Greek Archaeologists Plead for Help to Save Historical Monuments

.
Greece's archaeological service budget was reduced by 35 per cent, to 12 million euros ($16 million) in 2011 and will be cut further this year.

Greek archaeologists appealed to Europeans to help protect the embattled nation’s cultural patrimony during a time of austerity [...] the economic crisis in Greece is putting antiquities under threat by looters and by a lack of upkeep as budgets are slashed. “Our cultural heritage is not for sale,” Despina Koutsoumba, the head of the Greek Archaeologists’ Association, was quoted by Reuters as saying. “We don’t want markets to rule over our cultural heritage, our history and our democracy.”

I wonder what non-European dealers and collectors will be doing to help? At the moment some of them are rubbing their hands with glee and anticipation, hoping that some of it will be for sale.

Reuters, Greek archaeologists plead for help to save historical monuments,

Vignette: Fayez Nureldine/AFP/Getty Images.

Do You Know This man?

.
Do you know this man? Mr X is Greek, he comes from the north, Halkidiki region. He is 66 and used to be a customs officer, but now he runs a small export business, trading in antiques and antiquities. He runs this business with his two brothers "a daughter-in-law and another relative", and has suppliers all over northern and central Greece. He is well known and well-travelled, feeling equally at home in London, Switzerland and Germany as well as Bulgaria. Does your local coin dealer know him? Ask, I bet every single one of them will deny having ever met or done business with him. But this coin, this coin could be from their stock, couldn't it? If it were, would your local dealer be able to tell you exactly whose hands it had been through on its way to his stockroom? Can he show you that he has actually tried to determine this in the case of those items he decides to stock?

Vignette: Arrest (reconstruction), coin from a recent seizure, as seen in Poligiros police station (AFP)

More Arrested in Greek Antiquities Bust

.
The number of people arrested over the weekend in the latest antiquities smuggling ring bust has gone up to 44, aged between 25 and 74, including pensioners and municipal workers Greek police said on Sunday. Arrests and antiquity seizures took place in a number of locations across northern and central Greece on Saturday and Sunday, said the force. Police had been investigating the group's moves for months. The suspects have already made depositions to an examining magistrate. Reports indicate that police had now recovered over 8000 ancient coins, mostly bronze (Kantouris says "9,200 silver and bronze coins") and ranging in date from the 6th century BC to the Byzantine period. These were on show over the weekend in Poligiros police station, Halkidiki Prefecture (560km north of Athens).

In raids on the properties of the arrested people, 19 metal detectors were also discovered, probable evidence of how and where the coins had been obtained.

The artifacts had been dug up during illegal archeological explorations, mainly in the regions of Macedonia and Thessaly, it said, adding that officers were working to identify items already sold abroad.

The raids also led to the discovery of some 300 "small artifacts", including three golden objects and a substantial quantity of ancient jewellery and bronze statuettes, as well as wooden icons dating from the Byzantine period.

Photos of some of the objects seized, in Poligyros police station
(Nikolas Giakoumidis / AP Photo)

It is reported that:

More than 200 police officers raided 55 buildings in 13 prefectures, mainly in northern Greece in an operation that began on Saturday, the statement said. A 66 year-old man believed to be the mastermind was also arrested. "The 66-year-old received the artifacts and after evaluating them, put them on sale in foreign countries through a network he had developed," police said. The man, a retired customs employee, frequently visited Bulgaria, Germany, Switzerland and Britain.

Kantouris adds that this man, from Gerakarou, "along with his two brothers, a daughter-in-law and another relative, formed the core of the group, while the other 39 would excavate in several places in northern and central Greece at the ringleader's request".

"We conducted 55 separate searches on Saturday," regional police chief Vassilis Kanalis said in northern Polygyros, 580 kilometers (360 miles) northeast of Athens. "This was the culmination of a great investigation which began six months ago." [...] "We are talking about a huge treasure, which ... was smuggled and sold abroad in small quantities," another regional police chief, Constantine Papoutsis, said. In the past six months, the ringleader made several trips abroad - to Bulgaria, Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain and the U.S. - presumably in search of clients. He traveled often, sometimes twice a week. "The case has a lot of depth. There are likely other persons involved, whom we will look for," Papoutsis said.

Sources:
AFP, 'Greek police recover ancient coins, smash smuggling network', Google News, 4.03.12

Angeliki Koutantou, 'Greek police arrest suspected smugglers, seize treasures', Yahoo news 5.03.12

Costas Kantouris, '44 arrested in Greece for antiquities trafficking', Miami Herald 4the March 2012.

SEE NOW also Sam Arkeolog 'Police arrest at least 44 illicit antiquities dealers, with thousands of coins, in Greece' 4th March 2012 (from which it emerges that firearms and drugs were among the items seized in the raids).

Upper Photo: Have you recently bought something like this from a dealer near you? Some of the coins seized, as seen in Poligiros police station (AFP).

Greek Antiquities Bust and the No-Questions-Asked Antiquities Trade

.
The recent arrest of a number of people allegedly involved in an antiquity smuggling ring in Greece over the weekend allows us to see a little of the way the antiquities market works. It allows us to envisage the degree of denial represented by what antiquity dealers and collectors say about the connection between what they do and the looting of the archaeological record as a source of saleable collectables. It allows us to see a little of the route from antiquities in the ground to coins in a foreign collector's display cabinet.

