What Part of the Phrase "Export Licence" Don't You Understand?

The US-based "Cultural Property Observer" has whinged about some "Cypriot Icons: Presumed "Stolen" on Entry to America but "For Sale" Legally in Cyprus?. His complaint is that under current import regulations on material from that country, some icons from Cyprus are deemed "stolen" by the US government but some icons are being sold quite openly in Cyprus itself. He cites an upcoming auction organized by art dealers "La Parole Divine" (an art consultancy which advises collectors and promotes the work of selected artists across Europe, Russia and the US with especial expertise in the field of Byzantine, Greek and Russian icons).

I am not quite sure what cultural property lawyer Tompa thinks he is doing issuing such warnings to scare off US customers like this. Still less why he thinks any of the icons on sale in this auction might be regarded as "stolen". The press release indicates that some come from existing Russian and US collections,and I would be very surprised if any of those on offer were ripped from the iconostases of Cypriot churches.

But, and here is the point, if they were, it would be very remiss of the Cypriot authorities to give them the all important piece of paper which Tompa and his dugup-antiquity-gobbling mates in the ACCG are kicking against, an export licence. If Tompa had struggled to the end of the press release he would have seen that Cyprus is regarded by the organizers of the auction as a very welcoming place for such an event not least because "the island’s Governmental Regulations permit the importation and sale of cultural goods provided they are of clear provenance". He'd have known that anyway if he was one of the leading cultural property lawyers in the US. Anyway, it does. Anyone buying an icon at this sale and wishing to export it legally should apply for a licence. I expect if they are asked very nicely, "La Parole Divine" will help the successful bidders out. So potential US customers need not be scared off by Tompa's alarmist nonsense.

I have noted here before that the coin-fondling antiquitists seem to have mainly fluff and coin dust between their ears which has given cause to wonder if antiquity collecting is having an adverse effect on their mental health and cognitive abilities. We hear talk amoing them of fighting some non-existent "ban on imports" when no such ban exists, here we see an attempt to suggest that the US gub'nmint sees ALL icons from Cyprus as "stolen" the moment they approach US shores. Both of these statements are completely untrue and just require a little bit of reading of the CPIA to check out. What is required by the CPIA is for imported items of certain categories into the US to be accompanied by a valid export licence from the country of export (or failing that a mere piece of paper signed by the dealer that what he is selling is legally sold and exported). Check it out (pay attention to "Section 2606. Import Restrictions a) Documentation of lawful exportation", but also (b) Customs action in absence of documentation, and especially the 'wall of bubbles" cop-out clause: (c) "Definition of satisfactory evidence", (1) and (2)). The categories affected by such restrictions include
ritual and ecclesiastical ethnological material from Cyprus representing the
Byzantine period (which include icons). The 1999 Import Restrictions Imposed On Byzantine Ecclesiastical and Ritual Ethnological Material from Cyprus says:

"The materials on this list are subject to Sec. 12.104a(b), Customs Regulations (19 CFR 12.104a(b)). As provided in 19 U.S.C. 2601 et seq., and Sec. 12.104a(b), Customs Regulations, listed materials from this area may not be imported into the U.S. unless accompanied by documentation certifying that the material left Cyprus legally and not in violation of the laws of Cyprus. In the event an importer cannot produce the certificate, documentation, or other evidence required by Sec. 12.104c, Customs Regulations (19 CFR 12.104c)at the time of making entry, Sec. 12.104d, Customs Regulations (19 CFR 12.104d) provides that the port director shall take custody of the material until the certificate, documentation, or evidence is presented.

Seems quite simple and reasonable (see CPIA "Section 2606. Import Restrictions "(c) Definition of satisfactory evidence").
The 2007 "Extension of Import Restrictions Imposed on Pre-Classical and Classical Archaeological Objects and Byzantine Period Ecclesiastical and Ritual Ethnological Material From Cyprus" extends this, but still includes the original categories: "Importation of such materials continues to be restricted unless the conditions set forth in 19 U.S.C. 2606 and 19 CFR 12.104c are met".

So, the bottom line is, despite the collector-rousing alarmism of the ACCG anti-preservation activists, if the paperwork is in order the US buyer returning from this sale need have no fear that US customs will be impounding their purchases as "stolen". Quite a different matter are those who import items affected by such restrictions deliberately flaunting the requirement to have the documentation of legitimate provenance in order.

Photo: Unless I am mistaken, the icon used on the auctioneers website is 15th century Northern Russian, not Cypriot.

