFfe rin gs analyzed in rather different ways, that the auction-house as intermediary wi ll following the different ways they operate and the deal with fatal difficulties (e.g. if the objcct is different kinds of information they offer about 4 each lot, and because it is in structive to compare sothebys.com with the established practices of its parent physical auction-houses. e8ay: antiquities in the world's yard-sale (www.ebay.com) eBay, 'The World's Online Marketplace' , is a giant of a site where one mi ght hope to find what ever ordinary or extraordinary kind of object one might want, or not want, to acquire. Its 30 cat egories include ' Antiques' (on II November 2001 , 11 8,722 ite m s) a nd ' Coll ectibles' ( 1,445,036 items). Within the ' Antiques' category itself are 17 further categories, one of them 'An tiquities'. On II November 200 1, 4237 items were offered on85 pages within ' Antiquities' (on 13 October 200 I, it had been 3929 antiquities on 79 pages). There are also 'Coins' (113 ,983 items), 'Jewelry, Gems and Watches' (36 1, 557 items) and ' Pottery & Glass' (295,38 1 items) as categories where antiquities mi ght lurk. With over 6.6 mil lion (!) individual items offered (plu s the unstated Figure 1. Photograph of 'an ancient Gandhara sculpture' offered on eBay. number in the ' Mature Content' category and those on the separate eBay Motors site), antiqui eBay does not closely supervise what is ties are a minute portion of what eBay sell s. offered,' stating 'These items are not verified by Each lot has a single briefentry on the page, eBay; caveat emptor'. C li cking on 'caveat emp with (usuall y) a little image, a few words of de tor' takes you to a page explaining how eBay scription, the current highest bid, the number of works, 'At eBay, trading with confidence is th e bids made, and the exact date and time when the key to successful transactions.' auction for that item closes, up to ten days ahead On a 13 October page in ' Antiquities' taken of when it was li sted. [f you c li ck on the item, at hazard , page 44, there are 50 lots, of whi ch 35 you are taken to a page with a fuller description are not antiquities but antiques or not even that: and large photograph(s). Yo u can work through '4 PIECES OF DOMIN[CAN AMBER W[TH the pages, or search in any or a ll categories. A IN SECTS £20.00', 'Antique Pl ate Maste r search for ' Roman' within ' Antiquities' produces Si mpson by Arthur Denis $ 12.00', 'cigarette case 48 1 items. A search fo r 'Gandhara' in all catego from the 1940 's ???? $9.99 ' , al so a 19 95 ri es produces two books a nd ' an a nc ie nt Chevrolet Corvette sports carl $ 14,600. All pages Gandhara sculpture' in the category ' Southeast are different, but this strikes us as pretty typical Asian ' w ithin th e category 'Asian Antiques' of the many we have browsed. within the category ' Antiques' (so not within ' An The 15 lots which are or might be antiqui- tiquities'). This item 1484338485 is being sold ties are: from Brimwood, New York, and has yet to re Egypt Multiple Scarab, G lyphs, ceive a bid. ' nadeemkayani ', its sell er, decla res: 13- 17 Dyn $200.00 'Thi s pi ece is from Sawat Val ley and it weights FIN E PR E-COL NAYA RIT WOMAN 30 Ibs and 22 inches tall and 7 inches wide. It is in FIGURE- AUTHENTIC $99.99 great condition. ' I There is a set of 5 photographs of Anasazi/M i mbres C lassic Pottery it presented in a single large JPEG (thi s is not on ID Set RARE $24.95 the eBay site but at http://www.boll ywoodjam. Anasazi/Tularosa Bl ack/White com/multipicstatue.jpg, on a site otherwi se about Pottery I D Set $ 16.05 ' Bollywood' Indian movies) (Fig. I). 2 Anci ent Egyptian Eye of Horus j Amulets NR $20.00 Anasazi/Puerco Black On Red Pottery ID Set $ 14.95 • Roman Bronze Coin, Probus, 276- 282AD NR $20.50 ROMAN BRONZE KN EE BROOCH G BP14.99 • ROMAN OIL LAMP,N ICE. (NR) $ 16.50 • MEDIEVAL: 13th CENTURY HUNTING ARROWH EA D G BP19.00 POINTE DE FLEC!-IE BRONZE CHrNOISE DYN. HAN FRF 180.00 MEDIEVAL: KN IGHTS' BELT FITTINGS' (AA) GBP 9.99 . \\ • Ancient Egypt zodiac nice Egyptian ART $9.99 \\ God Osires Offering hol y water EGYPTIAN ART $9.99 Wedding Thermonies of Ancient Egypt Papyrus $5.99 !-low does eBay deal with the three issues: ex actly what is the object being sold?; does the se ll er actuall y own it?; will th e purchaser pay? Figure 2. Photograph of 'HUGE Cypriot 10008C painted For 'who! is the objec!?', th e entry offers a Handled Amphora ' offered on e8ay description and photograph(s). The photographs, phoric farm beauty has th e typi ca l geometric sty le withi n the limits of Internet standard, strike us as ofpaillling ill ceramic decoration of thi s period in remarkably good. Even though di g ital camera s Mcditcrrancan Cypriot hi story. Vc ry Rarc as a large are now cheap and easy to use, and transferring inlact piece. the image onto a web-page also straightforward, the time and effort involved seems to us very hi gh Condition: Appcars to bc compl etely intac t and unbroken , wi lh th e typi ca l surllice wcar. and some for an object that may be worth as little as $5.99. minor lip mOlllh chippagc. At current currency conversions these 15 lots to ta l just $527, and average only $35 . As a page For 'does Ih eseller ac!ual/y own il?', eBay with image(s) is created for every lot offered, can offers support to encourage a trust in the sell er either sellers or eBay make enough fo r th e com whi ch also supports confidence as regards 'what merce to be worthwhil e? On II November, for is the object?'. Nearl y all ve ndors have sold on example, item 1484227951 is a ' I-lUGE Cypriot eBay befo re, and the site provides cross-refer 1000BC painted Handled Amphora', for whi ch ences to other items the same vendor has currentl y the first and only bid of$1 00 has not reached the for sa le. The HU GE Cypriot Amphora is offered reserve; its page has two large and crisp photo by ' Vianova'; a link from it takes you to another graphs each of 480 x 640 pixels (Fig. 2). It is page where Vianova's pro fil e is proven to be described as: good: 44 previous transacti ons are a ll reported in pos itive terms (e.g. ' Praise : honorable man, A monull1 ental Cypriot amphori c form handl ed storage vessel, uniquely painted in geometri c form well packaged, would buy from again, thanks Vi c motif, with abso lutely great presence and stature A A A A A ++++++++'; ' Praise: great item, great standing 20 I NC J-I ES H IG J-I , and 16 inches hand le sell er, easy transaction, thanks! '), with no neutrals to hand le. Thi s piece is just great is all I call say, and no negati ves.' Another lin k takes you from SEE the jpg close-ups of' th e ancient s llrf ~ l ce wcar the amphora to a ll Vianova's current items for on the painted decoration. GUA RAN TEED to be authentic, and at least 2500 years old. Thi s aJ11- sa le, 46 whi ch range from 'Earl y 19thc Huge Hunters Boar I-lead Tankard' ($255) to ' German 6 MAX KAHRER 1917 Klosterneuberg Summer' and what and where I am.and export laws to be ($1025). In this way, you can see what the seller concerned about. I just sold all kinds of pre Columbian on ebay, with no questions asked. I got deals in, and what previous customers think of them from an estate sale lady, who got them from their experiences. Profiles are overwhelmingly a collection, that got them from who knows where positive. 50 years ago ... I legitimately bought the 'pot' as Browsing eBay is free and available to any you call it, ... it is an amphora. one on the Internet. To sell, buy or contact others 'nadeemkayani', seller of the Gandhara statue, via eBay bye-mail requires registration, for is a new eBay user without either other items which there is no charge but for which you must currently for sale or any previous transactions in provide an e-mail address (and credit-card de their profile. One of us asked them bye-mail, 'I tails as proof of identity if your e-mail address is know that a lot of ancient objects are said to be with one of the 'anonymous' services like illegally excavated and illicitly exported from hotmail.com). In registering with eBay, you ac their country of origin, especially Gandharan cept a user agreement which includes: 'eBay objects. What is the country of origin ofthis item? cannot and does not control the quality, safety, How can I be sure it was legitimately exported?' legality or accuracy of any item listed or any item A 'Nadeem' promptly replied: 'I am not sure how description. Trading over the Internet has certain to answer the question, I am selling this item for inherent risks; I understand these risks exist even another friend. If you win the item all I can tell you if I take advantage of various tools offered by is that the item will be sent to you and get there.' eBay in order to minimize the risk of fraud'; and As regards 'will the purchaser pay?', or 'I will not provide fraudulent information and I other ways in which the transaction may go awry, am solely responsible for any information I pro eBay has clear advice for the seller and will it vide to eBay. I will comply with all laws self intervene under its 'Non-Paying-BidderlFinal applicable to my activities on the web site and Value Fee Credit Request Program'. Buyer and with this Agreement. I will not sell any prohib seller should be in direct contact within 3 busi ited, illegal or infringing items on eBay.' No ness days of the listing's close. The seller should means is evident as to how these requirements send a 'payment reminder' to the buyer after 3 are to be enforced. days but not past 30 days. Then, if still unpaid, There is no charge to browse, bid on, or the seller should file a 'non-payment bidder alert' buy items at eBay. There are fees to list and sell with eBay after seven days but not past 45 days items. To list an item with a reserve over $200 of your listing'S close. eBay then reminds the costs $3.30, with additional charges between 10 buyer of their obligations. If that fails, then the cents and $99.95 for special features such as pho seller can ask eBay for a credit in respect of the tographs, bold type or special prominence to draw sale commission due to eBay. The defaulting attention to your item. There is a further final buyer receives warnings from eBay for their first value fee if the item is sold; it is 5 per cent of the and second offences; under a 'three strikes and sale price if that is less than $25, reducing to 2.5 you're out' rule, the third offence leads to an in per cent for the portion between $25 and $1000, definite suspension, a suspension of a user's and 1.25 per cent for the portion over $1000. privilege to use the eBay site for more than 60 As a registered member of the eBay COlTI days with no definite reinstatement date. eBay munity one of us asked 'Vianova' bye-mail an states: 'Users who have been indefinitely sus obvious question about the pot: 'I know that a lot pended may not register with eBay during the of ancient objects are said to be illegally excavated suspension, nor may they use eBay's site in any and illicitly exported from their country of origin. way. Failure to abide by this restriction will lead How can I be sure this pot was legitimately exported to referral for criminal prosecution with the from Cyprus?' A 'Vic Showell' promptly replied: United States Attorney's Office for the Northern The pot is on ebay. If you have a problem with it, District of California. 'With millions of registered email them. It has been in North America for a very users of eBay, one wonders if a suspended user long time, far before any laws or whatever mumbo might be tempted to re-register under a different jumbo you are trying to lay on me demanding who e-mail address. 7 Other general auction sites, like its smaller ferent in style, a cool and elegant design with, rival QXL (www.qxl.com). operate much like even, quite some white space (it is, also, much eBay. slower than eBay). From the opening page, you We are struck by the huge volume of bus i can go to catalogues of the physical auctions, ness eBay does (or, strictly, the huge volume of future and past, which are electronic versions of business would-be sellers hope to do). There are the conventional printed catalogues, or to the elec more than 6 million items offered on an average tronic-only on-line operations within sothebys.com. day which, with a closing date of a maximum 10 The sothebys.com section has 13 catego days after opening for each item, means upwards ries under on-line auctions, one of them 'Ancient of 600,000 new items offered every day. 5 This and Ethnographic Art' (380 lots together on 14 may explain why both the insertion fees and the November 200 I) within which are' Antiquities' commission on a successful sale is low. (59 lots) and three other categories, 'African & On 19 July 200 I, eBay reported a second Oceanic Art', 'American Indian Art' and 'Pre quarter turnover of $180.9 million, an increase Columbian Art', under which some American of 84 per cent over the previous year, and profit antiquities appear. 