Jamaica's Archaeological Evidence Disappearing

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Rhona Tomlinson, 'Archaeological relics slipping out of Jamaica' Jamaica Observer November 21, 2010.

An artefact collector's paradise it seems, no laws protecting the stuff from being collected and exported by dealers. Neither are local people aware of the need to preserve any of it:

"the Archaeological Society will be kicking off a massive public education programme come April 2011, he noted "We're training about 20 people, all graduates in archaeology, to go into the parishes and talk to schools and community groups... this is where it has to start, if people see the need to preserve their heritage, they will,"[Head of the Archaeological Society of Jamaica Ivor] Conolley said."

will they? We will see.

UK Detectorist Julian Evan-Hart on Crossby Garrett Helmet: Well Done That Man!

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UK artefact hunter and author Julian Evan-Hart has today given a UK metal detectorist's reaction to the Crosby Garrett fiasco (the paragraph divisions are mine, punctuation and spelling as in original):

Sun Nov 21, 2010 1:52 pm
Id just like to say well done to all involved..... from the detectorist who recovered all the helmet sections, to the conservator, to the auction house who obtained a fine price for the finder.

The main focus here is :- the find has been measured, weighed photographed and probably drawn so it matters little whether such a find goes into a main national collection or indeed a private one..there is enough associated reference material now for any academic to make comparitive studies etc about this great object .

Since it was outside the declarable parameters of the Treasure Act it was absolutely fine that the landowner and finder be justly rewarded...the landowner for being so kind as to grant permission and the detectorist for his painstaking (and some may say heart stopping) dedication in locating all the pieces....undoubtedly the £300,000 as if anyone can pre value such a find was perhaps more inspired and influenced by greedy officials hoping they could procure the find for such a paltry sum....tough one guys it appears not eh?

So what happens now eh? well undoubtedly we all face a barrage of bleating from those who believe its should have been obtained for a lesser sum and should indeed be in a national collection And who will now set about trying to change the Treasure Act so that such a heinous "crime" cannot be repeated....

The only important focal points worth considering are that its been recovered......its not going out of the UK and Im sure the new owner may consider lending it now and then for major exhibitions providing adequate insurances are given and taken.

Im glad a private individual now can cherish the artefact as can we all by looking at all the information and images of it.

Those who bleat constantly about where it should be stored totally miss the point that whatever its now no longer fizzing away and corroding in a field...indeed they remind me of the spoilt child at a party, who cannot bear other children to win prizes, makes no effort to join in the games, and sits in the corner whingeing and whining until its parents arrive and console it with a MacDonalds and trip to a toy shop to pacify their little angel and make up for his "traumatic real-life experience".

I just hope this Government do not act as the consoling parents to this whingeing group....Museums are stuffed to seam splitting point with enough objects, its just this dinosaur like attitude that the common people should never even be allowed to find their own heritage let alone sell it for profit. They may deny that attitude..... but finding objects used to be pretty much an exclusive career (and dont tell me that these exclusive careers didnt sell finds back then as they still do today)...and now its not so they get galled about it...

One rule for some and another for us eh?.....many of us dont sell things...but the choice to do so is a democratic right...something that should be deeply considered by our critics...many of whom never get off their fat swollen at tax payers expense backsides, and who amazingly make little to absolutely no effort to to recover our heritage themselves...and yet appoint themselves as self-elected custodians to tell us all what to do......with our bloody finds!!!!

Well done that man for finding this remarkable object.....Jules

Well done Mr Evan-Hart for showing us all where the UK metal detectorists' true loyalties lie. I think the UK archaeologists-metal detectorists "partnership" is looking more and more like this memorably shameful display at the 2003 MTV awards ceremony:



Mr Evan-Hart figures loudly in this comments thread, alongside the protests of a couple of other barely-literate detectorists. I find the comment of Heritageaction of May 9th pretty revealing.

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Advice for Buyers of Art or Artefacts

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Palm Beach Daily News has some good advice for those "thinking of making an alternative investment in art or artefacts while prices are lower and [the US] economy [is] uncertain". It is "Be careful", be safe.

"U.S. federal agencies are cooperating — perhaps more so than ever — to reclaim artifacts that represent cultural heritage and to crack down on art fraud. Plus, more countries and ethnic groups are seeking to reclaim artifacts that represent their cultural heritage. [...] “We will continue to be vigilant about finding and prosecuting those who would rob a nation for personal gain,” vowed Alonzo R. Peña, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deputy director.

