Panic in the Ranks - They Should Read my Blog....

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Coineys are in general slow thinkers, it takes them ages to churn over some ideas, which is why the dealers can lead them by the nose so easily. The latter have just woken up to the EU public consultation on "Council Directive 93/7/EEC on the return of cultural objects unlawfully removed from the territory of a Member State" reported here last year. It seems their Cultural Property Observer has not been all that "observant" after all. So it is that "Coin Weekly" has issued an emergency "special edition" getting the news out to all those poorly-informed US coineys who thought there were "no restrictions on the movement of cultural property in the EU" - to inform them that there are (otherwise how can items be "unlawfully removed" from them?), and the conditions under which the problem is dealt with might be about to change. The title is incomprehensible ("Public consultation – privately") no less so than the text, obviously written in haste [actually it is a translation of the Münzenwoche.de article "Öffentliche Konsultation im Geheimen"]

March 5, 2012 – The European Union is conducting a public consultation largely unknown whether the directives on the return of cultural property need restrictions. Please join absolutely in this consultation today. Even the associations concerned came to know of this consultation only on Friday March 2, 2012. Hence we are all under pressure of time. Please join absolutely in this consultation today. The deadline expires today, March 5, 2012.

Garble-garble-coineyspeak. It looks like a computer translation. At least this shows there is not much difference between the worst of German coineyism and the worst of USA coineyism:

Sollte die Europäische Union ihrer Meinung nach den EU-Ländern helfen, ihre Kulturgüter zu schützen? – Was für eine doppeldeutige Frage! Effektiver Schutz vor Ort wäre nötig, aber in die inneren Verhältnisse der Länder mischt sich die EU selbstverständlich nicht ein. Oder hätten Sie von einem Hilfsangebot gehört, das Italien zeigt, wie man den Einsturz von wertvoller Gebäudesubstanz verhindert, oder Griechenland die finanziellen Mittel gibt, seine Museen und Grabungsstätten zu bewachen? Die Frage dreht sich nur um eine verschärfte Gesetzgebung auf Kosten von Sammlern und Händlern. Und dann das Herkunftszertifikat, das es nicht gibt! Allein diese Frage zeigt, aus welcher Richtung der Fragebogen kommt.
[...] Und hier die zweite doppeldeutige Frage: eine Gesetzgebung, die der Willkür für Beschlagnahmungen Tür und Tor öffnet, ist schlecht. Doch bis jetzt haben die Gerichte anhand eben dieser Gesetzgebung noch immer die Beweislast dem Ankläger aufgebürdet. Deshalb sind diese Gesetze „insgesamt geeignet“. Kein Sammler, kein Händler, kein Museum kann eine verschärfte Gesetzgebung wünschen, die dem Besitzer der Münze die Beweislast aufbürdet, dass seine Münze aus einer alten Sammlung stammt. [...] Sie haben nur noch heute Zeit, ihre Meinung bei dieser Umfrage zum Ausdruck zu bringen. Nutzen Sie diese Möglichkeit!

Well, fine, but perhaps they should familiarise themselves with the subject of the directive "Council Directive 93/7/EEC on the return of cultural objects unlawfully removed from the territory of a Member State". How many collectors will that affect? How many of them willingly collect items unlawfully removed from the territory of an EU state and will go on paper defending their "rights" to do so? Nutzen Sie diese Möglichkeit!

And by now all those US collectors rushing to defend their "rights" before the deadline to collect unlawfully exported material from EU countries will have found that the consultation is only available to EU citizens, not looter/smuggler/culture criminal-financers from outside the EU.

It seems to me that for a fuller picture coineys really do need to read my blog rather than sticking to the misleading one-sided pap coin dealers offer them on the coiney forums and blogs. Nutzen Sie diese Möglichkeit!

Potts on Policing

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Larry Rothfield discusses Lee Rosenbaum's recent interview with Getty's Tim Potts (' "We have to support better policing of the sites", says the new Getty Museum Director. What does he have in mind?', February 25, 2012). The interview is also discussed by David Gill ("Timothy Potts: "the problem hasn't gone away" "). Potts concedes that "there is still a huge amount of ongoing looting and this issue is not being addressed". He then says that:

The only way to address it is on the ground in the source countries. We have to support better policing of the sites, better understanding by the local communities of the importance of the archaeological heritage, particularly to them. And it's only through these programs that we're really going to tackle the core problem, which is the illicit excavation that's still going on and the huge urban projects, dam building, and so on. The educational process has to happen not only with the local community but also with the government and ministers."

Now of course, whatever Dr Potts wants to believe (along with every no-questions-asking dealer and collector in Christendom) there is not one, "only", way to deal with the problem. We need a more holistic approach, and one obvious place to start is cleaning up the market making it less easy to foist looted objects off onto the market alongside material of more legitimate origins. At the moment there is absolutely no barrier whatsoever to this.

It seems Potts wishes to place the burden for the policing entirely on the shoulders of the victims of the looting, the citizens and governments of countries being looted. In usual atavistic colonialist fashion, it seems he treats all the inhabitants (and their governing elites) of the source countries of the antiquities collectors so covet as ignorant, uneducated, backward oafs who only have themselves to blame if they are ripped off by western dealers.

This is the Witschonke premise. This postulates that if - despite all the other problems it may have now - the looted "source" countries are not going to put 220% effort into protecting the sites and the cultural property they contain, the outside world (in particular the United States of America) should not lift even a little finger to help them. It is not as if the USA has anything like acceptable success protecting all of its own archaeological heritage (but that's only "injun" stuff and "stuff happens"). I really would like to see Dr Potts and his Getty going out there to the meth addicts of the Ozarks and among the pot-hunting and collecting folk of the Four Corners area (do make the effort to drop in on Judge Waddoups) and doing their please-don't-do-this,-it's-not-nice "education" there first as a pilot scheme before adopting it as a global policy.

Vignette: Dr Tim Potts, from the Chasing Aphrodite blog.

Police Detain Olympia Museum Raid Suspect

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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.

Fincham on Olympia Theft and Coiney Wrongheadedness

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Derek Fincham has a comment on the Olympia theft which is worth highlighting:

Last week was a bad week for antiquities protection, as thefts of antiquities from both Montreal and Olympia in Greece were revealed. [...] Both instances are troubling examples of thieves overcoming museum security. But, to borrow a phrase from Prof. Merryman, no thinking person would use these thefts to argue that (1) Western museums should repatriate all their antiquities; or (2) Greece should sell its "surplus" antiquities to alleviate its culture funding difficulty. Both propositions are wrongheaded. They are a reason why cultural heritage policy has such difficulty getting off the ground, if the discourse can't even acknowledge and admonish thieves as thieves.

Well, it's not any "discourse", it is mainly just selfish US collectors and dealers that see opportunities to score points off the current misfortunes of the source countries. They will not admit that stolen artefacts are stolen and not theirs to own "by rights".


