Culture Without

The Newsletter of the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre

Issue 9, Autumn 2001

Editorial 3
On-line auctions 4
CHRISTOPHER CHIPPIN

Thailand theft 13
The mystery of the Persia JENNY DOOLE 14
In the News JENNY D OO LE 16
Time crime: protecting the past in the United States 24
ROBERT HICKS

A holy cross and the necessity for international

conventions 30
Jos VAN BEURDEN

@ Th e Illic it Antiquit ies Researc h Centre is a proj ec t of th e Mc Donald Institute for Arc haeological Researc h.
 Illicit Antiquities Research Centre

T he Illicit Antiquities Research Centre (lARC) was established in May 1996,

under the auspices of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research in
Cambridge, Eng land, and it commenced operations in October 1997. Its purpose is
to monitor and report upon the damage caused to cu ltural heritage by the intel11a-
tional trade in illicit antiquities ( i.e. antiquities which have bee n sto len or ,
clandestinely excavated and illegally exported). The enormous increase in the vol-
ume of this trade over the past twenty years has caused the large-sca le plundering
of archaeological sites and museums around the world. The lARC will raise public
awareness of the problems caused by this trade and seek appropriate national and
intern ational legislation, codes of conduct and other conventions to place restraint
upon it.

CU/lure Wilhoul COlllexl is published twice-yearl y. The next issue wi ll appear in spring 2002.
Subscription detail s are ava ilabl e from:
Jenny Doole
IARC
McDonald In stitute for Archaeological Research
Downing Street
Cambridge CB2 3 ER
UK
e-mail: jd244@[Link]

Front cover. Anti-footing poster from Virginia , USA.

Staff: Address for correspondence :

fARC Director: Colin Renfrew CWC Editorial Board , McDonald Institute for
Archaeological Research, Downing St ,
fARC Co-ordinator: Neil Brodie
Cambridge , England, CB2 3ER
IARC Researcher: Jenny Doole [Link]
CWC Editorial Board: Neil Brodie [Link]
Augusta McMahon Correspondence relating to all aspects of the
Chris Scarre lega l and illegal trade in antiquities is welcome;
Peter Watson we will make an effort to print reasonable, non-
libellous letters. No unsigned letters will be
CWC Designer: Dora Kemp
printed, but names will be withheld upon request.
ISSN 1464-1925
© 2001 McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
Printed by BluePrint, 6 Clifton Road, Cambri dge CB1 7W6. Tel : +44 (0) 1223472400

2
 Licensed archaeological excava tions employ quali-
Editorial tied , trained , and experie nce d archaeo log ists
workin g on behalf of recogni zed academic or rc-
scmch instituti ons. A ll antiquiti es uncovered ill
excavation s are, by law, the property of the Stat e

O n 2 November 200 I the Convention on/he

Protection of/he Underwater Cllitural Her-
itage was adopted by the pl enary sess ion of the
or Israe l, at least since th e 1978 Antiquities La w
was passed. Therefore, liccnscd excavations are not
a source of goods far antiqu ities dealers. The con-
tradi ctory situation th at ex ists is that in spite of the
3 1st General Conference of UNESCO. It will fa ct tha t dea ling in antiqui lies is lega l, th e source
enter into force three month s after it has been for deal ers' ware s must cl earl y be illega l excava-
ratified by at least twenty States. Th e Conven- tion s as only a small er propo rti on of antiquiti es
tion aims to sec ure protection of underwater arrive in the marketplace as a result of theft from
IllU SC UIll S and lega l excava ti on s. In plainlerms, th e
cultural heritage, which is defined as: ' ... all traces
source of many an tiquities is robbery!
of human ex istence havi ng a cultuml , hi stori ca l « hit p:/ / [Link]. il/eng/ncws. hi ml>,
or archaeo logical charac ter whi ch ha ve been par- accessed t G Nove mber 2001)
tially or totall y und erwater, pcriodicall y or
continuously, fo r at least 100 yea rs ... ' . Thus al- Clearl y, th ere is a loop hole in Israeli law whi ch
though thi s latest UNESCO Conventi on (which all ows the lega l ex port of antiquities obtai ned
has been in preparation fo r four years) ga ined its through unli censed (ill ega l) excavation. This is
initial impetus from co ncern s raised by the co m- where ethi cs and th e law part company. It may
merciall y-motivated plunder of shipwrec ks, it is we ll be lega l to buy antiqui ties with an Israe li
designed to protect submerged settl ements and ex port li cence, but ca n it be justifi ed given their
other cu ltural landscapes as we ll. It makes provi- obv iously suspect source?
sion for the protecti on of heritage in both territori al
and intemational waters. 9 In the last issueo f CWCwe noted that John
News of the convention is ava il ab le at: ~ Eskenazi had been trave lilng and unava Ji-
<http: //www. unesco. org/opi/eng/uncscopressl abl e for com ment when the Nelli York Tilll es ( 18
200 I10 I - I [Link] > Ap ril 200 I) tried to contact him about a stone
The text of the co nventi on is at: bodhi sa ttva hi s compan y had so ld to the Miho
<hItp :IIwww. un [Link]/culture/ laws/underwa- Museum. He was on hi s trave ls aga in in Novem-
ter/html_eng/conven2 .shtml> ber when the Nelli York Tilll es (5 November 200 I)
once mo re attempted to contact him about the
9 In their article thi s .issue on th e ex panding provenance of a Gandharan head which he had
~ Internet market Ch lppl11dale and Gd l draw offered fo r sa le in New York at the International
attention to (amongst other things) thc sa le of ma- As ian Art Fair in March 200 I. The Tillles arti cle
terial in Jerusal em (pp. 9- I 0). The looting of also reveal ed that th e director of the Pacific As ia
archaeo logica l sites in Israe l and ncighbouring Mu se um in Pasadena , Ca li fornia, had turned
co untri es is a grow ing problem, and yet despite dow n an offer of fragments of th e Begram ivo-
thi s many antiquiti es appear on the market wi th ries made by a London antiqui ties dealer, but once
a valid Israel i cxport licence. But thc situation is aga in th e name of the dea ler was not revea led. In
not all that it might seem. Th e officia l webs ite of askin g for an oren mark et we stand accused in
the Israel Antiquiti es Authority has thi s to say so mc quarters of being 'ex treme '; nevertheless,
about it: we continue to beli eve that a fully tran sparent
The demand 1'01' <lIHiquities as objects or anistic market wou ld go a long way towards stamping
and historic val ue. has given rise to illicit excava- out thc trade in illi cit antiquiti es.
tions at archaeologica l si les.

Dealing in antiquities is permitted by law, Th e Israel

9 In th e state of Virginia the term ' tim e
Antiqui ti es Authorit y issues licenses to deal in antiq- ~ crim e' has bee n co in ed to desc rib e th e
uities and CXpOl1 antiquities, in accord with conditions 'c ri mina l offe nces relating to thefts of and va n-
sel in th e A ntiquities Law and ils rcgu hlti ons. da li sm to histori c resou rces'. In thi s iss ue (pp.
24-30) Robert Hicks describes a training pro-

3
gramme of the same name w hi ch aims to a lert investigatio n (i ncluding practical exercises), stat-
law enfo rcement office rs to th e probl em and utes and regulations avai lab le for the prosecu-
mobili ze an effective respo nse. Th e most recent tion of a rc haeolo g ic a l c riminal s , a nd th e
seminar took place in Richmond from 30 July to preparation of cases for presentation in court. The
3 August 200 I w hen th e Federa l Burea u of In- 48 parti c ipants included FB I agents, archaeo lo-
vestigation in conjunctio n with the Co mmon- gists, customs officers, park rangers and other
wea lth of Virginia 's Departments of C riminal federal and state agents. Thi s programme is now
Justice Services and Hi storic Resources held an we ll-establi shed and success ful , and provides a
Archaeological Law Enforcement Class. Over the model that co uld use fully be em ul ated both
five days participants attended day schoo l and throug hout the United States and in Europe.
we re assigned reading fo r the evenings. Topics
included the nature of archaeo logica l crime, its NEIL B RODIE

On-line auctions: a new a fake) - even thoug h Ih e seller is commonly

anonymous so the buyer does not know who
venue for the antiquities they have bought from .
market 2. Does the seller actua ll y own it with ' cl ean ti-
tl e', so the buyer will indeed then possess it?
CHR ISTOPH ER CH IPPI NDALE & Aga in , the purchaser ca n hope to re ly on the
auction-house to dea l with these issues.
D AV ID W.J. GILL
3. Will the purchaser pay and will the se ll er be
paid? Once agai n, the auction-house loo ks af-

F or a century the market in antiquiti es has had

three main venues: public auctions, sales
from deal ers w hose stock may be publ icl y an-
ter thi s, usually by the simple tactic of not
handi ng the purchase over until it has been
paid for irrevocabl y.
nounced or di splayed by one means or another, Deal ers add ress the same issues in simil ar ways,
and private transactions. The Internet has now and - like the aucti on-ho uses - provide th e
provided a fourth venue, in the web aucti ons that comfort of their reputation and of membership
have become an estab li shed market-pl ace, and of trade associations.
where antiquities are a standard and even a con- Thc Internet, famou sly un structured , has to
spicuo us class of obj ects. What is the market in dea l with th ese issues as e-commerce find s its
antiquiti es on the web? What form does it take? stead ier place after the e-boom and then e-bu st
How does it resembl e and differ from the estab- of 20001200 I . E-commerce is working we ll for
li shed marketing forum s, especially from the commodities like airline tickets, where the pur-
conventional auction, since the web markets de- chase r casi ly understands what they are buyi ng
cl are themselves to be on-line auctions rather than witho ul needing to see anything. Antiquities are
on-li ne dea lers? harder, since so much depends on the exaci de-
In any commercial tran saction , parti cipants tail s, and th ese being fairly described . How does
wa nt reassuran ce o n three fronts: the buyer know if th e se ll er is w ho they present
I. Exactl y what is the object being so ld, in w hat them se lvcs to be? And th e se ll er the buye r?
condition, and is it w hat it purports to be? Con- Thi s article sketches the present statc oflwo
ventional physica l auction sales, whi ch for fine on-line outfits that sell antiquities. Interested read-
and ex pensive antiq uiti es in London and New ers w ill ge t a good id ea a lso by s pe nd ing
York have for many yea rs been dom inated by hal f-an- hour o n-line w ith them at [Link]
Sotheby 's and C hri sti e 's, provide the obj ect and [Link]. They are described and
itse lf for in specti o n; and assurance is given their oFfe rin gs analyzed in rather different ways,
that the auction-house as intermedi ary wi ll following the different ways they operate and the
deal with fatal diffi culti es (e.g. if the objcct is different kinds of info rmatio n they offer about

