Archeologists Destroy Temple in Guatemala

Archeologists oppose collectors by falsely claiming that they destroy history, but they themselves are often guilty of far worse ("The destruction of Tikal Temple 33 in Guatemala" The Week Aug 24, 2017)

Tikal Temple 33, Guatemala

 A 100ft tall Mayan funerary pyramid in the ancient city of Tikal, 33 was one of many temples uncovered by archaeologists in the 1950s and 60s. When researchers wanted a better view of earlier phases of the city's construction, the 1,500-year-old Temple 33 was chosen as the sacrificial lamb. Completely dismantled in 1965, the Temple's lower layers brought to light fascinating and groundbreaking information vital to the piecing together of Mayan history, revealing tombs and shrines within. Uncovered History writes that "sadly, Templo 33 is [now] a stunted pile of rubble", but adds that "fortunately, the deconstruction did reveal a hidden history that may otherwise have laid buried and undiscovered".

THis photo is a dramatic example of "before and after" the archeological approach to the "preservation of history". Shocking.

Temple ruined by archaeologists and one they did not  have time to destroy

Turkey Dynamites Ancient Caves

The ancient Turkish town of Hasankeyf

Despite international condemnation and protests,in some source countries, like Turkey,  destruction of ancient cultural heritage is often an inevitable outcome of development ("Turkey's neolithic caves: is destruction of heritage ever justified?" The Week Aug 24, 2017)

Turkish construction crews started dynamiting neolithic caves this week to accommodate a new hydroelectric dam. The Ilisu Dam, the building of which has been delayed for years by protests, is also likely to flood the ancient town of Hasankeyf on the Tigris River. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements on Earth, with evidence of human habitation dating back to 10,000 BC. "They are not only destroying our past, but also our future by taking away this as a source of income and heritage," one resident told Deutsche Welle. "We would like to apologise to the future generations for allowing this."

The preservation of the past by collectors for future generations to enjoy and profit from offsets this damage, but source countries criticize collectors while unthinkingly obliterating the world's heritage in pursuit of short-term goals and profits.

Name from the Past

Stamped brick

New Times Ahead, Trade Controls a "Misguided Initiative"

Perhaps we are seeing a change and the fake news ideologues are losing ground (Wayne Sayles, "A sign of the times?" Ancient Coin Collecting, Sunday, August 20, 2017)?

"Over the past decade, collectors of ancient coins have been faced with constant pressure from left wing radicals of academia—particularly the archaeological community leadership and their sycophants. Among the ardent supporters of anti-collector groups are a small but well entrenched cadre of bureaucrats in Washington. The level of governmental infiltration by these cultural property nationalists—bent on eliminating or controlling international trade in cultural property—is in itself cause for some concern" [...] In recent years there has been a barrage of baseless claims in the liberal press stating boldly that the terrorist movements of the Middle East are being funded by huge revenues from the sale (mainly within the U.S.) of ancient artifacts looted in conflict areas either from theft or support of illegal excavation and exportation. Even avowed supporters of academic archaeology have debunked these wild claims, but they continue to proliferate in the media without justification or any basis in fact. It's the "Big Lie" in what some see as its finest hour. One element of that campaign was an Executive Branch program created during the Obama Administration ostensibly to interdict illegal trade and monetary transfers that aided terrorists. The project was called Operation Choke Point and one of its goals was to throttle trade that the administration considered suspect. In reality, the project became a tool for ideologues to exert pressure on legitimate business that they disagreed with philosophically. Ancient coin dealers were among that group targeted. Under pressure from governmental agencies, several banks cancelled longstanding business accounts with dealers in ancient coins—not due to any transgression nor illegal activity, but simply because they dealt in ancient coins.

Sayles continues: "Happily, we can now speak of Operation Chokepoint in the past tense. As of August 16, 2017 the Trump Administration has terminated that program and described it as a "misguided initiative". And comments:

|"Hopefully, this is a sign of the times and the present administration will also recognize the negative consequences of bureaucratic overreach at the State Department and U.S. Customs. They might start with implementation of the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act and guide the bureaucracy back to a position consistent with the law and not driven, as it has been, by misguided ideology".

Facts About the Art Trade, Terrorism and the Size of the Illicit Marke

Tim van Lit, report author

"Important Study Commissioned by Dutch National Police Contradicts Media Hoax" Committee for Cultural Property August 24, 2017.

 Phony claims about involvement of the legitimate art trade with ISIS, and about art dealers supporting terrorism continue to be fed to the media, despite reputable, solid analysis that contradicts these false allegations. The most comprehensive resource is a 78 page report commissioned by commissioned by the Dutch National Police, Central Investigation Unit, War Crimes Unit: Cultural Property, War Crimes and Islamic State – Destruction, plunder and trafficking of cultural property and heritage by Islamic State in Syria and Iraq – a war crimes perspective (2016).