UPDATE 20.2.12
The point about the western museums was initially a bit unclear to me, Dr Fincham (pers. comm.) confirms that what he meant was: "I saw folks argue that the Montreal theft means western museums aren't safe places for antiquities either, the implicit argument being that they should all go back to their nation of origin. It misses the point. Theft is theft".

US Dugup Dealer Shows True Colours and True Aims of their Anti CCPIA Movement

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The news of the armed robbery of the Olympia Museum was greeted with shock and dismay by the cultural community today, but among those involved in the trade in antiquities there was a totally different reaction. Dugup antiquity dealer Dave Welsh (Classical Coins) for example urges the immediate suspension of the implementation by the US of the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. He treats this theft by armed raiders as:

incontrovertible evidence that Greece, given her present difficulties, cannot at this time be considered a safe custodian for ancient artifacts. The USA should immediately suspend repatriation of artifacts to Greece and enforcement of import restrictions requested by Greece, until an impartial investigation determines whether the Greek government is capable of providing secure custody of the artifacts for which it is presently responsible.

What astounding nerve! First of all it is certainly not up to the United States of America to be the judge of whether another sovereign state should be a custodian of ITS OWN cultural property. This is sheer US imperialism raising its ugly head once again in dealers' dealings with the weaker nations of the world. Mr Welsh and his ACCG cronies would obviously willingly and without scruple take advantage of Greece's weakened position to keep in the USA any stolen Greek artefacts that may be found in that country. Disgusting.

Secondly, the UNESCO Convention (see Art. 7 for example) and the CCPIA which implements it (19 U.S.C. 2607 and 2610) is meant to deal precisely, and arguably even primarily, with just such circumstances as we have here. A museum has been robbed and states parties to the Convention are asked to keep an eye open for the loot and stop it being imported into and acquired in their own territories. It is precisely at such a moment that Mr Welsh wants to prevent the Convention being implemented in the case of Greece? This would not by any chance have any connection with Mr Welsh's own involvement in the trade in artefacts of (among others) Greek origin would it? Why would any dealer want to see a suspension of the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property as a result of a major museum theft in one of his "source countries"?

Thirdly, the only reason this raid was carried out was so the thieves (and we may speculate that they could be part of an armed - and even foreign - organized criminal group) could get their hands on valuable finds which they will try to monetise. Where? Pottery has minimal scrap value, so it seems they were taking items with a thought for their value on the no-questions-asked antiquities market. The very same international antiquities market that Dave Welsh and his organization the ACCG apparently support and wish to maintain. This raid would not have happened had there not been a market where stolen antiquities can safely be sold off, only to "surface" anonymously later. Collectors who buy stuff without requiring information where actually it came from are as much to blame for these sorts of thefts as those who see in the current state of the market a golden opportunity too good to miss.

Fourthly, it took kalashnikovs to loot this museum and the violent treatment of a museum guard. The ANS money Museum in the USA was robbed much more easily, through a fault in the internal auditing system which allowed a thief to take a million dollars worth of objects probably over a period of time, and earlier another theft of the same type to take place. As I said earlier, there has not been a peep about this on the coiney anti-preservationist blogs, let alone a call from US coineys for a deep investigation of museum security in the US. And these are the people whingeing about "discrimination"...

Finally, it is misleading to present the fight against the trade in illicit antiquities merely as a drive for "repatriation". Its not about what to do with the proceeds of crime, but preventing the crime. Let us not ignore the crime, let us call a spade a spade - even if no-questions-asked traders and collectors cannot bring themselves to.

Vignette: Dodger and Fagin discussing a "newly surfaced" coin. Some dealers in such "collectables" apparently hanker for a return to the golden period of culture-theft before the UNESCO Convention, they apparently would feel better working in a more nineteenth-century mode.

Museum at Olympia Robbed in Daring Raid

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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.

Artefacts Stolen from Montreal Museum

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Two antiquities were stolen in late October 2011 from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in a brazen daytime theft during visiting hours, but details were not released to the public earlier "because of an ongoing investigation by the Sureté du Québec and AXA Art, one of the world’s largest art-insurance companies". Hmm.

One of the stolen pieces is a marble head from the Roman Empire, dating from the first century AD. The second, and far more valuable item, is a Persian low relief of the head of a guard, dating from the fifth century BC. It is made of sandstone, and estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Both pieces are small, about 20 by 21 centimetres, and had been part of the permanent collection of the Montreal art institution for decades.

They have video footage from the museum’s security-camera system of a suspect, who is male, about 5 foot 7, and in October 2010, four months ago, was wearing jeans, running shoes, a black jacket and dark baseball hat as he strolled through the museum. A reward of $10,000 is being offered to anyone who can identify the suspect.

According to the museum, the theft is an isolated incident. Items on display are protected by security systems that include motion detectors and guards patrolling the galleries.

The article discusses several other thefts from Canadian museums in recent years. It seems art thieves can attack anywhere, any time - no matter what security measures are in place to deter and prevent them. Let us see how soon it is before these items "surface" on the dodgy art market.

Joshua Knelman, 'Two valuable artifacts stolen from Montreal museum', Globe and Mail (Toronto) Feb. 14, 2012

Collectors' Solidarity

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Following the theft of ancient dugup silver coins from a British museum, PC Fingle, a coin collecting police officer in charge of the case might have said last night: "All I want is a sensible resolution to the whole situation. Please feel free to contact me. I am your friend not your enemy, I enjoy this hobby and do not want to see it needlessly tarnished!".

Coin Robbery in St Albans Museum

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It is now being reported that over the weekend of 7th January there had been a break-in at the St Albans Museum in Hatfield Road. The thieves got away with finds from excavations in St Albans Abbey and the 1969 Abbey Orchard excavations by the St Albans and Hertfordshire Architectural and Archaeological Society prior to the construction of Abbey Primary School.
The finds taken were a sixth or seventh century silver hand pin, and, from the same case a group of 30 Anglo-Saxon coins "with an insurance value of £12000". They were part of the Abbey Orchard hoard which had been buried towards the end of the ninth century and contained 29 pence and one half-pence coins. The latter is a coin of Alfred the Great of the Londonia monogram reverse type. The council says the pence coins are all of the Lunette type (so-called because the moneyer's name appears on and between the two half moon shaped ornaments on the reverse). Another source however gives the information that there had been "46 coins in the collection and four of those were stolen in 1977".


"The council has closed the upstairs gallery at the museum while police investigate the thefts. The council has also commissioned a security review of its museums".

Manisha Mistry, 'Saxon coins and silver pin worth £12,000 taken', St Albans Review, Tuesday 24th January 2012.