4
each lot, and because it is in structi ve to compare
[Link] with the establi shed practices of
its parent physical auction-h ouses .

e8ay: antiquities in the world's

yard-sale ([Link])
e Bay, ' The World 's Online Marketplace ' , is a
giant of a site w here one mi g ht hope to find what-
ever ordinary or ex traordinary kind of obj ect one
might want, or not want, to acq uire. Its 30 cat-
ego ries include ' A ntiques' (on II November
2001 , 11 8 , 722 ite m s) a nd ' Co ll ec tibl es '
( 1,445 ,036 items). Within the ' Antiques' category
itse lf are 17 further categories, one of them 'A n-
tiquiti es'. On II November 200 1, 4237 items
were offered on85 pages within ' Antiquiti es ' (on
13 October 200 I, it had been 3929 antiquiti es on
79 pages). There are also 'Coins' (113 ,983 items),
' Jewelry, Gems and Watches' (36 1,557 items) and
' Pottery & Glass' (295 ,38 1 items) as categories
where antiquities mi ght lurk . With over 6.6 mil -
Figure 1. Photograph of 'an ancient Gandhara sculpture '
lion (!) individual items offered (plu s the unstated
offered on eBay.
number in the ' Mature Co ntent ' category and
those on the separate eBay Motors site) , antiqui- eBay does not close ly supervise what is
ties are a minute portion of w hat eBay se ll s. offered,' stating ' These items are not verified by
Each lot has a single briefentry on the page, eBay; caveat emptor '. C li ck ing on ' caveat emp-
w ith (usua ll y) a little image, a few words of de- tor ' takes yo u to a page ex plainin g how e Bay
scription , the curre nt highest bid , the number of wo rks, ' At eBay, trading w ith confidence is th e
bids made, and the exact date and time when the key to success ful transaction s.'
auction for that item closes, up to ten days ahead On a 13 October page in ' Antiquities' taken
of when it was li sted. [f yo u c li ck on the item, at haza rd , page 44, there are 50 lots, of w hi ch 35
you are tak en to a page with a fuller descripti on are not antiquiti es but antiques or not even that:
and large photograph(s). Yo u ca n wo rk through ' 4 PIECES OF DOMIN[ CAN AMBER W[TH
the pages, or search in any or a ll categories. A IN SECTS £20 .00 ', 'A ntiqu e Pl ate Maste r
search for ' Roman ' within ' Antiquiti es ' produces Si mpson by A rthur Deni s $ 12.00' , ' cigarette case
48 1 items. A search fo r ' Gand hara ' in all catego- from the 19 40 's ???? $9 .99 ' , al so a 19 95
ri es produce s two book s a nd ' an a nc ie nt Chevrolet Corvette sports ca rl $ 14,600. All pages
Gandh ara sculpture' in the category ' South east are different, but thi s strikes us as pretty typical
As ian ' w ithin th e ca tegory 'As ian A ntiqu es ' of the many we have browsed.
within the category ' Antiques' (so not within ' An- The 15 lots wh ich are or might be antiqu i-
tiquiti es ' ). Thi s item 1484338485 is bein g so ld ties are:
from Brimwood, New York , and has yet to re- Egypt Multipl e Scarab, G lyphs,
ce ive a bid. ' nadeemkayani ', its sell er, dec la res: 13- 17 Dyn $2 00.00
'Thi s pi ece is from Sawat Val ley and it we ights FIN E PR E-COL NAYA RIT WOM AN
30 Ibs and 22 inches tall and 7 inches wide. It is in FIGURE- AU THENT IC $99.99
great condition. ' I There is a set of 5 photographs of Anasaz i/ M imbres C lass ic Pottery
it presented in a single large JP EG (thi s is not on ID Set RAR E $24.95
the eBay s ite but at http ://[Link] ll ywoodjam. Anasaz i/Tularosa Bl ack/White
com/[Link], on a site otherwi se about Pottery I D Set $ 16.05
' Bollywood ' Indian movies) (Fi g. I). 2 Anci ent Egyptian Eye of Horu s

j
 Amulets NR $20.00
Anasazi/ Puerco Black O n Red
Pottery ID Set $ 14.95
• Roman Bron ze Coin , Probus,
276- 282AD NR $20.50
ROMAN BRONZE KN EE
BROOCH G BP14.99
• ROMAN OIL LAMP,N ICE. (NR) $ 16.50 •
MEDIEVAL: 13th CENTU RY
HUN TING ARROWH EA D G BP19.00
POINTE D E FLEC!-IE BRON ZE
C HrNOIS E DYN. HAN FRF 180.00
MED IEVAL: KN IGHTS ' BELT
FITTINGS ' (AA)
• Ancient Egypt zodiac nice
GBP 9.99 . \\
Egyptian ART $9.99 \\
God Osires Offering hol y water
EGY PTIAN ART $9 .99
Wedding Th ermoni es of Ancient
Egy pt Papyrus $5.99
!-low does eBay deal with the three issues: ex-
actly what is the object being so ld?; does the se ll er
actua ll y own it?; w ill th e purchaser pay? Figure 2. Photograph of 'HUGE Cypriot 10008C painted
For 'who! is the objec!?', th e entry offers a Handled Amphora ' offered on e8ay

description and photograph (s) . The photog raphs,

phoric farm beauty has th e typica l geometric sty le
withi n the limits of Internet standard, strike us as
ofpa illling ill ceramic decoration of thi s period in
remarkabl y good. Even though di g ital camera s Mcditc rrancan Cy priot hi story. Vc ry Rarc as a large
are now cheap and easy to use, and tran sferring inlact piece.
the image onto a web-page also straightforward ,
the time and effort invo lved seems to us very hi gh Condition: Appca rs to bc compl etely intac t and
unbroken , wi lh th e typi ca l surllice wcar. and so me
for an object that may be wo rth as littl e as $5.99.
minor lip mOlllh chippagc.
At c urre nt currency conve rs ions these 15 lots to-
ta l just $527, and average only $35 . As a page For ' does Ih eseller ac!ual/y own il?' , eBay
w ith image(s) is created fo r every lot offered, can offers support to encourage a trust in the se ll er
either sellers or eBay make enough fo r th e co m- whi ch also supports confidence as rega rds 'w hat
merce to be worthwhil e? On II November, for is the obj ect?'. Nearl y all ve ndors have sold on
example, item 1484227951 is a ' I-lUGE Cypriot eBay befo re, and the s ite provides cross-refer-
1000BC painted Handl ed A mphora ', fo r whi ch ences to other items the sa me vendo r has currentl y
the first and on ly bid of$1 00 has not reached the for sa le. The HU GE Cypri o t Amphora is offered
rese rve; its page has two large and crisp photo- by ' Vianova'; a link from it takes you to anothe r
graphs each of 480 x 640 pix els (F ig. 2). It is page where Vianova's pro fil e is prove n to be
described as : good : 44 prev iou s tran sacti ons are a ll reported
in pos itive term s (e.g. ' Praise : honorab le man,
A monull1 ental Cy priot amph ori c form handl ed
storage vessel, uniquel y painted in geome tri c form we ll packaged, wou ld buy from again , thanks Vi c
motif, with ab so lute ly grea t prese nce and stature A A A A A ++++++++'; ' Pra ise: great item, great
standing 20 I NC J-I ES HIGJ-I , and 16 inches hand le sell er, easy tran saction, thanks! '), w ith no neutrals
to hand le. Thi s piece is just grea t is all I call say, and no negati ves.' Another lin k takes you from
SEE the jpg c lose-ups of' th e ancient s llrf~lce wc ar
the amphora to a ll Vianova's current items fo r
on the painted decoration. GUA RAN T EED to be
auth entic, and at least 2500 yea rs old. Thi s aJ11- sa le, 46 w hi ch range from 'Ea rl y 19thc Huge
Hunters Boar I-lead Tankard ' ($255) to ' German

6
MAX KAHRER 1917 Klosterneuberg Summer' and what and where I [Link] export laws to be
concerned about. I just sold all kinds of pre-
($1025). In this way, you can see what the seller
Columbian on ebay, with no questions asked. I got
deals in, and what previous customers think of them from an estate sale lady, who got them from
their experiences. Profiles are overwhelmingly a collection, that got them from who knows where
positive. 50 years ago ... I legitimately bought the 'pot' as
Browsing eBay is free and available to any- you call it, ... it is an amphora.
one on the Internet. To sell, buy or contact others 'nadeemkayani', seller of the Gandhara statue,
via eBay bye-mail requires registration, for is a new eBay user without either other items
which there is no charge but for which you must currently for sale or any previous transactions in
provide an e-mail address (and credit-card de- their profile. One of us asked them bye-mail, 'I
tails as proof of identity if your e-mail address is know that a lot of ancient objects are said to be
with one of the 'anonymous' services like illegally excavated and illicitly exported from
[Link]). In registering with eBay, you ac- their country of origin, especially Gandharan
cept a user agreement which includes: 'eBay objects. What is the country of origin of this item?
cannot and does not control the quality, safety, How can I be sure it was legitimately exported?'
legality or accuracy of any item listed or any item A 'Nadeem' promptly replied: 'I am not sure how
description. Trading over the Internet has certain to answer the question, I am selling this item for
inherent risks; I understand these risks exist even another friend. If you win the item all I can tell you
if I take advantage of various tools offered by is that the item will be sent to you and get there.'
eBay in order to minimize the risk of fraud'; and As regards 'will the purchaser pay?', or
'I will not provide fraudulent information and I other ways in which the transaction may go awry,
am solely responsible for any information I pro- eBay has clear advice for the seller and will it-
vide to eBay. I will comply with all laws self intervene under its 'Non-Paying-BidderlFinal
applicable to my activities on the web site and Value Fee Credit Request Program'. Buyer and
with this Agreement. I will not sell any prohib- seller should be in direct contact within 3 busi-
ited, illegal or infringing items on eBay.' No ness days of the listing's close. The seller should
means is evident as to how these requirements send a 'payment reminder' to the buyer after 3
are to be enforced. days but not past 30 days. Then, if still unpaid,
There is no charge to browse, bid on, or the seller should file a 'non-payment bidder alert'
buy items at eBay. There are fees to list and sell with eBay after seven days but not past 45 days
items. To list an item with a reserve over $200 of your listing'S close. eBay then reminds the
costs $3.30, with additional charges between 10 buyer of their obligations. If that fails, then the
cents and $99.95 for special features such as pho- seller can ask eBay for a credit in respect of the
tographs, bold type or special prominence to draw sale commission due to eBay. The defaulting
attention to your item. There is a further final buyer receives warnings from eBay for their first
value fee if the item is sold; it is 5 per cent of the and second offences; under a 'three strikes and
sale price if that is less than $25, reducing to 2.5 you're out' rule, the third offence leads to an in-
per cent for the portion between $25 and $1000, definite suspension, a suspension of a user's
and 1.25 per cent for the portion over $1000. privilege to use the eBay site for more than 60
As a registered member of the eBay COlTI- days with no definite reinstatement date. eBay
munity one of us asked 'Vianova' bye-mail an states: 'Users who have been indefinitely sus-
obvious question about the pot: 'I know that a lot pended may not register with eBay during the
of ancient objects are said to be illegally excavated suspension, nor may they use eBay's site in any
and illicitly exported from their country of origin. way. Failure to abide by this restriction will lead
How can I be sure this pot was legitimately exported to referral for criminal prosecution with the
from Cyprus?' A 'Vic Showell' promptly replied: United States Attorney's Office for the Northern
The pot is on ebay. If you have a problem with it,
District of California. 'With millions of registered
email them. It has been in North America for a very users of eBay, one wonders if a suspended user
long time, far before any laws or whatever mumbo might be tempted to re-register under a different
jumbo you are trying to lay on me demanding who e-mail address.

