Torlonia Collection to go back on Display in Italy

The famous Torlonia collection will go back on display in Italy. The collection has been discussed here before, once in connection with the resurfacing of an item deriving from a 1983 theft and more recently because of an odd law suit filed by the Aboutaams (Swiss Antiquities Dealer Files $77 Million Suit Against Getty Museum - artnet News Jan 17th 2017).

The Torlonia collection, which comprises 620 statues and sculptures, has been described as the world's most important private collection of classical art – but almost no one has been able to admire it since it was buried in the basement of the namesake aristocratic family in Rome in the 1970s. The Italian government has now announced that decades of negotiations with the Torlonia family were brought to a successful ending and an agreement to unveil the works has been reached. [...] The precious items, including marbles, bronzes and alabasters dating back to the 5th century BC, were amassed by Giovanni Torlonia in the 19th century. Torlonia, a skilful financier, became an influential figure within the Roman upper classes thanks to his banking activities that won him a fortune and an aristocratic title bestowed on his family by Pope Pius VI. Also an avid art collector, he used defaults on loans to grab invaluable works from some of Italy's most decadent nobles. [...] The masterpieces were exhibited in the family's private museum in Rome up to 1976, when the Torlonias emptied the palace to redevelop it into an apartment building. The lucrative project was blocked by authorities but the collection has since remained sealed inside the basement of another property in the Italian capital. The family has long resisted government attempts to return the artworks to the public.

One of the holiest sites in Christianity has reopened in time for Easter

The centrepiece of the Holy Fire ritual

In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the Aedicule, constructed over the presumed site of Jesus’s burial and resurrection, was at risk of collapsing. Its marble cladding, last rebuilt in 1810 after a fire destroyed the shrine’s exterior, was quick to destabilise as a result of poor drainage, humidity and constant use. It has now been conserved (Mary Pelletier, 'Jesus’s tomb has been restored' Apollo magazine, 28th March 2017).

Since 1947, an incongruent iron cage-like structure, put in place by British Mandate authorities, supported the Edicule. Its marble walls were blackened by the build-up of soot from the church’s many candles and lanterns, and the wear and tear of centuries of pilgrimage were evident both inside and out. Incredibly, the tomb remained open to pilgrims and tourists throughout the year-long, €3.7 million renovation. The conservation team from the National Technical University of Athens, headed by Antonia Moropoulou, worked day and night to assess the tomb’s structural decay, and carry out scientifically appropriate rehabilitation techniques. This Easter, pilgrims will see the Edicule as it appeared 200 years ago. The 70-year old iron structure put in place by the British has disappeared. The marble cladding was removed, cleaned and reinforced with titanium supports, and the Edicule’s onion-style dome design was restored to its original blues and greys. In October 2016, the team uncovered the tomb itself, and confirmed the base marble slab dates back to the 4th century Constantinian period. And for the first time in history, the frescoes decorating the entryway’s Chapel of the Angel were cleaned and revealed.

“It’s time to fight like your world depends on it”

An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power:

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An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power Trailer (2017) Official - Paramount Pictures

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This is the follow-up to Al Gore and Davis Guggenheim’s Oscar-winning 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Paramount will release the Participant Media documentary on July 28.

US State Department in Meltdown Under Trump?

The US State Department is charged with the administration of US cultural property protection measures in a country with one of the biggest markets for antiquities, so it is a matter of some concern to all of us involved in international heritage issues that there seem to be a number of doubts about just what it is up to two months into the new administration. A shocking picture is painted by a recent Washington Post article (Anne Gearan and Carol Morello, 'Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spends his first weeks isolated from an anxious bureaucracy' Washington Post March 30th 2017).

President Trump’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former ExxonMobil chief executive is described as:

isolated, walled off from the State Department’s corps of bureaucrats in Washington and around the world. His distant management style has created growing bewilderment among foreign officials who are struggling to understand where the United States stands on key issues. It has sown mistrust among career employees at State, who swap paranoid stories about Tillerson that often turn out to be untrue. And it threatens to undermine the power and reach of the State Department, which has been targeted for a 30 percent funding cut in Trump’s budget. Many have expressed alarm that Tillerson has not fought harder for the agency he now leads.

We recall also the suspicious lack of transparency evidenced by the cancellation of press briefings. Tillerson remains the only Senate-confirmed official selected by Trump anywhere inside the State Department building. His political advisers have little foreign policy experience and little pull at the White House, current and former officials said. What longterm effects this will have on the State Department's Cultural Heritage Center (CHC) and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and their cultural heritage projects remains yet to be seen.

Washington Washes its Hands

The U.N. ambassador of the US says that under President Trump, the focus of Washington was no longer on removing Assad in Syria. So what was the financing and arming of the rebels which caused the Syrian war all about/for then? Hundreds of thousands of people dead, five million displaced people a country in ruins, split between radicalised factions? America, what have you done?

Vignette: So what now?

Brexit and Metal Detecting (2)

New Yorker on Brexit:

So, a bit like metal detecting really, done in the UK mainly by older blokes, of social groups C2 and D, and vocally xenonophobic. Meanwhile the rest of us have to put up with the destructive effects of their self-centred and exploitive hobby.

Do You Get to Keep What You Find?