There were 44 people (so far) arrested, aged between 25 and 74, including pensioners and municipal workers. The organization seems to have been focussed on a 66-year old "Mr X" (I cannot believe that fellow coin dealers have not recognized who exactly is involved from the relatively detailed information leaked to the press). Mr X is accused of being what in the literature is generally referred to as a "middleman". By that is meant somebody who goes out and encourages people to supply him with dugup antiquities, for which he gives them cash and then sells them on at a profit. He is of course nothing but an antiquity dealer like all the rest.

It is not clear whether the artefact hunters arrested with Mr X worked exclusively for him, or whether they sold their finds to collectors and other dealers in the region. Perhaps some of them were collectors themselves, selling the things surplus to their own needs like artefact hunting metal detectorists everywhere. Perhaps the material reaching Mr X's alleged smuggling 'ring' was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ascertaining the degree of damage possibly done by these folk.

"Mr X" reportedly ran what in US parlance would be seen as a "Mom-and-Pop business" (like those of the US coin dealers of the ACCG - who claim US regulations are hindering them). In southern Europe the notion of a "familia" involved in criminal activity has different connotations. Anyway, part of the alleged operation was apparently kept in family hands:

Kantouris adds that this man, "along with his two brothers, a daughter-in-law and another relative, formed the core of the group, while the other 39 would excavate in several places in northern and central Greece at the ringleader's request".

Not insignificant is Mr X's former occupation. As a customs officer, he would know the legal loopholes and smugglers' tricks, but also have a number of professional connections which could facilitate him to get items across Greek borders (at least) while his former colleagues 'turned a blind eye' (or were simply unsuspecting).

This material "was smuggled and sold abroad in small quantities". This had been going on before the investigation started, for six months during the investigations, and yet even after this, over 9000 allegedly looted coins and several hundred aretefacts were still in the gang's posession (4000 of them reportedly with one person - presumably Mr X or a runner).

Mr X has apparently made several trips abroad , sometimes twice a week, in the last six months alone - to Bulgaria, Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain and the U.S.. Who did he meet? Presumably the police will be able to determine this from his business correspondence, phone records and computer hard disc. As Police Officer Papoutsis said, "The case has a lot of depth. There are likely other persons involved, whom we will look for".

These alleged business trips are quite telling. No mention is made of Mr X offering his goods directly from Greece, that would attract attention, and would be illegal. It would seem that these reports suggest that we are observing 'laundering' in process. Bulgaria has its own looting problems, but it is notable that among the items which seem to have come onto the market through export from Bulgaria are a number of Greek coins, while many are 'Thracian' types, not all are. Rather than being the result of the "ancient trade" so frequently evoked by coineys, it would seem that to some extent they are the result of 'laundering' through the Bulgarian antiquities mafia. The latter benefit from the supply of fresh material , thus improving their own offerings both in terms of quantity and quality, while Mr X, by the simple expedient of driving the objects across the open border with fellow EU member Bulgaria washes his hands of the problem of getting them to a wider international clientele, leaving that in the hands of the Bulgarian dealers with all the connections they have. Just what kind of people did "Mr X" have in his network?



The same goes for Mr X's travels to the other European centres of the antiquities trade, Germany, Switzerland and the UK. Did Mr X supply the big dealers of Munich and Leipzig? Let us hope the ongoing investigations can reveal whether that was the case (I am sure the present humiliations of the Greeks at the hands of the German financial institutions will make them look very closely at the German connection). With which Swiss dealers and collectors did Mr X do business? What about London? Who in London would be interested in buying freshly-dug ancient coins direct from a Greek source? Let us hope we all find out.

This is important, because US dealers make much of the fact that it is (allegedly) "not illegal" for Greek coins to travel between EU member states without relevant documentation (and on this basis they claim US dealers are discriminated against when required to obtain export documentation). Furthermore dealers have claimed (for example on the Unidroit-L forum, see here too) that ancient Greek (for example) coins bought (even if no-questions-asked) in "auctions" (for example in Munich or Leipzig and Switzerland) are - by the very fact that they are in Munich or Leipzig and Switzerland somehow "legal". In other words, they accept that it obviously would be illegal for them to buy freshly dugup Greek coins and antiquities directly from Mr X at source in Greece, but perfectly acceptable a couple of days or weeks later to buy the same coins and antiquities from a guy who'd done the dirty deed and bought them. In some way dealers consider these coins "clean" and perfectly "legitimate". That seems to me a definition of the "legitimate trade in antiquities' that only a coin dealer and no-questions-asking collector would accept. The rest of us are appalled. The reports say that "officers are working to identify items already sold abroad". Good, let us see who bought what. Name them and shame them.

The photographs of the seized antiquities show several features of what is involved. The bags of metal detected metal artefacts and 'partifacts' show that the coins destined for foreign markets were not derived from "isolated hoards" as coin dealers and collectors so frequently insist. The coins are clearly in part or wholly separated out from the metal assemblages created by metal detecting ancient sites (the ones in Thessaly and Macedonia the 39 artefact hunters - unless they themselves were collectors - were looting so they could sell stuff to Mr X).

The picture of the bags of coins on the table would be familiar no doubt to any English FLO. This is how most metal detected finds come to them, in grubby polybags. These certainly do not create the impression of being from the much-vaunted "old collections" which we are asked naively to believe are the source of all the undocumented coins freshly "surfacing" ("from underground"?) on the no-questions-asked market. These look like the products of site plundering, pure and simple. The little statuettes (if real, see below) could be votive offerings from a cult site, the gold jewellery from the callous looting of graves for profit perhaps.

