Monday, 17 February 2025

Too Hot to Handle: Artefact Collector Got Tired of His Trophy Object?


Credit: Greek Police
A metre-high headless marble statue of a woman was found dumped as rubbish in Thessaloniki, Greece (CBS News '2,000-year-old statue found dumped near garbage cans' 18.02.2025). According to the first assessment by the archaeology service, the object is from the Hellenistic period (between 323 and 31 BC)
Police in Greece said Wednesday they were investigating how an ancient Greek statue came to be dumped in a black plastic bag near garbage cans in the northern city of Thessaloniki. The organized crime unit said it was investigating "after a 32-year-old man went to the police to drop off a statue he had apparently found inside a black bag near dustbins." [...] It will be transferred to the crime investigation team in northern Greece for lab tests, then to the antiquities service for evaluation and conservation, according to the statement.

Friday, 14 February 2025

Cleveland Museum Drops Lawsuit Over Statue

       Out-of-Place artefact (Twitter)         



In a significant move, the Cleveland Museum of Art has dropped its legal challenge of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and surrendered an ancient bronze masterpiece, a sculpture of Marcus Aurelius, that is currently the subject of a criminal investigation concerning its looting from Bubon, Türkiye.

In August 2023, the office of New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg had seized the sculpture from the Cleveland Museum of Art (though it actually physically remained at the Museum). The district attorney’s office was conducting a criminal investigation into the looting of antiquities in Turkey that had been trafficked through New York and this was included in the case as one of those items. The headless life-size sculpture, "Draped Male Figure", identified as a sculpture of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius has been valued by Museum assessors at more than $20 million. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, led by Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos, is investigating the looting of the sculpture from Bubon, Türkiye. 

The museum had bought the sculpture in 1986 for $1.85 million from Edward H. Merrin Inc., a New York art gallery. It’s estimated the sculpture dates to somewhere between 150 and 200 B.C. [...] The statue has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in the 1960s, the Indianapolis Museum of Art from 1971 to 1974, the Minneapolis Institute of Art from 1976 to 1980 and Rutgers University in 1981.
None of whom had any qualms about it, apparently.

In the aftermath of the seizure, instead of gracefully relinquishing the challenged item, or producing all the documentation showing its legal excavation and provenance, legal acquisition by a seller in the source country and legal export (which are what is in question), in October 2023, the museum filed a lawsuit against the Manhattan district attorney’s office to block the seizure of the statue, which it considers one of the most significant works in its collection of approximately 61,000 objects.

The lawsuit sought a judicial declaration affirming the museum’s rightful ownership of the statue. A museum spokesperson, Todd Mesek, stated that the institution "takes provenance issues very seriously", highlighting its longstanding commitment to cultural property matters and transparency in how works are presented in its galleries. The museum also noted that it has voluntarily returned pieces in the past when provided with persuasive proof that they belonged elsewhere. However, in this case, the lawsuit argued that the district attorney’s office had failed to provide convincing evidence that the statue was stolen property belonging to Turkey. The lawsuit emphasised a lack of scientific and archaeological evidence regarding the statue’s origins, with some studies even questioning whether the statue had ever been in Turkey.




Reference: Adam Ferrise, 'Cleveland Museum of Art sues New York district attorney over seizure of statue valued at $20 million' Cleveland.com Oct. 19, 2023.



Thursday, 13 February 2025

National Council for Metal Detecting Drops Its Guard, 38000 Membership: Implications

 

The  National Council for Metal Detecting ("Dig with confidence") has always been coy about its membership figures, such a number can be compared with the number of "Responsible Detectorists" recording finds with the PAS. 

Now there is news about the NCMD creating its own parallel "recording system", to replace the now-floundering private UK Detector Finds Database and muddy the waters of discussion of how many freshly dugup artefacts are being recorded. 

New NCMD Portal
The NCMD Mobile app enables members to record their finds and find spots for their own reference. This data is (sic) currently only available to the individual member, however we are developing a portal so that you can share any finds you want, directly with your local FLO. We are working with the PAS to ensure that the data will integrate into the new PAS system.
Other news is that in April 2024 there was an inquiry into Metal detecting in which the government requested feedback from organisations within the detecting community and the ever complaining NCMD sent a respose that is on their website, and it is that which unwittingly gives us some information:
"many of us have been metal detecting for more than 25 years, so we were extremely surprised at the comments suggesting that the relationship between archaeologists and detectorists has improved significantly over that time. We would beg to differ and have highlighted a number of key points that we feel clearly demonstrates the reasons for this view. We would also like to make you aware that we have had a flood of calls and emails from across our 38,000 membership that mirror this view and in particular, the consensus is one of concern that this inquiry is extremely one sided and that the detecting community is not being fairly represented in it. Telling us that everything is fine, and that the inquiry is in our best interests doesn’t make it so, and the suspicion that abounds tells its own story."
and so on in the came vein. Ever the victims...