7
 Other general auction sites, like its smaller ferent in style, a cool and elegant design with,
rival QXL ([Link]). operate much like even, quite some white space (it is, also, much
eBay. slower than eBay). From the opening page, you
We are struck by the huge volume of bus i- can go to catalogues of the physical auctions,
ness eBay does (or, strictly, the huge volume of future and past, which are electronic versions of
business would-be sellers hope to do). There are the conventional printed catalogues, or to the elec-
more than 6 million items offered on an average tronic-only on-line operations within [Link].
day which, with a closing date of a maximum 10 The [Link] section has 13 catego-
days after opening for each item, means upwards ries under on-line auctions, one of them 'Ancient
of 600,000 new items offered every day. 5 This and Ethnographic Art' (380 lots together on 14
may explain why both the insertion fees and the November 200 I) within which are' Antiquities'
commission on a successful sale is low. (59 lots) and three other categories, 'African &
On 19 July 200 I, eBay reported a second- Oceanic Art', 'American Indian Art' and 'Pre-
quarter turnover of $180.9 million, an increase Columbian Art', under which some American
of 84 per cent over the previous year, and profit antiquities appear. 6
of$24.6 million; 98.7 million auctions had taken Exactly what is the object being sold, in
place during the quarter, and eBay had 34.1 mil- what condition, and is it what it purports to be?
lion registered users. Its share price on 9 Here, the key asset is the Sotheby's name and
November 200 I was $56.95. In contrast, Lon- reputation as a centre of expertise. These items
don-quoted QXL reported a first-quarter trading are being sold through Sotheby's, and the seller
loss on 31 August 2001 of £8.5 ($12.3) million is a Sotheby's Associate. There are detailed and
on sales of £ 1.6 ($2.3) million (that is, losses over lengthy conditions of sale7 which parallel the
five times its income). Its shares rallied to 6.25 lengthy conditions conventional in the printed
pence, having been at £8 at the height of the e- catalogues of physical auctions. There is a spe-
commerce bubble and collapsing to under 1 per cific provision to protect the buyer if the object turns
cent of the peak. eBay is expanding outside its out to be counterfeit, a deliberate modem forgery.
original US base, and looks set to rule the world Does the seller actually own it with 'clean
as the broad on-line market for everything, an- title', so the buyer will indeed then possess it?
tiquities included. Sotheby's (below) is not No specific statement is made in the conditions
presently profitable, reporting on 13 November of sale; perhaps none is needed because, again,
2001 revenues for its first three quarters together the status of Sotheby's Associate should provide
of $225 million and a net loss of $41 million. reassurance.
Internet-related expenses were $18.7 million, As regards 'will the purchaser pay?',
down from $44 million the year bef<;>re; the Sotheby's takes an active role. The buyer pays
Internet-related loss seems to have been $9 mil- Sotheby's (rather than the Associate), and only
lion, indicating Internet-related revenue of around when that payment has been completed will
$10 million. [Link] release the item and direct the seller
to ship the item to the buyer. The conditions re-
[Link]: from the physical mind the buyer that making a bid is irrevocably
auction-room to the Internet to agree to buy if the bid is successful.
Where eBay is a new venture of the electronic Browsing [Link] is free and avail-
age, [Link] is an extension into the elec- able to anyone on the Internet. To buy or contact
tronic market-place of one of the old and requires registration, H for which you must pro-
dominant physical auction-houses. Sotheby's has vide your real name, phone number, email
had two separate Internet ventures. One, jointly address, credit-card details and other requested
with the Internet book-seller [Link], was information.
after a while folded into the other, [Link]. The commission to sellers on sothebys.
The eBay opening page is a mass of col- com, all of which are established Associates
ourful elements crammed into the screen, each (above), is not stated on the site. 9 Buyers pay 15
intended to catch attention; [Link] is dif- per cent of the successful bid price up to $15,000,

8
 10 per cent of the balance above that fi gure.'o Characteristics of [Link] in
What kind of antiquiti es are so ld on-line relation to Sotheby's physical auctions
by [Link], and how do they compare with Sellers
what is offered at their physical auctions? Who In their physical auction cata logues Sotheby's,
by? What is their dec lared archaeo logica l con- and other auction-houses, are reti cent abo ut the
text and hi story? Of what va lue? To exp lore these names of se ll ers. For a few lots, the se ll er is ex -
issues, we analyzed what was offered for sa le on actl y named. For most lots, the sell er is unnamed
[Link] in mid-200 I, under the class of or referred to in terms (' Property of a Lady ',
' Antiqui ties ' . On a series of dates between II ' Property of a New York Co ll ector') so general
May and 8 August we recorded some details of they are effectively unnamed. In a samp le of 420 I
each lot offered, exc luding those lots previously lots offered in genera l antiquities aucti ons at
recorded and any lot whi ch ev identl y had previ- Sotheby 's New York over the past several years,
ously been offered under another lot number." This 21 per cent of sell ers were exactly named; 79 per
totals 494 lots, of which 490 are antiqui ties." ce nt were actuall y or effectively unnamed. '" A
Fifteen of the lots will show the range,1J long-sta nding characteri stic of both New York
with their estimates: and London physical auctions is that the dea lers
ANC IENT EGYPT IAN BLACK whose business is much of the market are never
STEATITE STRlDING RAM $2500- 3500 named when they are se llers.
Elega nt Greek Black Skyp hos Sotheby 's on-lin e is quite different. For 12
(4th Century BC) $600- 800 lots, the sell er is Sotheby's New York itself. For
ANCIENT EGYPT IAN GREEN another 476 of the 490 lots (97 per cent) the seller
FA IENCE USHABTI OF HORU $800- 1200 is named. All of these are dea lers, described as a
Lot of Two Luristan or Persian, '[Link] Assoc iate', and in each lot a lin k
Bronze Arrowheads, C. 800 BC $400- 550 is given to a page about the Associate, informing
• Roman Bronze and Enamell ed the browse r abo ut where the dealer is, and what
Jewe lry [7 items] $900- 1100 kind of things th ey deal in. Ge nerally there is a
• Judaea n, Time of the Patriarchs, link to the dealer's own web-site. For onl y 2 lots
Lot of 5 Bronze Pins, C. 2200 BC $500- 750 is the vendo r unnamed, with the lot reported sim-
J udaea, Late Bronze Age Pottery ply as ' offe red by a [Link] Associate ' .
Water Jug, C. 900 BC $800- 1000 Tabl e I shows the names of the sell ers. Six ac-
Egypt ian Middle Kingdom Wooden count for 400 lots, 82 per cent of the total.
Female Head (c irca 2040- 1640 BC) $200- 500 This pattern ari ses from the commercial
Large Ap uli an Red Figure Bell structure of sothebys. com. Un like eBay, it is not
Krater ca. 4th century BC; Attributed a public auction, through whi ch anyone may of-
to the Ci rcle of th e Darius Painter, fer something they wish to sell , but a coll aborative
(poss ibl y the Haifa Painter) $ 18,000- 20,000 venture under whi ch only associates may se ll.
Greek Stem med Kylix $750- 950 Assoc iates ga in access to [Link] under a
Roman Engraved Gem Set in Ring, commercia l agreement by whi ch the Associate
circa 1st-4th Century AD [ancient undertakes to sell on the Internet on ly through
gem, modern ring] $500- 1000 sothebys .com.
• Roman glass Double-bodied
Cosmetic Tube ca. 3rd centlllY AD $900- 1500 Archaeology
Greek Squat Lekythos, Geometric What are th e find-spots of the objects? What are
Period ca. 800-700 BC $800- 1000 their archaeo logica l contex ts? For 92 per cent no
Large Anc ient Egyptian Wooden indication of any kind is given (as aga inst 97 per
Sarcop hagus Panel cent for the samp le from Sotheby's physical auc-
XX lst Dynasty $3000-4000 tion s). For the 8 per cent for which an indi cation
ANC IENT GREEK BLACK-GLA ZED of find -s pot is given , it is always general and
LIP CUP, CIRCA 7TH/6TH imprecise - e.g. ' Probably from th e Fayum ',
CENTURY BC $800- 1200 'found in Judea', ' from Jerusalem ', ' Thi s rare and