Do You Get to Keep What You Find? by: Eric Cline (extract from his book 'Three stones make a wall'):

As far as I am concerned, and I believe that I speak for many of my fellow archaeologists as well, ancient artifacts are part of our collective heritage, and so we can only hope that the new legislation and agreements will help to curtail the looting going on around the world. More can and should be done, from passing legislation to guarding excavated sites and protecting known but unexcavated remains. Those outside the profession can help by not succumbing to the temptation of purchasing an ancient artifact offered in a Middle Eastern market or seen on eBay. Because everything that we excavate, study, and write about took place so long ago, the question that should concern all of us is how we can stem the loss of knowledge about our own shared past before it is too late.

Scrutiny of Scholars’ Role in Art Sales

Ralph Blumenthal and Tom Mashberg, 'Expert Opinion or Elaborate Ruse? Scrutiny for Scholars’ Role in Art Sales' New York Times March 30, 2017

They have long been oddly far-flung collaborators. She was a Colorado museum consultant known for her esoteric lectures on ancient gold adornments or nomadic Chinese tribes. He was a buccaneering Bangkok art collector who trekked through Cambodia’s war-ravaged jungles in the 1970s, exploring moss-encrusted temples built a thousand years earlier, during the heyday of Khmer civilization. Over the course of a 30-year friendship, Emma C. Bunker, 87, and Douglas A. J. Latchford, 86, became authorities on Southeast Asian antiquities whose approval could ensure an object’s value and legitimacy. Together they wrote three seminal volumes — “Adoration and Glory: The Golden Age of Khmer Art,” “Khmer Gold” and “Khmer Bronzes” — that are core reference works for other experts.

Artifacts Out of Context: Their Curation, Ownership, and Repatriation

Journal of Eastern MediterraneanArchaeology and Heritage Studies Forum: Artifacts Out of Context: Their Curation, Ownership, and Repatriation

Introduction (*Open Access for 3 Months*)

Ann E. Killebrew and Sandra A. Scham
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies 5 (1): 1–6

Transnational Crime Made a Trillion Dollars in 2016

Kevin Knodell, 'Transnational Crime Made a Trillion Dollars in 2016' War Is Boring Mar 29 2017, Politicians and cops are doing very little to stop it

The result is a global shadow economy that’s hard to trace, but whose windfalls often end up in the hands of unsavory characters. They use the money — which they often hide in shell corporations — to bribe politicians and finance insurgencies, hardening the conditions that allow lucrative criminal enterprises to function in the first place. “The international community has paid too little attention to combating the money in transnational crime, instead preferring to focus on the materials or the manifestations of the crimes,” GFI president Raymond Baker noted.

So, in antiquities cases, the authorities think it's enough to 'repatriate' the material evidencem, but not go after those responsible. Time after time. T[the authorities are accessories to the perpetuation of the crime. ;br -:

Bruce Wharton on 'Protecting Cultural Heritage'

Bruce Wharton (Acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, U.S. State Dept): 'Protecting Cultural Heritage is vital to the United States and the World'. Video here. A good question then, is why the US does not fully implement the 1970 UNESCO Convention instead of its CCPIA half-hearted selective implementation in the case of cultural property illegally exported from a handful of countries. STOP the hypocrisy.

Egypt Should Flog off the Past?

'Egypt is overflowing with antiquities. So much so that they are stuffed away to moulder in warehouses, sometimes forgotten and allowed to deteriorate, never to be seen again by the public or by researchers' writes Patrick Werr ('Selling precious artefacts could top up Egypt’s coffers', The National March 29, 2017).

Why not package up some of these artefacts and organise their sale to foreigners or Egyptians, complete with documents telling the buyer where the item was found and why it is significant? The government could add tens of millions of dollars to its coffers each year. [...] The objects could be given official registration with papers, which would make them more valuable on the international market since their provenance would be documented, making them legally tradable. 

And how long will they remain associated with such papers? Is this not a model too close to the PAS? Where could it go wrong, eh?

In any case, such moves should gain the approval of the main stakeholder, the general public in Egypt, it is their identity at stake:

It will probably not happen. Last week a television station asked in an online poll if Egypt should sell antiquities to solve its economic crisis. Critics of the government immediately went on the attack, accusing it of being behind the poll. Said one online opposition newspaper: "After the regime sold the country ... it’s going to sell our history and civilisation."

Selling precious artefacts could top up Egypt’s coffers

"Egypt is overflowing with antiquities. So much so that they are stuffed away to moulder in warehouses, sometimes forgotten and allowed to deteriorate, never to be seen again by the public or by researchers" writes Patrick Werr ("Selling precious artefacts could top up Egypt’s coffers" The National Business March 29, 2017) .

Why not package up some of these artefacts and organise their sale to foreigners or Egyptians, complete with documents telling the buyer where the item was found and why it is significant? The government could add tens of millions of dollars to its coffers each year. It’s not like Egypt isn’t selling antiquities now. The problem is that the sellers are not the government, but rather organised looters who have been plundering the country’s archaeological sites. In the process they have been destroying important historical information that proper archaeology would glean from the objects’ physical contexts. The pillaging has been going on full force since the 2011 uprising, with digging and looting in sites from Alexandria to Aswan. [....] Egypt has been getting little benefit from many of the artefacts. When an archaeological site is excavated, typically the archaeologists are required to place all the objects they find in warehouses. The public is not allowed to visit and view them, and they usually are not accessible for study. Even the archaeologists working on the project often can’t get back to study them once they have delivered them to the magazine. By now, the number of such pieces hidden away in countless magazines probably runs into the hundreds of thousands. The objects are often moved with corresponding loss of information and occasionally stolen.

There are so many of these objects that most no longer have use in research, museums or academia. Until the 1970s the Egyptian Museum in Cairo had a sale room for surplus antiquities, and until the ‘80s foreign archaeologists excavating a site were given a proportion of the finds (partage).