But it tells us that there are 38000 detectorists in the United Kingdom (rather than just England and Wales) who are represented by the NCMD (and have their insurance).

There is also the rival FID (the Federation of Independent Detectorists) established in 1982 by Colin Hanson and this also issues third party insurance and claims (has claimed) to be "the Worlds largest metal detecting organisation". Yet it has not released any membership numbers to back that up.

But the issue is that when we lost track of the apparent increase in numbers of UK metal detectorists it was in the 20-25k range... but that was some six years ago. Now it seems it is substantially bigger. By maybe 13k+... That is a substantial increase.

And when we put the latest Treasure "record figures" on the graph showing what I call the 'Treasure blip' (and yes, I must get around to redrawing that graph, as obviously nobody else is going to do their OWN version)... we find that although the PAS say its a record, it is fully part of the same downward trend I warned about in 2020. The jobsworth PAS is totally oblivious to that and its implications. The Treasure blip is now a Treasure Gap. 

What are the brits going to do about it? 

Oh, and the number of finders? The 2023 report says (p.5 Table 2) that the total number of finders reporting stuff in the last year was "3,877" which includes metal detectorists, but is not exclusively metal detectorists. So the NCMD has 38000 members, yet less than a tenth of that number have reported a single find in the last year. Don't let anyone tell you that obvious lie (LIE) that "the majority of metal detectorists in England and Wales are Responsible and follow the Code of Best Practice". It is simply NOT TRUE. So I do not understand why so many people in the UK keep repeating it.  They are simply disregarding the facts and actual numbers. I have no patience with them. 



finders who had their
finds recorded on the
PAS database

Wednesday, 12 February 2025

How Long Can this go on? PAS: "Record Increase for Treasure Finds in England, Wales and Northern Ireland"


Norfolk not emptied yet... [and the Independent needs to employ some better editors] 

Charlotte McLaughlin 'Record Increase for treasure finds in England, Wales and Northern Ireland' The Independent 11.02.2025 ("3 min read" if you read slowly)
A record number of treasure finds have been reported in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, a report has found. There were 1,377 cases of treasure in 2022, an increase of 305 on the previous year, and 74 more than 2019, the year that had previously seen the most treasure reported. Norfolk continues to hold the title of the most treasure finds with 95 discoveries, including more than 170 objects being reported, according to the Treasure Act 1996 Annual Report 2022.
OK, so it keeps going up, which means increasing depletion of the archaeological record, year after year. Why are the numbers going up? Is it because of the new criterium of definition of what "Treasure" now is? (Actually no, because it came in in 2023, and it seems the new definition has so far been [see below] invoked only once, but in 2024). Is the number/frequency of people going out increasing? Are metal detectors getting better, or are people getting better at metal detecting? These are questions the PAS does not have any answers to as their "liaison officers" in fact do nothing of the kind.

There's more PAS-iness in that article:
The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) [something - report? PMB], published on Tuesday, saw 74,506 archaeological items reported in the UK (sic) in 2023, a sharp increase on 2022’s figures of 53,490. The report said most of the objects were found by people metal-detecting at 95% and in agricultural regions, where they could have been lost to ploughing and farm activity if not discovered. Michael Lewis, head of Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) and Treasure at the British Museum, said: “2023 was an incredibly successful year for the Portable Antiquities Scheme and it is great to see such a high number of finders, showing us their discoveries to advance our knowledge of Britain’s past.
Whoopee. What advances our knowledge is those objects in context, not loose in a pile on the FLO's table. As for the echoing the two-decade old tekkie mantra: "in agricultural regions, where they could have been lost to ploughing and farm activity if not discovered", what can one say? Maybe all those sharp minds in Bloomsbury could come up after all this time and "liaising" with some better argument points to support looting than the old, old ones we've heard so many times before.

