Chicago, hotspot of Unpapered Ancient Coin Imports: Repatriation Goes Wrong

  For the Americans, map where Apollonia Pontica and Mesembria were.   

Press release: 'Federal agents, National Hellenic Museum conduct largest repatriation of ancient coins to Greece in recent HSI history' June 21st 2023. The usual bla-bla

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Chicago, alongside distinguished representatives from Greece and the National Hellenic Museum, conducted a repatriation ceremony on June 16 to return to Greece the largest number of stolen ancient coins seized by U.S. law enforcement officials in recent HSI history. The artifacts included 51 ancient Greek coins that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) intercepted via four separate examinations of merchandise entering the United States.[...] As a result of the original shippers’ and consignees’ inability or unwillingness to provide proper documentation of ownership, CBP seized the coins and turned them over to HSI. [...] This return of these ancient coins was made possible by the investigative efforts of HSI Chicago, HSI’s Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities (CPAA) program, and law enforcement partners at CBP. One of the primary goals of the CPAA program is to protect and preserve the world’s cultural heritage and knowledge of past civilizations.

The Ambassador of Greece to the United States Alexandra Papadopoulou is quoted as saying: "This is a successful example of how when we join forces, we can make miracles [...] As these coins get back to Greece where they belong, I’m sure it will make an exciting, powerful display as part of our culture, as part of our shared identity, and as part of our close relationship with the United States”. Yeah, cute, eh? And what about the archaeological sites and assemblages that were trashed to get those coins to display? THAT's where the "knowledge of past civilizations" comes from. Nothing has been preserved here, just the impression that the US is going through the motions of trying to curb the open trade of looted artefacts.

But there is a twist.  

           HSI shows what they've seized        
 

Meanwhile, the only coin you can see more clearly on the (deliberately?) soft-focus photos of the proudly displayed trophies seems not to be from modern Greece at all, but looks to me like a unit of Apollonia Pontica in what was Thrace (late fifth, fourth cent BC or thereabouts) and now near present-day Sozopol, on the south side of Burgas Bay in modern Bulgaria.

The even blurrier one to the front and left has a radiate wheel that looks for all the world like the reverse of a coin from Mesembria that has a stylised helmet on the obverse and dates to the late fifth and fourth cents BC. Surprise surprise, it is also in Thrace, on the North side of Burgas Bay, under the fascinating modern town of Nesebar (that's Bulgaria too). 

Both coins, both real and fake, are fairly common on the antiquities market due to the scale of Bulgarian /Black Sea coast looting. 

Frankly, it seems to me that some coin dealers need better lawyers and the Feds better archaeological advisors. A case for seizing "Greek" coins on the basis that they were, or "may have been" exported contrary to "Greek" cultural property laws rather falls flat when it turns out the Feds cannot tell Greek coins from Thracian ones. Duh.

And the  National Hellenic Museum  did not notice what they were getting?