One important effect of again legalising the export of artefacts would be to direct at least a part of the current illicit trade into official channels. Instead of smugglers reaping the gains, the revenue would go to the state treasury. This is particularly urgent. Since the collapse of tourism after the 2011 uprising and subsequent political turmoil, ticket sales have plummeted and antiquities have been starved of funds. Egypt needs more revenue to operate its museums, restore more important artefacts and preserve and protect its main archaeological sites. The objects could be given official registration with papers, which would make them more valuable on the international market since their provenance would be documented, making them legally tradable. They could be digitally scanned before the sale, and conditions could be put that the buyer will make the object available to researchers if necessary.

Article 50 Solves Europe's Problems with Metal Detecting

"It's the day in which Britain lost more
power and influence than in any other day of my peacetime life”
- Lord Heseltine

Article 50 will be activated by a rabid Tory suicide squad today:

At least that solves Europe's metal detectorist problem. Goodbye ECMD.

US State Dept. Halts Press Briefings

 The US State Department has stopped holding press briefings, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Officials told the newspaper that State will not hold video briefings for at least two weeks. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his agency have been under fire in recent weeks over a lack of press access.

Bode Coin Thieves Went for Bling, not History

The huge Canadian million-dollar coin that was stolen from the Bode Museum in Berlin last night was just next to their portrait denier of Charlemagne and an important Valentinianus/Valens gold medallion, and quite a few other coins, seal matrices, and medallions whose value is not in their bullion. These were not taken. 

2017 ECMD Conference Artefact hunting rally

2017 ECMD Conference combined with Commercial Artefact Taking Rally

The European Council for Metal Detecting is going to hold a conference in Norfolk in September, 'the 3 day event will combine detecting and debate':

Friday 22nd September 2017Detecting all day for MDF members and local clubs.ECMD delegates at Conference at the Castle Museum for most of the day.Saturday 23rdDetecting all day for allSunday 24thDetecting all day for MDF members and local clubsECMD delegates detecting up to 10.30am, Conference to 1pm, then detecting afterwards. Land should be very good, hopefully a lot of it and undetected, but cannot promise on that. I am working on a minimum of one acre per person. Day 1 might have around 80 acres, Day 2 that same land PLUS another 80 acres, Day 3, all that land PLUS another 80 acres. So something fresh for each day. [...] Location- "somewhere in Norfolk" [...] Hotels and other accommodation info will be published for our overseas visitors from Bulgaria, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, France, Denmark, Croatia, Spain, Ireland, Jersey etc. Nearer the time if there are any local detectorists who may be able to help out with accommodation, then that will help. I am sure the gesture will be reciprocal. The proceeds from the detecting will help to finance the work of the ECMD throughout Europe to look after our hobby and create a European Detecting Community. This is an ideal opportunity to meet new friends and perhaps plan some overseas detecting later on. The ECMD Conference will have some guest speakers, perhaps Michael Lewis of the Portable Antiquities Scheme who will explain how the PAS has been so successful throughout Europe, 

Yeah? And if he does show his face again at such an event, are any archaeologists going along to ask him a few pertinent questions in public?

Vignette: Thousands of artefact grabbers, some foreign, about to clear out a site at Newbury (photo Dick Stout). How many are in the PAS records? A mere 68.

Reasons to Doubt: Misleading Assertions in the London Antiquities Market

Tsirogiannis, C. (2016), ‘Reasons to Doubt: Misleading Assertions in the London Antiquities Market’, Journal of Art Crime. Spring. 67–72.

Over the last few years of media reporting on my identifications of looted antiquities in the market, the commentary has become more and more predictable; I am quotes and so is a spokesperson from Christie’s, whenever that auction house is found to be selling antiquities depicted in the photographic archives confiscated from convicted dealers. It is time to examine those positions and comments more closely.

Free PDF: http://traffickingculture.org/publications/tsirogiannis-christos-2016-reasons-to-doubt-misleading-assertions-in-the-london-antiquities-market-journal-of-art-crime-spring-67-72/ …

Arrr, Gittink Deeper on Pasture: Grubbing out Orl the Goodies!!

"every single weekend I will hit it",

CLEAN_SKRUB

Reading the 'Code of Practice for Responsible Artefact Hunting is not something many artefact hunters n Britain' do with any understanding. Probably the shorter sentences of the "close the gates and fill in yer 'oles" NCMD one is the most these poor lost souls can manage. Here's one who's not internalised what is considered best practice (on a metal detecting forum near you,  CLEAN_SKRUB » Mon Mar 20, 2017 11:03 pm)

If this is the shallow stuff, what lies deeper in the unploughed
site? Those who claim that the Heritage Action Artefact
Erosion Counter is 'wrong' need to look at the implications
of photos like this showing what one tekkie can take
out of the archaeological record in just one day.

I've acquired a very very large pasture field, and a little bit of ploughed land north of it, the field is of extreme importance, and i know there must be a fair bit under it, but with me not being used to the deus i'm sure i'm not getting its full potential. I was running on program 2 i think its deus fast, found a few silver buttons but nothing too deep. =P~ I'm sure there has to be hammered in this field and it hasnt been ploughed in a hell of a long time, [...] Anyhow i tried using the new deep setting but i cant understand it at all :S it feels like using pinpoint constantly... i don't understand the way it displays and how loud it is. My main question really is can anyone link me with some valuble material, that will help me get the max depth i need in this pasture field? i know its all going to be a learning curve but i'm game for it, i never give up on a field and i know there has to be something in it due to the location. Anyhow here are the pictures of what i found on the field the other day ::g :D From the pictures below i found the two big silver buttons in the field, the big buckle and leather, and the two iron objects im unsure what they are, both of them i found together, all the other objects lead etc... i found in the little bit of ploughed north of the field of interest.