 And once again, detectorists get a pat on the back from good ol' tekkie pal Mike Lewis, who DOES NOT then say to Independent's readers how many thieving bastards are going out with spades and the landowner's permission and all that, but simply pocketing all they find (with the exception of what is declarable by law). This year too it is probably higher than last year...
COUNTER AS A REMINDER OF WHAT THEY ARE NOT TELLING YOU

A picture
OK, PAS show a VERY odd looking coin of "Guthrum" in the article, from "Near Thetford" (Breckland District, Norfolk) - but recorded not by the local FLO but "PAS" PAS-D68238 . And in its record the PAS goes on and on and on about the typology of this bit of stamped metal with the odd style (really reminiscent of a certain eastern European school of fakers to my eye, but what do I know, eh?). And, lo and behold:
"This coin is of considerable historical and numismatic significance. It is being submitted as potential Treasure as it meets the requirements of the Treasure (Designation) (Amendment) Order 2023 by being more than 200 years old at the time of discovery, being made of metal, and providing ‘a significant insight into an aspect of national history’. It meets these latter criteria under the following two categories: Historical significance, Treasure Act 1996 Code of Practice, section B.36 (connected to a person or event). [...]
Here we go... Reading the long text about what this loose artefact tells us that we did not actually know... I wonder what a coroner will make of it - indeed on what grounds are they to assess to what degree that is the case, or not? [Treasure case tracking number: 2024T380].


Tuesday, 11 February 2025

Whitewashing History


Why are people so afraid of accurate history?


Iraq repatriates trafficked artifacts from Japan and Switzerland



"The recovered antiquities are not
just pieces, but rather part of the national identity,
and they are a witness to the antiquity of Iraq's civilization"
-Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein has declared that Iraqi antiquities had been recovered from Japan and Switzerland:

"Based on the recovery strategy adopted by the ministry, tens of thousands of smuggled antiquities have been recovered," Hussein said during a joint press conference with Culture Minister Ahmed Fakak Al-Badrani on the delivery of a set of Iraqi antiquities to the Ministry of Culture
Meanwhile the attempt to reverse the flood of increasing numbers of clandestinely excavated artefacts smuggled out of the country into the hands of greedy and totally unscrupulous foreign dealers and equally greedy and unprincipled collectors and investors are placing local ressources under a great strain. Director General of the Museums Department, Laith Majeed, has explained,
                                  .                          
"The museum is unable to accommodate all the antiquities, so there is an urgent need to establish a large new museum," noting that "one of the strategic plans set is the opening of the Grand Iraqi Museum to display antiquities and heritage artifacts".

"Many antiquities have been recovered, and two years ago the largest recovery process took place from the United States of America with 17,000 artifacts, in addition to the recovery of 337 pieces from Lebanon," he added, stressing that "the recovery operations are ongoing and there are important artifacts that will return to the Iraqi Museum from several European countries".[...] "Antiquities smuggling gangs are spread all over the world, and the issue of antiquities smuggling is an international problem, so there is international cooperation by Interpol to follow up on smuggled antiquities and arrest smuggling gangs," he included.
Except there are few actual arrests taking place. Where is the court case about the "17000 artefacts", who was brought to account over that?

These articles however miss the essential point, national identity, national pride (standing up to those that steal from the people of Iraq) are one thing, the actual physical damage done to the archaeological record by this looting is completely ignored here. And it is the destroyed stratigraphy, now unable to be 'read' to tell the untold stories of the land's past - and not the mere objects from it (mute witnesses to only a sliver of that fuller story) - that is the real issue ignored by the politicians and back-slapping journalists. THIS is what needs to be addressed.

The only way of doing that is to smash the market and marketeers. We do not see that here, just some tut-tutting, handwringing about "where will we put it all?" and vague warnings that someone-somewhere-in-a-faraway-land might in some mythical revenge get "arrested" for their misdeeds.

Yet, besides these crooks, the people that dug up the stuff, who acted as middlemen and dispatched the stuff to foreign markets ignoring local law are right under the authorities' noses in Iraq. Punish the artefact hunters, make them see this as a highly risky venture, not worth attempting. They'll only get cheated by the dealers anyway. 



Faking the Wunderwaffe



Over on Twitter, Crater Locators @CraterLocators are reporting
There has been a plague of artefacts supposedly related to V2 rockets and V1 flying-bombs (our expertise area) for sale on eBay: given loose provenance and clearly not from either weapons at all. Dressed with ageing materials and imagery to create a false narrative
Interesting. Excavating V2 test launch sites in Poland and appropriating artefacts from them is illegal. I don't know about the other launch sites elsewhere on the continent. But I assume the ones being offered on eBay are supposed to be fragments from ones that exploded in the UK.

 
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