Looted from Zagoria, on Sale in London, Amsterdam, Dusseldorf and Maybe a Shop Near You

Icons for sale (Greek reporter)

Some  icons stolen from Greek monasteries and churches of Epirus were identified recently in a gallery in Düsseldorf that had them for sale and were showing photos of them on their website. The prefect of Epirus, Alexandros Kachrimanis talks about 600 relics taken by looters between 2006 and 2010. This looting had focussed on in the villages of Zagoria. The prefecture has posted the photos of the stolen items on their website which has been effective in identifying items as they surface ("from underground") on the market in dealers' showrooms a number of years after the theft. Since then they have received information about a number of the stolen items on the no-questions-asked art market.

 in 2011, we were informed that galleries in London were selling many religious icons. Specifically, the owner of the gallery in London had 50 to 60 images. The Ministry of Culture, the Greek Embassy in London in collaboration with Scotland Yard did a great job and 18 icons returned to Greece. Then, two more pictures were spotted in galleries in Amsterdam, Holland. There, they sold a total of 19 pictures stolen from the church of Theotokou in Koukouli.” The prefect of Epirus believes that there is a criminal group which is responsible for abduction, transfer and promotion of relics abroad. A voluminous file, formed after years of research by the authorities, on the pillage of monasteries and temples of Epirus, is in the hands of a trial judge.

From the distribution of the finds so far, this criminal group would seem to have had contacts in a specific area of Western Europe. Or rather, dealers in a specific area of Europe have been (are?) buying such items no-questions-asked from criminal groups who are smuggling stolen artefacts.

Sotiria Nikolouli, ' Düsseldorf: Antiquarians Selling Stolen Relics from Greek Monasteries', Greek Reporter November 26, 2013

Are Gill and Barford Interested in Icon Sales?

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Peter Tompa apparently has a problem with icon auctions. Discussing an upcoming one on Cyprus he audaciously asks:

Will cultural property watchdogs Gill and Barford get on the case? Or, will they let the matter go because the auctioneer apparently has good relations with Saving Antiquities for Everyone? See http://www.savingantiquities.org/feature_page.php?featureID=6

I consider that insulting. I am not a US congressman whose opinions can be bought so easily. I support SAFE wholeheartedly but if I think it is doing something wrong, I say so. I wonder if one could say the same about "Cultural property Observer" and the coin dealers he works for or the ACCG? Could he bring himself to criticise the cowboys?

Sixteenth to nineteenth century icon sales are a bit outside the scope of interest of both my and David Gill's blog. I am not quite sure either where Tompa sees a corrupt relationship between SAFE and Maria Paphiti. Odd.


UPDATE: Now I see that the persistent Mr Tompa has added:

Addendum: Mr. Barford has responded claiming his blog is not interested in icons: But see http://paul-barford.blogspot.com/search?q=icons

What I said was that icons are outside the scope of this blog which is of course about portable ANTIQUITIES collecting, not collecting paintings. Tompa suggested I would not be blogging about this icon sale, because of some imagined "good relations" between its organizer and SAFE. The reader will note that I queried his grounds for such an accusation and it is no surprise to anyone that he has failed to answer that challenge.

Anyhow, here's a Cyprus icon story for Mr Tompa. Let us see Cultural property Observer join me in hoping that the wish of the Church of Cyprus is fulfilled:

"We ask from those who have in their possession ancient, important religious artefacts from the occupied Cyprus, and probably misled by dealers to buy them, to respect our religious heritage and offer them back to their legitimate owner, the Church of Cyprus".

given that he represents dealers desirous of selling Cypriot antiquities without all that bothersome paperwork, will he do that sincerely?

Vignette: Rublev's Holy Trinity (the Hospitality of Abraham) one of my favourite icons.

The Olympia Theft: Organized Crime and International Antiquities Trafficking

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As can be expected, attention has been drawn to the involvement of outsiders in the theft of Greek heritage in the media. One text (Fani Toli/ Ingka Athanasiadou, 'Cases of Illicit Antiquities Trade and Stolen Artifacts in Greece',Greekreporter.com, February 19, 2012) puts the case of Friday's armed robbery at the Museum of Ancient Olympia in the context of several recent antiquity busts which show it is foreigners behind the majority of them. The authors add one piece of information to that previously released which rather supports my own suggestion that the theft was the work of members of an organized criminal group:

People investigating the case of the armed robbery at the Museum of Ancient Olympia say that the 65 stolen artifacts have possibly crossed Greek borders.
According to police sources, the case of Ancient Olympia was a made-to-order theft, because the thieves, after having stolen the 65 artifacts, were trying to find another two exhibits that were not being shown.

The article goes on to point out the degree to which in cases of antiquities thefts in Greece the stolen artefacts end up in international galleries or in private galleries abroad. This does not just affect antiquities, the country’s ecclesiastical heritage has been dealt a heavy blow as well.

In the past, Scotland Yard identified the alleged mastermind behind a ring that had been stealing religious icons from churches and monasteries in Epirus and Thessaly which subsequently ended up at European auction houses. The information that led to the ring leader’s identification was provided by a London gallery following the online identification of six Byzantine icons that the gallery was planning to sell. Besides the aforementioned relics, the London gallery has also handed over another 10 icons to the Greek Embassy in the British capital which have also been identified through photographs as having been stolen from monasteries in Epirus and Western Macedonia.