But then we come to the next aspect of this dishonest trade in stolen cultural property. Look at the statuary, the "Cycladic" figures for example. You can see from a mile off that the one on the left was made with an abrasive disc (probably tungsten carbide cutting disc on an ordinary electric drill). These quite obviously fake objects (the "cupid face" has apparently been burnt, a manner of distressing very popular in Egyptian fake-making too) are a puzzle. Two explanations are possible. Among the arrested folk may be several collectors and these items would be 'bought-on-eBay' elements of their personal artefact collections which the police took for examination. Alternatively these items were (or destined to be) part of the stock of Mr X, either produced locally - though one has to ask whether some could be imports from Bulgaria where it is reported Mr X had business dealings and the notorious fake antiquity factories there.

One of the problems for fake makers is how to insert their products onto the market. This is especially the case if what they make does not look quite right - like this one. One option however is to do a deal with somebody who supplies real dugups to get rid of them for them. There are three advantages to this. The first is the faker has no direct dealings with the client, and therefore cannot so easily be traced should the fake be discovered. Secondly a dugup 'middleman' is not necessarily going to be dealing directly with the art connoisseurs who would spot a nasty fake when they see one straight away. He might be selling coins to a coin dealer who might be tempted by a "bargain" Cycladic piece which is well outside their own expertise, but they see an opportunity to sell on at a profit (claiming of course its from that mythical anonymous "old XXXX collection"). Thirdly a dugup-dealing supplier has street cred - if the person to whom it is offered is suspicious, the 'middleman' can always claim to be offended by this 'lack of trust' ("why, I have forty people back in Greece digging this stuff up for me, why would I need to sell fakes?"), and the dealer eager to get his hands on more dugups to expand his business learns not to question.

Thus it is that all manner of dodgyness is going on behind the facade of the "legitimate antiquity trade". Stolen and looted (not to mention smuggled) items are passed onto the market masquerading as legitimate material. Utter - and worthless - fakes are passed off as kosher artefacts alongside them. All this is because both dealers and collectors are neglecting to ask the right questions, that is:

1) Where has this material ultimately come from, and how good is the actual documentation of legitimate origins?

2) Can the seller document his title to sell these items in a form I can pass on to the person who buys them from me when my custodianship of them is over?

Basically until dealers and collectors start asking and giving attention to the answers to these questions, the notion of a "legitimate antiquities market" will continue largely to be nothing but a facade behind which criminal middlemen and dealers will facilitate the passage of looted, smuggled, stolen and fake artefacts onto the market and into the stockrooms of dealers, the homes of collectors (and the schools of the ACE).

How anyone can claim that this is a 'legitimate' way to do business in this kind of material beats me.

UPDATE 5 March 2012: I see Peter Tompa is trying to brush this whole story off as a "diversion".

Sources:
AFP, 'Greek police recover ancient coins, smash smuggling network', Google News, 4.03.12

Angelike Koutanou, 'Greek police arrest suspected smugglers, seize treasures', Yahoo news 5.03.12

Costas Kantouris, '44 arrested in Greece for antiquities trafficking', Miami Herald 4the March 2012.

Police Detain Olympia Museum Raid Suspect

.
Sam Hardy (Samarkeolog) has been following the Olympia Museum raid stories and indicates on the Conflict Archaeology blog ('Police detain suspect for Olympia museum robbery') that Kathimerini has just reported that Greek police have ‘detained’ a ‘foreign national’ on suspicion of involvement in the armed robbery of the Museum of the History of the Olympic Games. He is thought to have been a member of a group that raided jewellery shops in the area and is also suspected of participation in two other recent other armed robberies, one in Olympia, one in Krestena. In these (as in the Museum), the perpetrators used sledgehammers to break into showcases. There too they "threatened passers-by, shot into the air with Kalashnikovs to intimidate people and managed to escape by minor roads, which they knew in every detail". It seems that the seven minutes security video which records the raid allowed police to identify one of the masked indiiduals shown. It seems that if this person faces charges, there is forensic evidence which will aid a conviction, it seems that while waiting for the guard to come to work the robbers ate cheese pies and drank coffee by a stream below the site and DNA evidence may be obtained from the cups and packaging, there were also reportedly fingerprints on duct tape used in the robbery. Anyway, let us wait and see whether Greek police will press charges, or release the suspect.

SAFE on Olympia Theft

.
On the SAFE Corner blog, Senta German has a nice post on the Theft at Olympia (Monday, February 20, 2012). The presentation is very clear and unequivocal, likely to appeal to those who genuinely care about the past, with sections on "Why Did This Happen?" and more importantly - what you'll not find on any collectors' blog on antiquity issues - "What Can I Do to Help? Thank you Senta.

Greece to Sell off its Ancient Heritage to the Americans?

.
In his comment on Friday's Olympia Museum theft, David Gill pointedly remarks:

This theft from a world-class heritage site is a crime against cosmospolitan society (not least in an Olympic year). Civilised commentators will condemn this act without reservation.

Of course we are well aware of a large group of people - difficult to say whether they are civilized though- who see a great opportunity for themselves in the news of the trials and tribulations of the Greek people trying to look after their ancient heritage. Californian dugup antiquity dealer Dave Welsh trumpets his hopes for the future:

The only truly sensible and viable path to adequate funding for the protection of archaeological sites and antiquities is to come to the realization that these responsibilities can no longer be funded by taxpayers. Archaeologists and others involved in cultural heritage issues must now recognize reality - society is not willing to continue to pay for archaeology, or for demands of archaeologists that countless millions of ancient artifacts shall be kept in state custody at public expense.[...] it is becoming increasingly clear that taxpayers do not want these onerous responsibilities and are not willing to provide financial support for the associated financial obligations. [...] redundant artifacts should be released (with provenance) to the antiquities trade at periodic auctions, to find their way into the hands of collectors who will care for them [...]