6 of$24.6 million; 98.7 million auctions had taken Exactly what is the object being sold, in place during the quarter, and eBay had 34.1 mil what condition, and is it what it purports to be? lion registered users. Its share price on 9 Here, the key asset is the Sotheby's name and November 200 I was $56.95. In contrast, Lon reputation as a centre of expertise. These items don-quoted QXL reported a first-quarter trading are being sold through Sotheby's, and the seller loss on 31 August 2001 of £8.5 ($12.3) million is a Sotheby's Associate. There are detailed and on sales of £ 1.6 ($2.3) million (that is, losses over lengthy conditions of sale7 which parallel the five times its income). Its shares rallied to 6.25 lengthy conditions conventional in the printed pence, having been at £8 at the height of the e catalogues of physical auctions. There is a spe commerce bubble and collapsing to under 1 per cific provision to protect the buyer ifthe object turns cent of the peak. eBay is expanding outside its out to be counterfeit, a deliberate modem forgery. original US base, and looks set to rule the world Does the seller actually own it with 'clean as the broad on-line market for everything, an title', so the buyer will indeed then possess it? tiquities included. Sotheby's (below) is not No specific statement is made in the conditions presently profitable, reporting on 13 November of sale; perhaps none is needed because, again, 2001 revenues for its first three quarters together the status of Sothe by's Associate should provide of $225 million and a net loss of $41 million. reassurance. Internet-related expenses were $18.7 million, As regards 'will the purchaser pay?', down from $44 million the year bef<;>re; the Sotheby's takes an active role. The buyer pays Internet-related loss seems to have been $9 mil Sotheby's (rather than the Associate), and only lion, indicating Internet-related revenue of around when that payment has been completed will $10 million. sothebys.com release the item and direct the seller to ship the item to the buyer. The conditions re Sothebys.com: from the physical mind the buyer that making a bid is irrevocably auction-room to the Internet to agree to buy if the bid is successful. Where eBay is a new venture of the electronic Browsing sothebys.com is free and avail age, Sothebys.com is an extension into the elec able to anyone on the Internet. To buy or contact tronic market-place of one of the old and requires registration, H for which you must pro dominant physical auction-houses. Sotheby's has vide your real name, phone number, email had two separate Internet ventures. One, jointly address, credit-card details and other requested with the Internet book-seller Amazon.com, was information. after a while folded into the other, sothebys.com. The commission to sellers on sothebys. The eBay opening page is a mass of col com, all of which are established Associates ourful elements crammed into the screen, each (above), is not stated on the site.9 Buyers pay 15 intended to catch attention; sothebys.com is dif- per cent of the successful bid price up to $15,000, 8 10 per cent of the balance above that fi gure.'o Characteristics of sothebys.com in What kind of antiquities are so ld on-line relation to Sotheby's physical auctions by sothebys.com, and how do they compare with Sellers what is offered at their physical auctions? Who In their physical auction catalogues Sotheby's, by? What is their declared archaeologica l con and other auction-houses, are reti cent abo ut the text and hi story? Of what va lue? To explore these names of se ll ers. For a few lots, the se ll er is ex issues, we analyzed what was offered for sa le on ac tl y named. For most lots, the sell er is unnamed sothebys.com in mid-200 I, under the class of or referred to in terms (' Property of a Lady', ' Antiqui ties '. On a series of dates between II ' Property of a New York Coll ector') so general May and 8 August we recorded some details of they are effectively unnamed . In a sample of 420 I each lot offered, excluding those lots previously lots offered in general antiquities aucti ons at recorded and any lot whi ch ev identl y had previ Sotheby's New York over the past several years, ously been offered under another lot num ber." This 21 per cent of sell ers were exactly named; 79 per totals 494 lots, of which 490 are antiqui ties." ce nt were actuall y or effectively unnamed. '" A Fifteen of the lots will show the range ,1J long-standing characte ri stic of both New York with their estimates: and London physical auctions is that the dealers ANCIENT EGYPTIAN BLACK whose business is much of the market are never STEATITE STRlDING RAM $2500- 3500 named when they are se llers. Elega nt Greek Black Skyphos Sotheby's on-line is quite different. For 12 (4th Century BC) $600- 800 lots, the sell er is Sotheby's New York itself. For ANCIENT EGYPT IAN GREEN another 476 of the 490 lots (97 per cent) the seller FA IENCE USHABTI OF HORU $800- 1200 is named. All of these are dea lers, described as a Lot of Two Luristan or Persian, 'Sothebys.com Associate', and in each lot a lin k Bronze Arrowheads, C. 800 BC $400- 550 is given to a page about the Associate, informing • Roman Bronze and Enamell ed the browse r abo ut where the dealer is, and what Jewelry [7 items] $900- 1100 kind of things th ey deal in. Ge nerall y there is a • Judaea n, Time of the Patriarchs, link to the dealer's own web-site. For onl y 2 lots Lot of 5 Bronze Pins, C. 2200 BC $500- 750 is the vendor unnamed, with the lot reported sim J udaea, Late Bronze Age Pottery ply as 'offered by a Sothebys.com Associate'. Water Jug, C. 900 BC $8 00- 1000 Tabl e I shows the names of the sell ers. Six ac Egyptian Middle Kingdom Wooden count for 400 lots, 82 per cent of the total. Fema le Head (c irca 2040- 1640 BC) $200- 500 This pattern ari ses from the commercial Large Ap uli an Red Figure Bell structure ofsothebys. com. Un like eBay, it is not Krater ca. 4th century BC; Attributed a public auction, through whi ch anyone may of to the Ci rcle of th e Darius Painter, fer something they wish to se ll , but a coll aborative (poss ibl y the Haifa Painter) $ 18,000- 20,000 venture under whi ch only associates may se ll. Greek Stemmed Kylix $750- 950 Associates ga in access to sothebys.com under a Roman Engraved Gem Set in Ring, commercial agreement by whi ch the Associate circa 1st-4th Century AD [ancient undertakes to sell on the Internet on ly through gem, modern ring] $500- 1000 sothebys .com. • Roman glass Double-bodied Cosmetic Tube ca. 3rd centlllY AD $900- 1500 Archaeology Greek Squat Lekythos, Geometric What are th e find-spots of the objects? What are Period ca. 800-700 BC $8 00- 1000 their archaeological contexts? For 92 per cent no Large Anc ient Egyptian Wooden indication of any kind is given (as against 97 per Sarcophagus Panel cent for the sample from Sotheby's physical auc XX lst Dynasty $3000-4000 tions). For the 8 per cent for which an indi cation ANC IENT GREEK BLA CK-GLA ZED of find -s pot is given, it is always general and LIP CUP, CIRCA 7TH/6TH impreci se - e.g. ' Probably from th e Fayum ', CENTURY BC $8 00- 1200 'found in Judea', ' from Jerusalem ', 'Thi s rare and 9 Table 1. Sellers on Sothebys.com, mid 2001 . (compare 5 per cent in the physical auctions); Seller Location Web-site? No. of lois for 12 per cent a hi s offered Acl con Ga ll ery Skokie (IL), USA no 2 to ry back to Anc ient World Art s Ltd Litc hfield (CT). USA yes 6 19 15-1944 (compare Anlhropos Malibu (CA). USA yes 10 3 per cent in the physi Arte Prim itivo New York (NY). USA yes I ~ C J Marlin Coi ns Ltd London N 14. UK no 19 cal auctions); for II Chinal ai Tri ba l Anti qucs Shoreh;ll 11 (NY) no per cent a hi story back EAC Gallery Ros lyn Heights (NY). USA no 2 to 1945- 1973 (com Fragments ofTimc Medfiel d (MA) yes 5~ Harla n J. Bcrk. Ltd Chicago (IL), USA yes 2 pare 6 per cent in th e Howard M. Nowes New York (NY). USA yes 49 physical auctions); for Lindeau Gcms New York ( Y) . USA yes 3 per cent a hi sto ry Mark Goodste in Statcn Island (NY). USA no 60 Medusa·A rI. coJl1 Montrca l. Qucbec. Ca nada yes 9 back to 1974- 1986 Mooraboo l Antiquc Ga ll eries Geclong (Vic.). Australi a ycs 2 (compare 5 per cent in Paul Anav ian New York (NY) yes X9 the physical aucti ons); Sand s of Time Antiquiti es Houston (T X). USA yes 77 SOlhcby's Ncw York New York (NY) yes 12 for 17 per cent a hi s Venus Ga ll cries Jerusa lelll . Isra el ycs 61 to ry back to a date Yc Oldc Curiositic Shoppe South Orange (NJ). USA no 10 since 1987 (compare 4 unnamed Sot hebys.colll Assoc iate 2 Tot:11 490 per cent in the physi cal auctions). att racti ve Lamp was found in Bethlehem ' - So more is said about hi story than is usual rather than an archaeological context in the re for physical auctions, but not of a kind actuall y search sense. to report what happened to the items and how they came to move out from beneath the ground His/ory and on to the market-place. In respect ofthe hi stOlY of the obj ects, when they were found and who previously owned them, COlllpara/ive ilia/erial soth ebys.com is more forthcoming than are the Aucti on-houses sometimes mention comparati ve ph ysical auction catal ogues. Just 3 per cent of material , that is, similar items already kn own or items on sothebys.com first 'surface' when of published. Comparati ve materi al is mentioned for fered for auction w ith nothing at all sa id about II per cent of items on sothebys.eom, compared their history, compared w ith the 69 per cent sur with 26 per cent at th e physical auctions. facing w itho ut any hi story at th e physical aucti ons. For 49 per cent of items at soth ebys. Discussion com, however, the hi stOlY says little, as it so vague Neither eBay nor sothebys.com discloses the re (' Property ofa South-West Coll ecti on', ' Pri vate serve on an item. eBay publishes the most recent Cali fornian collection') or just con firm s who the bid and the bidding hi story; sothebys.com also sell er is (, Property of Venus Antiquities, Jerusa publishes a hi gh and low estimate of what a suc lem' for an item being sold by ' Venus Gall eri es, cessful bid might be, as it does for physica l Jeru sal em, Israel; ' Property fro m a New York aucti ons. This makes it possible to sketch th e dea ler' for an item being sold by Mark Goodstein , value of what is offered on sothebys.com: our Staten Island). Forjust one item o f the sample of 490 lots have a mean low estimate of $ 111 8 and 490 is the hi story stated from or nearly from the a mean hi gh of$ 1652; the cheapest items have a ground: a ' Large Roman glass neckl ace' offered low of $ 100 and high of $200; the most expen by Sands of Time Antiquities that was' Excavated sive item, an Apulian Red Figure bell krater has in Gazantep, Southern Turkey during the first half a low of $ 18,000 and hi gh of $20,000; th e me of the 20th century' (the same 0 per cent with dian item has a low of $800 and high of $ 1000 . hi story from the ground applies to the sample for These values set sothebys.com in the middle of th e physical auctions). For 2 per cent a hi story is the market, well bclow the physical auction rooms reported for the item back to a date before 19 14 where estimates over $ 100,000 are routine and 10 few items have estimates below $1000, and well Set side by side, sothebys.com is a min above eBay with its items going down to $10 and now alongside a giant; it is a specialized minnow, below. As on eBay, sothebys.com allows a seller where eBay is unbounded. to fix a 'knock-out' price which, if offered, makes Where sothebys.com may have 59 antiq an immediate sale and the auction terminates; 31 uities on-sale on anyone day, eBay has of the per cent of items were available that way. order of 1300. 