9
 Table 1. Sellers on [Link], mid 2001 . (compare 5 per cent in
the phys ical auctions);
Seller Location Web-site? No. of lois for 12 per cent a hi s-
offered
Aclcon Ga ll ery Skokie ( IL), USA no 2 to ry ba ck to
Anc ient World Art s Ltd Li tc hfield (CT). USA yes 6 19 15- 1944 (compare
Anlhropos Mal ibu (CA). USA yes 10 3 per cent in the phys i-
Arte Prim itivo New York (NY). USA yes I~
C J Marlin Coins Ltd London N 14. UK no 19
ca l auction s); fo r II
Chinal ai Tri ba l Anti qucs Shoreh;ll11 (NY) no per cent a hi story bac k
EAC Gall ery Ros lyn Heights (N Y ). USA no 2 to 1945- 1973 (co m-
Fragments of Timc Medfiel d (MA) yes 5~
Harla n J. Bcrk. Ltd Chi cago ( IL), USA yes 2
pare 6 per cent in th e
Howard M. Nowes New York (NY). USA yes 49 phys ical auctio ns); fo r
Lindeau Gcms New York ( Y) . USA yes 3 per cent a hi s to ry
Mark Goodste in Statcn Island (NY). USA no 60
Medusa·A rI. coJl1 Montrca l. Qucbec. Canada yes 9
back to 197 4- 1986
Mooraboo l Antiquc Ga ll eries Geclong (Vic.). Australi a ycs 2 (compare 5 per cent in
Paul Anav ian New York (NY) yes X9 the physical aucti ons);
Sand s o f Time Antiquities Houston (T X). USA yes 77
SOlhcby's Ncw York New York (NY) yes 12
fo r 17 per cent a hi s-
Venus Ga ll cries Jerusa lelll . Israel ycs 61 to ry back to a d a te
Yc Oldc Curios itic Shoppe South Orange ( NJ). USA no 10 since 1987 (compare 4
unnamed [Link] Assoc iate 2
Tot:11 490 per cent in the phys i-
cal auction s).
att racti ve Lamp was fo und in Bethl ehem ' - So mo re is said abo ut hi story than is usual
rather than an archaeological contex t in the re- for phys ical auctio ns, but not of a kind actuall y
search sense. to report what happened to the items and how
they came to move o ut fro m beneath the ground
His/ory and o n to the market-pl ace .
In respect ofthe hi stOlY of the obj ects, w hen they
were found and who previou sly ow ned them, COlllpara/ive ilia/erial
soth [Link] is mo re forthcomin g than are the Aucti on-houses sometimes mention comparati ve
ph ys ical auction catal ogues. Just 3 per cent o f material , that is, similar items already kn ow n or
items on [Link] first 'surface ' w hen of- published. Comparati ve materi al is mentio ned for
fered fo r aucti on w ith nothing at all sa id about II per cent of items on [Link], compared
their history, compared w ith the 69 per cent sur- with 26 per cent at th e physical auction s.
facin g w ith o ut a ny hi s tory at th e ph ys ical
aucti ons. For 49 per cent of items at soth ebys . Discussion
com, however, the hi stOlY says little, as it so vague Neither eBay nor [Link] di scloses the re-
(' Property ofa So uth-West Co ll ecti on', ' Pri vate serve on an item. eBay publi shes the most recent
Ca li fornian coll ection ') o r just co n firm s who the bid and the bidding hi sto ry; [Link] also
se ll er is (, Property o f Venu s Antiquiti es, Jerusa- publi shes a hi gh and low estimate o f what a suc-
lem ' for an item being so ld by ' Venus Ga ll eri es, cessful bid mi g ht be, as it does fo r ph ys ica l
Jeru sal em, Israe l; ' Property fro m a New Yo rk au cti o ns. Thi s makes it poss ibl e to sketch th e
dea ler ' for an item being sold by Mark Goodstein , va lue o f what is o ffered on sothebys .co m: o ur
Staten Island). Forjust o ne item o f the sampl e o f 490 lots have a mean low estimate o f $ 111 8 and
490 is the hi story stated from o r nearly fro m the a mean hi g h of$ 1652; the cheapest items have a
ground : a ' Large Roman g lass neckl ace ' offered low o f $ 100 and hig h of $200; the most ex pen-
by Sands of Time Antiquities that was' Excavated sive item, an Apulian Red Fig ure bell krater has
in Gazantep, Southern Turkey during the first half a low o f $ 18,000 and hi g h of $20,000 ; th e me-
of the 20th century' (the same 0 per cent with dian item has a low of $800 and high o f $ 1000.
hi sto ry from the g ro und appli es to the sample fo r These values set [Link] m in the middl e o f
th e phys ical auctions). For 2 per cent a hi sto ry is the market, well bclow the phys ical aucti on rooms
reported for the item back to a date be fore 19 14 w here estimates over $ 100,000 are routin e and

10
few items have estimates below $1000, and well Set side by side, [Link] is a min-
above eBay with its items going down to $10 and now alongside a giant; it is a specialized minnow,
below. As on eBay, [Link] allows a seller where eBay is unbounded.
to fix a 'knock-out' price which, if offered, makes Where [Link] may have 59 antiq-
an immediate sale and the auction terminates; 31 uities on-sale on anyone day, eBay has of the
per cent of items were available that way. order of 1300. 15 They are in different parts of the
Are [Link] selling much of what market, eBay at the bottom, [Link] in the
they offer? There are bids for only 10 per cent of middle (with Sotheby's physical auctions at the
items when we have looked at them, and most of top). They operate in very different ways.
these are below, usually far below the low esti- [Link] is a tighter and more controlled
mate. When we look, for example, there is not a operation: selling is restricted to its Associates;
single bid for anyone of 76 lots of west Asian it takes more care - to judge from the descrip-
seals offered by Paul Anavian, New York. In that tions for each lot - (or its sellers are induced to
group of items most have 5 days to go before the take more care) in describing lots; the financial
auction closed. There may later be a last-minute transaction is conducted through [Link].
flurry in the closing day or hours or even min- eBay is looser.
utes, but from watching the site for a while we The charges are very different. At eBay, the
doubt that is the routine. And excluded from the seller has modest costs to insert the item, and then
490 items we have logged are about 100 other pays 5 per cent commission in respect of very
items, in the same period, which appear to be the cheap items up to $25, then 2.5 per cent over $25,
same object as had previously been offered now 1.25 per cent over $1000. The buyer is not
for sale again, after having failed to sell before. charged. At [Link] the seller may also
A certain portion of items failing to reach reserve pay.16 The buyer pays IS per cent, then 10 per
and be sold is routine in auction-rooms, but the cent over $15,000. If the charge to on-line sell-
signs are that [Link] is not achieving as ers is much the same as it commonly is for
high a proportion of successful sales as is usual physical auctions, then [Link] altogether
in physical auctions. takes up to 30 per cent or more, on the face of it
The range of items offered is typical of the more than 10 times what eBay receives for a
lower end of the physical auction range, and also transaction involving a $999 dollar item. So
in light of the specialities of the not many - only [Link] needs to have very high prestige,
19 - Sotheby's Associates using [Link] and to be seen to provide a very superior place to
in this period. The 61 items from Venus Galler- sell it and to buy ifit is to sustain itself in compe-
ies, Jerusalem, Israel (Authorized Antiquities tition with eBay when its charges are so much
Dealer License No. 144), for instance, are largely greater.
finds from Israel. Among the 58 items from Frag- Christie's, the other dominant player in the
ments of Time, Medfield (MA), are many items art auction-houses, has not created an electronic
from the Diniacopoulos Collection, assetnbled operation yet. Bonhams and Phillips, smaller
1910-1932 and 1954; it 'is, Fragments explains, players in London, merged in July 2001 under
the ownership of the French luxury goods com-
one of the most important Canadian antiquities col-
bine LVMH. With Sotheby's and Christie's
lections of the 20th century. Fragments of Time,
Inc. has been selected by the estate to assist with embroiled in court cases in New York, where it
the disbursement of this collection. In cooperation has been proven they operated a cartel contrary
with [Link], a few selected objects are be- to US anti-trust law, the stage is set for three auc-
ing offered for on-line bidding. In addition, a full tion combines to battle for the top of the market.
color catalogue featuring more than 100 objects
They will have to move fast, and electronically
from this collection is available on request at
[Link]. well, if they are not to lose the bottom and the
middle of it to the likes of eBay.
Other items from the same collection are at For those concerned with the other values
present appearing in the physical auctions of of antiquities, these objects as precious evidence
Sotheby's New York. of other peoples at other times, a flourishing

II
 ing offered onl y one item, a 'Ga ndhara Buddha
Statue, Third Century AD ' . No archaeo logy o r
hi story is repo rted fo r it; its estimate is $ 10,5 00
to $ 14,000. Lindeau Ge m s, in its page as a
[Link] m Associate and its own web-si te at
www.l [Link]. declares itse lf to be a specia l-
ist gem dealer in emeralds (,From the mines o f
Muzo and C hivor in Co lo mbi a ' w hence the ir
emeralds have ' worked their way through peril-
ous e m e rald tr a d e to Lindeau '1 9), rubi es
(' Mo nghsu, is a gem minin g area in Myanm ar
which si ts in rebe l territo ry. G uerrilla control o f
the area hasn't stopped the now of rubi es from
mine to market. Most stones leave the country as
contraba nd rough and enter Tha il and at Mae-Sa i,
a rendezvo us point betwee n gem smugg lers and
Figure 3. Photograph of 'Gandhara Buddha Statue, Third dealers and sa pphire'), and sa pphires (from Sri
Century AD' offered on [Link].
Lanka , now ' the only steady producer offi ne sap-
phires'). Lindeau 's so le oITering in antiquities is
electronic market is not a happy innovation. Auc- show n in four clear and large photographs, look-
tion-houses and the ir phys ical auctions promote ing fo r all the world as if it has been recentl y
the market in antiqui ties, w hich may be regret- hacked off its suppo rting s urf~l ce ( Fig. 3). Sup-
ted, but they also have prov ided doc um entati on pose o ne wanted to give th e impress ion of an
and o rder. The catalog ues are printed and pro- antiquit y be ing offe red that was looted. One
vide a permanent record, even if the info rm ati on mig ht choose Gandharan , s ince Gand haran is
is sli g ht, of w hat was oITered for sa le. And the notori ous for the looters' interest in it. One mi ght
auctio n-houses provide a central and publ ic pl ace illu strate the pi ece as ifrecentl y hacked out of its
w here all can know w hat is offered, and w here sc ulptural setting. One mi ght ha ve it o ffered for
the o bjects the mse lves are always ph ys ica ll y sa le by a co mpan y that does not normall y deal in
present. The elec troni c market prov ides docu- antiqu ities, but specia li zes in se lling gems that
mentation only of a transient kind. O ne ca n (as are, as its own web-site decl ares, usuall y sm ug-
we have in thi s study) look at an item offered on gled - and smuggled from the very reg ion o f
a page one minute, and th en find just a minute the wo rd w here Gandharan antiquiti es co me
later the page has va ni shed. We do not know if from! It is in respect of ite ms like th ese that
th e on-line auction room s archi ve their pages, or soth [Link] m's un ambi g uo us statement, ' It is
whether any other archi ve keeps them. A nd the both ill ega l and unl awful for any of o ur screened
obj ects are not phys ica ll y produced, onl y re ferred dealers to submi t items that have been expo rted
to by photographs. out of other countries illega ll y to post them to
One encouraging s ign was a direc t state- Soth [Link] ', will be material. (The tabulatio ns
ment in respect of illi cit antiquiti es made to us of [Link] sales used in thi s arti cle are to
by [Link]. When one of us asked sothebys. be found at <[Link] [Link]. uk/class ics/staff/dg/
com about illi cit antiquities, Scott Klarm an o f looti ng/> together w ith o ther materi a l from o ur
[Link] Customer Service rapidly and help- researc h. )
full y repli ed, ' It is both ill ega l and unl awful for
any o f our screened dea lers to submit items that Notes
have been exported o ut of o ther co untri es ill e- 1. Din.!'! quot:1tions from the sites ;H1d from c-mails arc gi ven here
exa ctl y as lim nd or rece ived. eBay docs no[ correct spe ll ing mi s-
ga ll y to post them to [Link]. '17 Thi s is a takes. Readers know ledgeable about s it e-nallles and technicaliti es
good guarantee. I S wil l find th em a bit haphazard as th..: sclkrs write them .
2. Bul 1I0r docs il permit the sal e o f cvcrything il is legal to sell. ,\ ft cr
Lindeau Gems, o f New York , stands out the terrori st all ack on the Worl d Trade Cc nt.:r. 11 September 200 I .
from the routine sell ers o n sothebys .com for hav- eBay ba nned sale o f debris from the wreckage of Ihe World T rad\"