The article mentions the case of the
'Kouri of Tenea’ illegally excavated from an archaeological site in the Klenies district of southern Corinth prefecture, the looters had demanded 10 million euros for the statues. They were arrested in May 2010.
The article's authors also mention "the largest ever discovery of illegal antiquities", found by Greek police on April 13 2006 at a villa on the tiny Aegean island of Schinoussa, south of Naxos.

According to archaeologists inventorying the collection, it contained 280 items dating to many periods and from around the Mediterranean, some hidden and some openly used as decorations. A 30-metre-square chapel had been built on the six-acre site, constructed of ancient architectural fragments from various eras. Other items were a headless Roman statue of Aphrodite, a carved marble sarcophagus, three marble busts and two granite sphinxes. The villa belonged to Dimitra Papadimitriou of the wealthy shipping family, but was reported to had been owned previously by London dealer Robin Symes and his business partner, the late Christos Michailidis, Papadimitriou’s brother.[...] seals and packaging found on the island showed signs of commercial trafficking. Documentation found during the raid also indicated that many of the items had been purchased at Sotheby’s or Christie’s between 2001 and 2005, although none had been declared on entry into Greece.

It will not escape notice that it is precisely at this moment when the Greek archaeological heritage is so vulnerable that over in the US dealers in dugup antiquities are calling for a suspension of the implementation by the US of the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Prevention of the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property,as if getting ready for the onset of a new wave of illicit import, export and transfer of ownership into their hands of Greek cultural property. Do such antiquities traders have any scruples at all about what they do?

The Roots of ISIL Cultural Erasure

Halla Diyab has an interesting piece in Al-Arabiya News: 'ISIS wages cultural warfare on Syria’s heritage', Wednesday, 12 August 2015. She discusses the roots of the destruction of  places of memory and other sites and monuments and the attempt to create a new culture that serves their extreme narrative.

 The culture being constructed by ISIS is an effort to “revive,” or more appropriately, manufacture, a culture to which their fighters can belong despite their distance and alienation from home. Most of these jihadists have difficulty feeling a sense of belonging to or identifying with the European culture of their home countries. ISIS offers them a new territorial space in Syria to construct and participate in a new culture and society, one to which they can easily belong.[...]  ISIS are seeking to establish themselves, not only as the colonizers of Syria, but as the “new Syrians.” ISIS recognises that it must exterminate all symbols of the existing Syrian culture manifested by its heritage (e.g. artefacts, historical sites and monuments), rip out the roots of the country’s cultural memory leaving nothing left, in order for the new, forcibly-planted culture to grow successfully. To justify these acts, the organization claims that it is getting rid of all icons of heritage and religious monuments to leave an unobstructed path to Islam. However, this pretence conceals the real reasons behind ISIS’s policy of destruction. In the first place, this is the removal of any and all any obstructions to their own control and narrative in order to gradually become the living God. By erasing the cultural memory of the Syrian people, demolishing moral codes and severing cultural ties, they can create their own legacy as living icons for the next generation in Syria.

1978 Theft Frescoes Return to Greece

Five Byzantine hagiographic frescoes dating from the 13th and 16th centuries stolen from a church thirty years ago returned to Greece from Basle, Switzerland at dawn Thursday. The priceless frescoes had been stolen by Greek antiquities smugglers from the Palaiopanagia Church in Steni, Evia in August 1978 and illegally sent out of the country. They were found by the Greek authorities (Athens Security Police Antiquities Smuggling unit) in 2006 in the hands of a "well-known Italian antiquities dealer", in a gallery he ran jointly with his German wife in Basel. Legal procedures for the return of the precious icons were begun by Greek authorities but they lasted more than two years, and sought the judicial assistance of the Swiss authorities for confiscation of the stolen paintings. Charges were reportedly brought against the antiquities dealer and all others involved. In December 2009, the Basle prosecutor's office issued a final judgement ordering the unconditional return of the frescoes to Greece.

The frescoes depict Saints Ermolaos, Nikitas, Makarios of Egypt and Nestor, and are unique examples of the school of painting prevalent in the 13th and 16th centuries on mainland Greece. Palaiopanagia is a 12th century cross-shape roofed Byzantine church renowned for its exceptional art hagiographies that are distinguished for their precision of proportions and colors. The five stolen frescoes are a point of reference in international and Greek studies, outstanding among which is a 1971 study co-authored by the present Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, Ieronymos titled "Medieval Monuments of Evia", which has been awarded by the Academy of Athens. The study, in fact, was a key factor in definitively identifying the frescoes and positively establishing before the Swiss authorities that the five icons are protected Greek cultural monuments.