15 They are in different parts of the Are sothebys.com selling much of what market, eBay at the bottom, sothebys.com in the they offer? There are bids for only 10 per cent of middle (with Sotheby's physical auctions at the items when we have looked at them, and most of top). They operate in very different ways. these are below, usually far below the low esti sothebys.com is a tighter and more controlled mate. When we look, for example, there is not a operation: selling is restricted to its Associates; single bid for anyone of 76 lots of west Asian it takes more care - to judge from the descrip seals offered by Paul Anavian, New York. In that tions for each lot - (or its sellers are induced to group of items most have 5 days to go before the take more care) in describing lots; the financial auction closed. There may later be a last-minute transaction is conducted through sothebys.com. flurry in the closing day or hours or even min eBay is looser. utes, but from watching the site for a while we The charges are very different. At eBay, the doubt that is the routine. And excluded from the seller has modest costs to insert the item, and then 490 items we have logged are about 100 other pays 5 per cent commission in respect of very items, in the same period, which appear to be the cheap items up to $25, then 2.5 per cent over $25, same object as had previously been offered now 1.25 per cent over $1000. The buyer is not for sale again, after having failed to sell before. charged. At sothebys.com the seller may also A certain portion of items failing to reach reserve pay.16 The buyer pays IS per cent, then 10 per and be sold is routine in auction-rooms, but the cent over $15,000. If the charge to on-line sell signs are that sothebys.com is not achieving as ers is much the same as it commonly is for high a proportion of successful sales as is usual physical auctions, then sothebys.com altogether in physical auctions. takes up to 30 per cent or more, on the face of it The range of items offered is typical of the more than 10 times what eBay receives for a lower end of the physical auction range, and also transaction involving a $999 dollar item. So in light of the specialities of the not many - only sothebys.com needs to have very high prestige, 19 - Sotheby's Associates using sothebys.com and to be seen to provide a very superior place to in this period. The 61 items from Venus Galler sell it and to buy ifit is to sustain itself in compe ies, Jerusalem, Israel (Authorized Antiquities tition with eBay when its charges are so much Dealer License No. 144), for instance, are largely greater. finds from Israel. Among the 58 items from Frag Christie's, the other dominant player in the ments of Time, Medfield (MA), are many items art auction-houses, has not created an electronic from the Diniacopoulos Collection, assetnbled operation yet. Bonhams and Phillips, smaller 1910-1932 and 1954; it 'is, Fragments explains, players in London, merged in July 2001 under the ownership of the French luxury goods com one of the most important Canadian antiquities col bine LVMH. With Sotheby's and Christie's lections of the 20th century. Fragments of Time, Inc. has been selected by the estate to assist with embroiled in court cases in New York, where it the disbursement of this collection. In cooperation has been proven they operated a cartel contrary with Sothebys.com, a few selected objects are be to US anti-trust law, the stage is set for three auc ing offered for on-line bidding. In addition, a full tion combines to battle for the top of the market. color catalogue featuring more than 100 objects They will have to move fast, and electronically from this collection is available on request at WWW.FRAGMENTSoffIME.COM. well, if they are not to lose the bottom and the middle of it to the likes of eBay. Other items from the same collection are at F or those concerned with the other values present appearing in the physical auctions of of antiquities, these objects as precious evidence Sotheby's New York. of other peoples at other times, a flourishing II ing offered onl y one item, a 'Gandhara Buddha Statue, Third Century AD' . No archaeology or hi story is reported for it; its estimate is $ 10,5 00 to $ 14,000. Lindeau Gems, in its page as a sothebys.com Associate and its own web-si te at www.l indeau.com. declares itself to be a special ist gem dealer in emeralds (,From the mines of Muzo and Chivor in Colombia ' whence their emeralds have ' worked their way through peril ous eme rald trade to Lindeau '1 9), rubies (' Monghsu, is a gem mining area in Myanmar which si ts in rebel territory. G uerrilla control of the area hasn't stopped the now of rubies from mine to market. Most stones leave the country as contraband rough and enter Tha il and at Mae-Sai, a rendezvous point between gem smugglers and Figure 3. Photograph of 'Gandhara Buddha Statue, Third dealers and sa pphire'), and sapphires (from Sri Century AD' offered on sothebys.com. Lanka, now ' the only steady producer offine sap phires'). Lindeau's sole oITering in antiquities is electronic market is not a happy innovation. Auc shown in four clear and large photographs, look tion-houses and their physical auctions promote ing fo r all the world as if it has been recentl y the market in antiquities, which may be regret hacked off its supporting s urf~l ce (Fig. 3). Sup ted, but they also have provided docum entati on pose one wanted to give th e impression of an and order. The catalogues are printed and pro antiquity being offered that was looted. One vide a permanent record, even if the inform ati on might choose Gandharan, since Gandharan is is sli ght, of what was oITered for sale. And the notori ous for the looters' interest in it. One mi ght aucti on-houses provide a central and publ ic pl ace illustrate the pi ece as ifrecentl y hacked out of its where all can know what is offered, and where sculptural setting. One mi ght ha ve it offered for the objects themselves are always physica ll y sale by a company that does not normally deal in present. The electronic market provides docu antiqu ities, but speciali zes in selling gems that mentation only of a transient kind. One can (as are, as its own web-site declares, usually smug we have in thi s study) look at an item offered on gled - and smuggled from the very region of a page one minute, and th en find just a minute the word where Gandharan antiquities come later the page has va ni shed. We do not know if from! It is in respect of items like th ese that th e on-line auction rooms archi ve their pages, or soth ebys.com's un ambiguous statement, ' It is whether any other archi ve keeps them. And the both ill egal and unlawful for any of our screened objects are not physicall y produced, onl y referred dealers to submit items that have been exported to by photographs. out of other countries illegall y to post them to One encouraging sign was a direct state Soth ebys.com', will be material. (The tabulations ment in respect of illicit antiquities made to us of sothebys.com sales used in this arti cle are to by sothebys.com. When one of us asked sothebys. be found at 12 Center and the I>entagon which was oner..:d fo r sale imllled iately lace. arc excluded frolll our anal ys is. aner the terror attacks. The lirst pieces ofmbble. the London GI/art/ 13. The full tabulation is available on-line at htlp:l/www.sw:lIl. ae. uk/ i(ln reported ( 13 Septcmber 200 I). went o n sOlie within un hour of classics/staflldg/lootin glealltiq.hllll. These t 5 cx:uuples :Ife not Ihe the first plOlne crash: 'Many entries all th e site call all fell ow users first 15 in our tabul;uio ll . as onen a dealer places several lots to to bo)'coll items relmed 10 the allacks. " I am seeing thi s ill happen gether which then make:1 sin gle block in the listing. bU I numbe rs in auclion alier aucti on. and il makes me sick! I applOlud elJa)' for 5. 10. 15. etc .. within it. not allowing it to IHlppen in many auct ions by cancelling Ihem, It 14. Sotheby's London is even lllore fct icenl lh:m is Sotheby"s New Yo rk scems thaI e llay is missing a few though:' said one.' Staff al the about who the sellers arc. company stepped in to remove the entries advertising the souve 15. Sec above for the propoftion of items in Ihe el3ay . An tiquities' cat- nirs. egory which arc actually arc antiq uities. Cllllllrc Wilhol/l COl/lc.'·' has previously report ed on an all eged 16. Sec above. pi ece of ancient Egyptian pyram id oOhed for sale on ellay and the 17. I:;-rnailto Chippindale. 17 June 200 1. sale stopped afier(lliestions were asked about the ilem's authent ic IS. However. ill a further e-mai l. Mr Klarman quoted a clallse in the ity and legalit y (sec In The News CWC issue 5. p. 12 ) sa le comliti Oll s which appear:-; to concern legal export froll1thc coun 3. eBay docs 1I 0t seem to organi ze what is pllt in which category. Iry where Ihe it em curfentl y is. rat her Ihan 10 any previous ex port 4. A 'profi le' reporting past customer ex peri ence with the seller is a of th e item from its cOllntry of origin. comlllo n fca lU re of sites sell ing over Ihe Intern et. See e.g. 19. Quotations fro m pages ofwww.lindeau.com. Amazon.colII in resp.-ct of second-hand books sold th rough it. along side the new books Amazon.com itsel f sells. 5. No wonder ellay was nOl able in polic ing its site 10 relllO\'e all souvenirs of the World Trade Center :Htack (previous nO le). 6. There arc other categories. such as 'Ccramics & G I;I SS' where an C HRISTO PHER CHIPPINDALE tiquiti es co uld appear. Mu seum of Archaeology & Anthropology 7. At htlp:llalletion.solhebys.com/snNS7a9c/eondi ti ons. hlml. Also Ca mbrid ge University 'Terms of usc' OIl http ://www.sothebys.com/about/as_terllls. htmi. Downing Street 8. Registration is permil1ed only by individua ls or ot hers residen t in Austral ia. Austria.13elgiulll. Canada . Dellmark. Finland. Germany. Ca mbridge Ireland. the Nelherlands. New Zealand. Norway. Sweden. Switzer CB23DZ land. the United Kingdom and the Unit..:d Slates. England 9. The charge 10 sellers at Sotheby's London physical auctions is 15 [email protected] per cent li p 10 £2000 (52900). then 10 per cenl up 10 £60.000 (587.000). S per ce nt the reatier. plus I per ce ll t for insurance. plus a charge for an y illust r,lI io n in Ihe eatu logue. D AV ID W.J. G ILL 10. The charge to buyers:1I Sot heby's New Yo rk physiral auctions is Departm ent of Classics and Ancient History 20 per celli up to 5 15.000. Ihen 15 per cent lip to 5 I 00.0(0). 10 per cent thereafter. University of Wales Swansea II . Sometimes an object o Ocred was described in simi lar ten11S to a Singleton Park previous 101. but not so closely as to be evident ly Ih..: sallie objec t. Swansea These arc included ,IS separate lots oll th;: study. It is possible a few SA28PP wi ll be the same object. ofli:r..:d more than once. amI Iherd'arc counted twice in our 1;Ibulalion. Wales 12. The other four. such as a Russi;m icon and a 1\'Ia111lll oth Bone lH."ck- [email protected] Thailand theft In A pril thi s year seve n sto ne antefixes from a Khmer temple at Si Sa Ket in northeast Thailand were stolen from th e local mu seum. Fi ve pi eces were recove red by Thai pol ice SDon after but two are still missing, similar in design to the two sma ll er of the recovcrcd pieces shown on the left of the pho tograph. T hree thi eves we re arrested and the police are hunti ng fo r a furthe r three. It is rumoured Four ante fixes from Si Sa Kef recovered by Thai police. that the antefixes were stolen to fulfi l a 5 million ba ht ($20,000) advance order. 13 The mystery of the Persian mummy BBC2,9 p.m., Thursday 20 September 2001 J ENNY D OOLE wide audience was ex posed to the true na A ture of the illicit trade in antiquities when the SSC's fl agship science seri es, /-Iorizon, devoted its Dr Asma Ibrahim and Charles Milroy unwrapping tile 20 September documentaty to 'The MystelY of the 'Persian mummy' (© Horizon, BBC). Persian Mumm y'. Th e hour-l ong programm e, which described how a mummy, apparently of an with a cuneifo rm in scription whi ch im pli ed a ancient Persian princess, was offered fo r sa le on Persian ori gin , yet no ev idence of mummifica the black market, confi scated, studi ed and eventu tion was previously known outside of Egy pt. Thi s all y proven to be a modern fake (see In The News di scovery seemed to indicate that anci ent Persians CWC issues 7 & 8), highli ghted the velY worst as may have copi ed mummi fi cation techniques and pects of the illicit trade: giga nti c amounts of cash appli ed th em to their own nobility - and judg changing hands, increasing incidence of fakes and ing from the richness of thi s burial, with its gold means through whi ch they can be insinuated into adornm ents and stone, possibl y alabaster, outer the system, targeted approaches to major museums, coffin thi s was indeed a woman of considerable mi suse of genuine know ledge and scholarship, social status. The in sc ription described her as waste of prec ious resources and time, and the grue Rhodugune, daughter of the legendaty Persian king some and horri fy ing lengths to which traffi ckers are Xerxes about whom littl e is known. Other clues prepared to go. seemed to back up thi s identification: rosette mo On 19 October 2000, Dr Asma Ibrahim, then ti fs decorating the mummy are familiar icons at curator of the National Museum of Pakista n, was Xerxes ' roya l palace in Persepoli s, so uthern Iran; in fo rmed by poli ce that an illicit antiquity - a im ages of seven Cy press trees, th e symbol for mummy with gold crown, face mask and chestplate, the an cient city of I-I amadan, were seen as im lying in a carved wooden box - had been im p0I1ant since the city is known to have been of