The Dutch National Police report states: “Although it seems, based on main stream media, as if all art and antique dealers are black market dealers, [...]  no evidence that this happens on a large scale is found. The legal trade could not be linked to financing IS based on this research.”

Swedish Museum Accelerates Their Cultural Collapse By Turning Viking Artifacts Into Scrap Metal

This cant be right, Viking artifacts melted down by the very people supposed to protect them

Following the revelations of one of its angry archaeologists, it emerges that the curators of Stockholms Länsmuseum have been ordering the systematic destruction of newly found artifacts from the Iron Age and the Viking period under the guise that it would be too burdensome to process. Coins, arrow heads, ritual amulets, weapons, jewellery and weights that were kept in the past are now directly dumped into metal recycling bins upon discovery instead of being treasured and displayed.  Following a recent surge in excavations aimed at construction that are occurring all over Sweden, the museum excavators are instructed to recycle unearthed iron elements into scrap metal following the pretext that “it would take too much resources to process, identify and store them.” The findings are usually quickly disposed of in order to make way for construction machines and building workers. This was kept secret until this week’s declarations by Johan Runer, archaeologist at the said museum. [...]   Runer explains that the archaeologists cannot themselves auction the findings to the private sector as it would encourage crooks and robbers to then resell the treasure. [...]   The money argument for a national museum implanted in one of the most prosperous countries on Earth (for now, before the “New Swedes” do what they do best) does not make sense. There is no shortage of funds in Sweden to host more refugees and promote multiculturalism in every media, but the money seems to vanish when it’s time to preserve European common heritage. 

(Jean-Batave Poqueliche, 'Swedish Museum Accelerates Their Cultural Collapse By Turning Viking Artifacts Into Scrap Metal' August 16, 2017). This is really shocking news. It is supported at the highest levels. Sweden has a black 'Minister of Culture':

Alice Bah Kuhnke [...] approves those decisions and define what should compose Swedish History and choose what will be Sweden’s future.[...] This story is just one more proof of the Left’s effort to shape the future of the their ugly world using the technique of the scorched earth.[...] There is not much difference between those Liberal iconoclasts and the soldiers of the Islamic state’s goons smashing millennia-old statues and monuments with sledgehammers. In both cases, those who destroy claim that the targets are false idols. The first against a multiculturalist future and the latter against Allah.A prime example of how Cultural Marxism aims at erasing the past to get rid of the last roots that our children can call theirs. [...] Sweden’s self-loathing decision makers try to erase the few traces that show Sweden as something else than a multiculturalism-infected petri dish. Destroy a people’s history so they cannot find a common heritage to fight for and you can start anew and create the society you seek. This shall not be.

Ritual vessel

This Egyptian vase was used in temple ceremonies and in rituals of purification. Its form imitates the hieroglyph "hes" which means "to praise."

Islamic extremist liable for €2.7m in damages for destroying Timbuktu shrine

A ruling by the International Criminal Court sets an important precedent ("Islamic extremist liable for €2.7m in damages for destroying Timbuktu shrine", The Art Newspaper 18 August 2017). Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi an Islamic extremist caused €2.7m in damages when he destroyed shrines in Timbuktu, Mali, in 2012. He has been declared liable to pay that sum.

Islamic extremists used pickaxes and bulldozers to destroy nine mausoleums and the centuries-old door of the Sidi Yahya mosque, built during a golden age of Islam, after a jihadist takeover in northern Mali in 2012, according to Agence France Presse. Calling the attack a “war crime”, the ICC sentenced Al-Mahdi to nine years in jail last September after he pleaded guilty to “intentionally directing” attacks on the Unesco world heritage site. 

This ruling is important because it acknowledges the cultural damage that war can cause. The landmark ruling signals that the destruction of historic sites at Palmyra in Syria and Mosul in Iraq by Isil could also be considered as war crimes by the ICC. There is however a snag, it is possible that this kind of settlement could actually incentivise cultural destruction because poor people could see this as ensuring a payout.

E Pluribus Unum

Our monuments to the past: Victims of political correctness

On the topic of recent attempts to remove or even destroy Confederate war memorials as products of an "inherently racist culture.", Peter Tompa ("Preservationists Seek to Remove or Even Destroy Confederate Monuments", CPO August 18th 2017) says:

  there are distinct parallels between ISIS destroying "idolatrous" statues and monuments and efforts here to topple "racist" ones, not the least the motivation to deprive certain groups of artifacts deemed important to their culture (there Shia, Assyrian Christians and Yazhdis and here poor White people (who must be racist!)). At least here, we have processes in place to allow localities and States to make the decision what to do with our Confederate monuments. What must be avoided at all costs is another Durham, N.C., where a mob was allowed to take matters into its own hands.

