The Soros Mound

The Soros Mound, the resting place for 192 Athenians who died at the battle which was the catalyst for the Marathon race. (Photo-V.Gavrilis).

Artifacts recovered from the mound include spearheads now preserved in a collection in England.

The destruction of the Cultural Heritage of Cyprus by Turkey

This short film, Produced by Mediabox Limited for the Committee of Cyprus Occupied Municipalities, Nicosia, 2011, portrays the destruction of the cultural heritage of Cyprus by Turkey that has been taking place in the northern part of Cyprus since the Turkish military invasion in 1974.

Turkey and the illegal Turkish Cypriot regime bear the sole responsibility for the present condition of hundreds of archaeological and religious monuments in the occupied areas: hundreds of religious monuments have been desecrated, looted or demolished; a significant number of churches have been converted into mosques, stables, dance studios, storehouses and one of them has become a morgue. Moreover, several archaeological places that were famous and recognized throughout the world were destroyed or illegally excavated while a great number of antiquities were smuggled and remain unfound until today. 

    

Published on Jul 9, 2012

Why we are Losing

Collectors who are worried about the future of our avocation need to be paying more attention to the way public opinion is being molded by our opponents. It is quite a sobering exercise to type in this phrase into Google and do a search there:

antiquities collecting under threat

What comes up, page after page, is not how we are under threat but how collectors pose a threat to antiquities! This witch hunt is a typical example of False News. Our opponents have obtaind a monopoly over the media, and thus are able to dictate the current mood and turn it against us collectors.

Why is this happening? Tjhe fiasco over the Libyan MOU comments prompts some thought on this. One reason, it seems to me, is that a lot of the lobbying is associated with those whose business is the supply of specimens to collectors - the dealers. Are they not primarily concerned with maintaining their privileged access to the sources of coins and antiquities as they come onto the market? We note the frequency with which they announce that any of the measures proposed by opponents of collecting will lead inevitably to a rise in prices. But a rise in price does not equate with a lack of profit for them, in fact quite the opposite. Could it be that the half-hearted opposition exhibited by the dealers and their lobbying organization is merely a front to raising prices and profits - but putting the blame on external factors? Just a thought, but worth considering. Maybe we collectors should be taking a more active role, grouping ourselves to undertake more co-ordinated promotion of what we do, and remove the fate of the hobby from being the exclusive preserve of the dealers.

Efforts to Enlighten the Bureaucracy a Waste of Time

Wayne G. Sayles comments on the low numbers of comments on the upcoming Libya MOU:

The general public's painfully weak response to this call for comment, a growing trend it seems, could tell a story. On one hand, collectors, dealers and those who just love the past are perhaps fed up with time-wasting efforts to enlighten the bureaucracy. Everyone seems to know where an MOU request is headed these days before it's even announced. CPAC doesn't matter, truth doesn't matter, law doesn't matter, justice certainly doesn't matter and arrogance reigns supreme in the world of Cultural Property Nationalism. An even weaker response here from the Archaeological community and proponents of MOU sanctioned import restrictions might represent among their rank and file a complacent view of the endless drumbeat. On the other hand, among some, it may also reflect such blatant self-assuredness that they feel little compulsion to act. In any case, the whole process has seriously drifted from the intention of Congress in 1983 and the prospects of fidelity to the law as negotiated and enacted are depressingly bleak these days. The Rule of Law has become the Law of Rule.

EU plans tough checks on imports of ancient artefacts

The EU plans tough checks on imports of ancient artefacts on the grounds that terrorist groups such as Isis are allegedly 'filling their coffers from a growing trade in illegal cultural goods'. The problem is, that there is no evidence at all for these links/

A Bad State of Affairs for Collectors

Wayne Sayles sagely points out what our opponents do not want lawmakers to appreciate:

