Wednesday 22 October 2014

Art sellers benefiting from war looting, experts say


"One needs to be very clear, this market is soaked in blood"
Michael Muller-Karpe

DW: Art sellers benefiting from war looting, experts say There are fears that global art sellers may be profiting from the looting of archaeological sites in war zones.

DW video here
This is a summary of the Film: "Plundered Heritage" which I discussed yesterday. It features an auction house in Munich which refused to comment ("many pieces are said to come from private collections, all the catalogue says about this five thousand year old miniature chariot is it comes from the near east"). No doubt the antiquities traders associations will be issuing their answer to this, maybe a behind-the-scenes video showing where the antiquities they sell in Munich and elsewhere really come from, and why they cannot be more transparent than "somewhere in the Near East at some time - don't ask". 


2 comments:

kyri said...

hi paul,german auction houses are a disgrace when it comes to due diligence/collecting historys and have been for years.no morals,they will sell anything and everything.a clearing house for looters.
kyri.

Paul Barford said...

but it is disturbing to read of US coin dealers citing purchase in a German auction house as 'proof' of licit origins.

 
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