China’s Art Market Is Not for Foreigners

China’s Art Market Is Booming – But Not for Foreigners As China’s auction houses expand abroad, foreign firms are tightly restricted from entering the booming Chinese market.

The demand for Chinese art and antiquities is booming. But despite the buying frenzy, China’s domestic market remains highly controlled, with the government restricting foreign firms’ access while aggressively encouraging Chinese firms to expand overseas. This market distortion doesn’t just artificially help Chinese auction houses – it could also fundamentally change the standards of the art market today. Today, China’s art and antiquities market rivals the United States as one of the largest in the world, with annual revenues of close to $12 billion – and growing. While sales in New York recently fell to half of their previous year’s level, they rose by 20 percent in China. This difference is even more striking given slowing growth in China and Beijing’s crackdown on sales of luxury goods.

This is so unfair, US dealers are alre3ady disadvantaged by the MOU ste department officials signed together with with China's repressive Coommunist regime. Let us all hope that the Trump Administration will perform a cost benefit analysis of such restrictions and their impact on various stake holders.

Iraq Wants our Money to Reclaim Heritage Lost to Islamic State Extremists

Iraqi officials are calling for international help to reclaim archaeological sites and other heritage destroyed by Islamic State extremists. A two-day gathering at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization headquarters in Paris beginning Thursday brought experts in archeology, scholars and diplomats together with officials from Iraq. The meeting's goal is a plan to preserve and rebuild the cultural heritage damaged and destroyed by the Islamic State group.Let us hope that this leads to an improvement on their previous poor stewardship of their non-Islamic heritage.

Horns of Consecration

Crete - Surreal image of the moonlight illuminating the "Horns of Consecration", the symbol ubiquitous in Minoan civilization (V.Tagoudis)

Turkish Publisher Shuts Down Magazine for Printing Moses Cartoon

 

This is so childish: reportedly, the oldest Turkish satirical magazine has shut down due to a "blasphemous" cartoon that depicted Moses. After the office of President Erdoğan condemned the cartoon, the publisher of Gırgır closed the magazine and threatened to file criminal complaints against staffers.

The publisher of the popular Turkish cartoon magazine Gırgır has shut down the publication because of a cartoon it ran featuring Moses, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. The publisher also announced it would file criminal complaints against the magazine staffers responsible for the cartoon. [...] The cartoon sparked an outcry on social media, drawing criticism from both Jewish and Muslim communities in Turkey (Moses is a central figure in the Quran).

"Turkish Publisher Shuts Down Magazine for Printing Moses Cartoon"

Its Crazy to Fight the Collecting of Ancient Coins

Ancient coins are excellent teaching tools.

Their durability—and the large number of specimens available—makes them ideal collectors’ items. They encourage interest in the past, which in turn promotes educational programs in museum and universities, many of whose collections were formed or financed by hobbyists

Archeologists who attempt to smash the trade in artifacts such as coins are simply nuts. It is in their own interest that public interest in the study of the past is maintained@!Why are they so blind that they cannot see this??

The American Numismatic Association Warns Import Restrictions Damage Mission

The highly esteemed American Numismatic Association explains how import restrictions on coins that focus on place of minting in ancient times rather than modern find spots have damaged its educational mission.

since the 1990s, nations such as Italy, Cyprus and China have successfully placed restrictions on an ever-increasing range of artifacts, including ancient coins. The American Numismatic Association first became involved in the MOU process when Cyprus attempted to place such items on its restricted list. To protect the rights of American collectors, the ANA has worked with the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild and other organizations to send representatives to CPAC meetings and to address the attempts of Italy, Greece and other nations to restrict the import of ancient coins into the United States. [...] The ANA fully supports the idea of protecting cultural property, but has consistently argued that ancient coins should not be included in MOUs for a number of reasons. First, coins are among the most common and durable of artifacts (with a few notable exceptions), and therefore the information they contain is in no danger of being lost to historians or archaeologists in the way unique or rare objects would be if not preserved in cultural institutions. Additionally, there is no shortage of coins in museums in nations that have ancient specimens as part of their history, particularly Europe, the Middle East and China.