What those few elected representatives in Congress present did not hear (the room was nearly empty) was the six-hundred-year-old story of how private collectors of antiquities have saved countless objects from loss through physical destruction for intrinsic metal value (for example, melting down silver and gold coins) or the countless museums worldwide that are populated with cultural property donated by private collectors. Why was that perspective not made clear? Because the Archaeological community stranglehold on academia and bureaucracy has made alternative views all but impossible. Why was the room nearly empty? Maybe because this is a special interest and most representatives were juggling impossible schedules. The approach of bureaucracy, in its mindless support of a small academic ("expert") interest, funded mainly by public support, is actually extralegal and counterproductive. Academia and Bureaucracy have no actual control over foreign governments, so they turn their attack instead toward the innocent who are blameless. This is most obvious in the liberal media where hardly a day goes by without some blatant and typically false propaganda. The actual truth is that private collectors do far more to save the past than the loose-lipped academics ever dreamed of doing.

We need lobbyists to put forward our position and counteract the negative press we are getting from our detractors. Why are they failing to get the message across? What can we do to help them? The future of collecting is at stake.

UNESCO’s Jihad against Israel and its Jewish history

There is very clear evidence of the UN’s antipathy towards Israel. But probably the worst institution in this regard is UNESCO, which has steadily, and not so slowly, adopted the Palestinians’ most extreme positions on the status of Jewish historical and holy sites in Israel”."UNESCO’s Jihad against Israel and its Jewish history" Anne's Opinion, 9 July 2017.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of UNESCO’s anti-Jewish resolutions:

 There is no Jewish connection to the Temple Mount
 There is no Jewish connection to the whole of Jerusalem
 That the Tomb of Rachel, the Jewish Matriarch, is in fact a mosque 

[...] On Friday, UNESCO fired their next salvo against the Jews at the prodding of the fakest nation in human history, the Palestinians, by declaring the Machpela Cave, or the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, as “an endangered Palestinian site”. The Cave of Machpela, or the Cave of the Patriarchs, in Hebron The Machpela, just to remind you, is the traditionally recognized burial place of the Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah. 

The vote took place by secret ballot at the UNESCO World Heritage Committee’s 41st annual summit, which is currently taking place in Krakow, Poland.
Twelve countries voted in favor of the move to inscribe Hebron’s Old City, including the Tomb, as an endangered heritage site, while three opposed it. Six countries abstained.  The membership of this year’s Heritage committee includes five countries with which Israel does not have diplomatic ties, and a number of others that routinely support pro-Palestinian resolutions. The 21 member states are Angola, Azerbaijan, Burkina Faso, Croatia, Cuba, Finland, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Tunisia, Turkey, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. The list of those “enlightened” countries makes it clear that there is no possibility of Israel receiving a fair hearing at that institution while they are on the committee. Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon slammed the decision. “This attempt to sever the ties between Israel and Hebron is shameful and offensive, and eliminates UNESCO’s last remaining shred of credibility. To disassociate Israel from the burial grounds of the patriarchs and matriarchs of our nation is an ugly display of discrimination, and an act of aggression against the Jewish people.”

 Besides UNESCO’s declarations against Jewish links to holy sites, UNESCO has also placed other places in Israel “in danger”: The Tomb of the Patriarchs, revered as the Biblical burial place of the Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs, is now the third cultural site on UNESCO’s “List of World Heritage in Danger” that is registered as located in the “State of Palestine.” The other two are the birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem and the “cultural landscape of Southern Jerusalem,” around Battir. Israel says the Hebron resolution — which refers to the city as “Islamic” — denies thousands of years of Jewish connection there. It is shameful that Jews have to fight for right to exist in the land that for 33 centuries they have called home.

The Helmet of Miltiades

Epigraphic evidence suggests that this celebrated votive may have been the Corinthian helmet worn by Miltiades at Marathon-490 BC

Demand that CPAC Limit or Table the Problematic Libyan MOU request

The State Department has announced an exceptionally short comment period for a proposed MOU with Libya ending on July 10th. The exceptionally short time frame for public comment as well as the timing of this request to coincide with a raft of highly exaggerated reports claiming that the antiquities trade funds terrorism emanating from the Antiquities Coalition, a well-funded and politically connected advocacy group with ties to MENA authoritarian governments, suggests that the Libyan MOU is yet another done deal (Peter Tompa, "Ask CPAC to Limit or Table the Problematic Libyan MOU request!")