UPDATE 7.02.12:
The coins are illustrated in Syllogue of Coins of the British Isles, vol 42 (South-Eastern Museums) p. 13 under numbers 650-655, 657, 659, 661, 663, 665-672, 674-678, 733, 753 and 758. The previously stolen four coins are 657, 675, 738 and 750. The illustrations are reproduced in the Abbey Orchard hoard photos folder on the Yahoo hammered Coins collectors' discussion list. Nice to see some coin collectors taking a responsible line over stolen artefacts.
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Buttock - Purveyor Arrested

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This was one of the more bizarre "heritage" cases of 2011, but it is good to see that it was not just shrugged off. I explained the legal background in an earlier post, and it seems that I was not alone in thinking that what was happening was not right. Yesterday British police arrested somebody in Derbyshire alleging they were involved in the illegal removal of a fragment of a bronze statue of Saddam Hussein from Iraq. The suspect was not named but stated to be "66-year-old man", the press are suggesting that "the arrested man is connected to Derby-based war art relic company Trebletap".

He was held on suspicion of breaching the 2003 Iraq Sanctions Order, which bans the exportation of "illegally removed Iraqi cultural property," including items of archaeological, historical, cultural, or religious importance.

The arrested man has been released on bail pending further inquiries. The piece of the statue, and most newspaper articles do not fail to mention that it was from the "buttock" (some add "bronzed") of the person depicted, was about 0.6, tall and was removed from the statue by "a former soldier from Britain's elite SAS regiment, Nigel "Spud" Ely, 52, after he witnessed US Marines drag the statue down following the fall of the Iraqi leader". Ely had managed to extract the fragment from Iraq and imported it into Britain "and put it up for auction last year, although it failed to reach its reserve price of £250,000 ($390,000)".

Ely expressed shock at today's arrest, which is thought to be connected to a company trying to find a buyer for the souvenir, saying, "This is like having a chunk of the Berlin Wall - it's part of history but it's not cultural property." He said that US Marines gave it to him at a time when Baghdad was under US control, adding, "How can it be classed as cultural property when it was put up by the biggest tyrant since Attila the Hun?"

The "two wrongs make a right" claim, as we have ample opportunity to see, is a standard one of the cultural property takers worldwide. (I also think such rhetoric does poor justice to both Saddam and Attila, but that is by the by.) Certainly the US forces had no authority to "give" Mr Ely that object (and when it was taken, Baghdad was not yet formally "under US control"), Mr Ely did not have authorisation to export the item, and thus as illegally appropriated property, it presumably cannot legally be brought into or owned in the UK.

Guardian, 'Man arrested over importation of Saddam Hussein statue's buttock', Thursday 19 January 2012.

AFP, 'Man held over 'stolen' bronzed Saddam buttock', Herald Sun, January 20, 2012.

UPDATE 20.1.2012
Chuck Jones of ISAW - NYU has published the following information on the Iraq Crisis website:

Trebletap Ltd. is the organization founded by Nigel ’Spud’ Ely [to sell] the Saddam Hussein statue's buttock. [Their website] includes his "comment on the Iraqi demand for the return of Saddam's comment on the Iraqi demand for the return of Saddam's bum"

That text is a huge eye-opener into the mentality of the sort of person that joined George Bush's Smash-Baghdad escapade of 2003. Do also have a look at what "trebletap" means; these people are walking among us. Some of them even think they are "artists". The "War relics art" company are refusing to surrender the stolen piece:

As far as Trebletap is concerned, the arse is designated for sale [...] The time, effort and cost that have gone into Trebletap will not be used to pay the pension for The Minister of Culture and Tin Cans in Iraq. As a safeguard, Trebletap have hidden the piece[...]

and of course hoping to cash in on the publicity the dispute over their fragment of bronze slab is generating. The seller claims

as a result of what Spud has done, the value of this piece of scrap has escalated out of all control and depending on who you talk to, it is now worth between £250,000 and £1,000,000. However, this value results from the story, from Spud himself and from the positioning that turned a piece of scrap metal into a piece of Art. Indeed, it is the very first in the new concept now known as War Relic Art and by definition it automatically assumed an enormous increase in value.

The guy is seemingly a megalomaniac, of course it is by no means the first occasion when war trophies have been turned into "art". The value is only the price a buyer will pay, the object failed to reach its reserve price earlier, now it turns out that by international law it cannot be possessed legally, he will not be finding a buyer soon.

Or he could try finding a cultural property lawyer of the calibre of Bailey and Ehernberg PLC's Peter Tompa. He sees no legal impediment to owning this piece ('Chasing Saddam's Butt). Apparently this lawyer considers that the fragment of statue is legally owned because it was "given to him by US Marines following the fall of Baghdad". Well, as far as I can see, Baghdad has not "fallen" and has an Iraqi government who say they did not "give" the statue to Mr Ely. He also questions whether such an item can be cultural property

The veteran has it right: Describing the furore surrounding the buttock as farcical, Ely questioned how a piece of metal from a statue put up by a dictator could be classified as national cultural property.[...] "American Marines gave it to me and at that time Baghdad was under American control," he added. "There wasn't even an Iraqi government and I have since turned it into a piece of war relic art. "This is like having a chunk of the Berlin Wall – it's part of history but it's not cultural property."

So, maybe Mr Ely can provide a document issued by the Americans in control on the date he took the fragment, confirming transfer of ownership. I wonder what Mr Tompa would consider as an adequate definition of cultural property to cover such cases. Are the rail spikes from Auschwitz (to take a recent case) cultural property, or up free for grabs to anyone who fancies taking a couple as souvenirs? Bloodstained fragments of the World Trade Centre recovered from the landfill and sold on eBay? That smuggled aeroplane.

I think we should hear from the commanding officer of the body of troops responsible for the area in question and which "gave" permission for an onlooker to remove this items from the country. Most of us in the civilised world agree to abide by the principles embodied in the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. At the time of the looting in Baghdad of course the US had not got around to ratifying this convention, they only managed to do that in March 2009.

In order to further boost publicity, I see "Spud" Ely now has on his website a poll "Vote on whether we should send Saddam's bum back to Iraq". We see that 85.4% of the visitors to the firm's website (70 voters) oppose the option "send it back" but support the option "keep it" (to sell). I wonder how many of them are British servicemen or ex-servicemen with their own stash of "liberated" property from the Iraq - or other - escapade which they hope one day to cash in on?

Frankly, whether it's called "cultural property" or not, theft is theft, whether or not you're an ex-soldier and whether or not some American soldier in a foreign country says you can have it. Suggest two wrongs make a right if you like, but theft is theft. Whether Peter Tompa recognises it or not, theft is theft. Call a bit of shrapnel on a stick "art" if you like, but theft is theft.

UPDATE 13.03.12:
The Antiques Trade Gazette now has a piece on this for those who still do not get it ('Whitehall issues sanctions warning following Saddam ‘statue’ sale', 05 March 2012):

The government has issued a warning to the art and antiques industry over the sale of war trophies after a piece of a Saddam Hussein statue appeared at auction. Those in breach could face up to seven years in jail. Statutory Instrument 2003 No.1519 UNITED NATIONS The Iraq (United Nations Sanctions) Order 2003 restricts the trade in such cultural goods because UN sanctions are still in force "as a continuation of efforts contributing to the maintenance of security and stability in Iraq", says the ministry of culture.