The FBI has gone so far as to dedicate 13 special agents to an Art Crime Team, supported by three special trial attorneys for prosecutions. It also recently started a National Stolen Art File, a computerized index of reported stolen art and cultural property. You can search this database by typing National Stolen Art File into the search engine at www.fbi.gov.

The nonprofit agency Saving Antiquities for Everyone was created in 2003 to raise public awareness of the critical issue of preserving our endangered cultural and artistic heritage. The New York organization debuted following the ransacking of the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad.

So what can you do to avoid perpetuating crimes involving art and artifacts — besides checking the FBI’s stolen art database? Familiarize yourself with what you can and can’t purchase: Visit www.savingantiquities.org/heritagetreaties. Keep in mind that rules constantly change and are very complex.

Experts say that your best protection [as a consumer] may be to get a money-back guarantee from a merchant or dealer. Of course, you also need to check out the dealer you use. Contact the Better Business Bureau and Ripoffreport.com. If you encounter objects you suspect to have been stolen or illegally imported, contact your local FBI office or law enforcement.

SAFE, the nonprofit, encourages you to ask museums and dealerships their acquisition policies and procedures. If you collect antiquities, make sure the items you purchase have proper documentation and export permits if required. Be certain that your receipt for a valuable object states specifics — including the composition of an item and a history of its ownership.

Sacred burial, spiritual or funeral items may be legally protected. So may artifacts you’ve found on federal land or a reservation".

By Gail Liberman, 'When investing in artifacts, make sure you have legal rights', Saturday, Nov. 20, 2010.

Vignette West Palm Beach.

Yale Agrees to return Machu Picchu Artefacts

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It was announced today that agreement had been reached about the fate of the 40 000 artefacts (which include bronze knives, silver jewellery and fragmented pottery), removed by Hiram Bingham and the National Geographic Society from the mountain-top Inca refuge of Machu Piccu a century ago (John Quigley 'Yale to Return Incan Artifacts Taken a Century Ago, Peru's President Says', Bloomberg News 20th Nov 2010). Peru had been trying to retrieve the artefacts from the 1912, 1914-15 expeditions since 2003, and the case threatened to come to court. The news that the Peruvian government had finally come to an amicable agreement with Yale was published today on the website of the website of the Peruvian president Alan Garcia:

“The Peruvian government welcomes this decision and recognizes that Yale University preserved the pieces that otherwise would have been scattered around the world in private collections or might have disappeared,”

Garcia said, making a clear reference to the looting of archaeological sites which has plagued Peru for many years. They will be kept at San Antonio Abad University in Cuzco, where Yale researchers will be able to keep studying them.

There is a twelve-part summary of the ongoing dispute on Kim MacQuarrie’s Peru & South America Blog - listed here and here.

UPDATE: Cultural Property Observer apparently does not approve: "Yale Capitulates on Machu Picchu Archaeological Materials".

CNG: Münzen aus Bulgarien, was ist die Wahrheit?

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"Es war eine ganz normale Sache: CNG hatte für ihre Electronic Auction Nr. 244, die am 10. November 2010 schloß, eine Partie von über 600 Münzen zum größten Teil aus privatem Besitz zusammengestellt. Alle zwei Wochen werden solche Auktionen durchgeführt, normalerweise umfassen sie zwischen 500 und 700 Münzen". And, asks David Gill, where did these coins come from? From the interest shown in our two blog articles published just a few days ago based on news reports from Bulgaria by the German numismatic publication "Münzenwoche", it seems one might hazard a guess. The anonymous online texts says that David Gill and myself "entstellen die Wahrheit", we allegedly distort the truth.

"Die Wahrheit ist für manche Autoren eben sekundär. Wenn Sie die Stellungsnahme von CNG lesen wollen, klicken Sie hier. Wenn Sie sehen wollen, was ein Blogger daraus machen kann, klicken Sie hier und hier. "

The "Münzenwoche" article gives a link to a post on my blog... which basically reports what the Bulgarian news report which I give as my source says and then mentions another big shipment of Bulgarian coins to US dealers. I really do not see where this nameless German author (authoress more likely) sees any "distortion of the truth" with respect to what Peter Tompa later said on the issue. I challenge the author of the accusation to clarify.