“Regular” restrictions may only be applied to archaeological artifacts of “cultural significance” “first discovered within” and “subject to the export control” of a specific UNESCO State Party. They must be part of a “concerted international response” of other market nations, and can only be applied after less onerous “self-help” measures are tried. They must also be consistent with the general interest of the international community in the interchange of cultural property among nations for scientific, cultural, and educational purposes.

Parlous State of Libyan Cultural Heritage 'Protection'

According to Peter Tompa, the raghead Libyans have no Cultural Administration

Libya is divided and ruled by two competing governments and its territory is controlled by six major militia factions, and many smaller parties and entities. There is no single effective Government of Libya that controls Libyan territory. [...] The cultural administrative staff of Libya appear in the request to have been scattered and in considerable disorder. The request fails to demonstrate that there is currently a government hierarchy capable of administering cultural heritage in much of the country, even if it wished to do so. The request provides numerous examples of failure by the Libyan government to address cultural heritage issues. It notes that
- “[A]rtifacts, which had been excavated from temples, were also stolen from the storerooms.”
- “Museums have also been vandalized and looted by invading militias.”
- “There are also reported thefts from museums and storerooms of documented and undocumented objects.”
- "[A]ll of the country’s twenty-four museums are closed.” Lacking government support, Department of Antiquities staff “continue to take personal responsibility for the objects housed in their institutions.”

CPIA restrictions may only be applied after less onerous “self-help” measures are tried.  The Libyans are quite clearly unable to do this and must forfeit the rioght to tell American collectors what to do.

Import restrictions on coins.

In the past, CPAC has recommended against import restrictions on coins.  Initially those recommendations were followed, but beginning with the renewal of Cypriot import restrictions in 2007, this has changed. Now, there are restrictions on coins made in Cyprus, China, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Syria and Egypt. [...] Restrictions have drastically limited Americans’ abilities to purchase historical coins from abroad and have negatively impacted the cultural understanding and people to people contacts collecting fosters.

US Organizations with Middle East Ties are Promoting the Libyan Request

Peter Tompa warns

This request appears timed to coincide with a raft of recent presentations about the trade in looted Middle Eastern art by the Antiquities Coalition and its various partners – much of it based on discredited data. The presentations have focused on the evils of the international trade in looted art from these regions, and by wholly unsubstantiated statements that looted artifacts from the crisis areas in the Middle East have entered the US market or are being sold here. In these presentations, the value of the legal market in provenanced antiquities, especially the auction market, are used to justify claims about a supposed illicit market. In the view of the Antiquities Coalition, agreements under the CPIA with authoritarian Middle Eastern governments are seen as positive because they will end the art trade.

Libyan MOU a Done Deal

As Peter Tompa observes:

all the evidence points to the matter being already decided—no matter what the CPIA says, what the facts really are, and what American citizens or others interested in collecting Libyan artifacts may think.  Still, to remain silent is to give cultural bureaucrats and archaeologists with an ax to grind against collectors exactly what they want-- the claim that any MOU is not controversial. 

Macquisten on the Global Challenges for an Unprepared Market

An article by Ivan Macquisten, A Triple Whammy, which appears in the July-August 2017 RICS Property Journal, is an excellent two-page summary of where the ancient art trade is today and why. The exploitation of war in the Middle East by anti-art trade campaigners, the prevalence of fake news, and the crucial steps that must be taken by the trade – establishing and disseminating the true facts and building public trust in the art market – are laid out clearly and succinctly. This is an article to circulate and to share.

 CCP "Macquisten on the Global Challenges for an Unprepared Market" June 27, 2017.

The Field Museum educates about forgeries

The Field Museum educates about forgeries

Fellow collctors beware!

The Beauty of the Corinthian Helmet

Unquestionably, one of the most beautiful components of the ancient Greek hoplite's panoply, the celebrated Corinthian helmet (Kallos Gallery).