I'd be interested in hearing some comments from the archaeologists in Britain who support artefact hunting. Come on guys, tell us what you think on reading that sort of thing. Why leave it up to your critics to have the monopoly on things to say?

Tossers, Crackpots, Conspiracy Theorists and Dealers Attempt to Instruct the CPAC

Find out what the Trumpland public said about CulturalProperty MOUs with Belize, Guatemala and Mali:

 10 Comments received

Two on Belize, three on Mali and five on Guatemala.

There being no ancient coins involved, we get a cross section of substantive comments from people who know rather than the cut-and-past knee-jerks. But there is always one, isn't there?

It is my understanding that in the upcoming renewal of the MOU with Guatemala there may be mention of imposing import restrictions on coins minted in Guatemala during the Spanish Colonial and early Republican period. I believe that this action is unwarranted and inappropriate for the following reasons:
1. These coins were minted in large quantities on machines with designs mandated by the Spanish or other governing authorities not exclusive to Guatemala. These facts remove them from consideration as archaeological or ethnological objects.
2. They were minted in quantities much larger than needed for local circulation and in the cases of Spanish Colonial (1733-1821) and Central American Republic issues were used and recognized as international trade coins. The Spanish Colonial issues circulated on every inhabited continent in the world. Far more of these coins left Guatemala in world trade than remained at home to circulate.
3. As further examples of the truly international nature of this coinage it must be pointed out that Guatemalan minted coinage was considered by law as legal tender in the United States from 1775 until 1857.
4. Guatemalan minted coinage flowed to Asia freely on the Manila Galleon trade until 1815 and then on private merchant trading vessels for many years thereafter. To this day coins bearing the Guatemalan mint marks appear from coin lots in the Orient. Some even bear "chop marks" which attest to having circulated in Asia for more than a hundred years. In addition early Republican issues of the Central American Republic are frequently encountered with Philippine countermarks which were applied by Spanish authorities 1832-1837. The countermarks allowed the coins to pass as legal tender in the Philippines. This example further validates these coins status as International trade money. Thank you for your consideration of my input in this matter.
Mike Dunigan

Mike Dunigan is, of course, a dealer in 'rare coins' from Texas. The origin of this lunacy is not far to seek:

Thank you for this opportunity to comment on the proposed renewal of the MOU with Guatemala. There has been "chatter" about an effort to extend import restrictions to Spanish colonial and early republican era coins of Guatemala and other South and Central American countries. Any such effort should be rejected for the simple reason that such coins are not typically archaeological objects as defined under the CPIA. Nor do they meet the definition of ethnographic artifacts found in that statute. Such coins were produced on a massive scale with similar designs and identical weight standards with coins issued in Spain and other South American countries. These coins were widely used in international commerce. Indeed, the terms "piece of eight" and "two bits" came into our language because such coins were legal tender in the United States until 1857. They refer to the "Spanish dollar" of Eight Reales, two parts of which were equivalent to 25 cents. Surely, Guatemala's national patrimony is not endangered by the pillage of such coins that circulated extensively not only in the Americas but far beyond in the Far East. In addition, there is no concerted international response of other market nations restricting these coins. Finally, restriction would hurt appreciation of Guatemalan culture not only by Americans, but immigrants from Guatemala and other Latin American countries as well. Let me also comment about less drastic remedies that should be considered before renewing restrictions. Looting is best addressed at the source. Two obvious ways to do so are to require American archaeologists to pay their workers a fair living wage and put into place security measures in place for the long off season. As obvious as these measures may be, they have never been made requirements of any MOU as far as I know. Thank you for your consideration of my views.
Peter Tompa

What a tosser. It is interesting that only one dimwit coin fondler was taken in by this gratuitously-generated 'chatter'. And then there is this:

This is the proof that the US is being gripped by the politically motivated (read, anti-US) agitators working for the the political extreme Left wing of the Heritage circus to the detriment of US citizens. By allowing this bunkum, the US deserves all that's thundering down the track towards them.
John Howland

The nature of this 'proof' is not elucidated upon by this apparently intoxicated and deluded 'Make America Great Again' conspiracy theorist. I disagree, America does not deserve the redneck president Donald Trump.


Vignette: Guatemala coin

US Indiscriminate antiquities Trade with Turkey and Egypt Worth Lots

This stolen or looted mummy hand, dating to the eighth century B.C.,
was brought into the United States from Egypt.

Credit: John Denmark/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

About $50 million worth of artefacts and antiques were shipped from both Egypt and Turkey to the United States in 2016 — the highest annual value from each of those countries in at least 20 years, according to U.S. Census Bureau documents. The artifacts, totaling about $100 million between the two countries, were imported "for consumption" and not for temporary display in a museum, the documents say (Owen Jarus, '$100 Million in Artifacts Shipped from Egypt and Turkey to US in 2016' Live Science March 21, 2017).