sacred pounded in the northern city of Quetta near the importance to Xerxes; and depictions of the chief Afghan border. It had been traced after being seen Zoroastri an deity Ahuramazda al so suggested an in a video seized fro m an Iranian suspect in Karachi. intimate link with ancient Persian roya lty. The suspect,A li Aqbar, maintained thatthe mummy Closer study of the cun eiform in sc riptions had been found after eal1hquake di sturbance at a rai sed the first doubts. Alth ough some mi stakes desel1 site. He was tly ing to se ll it on the blac k art could eas il y have been made by illiterate ston e market. Prices quoted during the programme ranged masons or go ldsmiths copyin g the tex ts, gram from $ 11 milli on to $30 million. matica l errors, spec ifi ca ll y mi stakes in applying Two strands of inves ti ga ti on were necessaty: geniti ve endings to wo rds, we re diffic ult to ex first, into the background of the mummified woman, pl ain. Use of the name ' Rhodugun e' - a later in the hope of better understanding her archaeologi Greek translation of th e princess' ori gin al Per ca l context and pl ace in hi stOIY; second, in to the sian name ' Wardegaun a' was impossibl e to criminal acti vities which had led to her body being ex pl ain and ex perts concluded th at in scri pti ons illega ll y offered fo r sale as an illicit antiqui ty. These were fake . two strands quick ly became entw ined. X-rays and CAT scans of th e mummy to establi sh methods of mummification also led to The mummy the sa me co nclusion. Alth ough thi s was appar Archaeologists were initiall y wil dly excited about entl ya ritual mummification - intern al orga ns the mummy. Her gold chestpl ate was in scribed removed, hands crossed over chest, bandages and 14 resin applied in the usual way - some di sc rep likely came from Iran , well-known as a maj or ancies were noticed. Spec ifi ca ll y, the heart production centre for counterfeit antiquities. This (cruciall y req uired to remain in th e body accord made sense since, unknown to the Paki stani au in g to ancient Egyptian burial lore) was not thorities, Muscare ll a had in 1999 been present, the abdom inal incision made to remove approached by an Iranian call ed Amanoll ah internal orga ns was not onl y too large but in the Riggi , who sent him four photographs of the wrong place, and the brain had not been removed mummy. In a follow-up phone call a few days in the way perfected by ancient Egyptian later, Riggi expl ained that he was acting as a mid mummi fiers. Furthermore, del icate tendons and dleman, had been advised to approach Muscarella li gaments whi ch wou ld have decayed over cen by a professor, and had access to an extraordi turies were clearl y intact. The di scovery of pencil naIY discovelY - the mummy - of whi ch he had marks applied to the wooden coffin during co n a video. In the apparent beliefthat the mummy was struction con firmed - along with the other clues gen uine, he offered it to the museum. - that the whole package was a recent fab ri ca The police are now re-arresting and re-in tion. The impli cations were deeply di sturbing and terrogatin g known witnesses in Quetta and became more so when it emerged that the woman, middl emen, in the hope of shedding further li ght who had been mummified in the previou s two on both the forging operation and possibl e murder. years or so, had di ed a violent death during whi ch The woman, whose face was reconstructed during her neck was broken and her lower right spine the programme and is characteristic of inhabitants damaged by a blunt blow. It was imposs ibl e to of the border region of Pakistan and Iran, remains tell ifher injuries were the result of a tragic acc i unidentified but can at least now be buried in de de nt (after whi ch her body was quickly looted cent Muslim tradition. from its grave and so ld), or someth ing yet more sini ster. The po li ce opened a murder enqu iry. Chilling conclusions Dr Ibrahim and th e sc ientists investigating thi s The criminal investigation sad history were clearly shucked and upset at the To perpetrate a forgery ofthi s kin d would cl ea rl y so rdid lengths to whi ch fo rgers had gone to cre in volve a team of peopl e (some of whom had a ate a fak e antiquity. Charles Milroy, consul tant good, probably profess ional or scholarl y, knowl pathologist sa id : ' It is a crime, whether or not it edge of archaeology and anatomy), money, was a murder, it 's immoral, it's unethical and it forward planning, and resources. The operation is ill ega l'. But should we be surprised that such had been carried out in a hot country where bod gruesome depths are now being plumbed to feed ies decompose qu ick ly, so on acqu iring a body demand fo r illi cit antiq uiti es, when astronomical the cri minal team must already have prepared a lab sums are in vo lved and dealing in unprovenanced and mummification equipment: half a ton of dlY antiquities is still regarded as acceptable in some ing chemicals (bicarbonate of soda, sodium chl oride quarters? No r can we reass ure ourselves with the and table salt), surgical implements, resins and band fac t th at th is was an iso lated incident. Since then , ages. The raw materials for the burial assemblage two more so-call ed Persian mummies, rituall y - go ld, wood for the coffi n (later radi ocarbon embalm ed and adorned in the same way, have dated to 250 years of age), alabaster - must have apparentl y surfaced on the international market been expensive ly acq uired and cra fted. for $6 milli on. The BBC investigation concluded Oscar Muscarella , expert in Near Easte rn with th e 'chilling poss ibility that hidd en away in fo rge ri es based at the Metropolitan Museum of thi s wild border land is a mummy factory and Art, who recogni zed a typical forgers' mistake the prospect of more victims'. We can on ly won on the wooden box (a n ancient dep iction of the der how many of these terrible creations may have god Ahuramazda, known from a rock carvi ng, already bee n secretly so ld to co ll ectors and insti had been directly copied, but with no tru e under tutions less we ll -informed and less scrupulous sta nding of its meaning the forger had mi ssed than the ones seen during thi s eye-openin g docu essential elements) beli eved that thi s fake most mentary. 15 In the News weighing nearl y 50 kg and stolen from the site six months ago. The newspaper goes JENNY DOOLE on to highlight the difficulties surround ing the investigation of the theft, w ith Thefts in India obstructive in volvement from some seni or politi cians and influenti al parties, and says • A well-organi zed gang is beli eved to be that the po li ce have a suspiciously poor plundering 2000-year-old archaeological record for recovering such artefacts, with sites in Andhra Pradesh, India. Reported only 8 confiscated in the last 40 years. Loot thefts from the important, but remote, Bud ing and smuggling of antiquities is dhist stupa of Chandavaram, include: apparently the main source of income for o 9 October 2000: Two nine-foot long inh abitants of the six vill ages in the area, panels, one decorated with a ca rvi ng of and has increased markedly during recent the Bodhi tree, the other with the chaitra drought conditions. Acti viti es are apparentl y or Buddhist umbrella, were ripped from di vided between family and caste groups a cement platform at the site museum. with a certain section of the community uti o 2 Februwy2001: In a planned raid, rob li zing their digging sk ills, and others taking bers arrived in a tractor, tied up two responsibility for paying middlemen. watclunen and rein oved three nine-foot pillars, one with a representation of the Buddha as fire, from the remote site of University thefts Gundlakamma. o 23 March 2001: After two police consta On or around the night of 27 Jul y 200 1, 21 bles guarding the museum left for lunch, prehistoric Native American Indian vessels, two watchmen were inj ected with immo stone spear points, and repli cas of painted peb bilizing sedatives allowing th e gang to bl es (most from Caddo Incli an sites in n0l1heast make away with three more decorated Texas, so me from southwestern USA) were pillars and a lotus medallion in broad stolen from the Texas Archaeological Re dayli ght. search Laboratory. A reward of$ 10 ,000 has Archaeologists have since decided to re been offered for information leading to the move antiquities from the site to a more arrest and conviction secure locati on in Chandavaram village, of whoever stole the alth ough worries have been expressed about objects, all of whi ch possible damage to the important pieces due were marked in ink to lack of adequate storage conditions. with site numbers and accession numbers. • Valuable antiquities from the ancient fort Further information, of Timan pur, Karauli district, Rajasthan inc luding pho to have apparently been looted for several graphs of many of the years, and transferred to dealers in Delhi pottery pi eces, is and Mathura who are part of an intern a avail ab le on www. tional smuggling chain. From th ere th ey u tex as.ed uiresearchl were sent out of the country, allegedly with tarl/theft. html the connivance of custom officials in Delhi. The Daily Pioneer (20 November 200 I) reports that the operation was discovered when a man was arrested with an 800- year-old ashtadhatu statue of Surya, 16 Crisis in Crimea Globalization of the Phenomenon' was hosted by the Cultural Heritage Ministry and the Th e A rt Newspaper (October 200 I) reports an Carabinieri in Rome, Italy in June. Police and escalation of looting and treasure-hunting heritage officials from countries including of ancient Greek sites in the C rimea, south Egypt, Tunisia , Cyprus, Guatemala, France ern Ukraine as, since the fall of communism and Italy as well as dealers and lawmakers there nearly ten years ago, looters have be from UK, US and other market countries were come aware of massive demand for an tiquities in attendance. in the West. At the same time economi c fac tors, such as increasing unemployment and low sa laries, and also reduced policing have Chinese arrests exacerbated the situation. Spectacular finds by archaeologists, like those of Dr Viktor Zinko Seven fanners, arrested in China, have con in the city of Kerch, have increased interna fessed to robbing nine Ming and Quing tional awareness of the hi stori cal riches of the Dynasty tombs in the suburbs of Beijin g. area and whetted looters' appetites. Some facts Ancient silver and jade artefacts have been emerging from the report include: found in the robbers' temporary lodgings and • looters responding to increased demand police are investigating further. from private coll ecti ons; • grave sites being ill egall y dug at the Rus sian city of Krasnodar near Crimea; News from Angkor • frequent reports of Ukrai ni an customs offi cials impounding illicit antiquities; Officials from Apsara, management author • antiquities smuggled from Kiev and Mos ity for Angkor and the Siem Reap region of cow to New York and London; Cambodia say th at although they sti ll lose • Scythian gold found in southern Russia al something to looters every day, their situa legedly sold to an Englishman for about tion is better than elsewhere in the country. It $ 1000 per piece, but worth much more; is suggested that Apsara could be more effec • a survey of respectable dealers in ancient ti ve if they had fu ll authority for Angkor, Greek art of New York 's Upper East Side without the involvement of the mil itary. which indicated th at few Greek items from Crimea and Ukraine were on sale, though all galleri es said they knew of channels through Discovery and loss of which they could get hold of such materi al. Gandharan cultural heritage Reviewing the situation in Kerch, Dr Zinko registers hi s despair over the destruction of Zainul Wahab, a PhD student claims to have ancient hi story, and emphasizes that proper discovered an important new G andharan development of the exciting sites archaeolo site in the Lakkar area of M ohmand gists have excavated, rather than the present Agency, on the Pakistani- Afghani border. poli cy of backfilling, could generate tourism Influential local Maliks and tribal elders and income which would support the city and have been requested by the government and archaeological research. Wahab to prevent looting of the site be fore it can be officiall y designated a major heritage area. International conference Dr Ih sa n Ali, speaking at a three-day work A four-day international conference entitled shop on Conservation and M useology at the ' Ill egal Traffic in Archaeological Artifacts: Uni versity of Peshawar (May 200 I), spoke 17 of the desperate situation facing archae (National Association of Dealers in Ancient, ology in no,·thwestern Pakistan where Oriental and Primitive Art), was indicted in a lack of funding and subsequent staff short Manhattan court on charges of conspiracy ages make it difficult to curb widespread for allegedly trafticldng in antiquities ille ill egal excavations and conserve antiquities, gally removed from Egypt. The indictment even though the expertise is avail abl e. He argues that Schultz purchased Egyptian antiq highli ghted hi s points with the example of uities from a 'Co-conspirator l ' (according an ancient pot containing 10,000 rare to Art alld Auctioll magazine September/Oc bronze coins, looted and found for sale in tober 200 I; wi dely believed to be convicted Lahore for just Rs I 0,000 (about £ II 0). Only British antiquiti es smuggler Jonathan Tokeley the pot was recovered. Parry: see In The News CWC issues 1, 4 & 6) who travelled to Egypt between 1990 and 1994 In the Art Newspaper (June 200 I) Robert purchasing ancient artefacts from farmers and Kluyver ofSPACH (Society for the Preser builders and illegally exporting them. It is ar vation of Afghanistan's Cul tural Heritage) gued that Schultz bought cons ignments describes his visits to antiquities dealers allegedly knowing their origins and sold them in Peshawar, Pakistan when he was offered claiming they had come from old coll ections batches of wel l-made but fake Gandharan such as the Thomas Alcock collection. material and many real items, incl ud ing Among the items a ll egedly obtained illegall y boxes of seventeenth-centulY Bamiyan fres were a head of Amenhotep HI, whi ch was coes, Roman glassware, stu cco Buddha sold for approximately $ 1. 