"Please note it is your responsibility to ensure that your activities do not breach these sanctions," it advises the industry through the British Art Market Federation. "If you wish to deal in Iraqi cultural property you are advised to look at the UKTI, BIS and HM Treasury websites. If there is any uncertainty you are advised to seek independent legal advice to ensure you do not breach sanctions. It is a criminal offence to breach these sanctions and carries a penalty of up to seven years imprisonment and/or a fine." [...] Auctioneers and dealers are also regulated by the Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Act 2003, which makes it an offence for any person to dishonestly deal in a cultural object that is tainted (within the meaning of the 2003 Act), knowing or believing that the object is tainted. The offence set out in the Act complements the UK's obligations under the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, which the UK ratified in 2002.

The Iraqi Embassy in London had complained when the piece of Saddam Hussein statue was consigned by Jim Thorpe (director of Trebletap) to Hanson's auctioneers of Etwall, Derbyshire. The incident has raised the question as to who actually owns the piece.

His business partner, Nigel Ely, a former SAS soldier [...] is said to have been issued with a notice under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, telling him not to alter or dispose of the item until the investigation is completed. In the meantime, Mr Thorpe faced arrest and questioning under suspicion of having breached the UN sanctions.

Twinstead Theft: Police Appeal to "Law Abiding" Metal Detectorists

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For those truly law abiding "metal detectorists" who were at the Twinstead rally and did not take part in the theft of gold coins, the police contact (for reporting those who did) is the Essex Police's heritage crime officer PC Andy Long.

Email: andrew.long@essex.pnn.police.uk
Telephone: 01621 869851
Telephone: 0300 333 4444
Mobile: 07977512068

PC Long is quoted by the BBC, saying: "All the coins found on the site are protected by the Treasure Act. They are treasure trove and have to be declared to the county coroner. We would urge anyone who has taken any of the coins or knows of their whereabouts to contact us immediately". Go on, shop a law-breaker - these people are the so-called "nighthawks" that the responsible metal detecting fraternity despises and would (they say) like to see locked-up. Do it.

And what about the Castle Hedingham Scout Group whose dubious means of fundraising provided the opportunity for this theft to take place? Will they be accepting the money now the whole affair has been embroiled in national scandal? Since some of it will have been donated by those coin thieves who abused the rally entrance fee to steal from the farmer, accepting it hardly seems in line with the Boy Scouts' dib-dib-dib-dob-dob-dob 'Code of Honour'. But in today's Yobbo-UK, that probably counts for a lot less these days than when I was a lad.

Vignette: Britain's police.

Twinstead Theft: Daily Mirror Writes About Gold, Big Papers Waiting for PAS Press Release?

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I do not personally read the Daily Mirror, but those in the UK who do will hear about the Twinstead Gold Theft scandal before the readers of the 'big' papers (Gold rush as metal detectors battle over field of sovereigns). Here too we see the effects of the propaganda, the Daily Mirror describes artefact hunting with metal detectors as "the trainspotter-style hobby" and "the gentle world of metal detecting", I am sure that suits the history-takers to hear themselves referred to in such benign terms. The journalist seems therefore genuinely surprised that this idyllic anorakish world:

has been rocked by a ferocious battle in a field – over a hoard of gold coins. A hundred enthusiasts on a charity day out turned ‘cut-throat’ as they tossed aside their equipment and scrapped over a find of nearly 300 sovereigns, worth £75,000. They then disappeared with the loot, half of which belongs to the farmer who owns the land, instead of declaring it under treasure laws.

That is actually inaccurate, ALL of it belongs to the farmer for no inquest has been held to declare them otherwise.

"It all started peacefully as 200 metal detector fans paid £12 each to scour a field near Twinstead, Essex, on Sunday, raising money for a scout group. Then a novice hit paydirt. One enthusiast said: “The find was made by someone inexperienced who started yelling about a gold coin. Soon there were about 100 individuals digging. It was out of hand. “Metal detecting is a murky, cut-throat world. People were coming up with handfuls of coins and you could see they would have killed for another sovereign.

So the experienced "detectorist" would have just slipped it into his finds pouch and not said anything? The next one too?

The journalist is less incensed by the thievery than aghast at the possibility that the 'anoraks' will now be getting bad publicity:

[...] said our source. “Farmers won’t have us on their land again. Metal detecting could be set back 20 years.”

One bloke is quoted as playing down the whole affair, suggesting to the journalist that there were "only seven coins" stolen. Theft is theft Mr Wilcox. How many other things routinely are taken off a landowner's property without him being fully appraised of it by artefact hunters?

UPDATE 3/12/11: One UK metal detecting forum has refused to allow its members to discuss this topic, justifying that by the conspiracy theory the story was false and made up by journalists "to sell papers".

I note that most of those who picked up the Mirror story yesterday (I wonder whether the big papers have decided this is "not news" and decided - or been asked - not to cover it) refer to it being a "missing" (sic) hoard rather than a stolen one. It has been stolen from the landowner who allowed these law-breakers (the ones that stole the coins) onto his land. I see this news is even being reported in Nigeria.

A Lot of Sovereigns on EBay today

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There seems to be quite a lot of sovereigns on EBay at the moment, you know, Victoria, Edward VII, is it not a tad suspicious that they just "surface" on the market like that within a few days of the end of the weekend? I suppose we could treat this as an analogy for other kinds of "surfacing" of artefacts without any explanation where they come from. Except there we infer a new hoard has been found and illegally dispersed when one or more dealers suddenly offers a group of related coins in suspiciously similar condition. Here we know a hoard has been found and illegally dispersed and we (and the police) can be on the lookout for coins which might be from it.

I should explain for those who have not cottoned on yet, although these coins are not "300 years old", they still count as "Treasure" in the terms of that (not) "wonderful" Treasure Act, as it has a category

(1)Treasure is—[...]
(c)any object which would have been treasure trove if found before the commencement of section 4;

which is what the items found on an Essex farmer's property at "Skunky Paul's rally" at Twinstead are. In other words, the objects were buried with the purpose of the original owner coming back for it. If the heirs of whoever buried it there can be found, then they get the coins... So how many of those coins now being sold on EBay by members in the UK and placed there in the last few days are from this find? Some, most or all? Are the PAS still "policing" eBay for illicit Treasure finds? if so, maybe they can tell us the answer - or do they feel this is not a statistic that the public should know about "metal detectorists"? Where is the statement ("outreach") on their website reminding finders of such objects of their obligation in the light of recent events? Not only does the front page of the website not contain a hint of this, it gives an incomplete and misleading definition of Treasure.

No surprise in that though, they've always been a bit diffident about giving their "partners" with metal detectors too much information to think about.