12
 Center and the I>entagon which was oner..:d fo r sale imllled iately lace. arc excl uded frolll our anal ys is.
aner the terror attacks. The lirst pieces o fm bble. the London GI/art/- 13. The full tabulati on is available on-lin e at htlp :l/[Link]:lIl. ae. uk/
i(ln reported ( 13 Septcmber 200 I). went o n sOlie within un hour of class ics/sta flldg/ loot in gleall [Link]. Th ese t 5 cx:uupl es :Ife not Ihe
the firs t plOlne crash: 'M any e ntries all th e s ite ca ll all fell ow users first 15 in our tabul ;uio ll . as onen a dea ler places severa l lots to-
to bo)'coll items relmed 10 the allacks. " I am seei ng thi s ill happe n gether w hich then make:1 sin gle block in the listin g. bU I numbe rs
in auclion alier aucti on. and il makes me sick! I applOlud elJa)' for 5. 10. 15. etc .. within it.
not allowi ng it to IHlppen in many a uct ions by cancelling Ihem, It 14. Sotheby's London is even lllore fct icen l lh:m is Sotheby"s New York
scems thaI e llay is missing a few though:' sai d one.' Staff al the about who the sel lers arc.
company stepped in to remove the entries advert is ing the souve- 15. Sec above for the propoftion of items in Ihe el3ay . An tiqu ities' cat-
nirs. egory which arc act ually arc antiq uit ies.
Cllllllrc Wilhol/l COl/lc.'·' has previous ly report ed on an all eged 16. Sec a bove.
pi ece of ancient Egyptian pyram id oOhed for sale on ellay and the 17. I:;-rnailto C hippindal e. 17 Jun e 200 1.
sale stopped afier(lliestions were asked about the ilem's authent ic- IS. Howe ver. ill a furth e r e- mai l. Mr Klarman quoted a clallse in the
ity and lega lity (sec In T he News CWC issue 5. p. 12 ) sa le comliti Olls which appear:-; to concern legal export froll1thc coun-
3. eBay docs 1I0t seem to organi ze w hat is pllt in which category. Iry where Ihe it em curfentl y is. rat her Ihan 10 any previous ex port
4. A 'profi le' reporting past customer ex pe ri ence with the seller is a of th e ite m from its cOllntry of origin .
com lllo n fca lU re of si tes sell ing ove r Ihe Inte rn et. See e.g. 19. Quotation s fro m pages [Link].
[Link] in resp.-ct of second-hand books sold through it. along-
side the new books [Link] itsel f sells.
5. No wonder ellay was nOl able in po lic ing its site 10 relllO\'e all
souvenirs of the World Trade Cen ter :Htack (previous nOle).
6. There arc othe r ca tegories. such as 'Ccramic s & G I;I SS' whe re an- C HRISTOPHER CHIPPINDALE
tiquiti es co uld a ppear. Mu seum of Archaeology & Anthro pology
7. At htlp: llalletion. solhebys .com/snN S7a9c/eondi ti ons. hlml . Also Ca mbrid ge University
'Terms of usc' OIl http ://[Link] [Link]/about/as_terllls. htmi.
8. Regi stration is permil1ed only by individ ua ls or ot hers residen t in
Downing Street
Austral ia. Austria.13elgiulll. Canada . Dellmark. Fin land. Germany. Ca mbridge
Ireland. the Nel herlands. New Zealand. Norway. Sweden. Switzer- CB23DZ
land. the United Kingdom and the Unit..:d Slates. England
9. The charge 10 se llers at Sotheby's London physical auctions is 15
per cent li p 10 £2000 (52900) . then 10 per cenl up 10 £60.000
cc43@[Link]. uk
(587.000). S per ce nt the reatier. plu s I per ce ll t for insurance. plus
a charge for an y illust r,lI io n in Ihe eatu logue. D AV ID W.J. G ILL
10. The charge to buyers:1I Sot heby's New York phys ira l auctions is
Departm ent of Classics and Ancient History
20 per celli up to 5 15.000. Ihen 15 per cent lip to 5 I 00.0(0). 10 per
cent thereafter. University of Wales Swansea
II . Sometimes an objec t o Ocred was described in s imi lar ten11S to a Singleton Park
previous 101. but not so closely as to be evident ly Ih..: sallie objec t. Swansea
T hese arc included ,IS separate lots oll th;: study. It is possible a few
wi ll be the same object. ofli:r..:d more than once. amI Iherd'arc
SA28PP
coun ted twice in ou r 1;Ibulalion. Wales
12. The other four. such as a Russ i;m icon and a 1\'Ia111lll oth Bone lH."ck- [Link]@[Link]. uk

Thailand theft
In A pril thi s yea r sev e n s to ne
antefixes from a Khm er temp le at
Si Sa Ket in northeas t Th a iland
were stole n from th e loca l mu-
seum. Fi ve pi eces we re reco ve red
by Thai pol ice SDon after but two
are still m iss ing, s imil ar in design
to the two sma ll er of the reco vcrcd
pieces shown on the left of the pho-
tog raph. T hree thi eves we re
arrested and the police are hunti ng
fo r a furthe r three. It is rumo ured Four ante fixes from Si Sa Kef recovered by Thai police.
that the antefixes we re sto len to
fulfi l a 5 milli on ba ht ($20 ,000)
advance order.

13
The mystery of the Persian
mummy
BBC2,9 p.m., Thursday 20 September
2001

J ENNY D OOLE

A wide audience was ex posed to the true na-

ture of the illicit trade in antiquities when the
SSC's fl agship science seri es, /-Iorizon, devoted its Dr Asma Ibrahim and Charles Milroy unwrapping tile
20 September documentaty to 'The MystelY of the 'Persian mummy' (© Horizon, BBC).
Persian Mumm y' . Th e hour-l ong programm e,
which described how a mummy, apparently of an with a cuneifo rm in sc ripti on whi ch im pli ed a
ancient Persian princess, was offered for sa le on Persian ori gin , yet no ev idence of mummifica-
the black market, confiscated, studi ed and eventu- tion was previously known outside of Egy pt. This
ally proven to be a modern fake (see In The News di scovery seemed to indicate that anci ent Persians
CWC issues 7 & 8), highli ghted the velY worst as- may have copi ed mummi fi cation techniques and
pects of the illicit trade: giganti c amounts of cash applied th em to their own nobility - and judg-
changing hands, increasing incidence of fakes and ing from the richness of thi s buri al, with its gold
means through whi ch they can be insinuated into adornm ents and stone, poss ibl y alabaster, outer
the system, targeted approaches to major museums, coffin thi s was indeed a woman of considerable
mi suse of genuine know ledge and scholarship, soc ial status. The in sc ripti on described her as
waste of prec ious resources and time, and the grue- Rhodugune, daughter of the legendaty Persian king
some and horri fy ing lengths to which traffi ckers are Xerxes about whom littl e is known. Other clues
prepared to go. seemed to back up thi s identification: rosette mo-
On 19 October 2000, Dr Asma Ibrahim, then ti fs decorating the mummy are familiar icons at
curator of the National Museum of Pakista n, was Xerxes ' roya l palace in Persepolis, so uthern Iran;
in fo rmed by poli ce that an illicit antiquity - a im ages of seven Cy press trees, th e symbol for
mummy with gold crown, face mask and chestplate, the an cient city of I-I amadan, were seen as im-
lying in a carved wooden box - had been im- p0I1ant since the city is known to have been of sacred
pounded in the northern city of Quetta near the importance to Xerxes; and depictions of the chief
Afghan border. It had been traced after being seen Zoroastri an deity Ahuramazda al so suggested an
in a video seized fro m an Iranian suspect in Karachi. intimate link with ancient Persian roya lty.
The suspect,A li Aqbar, maintained thatthe mummy Closer study of the cun eiform in sc riptions
had been found after eal1hquake di sturbance at a rai sed the first doubts. Alth ough some mi stakes
desel1 site. He was tly ing to sell it on the blac k art could eas il y have been made by illiterate ston e
market. Prices quoted during the programme ranged masons or go ldsmith s copyin g the tex ts, gram-
from $ 11 milli on to $30 million. matica l errors, spec ifi ca ll y mi stakes in app lying
Two strands of investigation were necessaty: geniti ve endings to wo rds, we re diffic ult to ex-
first, into the background of the mummified woman, pl ain. Use of the name ' Rhodugun e' - a later
in the hope of better understanding her archaeologi- Greek translation of th e princess' ori gin al Per-
ca l context and pl ace in hi stOIY; second, into the sian name ' Ward ega un a' was imposs ibl e to
criminal acti vities which had led to her body being ex pl ain and ex perts concluded th at in scri pti ons
illegally offered for sale as an illicit antiqui ty. These were fake .
two strands quick ly became entw ined. X-rays and CAT scans of th e mummy to
establish methods of mummification also led to
The mummy the sa me co nclusion. Alth ough thi s was appar-
Archaeologists were initiall y wil dly excited about entl ya ritual mummifi cation - intern al orga ns
the mummy. Her gold chestpl ate was in scribed removed, hands crossed over chest, bandages and