This is blatant plagiarism, isn't it? Watchers of the runup to the Presidential elections will recognize this as the position recently adopted by several of the Republican candidates. In particular Hick Turpin from 'the lootier state', Wisconsin. His campaign got off to a flying start after he proposed selling off the redundant objects in the collections of the Smithsonian and the National Archives. On learning that there were draft copies of presidential speeches in the latter, including ones somebody had been scribbling on, and they were being stolen, he is quoted in the Washington Post as saying something quite similar to Mr Welsh. It seems if he gets elected President, collectors all over the world will have a bonanza...

Duh. [I suppose I should point out just in case, the above paragraph is written in [ironic script]. It is not true - there was no Hick Turpin running for president, and nobody would be so stupid - I hope - to make such a suggestion in the USA, so why do US collectors think other nations would react any differently to their fellow citizens?]

Mr Welsh seems not to have noticed what happened in Greece immediately after the theft was discovered. The Minister of Culture tendered his resignation. He realised the extent of public anger at the theft of Greek heritage from the museum. I think it is pretty obvious that it is in precisely such times as this that the heritage of the glorious past, witnesses to the persistence of a people through the trials and tribulations of their long history, are especially necessary. Far from turning their back on their past, the Greeks as a whole have their national identity, and individual identities focussed precisely on their roots in one of Europe's most important classical civilizations. Just who does Mr Welsh think the Greeks are? Contemptible unthinking monkeys who have just come down from the trees? Inhabitants of some foreign land, so "they do things differently there"?

What a load of cobblers Welsh writes. He sees only collectable items to be bought and sold, a profit for himself and other US dealers. He rants: "society is not willing to continue to pay for archaeology, or for demands of archaeologists that countless millions of ancient artifacts shall be kept in state custody at public expense". Paying for archaeology and emptying of the museums of Greek cultural heritage are two different things. Those millions of ancient artefacts belong to the Greek people, they are a witness to the glories of their old civilization, far older than that upstart state beyond the Pillars of Hercules and which prendends to and wishes to emulate its glory. Mr welsh seems not to have noticed that the riots the other day were (among other things) about popular perceptions that the government was "selling out" to Germany. How does Mr Welsh think the news would be greeted that, if they were to go down the road he suggests, the same government was selling off Greek heritage to the Americans and Japanese (or Chinese)? I think it's pretty fair to say that in any country in the world, the opposition party would make mincemeat of any government who adds that to their policies. We might recall the fuss there was in Greece that there were plans to rent out heritage sites as film sets. The public was so incensed by the rumours that the Ministry of Culture issued a statement (not noted of course by the coineys) that the rumours were untrue.

Frankly, I think antiquity dealers like Mr Welsh long ago lost touch with the realities that surround them. Welsh and his fellow trade lobbyists are so full of hatred for anyone who stands in the way between them and the armfuls of dugup ancient artefacts they need to keep their businesses going, that they will say anything, anything at all, to attempt to provide some justification for what they are doing. Note though that these "arguments" are frequently of the "two wrongs make a right" format. The Olympia Museum was robbed by masked gunmen, so Greece must sell off the artefacts in Museums to US collectors to prevent more museum robberies. Peter Tompa calls that "logical".

[Let us note: When it comes to the cuts, what was being discussed recently was the cutting of 1500 museum and site guard posts due to the economic situation of the country. One of the main reasons why they are needed is to stop people pinching stuff to sell to dealers and collectors. Perhaps if dealers and collectors stopped buying stuff that is stolen, there would be less need to have a small army on each site and by each museum].

Vignette: Cap'n Red advises the Greeks to "give me your treasures"

Laundering the Loot

.
There was an interview on Channel 4 News with Christos Tsirogiannis (researcher in illicit antiquities and repatriation cases at Cambridge University, and formerly archaeologist with the Greek police squad). He warned that the economic recession will lead, in the countries that have an archaeological record rich with the remains of ancient civilisations (such as Greece, Italy and Egypt) we are going to see big problems with looting of sites and theft from collections. "In Greece, this is connected with the financial situation. We will have more of such things coming up in the next few months", he said. In the case of the Olympia Museum theft, he suggests: "The people who stole this are uneducated people with no money, who are not aware it will be difficult to give these objects to the market as they are recorded, and there are pictures of them. They do it for money, but they are not aware it will be really difficult to get rid of them". He then goes on to describe possible smuggling routes:

It may be the case that some of them end up in refrigeration trucks transporting food in order to be smuggled across borders, through Turkey and the former Yugoslavia, before reaching Europe where they are likely to fetch up a higher price. Another popular route for other goods illegally seized or excavated from Asia, Mr Tsirogiannis said, is aboard ships to Italy. From there they may make their way to Switzerland, and from there, he said, they may be laundered in auctions in London and New York before being sold to private museums and collectors.

"Richard Ellis (former Scotland Yard detective who set up the Metropolitan Police's Art and Antiques Squad, now a specialist art and antiquities crime investigator) was also interviewed. He said that art and antiquities theft

"has become an organised crime business". Criminal business in illicit and stolen antiquities is fast rivalling the illicit trade in fine art in terms of cost and scale, and with culture thieves, middlemen and dealers taking advantage of the increasingly deteriorating economic situation in modern countries occupying the territories of some of the world's most ancient civilisations, the trade is likely to continue to boom. Channel 4 adds: "While experts say it is almost impossible to estimate the true cost of the trade in illicit antiquities, some say costs can vary between $50 million to $1 billion".