This case illustrates that the turning of any piece of monument into a "portable antiquity" is only a matter of determination of the artefact hunters supplying the international commercial market in antiquities. These paintings were hacked off the wall and sold, even though they formed an integral part of a cycle which cannot be understood without seeing them in the context of the church itself and other decoration. The latter of course cannot be appreciated when these elements have been crudely removed for commercial gain merely leaving holes. What on earth would a collector buying such items say to "justify" that? Another disgusting element of this story is that despite the "exceptional" nature of the paintings, it seems nobody handling them between 1978 and 2006 was asking where they had come from. Not so as to get an answer.

Still, even though the theft took place nearly thirty years ago, there is now a chance that those responsible can be at the least named and shamed and their more recent business dealings examined by the relevant authorities with a toothcomb to see what else they moved around "no questions asked".

This case is also discussed on Looting Matters

US Ivory Ban Affects BM Exhibit

Heffalump, real men say no to ivory

Six Byzantine ivory reliefs from the British Museum were denied entry to the US by Fish and Wildlife Service (Victoria Stapley-Brown, 'British Museum’s ivory icons denied US entry for loan show' the Art Newspaper 1 July 2015 ). But looted artworks loaned by a museum are not allowed in, and given immunity from seizure by US law. Elephants are cuddlier than cultural heritage.

Anyway, the BM has a programme of making 3D models of things, let them scan their ivory and send a 3D printout, cheaper, safer than sending the originals and the simulacra do not need controlled environments. Americans (as people from the source countries they came from) can see the originals in London. What about the rest of the objects in the show, when and how did those Russian icons surface on the market? How many of them have blood on them?

Bavarian Authorities Hoarding Stolen Antiquities?

I was looking here the other day at the effects of Bavaria's no-paperwork-needed legislation for the antiquity trade after the coineys persuaded Bavarian Minister Zeile to intervene with the US Government to attempt to persuade it not to require paperwork from Bavarian dealers. Today the breaking news is that Bavaria has just been successfully sued by the Republic of Cyprus, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Church of the Maronites and the Church of the Armenians to retrieve stolen antiquities, which had been in the custody of the Bavarian authorities since 1997. They had filed a civil law suit before Munich District Court in 2004 to retrieve the objects which had been stolen from Cyprus’ northern Turkish occupied part of the country.

The antiquities had been found in 1997 by the Bavarian police, hidden in between walls and under the floor of two flats which belong to a Turkish national, Aydin Dickmen, in Munich. Part of the findings include religious icons, part of mosaics and pieces of Byzantine frescoes of priceless historic, cultural and religious value. Since these were located, the government and the Church of Cyprus had made several moves to have these artifacts repatriated. The moves did not yield any results and it was decided to file a civil law suit before the German courts. On Thursday, 23 September, Munich District Court issued its decision on the law suit against Dickmen which vindicated fully the Church of Cyprus and the Republic of Cyprus.

See also: Elena Theofanous, 'German court orders return of stolen icons, just days before 30-year deadline expires', Cyprus Mail 27/9/10.
and Demetra Molyva,How the Cyprus Weekly Helped Church Recover Religious Work of Art, MSN February 14, 2009.

Christmas Greetings from PACHI

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I would like to take the opportunity to wish PACHI readers a very merry, peaceful and safe Christmas, and the freedom to celebrate it as you would wish. This year's Christmas vignette represents an Old Believer brass icon of St Nicholas, of nineteenth century form. This one is from eBay, and may or may not be a dug-up.* These icons however are a type of portable antiquity quite often found with metal detectors (among other places) on battlefields in Poland and adjacent areas, it seems from this that they were carried as an act of devotion, or perhaps talismans, by men going into action. Some were perhaps dropped while dodging bullets others however are in such a condition that suggests the person carrying them had been blown to pieces by suffering a direct hit. What is interesting is that they are found on the killing fields of nineteenth century battles as well as the First World War and (according to metal detectorists) the Second World War too. They were being carried by men of the Soviet Red Army (perhaps conscripts from the north) which of course was nominally atheist. While I am not advocating that all such icons or modern battlefields should necessarily be subject to archaeological resource protection legislation, there is a lesson here for those who contest the validity of points made about the need to protect finite archaeological resources. The stories these items can tell through knowing the full context of discovery is lost the moment that it is dug up and enters the ephemeral personal collection of someone who is not - like collectors of other types of artefact - interested in provenance information. That is even the case when, as here, the object has writing on it labelling the three main characters represented (St Nicholas the Wonder Worker, the Mother of God and St John the Forerunner) and pictures on it, the Saint in the omophorion holding a Gospel Book, the BVM and John the Baptist as well as two other saints (I'm not sure which) down at the bottom. Here we can get some information from this object just by looking at its external characteristics, it is an 'addressed source', so one made to carry (in fact quite complex) information. But the social context of the functioning of that information and values carried by this particular object can only be fully appreciated by knowing the circumstances where it like this ended up before becoming a collectable geegaw.