Let us all hope that the excellent Trump nce again expresses hope that one of the effects of the shakeup of the system promised by the Trump Administration will consist of an effective cost benefit analysis of such restrictions and their impact on various stake holders.

Archeologists Daestroy Baalbeck

Lebanon: Residents and activists Friday gathered at the steps of the Temple of Bacchus in the east Lebanon city of Baalbek to protest the poor restoration by archeologists of local heritage sites ("Baalbeck activists denounce poor restoration of ancient sites")

“The restoration efforts by the Council for Development and Reconstruction have been done in a careless way,” Issam al-Rifai, a local activist, said as she read a joint statement from several civil society groups. “It was apparent that there was grave damage that was the result of the detrimental methods used in the reconstruction process. This has been confirmed in a report by specialized architects.” Baalbeck Gov. Bachir Khodr spoke to local press in response to civil society’s protests, condemning the damage to the ancient Temple of Bacchus complex that dates from the second or early third century. It was classed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984. The governor said the restoration efforts had been done in a “primitive” way and acknowledged that it had resulted in “deformities” and the removal of inscriptions. Khodr also said that the municipality filed a complaint to the Culture Ministry several months ago regarding the quality of restoration work. “Former Minister Raymond Areiji immediately responded and took action,” Khodr said. “But the committee that was sent to evaluate the situation covered up the crime.” 

This is typical of the manner in which archeologists treat criticism. 

French Cultural Institute in Athens Targeted in Arson Attack

Violent protests left dozens of buildings aflame in Athens

Shocking news from Athens:

Greek police said arsonists targeted the French cultural institute in Athens on Monday causing minor damage but no injuries. A car parked outside the building was torched, damaging a second vehicle nearby. The unidentified attackers also smashed windows at the institute. The French Institute conducts cultural and educational programs. There were no immediate claims of responsibility, and it was not clear why the institution was targeted, police said (Reuters "French Institute in Athens targeted in arson attack", Mon Feb 27, 2017).

If the Greeks refuse to accept the cultural missions of other nations, why should we help them to 'preserve their culture' by repressing collectors? What kind of values does this sort of behavior represent?

Wooden Coffins Mouldering in Egyptian Museums "to be restored"

More than 600 wooden coffins at Egyptian Museum in Cairo to be documented and restored by a team of conservators ("Hundreds of coffins to be restored in Egyptian conservation project" 17 January 2017). 

Egypt will restore hundreds of coffins dating back thousands of years to the time of the pharaohs as part of an American-Egyptian project to preserve and document one of the world’s oldest civilisations, a director of the project said. The conservation effort, funded by a US grant, will restore more than 600 wooden coffins that date to various eras of ancient Egypt and which are currently stored at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. [..]  Egypt was awarded the conservation grant worth $130,000 (£105,000), in December 2015. That project is part of a larger US-Egypt treaty signed in 2016 to curtail illicit trafficking of the country’s rich cultural heritage [...]  “One of the main goals of the project is to ensure that the [Egyptian] Museum has a full inventory of the objects and understands their conservation needs so that the coffins can be made available for research by scholars but also for the public.

 Antiquities theft flourished in Egypt in the chaotic years that immediately followed its 2011 uprising, with an indeterminate amount of heritage stolen by locals from museums, mosques, storage facilities and illegal excavations. One cannot help but think this world heritage would be safer outside Egypt than remaining at risk there of poor stewardship and theft.

It's Time for cash-strapped Athens to wise up

A request by luxury brand Gucci to rent the Acropolis has caused Greeks to consider relinquishing management of their national archaeological treasures. Some say it's time for cash-strapped Athens to wise up [...] Greeks are far from ready yet to relinquish guardianship of their antiquities, critics say. It makes them and the culture ministry wary of losing their grip on history and national identity. What's more, credible management is seriously lacking, spooking already skittish Greeks of any privatization scheme for fear of it leading to fresh pillaging and plundering.

Read more about their heritage mismanagement here: "Gucci Acropolis rental bid strikes sensitive nerve in Greece".

Azerbaijan to appeal to UNESCO over illegal archaeological activity in occupied lands

Archeologists are so very fond of throwing out accusations about collectors supporting looting, but never mention that they themselves have looters among their numbers!