Most of the artifacts were shipped to New York City, where numerous antiquities dealers, auction houses and art galleries are based. It can be difficult to determine whether a shipment of artifacts was recently looted, law-enforcement officials told Live Science.
In addition, the actual resale value of the shipments may be higher, because the values seen in the documents are simply those that importers declared, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said. Audits are occasionally conducted on shipments, but the spokesperson declined to say how often they occur. [See Photos of the Artifacts from Egypt and Turkey]

The article details more slimeball trade in human body parts. Trump's America or not, portableised pieces of human corpseshave no place in private 'ancient art' collections. These dealers and the lobbyists who support them need locking up.

Screwdriver Attack on Gainsborough Painting at National Gallery

Since he lived and worked near where I spent a large part of my early life, I have a rather personal interest in Thos Gainsborough's works (UK: Man charged over screwdriver scratch attack on Gainsborough painting at National Gallery). Let the screwdriver heritage hooligan hope his paths never cross mine (update: named as Keith Gregory, 63, of no fixed abode).

Vignette: the conundrum of providing free access to art. 

Madness

The price of fear:

 

the substance of civilization itself...

The Fate of Material in Private Collections

Due to a persistent problem of the reprehensible, inexcusable and totally irresponsible and careless lack of proper documentation of huge amounts of material in personal collections, not only are collecting histories lost, but also the very identity of the objects themselves is obscured. this is well illustrated by a case described in the press of one object that was nearly discarded by the heirs of a collector (BBC 'Ancient Egyptian bronze cat salvaged from bin' 19 February 2015)

A rare artefact from ancient Egypt nearly ended up in the bin, as its owners cleared out a relative's house in Cornwall thinking it was junk. Luckily, local auctioneer David Hay salvaged the 2,500 year-old Egyptian cat bronze cat from the bin realising its significance.Jon Kay explains how the cat made its way to Penzance.

'business links with Howard Carter'....

Antiquities Trafficking: Criminality without Borders

Lynda Albertson, Rome, March 21 at h18:00

Peddlars Awake

On Friday, the war in Syria will become longer than WWII

On Friday, the war in Syria will have become longer than WWII

 

Huge number of non-reporting artefact hunters in UK

According to Sam Hardy: "there are perhaps around 24,397 licit metal detectorists and 3,500 illicit metal detectorists in England and Wales", which is bad news since the Heritage Action Artefact Erosion Counter assumes 8000 all together - if Sam is right, it means the counrter is ticking away 3.5 times too slowly (which affects those totals pretty significvantly and makes the PAS database look even more like a drop in the ocean).

Treasure Hunters Damage Ancient Sussex Land

Holes ledft on site by Treasure hunters

Police say an ancient hill-fort on the South Downs is being damaged by treasure hunters illegally using metal detectors. Treasure hunters could damage ancient Sussex land 

Shame on those Treasure hunters, trashing ancient sites just to pocket things for themselves .

Bad news for Greedy Torah Peddlers

Several times on this blog have I referred to Torah scroll peddlers, who claim to be 'saving' these sacred objects from something or other. In very few cases however has there been any information indicating that these entrepreneurs are following the required procedure to bring these items out of the source country. Anyway, in this case they certainly were not: Roi Kais, 'Tunisian authorities foil smuggling of 15th-century Torah scroll' Jewish World 11.03.17
Authorities from the North African country have arrested a group of suspects belonging to an international smuggling ring;

 Tunisian authorities announced that they prevented a 15th-century Torah scroll from being [...] transferred to a European country as part of an antiquities smuggling operation.  During a press conference, Tunisian National Guard spokesman Khalifa al-Shibani presented the rare Torah scroll, which measures 37m long and 47cm wide. According to al-Shibani, unidentified foreign elements attempted to buy the scroll [...] 

Go on, name and shame them. 

Stolen Baghdad Item Turns up in Morocco

It is not clear if this is the item concerned

Eric Febvre, 'Après la toile italienne, une œuvre d’art irakienne rare retrouvée au Maroc' LeSite info 10 mars 2017. An item stolen from the Baghdad Museum, during the 2003 invasion of that country by the American troops has surfaced in Morocco. It arrived there carried by a 38-year old Moroccan immigrant to Italy returning home. It seems the item had been in Italy for over a decade, and was on sale for 6 million dirhams (597207 USD). The seller was a faqih (expert in Islamic Law), who had obtained it from the immigrant carrier. Information about the item eventually reached the headquarters of the National Brigade of Judicial Police (BNPJ) in Casablanca which launched an investigation.

A Must-read About Heritage Pocketers

This is a must-read:

Hardy, S. A. (2017). Quantitative analysis of open-source data on metal detecting for cultural property: Estimation of the scale and intensity of metal detecting and the quantity of metal-detected cultural goods. Cogent Social Sciences, 3(1), 1298397. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2017.1298397  Published: 10 March 2017

I was privileged to see a draft of the text and was very excited by it. It seems that the questions that Nigel Swift and I started asking a decade ago about the numbers, despite the best efforts of the pro-collecting lobby to dismiss, ignore, avoid the issue are at last being seriously addressed in academia. Well, what (not) a surprise, what Nigel and I have been saying for about a decade and a half has been borne out by Dr Hardy's research:

the statistics suggest that more people engage in unethical but legal detecting under permissive regulation than engage in unethical and illegal detecting under restrictive or prohibitive regulation. So, even if illicit trade is technically reduced by the act of legalising it, cultural harm is increased [...] permissive regulation is ineffective in minimising harm to  heritage assets, whether in the form of licit misbehaviour or criminal damage. Restrictive and prohibitive regulation appear to be more effective, insofar as there is less overall loss of archaeological evidence.