* A lot on sale there are fakes/ modern casts

What are the Antiquity "Source Nations" for the US Market?

Rick St Hilaire has been doing some digging around in US trade figures and come up with some interesting information which he published on his blog ("Top 20 Sources of U.S. Archaeological, Historical, and Ethnological Imports" Tuesday, March 5, 2013). As he notes such figures

may prompt important cultural property discussions, including conversations about the definition of a "source nation" and whether traditional source countries such as Egypt and Italy should be characterized as "retentionist." The data certainly need to be studied in greater detail to gain more insight and understanding. 

Indeed. The data he was looking at come from "tariff and trade information supplied by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission". It turns out that in terms of legal imports alone, last year the U.S. imported objects defined as "collections and collectors' pieces of zoological, botanical, mineralogical, anatomical, historical, archeological, paleontological, ethnographic or numismatic interest under Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) 9705" worth (customs valuation) a staggering 173.2 million dollars.  Among them those which may be "specifically classified as archaeological, historical, or ethnological [...] accounted for $37,378,500".  Thirty seven million dollars in one year alone. It is worth stressing that these figures do not cover the whole trade in such items, but just that part of it which goes through the legal channels. the illicit trade is not shown in these figures.

St Hilaire analyses these data in more detail and finds some surprising facts well worth highlighting. Switzerland led the list overall (23.3% of of the total customs value of all such imports), with the United Kingdom coming in second (19.9%).  Egypt, Italy and Spain accounted each for about 10%, Germany and France for about 5% and Greece, Israel, Congo and Turkey about 1-2% while the runners up with less than 1% contribution were Korea, Canada, Mali, Morocco, Ukraine, New Zealand, Austria, Australia, Sweden.

An attempt to show sources and destinations. Colour code: black - the ravenous US market,
imports by intensity indicated by the sequence of the spectrum
red-orange-yellow-green-blue. The rest of the world
(including most MOU countries) is pink.

So it turns out that in 2012 it was European nations (eight of them EU members) which accounted for ten of the top 20 sources of archaeological, historical, and ethnological material imported into the United States. Britain, with its laissez faire legislation is obviously slowly being drained dry to fulfil the needs of a foreign market in cultural property, including dugup antiquities.

Interestingly, it turns out that the selective approach of the US in "implementing" (I use the term loosely) the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the "Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property" through their primitive 'Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act' manages not to affect the trade in the vast majority of the cultural objects currently in demand in the US market.

So here is a list of the countries with which the US has or has had bilateral cultural property agreements under CCPIA: Belize, Bolivia, Cambodia, Canada (defunct), China, Colombia, Cyprus, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Guatemala, Honduras, Iraq, Italy, Mali, Nicaragua and Peru. Only the four underlined nations are among St Hilaire's top twenty exporters. This means that the US has signed MOUs with 13 nations not substantially involved in the trade in cultural property with the US, while leaving the trade with 16 of the nations that are (including those with the most substantial involvement)  completely unregulated under the CCPIA. Now, what is that about? What message does this give out about US commitment and sincerity?

I'd be interested to know how the figures look the other way, what are the US exports of their own (North American/US) cultural property (dugup antiquities, ethnographic cultural items more than 100 years old) to Europe, Asia, the near East and Africa. Presumably customs tariffs detail this too (though perhaps do not differentiate material of origin on US territory from dugups imported from the rest of the world being redistributed by the US market). Still, even some ballpark figures would be of interest.

Question two: what is being exported in such quantity from Congo (masks, figures?) and Ukraine (icons?)? 

 

Decolonise Russian Museums

Amazing research about stolen treasures from Ukraine. In only two (!) Russian museums journalists have found 110,000 artifacts.

The Stolen Treasures: The 110,000 artifacts from Ukraine found in two Russian museums
The study of the online collections of the Hermitage and the State Historical Museum of Russia by TEXTY revealed 110,000 artifacts that had been exported from the territory of modern Ukraine to Russia in different historical periods. Most of them had been moved to Russia before Ukraine declared independence.
Our study excluded works of art, icons and weapons because their origin is extremely difficult to trace. We also disregarded the items looted during the current war. Finally, our study revealed some of the tricks used to hide valuable objects in Russia [...] Not only are the removed artifacts intended to demonstrate the mythical connection of the modern Russia and the Kyivan Rus, but also to show the deep historical roots of the Russian people who have been trying to appropriate the ancient history of Ukraine, the Paleolithic era, Trypillya culture, the ancient and Scythian era..

A good read and informative infographics, snazzy website. I am not convinced by the argument about the 12th century Vladimir icon, actually a Byzantine work painted in Constantinople (though whether it should be in Mosscow and not Vladimir is less clear to me). There are some very famous pieces here that would be a great asset to Ukraininan museums after the defeat of Russia. They should form part of the post-War reparations, and underline that the times of Russian imperial pretensions to Ukraininan lands and heritage are definitively over.