Azerbaijan will once again raise at UNESCO the issue of illegal archaeological activity in its occupied territories, reporting that Dr. Yolanda Fernandez-Jalvo (National Museum of Natural History of Spain), Dr. Tania King (Blandford Town Museum, UK) and Dr. Peter Andrews (Natural History Museum, UK) have for some time been conducting illegal archaeological excavations in the Azykh Cave, located in the Armenia-occupied Khojavand district of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hikmat Hajiyev said in a statement to APA on Friday. He noted that these individuals have illegally crossed the state border of Azerbaijan, without a license of the country’s relevant authorities and been conducting illegal excavations at the site of the Azykh Cave. They have in a covert manner transported away the archeological findings by evading from Azerbaijan’s customs control. [...] Their activities can be compared to the archaeological looting conducted in late 19th and early 20th centuries in colonial territories and in Iraq in 2003,” said Hajiyev, noting that those calling themselves scientific figures should not be engaged in plundering, theft and falsification of material-cultural monuments. 

Read more here: Azerbaijan to appeal to UNESCO over illegal archaeological activity in occupied lands

What was so distinctive about the red-figure vases of the Greek artist known as 'the Berlin Painter'?

 

Red-figure bell krater (c. 500–490 BC), Greek, Attic, attributed to the Berlin Painter. Musée du Louvre, Paris; © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre)/Stéphane Maréchalle

‘The Berlin Painter and his World: Athenian Vase-Painting in the Early Fifth Century BC’ is at Princeton University Art Museum from 4 March–11 June. Read about it here: Robin Osborne, "Striking attitudes on the sides of ancient Greek vases" Apollo, 25 February 2017.

Zimbabwe’s Rulers Use a Monument’s Walls to Build a Legacy

The Great Zimbabwe, a Unesco World Heritage site near Masvingo in southern Zimbabwe, is a ruined city founded in the 11th century. Believed to have been the capital of the Shona people, it gave the nation its name. One of the few surviving precolonial monuments in sub-Saharan Africa, the site

has long been the continent’s fiercest archaeological battleground. Europeans used its supposed foreign origins to justify their domination. Liberation fighters used it as a rallying cry for their cause, eventually naming their newly independent nation after it. But the fight over the Great Zimbabwe did not end with independence. As President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party have clung to power through violence, they have increasingly turned to the Great Zimbabwe for vindication.  In the monument’s elegantly curved stone walls — at the center of a ruined city where thousands lived centuries ago — Zimbabwe’s current leaders have also found a rationale for their party’s 37 uninterrupted years in power.  [...]  But the Great Zimbabwe [remains] off limits to any opposition events [...] Analysts say it was around 2000 — when Mr. Mugabe faced serious challenges to his authority — that he saw the value in forging ties between his party and the Great Zimbabwe. The party began holding events at the site, including celebrations for National Unity Day and Mr. Mugabe’s birthday parties. “Zimbabwe is supposed to unite around that monument, and, in identifying with the Great Zimbabwe, ZANU-PF is an organization that is intricately linked with that glorious past and should be permanently in power because of that claimed linkage with the past,” said Innocent Pikirayi, a Zimbabwean archaeologist and professor at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, explaining the government’s logic. “It’s manipulation of the highest order when it comes to the past,” he said. . 

   Despite the monument’s importance to Zimbabwe and Africa, little has been invested in its upkeep.
(For more read the source article: Norimitsu Onishi, "Zimbabwe’s Rulers Use a Monument’s Walls to Build a Legacy" Feb. 21, 2017). Here see see how once again, compliant archeologists are complicit in misrepresentations of the past to serve the interests of the ruling elites in the countries they work in. 

The Eyes of a Goddess

This goddess has wonderful eyes like the First Lady, Melania Trump:

The headdress shown on this woman is associated with the goddess Nekhbet, the motherly vulture goddess of Egypt.

The Art Treasures Found in a 1200-Year-Old Shipwreck

Changsha ewers trapped in a coral concretion on the top of the
wreck mound. Photo by Michael Flecker. Courtesy of Asia Society Museum.