American cultural values and american history are at stake, and as the President says there are good and bad on both sides of the dispute It is sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments, we cannot change history, but we sure could learn from it. The majestic beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks in the name of political correctness will be greatly missed and we will never able to be comparably replace it.

“Many of those people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee,” Trump said. “This week, it is Robert E. Lee. And I notice that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you have to ask yourself, where does it stop?”

Calls to open looted-art archives grow louder

The immature game played by Italy and their Carabinieri cultural patrimony unit against United States Museums and private collectors should now stop&nbsp (Melania Gerlis, "Calls to open looted-art archives grow louder")

It is now 20 years since a trove of Polaroids, documents and antiquities that passed through the hands of the convicted dealer Giacomo Medici were discovered in a Geneva Freeport, seized by the Italian police and presented as evidence in a high-profile looting case in Italy. Six years later, in 2001, the more detailed archives of another convicted antiquities dealer, Gianfranco Becchina, were retrieved by the Swiss authorities and then transferred to Italy. This led to a number of court cases surrounding illegally-excavated antiquities and resulted in some convictions [...]. They have also embroiled Medici and Becchina’s suppliers and buyers—notoriously including the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles—with the Becchina archive’s contents leading to police investigations of 10,000 people’s affairs in Italy alone. Only a small portion of the looted works that feature in the Medici and Becchina pictures have been identified, and the raids have had a profound effect on the trade in antiquities. Some items have been repatriated [...] However, museums, auction houses, dealers and most other intermediaries are still in the dark about the tens of thousands of likely illicitly-plundered items included in these, and related, archives, the contents of which are known only to a few.

Erechtheion

Erechtheion, Caryatides, by Walter Hege,1928

Greece asks EU for return of Parthenon Marbles as part of Brexit

For over three decades, Greece has repeatedly called on the British Museum to return the 2,500-year-old marble sculptures that once adorned the Parthenon and have been the subject of dispute since they were removed and sold by Lord Elgin to the British Museum in 1817.

The Greek government is requesting that the ongoing issue of the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece be part of the Brexit negotiations citing EU treaty law, according to English media reports. European Parliament member Stelios Kouloglou has called on the Commission to include the thorny issue in Brexit talks. “Brexit negotiators must take into account the need to protect European cultural heritage… The Parthenon Marbles are considered as the greatest symbol of European culture. Therefore, reuniting the marbles would be both a sign of respect and civilised relationship between Great Britain and the EU, and much more [than] a legal necessity.” In response, a European Commission spokesperson said he believed that the Brexit team is not legally obliged to address the issue.

"Greece asks EU for return of Parthenon Marbles as part of Brexit" Greek City Times

Standing up for America

 

 We have everything to lose by doing nothing. Our backs are against the wall and there's no way out other than fighting. It's us or them.

The Men Who Trade ISIS Loot

The text in the wall street Journal "The Men Who Trade ISIS Loot" is an excellent article. It describes MENA looting and most importantly, it confirms no ISIL looted artifacts have ever been ever found in U.S. This is because we have an Ethical Antiquities Trade in U.S. The Men Who Trade ISIS Loot are all amoral Syrian and Turkish ragheads.

The death of Patroclus

Fighting over the body of Patroclus, whose death would incite the fury of the ancient Greek hero, Achilles and reverse the momentum of the Trojan War.

U.S. Govt.Approach to Collectors Drives History Underground

An article about the notorious "gottcha" anti-collector campaigner Christos Tsirogiannis( Tasos Kokkinidis, "Meet the Greek Archaeologist Chasing Looted Antiquities but Shunned by Greece" Greek Reporter Aug 4, 2017)....

Christos Tsirogiannis, a Greek forensic archaeologist who had discovered and reported numerous cases of looted ancient artefacts in Greece and abroad, speaks of his disappointment that his beloved country has “zero cooperation” with him. In an exclusive interview with the Greek Reporter, Tsirogiannis says that he has been sending information to the Greek authorities regarding looted ancient art works, asking nothing in return, but gets no reply, or acknowledgment.

James McAndrew‏ @ArtTradeSolution comments: "Tsirogiannis can rescue 500 antiquities in collections. Meanwhile 1 million more go underground. Short sighted!" he says our State Dept. Should insist that Italy make public the Medici and Becchina archives to stop thse "gottcha" attacks on the trade. By not insisting on this, the State Dept. fails to protect the U.S. Market. This is wrong! By its failure to protect U.S. Antiquity collectors, the U.S. Govt. failure to  drives history underground.

see also: Melanie Gerlis, 'Calls to open looted-art archives grow louder Museums and the trade want to put an end to the Catch-22 situation with Medici and Becchina ' Art newspaper 2 June 2015.

Draining the Stinking Anti-Collector Swamp

There is some great news coming out of Washington as the Trump administration begins to make its mark on the cultural landscape (Peter Tompa, " Congressional Appropriators Hold State Department, CPAC and Source Countries Accountable" July 31 2017).