More "Antiquity Dealers" give Police a Runaround?

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One of the big pieces of news recently has been the recent arrests in Macedonia:

Macedonian police say they have arrested 48 people, including local politicians and archaeologists, in a nationwide crackdown on the illegal antiquities trade. Spokesman Ivo Kotevski says the operation started early Thursday in eight towns, and about 100 artifacts dating from prehistoric to Ottoman times have been seized. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

These archaeologists if guilty of what is apparently alleged will presumably be those that collectors say are "all right really", but just have to hide their views before their "more radical" colleagues (more "radical" being the ones that do not condone looting I guess).

Most of the news coming out is just duplicating the same generalisations from last week. I think though if the photos that are circulating are the actual objects seized, this is going to be a difficult case. The pottery looks looted enough (well, most of it, some of that looks a bit odd, but I am no Thracologist), but the other stuff... The photos of the icons are fuzzy, but aren't they in fact tourist copies? Are they the actual objects seized, or decoration?

The same goes for the metal objects, they look just like the typical Bulgarian fake factory "antiquities" with the same dodgy un-earthy "patinas". Patina out of a bottle if you ask me. The figure in the foreground with the big cat skin apron and contorted position is presumably supposed be pharaonic Egyptian. There is a twee but deformed under-age boozing cupid but probably not podgy enough to tempt the boy-loving pervs that seem to like this stuff when of dubious provenance. The less said about the pottery dildo, the better. There's that ghastly badly-proportioned jug, as for the horse figurine, pure IKEA. The things these foreign collectors buy, Ugh ! If the photos show the items seized by the police in these raids, this really does not seem to be the sort of material anyone will be going to jail for looting. Though they could usefully be locked up for bad taste.

Vignette: nasty-looking collectables destined for the nasty-looking foreign market. (Photo AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski.

Dealers, where - precisely - do those artefacts come from?

It seems to me that certain US dealers have been claiming that their antiquities are kosher because although they ask-no-questions about the missing documentation, they were bought legally in the EU. When pressed for details we learn they are acquired in in auctions in Britain, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Now of course we all know that there are 'no' illicit antiquities on the Swiss market, but...

Greek police on Tuesday arrested 26 people suspected of trafficking in antiquities, a police source in the southwestern port of Patras said following a nationwide raid. Six of the arrested were foreigners, the source said, without revealing their nationalities. The police were looking for 15 other people suspected of involvement in the smuggling ring. Initial investigations suggest the gang sold illegally acquired antiquities in auctions in Britain, Germany and Austria. Police raids unearthed ancient statues hidden in a well near the village of Nemea in the Peloponnese region in the country's south. The gang acquired antiquities including ancient coins, valued them and contacted potential buyers in Greece and abroad.

What is the difference between an antiquity which has come from an old collection and has no papers (because somebody never kept any) and one from Kostas the Thieving Digger (who never kept any paperwork either)? Is it really just down to to a dealer's 'gut feeling' ('You've Got to Get That Feeling: Allegedly, the "Right Way" to Collect "Artefacts with Limited Provenance' PACHI Tuesday, 6 September 2016)?

The syndicated AFP newspaper article is illustrated by a nasty stock photo of fake Cycladic figurines and a battered mini-Venus de Milo, all dirtied up.

UPDATE 5th October 2016
A reader (see comments) gave the link to the article in Greek (thanks, Kyri) and suggested we might like to use google translator. I note the following: 

{...] prevented the export of thousands of ancient Greek coins and other objects abroad [...]  the police found and seized: - 2.024 ancient coins, 126 artifacts like figurines rings - earrings - brooches, a bulbous glass vase, five Byzantine icons, a Byzantine cross, two swords, a [column capital].

Two ancient statues, medieval Frankish era, 1.6 metres tall, depicting a warrior man and one woman, w[ere] discovered hidden in a well in Nemea.

these guys were caught red handed smuggling:

Of the total number of findings, 946 ancient coins and 32 ancient objects identified by police of Subdivision Security Patras, the men support the Port Authority of Patras hidden in a car bumper [...] before crossing the Greek - Bulgarian border, with a final destination in Germany.

They also found a lot of guns and other weapons, and 'twenty one metal detecting machines', but also what looks like a lot of stolen stuff ('seventy-three mobile phones seventeen computers - tablets, ten cameras, binoculars' and other stuff Google translator could not cope with. So basically, it would seem from this report that  the German dealers and/or collectors would be buying undocumented finds from armed thieves and putting this stuff on the market (maybe via their 'collections'). What kind of people would be buying from armed thieves?