A selection of well-preserved finds from the Belitunga shipwreckwill go on view in the U.S. for the first time ever in “Secrets of the Sea: A Tang Shipwreck and Early Trade in Asia” at the Asia Society in New York from March 7th (Meredith Mendelsohn, "The Art Treasures Found in a 1200-Year-Old Arab Shipwreck " Artsy  Feb 20th, 2017). The wreck  was discovered by commercial sea cucumber divers in 1998 in the Strait of Malacca, the narrow strip of sea snaking around the Indonesian island of Sumatra, linking the Pacific and Indian Oceans, off the coast of Indonesia,

As early as the 9th century, Arab cities had developed a taste for Chinese porcelain wares, commissioning all kinds of vessels from Tang Dynasty China, which even at that early date had developed techniques for the full-scale mass production of ceramics. While it’s ancient history, we’ve only learned relatively recently of the extent of trade between the two civilizations, thanks to an Arab cargo ship packed with porcelain that sank en route from China to the Persian Gulf in the 9th century.

Dish with floral lozenge decoration, Tang dynasty, ca. 825-50.
Photo by Asian Civilizations Museum, courtesy of John Tsantes
and Robert Harrell; Asia Society Museum.

The 60,000-some items from the wreck were recovered from the bottom of the sea by a commercial German excavation team, hired by the Indonesian government, in the late ’90s. But once again, archeologists attempted to block this important material from being seen by the public.

First exhibited in 2005 in Singapore, which purchased the contents from the excavation company, the artifacts were destined for display at the Smithsonian’s Sackler Gallery in 2011. That is, until archeologists and scientists demanded that the institution cancel the show, claiming that it would sully the Smithsonian’s reputation because the commercial excavation was conducted too hastily and not in accordance with academic standards—and hence could have led to the destruction of valuable information. But some information is better than none, and the Asia Society is embracing the opportunity to show the public the archaeological finds, while remaining sensitive to the problems with for-profit excavations. “The Belitung is one of the most significant archaeological finds in recent history,” says Tan. “We believe that American audiences should have the opportunity to see this material, which has transformed our understanding of intra-Asian trade and the scale and nature of globalization in Asia over a thousand years ago. The exhibition and programming also provide an opportunity to discuss these issues.”

 Perhaps archeologists are so concerned to uphold the national interests of the states from which they get their all-important excavation permits and privileges are opposed to exhibits which show that cultural property internationalism goes back over a thousand years as do the rights of individuals in one region to own cultural items produced in other regions.

For the pottery, see here.  Just to spite the control-seeking archeologists, collectors can buy some of this material online.

Temple of Ephesus turns into swamp due to neglect

 

The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, it was the first and largest structure made of marble in the ancient times.

The ancient temple was built on the orders of Croesus, the king of Lydia, between 560 and 550 BC. The construction of the temple lasted for 10 years, but it was destroyed by Herostratus, a fourth-century BC Greek arsonist who sought notoriety by ruining the temple in 356 BC. The structure was then rebuilt with the same width and length but was three meters higher. The structure, which is 55.10 by 115 meters and was famous for its marble statues, was the biggest temple in the Hellenistic era.

Today the site of the Temple in the Selçuk district of İzmir has turned into a swamp because of neglect and a lack of interest by Turkish authorities.

The temple [...] welcomes tourists with a rusted introduction panel. The temple resembles an empty, abandoned field with no environmental planning and traveling routes. Excavation holes in the temple area have been filled with rainwater, while security in the area is lacking.[...] There are several warnings at the entrance of the temple, which are as follows:
  -Don’t enter forbidden zones (There are no forbidden zones)
  -Don’t step on the pieces (There are no officials around to warn visitors not to do so)
  -Don’t scratch the pieces (There are no officials to check)
  -Don’t take pieces from the temple (There are no officials or cameras to check)
  -Don’t touch electric cables (There are no warnings near the cables)

Ömer Erbil,'Temple of Artemis turns into swamp due to neglect' Hurriyet Daily News February 19 2017.
Fortunately, a number of artifacts found in nineteenth century excavations by Europeans were taken to the British Museum and the Vienna Museum in Austria.