2 million and a heads and stone Buddhist bas-reli efs all Sixth Dynasty limestone figure whi ch offered from Afghani stan. He points out the irony for $825,000. Supporters of Schultz claim that of the fact that recently, in the light of the Tokeley-Parry (if it was he) misled the dealer Taliban's edicts to destroy all ' idolatrous' into believing obj ects did come from old Eng images, these dealers in ancient material li sh collections. One possible avenue for the plundered from archaeological sites and defence may be to challenge the legal p"ec museums ha ve in some quarters been said edent set in the 1977 case of United States II. to be saving Afghanistan's cultural heri tage McC/ain when th e US Court of Appeals used and goes on to speculate whether such im Mexican rather than US law to define what ages, especiall y those in Kabul Museum constituted stolen archaeological property. If were in fact destroyed. I f th ey were, insid convicted of conspi racy Schultz faces a maxi ers say it was not done in public and no mUIll sentence offive years in jail, and either traces of debris were seen in the mu seum. $250,000 in fin es or twice the gross gain or The first-century treasure of 'Bactrian loss resulting from th e crime, whi chever is gold', possibly worth hundreds of millions greater. of dollars and thought to have been hi dden in th e vaults of the National Bank in Kabul was said to have been offered by the Ta li ban Italian developments to their sponsor Osama bin Laden as coll at eral. • August: A court in En na, Sic il y gave 80- year-old Renzo Canavesi di Sagno a two year jail sentence and L 12.7 million line Schultz indictment fo r hi s part in smuggling the so-called Getty Goddess. The 2500-year-old marb le statue In Jul y, Frede"ick Schultz, president of the ofAphrodite was found by a pensioner (who Frederi ck Schul tz Ancient Art gallery in New was spared jail in return for helping inves York, and former president of NADAOPA ti gators), stolen from Morgantina in 1970 18 and transported to London via Switzerland, torial, p. 3) by 87 affirmative votes. Four states where it was bought for £7.5 million from voted against, 15 abstained, and the Un ited an unnamed dealer by the J Paul Getty States, an Observer, gave a statement of its Museum of Malibu. In the 1980s Canavesi vIews. di Sagno received £290,000 for arrangi ng shipment to the dealer in Switzerl and. Onl y the statue's feet, hands and face are now Illicit antiquities in Greece considered genuine, her bust and legs are fakes believed to have been commissioned Greek newspaper Kathilllerini (6 Septem by looters from a Roman fo rger in 1972 to ber 200 I) reports growing concern that increase the val ue of the piece. The statue archaeological sites and museums in the was returned to Italy in 1999. country are vulnerable to thieves owi ng to lack of security personnel and systems. • The Carabinieri recently retrieved a Ro o From 1987 to earl y 200 I the fraud squad man statue of Diana from the US after a and department responsible for il li cit seven-year international in vestigation. trade in antiquities reported 23,007 an cient artefacts impounded from traders. In Jul y, 29 people (i ncluding housewives, o Coins are easiest to steal because they bank tellers and labourers) were atTcsted can be easil y hidden, and 12,504 ancient under suspicion of smuggling bronze stat Greek, 1697 Byzantine and 357 Roman ues, ancient coins and at·tefacts worth coin s are known to have illegall y entered £ 13.2 million. the antiquities markets, the majority origi nating fro m Macedonia. o Appointmcnt of daytime guards for mu Television award seum s has been frozen since 1995 and of night guards si nce 1992. In September the Swedish Television docu It is hoped that planned injections of funds mentary ' On thc Trail ofthe Tomb Robbcrs' before the date of the 2004 Olympics in Ath (See ewe issue 7 but note that the programme ens may improve the situation. was shown on Channel 2, not Channel 10) was awarded the prestigious Prix d' ltalia televi In July police confiscated a marble statue s ion award in a competition open to of a bull which had been looted from the contributions from Eu ropean countries. The Vravona area, near ancient Brauroll, east jury unanimously chose the programme, ern Attica. Three men wcre arrested in a entered under the title' Heritage for Sale', be coffee shop in Markopoulo where they were cause of the strength of its in vestigative allegedly waiting for a buyer. journali sm and importance of its subj ect mat ter, praising the strong narrative and clever • Between 13 August and 9 September 200 I, irony with whi ch its message was deli vered. ancient objects (including at least seven 17 cm tall marble statuettes of fe males and sphinxes hacked from a throne), were sto UNESCO underwater len fro m a royal tomb in Vergina, northern convention Greece. The fourth-century DC tomb of Eurydice, mother of King Phil ip and grand On 2 November 2001 the Pl enary session of mothe r of Alexander the Great was th e 3 1" General Confe rence adopted the excavated by ManolisAndronikos in the late UNESCO Convention on thc Protection of 1970s, is not open to the publ ic and is vis the Underwater Cultural Hct·itage (see Ed i- ited only by officials in the presence of 19 archaeologists, or by maintenance sta ff for toms special agents from Frank Stegmeier a monthly humidity check. Evening shifts (see In The News ewe issue 7), who was for 24-hour day guards had recently been charged under the National Stolen Property aboli shed during the summer owing to staff Act with transportation and sale of stolen shortage. There was no sign of a break-in, items va lued at more that $5000. Stegmeier the theft being discovered during an offi escaped, was returned to the US from c ial tOUI'. All the objects had been Panama in 1998, and subsequently negoti photographed wh ich it is hoped will make ated a civil Settlement Agreement with the any potential sale more difficult. governments of Mexico, Peru and Panama under which term s the material is being re Octobel' 200/: In one of the ri chest seizures turned. of illicit antiquities by Greek police in the last decade, several hund."e d metal, • In June, the US Customs Servi ce announced telTacotta and stone objects ranging in the recovery and return of a."chaeologi date from seventh century BC to the Middle cal material from EI Salvador, va lued at Ages were found buried in the yard of a $ 100,000 and including pre-Columbian holiday house in Apsalos, near Pella, cen polychrome pottery which had been seized tral Macedonia, belonging to a 42-year-old at point of entry in San Francisco. The re record shop owner, and further objects im turn was the first to take place under the pounded from his home in Thessalon iki . terms of the bi lateral Memorandum of Un The man said the extraordinary coll ection derstanding between the governments of (including bronze he lmets, axes, spear USA and the Republic ofEI Salvador signed heads, a fragmentary shi eld,jewell ery, 1718 in 1995 and amended in 2000. sil ver and copper-alloy coins, a probable forgery of a Cretan ' goddess' fi gurine, and • Fo ll owin g legal action in civil courts in 1000 pottery fragments) were the p.-oduct the UK begun in 1997 by the Iraqi Interests of 20 years of excavating and collecting, Section , an agreement has finally been and were mainly from Macedonia with reached regarding a piece of relief looted some bought from foreign antiquities smug from the Palace of Sennacherib, Nineveh glers. Poli ce are looking for accomplices. (see ewe issue I). The alabaster carving had apparently been bought in good faith Vassilis Zacharatos was charged with il by Sholom Moussaieff fro m Geneva legal possession of antiquities on 17 dealer Nabil Asfar (see In the News ewe October when seventeenth- to nineteenth issue 3), and was later recognized in Lon century A D icons were found in his Athens don when Moussaieff applied for an export optician's shop. More icons, and sil ver and license to ta ke it abroad. Four othe." copper-all oy C lassica l, Byzantine and Sennacherib pieces whi ch had also been Egyptian coins were also found at hi s home. noticed on di splay in th e pa lace on Kouyunjik in 1995 are still missing. Agreements and returns A first-century BC m,u-ble bust of Roman Empress Livia, discovered in the posses A ceremony in Seattle, USA on 2 August sion of New Yo rk deal er Robert Becht marked the return of hundreds of pre when it was offered for sale in 1995 has been Columbian artefacts to the governments returned to Buh"int, Albania, the site from of Mexico, Peru and Panama. The items which it was excavated during Lu ig i were among a seizu re of over 900 objects Ugolini 's excavations between 1928- 3 1 originall y confi scated by Seattle US Cus- (whose excavati on arca is now pitted with 20 looters hol es). The bust was stolen from the by Scotland Yard, the man attempting to sell site museum in the early I 990s (museum the item was later released due to lack of thefts were one symptom of the turbul ent evidence. times which marked the overthrow of com munism in Alba ni a in 199 1) and smuggled Jllly: Egyptian officials announced the through Greece or Switzerland to the return of a carved stone head, possi bly USA. After years of civil unrest, thi s return depicting Nineteenth Dynasty princess was fin a ll y organized by the Directors of Merit or Queen Nefertiti, whi ch had been the new International Centre for Albani an s mugg led to Bdtain b y Jonathan Archaeology with the help of the Albanian Tokeley-Pan-y during the 1990s (see In The Embassy in the USA and Hecht and will News ewe issues 1, 4 & 6). The piece was remain at the Instinlte museum in Tirana, traced with help from Scotland Yard and until Butrint museum is renovated. Some Egypt continues to work with the FB I to other objects looted from Butrint in the earl y recover other items from the US. Objects I 990s, were later seized by Greek customs stolen by Tokeley-Parry are also believed authorities and await repatriation from to be in Switzerland. Thessalonika while at the site itself the Butrint Foundation, with grants from the Allgust: Fo llowing interventions by Dutch Millin Trust, is organizing secnrity patrols archaeologists, the Metropolitan Museum and developing educational programmes of Art, New York returned to Egyptian emphasizing the importance of local archaeo authorities a 3300-year-old limestone en logical resources in terms of tourism graving of Pharaoh Seti I feeding a child, revenue and future economi c development. whi ch had been stolen from a store room near the Pyramids about 60 years ago. The British Museum Fa cilitated the return to Sudan of a stolen ancient Egyptian statue after Derek Welsby, assistant keeper Museum matters in the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan was asked to appraise it by a Sud a The Fort Worth Star-Telegram ( 17 August nese man describing himself as a medical and 2 September 200 I) and Fort Worth doctor resident in the Midlands for six years. Weekly have been asking questions about a The carving in hard, black stone of J-1eqa white alabaste.' statuette of a male figure emsasen, a seated midfi fteenth-century Be carved in Sumerian style which was bought viceroy, is 20 