14
resin applied in the usual way - some di sc rep- likely came from Iran , well-known as a maj or
anc ies were noticed. Spec ifi ca ll y, the hea rt production centre for counterfe it antiquities. This
(cruciall y req uired to remain in th e body accord- made sense since, unknown to the Paki stani au-
in g to anc ient Egyptian burial lore) was not thoritie s, Musca re ll a had in 1999 been
present, the abdom inal incision made to remove app roac hed by an Irani an ca ll ed Ama noll ah
internal orga ns was not onl y too large but in the Riggi , who sent him four photographs of the
wrong place, and the brain had not been removed mummy. In a follow-up phone call a few days
in the way perfected by ancie nt Egypt ian later, Riggi expl ained that he was acting as a mid-
mummi fiers. Furthermore, del icate tendons and dleman, had been advised to approach Muscarella
li gaments whi ch wou ld have decayed ove r cen- by a professor, and had access to an extraord i-
turies were clearl y intact. The di scovery of pencil naIY discovelY - the mummy - of whi ch he had
marks applied to the wooden coffin during co n- a video. In the apparent beliefthat the mummy was
struction con firmed - along with the other clues gen uine, he offered it to the museum.
- that the whole package was a recent fab ri ca- The police are now re-arresti ng and re-in-
tion. The impli cations were deeply di sturbing and terroga tin g known witn esses in Quetta and
became more so when it emerged that the woman, middl emen, in the hope of shedding further light
who had been mummified in the previou s two on both the forging operation and possibl e murder.
years or so, had di ed a violent death during whi ch The woman, whose face was reconstructed during
her neck was broken and her lowe r right spine the programme and is characteristic of inhabitants
damaged by a blunt blow. It was imposs ibl e to of the border region of Pakistan and Iran, remains
tell ifher injuries were the result of a tragic acc i- unidentified but can at least now be buried in de-
dent (after whi ch her body was quickly looted cent Muslim tradition.
from its grave and so ld), or someth ing yet more
sinister. The po li ce opened a murder enqu iry. Chilling conclusions
Dr Ibrahim and th e sc ientists investigating thi s
The criminal investigation sad history were clearly shucked and upset at the
To perpetrate a forgery ofthi s kin d would cl earl y so rdid lengths to whi ch fo rgers had gone to cre-
in volve a team of peopl e (some of whom had a ate a fak e antiquity. Charles Milroy, consul tant
good, probably profess ional or scholarl y, knowl- pathologist sa id: ' It is a crime, whether or not it
edge of archaeo logy and anatomy), money, was a murder, it 's immoral, it's unethical and it
forward planning, and resources. The operation is ill ega l'. But should we be surpri sed that such
had been carried out in a hot country where bod- gruesome depths are now being plumbed to feed
ies decompose qu ick ly, so on acqu iring a body demand fo r illi cit antiq uiti es, when astronom ical
the cri minal team must already have prepared a lab sums are in vo lved and dealing in unprovenanced
and mummification equipment: half a ton of dlY- antiquiti es is still regarded as acceptab le in some
ing chemicals (bicarbonate of soda, sodium chloride quarters? No r can we reass ure ourselves with the
and table salt), surgical implements, resins and band- fac t th at th is was an iso lated incident. Since then ,
ages. The raw materials for the burial assemb lage two more so-ca ll ed Persian mummies, ritually
- go ld, wood for the coffi n (later radi ocarbo n emba lm ed and adorned in the same way, have
dated to 250 years of age), alabaster - must have apparentl y surfaced on the internationa l market
been expensive ly acq uired and cra fted. for $6 milli on. The BBC investigation conc luded
Oscar Muscare lla, expert in Near Easte rn with th e 'c hilling poss ibility that hidd en away in
fo rgeri es based at the Metropolitan Museum of thi s wild border land is a mumm y factory and
Art, who recognized a typica l forgers' mistake the prospect of more victims' . We can on ly won-
on the wooden box (a n anc ient dep ict ion of the der how many of these terrible creations may have
god Ahuramazda, known from a rock carvi ng, already bee n secretly so ld to co ll ectors and insti-
had been directly cop ied, but with no tru e under- tutions less we ll -informed and less scrupulou s
sta nding of its meaning the forger had mi ssed than the ones seen during thi s eye-openin g docu-
essential elements) beli eved that thi s fake most mentary.

15
In the News we ighing nearl y 50 kg and sto len from the
site six months ago. The newspaper goes
JENNY DOOLE on to highli ght the difficulties surround-
ing the investigation of the theft, w ith
Thefts in India obstructi ve in volvement from so me seni or
politi cians and influenti al parti es, and says
• A we ll-organi zed gang is be li eved to be that the po li ce have a suspi c io us ly poor
plundering 2000-year-old archaeological record for recovering such artefacts, with
sites in Andhra Pradesh , India. Reported on ly 8 confiscated in the last 40 years. Loot-
thefts from the important, but remote, Bud- ing and smuggling of antiquities is
dhist stupa of Chandavaram, inc lude: apparently the main source of income for
o 9 October 2000: Two nine-foot long inh abitants of the six vill ages in the area,
panels , one decorated with a ca rvi ng of and has increased markedly during recent
the Bodhi tree, the other with the chaitra drought conditions. Acti viti es are apparentl y
or Buddhist umbre lla , were ripped from di vided between family and caste groups
a cement platform at the site museum . w ith a certain section of the community uti-
o 2 Februw y2001: In a planned raid, rob- li zing their digging sk ills, and others taking
bers arrived in a tractor, tied up two responsibility for pay ing middl emen.
watclun en and rein oved three nine-foot
pillars, one with a representation of the
Buddha as fire, from the remote site of University thefts
Gundlakamma.
o 23 March 2001: After two police consta- On or around the night of 27 Jul y 200 1, 21
bles guarding the museum left for lunch, prehistoric Native American Indian vessels,
two watchmen were inj ected w ith immo- stone spear points, and repli cas of painted peb-
bilizing sedatives allowing th e gang to bl es (most from Caddo Inclian sites in n0l1heast
make away with three more decorated Texas, so me from so uthwestern USA) were
pillars and a lotus medallion in broad stolen from the Texas Archaeo logica l Re-
day li ght. search Laboratory. A reward of$ 10,000 has
Archaeo logists have since decided to re- been offered for information lead ing to the
move antiqui ties fro m the s ite to a more arrest and conviction
secure locati on in Chandava ram village, of whoever sto le the
alth ough worries have been expressed about objects, all of whi ch
possible damage to the important pieces due were marked in ink
to lack of adequate storage conditions. with site numbers and
accession numbe rs.
• Valuable antiquities from the anc ient fort Further information,
of Timan pur, Karauli district, Rajasthan in c ludin g ph o to-
ha ve apparent ly been looted for severa l graphs of many of the
years, and transferred to dealers in Delhi pottery pi ece s, is
and Mathura who are part of an intern a- ava il ab le on www.
tiona l sm ugg ling chain. From th ere th ey u tex [Link] uiresea rchl
were sent out of the country, allegedly w ith tarl/theft. html
the connivance o f custom officials in Delhi.
The Daily Pioneer (20 November 200 I)
reports that the operation was discovered
when a man was arrested with an 800-
yea r-old ashtadhatu statue of S urya ,

16
Crisis in Crimea Globa lization of the Phenomenon ' was hosted
by the Cultura l Heritage Mini stry and the
Th e Art Newspaper (October 200 I) reports an Carabinieri in Rome, Italy in June. Police and
escalation of looting and treasure-hunting heritage offic ials f rom co untri es includ ing
of ancient Greek sites in the C rimea , south- Egypt, Tuni s ia , Cyprus, G uatemala, France
ern Ukraine as, since the fall of com muni sm and Italy as we ll as dea lers and lawmakers
there nearl y ten years ago, looters have be- from UK, US and other market countri es were
come aware of massive demand for an tiquities in attendance.
in the West. At the same time economi c fac-
tors, such as increasing unempl oyment and
low sa laries, and also reduced policin g have Chinese arrests
exacerbated the situation. Spectacular finds by
archaeo logists, like those of Dr Viktor Z inko Seven fanners, arrested in China, have con-
in the city of Kerch, have increased interna- fessed to robbing nine Ming and Quing
tional awareness of the hi stori ca l riches of the Dynasty tombs in the suburbs of Beij in g.
area and whetted looters ' appeti tes . Some facts Ancient silver and jade artefacts have been
emerging from the report include: found in the robbers' temporary lodgi ngs and
• looters responding to increa sed demand police are investigating furt her.
from private co ll ecti ons;
• grave sites being ill ega ll y dug at the Rus-
sian city of Krasnodar near Crimea; News from Angkor
• frequent reports of Ukrai ni an customs offi-
cia ls impounding illi cit antiquiti es; Official s from Apsara , management author-
• antiquities smuggled from Kiev and Mos- ity for Angkor and the Siem Reap region of
cow to New York and London ; Cambod ia say th at although they sti ll lose
• Scyth ian go ld found in southern Russia al- something to looters eve ry day, their situa-
leged ly so ld to an Englishman for about tion is better than elsewhere in the country. It
$ 1000 per piece, but worth much more; is suggested that Apsara could be more effec-
• a survey of respectable dea lers in ancient ti ve if they had fu ll auth ority for Angkor,
Greek art of New York 's Upper East Side without the invo lvement of the mil itary.
wh ich indicated th at few G reek item s from
Crimea and Ukraine were on sale, though all
ga lleri es said they knew of channels through Discovery and loss of
which they could get hold of such material.
Gandharan cultural heritage
Reviewing the situatio n in Kerch , Dr Z inko
registers hi s despair over the destruction of
Zainu l Wahab, a PhD student claims to have
anc ient hi story, and emphas izes that proper
discovered an importa nt new G andharan
development of the exciting sites archaeo lo-
site in the Lakkar area of M ohmand
gists have excavated , rather tha n the present
Agency, on the Paki stan i- Afghani border.
poli cy of backfilling, cou ld generate tourism
Influential local Malik s and tribal e lders
and income which would support the city and
have been requested by the government and
archaeologica l research.
Wahab to prevent looting of the site be-
fore it can be offic ially des ignated a maj or
heritage area.
International conference
Dr Ih sa n Ali , speak ing at a three-day work-
A four-day international conference entitled shop on Conservation and M useo logy at the
' Ill ega l Tra ffic in Archaeo logica l Art ifacts: Uni versity of Pes hawa r (May 200 I), spoke