The Roots of Democracy

Beautiful coin from Athens, c. 165 - 42 BC, with head of Athena Parthenos
in Attic helmet & owl atop amphora / forepart of lion

Moslem Threat at Home and Abroad

Moslems pose a danger to peaceful co-existence even in their own countries, like under the military dictatorship in Egypt:

A church in the middle of Cairo is bombed. A 70-year-old woman is stripped naked and paraded through a southern Egyptian village. Military vehicles run over Coptic protesters, dismembering and mangling 27 people in the worst massacre of Christians in the country's history.  Firebrand preachers shout incensed anti-Christian messages from the pulpit and mobs attack Coptic churches, businesses and homes. This is now a daily routine for Egypt's Coptic Christians, the largest Christian minority in the Middle East. 

(Nadyat El Gawley, "Coptic Christians flee an unwelcome Egypt, seek refuge in Australia" ABC 21 Feb 2017). We should stop supporting the current regime under which such hate crimes flourish, this will only spill over and affect us later as these people come to our lands.

Does Aleppo prove that we westerners should keep the world’s antiquities?

Robert Fisk ' Does Aleppo prove that we westerners should keep the world’s antiquities?' Independent Thursday 1 December 2016

If the Aleppo room was still in Aleppo, and not a museum in Berlin, it might well have been destroyed, burned in the indulgence of fire which consumed much of the old city [...] Painted on the wall panels are Jesus as a child, the Last Supper, Salome dancing before Herod and Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac – a scene familiar to Muslims and Jews as well as Christians – and there are five illustrations of the Virgin Mary. But there are Islamic motifs as well as wrestlers and dragons and a mythical Persian bird, tulips and hyacinths and the animals of the Creation. Of course, if the Aleppo room was still in Aleppo, it might well have been destroyed,

The Aleppo Room

Rare Sestertius of Hadrian with a Backstory

 This picture is dedicated to all those snowflake archeologists who decry traditional natural methods of preserving ancient coins:

Extremely rare Sestertius of Hadrian, struck 134-138AD. Depicting the Emperor addressing the British army. Sold recently @DixNoonanWebb pic.twitter.com/h138uOhFXk

24-hour Strike in Greek Museums and Archeological Sites

Museums and archeological sites throughout Greece will be closed on Monday due to a 24-hour warning strike declared by the Panhellenic Union of Employees for Guarding Antiquities. The museum and site guards are demanding that they continue to receive Sunday, holiday and overtime pay from the Archaeological Receipts Fund

Kerry Kolasa-Sikiaridi "24-hour Strike on Monday Will Close Museums and Archaeological Sites Throughout Greece" Greek reporter Feb 19, 2017. If the Greek archeologists would agree to sell to collectors some of the duplicate objects mouldering in museum vaults, there would be money to pay the salaries of the staff who look after the rest of the collections.

Rare Coin Curated by Collector since 1940s

A rare Roman coin featuring one of the earliest depictions of the Colosseum has sold for £372,000 - nearly five times its estimate.

 

 A Roman coin featuring one of the earliest depictions of the Colosseum has sold for £372,000. The bronze Sestertius coin that dates back to AD81 is believed to be only one of 10 that exist today. Seven are in museums around the world while the other three are in private hands. This one, appearing in public for the first time in almost 80 years, was acquired by a wealthy British connoisseur of Roman bronze coins in 1939 [and] had remained in the late collector's family ever since but was today sold to a European private collector through London coin dealers Dix Noonan Webb. A packed auction room watched on in amazement as the relic far exceeded its £80,000 estimate. One side of the coin features an image of the famous Colosseum in Rome, which had only just been built. On the reverse is a depiction of Emperor Titus who oversaw the completion of the Colosseum in AD80. The building of the magnificent amphitheatre began under his late father Vespasian using the gold seized during the Roman conquering of Jerusalem 10 years earlier. Vespasian died in AD79 and his son took over but only reigned for three years. This coin was created posthumously.

Again we see the benefits of collectors preserving relics from the past so that they survive and can safely pass down to our times.