According to Mr Ellis, many [sites/museums] are looted or excavated by poorer local people looking to make some fast yet small amounts of cash, before being sold on to intermediaries. The real mark up, he says, comes in the stage after that, after they have been passed on to dealers. From here they can end up in auction houses or with private collectors, having changed hands for millions of dollars. In some cases, Mr Ellis said, collectors are aware they are trading in illegal goods, despite a rise in 'due dilligence' to establish the provenance of items.

Now, Mr Ellis told Channel 4 News, "the incentive is there to make money in Greece [...] I am sure the current economic situation is Greece is triggering people to become more active [in this type of illegal activity]". "I would expect these objects are going to get moved. It's a transitional country for other stolen goods, and they can go west or east", Mr Ellis said.

Attempted reconstruction of some possible smuggling routes
for Classical and Byzantine antiquities from Greece

So, before passing onto - for example - the US market, a freshly illegally dugup artefact, or one recently stolen from a museum or private collection, may have clandestinely passed through several countries on their way out of Greece. It is pretty obvious that not every case of the unlawful export of objects from Greece will be detected at the Greek borders. It is unreasonable to expect Greek Customs to unload every truck of - for example - frozen kalmary or meat leaving the country at the roadside to check whether there are small antiquities hidden right at the back, or strip search every tourist and business traveller leaving the country. If it were possible to stop this so easily, there would have been no need for a 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. In order therefore to combat culture theft, it is necessary to establish the origins of objects of types that are found in a source country like Greece coming onto the market through other countries. Unless something can be documented as having legally entered Ruritania from Greece, or at least the import into Ruritania was so long ago that investigation is not going to determine how it got there and is a waste of time, its export to an external market should be seen as suspect. Obviously legislation intending to combat the international trade needs to take into account the mobility of the artefacts ("portable antiquities") in recent times, and the ability of cultural criminals to 'launder items' by taking them through other countries such as Switzerland and the German markets.

It should be noted that it is PRECISELY this aspect of the legislation that dealers lobbyists (ACCG and Peter Tompa's employers the PNG in particular) are currently actively fighting. This shows a less-than-willingness to co-operate in cutting down the illicit trade by dealing with laundering. It is also an area where current legislation and regulation, both national and international are woefully lacking, being stuck in a mental time-warp as though it was still the 1960s.

Museum at Olympia Robbed in Daring Raid

.
The news that is guaranteed to send US antiquities dealers into paroxysms of delighted 'gottcha' - excitement is that about 7:30 this morning, the Museum of the History of the Olympic Games in Ancient Olympia (a UNESCO World Heritage site) in southern Greece was robbed. Two (?) masked artefact thieves armed with Kalashnikovs and reportedly speaking "broken Greek" ambushed and overpowered a 48-year old female museum guard starting her morning shift having previously knocked out the alarm. The criminals demanded that she tell them where the "golden wreath" (the museum has no such object) was kept. Before she had time to summon help, the intruders tied her up and gagged her and then set about smashing the reinforced glass fronts of selected cases with a hammer and stole dozens of items on display. The robbers are believed to have escaped in a car driven by an accomplice. It is reported that an inventory of the missing items was not yet available, but local authorities and police said about 68 bronze and pottery artefacts are estimated to have snatched, they were apparently mainly figurines, but the thieves also took a gold seal ring dating to Late Bronze Age Mycenaean times. Greek state television has reported that culture minister Pavlos Geroulanos immediately tendered his resignation after learning of the robbery and was at the scene soon afterwards. Police have set up roadblocks in an attempt to prevent the thieves leaving the area.

Sources:
BBC
Associated Press
Daily Mail (updated)
Al Jazeera
New Europe
Savvas Hadjigeorgiou, 'Thieves Break Into Ancient Olympia Museum In Greece', CyprusNewsReport 17/02/2012.


Video

Photos: Objects from the Museum, some of which may have been among those taken. Aerial view of site of robbery from the BBC.

WW2 Museum Damaged in Greek Rioting?

.
Samarkeolog on the Conflict Archaeology blog has made an informative compilation of the rioting in Greece that took place recently as a response to the austerity measures precipitated by the current economic crisis ('Record of unprecedented damage and destruction in protests, riots in Greece, 12th February 2012'). There was earlier a suggestion that a museum (former Gestapo prison) in Athens had been damaged, but this later was disproven. This is important in the context of some collectors' lobbyists claiming - though without citing precise sources - that some "repatriated" antiquities may have been damaged in the rioting. Nothing of the sort has however so far been reported. Another straw man argument from the collectors' lobbyists.

Commercial Use of Iconic Sites in Greece

.
Just for once, a more "hertitagey" issue. Greece's culture ministry said on Tuesday that it will do more to facilitate access to the country's ancient Greek ruins by opening up some of the debt-stricken country's most-cherished archaeological sites to advertising firms and other ventures. Not insignificant also is the fact that the money generated would fund their upkeep and monitoring. The temporary leasing of ancient Greek sites for such purposes would be subject to strict conditions. The first site to be opened would be the iconic Acropolis. "Commercial use of Greece's archaeological sites has until now been the responsibility of the Central Council of Archaeology, which has been very choosy about who gains access. In recent decades, only a select few people, including Greek-Canadian filmmaker Nia Vardalos and the American director Francis Ford Coppola, have been able to use the Acropolis, while most filming and advertising requests have been refused".