inches hi gh and beli eved to (but not displayed) by the KimbellArt Mu be worth about £ I 0,000. It seemed unlikely seum in Fort Worth late last year for $2.7 that it had been exported legall y, and the million, but subsequently returned to the man - who claimed he had been asked to sell ers (the Abutaam brothers of Phoe bring it to Europe for sale by a friend who nix Soho dealership in New York) for an had excavated it near Barkal - said he had 'amicable' refund. There is confusion as to got it through KJlartoum airport by bribing how and why thi s situati on arose, which has customs officials and placing it in his wife's resulted in the Weekly branding Timothy luggage so that he would not be caught in Potts, director oflhe Museum as 'secreti ve'. case of discovery. We lsby, left in temporary Potts went to considerable lengths to trace possession of th e piece, identified it as hav the provenance of the pi ece (which appar ing in fact been excavated by American entl y stretched back to a connection wi th a archaeologists in 191 6. It was stolen from European museum in the 1950s) before the the new Khartoum National Museum, the purchase but it is all eged that the sa le was Jebel Bar'kal in 1995. Although arrested rushed through (possibly to get a di scount) 21 and problems arose afterwards - although digging at Clazomenae in the mid to late whether these related to the origin or au 1970s (the second coincided with official thenticity ofthe piece (or its provenance) is excavations from 1979 onwards). It is al not known. Potts emphasized th e inherent leged that the pi ece was smuggled through difficulties in authenticating ancient stone well-known routes via Munich, largely artefacts, and maintains that 'the major con controlled by the ' Munich Mafia' who are sideration in thi s case was our assessment described as 'a loose confederacy of Turk of what this object would contribute to the ish smuggling groups' in the city. Major Kimbell 's collection compared to other out names are menti oned as the alleged broker standing acquisition opportuniti es that had and restorer. The Getty Museum responded come along since its purchase'. (It has not to the allegations, claiming there is no ba yet been made public what these acquisi sis for questioning the provenance. tions opportunities were.) Whatever the truth about this parti cular obj ect the affair, as Andrew Marton, art critic of the Slar- Tel Reports from Peru egraph points out, hi ghlights both the ' hi ghly secretive nlltUl'e of the interna • The Gold Museum in Lima, Peru closed tional art and antiquities market' and the in July following reports that up to 85 per current pressure on institutions, whether cent of objects in its fa mous, largely private or public, to set a good exampl e. unprovena nced coll ection, said to be amassed from burial sites and other exca Manus Brinkman, Secretary General of vations, may be fake. The daughter of ICOM (International Counc il of Museums) founder Miguel Mujica de Perez-Palcio, was also adamant in an interview with the said that the in stitution had already, during Art Newspaper (September 200 I) that mu the la st six months, identified 2300 (\ 0 per seums must set standards with regard to cent of the total) modern forgeries. She illicit traffic issues, and also raise aware added that unscrupulous sellers had taken ness. He cited the Nok terracottas purchased advantage of her fa ther's old age and fail unethica ll y by the Quai Branly coll ection in g eyesig ht. A spokesman for Pe ru 's and now on display in the Louvre (see In Consumer Protection Commission indicated The News ewe issue 7) as a controversial that, if the claims were true, the museum example and discussed th e moral com may not meet the necessary conditions to plexities of 'saving' looted material be classed as a museum, and added that ex smuggled out of wa r-torn Afghani stan. perts fro m the Catho li c Un iversity, Lima are now studying the artefacts . • Melik Kaylan, writin g for Forbes.colII ( 18 July 200 I), draws attenti on to the alleged • In June Aero Condor, the Lima-based air history of a sixth-century Be sarcophagus line whi ch provides most tourist fli ghts over made of terracotta, decorated in the style the Nazca Lines in southwestern Peru, was seen on artefacts from Clazomenae near set to launch the Nazca patrol, a partner modern Izmir, Turkey and now in the col ship wi th local pol ice to track and catch lectio n of the J Paul Getty M useum, tomb robbers usin g brand new ultra li ght Malibu. Kaylan argues that before its ac aircraft. Tourism compani es which make quisiti on in 1997 by controversial fo rmer thei r li vings from the Nazca remains are said curator Jil'i Frel, the obj ect's hi story is un to be increasingly worri ed about the effects known (ceI1ainl y the Getty Museum has not of widespread archaeological looting on published any clues) and some beli eve it to their li ve lihoods. Local Peruvian archaeolo be the result of the first episodes of illicit gists an d police have been trying, with 22 virtually no resources, to research and pro • Modern technology, such as radio-relayed tect the area, but looting has escalated in in frared heat sensors, metal detectors and recent years to such an extent that tomb motion sensors are being used in Mammoth robbers apparently do not even try to hide Cave National Pa rk and Big South Fork their activities. The Washillglol1 Post (20 National Recreation Area, Kentucky, to alelt May 200 I) reports one incident when two park officials when looters are in action. thi eves were seen ripping open a 2000-year old Nazca tomb near Cahuachi in broad Brad McDougal, a federa l criminal in vesti daylight and blames recession and record gator staked out Mammoth Cave, in unemployment as one reason for the in Western Kentucky during the summer and crease in illegal excavation. caught a looter. But in fo ur hours digging it is estimated that the man destroyed 4000 • In Maya c. 4500-year-old skull was stolen years of stratigraphy. fro m Peru vian archaeological excavations of ruins near Cal-al 120 miles north of • In July, Kentucky man Sean Long was sen Lima. tenced to two months of house an-est, 18 months of probation and 100 hours of com munity serv ice, having admitted to Smuggler's story trafficking in human remains of Native Americans. He was arrested the morning Speaking to Newsweek magazine (May 200 I) after offering to se ll three skull s, more than in an article entitled 'Just out of jail: a sm ug 2000 years old, to undercover FB I agents gler's story', Jonathan Tokeley-Parry (see fo r $900. The agents bought one and later In the News ewe issues 1,4,6 & above) ar confiscated the others along with about 50 gues that hi s activities, which in volved grave goods. During the investigation Long smuggling ancient artefacts out of Egypt dis talked of conducting frequent excavations gu ised as cheap souvenirs, were acts of of Indian burial grounds, and had even preservation_ Using the example of the Elgi n videoed a 1999 looting trip to Pilot Rock Marbles, he says that had done what he did a although he pleaded guilty only to charges century ago, he would have been knighted. of selli ng the skulls. It was the first time Now out of jail , Tokeley-Parry is apparentl y federal prosecutors in Kentucky had used writing hi s memoi rs and afterwards may re the Native American Graves Protection and turn to work on an unfinished eloctoral thesis Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and only the on ethi cs. fourth time the Act had been used in a crimi nal prosecution east of the Mi ssissippi. The prosecution was welcomed by Preoria tribal Tales from the USA chi ef John Froman, but condemned by Long's supporters who believe him to be the victim of a bad law and overzealous David Pollack, archaeologist fo r the Ken prosecutor. The sku ll s and grave objects will tucky Heritage Council , estimates that 90 be reburied by Preoria tribespeople. per cent of the \5,000 known prehistoric sites in the state have been damaged by looters. So urces abc News.com • The scale of looting nationwide in the USA Af/tlIIOWI is such that the US Geological Survey is Art alld Auctioll now omitting archaeological sites from Tlt e Art Nelvspaper new editions of topographical maps. As sociated Press 23 Ath en s 'cws Nlillerva BBC News Ne lV York Pas! British School of Archaeology in Iraq Newslettcr Ne lvs lveek Daily Piol/eer (India) People S Dai~v , China Dawn Reut ers Evans ville Courier and Press SIa.O"a 1l Llllldell Exc ite.com news Th e Tilll es Forb es.com UNESCO Forr /Vortll /Veekl.v Un iversit y orTexas Forth Worth Star-Telegram US Customs Service Th e Guardian US Department of State India Today Wall Street Journal Kalltilllerini 7'lle Washingtoll Post Middle East Tilll es Yah oo ! news Time crime: protecting the by the inability of Kentucky law to cope with the damage and theft. The men could onl y be charged past in the United States under state law with 'desecration of a venerated object' , a mi sdemeanour. Federal law, owing to R OBERT HICKS the Archeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA), managed felony indictments through its lack Farm in rural Uni on County, Kentucky, interstate commerce provision (d iscussed below). S was known to contain beneath its ploughed This incident tri ggered a legislati ve change: as a soil an important Native Ameri can vill age, a com result of Slack Farm, state law was amended to munity of wattle and daub houses that, between recogni ze grave desecrati on as a felony, a crim e 1300 and 500 years ago at the confluence of the punishable by imprisonment in a state peniten Wabash and Ohio ri vers, suppo rted acres o f tiary Each state has its own criminal laws which maize, beans, and squash thro ug ho ut the vary across the United States in the degree to floodpl ain . Although reli c hunters visited the site, whi ch they protect the past. In recent years, how the Slack family, who had owned th e farm fo r ever, the United States government has created generations, prohibited reli c hunting. laws that for the first time offer en forcement teeth But succeeding owners did a ll ow it. In the to heritage protection. late 1980s, several men paid the new landowner $ 10,000 (about £6500) to lease digging rights Who are the looters? between planting seasons. The men sought Na Relic-hunting has been and continues to be a vig tive American artefacts attractive enough to se ll o ro us pastime for some a nd a com mercial profitably and to obtain them they bulldozed the enterprise for oth ers. Interest in popular hi story site. Their digging pushed asid e centuries of a has soared in the United States. Local hi story has people's history - their tools, potsherds, hearths, become a do-it-yourse lf industry: people un and houses - while leaving modern debris, par trained in academic hi story search through local ticularly soda and beer cans, among the artefacts. records to construct their genealogies. They col Significantl y, the men di sturbed or destroyed lect rock albums, Victorian mourning jewell ery, around 600 graves. ' Aeri al views of the bulldozed and salt and pepper shakers, thus creatin g a multi site, whi ch aired on national television, showed million-dollar market for objects va ri o us ly a pockmarked landscape described by many as described as hi storic, antique, or merely nostal resembling a World War I battlefield. gic. The high prices attached to some artefacts Kentuckians were most di sturbed by the on the commercial market in evitably in vite desecration of gra ves but they were al so di sturbed cri m ina Ii t y. 24 Peopl e who ill egall y hunt relics - the looters Table 1. Manetary value af artefacts. The American display a range of moti vations but a new class of Civil War figures compare the highest prices paid for entrepreneur has appeared, the investor. The in the excavated artefacts in the listed categories for vestor has no particular interest in hi story but sees 1988 and 1995. (Saurce: variaus editians af Nancy Dearing Rossbacher (ed.), The Civil War Coll ector's artefacts solely as commodities that can be bought Price Guide, Virginia, Orange.) The prices given for and sold for a profit (Table I). Law-enforcement Native American artefacts represent the highest prices authorities maintain that collectin g and in vest knawn to lJave been paid for the listed items. (Source : federallaw-enfarcement officials.) ing interests outside the United States, notably in Germany and Japan, have fu elled looting par Monetary vulucs: 'lrtcfacts ticularly for Native American artefacts. Germans and Japanese buy approximately $20 million (£ 13 I. Cil'il IVar arle/tu.:ls (I-Iighesl kl/OH'II price paid pCI' piece: all ilCIIIS arc ·dllg '.) million) in Native American artefacts yearly; 1988 1995 Civil War belt buckles fetch over $ 10 ,000; a Na Plal es and bucklcs S2600 S 13,500 ti ve American pot from the southwest United Canteens 52500 54500 Ca p. cartridge. pisto l boxes S 1300 59500 States sell s for $400,000 (£270,000). ' I f it's old, Kni ves 5450 56000 it can be sold . '1 Intern et auctions pose a new Revolve rs S450 545,000 threat: millions of artefacts, some adverti sed as l3ul\ ets S \30 S250+ Butt ons 54000 ill egally obtained, sell daily, attesting to a bur geoning market. The local looter can sell to a 2. Nalive Americall "rte/ttCIS world-wide audience. I'ollcry 5400,000 Ba skets 5180.000 In the United States, lootin g has afflicted Carved slone objects S 15.000 all federal properti es, pal1icularly national parks Rare or 11llu sunl points S I 0.000 and forests. Federal law enforcers, though, are handicapped in that they are spread thin. One of ficer in th e national park s may patrol millions of acres. As a result, mu ch looting goes undetected and unpunished. A recent handbook on criminal in vesti gati on states: A rcheological reso urces are nonrenewable: when they arc looted or va ndalized, th e information they contai n is lost foreve r. The lootin g or archeo logi ca l sites in th e Unit ed SlaleS is happe nin g on a vas l scal e. Staled bluntly, parI of our hi story ha s bee n, and continues to be, stol en. "' The nature of loot ing in th e United States resem bles that of many other countries. In some places, looting is an accepted multigenerational problem, Figure 1. Members of the Reed Creek Archaeolagy Club illegally excavate the graves of Native Americans in a part of local culture. In other cases hobbyists, Wythe Caunty, Virginia (site designation 44WY25). ignorant of the law, may trespass and loot unwit Virginia requires either a court order or a state permit to tingly (Fig. I). Professional looters, though, adopt disturb burials, neither af which the club possessed. The object of the excavation was to recover ornamental countermeasures to avoid detection. They care artefacts buried with the dead. A joint FBI-Virginia State full y plan their illegal excavations, studying Police investigation ended the amateur excavation which archi val or library materials and topographica l resufted in criminal convictions of three men. This photograph was confiscated from the looters. (Photo: maps. If the sites are remote, looters may reach Virginia Department of Historic Resources.) them by horseback, all-terrain vehicles, or by foot. Looters observe law enforcement patml be during inclement weather, or on hoi idays. To fur ha viour and may appear on s ites when law ther avo id detection , looters may post lookouts enforcement presence is lo w or hampered: at or LI se watchdogs, employi ng radio scanners to ni ght (with the full moon to illuminate digging), track nearby lawen forcers. They wear camou- 25 flage clothes and may camouflage their equip removing (or attempting these acts) archaeologi ment by painting shovels or metal detectors black. cal resources from public or Native American More sophisticated looters carry with them not lands without a permit.s only shovels and metal detectors but also prob To be a protected resource under ARPA, ing rods (to locate graves or artefacts by detecting looted objects must constitute evidence of past changes in soil density) and sifting screens. En human existence, possess archaeological inter forcement officers have caught some looters est (not archaeological sign(flcance), and be over bearing false identification or forged permits or 100 years old. Objects, or resources, are broadly even wearing fake park ranger uniforms. Near or defined to include not only relics such as pottery, on the looted site, the thief may store tools, sup tools, or shipwrecks, but also rock art, skeletal plies, or contraband artefacts for later retrieval. remains, features of houses or other constructions, Once the looter finds artefacts, he or she even vegetal remains or organic waste. Of par may sell the items directly, through a dealer, or ticular interest to state and local law enforcement, through an investor who has only a few clients. however, is ARPA's commercial provision: no one Importantly, though, law enforcement officers may sell, purchase, exchange, transport ( or offer to cannot presume that looters, by virtue of the kind do the same) resources in violation of ARPA, any ofcrime they commit, are benign hobbyists. Some other federal law, or any state or local law. Looters times looters are armed and may fire at an officer. who illegally dig up artefacts on private property without permission and cross state lines to traf Applicable laws fic in them have therefore violated ARPA, thus Recent federal laws and a concomitant enforce transforming a local case into a federal one. ment effort - taught to law enforcers, prosecutors, A recent case affirmed ARPA's jurisdiction and archaeologists through the Archeological over interstate trafficking in antiquities stolen in Resources Protection Program conducted by the violation of state law, ARPA's most versatile pro Federal Law Enforcement Training Center vision. The defendants had collected relics on (FLETC) in Georgia - have spurred investiga private property and then engaged in interstate tions and prosecutions. Both the laws and the commerce; the court decreed that 'there is no right course recognize that officers, in protecting life to go upon another person's land, without his and property, must protect our past as well. permission, to look for valuable objects buried While federal law has incriminated loot in the land and take them if you find them'. 6 ing from federal or Native American properties ARPA contains other features attractive to almost since the beginning of the century, virtu law enforcers. Apart froln criminal proceedings, ally no law enforcement took place until ARPA ARPA permits a civil recourse through an admin became law in 1979, later amended in 1988 to istrative law judge.7 Also, ARPA investigations include sharper enforcement teeth due to obsta yield forfeiture of assets: vehicles, equipment or cles encountered during prosecutions. The chief tools, contraband, and clothing. Arizona judge 1988 amendment for law enforcers was the re Sherry Hutt has observed that as a result of al duction in the threshold commercial val ue most a decade of prosecutions, ARPA 'is well ascribed to the artefacts plus the cost of site res ensconced in the legal landscape'.1l toration and repair to enable a felony prosecution Another recent, significant federal law that (as determined by a damage assessment bears on past resources is the Native American conducted by an archaeologist). The 1988 amend Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or ments include the criminalization of attempts to NAGPRA. Importantly for museums, holdings destroy, damage, or remove protected resources, of Native American human remains must be in thus relieving officers of having to conduct sur ventoried and surveyed, in some cases the veillance while looters destroy a protected skeletons being repatriated to descendant Native resource.4 A general-intent law (meaning that the Americans for reburial according to tribal cus prosecution is not required to argue a specific tom. The same law, though, criminalizes illegal intent to loot), ARPA prohibits people from ex trafficking in Native Alnerican human remains cavating, damaging, defacing, altering, or or any cultural items. 9 26 Investigative methods the evidence at the crime scene and perhaps to The nature of looting presents enforcement dif individual suspects (through analysis ofdirt on their ficulties. Once unearthed, artefacts are very confiscated clothing). Third, officers should take difficult to link to a looted site. Many protected casts of footprints and shovel impressions. resources, whether visible remains or under Analysis of impressions, coupled with the ground and hidden, are found away from public soil evidence, links both suspects and artefacts view, some within thousands of acres of national to a particular site. Federal cases require an ar forests or parks. The best enforcement opportu chaeologist to assist by contributing a damage nity involves catching looters in the act. Short of assessment, determining the costs significant to apprehension in flagrante delicto, officers culti ARPA, and providing an exact description of vate informants or obtain confessions. Informants what has been lost, recovered, damaged, or dis may indeed playa key role in developing intelli placed. The case file should contain a statement gence. Nearby farmers, hikers or campers, even from the appropriate issuing authority that no hunters may witness looting. If officers discover state or federal permit existed to allow the sus fresh digging or site damage, surveillance may pect to excavate, remove, displace, or destroy be possible. protected resources. No law enforcement officer can afford to devote dozens of hours to tracking looters. For Federal, state, and local cooperation tunately, officers are most likely to encounter Despite federal successes, parallel anti-looting offences when pursuing other violations. In one efforts at the state and local level have been ir case, police officers searching a suspect's resi regular. States' laws protecting historic or dence pursuant to a narcotics warrant photo archaeological resources vary and sometimes are graphed a collection of Native American relics not parallel to ARPA. 12 Nevertheless, many state later described as 'the most impressive collec initiatives have shown promise. In Florida, for tion of Indian artefacts in northern California'. A instance, the state legislature mandated a two sheriff's deputy who had been an archaeologist hour curriculum in basic law enforcement saw the photos, recognized the significance of academy classes on archaeological resources pro the relics, and further intelligence brought another tection. In the spirit of ARPA, recently the warrant to seize the artefacts. The suspect had Supreme Court of Indiana affirmed a lower court been convicted previously under ARPA and the decision that applied Indiana's archaeological court had ordered the suspect's return of looted protection law to private property, where a man artefacts. The photographed stash consisted of the wished to dig Native American artefacts on his best items from years of looting, hidden to pre own property although the state required him to vent seizure by federal anthorities. lo seek a permit to do SO.13 Officers must be able to identify and de In Virginia, for example, most historic or scribe tools and equipment used by looters. Many archaeological protection laws have specific ap tools, and the camouflaged clothing that some plications not always comparable to federal looters wear, are innocuous by themselves, but interests. Virginia protects human burials wher taken in context create a suspicion of criminality. ever they are found on pain of a felony penalty. 'It is from the totality of the circumstances that Misdemeanour penalties attach to other heritage reasonable suspicion may rise to the level of prob laws. State permission, however, must be ob able cause,' the standard for arrest. II tained for excavations on state-controlled Under ARPA protocol, officers process a property or on submerged resources in Virgin looting scene as they would any other crime ia's waterways (Fig. 2). While Virginia law scene, although looting cases involve some defines 'objects of antiquity' similar to ARPA's unique procedures. First of all, officers must care definition of archaeological resources, there are fully document, measure, and photograph the scene. differences: objects of antiquity do not have to Second, officers should attend to soil samples as a meet an age criterion (such as 100 years) to be laboratory analysis might reveal pieces of pottery protected and archaeologists are not required to or bone or even pollen which particularly matches help investigate crimes. 