Curbing Illicit Antiquities Trade "Fanning the Flames of National Socialism"

In his own mind, veteran coin dealer
Wayne Sayles is "fighting Nazis"

An International Roundtable organized by the Walk of Truth organization on “Art Trafficking and Restitution - lessons from Cyprus and Afghanistan” at the Peace Palace, the Hague is discussed by veteran dugup dealer Wayne Sayles (Cultural Property Observer professional legal blog, February 1, 2014 at 4:30 PM):

Put a bunch of these folks in a room together and give them an impressive or incomprehensible title and you fan the flames of National Socialism. Since [Paul Barford] is bound to go on another rant about my "Nazi" slurs, let me refer anyone who cares to "Archaeology Under Dictatorship", Galaty and Watkinson eds. where that very subject is discussed in no less than five of the essays. Another unbiased treatise supporting that view is "The Nation and its Ruins" (Oxford University Press) by archaeologist Yannis Hamilakis. What happened at the Hague looks to me like window dressing for the main event.

No doubt in Nuremberg. Here is the round table (video). Not a swastika in sight. But for Mr Sayles the Walk of Truth organization is "incomprehensible" and "National Socialist". The obvious context of this remarks is that to its eternal shame Sayles' own organization has in the pursuit of the business interests of its US dealer members actively opposed measures to prevent trafficking of ancient "art" objects from both US-occupied Afghanistan and Cyprus. They do not want to see the imposition of restrictions on the free trade in freshly dug up ("surfaced") artefacts from these countries.

Yes indeed, Paul Barford is very likely to "go on" about an old man's empty-headed application of his Nazi slurs aimed at cultural heritage professionals and activists. They are totally inappropriate and say more about the state of mind of those who clamour with one voice and march as one body under the anti-academist flag of the ACCG. Sayles wants to see himself as leading a Free America Crusade against evil Nazi forces.  In order to support his delusions he refers "anyone who cares" about what he thinks  (actually, I would question whether this was in fact very many)  to two academic books:

Galaty and Watkinson eds., Archaeology Under Dictatorship, "where that very subject is discussed in no less than five of the essays".
and  Yannis Hamilakis The Nation and its Ruins -  "Another unbiased treatise supporting that view" quite what "view" is of course not specified by Sayles.

Not insignificant is that both books appear, one under the other on the page of the ACCG website devoted to written-to-order book reviews (by ACCG employee John Hooker) and one wonders whether Sayles based his assertion of reading the books themselves, or just their Hookerian reviews. In any case the do not substantiuate Sayles' claim that there is anything "National Socialist" about attempts to prevent smuggling of cultural property.

On the contrary, in the lee of a wave of interest in the "Monuments men" of the Second World War, we can perhaps see the ACCG "they-are-against-us-so-they-must-all-be-Nazis" stereotype as collapsing under the weight of its own oversimplification. Sayles' Nazis are comic-book villains, stereotypes, far removed from any of the nuances of what the Nazi regime was doing with smuggled art and other cultural property.  The Monuments Men and Women were not trying to undo the effects of Nazi "cultural property retentionism"  as Sayles simplistically depicts it, but actually locating items taken and then shipped out of the country ("internationalising" them) by selfish individuals for their own enjoyment and profit. In other words Nazis doing exactly what modern dodgy dealers and collectors do, handling looted objects smuggled from one country to the next. This is precisely what the round table discussed above wants to stop. the "Monuments men" film may lead us to revisit Mr Sayles' slurs and attacks and ask, who in the world of collecting today are "behaving like Nazis"?


* "Walk of Truth unites people on the path to a better world by creating an independent platform which enables respectful dialogue between people living in conflict areas. Due to its universal nature, culture offers people a common language". Actually, fostering intercultural "understanding" is more or less what the ACCG say is the justification of their collecting activities, though in their case it is some strange form of Dialogue through Taking.