tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58684812024-02-28T08:19:54.693-06:00The Punching BagThoughts on cultural heritage, cultural economics, and cultural politicsLarry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.comBlogger305125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-50221006627835499062017-11-06T23:47:00.001-06:002017-11-06T23:47:57.341-06:00Against "Displacement": A Thought about Hilgert's "Culture Matters"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
In <a href="https://www.theglobalist.com/culture-identity-reconciliation-war-society/?fb_action_ids=10101365769893010&fb_action_types=og.comments" target="_blank">"Why Culture Matters,"</a> Markus Hilgert asserts that the importance of culture lies in its "fostering identity through cultural heritage" (as the article's title after the colon puts it), and defines the key problems facing culture as those of the destruction and displacement of heritage. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
Culture, heritage, identity -- these terms are almost intolerably contaminated by received ideas and begged questions, so much so that any effort to say something intelligible about their relationship in a column is bound to fall short. But what I find more troubling in Hilgert's argument is his discussion of displacement. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="letter-spacing: -0.12px;">The term "displacement" is problematic, because as Hilgert uses it it obscures the distinction between the looting of archaeological sites and the illicit export of artifacts. Archaeological site looting destroys the archaeological context needed to study the past objectively and provide the facts grounding the historical truth about the past; illicit export of artifacts injures national pride (in ways that may, by the way, paradoxically strengthen a sense of aggrieved national identity, with consequences that the last century's history shows can be murderous).</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-top: 6px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
While heritage and identity need to be cared for, we cannot care for them properly without a primary commitment to truth, rather than to heritage or identity per se. And that means that policies should pay at least as much attention to the need to secure archaeological sites from looting as they pay to iconoclasm, conservation and repatriation of displaced artifacts, and heritage development.</div>
</div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-25795633118100272172017-08-16T11:35:00.002-05:002017-08-16T11:35:27.832-05:00100 antiquities police officers needed, 7 on the books<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Laws against looting and smuggling are meaningless if the state doesn't enforce them. This simple truth is nearly always ignored by heritage protection advocates, or applied by them only to the demand end with calls for more seizures and prosecutions (calls that went unheeded until the trafficking of antiquities became linked to terrorism, which has had some salutary effect in directing more governmental attention and resources to bear). Seizures and prosecutions require funding and staffing of positions for officers and prosecutors.<br />
<br />
Which makes <a href="https://scroll.in/magazine/844289/a-tiny-police-wing-is-trying-to-bring-back-the-thousands-of-idols-stolen-from-tamil-nadu" target="_blank">this story</a> about the Idol Wing of India's Tamil Nandu police particularly appalling:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Idol Wing is severely understaffed and under-equipped. When it was newly formed, it was supposed to have 100 police officers. Now it has only seven officers listed on its website. Recently, the Madras High Court observed that of the 29 personnel sanctioned for the Idol Wing, 9 positions were vacant.<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"> </span>“It is almost like a punishment post,” said Vijay Kumar. “It should be centralised and incentivised. Each of these cases take years to crack.” </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Recent events have hurt the Wing’s reputation and credibility. Two police officials who worked at the wing eight years ago have been accused of selling a set of panchaloha idols which they seized, to Deenadayalan for Rs 15 lakh. The incident was reported in January, but soon after, Inspector Kader Baccha, one of the accused, was promoted as the Deputy Superintendent of Police in another district. Subburaj, then the Head Constable of the Idol Wing, was promoted as Sub-Inspector at a city police station.<br />Last month, upon enquiry by the Madras High Court, both were arrested.</blockquote>
<br /></div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-72673931644694100392017-08-16T10:32:00.000-05:002017-08-16T10:32:11.128-05:00A due diligence checklist -- the starting point for a calibrated taxing system for antiquities or for a registration system<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: 'SF Optimized', system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">Matthew Bogdanos and Amr al-Azm provide a helpful <a href="https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=4b3deff0-719a-446a-8c74-8520f2b9837a" target="_blank">list of due diligence red flag indicators</a> for insurers, dealers, auction houses and collectors handling antiquities. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: 'SF Optimized', system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: 'SF Optimized', system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">This is an excellent starting point for a checklist that could be used for a registration system for antiquities and/or as the basis for assessing the tax rate for a given artifact (the more red flags, the higher the tax) under a Pigovian (corrective) tax system. I have laid out the Pigovian tax idea <a href="https://theantiquitiescoalition.org/blog-posts/policy-brief-no-2-how-can-we-fund-the-fight-against-antiquities-looting-and-trafficking-a-pollution-tax-on-the-antiquities-trade/" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-40210562922141001192017-08-15T08:54:00.000-05:002017-08-15T08:54:00.166-05:00A possible second-best solution for orphaned antiquities?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/your-money/even-for-philanthropists-museums-can-make-art-a-tough-give.html?_r=0" target="_blank">This article</a> in the New York Times describes how one art collector donated a work to the Prado, noting that </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">he will be eligible for a tax deduction because the donation was made not to a foreign museum but to the American Friends of the Prado Museum, a United States-based charity.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The article also flags the difficulty of finding a museum willing to take "orphaned" antiquities:</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="174" data-total-count="5471" id="story-continues-6" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 75px; max-width: none; orphans: 2; widows: 2; width: 570px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Antiquities are particularly fraught, given patrimony laws that protect artifacts.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"></span></span><br />