Now, what is the international academic community and heritage professionals going to do about it? Wait another decade, maybe as more and more of the portable heritage is selfishly pocketed without record? Pat another few thousand artefact hunters on the back for showing a few items here and there?

Vignette: pocketers are causing huge heritage losses.

ADCAEA 'Sands of Time' Gandhara Sculpture

A Gandhara grey Schist Head of a Buddha, ca. 2nd Century AD $6,500 USD This well modeled head, with its youthful Hellenic features and wavy hair [...] must have been part of a major monastic center in the ancient province of Gandhara, in modern-day Pakistan/Afghanistan.[...] Provenance: Private Boston collection, acquired while in Pakistan during the late 1950's.

No mention of any documentation is made - yet according to the laws created in newly-independent Pakistan (Mughal'Heritage Legislation in Pakistan'), for this to have been legally exported by any person who had somehow 'acquired' it 'while in Pakistan' such documents should have existed (the Antiquities (export control) Act 1947). In what manner did the dealer handling this object make certain that this documentation existed? Or has the dealer bought an item no questions-asked, not having seen - let alone received - any such proof?

Or perhaps the item was exported not as an antiquity but a poor grade copy? The treatment of the hair, that crude shapeless nose with that odd angle at the bridge, the crude treatment of the alar crease and the general lack of proportions, together with the crude rhomboid (and crooked) eyes, do not really look like the real thing. It seems to me looking at this monstrosity that it is likely that somebody has fallen for a scam. Which buyer?

Pink Gang Attack

Antiquities Coalition: 'antiquities looting after a crisis falls into a pattern that repeats itself from Egypt to Iraq':

First the pink gangs then the criminals... but then on to the dealers. 

Gospel of Jesus' Wife Again

For those still interested in this nonsense object, updates on that forged papyrus fragment (pap. Dodge) know to some as Gospel of Jesus' Wife (Mark Goodacre's NT Blog Thursday, March 09, 2017).

Christie’s to close South Kensington saleroom

Christie’s is closing one of its London salerooms at the end of 2017 and scaling back its operations in Amsterdam. This could mean laying off as many as 250 employees (12% of its staff). I hope that includes the supercilious Hooray Henry jerk that so unhelpfully answered my query over the so-called Crosby Garrett Helmet. This move is apparently caused not by people moving away from staff with an unpleasant lack of manners, but is blamed on:

a cooling European market [with] [...]  a shift in sales to new buyers from Europe to Asia and the USA. Christie’s is to open a new gallery in Los Angeles in April. ‘The art market is fast-evolving,’ said CEO Guillaume Cerutti. ‘We have been looking at the globalisation of the market in the last decade and need to be present and strong where the clients are.’

Note the emphasis on here 'new' buyers, on expanding the market. I will continue to think that, if my own treatment is anything to go by, it probably is their staff's attitudes that is the root of the problem.

"Ancient book stolen in Syria seized in Turkey"

What looked to them to be an ancient book stolen from a museum was seized by law enforcement officers in the northwestern province of Bursa ( 'Ancient book stolen in Syria seized in Turkey' Hurriyet Daily News  March/08/2017)

The gazelle skin book, embroidered in gold, includes the figures of Mary, Jesus, animals, crosses and other writings. Six people were detained after trying to sell the book, which has been handed over to the Bursa Museum. The operation to seize the book and detain the suspects was launched last week when the gendarmerie received a tip that a 17-page book believed to have been stolen from a museum in Syria was being brought to Bursa to sell on the internet. A surveillance operation was launched against the suspects on the order of prosecutors, and the vehicle carrying the suspects was stopped at a gas station on the Istanbul-Bursa highway on March 7. A Syrian man, along with four Turkish citizens, were detained on charges of smuggling artifacts. 

The seized items

The problem is that the book is one of a series of not-very-clever fakes circulating on this market which Sam Hardy was blogging about last year. They are characterised by several random images and the characteristic chemical treatment intended to simulate ageing. As Sam says  (Fake Christian manuscript, possibly from Syria, in Turkey, seized from Syrian and Turkish traffickers):

There has long been a cottage industry of forged bibles and other such texts from south-eastern Turkey and elsewhere in the region, which are fed into an illicit market that is too large to be sated with the supply of stolen cultural property. Since the outbreak of the conflict(s) in Syria and Iraq, that market has only grown, augmented by collectors who make the excuse that they are conducting “rescue-by-purchase”, as well as by collectors who specifically target crisis antiquities and conflict antiquities. They target such loot because it demonstrates the rarity of the collection and the (both financial and sociopolitical) power of the collector… when the knowingly crisis-exploiting and/or conflict-financing collector is competent enough to buy the real thing, instead of a counterfeit copy. Perhaps the most interesting thing about this everyday case is the everyday use of the internet. And that is only interesting insofar as it reaffirms just how boringly everyday online trafficking of both antiquities and forgeries is.

Vignette: Where Bursa is.

Rolly’s Coin Cleaning Tip

On a blog near you, metal detecting Micheal carelessly mentions:

I used sandpaper in coins..  I suspect that there were more than a few quite scarce ones too…

Rather than a concern with artefact hunting best practice (what the PAS is supposed to be teaching heritage-grabbing oiks), this individual is apparently only concerned about the loss in resale value of the items.

Other detectorists used rock tumblers to 'clean' the historical metal artefacts they dig up, here's a range being sold as 'cleaning equipment' by a south coast dealer.  Needless to say, museum professionals do not use such amateurish methods as UK metal detectorists.