Historia Magistra Vitae

Annalisa Merelli "1,700 years ago, the mismanagement of a migrant crisis cost Rome its empire" May 07, 2016

The mismanagement of Goth refugees started a chain of events that led to the collapse of one of the biggest political and military powers humankind has ever known. It’s a story shockingly similar to what’s happening in Europe right now—and it should serve as a cautionary tale. According to historian Ammianus Marcellinus, in 376, the Goths were forced to leave their territories, in what’s now Eastern Europe, pushed south by the Huns, in Marcellinus’s words, “a race savage beyond all parallel.” The Huns, Marcellinus writes, “descended like a whirlwind from the lofty mountains, as if they had risen from some secret recess of the earth, and were ravaging and destroying everything which came in their way.” It resulted in terrifying bloodshed, and many of the Goths—like many Syrians and others displaced by war—decided to flee. They decided that settling in Thrace, right across the Danube river, was the best solution; the land was fertile, and the river would provide defense to keep the Huns at bay.

US gives $116,000 grant to Nigeria for preservation of cultural heritage

The American Embassy in Abuja has donated the sum of $116, 000 for the preservation of Nigeria’s cultural heritage.

The grant was issued through the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation program [and]  will enable the institutions to improve the storage areas for the collections in 10 Nigerian museums. In his remarks, Ambassador Symington [...]  called on Nigerians to take charge of preserving their past. [...] This reorganization project (RE-ORG Nigeria) will train staff from 10 partner museums to prepare storage facilities to accept new objects, preserve existing ones, and make artifacts available for exhibitions.

The MOU should have made provision for the loan of selected items to US museums to look after and allow for a certain number of items from those overcrowded stores to reach the market where they can be acquired for preservation and display by collectors where they can be seen and appreciated by a wider public.

Collector Arrested in Europe

Greek police on Wednesday announced the arrest of an 81-year-old art and antiquities collector, the former owner of a well-known poultry brand, after finding a number of undeclared artifacts, paintings and weapons in his home in Mandra, Attiki [...]. The 81-year-old businessman was arrested on February 10 in the Athens suburb of Maroussi, by Attica Security Police. He was later taken before an Athens public prosecutor and charged with violating laws on the protection of antiquities and cultural heritage, as well as weapons legislation.

In a raid on the businessman's home, police found and confiscated 23 Byzantine-era icons, some liturgical items, 108 ancient coins, a ceramic head, and a collection of military items (TornosNews.gr "Greek police arrest 81-year-old ex-poultry baron for undeclared antiquities" Feb 15 2017). This is a disgusting infringement of civil liberties by the European Culture Nazis. 

Steatite Stomach Amulet

Stomach ache? Indigestion? Chnoubis Naabis Bienyth, shatterer of Giants, crusher of snakes, will help! http://ow.ly/7AzB3092UNw

This object was donated to the Kelsey Museum of Archeology, University of Michigan and came from the private collection of Alexander G. Ruthven and is a good illustration of the role of collectors in preserving objects from teh past and making them available for public display and study.

The Treasure Hunters of the River Thames in England

Douglas Marshall, 'The treasure hunters of the River Thames', BBC 16 February 2017 So-called mudlarking is becoming more popular in London. So much history.

Ivory tells the history of the world – it must never be banned

Ivory tells the history of the world – it must never be banned, says Jonathan Jones:

Under new rules being seriously considered by the government, if a work of this age and quality came on to the market, no British museum or private collector would be allowed to buy it. [...] Under new rules, it is illegal in Britain to trade in ivory objects made since 1947, a totally proper and necessary measure against the modern ivory trade and its incitement of ivory poaching. Yet campaigners including the World Wildlife Fund, Tusk and the Duke of Cambridge insist that doesn’t go far enough. Illegal ivory traders can forge pre-1947 antiques, they claim, in calling for a total ban on all trade in ivory objects. Unbelievably, the government is taking seriously the idea of banning trade in all ivory antiques, however old. There is no rational argument for criminalising some of the greatest art in history just because it does not satisfy 21st-century moral qualms.  [...]. If we stop ourselves looking at such premodern ivory we will be philistines and bigots, congratulating ourselves on a victory over art. The next step is cultural destruction. We should leave this deadly line of thinking to Islamic State.