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="264" data-total-count="5735" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 75px; max-width: none; orphans: 2; widows: 2; width: 570px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“You may have some great Egyptian artifacts and you’d love to have them in the museum when you die, because who else is going to take them?” Mr. Schindler said. “But if you don’t have good proof that they came out of the ground before 1970, good luck.”</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This raises an interesting question about such artifacts. If collectors want them to go into a museum, should they be encouraged and permitted by countries of origin to donate their antiquities to a US nonprofit representing that country's national museum?</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The downside, of course, is that donors will get a tax break for giving artifacts that might possibly have been looted. The upside is that the artifacts at least go back to the country of origin rather than back into the marketplace, and at far less cost in time and effort than would be necessary for restitution cases to be brought. In effect the American taxpayer would be underwriting the cost of returning artifacts to their original country -- though, it must be noted, never to their original find spot.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="174" data-total-count="5471" id="story-continues-6" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 75px; max-width: none; orphans: 2; widows: 2; width: 570px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="264" data-total-count="5735" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 75px; max-width: none; orphans: 2; widows: 2; width: 570px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="264" data-total-count="5735" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 75px; max-width: none; orphans: 2; widows: 2; width: 570px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-80585946441294509722016-10-26T04:29:00.000-05:002016-10-26T04:29:04.056-05:00U.S. Senators are pushing for Native American Artifact legislation -- but will it do any good?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.24px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Here's <a href="http://www.koat.com/article/this-is-an-historic-hearing-senators-say/6871405" target="_blank">a news story</a> on the proposed legislation. Two pieces, count-'em two! Well, one is just a resolution. The other, STOP,</span><span style="color: #414141; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> stands for the Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony Act. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.24px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">So far as I can tell, the main things the legislation does are two: to double the jailtime it is possible to get on conviction for a second offense, and require the Comptroller General to submit a report estimating number of artifacts trafficked and number of prosecutions, "after collecting information from the Attorney General, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Secretary of State, and meeting, as appropriate, with Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations". </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.24px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.24px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Unfortunately, none of those entities, so far as I know, has the capacity or interest or wherewithal to provide estimates of the extent of the illicit market. As to the doubling of penalties, the theory of deterrence requires that the risk of actually being prosecuted be factored into the deterrent effect. Saddam introduced the death penalty for looting when he lost control, with no discernible impact. So long as the risk of prosecution remains low -- which it will absent some increased incentives to prosecute, increased provision of financial resources to prosecutors, requirements to expand prosecutions, or changes in the burden of proof to make prosecutions cheaper and easier -- there's not likely to be much impact. Nice acronym, though.</span></span></div>
</div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-69599451976808381092016-10-19T14:08:00.000-05:002016-10-19T14:08:34.924-05:00Libya: Cultural Racketeering by the Actual Mafia and What it Tells Us about How It Should Be Fought<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/modern-day-gladiators-battle-save-libyas-ancient-heritage-132443251" target="_blank">Informative piece on Libya's struggle </a>to protect its archaeological sites in the absence of a strong centralized government. Several points to note:<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>international trafficking of antiquities is, as Deborah Lehr and the Antiquities Coalition have emphasized, <i>racketeering</i> in which the smugglers are mafia-like organizations -- or in this instance, the actual Mafia!</li>
<li>high-end artifacts are being proffered, not just cheap pots. It may well be the case that there are distinct smuggling channels, with the more violent ones operating at the higher end where the profit margin is the highest. This is at least a hypothesis to be tested.</li>
<li>Given the cost of weapons, and the apparently direct trade of weapons to terrorists in exchange for antiquities to the mafia, it makes sense for higher-end artifacts to be favored currency.</li>
<li>securing sites in the absence of central authority requires not SPI-style economic development projects aimed at gaining local buy-in, valuable as such projects are in peacetime situations in countries at peace, but rather the arming of local groups backed by rebel authorities.</li>
</ul>
</div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-17126743160723927312016-08-17T23:52:00.002-05:002016-08-17T23:52:36.248-05:00Parcak's Peru Project: What about the looters?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px;">First things first. Sarah Parcak's project is awesome. So is Larry Coben's Sustainable Preservation Initiative. And the <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_parcak_hunting_for_peru_s_lost_civilizations_with_satellites?utm_campaign=social&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=t.co&utm_content=talk&utm_term=science" target="_blank">possibilities for Peru</a> laid out in this TED talk are fantastic.</span></span></div>
<div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px;">That said, I am still anxious about how the discovery of myriad previously unidentified unexcavated sites is going to be handled in a way that doesn't lead to massive looting. Statements like this one, meant to be reassuring, instead give me pause:</span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 16.08px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">So many sites in Peru are threatened, but the great part is that all of this data is going to be shared with archaeologists on the front lines of protecting these sites. </span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Okay, but how are archaeologists on the front lines going to deal with looters absent much more robust sustained funding to pay for all the site guards that are going to be needed to guard these sites as they are being excavated? I can see how once they are excavated SPI might take over, to some extent, winning hearts and minds of locals by giving them an economic incentive to protect sites, or at least those sites that generate tourist revenue. But that's going to happen later if at all. The major danger lies in the period after the discovery is made, before and during excavations, especially on massive sites where archaeologists will perforce be digging only on a tiny fraction. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">The "front lines" is not just a metaphor. Guys with guns are going to come, following the archaeologists (or perhaps hacking the crowd-sourced data, though I have been assured this is not going to be doable). Archaeologists doing the digging </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">on the front lines are going to need help from people who know how to guard sites. How is the Peruvian government going to find the money to pay for guards and police to stop them? Does the TED prize provide funding for that? National Geographic? The archaeologists being given the data? Is the money going to be raised from the thousands of volunteers helping GlobalExplorer?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Financing of site security and archaeological policing is the missing piece of the puzzle. Without it, I worry that this project may end up inadvertently causing the destruction of much of what it discovers.</span></div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-62683445546582543932015-12-25T12:34:00.002-06:002015-12-25T12:34:45.161-06:00If Florence can lease its piazzas, why can't museums lease antiquities to raise $ to protect sites?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.politico.eu/article/florence-destination-wedding-piazza-and-palazzos-for-rent-florence-historical-center-heritage-monuments/" target="_blank">Florence is leasing the Palazzo Vecchio</a>, the Ponte Vecchio, the Piazza d'Ognisannti, the Belvedere... the list goes on and on. A lot of desperately needed money is being raised, although the inconvenience to residents (and presumably, also to visitors barred from these public spaces for the duration of the lease) is real and not inconsequential, unless the lease is during hours when the building or bridge would not be in use or normally closed.<br />