When millions of artefacts are being dug up an 'curated' (I use the term loosely) in scattered ephemeral personal collections in the UK (and worldwide), it is a matter for concern that we so often read material on the forums and blogs that suggests that very few of thee collectors owning such assemblages have any idea at all how to look after the material in their care.  This is no way to treat the archaeological heritage. 

What do UK Schools Teach about British Imperialism, and How?

Over half of Britons are proud of their imperialist past – but how much do they know about it? British colonialists, the orignal economic migrants.

UK Metal Detectorist in a Suit Jailed

A metal detectorist who did not show the landowner what he took from the latter's property and kept it for himself has been jailed (Sam Russell Pete Bainbridge, 'Policeman who stole ancient gold coins he found with metal detector is jailed' Manchester Evening News 8 Mar 2017).

David Cockle, 50, found the Merovingian Tremissis coins in a field in west Norfolk and sold them to a dealer for £15,000. He had entered into a contract with the landowner to split the proceeds of any find 50:50, but failed to tell the landowner of his discovery.
He also failed to tell the coroner, instead selling the coins in three smaller batches to disguise the fact they were treasure [...].

More details emerged in the sentencing hwearing. The coins were part of  the largest find of Merovingian coins in the UK

Judge Rupert Overbury, sentencing at Ipswich Crown Court on Wednesday, said Cockle had more than 30 years of experience as a metal detectorist and knew the legal process he should have followed to declare the find [...]  Cockle was jailed for 16 months and banned from metal detecting for five years. Under the five-year criminal behaviour order, he is also banned from owning metal detecting equipment and from entering into agreements with landowners to use their land for metal detecting. He faces five years in jail if he breaches the order. [...]

One wonders how many other times the archaeological record is distorted by false information arising from the current lax legislation as artefacts are represented as from places other than where they were actually found to chat the landowner of what is theirs by right:

Gerard Pounder, prosecuting, said Cockle had lied about where the coins were found and registered them as being discovered at different sites around the country including Boston, Lincolnshire, Grays, Essex and another near Norwich. He said the coins had a high gold purity, and that Cockle sold the 10 coins for £1,500 each in smaller parcels of two, three and five coins to claim they were not a hoard.

Treasure inquests should be set up to determine the circumstances of finding of artefacts (it appears that coroners are not obliged to do this) and the PAS should ask to see finds release documentation from the landowner for any artefacts they handle. More details emerge about the background:

Nick Bonehill, mitigating, said Cockle was of previous good character, had a successful career in finance before he joined the police and could no longer work in either sector as a result of the dishonesty conviction. Cockle had split from his wife, who also worked for Norfolk Police, in 2012. The court heard he was motivated by his ex-wife’s demands for a £10,000 divorce settlement, but Judge Overbury noted that Cockle had also suffered gambling losses. The coin dealer, who had bought the items in good faith, was left out of pocket by Cockle’s actions, the court heard. A proceeds of crime hearing will take place at a later date. Cockle, who wore a suit and tie, appeared emotionless as he was led down to the cells.

Recognizing Signs of Trafficked Antiquities

Cyrus Vance versus no-questions-asked dealers

Metal Detectorists Spotted in Vicinity of Known Site

Police say people carrying metal detectors were seen leaving woods at the St Helen’s Picnic Site at Santon Downham, near Thetford where lies the site of the former St Helen’s Church (Chris Bishop, 'Was ancient church at Santon Downham, near Thetford, targeted by nighthawks?' Eastern Daily Press 6 March, 2017).

A police rural crime e-mail says: “Nighthawks were found exiting the trees near the church. They were carrying metal detectors and spades. They were challenged but left the area before officers could arrive. A vehicle index was taken and the investigation will continue as possible illegally obtained finds could have been removed from the historic site.” The incident is the latest in a series of suspected raids on heritage sites in Norfolk. [...]  Nighthawks dig up coins and other relics to sell on the black market .

Not all of them, some are raiding known sites simply to add to their own personal artefact collection. Like those that ask the landowner's permission first.

CPAC Meets Again

In Trump's Washington, the next CPAC meeting (with new members and under the aegis of a fundamentally weakened DoS) will be to review proposed extensions of the Belize, Guatemala, Mali cultural property agreements. No doubt Cultural Property Observer will be there promoting his usual 'first found' and 'guard the sites instead of the market' views. 

From the Donkey's Own Mouth

US orange-handed loot
buyers have their say

Over on a dealers' lobbyist's blog in Trumplandia, is an ever-so-revealing comment: 

Michael Davis said...
In light of the current administration's expressed interest in cutting aid to foreign governments, I hope they will recognize MOUs as effectively shifting the enforcement cost of source countries' internal laws onto the backs of U.S. taxpayers and small businesses.

So who should pay to keep smuggled coins off the US market? What 'costs' does not buying smuggled and undocumented artefacts involve for dealers? That the potentially dodgy stuff is cheaper?

First drone footage after Syrian backed forces retake Palmyra.

First drone footage after Syrian backed forces retake Palmyra. Exclusive Ruptly drone footage released on Saturday shows the ancient ruins of Palmyra, two days after the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), backed by the Russian Air Force, liberated the historic city from ISIL.


Posted on You Tube by Ruptly TV 4 mar 2017

so this is the second time ISIL have been in control of Palmyra. the first time there were traces of blowing things up, but few looters' holes/ spoilheaps. Can you spot any here? I cannot (but it should be noted that this footage does not show the cemetery areas).

