Hong Kong discussed at ARCA Conference

'2013 ARCA Art and Cultural Heritage Conference: Senior Police Inspector Toby Bull on “Property of a Hong Kong Gentleman, Art Crime in Hong Kong – Buyer Beware”...', ARCA blog August 21, 2013 In an article about ARCA’s Art and Cultural Heritage Conference (June 21-23, 2013), held in the ancient Umbrian town of Amelia, there is a discussion of the presentation of Toby Bull, a Senior Inspector with the Hong Kong Police Force, who presented “Property of a Hong Kong Gentleman, Art Crime in Hong Kong – Buyer Beware”, discussing the black-market antiquities trade and the free port of Hong Kong, often used as a "way station for much of China’s exported artifacts on their journey to collections abroad". Much of the trade seems to be in the hands of organized gangs, involved in corruption and other crimes. Tomb robbing in China involves diggers, equipment, and fences (middleman to sell the objects) and requires a multi-layered network.

According to Inspector Bull, criminal networks know how to move stolen art or illicitly dug-up antiquities because they already have the knowledge of the best ‘routes’ to get the illicit merchandise across the HK border, thanks in large part to their experience from drug trafficking. "The idea that these are art-loving criminals is risible, as they are only interested in the money that comes from their various nefarious activities," Inspector Bull said. "The trade in antiquities (be they real or fake) is part of highly organized criminal enterprise structures. The people perpetrating these crimes are your commonplace criminals – no more, no less, but businessmen too, as they have realized that there is still a lot of money to be made in this type of trafficking and far less harsh penalties if caught than with drugs, for example.[...] “If it’s (the artifact) not proven to be stolen, objects can be legally exported, changing from illicit to licit,” Inspector Bull said. “Once entered into auction catalogues, the objects are often shown to be from a private collection in Hong Kong.”

It should be noted that the free trade of antiquities from Hong Kong is frequently cited by lobbyists of the dugup antiquities trade, who seldom mention how items from the earlier civilizations many thousands of kilometres to the north came to be in the Hong Kong Free Port. Perhaps they should ask Inspector Bull.