So, how many of the sovereigns of Victoria and Edward VII being offered now (or in the future) have been half-inched from the farmer by a guest on his land? How many people will be adding an illicit coin to their collection through not being careful about who they buy from and how they got it? I expect though if you are a coin collector the answer is a shrug of the shoulders and that ACCH mantra: "what duz it matter, eh? Coins was made to circulate weren't they? That's what they was made fer".

Twinstead Theft: Followup

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Pete-Trac wrote on a metal detecting forum near you about the Twinstead theft, saying that it was a "sorry state of affairs" which can only reflect badly on the image of "metal detecting" as people will tend to see all artefact hunters in the same light. He admits that it is a fact that "some people in our hobby are in it purely for profit". He goes on to say that if he were a farmer:

having heard this tale, I would definately say no to any detectors coming on to my land because I would do exactly what these farmers are doing .. and that is classing all detectorists as grubby little thieves, pocketing finds made on private land, finds that don't belong to any of us... Just because a farmer gives us permission to detect their land doesn't mean that we can just take them home and pop them in a drawer or sell them on ebay and pocket the cash..

He suggests that as long as this mentality continues then the current freedoms of artefact hunters will be curtailed and they will eventually run out of land and artefact hunting will be restricted to rallies, but this too is an unsatisfactory situation as the archaeological record is finite and "the rallies that we will be forced to attend [...] will be over crowded and they too will eventually stop because they will be done to death". He tells of the appalling nature of some of the people he meets on rallies:

I have attended many rallies and club digs and I have to admit that some of the characters I have met there are absolute scumbags that do nothing for this hobby and are there to get what they can for their own profit and are not interested in the historic importance or interested in the items they are finding.. They turn up and off they go, leaving holes unfilled and tossing unwanted items on the ground for other people to find in the hope that this slows the competion down and they go racing off.. I have seen it with my own eyes and it bugs the hell out of me.. These people should be banned from rallies and hounded out of the hobby by the rest of us who love the hobby for all the right reasons.

But they are not, are they? Artefact hunters are not willing to take responsibility for the state of their own hobby.

Meanwhile there has been an update of news from the rally site. The landowner was not only chagrined that he had been robbed by guests on his land but concerned that following the widespread publicity the hoard had received, his field might be subject to nocturnal visits of uninvited metal detectorists. The decision was taken to "clear the field of the remainder of the hoard". Five metal detector users gathered there two days after the rally.

With the aid of a mechanical digger and driver we have spent the last two days intensely searching the area and left the site early this evening quite happy that we'd not only removed all the coins from the 'hotspot', but had also systematically searched and removed scattered coins from the surrounding area. I am very happy to report that we found a total of 123 sovereigns plus 12 half-sovereigns and will be reporting ALL of the coins to the coroner.

So, if 135 coins were the residue left AFTER the whole area had been thoroughly searched by many many treasure seekers, how many coins were initially hoiked out?

Rather incongruously the first mentioned writer now asserts that his confidence in the honesty of the true metal detectorists out there has somehow been restored by this activity and suggests that "this has the makings of a great story that will hopefully end up reflecting well on this fantastic hobby [...] let's draw a line under this unfortunate event and hope we can regain some trust among the landowners out there".

So who else was at the findspot gathering evidence which might help determine the context of the burial of the hoard? Archaeologists, police? Or did the enthusiastic let's-clean-up-this-mess metal detectorists just go ahead and do a bit of DIY crime scene investigation and evidence recovery? Should not the Coroner have been involved in this second "dig"? Was he?

Metal Detecting Under the Microscope: Gold Coins at Twinstead

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A heritage grabfest commercial artefact hunting rally was held in Twinstead, Near Sudbury in Essex, on Sunday 27th November (announced here by "Skunky Paul"). The heritage was being plundered to "raise funds for the Castle Hedingham Scout Group". Some gold coins were found; rather a lot in fact, 100 or according to some 200 (or "hundreds") sovereigns of Victoria and Edward VII. In metal detecting circles there are tales of the finders "not showing them to the organisers, but just disappearing with pockets full in some cases, [...] last I heard only 2 had appeared in the showcase". Another reporter says: "I heard of one [person] finding 10 in a roll / original wax paper, some pe[ople] are thinking it might of (sic!) been a robbery". The story from Detecting Wales ("Jeb"):

A single lad found one sov, and instead of saying nothing and carrying on detecting around the spot, he held it up and let them all around him know he`d just found a Soverign , then amazingly enough he walked away from the spot. Well the rest zoomed in on the spot and from then on the continuation of finds of Soverigns carried on. So the initiall finder got just one . I was there I saw it . It was Gold fever at its worst . I didn`t get involved with it ,although I was there nearby when only the SECOND soverign was found. I watched from about thirty feet away as at the time ,around thirty "vultures" picked at the carcass of land . Thirty or more or on a piece of ground no bigger than 20 -30 feet square. They were like people detecting in a lift , it was amazing spectacle to watch, I walked away eventually and that was at 10.45 or 11am ish. The finding carried on and on. The same amount roughly were STILL there at around 4 PM.

They were only in it for the "history" of course. Another part of the story from the rally UK site:

“Within 20 mins there were about 30 people in that small patch and all pulling up gold sovereigns! There was a jovial atmosphere with people kissing the coins as they came up and others cheering and congratulating them on their finds.The most asked question doing the rounds today was "How many have you got now?" and the replies kept rising.” I did show my coins to the organisers and they were photographed for a 2nd time. I asked the organiser about what happens now (re declaring them etc ) and was told that we were entitled to keep them. The scouts were happy that they had raised the amount that they were hoping for.

And the landowner, was he formally approached and asked? Did nobody think (including the rally organizers) that these coins should have been declared? Of course many artefact hunters think its very much a matter of finders keepers, one "Wayno" who it appears had travelled over to deepest Essex from the Wild West back on the "Detecting Wales" forum expresses it like this:

"As we are paying the farmer I didnt realise that we were in shares with him. If the farmer allowed you on free then I realise we would be on shares but we are paying this is not made clear as yet. The farmer to which the rally was held in question with the soverigns if there was 200 that approx 200X£240 scrap value for the coins so he will [be] entitled to £24000 of the organisers then."

And not from those individuals who actually benefited and made off with them (including those who concluded they "might of bin from a robbery"? The Scottish detectorists are interested too (Wild scenes at "Gold rush" on English rally).

The English based forums are full of it with claims of some detectorists fleeing the scene with 20 or more sovereigns each and the field being left like a lunar landscape. There is now talk of police involvement and criminal charges being made.