Macedonia: 19 Arrested for Artifact Smuggling

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is reporting ('Macedonia: 19 Arrested for Artifact Smuggling', Monday, 13 May 2013) that the local authorities have dismantled an organized crime ring responsible for the theft and smuggling of multiple religious and historical artifacts (referring to an earlier, May 10th,  report by Eurasia Review):

Nineteen individuals, including a deputy director of the Office for the Protection of Cultural Heritage and a police officer, were arrested in the operation. Other officials, including directors of museums in the town of Demir Kapija and the capital Skopje were also arrested, Eurasia Review reported. Pasko Kuzman, Director of the Office for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, told the Southeast Times in Skopje that he suspected the scheme went beyond Macedonia itself. “I am convinced that it is an organized group that is associated with other groups and individuals abroad,” he said. Officials used knowledge and influence available to them through their positions to expedite the smuggling of the artifacts. Many of the items were stolen from churches in the area, and others were taken directly from archaeological sites. Authorities found more than 150 artifacts including coins, bronze, ceramics and icons during the operation, the Times reported. 

The report goes on to discuss the no-questions-asked international market for smuggled archaeological treasures and other cultural property. It states that in 2013 alone, close to 40 Macedonian churches have already had cultural items stolen.

Ukraine On Verge Of Civil War?

Obviously everybody here in Poland is looking at what is happening on our eastern border.
'Ukraine On Verge Of 'Civil War,' Ex-President Kravchuk Warns', Agence France Presse 29th Jan, 2014

Ukraine is on the brink of "civil war" as a result of the standoff between authorities and protesters across the country, its first post-independence president Leonid Kravchuk told parliament Wednesday. "All the world acknowledges and Ukraine acknowledges that the state is on the verge of civil war," Kravchuk, Ukraine's president from 1991-1994, told parliament in an emotional address. [...] His successors as president Leonid Kuchma (1994-2005) and Viktor Yushchenko (2005-2010) were also present in parliament, in a sign to lawmakers of the importance of the session.

I was talking by Skype to some friends of ours in the rural area in the SW of the country, and the feeling there is that this is indeed the case. All sorts of rumours are flying about. While the rumours are of doubtful authenticity, they are real for the people who hear them and repeat them, and do not bode well. Our friends have a young son conscripted to the army, his term of service ends in April, and we are all hoping that he will not be on the front line of whatever is coming.

Meanwhile whatever is going to happen, it cannot be without effect on the illicit movements of cultural property out of eastern Europe. I really find it hard to understand why Suzie Thomas of the Glasgow project is giving such importance to the Helsinki route ('Baltic connections: an investigation into the trafficking of cultural property through North Eastern Europe'). As far as dugup collectable antiquities go, the stuff from looting of cemeteries in the Ladoga area is more likely to be reaching western markets through the Baltic states (which seems to be suggested by the nature of the objects (also from cemetery looting) it arrives on western markets mixed up with. There seem to be two routes, a northern (Estonian and Latvian material) and a (larger?) southern one bringing material of probable Lithuanian origin onto the market.

The other major route is connected with material from the ("Gothic") cemeteries of Crimea and the Greek colonies on the Pontic coast. Occasionally one sees material of different dates from the steppes and forest steppes. This could be entering the EU through Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria (though only rarely appears in the offerings of those sellers in the global market who seem to have got most of their stuff from those areas). I think more of the latter stuff probably comes through the SE tip of Poland. I also think there is a larger central Ukrainian 'pool' collecting antiquities from both the south of the country as well as from Russia itself (icons mostly) and then passing that through the eastern border crossings of Poland. Certainly some of it is turning up in Warsaw and Poznan (the latter being where some of the routes from the east and southeastern Europe cross). It seems at the supply has been steadily drying up due to over-exploitation. A year ago I saw here on the Warsaw 'grey market' the first (the first I recognized) fake Gothic blechfibeln, nicely done - but fake. The circulation of antiquities in more western regions of Poland already has connections with the German markets. There are a few dealers who have various things going on which suggests to me that they are outliers of the Munich system, and one guy pushing out some very deceptive fakes. Obviously what is coming in through Poland is probably ending up mostly on the German markets, Munich, Leipzig.  So why Helsinki is of such "interest" is beyond me, but anyway, let us see what MS Thomas comes up with. 

If there is prolonged civil unrest in Ukraine, I suspect it will generate many more loose antiquities and cultural property items in general which will - one way or another - get onto illegal internal markets and then the foreign markets. 

More Arrested in Greek Antiquities Bust

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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).

Flimflam from the Coineys and the Responsible Art Trade

US import restrictions on icons and other Byzantine ecclesiastical material from Greece remain in force. It is not clear if lobbyists from the trade in such items are kicking up such a fuss as the jerks that sell dugup antiquities. Any Baltimore illegal import stunts and flimflam over "first found in -ooops-I've-lost-the-documentation-again" on the horizon from these dealers? Or do they just get the paperwork together?