UPDATE 4th March 2017

Reutwers, 'Less damage to ancient Palmyra than feared, Syrian antiquities chief says' Fri Mar 3, 2017

Fears of a new assault on Palmyra's heritage [had been] raised after pictures in January showed the group had destroyed parts of the Tetrapylon, one of the city's most iconic monuments, and the facade of the second-century Roman Theatre. They had already destroyed other landmarks, including a 1,800-year-old monumental arch, during their first occupation of the city which ended a year ago last March. But Abdulkarim said preliminary photographs and video from the city showed almost no further damage than what was already known. [...] Some of the damage could be repaired, he said. "Except for the previous destruction, the state of the theatre looks good," Abdulkarim said. "Even that destroyed section could be repaired. It had already been restored, and it will be again."

By any Other name...

Quote from a new book out (“Three Stones Make a Wall: The Story of Archaeology,” by Dr. Eric H. Cline):

\
This goes for the UK too, except they call it by another name, they call it 'metal detecting' (sic). This term is preferred to calling a spade a spade. Not calling it Collection-Driven Exploitation of the Archaeological Record, which is what it is, absolves everyone - archaeologists and academics too - from the onerous task of discussing what to do about it. I challenge my reader to find a SINGLE supporter of the Portable Antiquities Scheme (no matter whether they are in Bloomsbury at the time or not) who can explain any other reason why we do not call Collection Driven Exploitation of the Archaeological Record by a name which describeds more exactly what it is and what it is focussed on. Can you? I bet you will not.

So Cline's quote could be modified: "Right now we are seeing the greatest prevalence of collective shutting our eyes to collection-driven exploitation of archaeological sites that has ever been experienced". And that is something we should not, cannot, agree to.

Metaldetecting, Doh

On a metal detecting blog near you we meet this example of why there is absolutely no point trying to treat all metal detectorists as 'partners'. Most of them simply cannot cut the mustard conceptually:

The publication of the so-called Nighthawking Report, undertaken by Oxford Archaeology (OA) at a cost of £60,000 was the best thing that’ happened to the hobby [of collection-driven exploitation of the archaeological record]  in years. This influential report exposed ‘Nighthawking’ in the UK as being almost non-existent. The report confirmed that alleged looting incidents averaged out at less than two a month; but only if one assumes (without hard evidence) the holes in archaeological sites were indeed dug by rouge detectorists; though the more probable explanation being the natural, nightly doings of badgers, rabbits, and the like. The report was effectively, a kick in the teeth for metal detecting’s opponents.

Except the problem is not whether illegal artefact hunting is occurring, because we all know it is - all over the world. The problem is whether collection-driven exploitation opf the archaeological record is something which we should be encouraging, or something we should be striving to stamp out, like bird egging and elephant ivory. But of course very few metal detectorists are able to grasp the connection, or grasp anything much actually.

 

Taking Liberties witjh a Special Relationship

Huddled masses are coming back and taking our history

It looks like the US blog owner missed this comment posted a while ago. Pretty typical of artefact hunters not to have a decent answer to questions like these:

response to “Hoiking With Chicago Ron…”

1. Paul Barford

   Your comment is awaiting moderation.  

   January 26, 2017 at 12:23 pm

   Tell me, your current administration is busy building a wall and passing executive orders to keep immigrants out of your country. What makes you think you have the right to walk into another country like that and just walk off with bits of its history?
   Are ALL of the finds which Chicago Ron’s pals have taken throughout the years responsibly recorded on Britain’s Portable Antiquities Scheme database? Can we have the number of Stan Fleck’s brooch please? Who pays for the records of the finds now in Florida to be made? These finds all jumbled up in a single ‘zip top bag’, I guess – since you do not say – do they have individual findspot details accompanying each of them for the PAS records?
   

Statue Stolen from Berlin Store Turns up in UK

 A late sixth or early fifth century BC Etruscan bronze statuette portraying a warrior with lance and helmet entered Berlin’s state collection in 1860 and was exhibited along with other ancient bronze objects for some eighty years in Berlin's Altes Museum. On the outbreak of the War in 1939 to protect it from bomb damage it was packed and stored in a secure location. Unfortunately it was one of a number of objects stolen in the chaotic aftermath of the Fall of Berlin in 1945. At the end of the war 'some of these storage places were unprotected and there were incidents of theft by civilians and Allied personnel', according to Martin Maischberger, the deputy director of Berlin State Museums’ antiquities collection. This story does however have a happy end, due to the sharp eyes of an unnamed member of the staff of the British Museum which seems to be playing an increasing role as the watchdog of the British antiquities market (Catherine Hickley, 'Ancient bronze statuette lost after the Second World War returns to Berlin' The Art Newspaper 1 March 2017).:

The bronze was part of an English private collection and sold at auction in 2015. It was later consigned to the London art dealership Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch Ltd. After Forge consulted an expert at the British Museum who identified the statuette as missing from the Berlin antiquities collection, the consigner agreed to return it. Berlin State Museums paid a small fee “as compensation, not the full market value,” Maischberger says. 

Unfortunately, this was not an isolated theft from the museum stores, there are many more conflict antiquities out there from the same source. The Berlin collections are still missing thousands of pieces that disappeared at the end of the Second World War. A few years ago I blogged about an Assyrian gold plaque  in the private hands of the Flamenbaum family in America.(this eventually was apparently rather gracelessly returned after a long court battle). Some objects plundered from the Berlin collections have ended up in Russian museums. The arts newspaper article also notes that:

A partner warrior bronze that also vanished after the war has been located in the university museum in Bochum in western Germany. The Berlin antiquities collection is in talks to recover it, Maischberger says.