Using a site for filming sounds relatively straightforward until the logistics of the operation are considered. Anyone who has seen such a film crew, even for a simple interview 'on site' will know that its not often just a presenter, actor or model and a bloke with a camera. There are a huge crew (with vehicles and caravans), generators, cables, heavy and hot lights, fencing needs erecting for crowd control and so on. People tramping around carrying heavy objects and so on. I once worked with a conservator of wall paintings on a text of the conditions for a foreign film team to film inside a Polish monastery which had Medieval mural decoration. It was a long text and I chastised her gently over that, until she pulled out a portfolio and showed me photos of examples (most not from Poland) where such conditions had not been drawn up and some quite (and some barely believably) thoughtless behaviour by film technicians and others had done serious damage on other sites. One can see therefore the reasoning behind the caution.

On the other hand, sponsorship of ancient monument repair and advertising have long gone hand in hand. All over Poland and former East Germany in the years after the collapse of Communism a huge legacy of sadly neglected historic buildings in urban centres was encountered and had to be dealt with. One resolution was to seek sponsorship from companies which then utilised the occasion to advertise their participation. The scaffolding erected outside such buildings inevitably had stretched over it netting printed with huge adverts for the firm financing the work. Since the restoration of these buildings often took several years, many companies had 'free' advertising (and in connection with a socially praiseworthy enterprise) for many years in prime town centre locations. Even today such work is still going on in Warsaw (but not so much in the city centre). In Britain, organizations such as English Heritage and the National Trust have made sites and buildings in their care available (under supervision) for events such as wedding receptions, conferences, integration meetings and so on. In Poland the Baroque and Neoclassical former palaces of Prussian grafs and Polish Szlachta have been saved from Communist period decline by being turned into hotels and conference centres or other such uses. Medieval banquets are a good money-spinner for castles with their roofs on, re-enacted tourneys for those without. We have our archaeological 'festivals' on some sites with shows of experimental archaeology and where you can buy craftwork and "regional delicacies". Archaeology itself of course has been closely integrated with the commercial world for several decades since Brian Hobley's pioneer efforts in the City of London and to a certain extent US experiences.

Perhaps in embarking on this path, Greece might benefit from some collaboration with other EU partners who have longer experience with the integration of the needs of cultural assets and the commercial sector. Just in case...

Stella Tsolakidou, 'Debt-Riddled Greece Will Lease Acropolis For Commercial Exploitation', Greek Reporter/AFP January 17, 2012.

Vignette: vintage Metaxa advert , not at all a problem, and let's hope it does not come to this (floridagold on 'Poster's paradise')

The answer to Collectors' Prayers? Greek Debt Crisis Hits Culture Sector

.
US collectors are reportedly praying for the collapse of the cultural sectors of European countries like Greece which they perceive as an enemy to be opposed. It seems that their prayers are being answered all over the world, as archaeological units close in the UK and Greece has had to lay off 2000 cultural sector staff in recent years too. Where will this all end? In the triumph of no-questions-asked collecting of dugup ancient bric a brac? Or the defeat of all who truly care about culture?

The situation in Greece is described in a Reuters article by Gareth Jones ('Debt crisis strikes Greek monuments, irks tourists', Dec 6, 2011) ), which will no doubt have "cultural property observers" in US collecting circles rubbing their greedy hands in glee and trumpeting: "we told you the ["corrupt" and "irresponsible" sic] Greeks cannot look after their heritage, so give the best bits to us to look after". The rest of us can only shake our heads in disbelief at their blatantly self-centred philistinism and despair, for the cultural sector has always been poorly-resourced and exposed to every twist and turn of the political situation and things do not seem set to improve in the near future.

Illegally Exported Artefacts from Greece (Including Coins) on US Watch List

.
The list produced (under CCPIA section 2604, check it out, you might be surprised) of archaeological and ethnographic material from Greece which can be imported freely into the US only if accompanied by documentation of legal export has just been published

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY, 19 CFR Part 12 [CBP Dec. 11-25] RIN 1515-AD84 "Import Restrictions Imposed on Certain Archaeological and Ethnological Material From Greece" Archaeological materials representing Greece's cultural heritage from the Upper Paleolithic (beginning approximately 20,000 B.C.) through the 15th century A.D. and ecclesiastical ethnological material representing Greece's Byzantine culture (approximately the 4th century through the 15th century A.D.).

effective December 1, 2011.

The ACCG supporters who all wrote to the CPAC asking them not to impose these restrictions should read the preamble attentively. This is about the import of illegally exported items, the US is not the only nation involved, and to oafishly oppose is tantamount to being un-American:

The value of cultural property, whether archaeological or ethnological in nature, is immeasurable. Such items often constitute the very essence of a society and convey important information concerning a people's origin, history, and traditional setting. The importance and popularity of such items regrettably makes them targets of theft, encourages clandestine looting of archaeological sites, and results in their illegal export and import. The United States shares in the international concern for the need to protect endangered cultural property. The appearance in the United States of stolen or illegally exported artifacts from other countries where there has been pillage has, on occasion, strained our foreign and cultural relations. This situation, combined with the concerns of museum, archaeological, and scholarly communities, was recognized by the President and Congress. It became apparent that it was in the national interest for the United States to join with other countries to control illegal trafficking of such articles in international commerce.

The United States joined international efforts and actively participated in deliberations resulting in the 1970 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (823 U.N.T.S. 231 (1972)). U.S. acceptance of the 1970 UNESCO Convention was codified into U.S. law as the ``Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act'' (Pub. L. 97-446, 19 U.S.C. 2601 et seq.) (the Act). This was done to promote U.S. leadership in achieving greater international cooperation towards preserving cultural treasures that are of importance to the nations from where they originate and contribute to greater international understanding of our common heritage.