<br />
The temporary privatizing of cultural space is not a new phenomenon. As I learned while researching the Brooklyn Museum controversy over the Chris Ofili Madonna (see my intro to the edited volume <i>Unsettling 'Sensation' </i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Unsettling-Sensation-Arts-Policy-Brooklyn-Controversy/dp/0813529352" target="_blank">here</a>), museums have been renting out their great halls for corporate and individual soirées -- not just gala fundraisers for the museum, but private functions -- for decades now.<br />
<br />
Which raises the question: If Florence can lease its piazzas and museums their exhibition spaces to raise money needed to preserve their heritage, why can't museums lease antiquities from their storerooms to raise money needed to preserve archaeological sites? </div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-64041312371759231652015-11-14T15:38:00.000-06:002015-11-14T15:38:01.809-06:00"Safe haven" self-justifies collector/curator/dealer in smuggling Pakistani artifacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Antiquities dealer, who also is a collector and a curator of his own online "museum", <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/fla-dealer-pleads-guilty-to-smuggling-artifacts-from-grave-sites-in-pakistan/2015/11/13/fc886cda-89a9-11e5-9a07-453018f9a0ec_story.html?utm_source=hootsuite" target="_blank">cops a plea</a>. Note the "safe haven" self-justification.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
McNamara said he kept, rather than sold, most of the materials he imported from Pakistan, as his interest was mainly in the scientific value of the relics rather than the monetary value. He said he did not think initially that what he was doing was illegal and, in some ways, thought he was rescuing precious materials. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
But McNamara acknowledged that he realized that willful ignorance of the law was no excuse for his crime, and he did sell some of what he imported. He admitted that he and the others conspired to create fake documents indicating that their shipments had Pakistani government approval, and that he lied to U.S. Homeland Security investigators looking into the matter.</blockquote>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 24px; widows: 1;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-23025142491355090592015-11-07T11:24:00.000-06:002015-11-07T11:24:20.582-06:00Imagine if Hobby Lobby had had to pay a Pigovian tax on the antiquities it purchased<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The Green family has spent a reported $30 million amassing its collection, and have been under federal investigation for five years under suspicion of importing looted artifacts. One reason the investigation has gone so slowly, one must presume, is that the government doesn't have the resources to go faster.<br />
<br />
Now imagine that the US put in place a tax on purchases of antiquities, say 10%, on the principle established long ago by economist Arthur Pigoux that the social costs that are the byproduct of some economic activities (i.e., air pollution) should be paid back by the industries involved in creating the harm. Spending $30 million in the antiquities market, whether the purchases are legitimate or not, causes social harm because the licit market is not clearly distinguishable from the illicit market and because high prices signal to looters that antiquities are desirable commodities.<br />
<br />
10% of $30 million is $3 million, $3 million that might have helped pay for a much speedier investigation or for many other enforcement and deterrent efforts that are so sorely lacking. Without some such financing mechanism, it is chimerical to think that additional import restrictions or merely verbal commitments by governments to do more will make much of a difference. (HR 1493, I should note, is scored by the CBO as revenue neutral.)</div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-26029273202724157802015-10-13T13:04:00.002-05:002015-10-13T13:04:59.402-05:00Antiquities Under Siege recommendation made 8 years ago now being taken up<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This is one of the few ideas now in play that really could do some good in terms of protecting archaeological sites:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
the task force proposed by Italy, which “is gaining traction at UNESCO”, should include archeologists, military forces specialized in the safeguard of cultural heritage, ONGs personnel and cataloguers. “They should be deployed in “grey” areas where there are tensions, but not wars”. It is something similar to the “culture peacekeepers”, as it was discussed recently, but “definitely, we are not talking about sending paratroopers to Palmyra”, clarified the minister. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Italy thinks that peacekeeping missions should also include a cultural dimension, and Gentiloni made the longstanding experience acquired by Carabinieri available to the project.</blockquote>
<div style="background-color: #eaeaea; border: 0px; color: #000628; font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25.4545px; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; widows: 1;">
In the appendix to <i>Antiquities under Siege: Cultural Heritage Protection after the Iraq War</i> (Altamira, 2008), we put forth this recommendation, among others. The key difference from other "Monuments Men"-style task forces being advocated for by Blue Shield and other preservation/conservation-focused groups is that here there will also be some people who can protect the sites from gun-toting looters, a crucial need if the work of preserving and conserving is to be feasible.</div>
</div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-57988216670768104582015-10-08T11:23:00.001-05:002015-10-08T11:23:18.508-05:00Mushrooms and antiquities<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Jedediah Purdy's review of <span style="background-color: white; font-family: utopia-std, georgia, serif; font-size: 18.2px; line-height: 24.8182px; widows: 1;">Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing’s </span><em style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: utopia-std, georgia, serif; font-size: 18.2px; line-height: 24.8182px; widows: 1;">The Mushroom at the End of the World </em><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: utopia-std, georgia, serif; font-size: 18.2px; line-height: 24.8182px; widows: 1;">doesn't directly refer to the analogy between mushrooms and antiquities, but makes plenty of oblique references, i.e.:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: utopia-std, georgia, serif; font-size: 18.2px; line-height: 24.8182px; widows: 1;">An ethics of precarity is too close to taking art photographs of decay in a city we cannot save. Adam Smith, who was also interested in the naturalness of capitalism, once wrote that there is a lot of ruin in a country. The same goes for the world. It is too soon, and, more important, it surrenders too much, to make ruin our master-metaphor. The world still has a good deal of ruin in it, and, we can hope, plenty of fight as well. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: utopia-std, georgia, serif; font-size: 18.2px; line-height: 24.8182px; widows: 1;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: utopia-std, georgia, serif; font-size: 18.2px; line-height: 24.8182px; widows: 1;"><br /></span></div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-6372805469835603632015-10-07T11:51:00.002-05:002015-10-07T11:51:18.016-05:00Kurdish Museum buys looted artifacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 12.864px; widows: 1;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the lingering questions about the massive looting that occurred in Iraq in the years following the 2003 US invasion is where all the artifacts have gone and why it continued even after a worldwide ban on international trade in Iraqi materials was put in place, abating somewhat over time. Very little appeared on the open market and it is thought that much was simply stockpiled in warehouses, or bought privately by wealthy collectors around the world. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But the looters and smugglers inside Iraq were being sustained as well by the council of ministers of Iraqi Kurdistan, directors of the Sulaymaniyah Museum, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gilgamesh-tablet-iraq_5612a747e4b0af3706e16f28?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000017" target="_blank">which</a></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://etc.ancient.eu/2015/09/24/giglamesh-enkidu-humbaba-cedar-forest-newest-discovered-tablet-v-epic/" style="border: 0px; color: #2c9178; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">started an initiative</a> to make deals with smugglers after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the subsequent looting of museums in the country, according to Ancient History Etc., a U.K. nonprofit online publication.</blockquote>