I look forward to learning the fate of these coins and whether investigations definitively establish from material supplied by CNG that they had in fact left the soil and territorial borders of Bulgaria or a neighbouring country legally.

It must be remarked that the author of the "Münzenwoche" text seems not to know anything about the context of the texts he or she is describing.

"Diese Form von haltlosen Diskreditierungen scheinen ein typisches Phänomen der politischen Kultur in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika zu sein. Europäer sind immer wieder verblüfft, wenn sie erfahren, daß es in den USA immer noch Bürger gibt, die wider besseres Wissen (und vorliegenden Dokumenten) behaupten, Obama sei gar nicht in den Vereinigten Staaten geboren".

The author(ess) should know that both authors are blogging from areas well to the east of the United States and frankly (I think I may speak for David Gill writing from Wales too) do not give a hoot in which country its President was actually born in.

I think however that many of the Münzenwoche's coin-collecting readers in the States though might well be "Birthers" to judge from the way they write about their own government and its institutions. The German text has been inelegantly translated into English for them in "Coin News".

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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.

Italy Announces Return from US of 2 Stolen Statues

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The Associated Press has an article ('Italy announces return from US of 2 stolen statues', Nov 19th 2010) discussing the return to Italy from the US of two ancient statues stolen from Italian museums in the 1980s. One of them ended up in the hands of a New York Dealer and the other a New York collector.

Pasquale Muggeo of the Carabinieri paramilitary police told reporters Friday they had recovered a bronze statue of the Greek god Zeus and a marble female torso. Both date from the end of the 1st century. Each is valued at about euro 500,000 ($680,000). The bronze was stolen from the National Museum in Rome in 1980; the marble statue disappeared in 1988 from an archaeological museum south of Rome. No arrests have been made in either theft. Authorities said those who owned them were unaware of their provenance. U.S. customs and immigration officials aided in the investigation.

An interesting sideline on the story of one of them is given in another news article: Italian policeman in New York finds stolen statue also released today. According to this:

The return from the United States of a precious Roman artefact stolen from an Italy museum is thanks to an Italian policeman who strolled through New York on holiday this year, officials said on Friday. Walking down Madison Avenue, the officer from Italy's cultural heritage police noticed the marble torso on sale for 350,000 dollars (256,000 euros) in a gallery's display, they said. The policeman took a picture on his mobile phone and asked the gallery owner about its origin. The owner's reticence made him suspicious and he looked up the statue among stolen artefacts on his return to Italy, finding it had been robbed in 1988 from the archaeological museum in the town of Terracina south of Rome. Alerted by Italian police, US customs officials seized the work and returned it to Italian authorities on Friday.

So the Madison Avenue gallery owner was "unaware of the provenance" but "reticent" to talk about its origins? Why would that make anyone who knows the antiquities market even a little bit suspicious?

Anyhow the same article also gives us the story behind the other object in the "package", the small bronze statue representing Zeus or Poseidon ("and valued at 500,000 euros").

The bronze statue, which was stolen from the National Roman Museum in 1980, was sold by Sotheby's auction house in New York in 2006 and later put on display at an exhibition in Cleveland in the US state of Ohio. Its owner, an American woman, has agreed to return it to Italy.

I expect David Gill will be telling us more about this one.

So how did they get into the US without Italian export licences? This is precisely what the cultural property MOUs are there to prevent, isn't it?

UPDATE:
David Gill has indeed come up with the goods ('The bronze Zeus returned to Italy"). The bronze statue was stolen from the National Roman Museum in 1980. By 1984 it was the property of Edward H. Merrin ("Mr Merrin purchased it from a dealer who had obtained it from a Swiss collector in the late 1960s") and was published by Joyce Geary Volk ("A Lysippan Zeus", California Studies in Classical Antiquity 3, 2 [1984] 272-83). At the time of its exhibition in Cleveland it was in the well-known Fleischman collection.

See also: AP 'Italy Cop On NY Vacation Spots Stolen Statue'

and Roamin' cop nabs hot art, New York Post November 20, 2010 (with a picture). [also note the comment by Seairail, 20th Nov 2:04 PM: "So, where's the rest of the story? Who's OUT the money?"]

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