The French too are talking of it and wondering at it all. So the farmer appears to have been ripped off by GUESTS on his land, it seems inherently likely (paper still on the coins in a Suffolk field) that this was the result of the recent burial of thieved loot which was thieved again by thieving metal detectorists (so possible evidence of a crime was obliterated instead of being responsibly reported). Two hundred sovereigns buried in the reign of Edward VIII even if buried just after their date of issue can conceivably be traced to a known individual who has an heir. There are certainly grounds for disquiet here, and open and frank discussions how the contract between commercial rally organizers and landowners should be drafted to make sure this thing cannot happen again. Will such a discussion take place on any English metal detecting forums? Not very likely. Have a look and see what their concerns were:

what I suggest---- you make this bit of the forum disappear as soon as pos ----- WHY because all your excuses smart remarks and information will be twisted and used against you and put our hobby in disrepute and make us look like the bad boy ----- some of you have notice from you smart remarks a lot of the forums are closing down on this subject or deleting this is because they dont want the hassle or the embarrassment of showing our hobby in a bad light think about it the less peeps know the less they can hurt us.

Just keep it quiet lads, keep it out of the public eye and that way nobody will be questioning current British policies on artefact hunting and collecting. The Minelabs thread has apparently been deleted for the same reason, the Scottish detectorists are also worried about the negative effects for the all important "image of the hobby". And what image of the hobby does that, in itself, project? Frankly, in order to provide all the evidence that one needs that all is not at all what it is made out by its supporters to be in the world of artefact hunting in the UK, one does not need to "twist" anything these people say candidly. Their words speak volumes for themselves of just what lies below the carefully maintained facade. When are we going to hear it like it is?

Vignette: Boy Scouts learning how to raise funds by metal detecting (for their "heritage plunderer" badge no doubt) Photo: rally in progress photo by "Regis".

Avenge the Armenians: Steal From the Turks?

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In the blog "Keghart.com", we find a strange compilation of two letters the Boston Globe declined to print in reply to the article by Geoff Edgers about Boston Museum of Fine Arts and a statue: “MFA sends ‘Weary Herakles’ statue back to Turkey,” (Sept. 24, 2011). They were written by two US Armenians Berge Tatian and David Boyajian both of Massachusetts. Tatian (from Newton MA) objects to the return:

[...] It's as if I find a work of art on my property and then go around claiming it as part of my patrimony. The Turk's complaint over looting is pathetic if not laughable when they themselves are guilty of the most egregious crime of looting, that of the properties of the Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians of Asia Minor, after destroying their heritage.

Boyajian of Stoneham MA also objects for much the same reasons:

[...] Turkey has exterminated the indigenous peoples of Asia Minor – Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians – and tried to erase all traces of their existence, while harassing the few who are left. Turkey has destroyed, deliberately misidentified, or grossly neglected most of the churches, cultural landmarks, and villages of these ancient peoples, whom Turks conquered after arriving from Central Asia. Hundreds of such villages have also been assigned Turkish names to erase the fact that these were the lands and homes of people whom Turkey annihilated. [...] Rather than returning the Herakles statue, the MFA should be shedding light on Turkey’s acts of cultural destruction and genocide.

Well, of course this is all about the Armenian genocide of 1915-23, and these two are just trying to entangle the Greek statue in their own quarrel about their own history and identity. We note again the use - so unusually prevalent when reading cultural property arguments written by Americans - the "two wrongs make a right" ("it's OK to steal from the citizens of Turkey because they are all descendants of slanty-eyed culture-damaging monsters from central Asia"). This is the rhetoric of the playground rather than an adult argument.

First of all of course Berge finding an ancient object on his own property in Massachusetts is free to do with it, and call it, what he wants. That is what US law states. That's what US property owners do to native American artefacts found by the thousand on eBay. In the same way Turkish law states certain things about antiquities. The upper half of the Herakles statue was removed in a clandestine fashion, and not reported or subject to the export licencing procedures. it was illegally removed from the site and the country. Those, and no other, are grounds enough for it to go back. In the same way as if Mr Berge had had his car stolen from his driveway, or a Chinese vase from his living room. Its not anything to do with "culture" or "looting", it is theft.

Tatian and Boyajian write as though the establishment of a Turkish nation was the only case ever in world history of population displacement with all that goes with it. Far from it. The process affected my country several times since the end of the eighteenth century. Despite all the historical grievances, the Poles don't go running round advocating stealing from the Russians, Germans, Austrians and Hungarians because of what they were doing to Poland at the time of the Armenian 'holocaust'. It is perfectly natural that villages in the Ukraine which were once Polish now have Ukrainian names, and villages in what was once Germany in the west of Poland have names that can be inflected in Polish and not their original German names which often cannot.

Likewise maybe Tatian and Boyajian would like to give us a list of the preserved places of worship, burial grounds, cultural landmarks, and villages of the ancient peoples who the colonists found here (the Wampanoag tribes) which are the traces of the existence of these peoples and their cultures in Massachusetts (which of course has territorial boundaries entirely coterminous with those of the native groups living there before the colonisation). And where are the thousands of Wampanoag tribesmen? The ones that survived the so-called King Phillip's War? The Narragansett, Wampanoag, Podunk, Nipmuck ? And of course "Newton" and "Stoneham" have well-obvious Wampanoag etymology, don't they?

What, given their own history of cultural replacement, do Tatian and Boyajian imagine gives the people of Boston, MA any right to keep foreign stolen artefacts on the grounds which they cite?

Vignette: The Wampanoag, cultures and communities gone before the Trail of Tears.

Hot and Dirty

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Joshua Knelman’s 'Hot Art: Chasing Thieves and Detectives Through the Secret World of Stolen Art', looks at the shadowy side of art fairs, galleries, museums, auction houses, private and public collections. In the United States alone, the business of fine art is worth billions of dollars annually, but that the value of the amount of stolen art annually is not clear. But it is clearly a lot. The book brings the message that "in the 1980s, stolen art grew to an estimated $4-billion to $6-billion". These estimates vary of course, and depend on what we consider to be "stolen art", the definition is somewhat ambiguous. In any case it still seems worth stressing that whatever the precise figures are, this still makes the trade in stolen art: "the fourth-largest black market in the world after drugs, money laundering and weapons, according to Interpol and UNESCO". While I generally do not think it is useful to treat dugup antiquities as "ancient art", this passage from a review of the book struck a chord:

The main story is told from the perspective of a handful of crusaders who battle not only the increasing sophistication and determination of art thieves but the indifference of their police colleagues and even the hostility of gallery owners who don’t want to change their ways. “The business of art is one of the most corrupt, dirtiest industries on the planet,” maintains one such crusader, a Toronto lawyer specializing in cultural property law named Bonnie Czegledi. “There are no regulations and theft is rampant.” Proper documentation of sales is often missing, and gallery owners often feel it is rude to inquire closely about the provenance of a work of art offered to them. “Nobody in the art world asks questions,” Paul [the author's main informant from the criminal world] informs Knelman.