The museum bought a tablet -- one of a group of 80-90 being proffered -- containing 20 previously lost lines of "The Epic of Gilgamesh, for $800 <a href="http://www.livescience.com/52372-new-tablet-gilgamesh-epic.html" style="border: 0px; color: #2c9178; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">off a smuggler in Iraq</a> in 2011.<br />
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Century, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; widows: 1;">
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: transparent;">"They paid smugglers to ‘intercept’ archeological artifacts on their journey to other countries," according to the publication. "No questions were asked about who was selling the piece or where it came from." </span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Century, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; widows: 1;">Stuart Gibson, director of the </span><a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/iraq-office/culture/museum-sector/sulaymaniyah-museum/" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #2c9178; font-family: Georgia, Century, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; widows: 1;" target="_blank">UNESCO Sulaymaniyah Museum Project</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Century, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; widows: 1;"> -- an effort to assist the Kurdish government in running the museum -- praised the museum's decision as "courageous" because it ran counter to official policy against paying smugglers and looters for looted artifacts. That policy exists, of course, because paying these folks gives them an incentive to keep on looting and smuggling. Asking no questions makes this incentive even more attractive. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Century, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; widows: 1;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Century, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; widows: 1;">The Huffington Post headline suggests that the question raised by the museum's practice of buying looted antiquities is : </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Century, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; widows: 1;">Should museums make deals with smugglers and looters in order to protect and preserve history? But that way of putting the question, while it is undoubtedly the way that museums interested in bringing material in think of what they are doing, begs the question. The deal described was not </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">made in order to protect and preserve history. It was made in order to keep the artifact from leaving the country. Had the tablet gotten out of Kurdistan it would surely have been sold to someone anyway, someone who would have in turn protected and preserved it. The only effect here was to shorten the supply chain, reduce the cost of doing business for smugglers and looters, and thereby promoted more digging and more smuggling.</span></div>
</div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-40066225836405183972015-10-05T08:46:00.002-05:002015-10-05T08:46:17.145-05:00Boston MFA pulls bust out of storage to honor slain Palmyra director<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Though it would be too painful to contemplate putting this particular piece in circulation at this time, here's an example of the level of quality of objects in museum storerooms that might be used in an antiquities-leasing program to steer collectors towards "renting" and away from buying looted artifacts on the illicit market:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 39.375px; widows: 1;">This is not the only Palmyran sculpture on display in this part of the world. Other first-rate examples can be seen both at the MFA and in museums such as the recently renovated Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. But with its fine carving articulating the woman’s “wet drapery” garment and exquisitely pleated headwear, her perfectly parted wavy hair, and her Hellenistic features, it’s both beautiful and characteristic, and <u>it hasn’t been on display in a generation</u>.</span></blockquote>
</div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-17177889532442260922015-10-03T13:09:00.001-05:002015-10-03T13:09:54.688-05:00Why I am worried about AAMD's new "safe haven" protocols<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Brian Daniels, whom I greatly respect for the important work he and his colleagues are doing to try to monitor and help Syrians safeguard archaeological sites and artifacts, is happy about the AAMD's announcement of safe haven protocols for antiquities from conflict zones. Here's Brian's facebook post, which many other fellow heritage protection advocates are retweeting approvingly:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.456px; widows: 1;">"Quite possibly one of the most important developments in the field of cultural heritage policy in recent years. Not only does the AAMD declare its support for the 1954 Hague Convention, but it will treat objects in AAMD member museum safe havens as loans--not permanent acquisitions. (As such, a U.S. museum would need to follow U.S. law for an international museum loan to participate). The guidance outlined here is what framers of the 1954 Hague Convention had in mind for museums following World War II."</span></blockquote>
<div style="widows: 1;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">I cannot share this enthusiasm. Framers of the 1954 Hague Convention did not have in mind, objects dug up from archaeological sites by private parties, smuggled out of Syria to Turkey or Dubai and then bought up by dealers or collectors. There was nothing like the global market for illicitly excavated antiquities in 1954 that there is now. And the AAMD protocols, I worry, include provisions that will encourage more looting and smuggling of artifacts.</span></span></div>
<div style="widows: 1;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="widows: 1;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">Here's the relevant section of the <a href="https://www.aamd.org/document/aamd-protocols-for-save-havens-for-works-of-cultural-significance-from-countries-in-crisis" target="_blank">AAMD protocols</a>, with the problematic language italicized:</span></span></div>
<div style="widows: 1;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">II. The Source of Works In Need of Safe Havens</strong>In the event of a terrorism occurrence or during an armed conflict or natural disaster, works may be brought for safe haven in the United States, Canada or Mexico from any depositor, assuming of course compliance with applicable law (see below). Predetermining who may request such assistance in the abstract is not always possible, but may include the legal owner of a work, the agent for the owner, the bailee of a work, the custodian of a work, and<i> a person or entity who comes into possession of the work and the owner is unknown, unavailable or legally constrained</i> [<u>sic</u>] (collectively, a “depositor”). Examples of a depositor are:<ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #231f20; font-family: Bau; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 14px; widows: 1;">
<li style="border: 0px; list-style: disc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;">Museums in the affected area that hold works;</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #231f20; font-family: Bau; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 14px; widows: 1;">