The list contains a whole range of the type of items that are looted from archaeological sites and then sold on the collectors' market, of stone, ceramic, metal, Bone, Ivory, and Other Organics, glass and faience, textiles, papyrus, paintings and mosaics. It includes things like statues, runs through pots and even mentions beads. All these things are collected, all these things are smuggled out of Greece (the smaller the easier it is) and all of them are looted and stolen to fuel the market.

If the barrier of bubbles that the US Customs seems to be when it comes to the thousands of freshly "surfaced" (from "underground") artefacts openly sold on their markets can cope with finding the packages of illicitly exported items among the masses that pass through it every day, there is at last a tool which allows them to take action, two and a half decades after the US "implemented" the 1970 UNESCO Convention. Whether or not it is the action that is needed to stop this disgusting trade is another thing. That is up to the authorities in the US.


These measures are only temporary, the US can go back to being the Robber Baron of the Greek illicit antiquities market in five years time, what obviously needs to happen in the next five years is a change in the attitudes of 'entitlement' to illicitly exported material among dealers and collectors on a global scale, let us see how well the USA copes with making itself the "leader" in this regard.

And yes, ancient Greek coins are metal artefacts typically taken from the archaeological record and typically sold without the required documentation, and they are on the list. Coins of the fourth (nota bene) to fifteenth century however are not on the list.

Artefacts Seized in Thessaloniki.

.
A recent anti-antiquities smuggling operation by the Athens security police's antiquities smuggling division together with culture ministry official in the city of Thessaloniki led to the arrest on Thursday of two men and the recovery of what Greek police say are "more than 70 items of great archaeological importance”. They apparently date from the 6th century B.C. to the 5th century BC and included:

gold masks, four helmets, a glass perfume bottle, small clay statues and part of a gold diadem and parts of an iron sword decorated with gold leaf.

The items were taken to the National Archaeological Museum in Athens (where it seems they were viewed by Prime Minister George Papandreou, Citizens’ Protection Minister Christos Papoutsis and Culture Minister Pavlos Geroulanos).



The two detainees will be taken before a Thessaloniki prosecutor, while two more suspects were wanted.

Culture Ministry officials consider that the items had most certainly unearthed following illicit excavations in Central Macedonia, though their exact provenance has yet to be determined.

Citizens’ Protection Ministry officials told Kathimerini that given the items’ Macedonian heritage, it was imperative that they not to leave the country and run the risk of being “rediscovered” during an “official” excavation in a neighboring country.

Sources: Associated Press: Greek authorities seize smuggled antiquities MSNBC News 10/6/2011

Anon, 'Police recover ancient relics', Ekathimerini, Friday October 7, 2011

AMNA, 'Priceless artifacts recovered', Athens News 7 Oct 2011 (where the number of items seized is given as 100).

BBC, 'Greek police seize 'smuggled' ancient treasure ', 7th October 2011 [the BBC seems - apparently wrongly - to think the items were dug up in Greece, rather than being the products of illegal excavations outside the country]

I am left wondering whether this is part of the same operation as one in the same city in March 2010 ("Greece Arrests Two for Dealing Smuggled Artifacts") which was discussed here a while back though I saw no follow-up stories.

Photo: Some of the recovered items on display in an office of the Archaeological Museum in Athens (Ekathimerini [left] and Athens News [right]).
(edited Saturday 8th Oct)

UPDATE 23.12.2012:
The finale of what seems to be this case is discussed here. 
 

Two Greek Girls in Need of a Home

.

Once news got out that they had been photographed in dubious company on a Greek island when they should have been in a London art collector's home, two attractive ladies despite a desperate makeover seem to have been unable to find themselves a new home among polite society.

Schinoussa Protomes and a Prettyfying Restorer

.
David Gill indicates that two items coming up for sale by Christies "look awfully like" two items pictured in the Schinoussa Archive of Robin Symes objects, and asks when or whether it is legitimate to call a dealer's stock "an old collection". I must admit I had a few moments of doubt poring over the two sets of photos, the Christies lot 63 objects are lit in a different manner from the grubby, encrusted and badly reassembled Schinoussa pieces. The one on the right however under the crud has the same inverted v-shaped scar on its right (our left) cheek by the mouth, it is the same object. But what a difference. When Symes had it the object was missing a triangular area on the neck - somehow mysteriously disappeared on the Christie's shot. There is narry a crack visible in the auction house's zoomable publicity shots. The object has been restored in such a manner as to make it appear that it had never been broken. This is against the ethics of modern conservation (and even restoration), one wonders who did this work and how many other ethical liberties were taken to make it more collectable/saleable.

I was disturbed by the grey painted lines on the lower part of the object on the right. There are grey smudges on the Shinoussa photo which have been transformed into a pendant on the Christie's object. How and why? There is grey pigment in the encrusted object which has been removed, how much of the drawing of the pendant is original and what is reconstruction? This is a justifiable question as precisely the same kind of line passes right over the restored triangular area on the neck. Also how many of the lines on the viewer's right side have been added to what seems on the Schinoussa photos to have been a vacant clean ceramic surface for graphic effect? Is there a conservation report for these objects with photos of the state before cleaning and retouching?

Comparison of the two sets of photos of the example on the left raises similar questions, where are the traces of the break lines? Is there really a clear band of red paint under the crud on the headdress as seen on the Christie's shots? But more importantly on the Schinoussa photos the hair is quite clearly black. That colouration is rendered all but invisible in the restored state in the Christie's publicity photos, giving a much 'cleaner' overall impression (like the scrubbed Parthenon marbles). So how was it possible to preserve the painted details of the headdress if the hair colour was stripped off by whatever cleaning method was applied here? Why do the Christie's objects have a glossy sheen to them? This is ceramic after all, not waxworks.