Nowell is a little more critical of the book's style and coverage, but in her review gives a piece of information about the Art Loss Register which has often been misused by antiquity dealers to show their items are 'clean' that seems worth drawing attention to:

The Art Loss Register, founded in London in the 1990s, lists more than 100,000 works of stolen art. Only 2 per cent have been recovered. In 2001, the register listed as missing or stolen 659 Picassos, 397 Miros, 347 Chagalls, 313 Salvador Dalis, 216 Warhols and 199 Rembrandts. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Stolen Art File is small by comparison, with only 6,500 listings.

I wonder where the designer of the book's cover has been since 1963. Still this seems like a new book worth considering adding to our libraries.

Philip Marchand, 'Open Book: Hot Art, by Joshua Knelman', National Post, Sep 30, 2011,
Iris Nowell, 'Catalogued, admired and stolen', Globe and Mail, Sep. 30, 2011

Egyptian Museum: New "Missing Objects" List Needed

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Things have been reappearing in dribs and drabs, but isn't it about time the Egyptian Museum made another list of what is still "missing" (or believed to be missing)? This is what I make to be the score now:

FIRST FLOOR GALLERIES
1) JE 9080 Statuette of Onuris page 2/42 (Room P19)
2) JE 27326 Limestone female statue page 6/42 (Room 48)
3) JE 29357 Bronze statuette Apis bull, page 7/42 (Room 48)
4) JE 30204 Bronze statuette Nakht, page 8/42 (Room 48)
5) JE 39590 Limestone shabti, 18 dyn, page 12/42 (Room 48)
6) JE 36598 Bronze statuette Bastet [inscribed Padiamen], page 11/42 (Room 19)
7) JE 47906 Necklace, gold, faience, stone beads, page 16/42 (Room 6)
8) JE 55175 Lapis lazuli bead girdle, TT 358 Ahmose Merytamun, page 19/42
(Room 48)
9) JE 60713 Tutankhamun red crown, KV 62, page 22/42 (Room '30' recte 40)
10) JE 60713 Tutankhamun shrouded, KV 62, page 23/42 (Room 40)
11) JE 68983 Yuya wooden shabti KV46, page 29/42 (Room 43)
12) JE 68984 Yuya wooden shabti KV46, page 30/42 (Room 43)
- the one that was announced as having been found but had not.
13) JE 68987 Yuya wooden shabti KV46, page 31/42 (Room 43)
14) JE 68989 Yuya wooden shabti KV46, page 32/42 (Room 43)
15) JE 68992 Yuya wooden shabti KV46, page 33/42 (Room 43)
16) JE 68993 Yuya wooden shabti KV46, page 34/42 (Room 43)
17) JE 68994 Yuya calcite shabti KV46, page 35/42 (Room 43)
18) JE 68995 Tjuya wooden shabti KV46, page 36/42 (Room 43)
19) JE 68998/JE 95362 Tjuya wooden shabti KV46, page 37/42 (Room 43)
20) JE 94481 Ten faience amulets and beads, page 39/42 (Room 48)
21) SR 3/8599 Bronze false beard, page 41/42 (Room 19)
22) SR 3/8604 Bronze false beard, page 42/42 (Room 19)
23) [there has been talk that another Tutankhamun fan was taken from the case containing the fans and walking sticks in Room 13, but is not on any list - fan stock 62006 - see here].

GROUND FLOOR GALLERIES (all Amarnan in date and all from one case - the Akhenaton statue found in Tahrir Square (sic) was from this group - where are the rest of the objects from the group that was taken from this case?)
24) JE 44867, Unfinished limestone Nefertiti statue, page 13/42 (Room R8 vit k)
25) JE 44873, Quartzite statue princess, page 14/42 (Room R8 vit k)
26) JE 44874, Red granite statue princess, page 15/42 (Room R8 vit k)
27) JE 52976, Limestone statue, seated man, page 17/42 (Room R8 vit k)
28) JE 53250, Steatite statue of Bes (calcite base), page 18/42 (Room R8 vit k)
29) JE 59291, Steatite statue of scribe with Thoth/Baboon on limestone base,
page 20/42 (Room R 8 vit k)
30) JE 53250, Quartzite head of princess, page 26/42 (Room R8 vit k)

The only object from the ground floor gallery retrieved to date was the Akhenaton statue found "in the garbage" near Tahrir Square 16th February 2011. The ('sting') recovery of 17/3/11 retrieved 7 objects from room 19 and 5 from room 6. The recovery of 27/3/11 (Khan el Khalili) was of five objects from Room 19 and no other. The next four (the bag in the station 12 April 2011) were from three areas of the Museum, gallery 40, 13 and 43 at the other end. The most recent recovery (May 2nd) was of two statues from room 19, which were found with two other statues from somewhere else (where was never revealed). A question which remains to be answered is how and where the latter bunch of artefacts were detected. Were they seized at Egypt's borders during an attempt to take them out of the country?

A few weeks ago I presented a plan of the Museum's first floor showing where cases were broken into and stuff removed and either thrown on the floor or taken. Here it is again, with an indication of where the material has not yet been fully recovered (small circles) and where most of the objects taken have not been seen since Jan 28th (larger circles). Most of it is on the first (upper) floor, the material missing from the ground floor is shown in blue.


If we break down what is still missing, much of it comes from the same rooms as the material also retrieved. From Room 19, 14 stolen items have been recovered, but four are still "out there" (numbers items 1, 6, 21-2). From room 6, five stolen objects have been retrieved, but one more (7) is still to find. The people who went through Room 48 (rotunda in the centre of the south side) however have not yet been detected, we are still missing all the objects they took (2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 20). Of the group of items taken from the Yuya and Thuya collection in the adjacent room 48, only one item has been found, but apart from this all the objects taken from that gallery are also missing (nine shabtis nos. 11-19). Equally the two Tutankhamun pieces are still missing despite the retrieval of one statue from the same case as the two still missing statues and the trumpet and fan from Room 13.

[Egyptian Museum staff if you are reading this (I know you do), please produce an updated list of the items believed to be missing, this time please give the document a proper title, put the date it was compiled somewhere in it and number the pages properly. It would help if you numbered the missing objects too]

Guardian of the Pharoahs Tells a New Story

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There is an interview with Zahi Hawass in the August number of Scientific American, it's quite notable for the way he dodged answering most of the questions. Most of it is fairly predictable, except this:

You said 31 objects from the Cairo museum are still missing at this point. What are the most significant ones?

[ZH] The only significant one from the museum is a small head of Queen Nefertiti—a few centimeters high. [...] We brought back the statue of Akhenaton holding a stela. And we’ve brought back most of King Tut’s objects that were stolen.

And where were they? Where did you find them?

[ZH] Those were taken by the looters who entered the museum on the night of January 28. We got the objects of King Tut because there was someone working for the antiquities department who came to me and said that there were looters who wanted to return these objects to me. And the next day he brought a bag with four objects.

And these looters approached the department official anonymously

[ZH]It's a long story. He was sitting in a café, and heard them talking, and they said they need to return these objects to Zahi Hawass because they trust him.