<li style="border: 0px; list-style: disc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;">Governmental entities of or within the affected areas;</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #231f20; font-family: Bau; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 14px; widows: 1;">
<li style="border: 0px; list-style: disc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;">U.S. government authorities who have seized works on entry to or in the United States; or</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #231f20; font-family: Bau; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 14px; widows: 1;">
<li style="border: 0px; list-style: disc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><i>Private individuals, companies or organizations who own or come into possession of works, whether in the affected area or after removal from the area.</i></li>
</ul>
Member museums should exercise caution to assure that accepting the request for safe haven will not violate the rights of lawful owners, subject the museum to a claim for return, reflect negatively on the reputation of the museum or cause the museum to be involved in any illegal or unethical activity. Requests for safe haven and agreements to accept such requests should be documented where possible prior to movement of works to be transferred.</blockquote>
<div>
The garbled syntax in the first italicized phrase is a tell, indicating that this is an issue the AAMD must have been wrangling. With good reason. The last quoted paragraph above notwithstanding, the protocols give a green light to museums to accept as loans artifacts purchased from the networks that are paying looters to continue to dig, networks that in some cases are run by or beholden to ISIS. Those who purchase such blood antiquities will now be able to loan them to a museum, which will provide the buyers with a patina of legitimacy and museum approval that will increase the value of the artifact when it is returned to them. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Taking as loans artifacts from museums, government entities, or seizures is an excellent idea. Taking as loans artifacts bought from the illicit market is a terrible idea.</div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.456px; widows: 1;"><br /></span>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
, seeing it as marking a welcome albeit belated move that </div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-36555451317749014252015-10-03T01:10:00.000-05:002015-10-03T01:10:08.479-05:00No specialist prosecutors for antiquities/terrorism cases: a major stumbling block<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Those who have been applauding ICE's ceremonies returning seized artifacts should instead be booing. They don't understand that every such public relations event that doesn't also include announcements of arrests and indictments is a lost opportunity and a symptom that the Obama administration has failed to devote the resources needed to really tackle the black market in antiquities.<br />
<br />
This is made clear in <a href="http://culturalheritagelawyer.blogspot.com/2015/09/newly-obtained-documents-reveal.html" target="_blank">a very informative blogpost from cultural heritage lawyer Rick St.-Hilaire </a>laying out in very damning detail the failure of the Obama administration's Justice Department to follow through on an antiquities smuggling case in 2011 that involved suspected money laundering tied to terrorism. Instead, the artifacts were returned in a DC photo-op ceremony.<br />
<br />
As St.-Hilaire notes,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; widows: 1;">A specially assigned heritage trafficking prosecutor based at the Department of Justice in Washington probably could have facilitated this search warrant request by coordinating with the appropriate right U.S. Attorney's office. But no such specialist prosecutor exists.</span></blockquote>
Maybe I just missed it -- and if so, will one of the readers of this blog please ease my mind -- but I don't recall hearing from ICE or the Department of Justice during last week's various policy events. The announcement of a reward for information leading to the disruption of terrorist-related antiquities-smuggling networks might indicate some movement in the direction of a heritage trafficking prosecution. But a dedicated prosecutor is long overdue. The Department of Homeland Security's budget is only $55 billion though, so perhaps they cannot afford one.<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.5455px; widows: 1;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.5455px; widows: 1;"><br /></span></div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-69934627387851590742015-09-29T18:24:00.000-05:002015-09-29T18:24:04.948-05:00Christie's due diligence: this does not compute<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/06/11/facebook-purges-pages-offering-priceless-isis-plunder-for-sale/" target="_blank">What Christie's says </a>about its due diligence checking provenances of antiquities:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
“We are always on the alert for material of this type in case an attempt is made to introduce looted items into the commercial art market, and we work closely with UNESCO, Interpol and other entities to ensure any such attempts will be caught,” said Sung-Hee Kim, communications liaison at Christie’s, who said to date, the auction and art house has not encountered any such items.... </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
According to Kim, Christie’s has a policy of not accepting items for sale without a legitimate signed title confirmation. In addition, they require provenance pre-dating the year 2000 as well as pre-dating any periods of significant conflict.</blockquote>
<div>
<a href="http://art-crime.blogspot.it/2015/09/while-west-seeks-tighter-curbs-on-trade.html" target="_blank">What Christie's does</a>: </div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In the three first cases, Christie’s ‘due diligence’ seems to have stopped short of tracing the collecting history back one step further, which would have opened the window on the Becchina transactions. In the fourth case (lot 93), Christie’s record lists the 1986 and 1997 transaction dates in the lekythos’ collecting history, but completely avoids mentioning the authorities’ raid of Horiuchi’s warehouse in Switzerland or the subsequent passage or ownership of the vase by the convicted Aboutaam brothers, through their ‘Phoenix Ancient Art’ gallery in New York and Geneva.</blockquote>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-37691869218489970422015-09-29T12:29:00.000-05:002015-09-29T12:29:04.765-05:00Even with strong evidence of bad provenance, antiquities get auctioned, so good luck keeping Syrian stuff off market<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://art-crime.blogspot.it/2015/09/while-west-seeks-tighter-curbs-on-trade.html" target="_blank">Excellent blogpost </a>from ARCA's Lynda Albertson, posing the question:<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 14.56px; text-align: justify; widows: 1;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 14.56px; text-align: justify; widows: 1;">If the art market cannot hold itself to task on objects where there is a known and extensive photographic record of illicit activity how will the art market perform its due diligence on antiquities coming from conflict countries like Syria, Iraq and Yemen where no confiscated smuggler dossiers exist?</span></div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-29464556891661509922015-09-26T09:17:00.000-05:002015-09-26T09:17:14.307-05:00The Asia Society/Antiquities Coalition Meeting: A Few Afterthoughts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
Video of the fascinating Asia Society/Antiquities Coalition meeting <a href="http://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/can-world-save-antiquities-under-terrorist-threat" target="_blank">here</a>. I came away from it hopeful that we are beginning to get somewhere, in several senses. First, Kevin Rudd's involvement as the director of the Asia Society's new policy shop gives us a former Prime Minister of Australia with the political leadership chops to help persuade both governments and powerful private parties to focus on the problem in a strategic way. Second, the stated willingness of a media campaign specialist to raise awareness in the corporate sector holds out the hope that, together with Rudd and of course the Antiquities Coalition, something like the Clinton Global Initiative's ivory project but for antiquities might actually be possible. Third, the meeting showed that there are a number of policy ideas cooking, some of them (like the antiquities-leasing scheme I push, or Cuno's retro notion of a return to partake, or the boots-on-the-ground called for by several speakers) more dramatic and unrealizable in the short term than others, but the key thing is to have this kind of discussion happening.<br />