"7,000-year-old enigma" goes on show in Athens

The National Archaeological Museum in Athens.has an exhibition (open until 26 March) called The Unseen Museum - a temporary exhibition of some 200,000 antiquities held in the museum vaults and not on permanent show. By hiding them away, Greek archeologists apparently attempt to avoid having to provide explanations for some of the hidden objects, like one of the items that the media picked up on:

The bird-like object was carved from granite - without the benefit of metal tools, as it dates from the Final Neolithic period. The 36cm (14in) statuette has a pointed nose, round belly and cylindrical legs. But it has mystified archaeologists, who do not know exactly what it is or where it came from. The museum says the figure is asexual, with no sign of breasts or genitals.  But it says it is difficult to say whether that is a result of the challenge of carving granite without metal tools, or whether it was deliberate and could tell us something about the place of gender in Neolithic society. 

The object came from a private collection from northern Greece, whch shows again the role collectors play in preserving rare and interesting archaeological objects.

Siding with the Monsters

When?

New Amnesty investigation reveals thousands methodically and secretly killed in a Syrian military jail, yet archeologists still work together with their regime-based counterparts and artifacts are still seized and sent back to this murderous regime. Syria's Archaeological service is part of the same government that did this -there is no denying it.

Stela of Seti I and Ramesses II

While this stela features King Seti and his son Ramesses, its' purpose may have been to commemorate the careers of the priests on the right. Artefacts like this bring history to life.

Documentary "Saving Mes Aynak"

Documentary "Saving Mes Aynak" now on Netflix

China plans to destroy ancient Buddhist city to get copper bonanza

Two Chinese state-owned mining companies plan to destroy an ancient Buddhist city in Afghanistan in order to get the copper underneath it, according to a new documentary According to the film "Saving Mes Aynak," Metallurgical Group Corp. (MCC) and Jiangxi Copper are in the initial stages of building an open-pit copper mine 25 miles southeast of Kabul. The location is home to a walled Buddhist city that dates back 5,000 years.According to the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, the site is also home to the world's second-largest copper deposit. China is an importer of copper and a major global refiner of the industrial metal. In 2007, under the administration of President Hamid Karzai, MCC agreed to pay Afghanistan $3 billion to lease the Mes Aynak area for 30 years. MCC plans to extract over $100 billion worth of copper deposited directly beneath the Buddhist city, according to the documentary. 

Mariam Amini, 'China plans to destroy an ancient Buddhist city to get the copper buried there' CNBC, 1 Feb 2017

China is of course one of the countries with which there is a repatriation MOU. Perhaps they should be made to show they can look after their own heritage before the MOU is extended.

Mosaic from House of Neptune and Amphitrite - Heculaneum, Italy

The “House of Neptune and Amphitrite” is famous for its mosaic nymphaeum, a small cascading fountain built inside a Roman house. The mosaic depicts Neptune and Amphitrite.The floral design wall decorations surrounding the nymphaeum and adjacent rooms are of bright and vivid colors. Also the adjacent well-reconstructed wine shop is thought to be part of the property.

Disgruntled Pompeii workers suspected of a demolition job

Tom Kington, Disgruntled Pompeii workers suspected of a demolition job  The Times February 1 2017,

Italian police are investigating claims that staff at Pompeii tore down part of an ancient Roman house in a clash with management. Officers were called after a 1.5m sq section of wall at the House of the Citharist, a large aristocratic dwelling at the excavated city, crumbled to the ground. It happened a day after guards called an impromptu union meeting to discuss disputes with management. The meeting, scheduled to be held during opening hours, would have shut the site and kept hundreds of tourists waiting at the gates. The plan was thwarted by Massimo Osanna, the site’s head, who found extra members of staff to keep the gates open. “This is not the first time they have done this,” Mr Osanna said. “It’s blackmail…

Typical childish reactions from this impetuous and irresponsible nation. If the Italians cannot look after heritage properly, The President should cancel the MOU with them, so that American collectors can preserve heritage from Italy until such a time as these children grow up a bit. Shocking.