Antiquity Collection: "Preservation" or Destruction?

A nice article about the work of 'The Walk of Truth' ('Looted artefacts from occupied Cyprus returned', In Cyprus: Fri, 28 Nov 2014): "Following

the Turkish invasion in 1974, the cultural heritage of Cyprus has been plundered, churches have been violated, icons have been stolen, and frescos and mosaics have been violently removed from walls and floors. A large number of these artefacts have been repatriated, while many others are still missing. Prior to 1974, there was an attempt to prepare an archive, however the research was never completed due to the Turkish invasion. The lack of a completed archive for the cultural heritage in the occupied Cyprus makes the identification process, and the process of claiming stolen artefacts, often found in private collections abroad, auctions and art trade, an arduous process".

I am left wondering how on earth it is possible to see what Tasoula Hadjitofi is holding in her hand in an "art" dealer's shop and not realise straight away that it is dodgy. You can see at a glance that it is a sheet of plaster from a wall, that is part of a monument, roughly hacked about. This has not been professionally removed as, for example, a stage in an architectonic investigation of a standing building or removed from a threatened archaeological site (in which case, you'd anyway have to explain how they are on the market). You can see that the hoiker has centred attention on the face (with that amazing sideways glance) and in fact has cut through [let's be clear destroyed] part of the rest of the figure to isolate a bit that is not too big to "portableise" [run off with]. In fact you can see that rather than fit a frame to the 'preserved' fragment, the oik dealer has cut the edges of the latter to fit a frame. How on earth dealers and collectors can claim to be 'preserving the past' ('preserving culture') by destroying context and associations, damaging the material substance and turning it into trophy geegaws utterly beats me.

But to come back to the first point, a normal intelligent and informed person sees that in a shop and realises what it is, sees it has been hacked out of a larger fresco/mural obviously in a standing building. WHY would he buy it to take home to have and hold? The invasion was forty years ago, much of the looting followed soon after. Why has it taken so long for a collector with a conscience to come forward and offer the pieces back? What makes people hang on to obviously looted material like this? Is it just greed? Is it just a total lack of morals? Do they kid themselves that whatever unverifiable cock-and-bull anecdote the dealer told them "might" be true in permanent self-delusion?

 It is the same with dugup artefacts, ripped out of archaeological assemblages and sites, destroying context and associations, damaging the material substance and turning the object into trophy geegaws. The rest of us can see this is the wrong way to be treating a precious, fragile and finite resource, you try discussing it with collectors and instead or entering into frank and open debate, they simply start to get nasty. What kind of people are these? What kind of mentalities do they have? Take a look at the way they behave and decide for yourselves.

Macedonian police hold 17 over antiquities looting

A statement by the Macedonian police reports that they have carried out raids across the country and arrested 17 people, including two state museum employees, for alleged involvement in an antiquities looting gang (Associated Press, 'Macedonian police hold 17 over antiquities looting', May 1, 2013). A number of archaeological artefacts were confiscated, including pottery, a clay female figurine and 121 coins. Fourteen church icons were also seized.

The arrests and seizures took place late Tuesday after raids on 23 homes and business premises in the capital Skopje and four other cities. The suspects include a police officer. Authorities are also seeking two Serbian nationals suspected of involvement in the ring that allegedly sought to sell the antiquities abroad.

Antiquitist Exceptionalism

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Dealer Dave alarms:

"in reality, it's ancient coins today, early modern coins tomorrow, and all other types of antiquities thereafter".

What? He would mean those like the antiquities that are already on the designated lists appended to MOUs which the ancient dugup coins feature alongside? Talk about navel gazing...

Dealer Dave is for some reason proud that the:

The ACCG's valiant efforts are the only effective resistance from any organization to the onward march of this bureaucratic Goliath.

This 'bureaucratic Goliath' is the US government's Cultural Property Protection Program which basically restricts the import into the US of certain types of unlawfully exported items.

I would say that it is at the least thought provoking that whole sections of the US market in art, ancient art, antiquities, ethnographic material (such as icons) etc manages to comply with US legislation on the import of such items (including MOUs and Designated Lists). There are no groups equivalent to the coineys' ACCG in the rest of the US art market, no protests, no court cases, no fighting talk of torches and pitchforks marches on Capitol Hill. So what is it about US coineys that they see their problems as any different from those of other importers of related items. What is it that convinces them that they are, and should be, an exception? What actually is their problem with getting proper export documentation or declarations for the fresh material they want to bring onto the US market? Why are they fighting shy of doing so? What is it that makes them want to buy material which has no proof of lawful export to sell to their customers, and actually convince those clients to go clamouring to the US government saying they WANT to buy such stuff, that they do not care how it came onto the market?

This should be a puzzle to all normal people, so I wish the coineys would explain it in a way which makes sense.