<br />
Viewers can draw their own conclusions about the exchanges between Jim Cuno and Matthew Bogdanov, Katharyn Hanson, and me over Cuno's worry that the problem is overblown and his suggestion near the end of the program -- in response to my earlier modest proposal that the Getty and other museums could dramatically shrink the market for looted antiquities by renting out some of the artifacts sitting in their store-rooms -- that doing so would be a step backward.</div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-63032366302167164582015-09-09T10:00:00.002-05:002015-10-17T16:16:38.719-05:00Want to Ruin the Market for Looted Syrian Antiquities? Here's One Way<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/isis-looted-syrian-ancient-artifacts-black-market-us-and-europe/#article" target="_blank">This new CBS report</a> joins other undercover reporting that includes cellphone photos sent by traffickers to the reporter showing artifacts for sale. Which suggests an interesting idea I haven't heard mentioned yet for how to fight the illicit trade in such artifacts: gather such images, just as the CBS team did, and then post them on the internet, identifying them as illicit and effectively rendering the artifacts unsaleable -- at least unsaleable to what Matthew Bogdanos in the report names as "the four destination points of New York, London, Paris and Tokyo" (Bogdanos for reasons I don't understand leaves out the Gulf States, certainly a more likely destination for ISIS-looted artifacts than Tokyo).<br />
<br />
There are some downsides to consider. Undercover work costs money -- though for this nowhere near the amount it costs to mount international investigations of smuggling networks (to say nothing of what we are spending to remotely monitor the ongoing looting of sites), since only one node is being accessed. This would not be risk-free work -- no undercover work is ever risk free. Buyers would have to rotate and be replaced to avoid detection and harm. And if it were to be undertaken, those posing as foreign buyers would almost certainly need to work with the Turkish or Lebanese police, which might prove difficult. But unlike seizures of artifacts coming into the US or UK or France, which constitute a loss of profit for the dealers that they can and do simply pass on to buyers as a cost of doing business, the immediate losers in the case of looted artifacts posted to the internet would be the smugglers, who have no way to pass on the cost. The passing on of images via cellphone photos would become a thing of the past pretty quickly. (Many smugglers have already turned to video-streaming or snapchat-like image sharing to try to leave no record on the phones or computers of complicit buyers, but undercover buyers could easily capture those images.) [UPDATE 10/17: the CBS news producer speaking at the Met says the fellow who sent her the cellphone photos is still sending her photos, so he obviously wasn't much deterred -- though it would be interesting to see what happened if CBS were to now post those photos!]<br />
<br />
<br />
This would be a great program for UNESCO in coordination with INTERPOL, the FBI, the Blue Shield, and the carabinieri to undertake. [For reasons I hope are evident, it would not be something to be done by academics as part of a research project.] It might be sponsored by the Getty and dealers who ought to prefer this kind of exposure to the gotcha they've experienced from the use of the Medici archive to embarrass them. Maybe, instead of yet another meeting bewailing the loss of heritage, it would make sense to spend that money on some undercover work.<br />
<br />
ADDENDUM: An interesting new article by Sam Hardy studying direct-to-buyer reports notes that<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; widows: 1;"> After the publication of photographs of the royal graves at Copan in Honduras (Stuart, </span><span class="referenceDiv" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; height: 0px; line-height: 18px; position: relative; white-space: nowrap; widows: 1; width: 0px;"><a class="dropDownLabel" href="http://cogentoa.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311886.2015.1087110#CIT0148" style="color: #104083; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: normal;">1997</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; widows: 1;">), the site was looted (Agurcia Fasquelle, </span><span class="referenceDiv" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; height: 0px; line-height: 18px; position: relative; white-space: nowrap; widows: 1; width: 0px;"><a class="dropDownLabel" href="http://cogentoa.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311886.2015.1087110#CIT0003" style="color: #104083; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: normal;">1998</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; widows: 1;">) in a way that indicated collectors had effectively used </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; widows: 1;">National Geographic</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; widows: 1;"> as a sales catalogue. Likewise, a hieroglyphic text and carving of a bound captive were extracted from one 1,300-year-old stela, and a single sceptre was extracted from another such stela, at Dos Pilas (Luke, </span><span class="referenceDiv" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; height: 0px; line-height: 18px; position: relative; white-space: nowrap; widows: 1; width: 0px;"><a class="dropDownLabel" href="http://cogentoa.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311886.2015.1087110#CIT0085" style="color: #104083; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: normal;">2005</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; widows: 1;">). Without perpetrators’ use of publicly accessible documents to identify the targets, the fact that these thefts were commissioned would have remained unknown.</span></blockquote>
So at least in some cases, the existence of publicly accessible images did not deter buyers. But these were objects in situ not yet looted, and so not brought to the attention of law enforcement as pieces for which to be on the lookout.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-41774044321679485982015-09-09T04:24:00.000-05:002015-09-09T04:27:49.843-05:00Weak security plagues Egypt's archaeological sites -- but no one asks where the money to fix the problem could come from<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/08/egypt-lax-security-archaeological-sites.html#ixzz3l7Ps2Iq6" target="_blank">An interesting article from Khalid Hassan in Egypt Pulse </a>shows that the economic crisis in Egypt, especially acute in the tourism sector, combined with the government's prioritizing of anti-terror (and, one should add, suppression of dissent), is leaving Egypt's site security in tatters, underfunded and outgunned by looting gangs.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: ArchivoNarrow, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; widows: 1;">The security system within the Ministry of Antiquities is suffering major problems because of the security sector’s neglect in training the ministry’s security guards. The security forces in Egypt are generally unaware of the importance of Egypt’s cultural and civilizational heritage, because of the low level of education within the security institution. Meanwhile, only a limited budget is allocated to the guards in charge of the archaeological sites’ security, and there is not enough funding to train, educate and arm them. </span></blockquote>
Even World Heritage-designated sites are being attacked:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Dahshur site includes the Red Pyramid, Egypt’s first fully constructed pyramid, and the Bent Pyramid. The site was added to UNESCO's <a href="http://www.masress.com/shorouk/233560" style="color: #0088cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">World Heritage list in 2009</a>. Yet looting there is organized and persistent.<br />