Now of course that is not the story that was put out at the time, or rather not either of the stories that was put out at the time. So now we have at least three different versions of the same event, found in a bag by named person (chance), handed in by unnamed person (delberate act), conversation overheard in a cafe by named person (chance). And these men "trust" Hawass?

Also, what does it mean "Those were taken by the looters who entered the museum on the night of January 28"? Were there any other raids on different days we did not hear anything about? So this Ministry employee (here unnamed - but the finder was named as Salah Abdel Salam earlier) has had contacts with the 28 Jan looters? Why were they not arrested? Did the handover take place in the Shubra metro station, or in a cafe?

[By the way Dr Hawass is not quite presenting the facts saying: "most of the items looted on 28th January were returned". The number of items still missing is still greater than half of those taken. Perhaps he has in mind the total number of items taken out of their cases that night, the majority of which were left in the museum on the floor or thrust into other cases.]

Jeffrey Bartholet, 'Zahi Hawass, Egypt's Indiana Jones and One-Time Mubarak Ally, Tries to Cozy Up to Pro-Democracy Activists', Scientific American July 13, 2011
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How Can Egypt Protect Archaeological Sites From Destruction?

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Kent Weeks has a very well-presented piece in Newsweek called: Can Egypt Protect Its Ancient Monuments? which details some of the problems facing the country in the field of the preservation of its archaeological sites from damage and destruction. The text is well worth reading.

The archaeological sites of Egypt face many threats, one of the problems is that many of them sites are crowded into the same areas as modern activity, and the needs of looking after the legacy of the past have to be balanced with the present and future development of the country.

In truth, no one knows how many archeological sites are in Egypt: 5,000 is an oft-quoted figure, but other experts say there are many more. Some sites are tiny—graffiti scratched on a cliff face, or a small cemetery. Others, like Giza, cover several square kilometers filled with thousands of tombs and pyramids. Thebes (modern Luxor) boasts thousands of tombs, temples, shrines, and villages. The Valley of the Kings alone is chockablock with scores of elegantly decorated tombs, including that of the boy king Tutankhamun. Sites lie beneath the streets of modern cities, in fields along the Nile, in desert wastelands, and distant oases—even beneath the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. They span thousands of years and represent several cultural and religious traditions—Neolithic, dynastic Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim. In Egypt, one is rarely out of sight of an ancient monument.

Unfortunately, it is no exaggeration to say that every one of them is threatened with destruction — and theft and vandalism are the least of the problems. The graver threats are more subtle: changes in the environment, such as increasing temperatures and humidity, air pollution, and rising ground water; the expansion of industries, farms, and cities into archeological zones; and, perhaps worst of all, the growth of mass tourism and the burgeoning infrastructure required to support it.

Wider public attention has been drawn in recent weeks to the problem of their preservation by the looting which has taken place. In the last week of January, police throughout Egypt abandoned their posts, leaving hundreds of archaeological sites unguarded. Political changes left the the Supreme Council of Antiquities rudderless and confused: "Gangs of armed treasure hunters took advantage of the chaos and began plundering ancient tombs and antiquities storerooms throughout Egypt. The robberies are ongoing and thought to exceed 400 incidents so far". While the looting of sites is just one of the problems facing the antiquities preservation authorities in the country, it is one that takes up a large quantity of the resources available for the task. Weeks then turns to the organization which is charged with looking after these monuments, he describes the arsenal of resources it has to do this as limited and somewhat outdated.

The SCA is a bloated bureaucracy. It employs 58,000 people; about two thirds are local security guards, poorly paid, untrained, and unarmed.
There are also between 20,000 and 30,000 Tourist and Antiquities Police, part of the Ministry of the Interior (not the SCA), who are posted at sites and museums most heavily visited by foreign tourists. Though a pervasive presence, they are an unreliable one, as demonstrated by their immediate and wholesale disappearance early in the revolution. Many still have not returned to duty.
The SCA’s on-site inspectors, who are supposed to administer and preserve the country’s heritage, are underpaid and unmotivated. Most are young and —for the first few years, at least— enthusiastic about their job. But the low salary and near-universal reluctance of their superiors to delegate authority leads to frustration. A large number leave to become tourist guides. Instead of taking 300 Egyptian pounds a month from the SCA (about $50), they can earn six or seven times that amount as guides.

Let us note that Week's figures suggest that there are some 60 000 people who are employed as guards, to keep looters off the sites. Collectors who say "more should be done" to protect sites from looters have failed to suggest where the finances to employ even 60 000 people at a reasonable salary, let alone the number that would be required to keep an even closer watch. Surely nearly all this money could be saved and directed towards conservation if dealers and collectors would simply stop buying artefacts without any questions establishing they come from legitimate sources, thus reducing dramatically reducing the incentive to loot sites for collectables that will find a buyer even if illicitly obtained.

Looking after archaeological sites costs a lot of money, everywhere. Tourists visiting monuments (though not all sites) generate income but:

the SCA is perennially underfunded, even though archeological tourism generates considerable income. In December 2010 ticket sales to sites in Luxor alone earned $30 million for Egypt. But [since tourism is one of the country's main sources of income] much of this money goes to the government treasury.

As Weeks points out, "almost every branch of government wants some control over that income and wants as much of it as possible for themselves, focusing only on short-term gain". The pressures tourism inflicts on tombs and temples is enormous, yet no long-term comprehensive management plan to protect them has yet been agreed upon. Weeks mentions the redevelopment of Luxor to generate more tourist revenue which I wrote about on this blog last year."The plan is already doing irreparable harm to many of Luxor’s monuments, demolishing historic buildings, paving over archeological sites, moving whole villages and thousands of Egyptians far away from tourist centers and ancient monuments. Many archeologists and tourists, as well as many locals, believe that these acts are turning the largest archeological zone in the world into a gaudy theme park designed only to make money in the short term". Weeks makes some recommendations for the future:

What should be done to protect Egypt’s monuments? Here’s a list on which most Egyptologists agree:

Consult with local and international agencies and specialists to develop and implement long-term management plans.
Train on-site inspectors and give them greater responsibility.
Design better security for sites and museums.
Allocate more money for site conservation and documentation.
Take a strong stand against commercial and political interests that threaten the monuments.

Egypt’s archeological patrimony is humankind’s as well, and requires urgent efforts if it is to be saved for future generations. Egypt’s revolution, and the energy of the youth that drove it, captured the world’s imagination and gave renewed hope for the country’s future. It would be a tragedy if this were not also translated into a renewed commitment to its past.

Let us hope the new government that will eventually be created in place of military law will set about creating conditions for this to be put into action. We can help, by creating conditions in which the trade in illicit artefacts from the looting of sites and museum storerooms and galleries cannot function. That seems the least we can do to help the Egyptians protect the archaeological heritage of that part of the planet's surface.