Culture Without The Newsletter of the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre Issue 5, Autumn 1999 Illicit Antiquities Research Centre 2 Editorial NEIL BRODIE 3 Euphronios kylix update PETER WATSON 4 In the News JENNY DOOLE 5 The concept of due diligence and the antiquities trade NEIL BRODIE 12 A symposium - 'Illicit Antiquities: the Destruction of the World's Archaeological Heritage', 22-25 October 1999, Cambridge NEIL BRODIE & PETER WATSON 16 Stealing history JENNY DOOLE 25 Conference report CHRIS SCARRE 26 IARC staff and contact details 27 @ The Illicit Antiquities Research Centre is a project of the Mc Donald Institute for Archaeological Research Illicit Antiquities Research Centre he Illicit Antiquities Research Centre (IARC) was established in May 1996, T under the auspices of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research in Cambridge, England, and it cOl1U11enced operations in October 1997. Its purpose is to monitor and report upon the damage caused to cultural heritage by the interna­ 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 IARC will raise public awareness of the problems caused by this h'ade and seek appropriate national and international legislation, codes of conduct and other conventions to place restraint upon it. Culture Without Context is published twice yearly. The next issue will appear in sp ring 2000. Subscription details are available from: Jen ny Doole IARC McDonald Inst itute for Archaeological Research Downing Street Cambridge CB2 3ER UK e-mail: [email protected] 2 Editorial recorded provenance? Is it the considered opinion of an expelt? If such evidence is not forthcoming then the piece should be avoided. Indeed, in a re­ t was a privilege for the 1I1icit Antiquities Re­ cent issue of Biblical Archaeology Review Hershel I search Centre to host over the weekend 22-25 Shanks, not an extreme anti-trade figure by any­ October a symposium entitled: JIIicit Antiquities: body's reckoning, warned potential collectors to stay the Destruction of the World s Archaeological out ofthe antiquities market altogether unless they Heritage. Over fifty archaeologists, police offic­ were willing to risk acquiring a forgery. ers, government ministers and lawyers gathered to discuss papers on the looting of archaeologi­ 9 An Italian request for import restrictions cal sites, the size of the market, the culpability of ~ to be placed on archaeological material museums and the legal problems that face claims dating from the fifth millennium BC to the fifth for restitution. The symposium adopted a resolu­ century BC was discussed in October at a meet­ tion calling for an end to the collection and trade ing of the US State Department's Cultural of illicit antiquities and aImounced the formation Property Advisory Committee (CPAC). The hear­ ofa Committee to work towards the establishment ing was a lively one by all accounts as dealers ofan International Standing Conference on the Traf­ and archaeologists presented their respective fic in IIIicitAntiquities (ISCOTlA) whose members cases. But the hysteria which surrounded the event will be drawn from governmental, non-govern­ is hard to understand if the arguments of the trade mental and professional organizations worldwide. are to believed. If, as they maintain, nothing is A full report begins on page 16. now being smuggled out ofitaly, and newly sur­ facing objects come from legitimate collections 9 'Innocent until proven guilty' is a princi­ around the world, why were they worried? Why ~ pIe the trade is quite happy with when the did they even bother to turn up and argue? Im­ provenance of a piece is in question, but far less port restrictions after all would only apply to so when it is its authenticity. There are good material moved out of Italy after the date of any financial reasons for this. A piece without prov­ agreement. Perhaps, after all, there is some smug­ enance may be worth less than one with, but an gling going on. And perhaps the dealers know it. inauthentic piece - let us call it a fake - is in­ Meanwhile New York Senators Daniel deed worthless. But despite the best efforts of the Patrick Moynihan and Charles Schumer have pro­ trade fakes still continue to turn up. Our atten­ posed an amendment to the 1983 UN ESCO tion is captured by high profile cases such as the implementing legislation with the aim, they say, 'Getty Kouros', an Archaic Greek statue which of making the CPAC more public. It is a shame may (or may not) be authentic, but more worry­ that their desire