17
 of the desperate situation facing archae- (National Assoc iati on of Dealers in Ancient,
ology in no,·thwestern Pakistan where Oriental and Primiti ve Art), was indicted in a
lack of funding and subsequent staff short- Manhattan court on charges of conspi racy
ages make it difficult to curb widespread for allegedly trafticldng in antiquities ille-
ill ega l excavations and conserve antiquities, gally removed from Egypt. The indi ctment
even though the ex pertise is ava il abl e. He argues that Sc hultz purchased Egyptian antiq-
highli ghted hi s points with the exampl e of uities from a 'Co-conspirator l ' (according
an ancient pot containing 10,000 rare to Art alld Auctioll magazine September/Oc-
bronze coins, looted and found for sa le in tober 200 I; wi del y believed to be convicted
Lahore for just Rs I 0,000 (about £ II 0). Only British antiquiti es sm uggler Jonathan Tokeley-
the pot was recovered. Parry : see In The News CWC issues 1, 4 & 6)
who travelled to Egypt between 1990 and 1994
In the Art Newspaper (June 200 I) Robert purchasing ancient artefacts fro m farmers and
Kluyver ofSPACH (Society for the Preser- builders and illegally exporting them. It is ar-
vation of Afghanistan 's Cul tura l Heritage) gued that Sc hult z bought con s ignments
describes his visits to antiquities dealers alleged ly knowi ng their origi ns and so ld them
in Peshawar, Pak istan when he was offered claiming they had come from old co ll ection s
batches of wel l-made but fake Gandharan such as the Thomas A lcock collection .
material and man y rea l item s, incl ud ing Among the items a ll egedly obtained illegall y
boxes of seventeenth-centulY Bamiyan fres- were a head of Amenhotep HI , whi ch was
coes, Roman g lasswa re, stu cco Buddha so ld for approx im ate ly $ 1.2 milli on and a
heads and stone Bu ddhi st ba s-re li efs all Sixth Dynasty limestone figure whi ch offered
from Afghani stan. He poi nts out the irony for $825,000. Supporters of Schultz claim that
of the fact that recently, in the ligh t of the Tokeley-Parry (if it was he) misled the dealer
Taliban 's edicts to destroy all ' idolatrous' into believing obj ects did come from old Eng-
images, these dealers in ancient material li sh collection s. One poss ible aven ue for the
plundered from arc haeolog ica l sites and defence may be to challenge the legal p"ec-
museums ha ve in some quarters been sa id edent set in the 1977 case of United States II.
to be sav ing Afghani stan's cultural heri tage McC/ain when th e US Co urt of Appea ls used
and goes on to speculate whether such im- Mexican rather than US law to define what
ages, especiall y those in Kabul Museum constituted stolen archaeo logica l property. If
were in fact destroyed. I f th ey were, insid- convicted of conspi racy Schultz faces a maxi-
ers say it was not done in public and no mUIll sentence offive years in jail, and eith er
traces of debri s were seen in the mu seum. $250, 000 in fin es or twice the gross ga in or
The first-century treas ure of 'B actrian loss resulting from th e crime, whi chever is
gold ', possibly worth hundreds of million s greater.
of dollars and thought to have been hi dden
in th e vaults of the Nation al Bank in Kabul
was sa id to have been offered by the Ta li ban Italian developments
to their sponso r Osa ma bin Laden as coll at-
era l. • August: A court in En na, Sic il y gave 80-
year-o ld Renzo Ca navesi di Sagno a two-
yea r jail sentence and L 12.7 million line
Schultz indictment fo r hi s part in smuggli ng the so-called Getty
Goddess. The 2500-year-old marb le statue
In Jul y, Frede"ick Schultz, president of the of Aphrodite was found by a pensioner (who
Frederi ck Sch ul tz Anc ient Art ga llery in New was spared j ail in return for helping inves-
York, and former pres ident of NADAOPA ti gators) , stolen from Morgantina in 1970

18
 and transported to London via Switzerland, torial , p. 3) by 87 affirm ative votes. Four states
where it was bought for £7 .5 million from voted aga inst, 15 abstai ned, and the Un ited
an unnamed dealer by the J Paul Getty States, an Observer, gave a statement of its
Museum of Malibu. In the 1980s Canavesi vIews.
di Sagno received £290,000 for arrangi ng
shipment to the dealer in Sw itzerland. Only
the statue 's feet , hands and face are now Illicit antiquities in Greece
considered gen uine, her bust and legs are
fakes believed to have been commi ssioned Greek newspaper Kathilllerini (6 Septem-
by looters from a Roman fo rger in 1972 to ber 200 I) reports growing concern that
increase the val ue of the piece. The statue archaeological sites and museums in the
was returned to Italy in 1999. country are vulnerable to thieves owi ng
to lack of security personnel and systems.
• The Carabinieri recently retrieved a Ro- o From 1987 to earl y 200 I the fraud sq uad
man statue of Diana from the US after a and department responsible for il li c it
seven-year international in vestigation. trade in antiquiti es repo rted 23,007 an-
cient artefacts impounded from traders.
In Jul y, 29 people (i ncludi ng housewives, o Coins are easiest to stea l because they
bank tellers and labourers) were atTcsted can be eas il y hidden, and 12,504 ancient
under susp icion of smuggling bronze stat- Greek, 1697 Byzantine and 357 Roman
ues, ancient coins and at·tefacts worth co in s are known to have illega ll y entered
£ 13.2 milli on. the antiqu ities markets, the majority origi-
nating fro m Macedonia.
o Appointmcnt of daytime guards for mu-

Television award seum s has been frozen since 1995 and

of night guards si nce 1992.
In September the Swedish Television docu- It is hoped that planned injections of funds
mentary ' On thc Trail ofthe Tomb Robbcrs' before the date of the 2004 Olympics in Ath-
(See ewe issue 7 but note that the programme ens may improve the situation.
was shown on Channel 2, not Channel 10) was
awarded the prestigious Prix d ' ltalia televi- In July police confiscated a marble statue
s io n awa rd in a competition open to of a bull which had been looted from the
contributi ons from Eu ropean countri es. The Vravona area , near ancient Brauroll, east-
jury unanimously chose the programme, ern Attica. Three men wcre arrested in a
entered under the title' Heritage for Sa le ', be- coffee shop in Markopoulo where they were
ca use of the strength of its in vestigative alleged ly wa iting for a buyer.
journali sm and importance of its subj ect mat-
ter, praising the stron g narrative and clever • Between 13 August and 9 September 200 I,
irony with whi ch its message was deli vered. ancient objects (includ ing at least seven 17
cm tall marble statuettes of fe ma les and
sphinxes hacked from a throne) , were sto-
UNESCO underwater len fro m a royal tomb in Vergina, northern
convention G reece. The fourth-century DC to mb of
Eurydice, mother of King Phil ip and grand-
On 2 November 2001 the Pl enary session of mot he r of Alexander th e Great was
th e 3 1" Ge ne ral Co n fe re nce adopted the excavated by ManolisAndronikos in the late
UNESCO Convention on thc Protection of 1970s, is not open to the publ ic and is vis-
the Underwater Cultural Hct·itage (see Ed i- ited only by offic ials in the presence of

19
 archaeo logists, or by maintenance sta ff for toms spec ial agents from Frank Stegmeier
a monthly humidity check. Evening shifts (see In The News ewe issue 7), who was
for 24-hour day guards had recently been charged under the National Stolen Property
aboli shed during the summer ow ing to staff Act with transportation and sa le of stolen
shortage. There was no sign of a break-in, items va lued at more that $5000. Stegmeier
the theft being discovered during an offi- escaped, was re turned to th e US from
c ial tOUI'. All the objects had been Panama in 1998, and subsequently negoti-
photographed wh ich it is hoped will make ated a civil Settlement Agreement with the
any potential sa le more difficult. governments of Mex ico, Peru and Panama
under which term s the material is being re-
Octobel' 200 /: In one of the ri chest se izures turned.
of illicit antiquiti es by Greek police in the
last decade , several hund."ed metal, • In June, the US Customs Servi ce announced
telTacotta and stone objects rangin g in the recovery and return of a."chaeologi-
date from seventh century BC to the Middle cal material from EI Salvador, va lued at
Ages were found buried in the yard of a $ 100,000 and including pre-Co lumbi a n
holiday house in Apsalos, nea r Pell a, cen- polychrome pottery which had been seized
tral Macedonia, belong ing to a 42-year-old at point of entry in San Francisco. The re-
record shop owner, and furth er objects im- turn was the first to take place under the
pounded from his home in Thessa lon iki . terms of the bi lateral Memorandum of Un-
Th e man said the extraordinary co ll ection dersta nding between the governments of
(including bron ze he lmets, axes , spea r- USA and the Republic ofEI Salvador signed
heads, a fragmentary shi eld,j ewell ery, 17 18 in 1995 and amended in 2000.
sil ver and copper-alloy coins , a probable
forgery of a Cretan ' goddess ' fi gurine, and • Fo ll ow in g legal action in civil courts in
1000 pottery fragments) were the p.-oduct the UK begun in 1997 by the Iraqi Interests
of 20 years of excavating and collecting, Sec tion , an agreement has finall y been
and were mainly from Macedoni a w ith reached regarding a piece of relief looted
some bought from fore ign antiquities smug- from the Palace of Sennach erib, Nineveh
glers. Poli ce are looking for accompli ces. (see ewe issue I). The alabaster ca rving
had apparently been bought in good faith
Vass ilis Zacharatos was charged with il- by Sho lom Moussa ieff fro m Geneva
lega l possession of antiquities on 17 dealer Na bil Asfar (see In the News ewe
October when seventeenth- to nin eteenth- issue 3), and was later recognized in Lon-
century A D icons were found in his Athens don when Moussaieff appli ed for an export
optician 's shop. More icons, and s il ver and license to ta ke it abroad. Four othe."
copper-a ll oy C lass ica l, By zantine and Sennacherib pieces whi ch had also been
Egyptian coins were also found at hi s home. notice d on di s pl ay in th e pa lace on
Kouyunjik in 1995 are still missing.