The House of Representatives has used the appropriations process to highlight the need for the State Department and the Cultural Property Advisory Committee to hold countries with MOUs with the United States accountable for spending adequate sums to protect their own cultural patrimony as a precondition for receiving continued US assistance. For more, see here. It's long past time for such a message to be sent. If source countries are poor stewards for what they already have, why repatriate more objects under the misapprehension they will be properly studied, preserved and displayed?

As John Howland UK Collector remarks, let us all hope this is the first bore hole in the drilling into the layers of lies and deceit to expose the rampant corruption in some source countries. As he says, much of this dishonesty must surely have already been identified by some of the major players cossetted in higher echelons of archaeology. It is sure that someone, somewhere has gotten very rich thanks to unsuspecting US taxpayers. We can only hope that when they identify those individuals the State Department will name those involved and take the appropriate action.

Tug of war over disputed relic from Lebanon

A tug of war has broken out over an ancient relic from Lebanon that Manhattan prosecutors have impounded ("U.S. tug of war over disputed relic from Lebanon" Daily Star August 04, 2017 )

Lynda and William Beierwaltes initially purchased the head in 1996 from a London dealer, who had bought it from an art dealer in Switzerland. According to the New York Times, they paid $1 million for the work. In 2010, the couple sold the head to a private collector in the United States, who loaned it to the Met, which put it on public display. After a curator discovered it may have been stolen from government storage during Lebanon’s Civil War, the museum said it took “immediate action” and handed over the head to the Manhattan district attorney’s office. [...] When Lebanon demanded restitution, the Beierwaltes, who rescinded the 2010 sale, filed a 20-page lawsuit in a U.S. federal court against Lebanon’s directorate of antiquities and the New York district attorney’s office. “The Beierwaltes are bona fide purchasers with clean hands,” their lawyer William Pearlstein said. “By contrast, for more than 50 years, Lebanon has failed take any action domestically or internationally to report any theft of the bull’s head.” Pearlstein says there were no grounds under federal law for state prosecutors to seize the relic and that even if the head had been stolen, the statue of limitations under Lebanese law has expired.

People walk through galleries at New York's Metropolitan
Museum of Art, May 31, 2013. Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP

Museums in the U.S. should be ashamed. Defend and protect against frivolous claims for antiquities lawfully acquired. Seealso: Peter Tompa, "Collectors Contest Lawless Seizure" August 2, 2017.

Police ignored as Chinese treasure hunters dig up 500kg of Coins

Liu Zhen, "Police ignored as Chinese treasure hunters dig up 500kg of Qing dynasty coins" South China Morning Post Thursday, 05 January, 2017

Hundreds of Chinese treasure hunters – including pensioners and children – ignored outnumbered police as they dug up more than 500kg of ancient coins during an unauthorised mass dig near a river, mainland media reported. Local police had to bring in 20 reinforcements the next day before they were able to cordon off the area and stop villagers digging for artefacts in a 30 square metre area of riverbank beside the Gan River in Xingan county, Jiangxi province, last week, the provincial news portal Jxcn.cn reported. The county authorities are now trying to recover the antique coins, believed to date from the Qing (1644-1911) dynasty, which were uncovered without permission. The private excavation of antiques is illegal as Chinese law stipulates that all such discoveries belong to the government, a local official said. Inscriptions on the coins suggested they date from the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799) during the Qing dynasty, the official said. The head of county’s cultural heritage bureau said local authorities were working with villagers to recover the coins, which were thought to have been part of a Qing courtier’s fortune, which was lost when a ship sank as he was travelling home to Jiangxi after his retirement. The authorities plan to carry out a further archaeological dig at the site, the report said.

Peter Tompa says "Maybe China needs its own PAS, the local people probably wonder why Big Brother wants to take away their valuable coins.

A question for Archeologists

Archeologists, does hiring local indigenous people at dig sites develop the next generation of looters?

The Argonauts Sail Again

Spectacular reconstruction of the penteconter, the Argo, immortalized by Apollonius of Rhodes in his poem of Jason and the Argonauts

Repatriation Interruptus

This article by Kate Fitz Gibbon exposes the looted archives issue for the misleading nonsense it is: 'Repatriation Interruptus: Met’s Good Faith Attempt to Work with Italy Stymied By Seizure' CCP blog July 31, 2017. Antiquities hunter and zealous prosecutors spin a looted art story.

Today’s announcement of the seizure of an ancient Greek vase from the Metropolitan Museum in New York is an example of how prosecutors and a self-styled artifacts hunter can make hay with claims that were already being dealt with in good faith between a museum and a source country government. The real story is that a major museum bought an artwork in 1989, exhibited it for decades, was denied access to information about it for more than 25 years, and is now attacked for holding “loot.”