.
Once again, I'd like to remind interested readers about the "Lootbusters" webpage which has been considerably enlarged since I last mentioned it, there's pictures and brief descriptions of stuff from a number of popular "source countries" for the antiquities trade: Italy, Greece, Egypt, Iraq and Iran of course, and lots from Turkey and Israel. Then there is Libya, Jordan and breaking news on Syria. There's even some stuff robbed from a Canadian Museum and a Munich coin dealer (whatever one might think about these two cases, artefact theft is theft). On the right are topics, like the Pa-Miw shabtis I was getting frustrated about a while back - some still on sale and we are no nearer to knowing where they came from and how they got on the market. Then there is a bit on those Jordanian 'lead codices' reminding us that the boundary between undocumented antiquity and fake antiquity is rarely clear. I realised the other day that I'd never really done a proper presentation of the Sevso Hoard on this blog but Lootbusters has some super photos of the pieces in all their shinyness. Then there is a whole chunk of stuff about Nazi cultural loot.
Despite the amount of work that I know has gone into this and the number of items listed, it is difficult not to reflect that this is just the tip of the iceberg. A lot of stuff which was buried is clandestinely dug up, clandestinely taken out of the country disguised as something else, appears on a shadowy market and disappears into closely-guarded private collections. All this material is passing under the radar, much of this material never was on any inventory. Resources like Lootbusters and this blog are trying to draw attention to these problems. Well done to the Lootbusters team, keep them coming.
Once again, I'd like to remind interested readers about the "Lootbusters" webpage which has been considerably enlarged since I last mentioned it, there's pictures and brief descriptions of stuff from a number of popular "source countries" for the antiquities trade: Italy, Greece, Egypt, Iraq and Iran of course, and lots from Turkey and Israel. Then there is Libya, Jordan and breaking news on Syria. There's even some stuff robbed from a Canadian Museum and a Munich coin dealer (whatever one might think about these two cases, artefact theft is theft). On the right are topics, like the Pa-Miw shabtis I was getting frustrated about a while back - some still on sale and we are no nearer to knowing where they came from and how they got on the market. Then there is a bit on those Jordanian 'lead codices' reminding us that the boundary between undocumented antiquity and fake antiquity is rarely clear. I realised the other day that I'd never really done a proper presentation of the Sevso Hoard on this blog but Lootbusters has some super photos of the pieces in all their shinyness. Then there is a whole chunk of stuff about Nazi cultural loot.Despite the amount of work that I know has gone into this and the number of items listed, it is difficult not to reflect that this is just the tip of the iceberg. A lot of stuff which was buried is clandestinely dug up, clandestinely taken out of the country disguised as something else, appears on a shadowy market and disappears into closely-guarded private collections. All this material is passing under the radar, much of this material never was on any inventory. Resources like Lootbusters and this blog are trying to draw attention to these problems. Well done to the Lootbusters team, keep them coming.
Thank you - the Italian material is going up a bit slowly ... and we still don't have enough photos of the Greek material, but ...
ReplyDeleteWe're also starting an outreach to talk to collectors about collecting responsibly, trying to explain some of the issues to them.
Thank you Lootbusters team.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck with your outreach.