Certainly the comparison of the two sets of photos justifies the statement that the objects now on the market are a falsification of the state in which they were preserved down through the centuries. Where is the beginning and end of authenticity in this kind of collecting? What is the point of buying authentic artefacts if they are then 'disneyfied' to make them more attractive to suit the modern tastes of a collector who sees them as pretty geegaws rather than a document?

UPDATE 6/10/11: Dorothy King has a post on these objects and shows two revealing photos of her own of the BACK of these pieces (note the dust on the stand on one).

Vignette: Two Archaic Protomes ("Private collection, London, U.K., Private collection, USA; acquired in London, 1999") as seen in the Schinoussa archive. Where did they come from? What happened to them? (Looting Matters)

Getty Returns More Greek Pieces

.
At first sight this looks a bit like a publicity stunt in order to assuage public comment on the appointment of James Cuno as president of the Getty Trust. It appears that the situation is more complex, with the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Greek Ministry of Culture planning cultural exchanges of scientists and scholars in the fields of archaeology, conservation, art history and other fields which will no doubt greatly benefit the cultural heritage of currently cash-strapped Greece. As an initial gesture of goodwill, the Museum is returning two ancient artefacts from its collections to Greece.

The objects in question are fragments of a grave marker and a Greek language inscription, both acquired in the 1970s, according to the Getty. The museum said the grave-marker fragments have never gone on display in L.A. and that they are part of a larger work depicting female forms that dates from the 5th century BC. [...] the Greek-language inscription features 65 lines describing sacrifices and festivals celebrated in Thorikos, in southeast Attica. The work dates from 430 to 420 BC and is currently on view at the Getty Villa.

David Ng, 'Getty Museum to return additional ancient pieces to Greece', LA Times, September 22, 2011

See also Meg Lambert on the returns: 'The Getty returns two objects to Greece' (referring in turn to the Chasing Aphrodite blog)

David Gill also comments Getty returns antiquities to Greece

Vignette: Best of friends, James Cuno shakes hands heartily with the Greek Minister of Culture Pavlos Yeroulanos.

A Way out for Greece?

.
Commenting (sort of) on the serious economic situation in Europe, a coin dealer suggests that cash-strapped Greece has a solution available for her economic problems. I think the suggestion made will come as no surprise to anybody... On the premise that the dozy foreigners are not looking after the antiquities and

Greece and Italy hold vast accumulations of ancient artifacts which are neither being displayed in museums nor held in research collections. [...] It is past time to bring the private sector into this situation in a rational and constructive manner – to begin a process of placing all truly redundant antiquities in private hands.

That's what the Bolsheviks did, isn't it? The US being a primary beneficiary of that too. When the art has all gone, they can start cutting down all the trees for lumber for foreign export and confiscating railings from town houses and parks and selling them for scrap. The hurdles to cultural property asset-stripping are merely "ideological" and like so many evils in the coin collectors' world-view are all the fault of the "radical archaeologist".

When the USA starts suffering even deeper economic decline than at the present, will it too be considering, in the way these people suggest we Europeans should to suit them, selling off its two-thousand year old cultural assets? But then, what could they be?

Vignette: US dugup collectors see themselves as heirs of Lord Elgin?

US-Greek Bilateral Cultural Property Agreement Signed

.

The US State Department has announced the signature of a bilateral cultural property agreement with Greece in the spirit of Article 9 of the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Cultural Property. As announced the idea of this is to "to Reduce the Incentive for Further Pillage of Greece's Cultural Heritage" - a tacit recognition that the market is the motor of pillage (the "collector=looter" notion so hated by collectors). The list of Greek antiquities of the Upper Paleolithic to the Late Byzantine period designated as protected under this latest US cultural property MOU will be announced shortly.

While this is a welcome move and indicates the willingness of the Obama government to clear (at least temporarily) the US market of illicitly-obtained antiquities, Greece is directly neighboured by four countries severely affected by ongoing looting and illegal trading of archaeological artefacts (Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey) with whom the US does not have a specific cultural property MOU and through which and from which the US no-questions-asked antiquities market can and probably does import large numbers of freshly (and illegally) dugup artefacts for sale. [All four are states party to the Convention] This basically means that the 1983 US accession to the Convention does not actually reflect a commitment to help the global community as a whole fight the trade in illicitly obtained cultural property, and even less take a leading role in that. The US market is a voracious consumer of huge quantities of freshly dug up (or previously curated) antiquities. As such, it is disappointing that the US does not take a more active role as at least a partner in dealing in an effective and holistic manner with the plague of antiquity looting and smuggling. One wonders why the US is a state party of this convention at all if it only applies its measures selectively. Far more consistent would be to withdraw and rename the CCPIA.

Map: Greece (State Department)

Museum Returns Athens Marble to Greece

.
Newspaper de Volkskrant reports that Leiden's Museum of Antiquities is returning to Greece a small marble fragment of the Athens Acropolis. The fragment, measuring 15 by 5 centimetres, seems to be a fragment of "a cornerstone located just above a column". The stone was taken fifty years ago from the site by a Dutch tourist, who recently tried to donate it to the National Museum of Antiquities. The Museum, unsurprisingly, refused the donation because this souvenir was taken out of Greece illegally, and instead has decided to return it to Greece. Nice to see a museum with a conscience.