Wahiba Saleh, a senior inspector at the Dahshur site, told Al-Monitor that security staff there are only equipped with 9 mm pistols and often confront thugs carrying automatic rifles or machine guns.<br />
“The Dahshur site extends over 20 kilometers [12.5 miles] and there are only 10 guards to secure it, which means that each is required to guard 2 kilometers [1.2 miles]. How could it be possible?” she asked.<br />
Saleh said guards at the site are paid a monthly salary of no more than 400 Egyptian pounds ($52), while they are required to protect priceless antiquities. She demanded that the ministry raise their salaries, increase their number to no less than 40 people to secure the site, train them and arm them to confront saboteurs and outlaws.</blockquote>
<br />
What is needed is clear: more money. How much more? For Dahshur, without a raise or upgrades to automatic weapons, the amount is $52 x 30 x12 = $18720 per year. Tack on, say, an AK-47 at $400 each (with a 4 year amortization= $100 per year per rifle x 40 = $4000) and $200 per year for training and educating per guard (=$8000), and you get something like $32,000 additional to protect that site. Double the salaries and the price jumps to about $50K.<br />
<br />
$50,000 is not that much money. But that's just one site. There are 12,000 or so site guards in Egypt. Let's assume we double their salaries and double the number, giving half of them automatic weapons. How much would the budget be? 24,000 x 52 x2 x 12 (= $29,952,000) + $400 x 12,000 (=$4,800,000) + $200 x 12,000(=$2.4 million). Total: about $37 million per year. If we quadruple the number of guards as suggested by the inspector quoted above, but for the whole country, the total would be $67 million per year, compared with $22 million now spent.<br />
<br />
That's real money. A rounding error in the US budget, a small but real cost in Egypt's $60 billion deficit-plagued budget. On the other hand, given the presumably devastating impact of bad publicity from looting (not to mention attacks on tourists), investing more in site guards -- and perhaps shifting some jobs to site guard positions within the 30,000-strong antiquities ministry (at least, that was the number mentioned under Hawass) might be worth it to bring the tourists back.<br />
<br />
But there really isn't any money for raising salaries or increasing numbers. As always, the key problem is FINANCING site protection (and other archaeological policing). <br />
<br />
Here's one idea for raising that $67 million: Egypt could start loaning out antiquities in exchange for a fee or contribution. To take the most crude example of how this might work, the antiquities ministry could select 6,700 antiquities from the millions now sitting in museum storerooms, antiquities that 6,700 collectors -- both institutional (for instance, a school district or corporation or mosque) and individual -- would be willing to borrow for a year at $10,000 per artifact.<br />
<br />
Obviously the design of such a program would have to be very carefully thought through, and there is a real question of whether there is enough demand from collectors who could meet the criteria for being eligible for such a loan. Estimating demand based on auction sales is next to useless, not only because so much of the market is private and illicit, but also because there are likely many many would-be collectors who avoid Egyptian antiquities for all the right reasons. Such a program would also entail some risk, even with responsible collectors, that the objects might be broken (though the loss this would entail might be mitigated if the objects were some of the untold thousands of near-identical duplicates held by museums. Archaeologists are likely to be adamantly opposed.<br />
<br />
Still, it is worth considering as one of the possible ways out of the disastrous financial difficulties Egypt's heritage protectors are suffering from and likely to continue suffering from for quite a long time to come.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: ArchivoNarrow, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; widows: 1;"></span></div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-18576939369977946242015-09-05T19:41:00.000-05:002015-09-05T19:41:03.556-05:00Protecting antiquities by distributing them: Why Cuno has the right idea but the wrong application<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3f4549; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; widows: 1;">
<br /></div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3f4549; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; widows: 1;">
A very disappointing interview with Scott Simon in which James Cuno continues pushing the argument he made in the New York Times more recently to the effect that "portable works of art" from areas under threat by ISIS "should be distributed throughout the world" because "ISIS will destroy everything in its path." Simon obviously understood going into the interview that there was something very wrong with this argument, since in the middle of the interview he expresses puzzlement about how changing the law to keep artifacts brought to the States from going back to Syria and Iraq would do anything to stop something like the dynamiting of the Temple of Bel, at which point Cuno admits that "it's completely different" from portable antiquities. In other words, yes, I've been using a classic bait-and-switch tactic. Immoveable antiquities and portable antiquities are two different things.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3f4549; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; widows: 1;">
Simon should have stopped Cuno there and asked him why he was then using the destruction of one as a reason for protecting the other. The answer, though Cuno would not admit this, is to avoid dealing with the very uncomfortable truth that ISIS' view of how portable antiquities should be treated is close to his own. No state has ever been more willing to distribute its portable antiquities throughout the world than ISIS, which licenses digging and runs its own export operation. Sure, those digs destroy thousands of archaeological sites, but on the bright side, I'm sure there are many museum-worthy artifacts brought to light and distributed to the world in the process.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3f4549; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; widows: 1;">
I am of course not, repeat not, suggesting that Cuno supports ISIS. And in fact, Cuno in the interview immediately goes on to say "we can address [the trafficking of coins or small statues] by policing those borders to try to prevent or inhibit the illegal trade of objects across borders." So he clearly does recognize that distributing ISIS-dug artifacts is a bad thing. Dealing with the problem, on the other hand, is just not something he wants to think about. Let the Turks and the Lebanese tighten up their borders, no problem. (Who's going to pay for that to happen? Don't ask.) Meanwhile, whatever gets over those borders and makes its way to us we should be grabbing and keeping.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3f4549; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; widows: 1;">
It is surely a good thing for museums to assist each other in safeguarding antiquities they already hold and to make arrangements in advance to take or transfer holdings in worst-case scenarios. All museums, not just those in countries in crisis, also ought to be thinking of dividing and spreading out their own massive holdings to hedge the risks of attack by terrorists on a single building. An attack on the Getty or the Met is not unthinkable. But museums also should recognize that distribution of artifacts through the market, rather than from museum to museum, destroys many more artifacts than it safeguards. </div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3f4549; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; padding: 0px; widows: 1;">