to see an open society does not ing perhaps is the entry onto the market of large reach as far as the trade. It is, after all, the con­ numbers of smaller pieces. Last year in the New tinuing refusal ofthe trade to carryon its business Yorker for instance Alexander Stille told of a in public which is the cause of all the problems small factory near the city of Xi' an, burial place in the first place. of China's first emperor Qin Shihuang (with his famous telTacotta allllY), where workers quite le­ 9 Still, within a couple of years it will, hope­ gitimately turn out replicas of the ceramic soldiers, ~ fully, be possible to read about British hear­ complete with signs of wear and added mud to ings in the editorial columns of Culture Without make them look freshly excavated. When Chi­ Context. [n October Parliament announced its in­ nese archaeologists visited the United Kingdom tention to hold an inquiry into, amongst other recently to reclaim 3700 pieces of stolen archaeo­ things, the advantages, disadvantages, require­ logical material they rejected nearly 500 as fake. ments and consequences of United Kingdom rati­ When a dealer guarantees the authenticity of fication of the 1995 Unidroit Convention on a piece the customer should ask for the evidence Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects and upon which the guarantee is based to be produced. the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Is it a thermoluminescence date? Is it a properly Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, 3 Expo rt, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Committee, Committee Office, House of Com­ Property. Those who wish to draw attenti on to mons, 7 Mil lbank , London SW I P 3JA. matters relevant to the inqu iry should write to Co lin Lee, Clerk of th e Culture, Medi a and Sport NEIL B ROD IE Euphronios kylix update PETER W ATSON ragments of an Attic Greek red-figured F terracotta drinking cup, or ky li x, produced by the Ii ft h-ce ntury DC potter Euphron ios, we re returned in .I anualY 1999 by the.l. Paul Getty Mu­ sellin in Los Angeles to the government of Ital y. Thi s followed revelat ions in Rome that three other fragm ents from the sa me kylix had been di scov­ ered by the carab ini eri's art squad in th e The Euphronios kylix. possession of Giacomo Medici. Mr Med ici is currently awa iting trial in Italy set at 10 bill ion lire, or close to $5 milli on. Mari on on charges of smuggling antiq uiti es out of the True, curator of antiquities at th e J. Paul Getty country. He was the subject ofa Channel 4 docu­ Museum , would not di vulge the name of the Eu­ mentary in 1997, which showed that many of the ropea n dealer from whom the mu seum acqui red unprove nanced antiquities whi ch passed through the fragments, or th e price paid. Th e kyli x wa s hi s hand s were subsequently so ld at Soth eby 's returned vo luntar il y, following the mu se um 's new auction house in London. ( 1995) acq ui sitions poli cy for co ll ecting antiqui­ The Euphronios kylix, which dates from ties, which ca ll s for ' prompt return of objects to c. 490 Be, was painted by Onesim os and shows thei r country of ori gin should information come scenes of the Trojan war, featuring Hel en and to light that convin ces us that thi s is the appro­ Menelaus, fi gures of duell ers, and Apo ll o and Ajax. priate action to take ' . In exchange for the carabinieri agreei ng to The carabinieri's aim in publicizing this case drop charges (in thi s one case) against Mr Medici, is two-fold. First, they wish to 'burn ' the name of he has agreed to cooperate fu ll y in their inquiries. Giacomo Medici in the antiquities trade, to publi­ These have shown that the lirst [·j·agment of cize as widely as possible hi s involvement in illi cit thi s vase came to light in the 1960s, in the posses­ antiquities so that no one can be in any doubt that sion of Dietrich von Bothmer of the Metropolitan objects once in hi s possession are suspec t. Museum in New York . He passed it to the J. Paul Second , the Itali an police are se nding out Getty Museum. Other fragments were acquired by signals to other owners of fragm ents of the kyl ix. the Getty beginning in 1982, after which the ky li x They have made it plai n that, in return for not was publi shed in an article by Geoffrey Williams. be ing prosec uted in thi s one case, Mr Med ici has The carabinieri believe that the bulk of the revealed to them who else owns the remaining vase wa s ill ega ll y excavated 'about twenty yea rs mi ss ing rragments.