27 Figure 2. An officer with the Virginia Department of Figure 3. Publicity surrounding the convictions of two Game and tnland Fisheries took this photograph of men for violating the Archaeological Resources looting in progress. Ernest N. Walker and Houston L. Protection Act in Petersburg, Virginia, frightened a looter Crayton, later convicted of removing state-protected Civil into presenting a local funeral home with this box of War artefacts without permission, are shown illegally human remains (a Civil War soldier who had been buried removing artefacts with a small boat converted for the near the Cold Harbor battlefield) together with associated purpose. (Photo: Virginia Department of Game and artefacts. The precise location of the original burial Inland Fisheries.) remains unknown. (Photo: Robert D. Hicks.) In vestigating looting imposes chall enges on laws that go une nfo rced owin g to lack of law enforcement officers. In Virginia, with out an knowledge can be revived provided local law archaeologist's assistance, an officer would find enforcement off"icers receive tools and encour it diff"icult to process a crime scene or present a agement. case for prosecution, since an archaeologist is Sin ce th e Vi rginia program began in 1995, needed to describe what was disturbed, vandal many investi gations have occurred as a result of ized, or recovered and to assess a va lue on site the training, and far mo re consultations have damage or the recovered looted artefacts. Thus, taken place between law-enforcement officers a joint effort of the Vi rginia Department of Hi s and archaeologists. Vi rtuall y all of the consulta toric Resources and the Virgini a Department of tions have in volved the dispositi on of human Criminal Justice Services produced a model remain s. Skeletal materi al is inadvertently d is policy on theft of histori c resources (avail able covered through construction, and sometimes on the Internet at 28 RELIC HUNTERS BEWARE Protect Histori( ond ...... ", Ar(hoeologi(al Sit.es Metal detecting, relic hunting Figure 5. A proseculoriallaclic in archaeological resources theft cases and vandalism are illegal on has been to require, upon conviction, the looter to pay for a public service advertisement in a newspaper of the locality where the crime ~ Fairfax County Park occurred. This notice was posted following a looting conviction in Authority property Stafford County. Virginia. (Photo: Robert D. Hicks.) Figure 4. Vandalism to and theN of archaeological resources goes largely bones down there - th ey're everybody's ances unchecked in Virginia. Some local tors. I say let 'em rest in peace.' I; governments have promoted anti-looting messages and have passed local ordinances against it. (Photo: Fairfax County Park R OBERT D. HICKS Authority.) Crime Prevention and Law Enforcement Services Commonwealth of Vi rginia crime in progress featuring an illegal excavation USA for C ivil War artefacts. Mimicking the practicum that teaches officers and archaeologists how to Notes process a c rime scene in th e fe deral traini ng I. Harvey Arden, 1989. Who owns our past? National Geographic 175(3), 376- 93. Also, sec Brian Fagan, course, the students must likewise interview the 1988 . Black day at Slack Farm. Archaeology 41(4), perpetrator, take notes, coll ect evidence, and 15- 16, 73. make an arrest. Sometimes the time crime in ves 2. T0111 Du nkel , 1992. A nation's heritage at ri sk. Insight tigati ons themselves can in volve the unexpected. February 17, 14. An internal in vestigati on in a state-run maximum 3. Charles R. Swanson, Nei l C. C ha meli ll & Leonard Territo, 1992. Crilllillallllvesligalioll. Sth edition. New security prison examined the possibility that a York (N Y): M cG ra w-Hili, 60. staff member had collected artefacts from the 4. AR PA was carefu ll y drawn 10 exclude hobbyists or col prison fa rm, whi ch happened to be located in an lectors in th ;:i t surface linds of arrowheads or coin s, archeologically ri ch area fea turing a continuum say, fr om protected fe deral or Indi an lands arc allow of habitation fro m Palaeoindian to the arrival o f able without a permit. 5. A RPA it defined under 16 UI/iled Slales Code §470aa- Europeans. 47011. T he legislative hi story of the law and its current To all prosecutors and law enforcement application arc amply descri bed in Sherry HUll, Elwood officers, however, anti-l ooting efforts mean more \V. Jones & Martin E. McA lli ster. 1992. Archeologi than skillful in vestigations: the public must be cal Resol/rce Prolecliol/. Was hi ngton ( DC): The educated (Fi gs. 4 & 5). In many places, looting Preservation Press. supplements income or serves people's hobbi es. 6. UI/iled Stales I( Gerber 999 F.2d 11 12 (7 th Cir. 1993). 7. For further detai ls o f the AR PA civil procedure, see Two Ari zona attorneys observed that in order to Sherry HUll, 1994. The civil prosecuti on proc ess of present their case they first had to justi fy the crim e th e Archaeological Resources Protecti on Act. Tee/llli of looting." One reformed looter understood the cal /Jriej" No. 16, U.S. Depart ment of Ihe Interior, message: 'Don't di g - you destroy hi story when February. you do. And don't buy the stuff either ... Those 8. Sherry HUll. 1995. The Archaeological Resources Pro - 29 teet ion Act. The Pederal Lawyer October, 34. the Intcrior). To aid fede ral prosec ut ors - and state 9. 535 USC §300 I. ones - th e General Litiga ti on and Legal Advice Sec 10. 1996. COIIIIIIOII C rOll1ld I ( 1),8. (T hi s journallVas lor ti on, Criminal Division, U.S. Depart ment of Ju sti ce merl y Pederal Jlrcheology magazin c.) published the Archeological Resources Protection Ped II . Swanso n, Chamclin & Territo, 1992 . Crimillallllves eral ProsecutiolJ Sourcebook. a co mpendium or case ligatioll. 67. law, statut es , briefs. and related material on AR PA 12. For a co mpendium of slate sta tu tes, see Carol L. cases. Carn ell, A Survey ofSf(lIe Statllfes Prolecting Archeo 13. Indiana's Histori c Preserva tion and A rcheology Act logical Resources. a special report o.lthe Preservatioll preva il ed in Whitacre v. State. 629 N.E.2d (1994), af~ Lalli Reportel: Archeological Assistallce SIll(~V 110 . 3, firmed 6 19 N.E.2d 605 (Ind. App. 1993). August 1995 (published jointl y by th e Nati onal Trust 14. CO llgressiollal QII(frter~) I. 40. for Hist oric Preserva ti on and the U.S. Department of 15. Arden, 1989. \Vho owns our pa st? 392. A holy cross and the necessity for international conventions Jos VAN B EU RD E 1 n the midst of the majestic mountains of north I ern Ethi opia are eleven churches. They are a remarkable phenomenon - carved out of solid rock in the twel ft h century AD by some forty thou Church of Sl George. sand craftsmen. Eleven times, gigantic square caverns were hollowed out to create churches with the three interi or spaces characteri sti c of all sheetin g to protect it fro m the detrimental e ffects Eth iopian Orthodox buildings: a porch; an area of climate. The Bet MedhaneAlem harbours one where the believers receive communion; and the of Ethi opia's most precious val uables, th e Afro most holy place, accessible to priests and dea Ayigeba, a heavy, sixty centimetre long and ri chl y cons onl y. The churches are interconnected by decorated cross. Its va lue is not only re ligious corridors, and the pl ace where they were built is and hi storical, Ethiopians al so ascribe to it a heal named after their patron-king: Lalibela. In the ing power. Two men permanentl y guard the cross. eight hundred years of their ex istence, th e bare On th e night o f 9 March 1997 one o f th e feet of millions o f worshippers - singin g, pray guard s had gone home sick. H is colleague, shel in g, sacrificing, hoping and despairing - have tering from th e rain, had fa ll en asleep. Around passed through the rock churches of La Ii bela. On midnight th e inhabitants of the mountain town the numerous hol y days ecclesiasti cal di gnitar were abruptly woken by the sounds ofa bell ring ies, dressed in colourful robes walk around the in g, confused voices, and some shooting. Many buildings, and are joined by thousands ofbclievers. ran to the church, where a priest had di scovered Since th e introduction of Christian ity to that the door (whi ch at that hour was always Et hi opia in th e fourth century AD, numerous closed) stood open. He had run inside, to the pl ace ch urches and monasteries have been built, th eir where th e cross was kept, and di scovered th at it wall s and ceilings often beautifully painted. Each had di sappeared. The shots heard were fired by has a range of ritual objects, sometimes made of the police, who arrested forty ch urch officials. sil ver or gold . La libela's major church is th e Bet For days the the ft was front-page news in MedhaneAlem, measuring 33.5 metres long, 23 .5 Ethi opia. As interrogati ons produced no results, metres wide and II metres hi gh. It is the onl y th e pol ice were forced to release th e forty pris church with an externa l colonnade on all four oners, one ofwhotll returned voluntari ly shortl y sides. It has now been covered by transparent afterward s. Hi s story was lhat there was a man in 30 Lalibela whose daughter had been ill for a long go. Because of th e absence of legal agreements time and who had repeatedly urged this cleric to between Belgium and Ethiopia they were unable take the cross to hi s house, hoping for the recov do anything. ery of hi s daughter. Finally the priest had given The Ethiopian Embassy in Brussels en in. On 9 March he had hidden himself in the gaged a Belgian la wyer, who advised against church and, as soon as he was sure that the guards' starting legal proceedings against the collector. attention had wandered, had taken the va luable Such proceedings would take years and it would obj ect. He had the daughter ki ss the cross sev be very difficult to prove bad faith on the part of eral times and blessed her ailing body. That is the collector. In stead, th e lawyer advised that an where hi s memory failed, as according to him approach be made to try to convince the coll ec the father had plied him with liquor and the next tor that the holy cross ought to go back to Ethiopia. thing he knew was that he was back in the church A representative of the Embassy visited him, spoke yard, without the cross. about the soul and spirit of the cross, and finally the The police held th e cleric, and arrested and Belgian agreed to hand it over on the condition that interrogated the father and brother of the girl. The hi s money would be returned. pair claimed to have buried th e cross in the The Ethiopian authorities agreed and in backyard of their house, but police excavations 200 I the cross was flown back to Addis Ababa. recovered nothing. Ethiopia's most important There, the Belgian ambassador invited Ethiopian cross was gone. Christians in Lalibela and across experts and members of th e Ethiopian Orthodox Ethiopia felt injured by the loss. 'The cross is Church to inspect the cross. They confirmed that part of us', said museum director Ahmed Zekaria it was not a replica but the actual 800-year-old in Addis Ababa. 'As long as it is not back, some cross of Lalibela. Soon after, the Belgian envoy thing is lacking. ' I-Ie was scared that the handed the precious object over to the Ethiopian commotion and publicity would dri ve the thief government, in what he later informed th e For to desperate measures, that he would melt the cross eign Affairs department in Brussels had been a down into an ingot of metal. ' In that case Ethiopia moment de grand emotion. would have definitely lost part of its soul. ' The outcome of this case was rather unsat Two years later, in June 1999, the contin isfa ctory. The Belgian collector, who had visited ued efforts of the Ethiopian police were rewarded. Ethiopia several times earlier and was knowl They arrested some antique dealers, and after in edgeable about Ethiopian artefacts, must ha ve terrogation learn ed th at the brother of th e sick known about th e theft of the hol y cross and its girl had smuggled the cross out of Lalibel a. He va lue for Christians in the country. He may al so had sold it for one thousand birr (around 11 5 US have known that such a cross should never ha ve dollars) to an antique dealer in the neighbouring left the country. I-lad both Belgium and Ethiopia city o fDesi. The latter had sold it for an unknown signed the 1995 UN IDROIT Convelltioll 0 11 Sto amount to an antique dealer in Addis Ababa, capi lell alld Illegally Exported CullUml Objects, the tal city of Ethiopia. This dealer had kept it hidden collector would have had to prove hi s good faith for a year, after whi ch time a Belgian coll ector at the moment of purchasing, which would have had purchased it for 25,000 US dollars. been a difficult task. Now the collector has not It emerged that the Addis Ababa dealer had only emerged unpunished, he even got hi s money known the Belgian collector since 1994, but de back. Meanwhile, in Ethiopia seven people were ni ed having sold the cross to him. The Ethiopian sentenced to several years in jail. authorities investigated hi s bank statements and blocked an amount of 25 ,000 US dollars. They Jos VAN BEURDEN informed the Belgian authorities. When an inter Utrecht national courier attempted to import a parcel The Netherlands addressed to the collector, it was intercepted by Customs officials at Brussels' Zaventem airport. Jos va n Bcurdcll is author of Godell Gravell ell GrellzeJl However, even though the accompanying docu about th e then o f al'l n'ol11 countri es in Afri ca, Asia and Latin ments were not fully in order, they had to let it America (KlT Pubtishers, 200 I, ISBN 90-6832-293- 1). 31