The irony here is that if Cuno turned his considerable intellect towards the problem of inhibiting the illegal trade in artifacts, he would find that distributing antiquities in the proper way could not just safeguard those antiquities by spreading them round, but could also inhibit the illegal trade. How? Museums should pull antiquities off their basement storeroom shelves and offer to allow collectors to borrow --not buy -- them in exchange for contributing to efforts to help police the borders and prevent the illicit trade. The thirst of collectors for beautiful artifacts could be slaked, ISIS would be robbed of the profits they are now making, and the presently-overmatched antiquities police would have resources to really go after the traffickers. If Cuno cares about inhibiting the illegal trade, this is a distributional solution he ought to be pushing. I'm sure it's because he hasn't thought this through yet, not because he wants collectors to bring him fresh artifacts more than he wants to keep ISIS from destroying sites and human beings.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3f4549; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; padding: 0px; widows: 1;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-20940065974661550422015-09-04T04:00:00.000-05:002015-09-04T04:00:54.024-05:00Are the laws protecting antiquities strong? What would real strength look like?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: 20.4px; widows: 1;"><a href="http://www.science20.com/the_conversation/after_palmyra_global_concern_about_protecting_cultural_treasures-157050#comment-187989" target="_blank">The Conversation suggests</a> that "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Lucida, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.08px; line-height: 22.236px; widows: 1;">the international laws that protect antiquities and cultural treasures are actually fairly strong, at least on paper":</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Lucida, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.08px; line-height: 22.236px; widows: 1;">The problem doesn’t lie with inadequate laws, but rather with compliance and enforcement.</span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: 20.4px; widows: 1;">Certainly compliance and enforcement are problematic, but that is not in spite of the law being strong on paper but because the apparent strength of the law is belied by the small print in which its enforcement mechanisms are established and its purview defined. Of course, no enforcement mechanism save an invasion force could expect to deter a group that deliberately commits war crimes for TV cameras for the sake of showing contempt for the law. The idea of parachuting the carabinieri into Syria to secure sites against ISIS' iconoclasm is ludicrous, as is the notion that looting and trafficking of antiquities can be brought under control if only we have the will to enforce the laws we have now. Having the will and having the way are not the same thing. The 1970 UNESCO Convention has had very little effect in stemming archaeological looting even in states that are functioning and trying to fight the black market, because the Convention is badly designed as law and because protecting sites and policing a powerful black market is enormously expensive. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: 20.4px; widows: 1;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: 20.4px; widows: 1;">Nonetheless, sites must be secured and the black market must be policed. To do that, three things are needed. First, better regulations (for instance, transparency requirements for antiquities sales) that make it easier to identify looting networks and for police to work together internationally. Second, changes in museum policies to take the steam out of the illicit antiquities market by setting up antiquities loan programs; instead of paying $100,000 for a looted artifact and incentivizing further looting, the same collector would pay, say, the British Museum $100,000 for the privilege of borrowing for a time an artifact from the storeroom. The revenue generated could be used in turn to help finance more and better policing (the potential of new technologies in this area is enormous). Much more revenue, however, could be generated by a third legal-regulatory change: a tax on high-end antiquities purchases. The key point here is that we need to think much more creatively not just about what we would do if only there were more money to do it, but about how to raise that money and how to make it less costly to do what needs to be done.</span></div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-2827857105016565472015-09-02T15:27:00.002-05:002015-09-02T15:27:43.408-05:00Recipe for tasty antiquities trade: Mix together false provenance, customs misdeclarations. Store for several years. Serve to antiquities collectors.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/archaeology/11837886/Ancient-Greek-relic-looted-from-Libya-to-be-returned.html">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/archaeology/11837886/Ancient-Greek-relic-looted-from-Libya-to-be-returned.html</a><br />
<br />
Discovered after sitting in a warehouse for two years.<br />
<br />
Country of origin misdeclared as Turkish rather than Libyan.<br />
<br />
Price misdeclared as $110,000 rather than $2 million.<br />
<br />
False provenance claim made that sculpture belonged to family collection since 1977 </div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868481.post-81715083540828200172015-08-27T13:41:00.001-05:002015-08-27T13:51:23.622-05:00Meth-using pothead possible child molesting tomb robber knows enough to note findspot and stratum<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="tr_bq">
I<a href="http://www.record-bee.com/general-news/20150825/native-american-artifacts-found-in-van" target="_blank">nappropriate letter to a 14-year-old leads to smell of pot leads to spotting bags of pot in van leads to finding meth pipe in van leads to finding Native American artifacts. </a>And yet the guy was smart enough to have tagged some of the cards with detailed info on findspot and stratum!</div>
<blockquote>
The items included pieces of obsidian, a glass-like volcanic rock, shaped into points and clay pottery bowls. Some had index cards attached with detailed information on where they were found, when and even the depth of the soil from where they were retrieved, said public information officer Lt. Steve Brooks of Lake County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO).<br />
Dino Beltran, of the Koi Nation of Northern California, said thieves often take records of what they find to enhance the value of the artifacts. They do their research, looking through resource books and price guides to later sell the items online, at pawn shops or thrift stores.<br />
“There’s a large black market for these items,” he said.<br />
Originally, law enforcement officers had responded to a report of an inappropriate letter to a 14-year-old, allegedly written by Brian Gene Smith. The 41-year-old suspect was standing behind his white van with the double doors open behind a business in the 16000 block of Main Street in Lower Lake when the deputy contacted him just before noon.<br />
According to police reports, the deputy noticed that Smith was exhibiting the signs and symptoms of being under the influence. As he neared the van, the deputy smelled the scent of marijuana emitting from it and saw a bag with pot when he looked inside.<br />
Upon searching the van, he found drug paraphernalia in the form of a glass pipe stained with a white residue consistent with methamphetamine in the stem and a brown substance in the bowl, Brooks stated.<br />
The deputy continued to search the van when he discovered the Native American artifacts, Brooks said. He also found a flash drive which allegedly contained images of Smith holding a rifle and another unidentified man holding obsidian points.</blockquote>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.6520004272461px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; widows: 1;">
</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.6520004272461px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; widows: 1;">
</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.6520004272461px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; widows: 1;">
</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.6520004272461px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; widows: 1;">
</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.6520004272461px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; widows: 1;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.6520004272461px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; widows: 1;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Larry Rothfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14525764497697221380noreply@blogger.com0