Agreements and returns A first-century BC m,u-ble bu st of Roman

Empress Livia, discovered in the posses-
A ceremony in Seattle, USA on 2 August sion of New Yo rk deal e r Robert Becht
marked the return of hundreds of pre- when it was offered for sale in 1995 has been
C olumbian artefacts to the governments retu r ned to Buh"int, Albania, the site from
of Mexico, Peru and Panama. The items w hich it wa s excavated durin g Lu ig i
were among a se izu re of over 900 obj ects Ugo lini 's excavat ions between 1928- 3 1
origi nall y confi scated by Seattle US Cus- (whose excavati on arca is now pitted with

20
looters hol es). The bust was stolen from the by Scotland Yard, the man attempting to sell
s ite museum in the early I 990s (museum the item was later released due to lack of
thefts were one symptom of the turbul ent evidence.
times which marked the overthrow of com-
muni sm in Alba ni a in 199 1) and smuggled Jllly: Egyptian officials announced the
through Greece or Switzerland to the return of a carved stone head , possi bly
USA. After years of civil unrest, thi s return depict in g Ninetee nth Dyna sty princ ess
was fin a lly organized by the Directors of Merit or Queen Nefertiti , whi ch had been
the new International Centre for A lbani an s mug g led to Bdtain b y Jonathan
Archaeo logy with the help of the Albanian Tokeley-Pan-y during the 1990s (see In The
Embassy in the USA and Hecht and will News ewe issues 1, 4 & 6). The piece was
remain at the Instinlte museum in Tirana, traced with he lp from Scotland Yard and
until Butrint mu seum is renovated. So me Egypt co ntinues to work w ith the FB I to
other objects looted from Butrint in the earl y recover other item s from the US. Objects
I 990s, were later se ized by Greek customs sto len by Tokeley- Parry are also believed
authorities and await repatriation from to be in Switzerland.
Thessalonika whil e at the site itse lf the
Butrint Foundation, with grants from the Allgust: Fo llowing interventions by Dutch
Millin Trust, is organizing secnrity patrols archaeologists, the Metropolitan Museum
and developing educational programmes of Art, New York returned to Egyptian
emphasizing the importance of loca l archaeo- authorities a 3300-year-old limestone en-
log ica l reso urces in term s of tour is m graving of Pharaoh Seti I feeding a child,
revenue and future economi c deve lopment. whi ch had been sto len from a store room
near the Pyramids about 60 years ago .
The British Museum Fac ilitated the return
to Sudan of a stolen ancient Egy ptian
sta tu e after Derek Welsby, ass istant keeper Museum matters
in the Department of Anc ient Egypt and
Sudan was asked to appraise it by a Sud a- The Fort Worth Star-Telegram ( 17 August
nese man describing himse lf as a medi cal and 2 Septembe r 200 I) and Fort Worth
doctor resident in the Midlands for six years. Weekly have been asking questions about a
The carvi ng in hard, black stone of J-1eqa- white alabaste.' statuette of a ma le figure
emsasen, a seated midfi fteenth -century Be carved in Sumerian sty le which was bought
viceroy, is 20 inches hi gh and beli eved to (but not displayed) by the KimbellArt Mu-
be worth about £ I 0,000. It seemed unlikely seum in Fort Worth late last year for $2.7
that it had been exported lega ll y, and the milli on, but subsequentl y r eturned to the
man - who c laimed he had been asked to sell er s (the Ab utaam brothers of Phoe-
bring it to Europe for sa le by a fr iend who nix So ho dea lership in New York) for an
had excavated it nea r Barka l - sa id he had 'am icable' refund. There is confus ion as to
got it through KJlartoum a irport by bribing how and why thi s situati on arose, wh ich has
customs officia ls and placing it in his wife's res ulted in the Weekly branding Timothy
luggage so that he wou ld not be ca ught in Potts, director oflhe Museum as 'secreti ve'.
case of discovery. We lsby, left in tempora ry Potts went to considerab le lengths to trace
possession of th e piece, identified it as hav- the provenance of the pi ece (which appar-
ing in fact been excavated by American entl y stretched back to a connection wi th a
archaeo log ists in 191 6. It was stolen from European museum in the 1950s) before the
the new Khartoum National Museum, the purcha se but it is all eged that the sa le was
Jebel Bar'kal in 1995. A lthough arrested rushed through (poss ibly to get a di scount)

21
 and probl ems arose afterwards - although digging at C lazom enae in the mid to late
whether these related to the origi n or au- 1970s (the second co incided with official
thenticity ofthe piece (or its provenance) is excava tions from 1979 onwards). It is al-
not known. Po tts emphas ized th e inherent leged that the pi ece was sm uggled through
diffi culties in authenticating ancient stone well-known routes via Munich , largel y
artefacts, and maintains that ' the major con- controlled by the ' Munich Mafia' who are
sideratio n in thi s case was o ur assessment described as 'a loose confederacy of Turk-
of w hat this object would contribute to the ish smu gg lin g g ro ups' in the city. Major
Kimbell 's collection compared to other out- names are menti o ned as the alleged broker
standing acqui sition opportun iti es that had and restorer. The Getty Museum responded
come alo ng since its purchase'. (It has not to the allegation s, c laiming there is no ba-
yet been made publi c w hat these acqui si - sis for questio ning the provenance.
tion s o pportuniti es were .) Whateve r the
truth about thi s parti cular obj ect the affa ir,
as Andrew Marton , art critic of the Slar- Tel- Reports from Peru
egraph points out, hi g hli g hts both the
' hi g hly secretive nlltUl'e of the interna- • The Go ld Museum in Li ma, Peru closed
tional art and antiquities market' and the in Jul y following reports that up to 85 per
current press ure on institution s, whether cent of objects in its fa mous, la rgely
private or public, to set a good exam pl e. unprove na nced co ll ect ion , sa id to be
amassed from buri al sites and other exca-
Manus Brinkman, Sec retary Genera l of vat ions, ma y be fake . Th e daughter of
ICO M (Internationa l Counc il o f Museums) found er Miguel Mujica de Perez-Pa lcio ,
was a lso adamant in an interview with the sai d that the in stitution had already, during
Art Newspaper (September 200 I) that mu- the la st six months, identified 2300 (\ 0 per
seums must set sta nd ards with regard to cent of the total) modern forgeries. She
illicit traffic issues, and a lso raise aware- added that un scrupul ous sellers had taken
ness. He cited the Nok terracottas purchased adva ntage of her fa ther's old age and fail-
unethica ll y by the Q uai Branly co ll ection in g eyes ig ht. A s pokes man for Pe ru 's
and now on di splay in the Louvre (see In Consumer Protection Commi ssion indicated
The News ewe issue 7) as a controversial that, if the c laims were true, the museum
exa mpl e an d discu ssed th e moral com- may not meet the necessary conditions to
plexities of 'saving ' looted material be classed as a museum , and added that ex-
smugg led out of wa r-to rn Afghani stan. perts fro m the Catho lic Un iversity, Lima are
now studying the artefacts .
• Melik Kaylan, writin g for [Link] ( 18
July 200 I), draws attenti o n to the alleged • In Jun e Ae ro C ondor, the L ima-based air-
history of a s ixth-century Be sarcophag us line whi ch prov ides most touri st fli g hts over
made of terracotta, decorated in the sty le the Nazca Lin es in southwestern Peru, was
seen on artefacts from C lazomenae near set to launch the Nazca patrol, a partner-
modern Izmir, Turkey and now in the co l- ship wi th loca l pol ice to track and catch
lect io n of the J Paul Getty M useum , tomb robbe rs us in g brand new ultra li g ht
Malibu . Kaylan argues that before its ac- a ircraft. Tourism co mpani es whic h make
qui siti on in 1997 by controversial fo rmer thei r li vings from the Nazca remains are sa id
curator Jil'i Frel, the obj ect's hi story is un- to be increasingly worri ed about the effects
known (ceI1a inl y the Getty Museum has not of widespread arc haeo logica l looti ng o n
publi shed any clues) and so me beli eve it to their li ve lihoods . Local Peruvian archaeo lo-
be the result of the first episodes of illicit g ists an d police have been trying, with

22
 virtually no resources, to researc h and pro- • Modern technology, such as radio-relayed
tect the area, but looting has escalated in in frared heat sensors, metal detectors and
recent years to such an extent that tomb motion sensors are being used in Mammoth
robbers apparently do not even try to hide Cave Na tion a l Pa rk and Big South Fork
their activities. The Washillglol1 Post (20 National Recreation Area, Kentucky, to alelt
May 200 I) reports one incident when two park officials when looters are in action.
thi eves were seen ripping open a 2000-year-
o ld Nazca tomb nea r Ca huachi in broad Brad McDougal , a federa l crimina l in vesti -
daylight and blames recession and record ga tor s taked out Mammoth Cave, in
unemp loyment as one reason for the in- Western Kentucky during the summer and
crease in illega l excavation. caught a looter. But in fo ur hours digging
it is estimated that the man destroyed 4000
• In Maya c. 4500-year-old skull was stolen years of stratigraphy.
fro m Peru vian archaeo logica l excavations
of ruin s near Ca l-al 120 miles no rth of • In July, Kentucky man Sean Long was sen-
Lima. tenced to two months of house an-est, 18
months of probation and 100 hours of com-
munity se rv ice , having admitted to
Smuggler's story trafficking in human remains of Native
Americans . He was arrested the morning
Speaking to Newsweek magaz ine (May 200 I) after offering to se ll three skull s, more than
in an article entitl ed 'J ust out of jail: a sm ug- 2000 years old, to undercover FB I agents
gler's story', Jonathan Tokeley-Parry (see fo r $900. The agents bought one and later
In the News ewe issues 1,4,6 & above) ar- confiscated the others along with about 50
g ue s th at hi s act ivit ies , w hi c h in vo lved grave goods. During the investigation Long
smuggling anc ient artefacts out of Egypt dis- talked of conducti ng frequent excavations
gu ised as c heap so uven irs, we re acts of of Indian burial grounds, and had even
preservation_ Using the examp le of the Elgi n videoed a 1999 looting trip to Pilot Rock
Marbles, he says that had done what he did a although he pleaded guil ty on ly to charges
century ago, he would have been knighted. of selli ng the skull s. It was the first time
Now out of j ail , Tokeley-Parry is apparentl y federa l prosecutors in Kentucky had used
writing hi s memoi rs and afterwards may re- the Native American Graves Protection and
turn to work on an unfinished eloctora l thesis Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and on ly the
on ethi cs. fourth time the Act had been used in a crimi-
na l prosecution east of the Mi ss iss ippi. The
prosecution was welcomed by Preoria tribal
c hi ef Jo hn Froman, but co ndem ned by
Tales from the USA
Long 's supporters who believe him to be
the victim of a bad law and overzea lous
David Pollack, archaeo logist fo r the Ken-
prosecutor. The sku ll s and grave objects will
tucky Heritage Counc il , estimates that 90
be reburied by Preoria tribespeople.
per cent of th e \5,000 known prehistoric
sites in the state have been damaged by
looters.
So urces
abc [Link]
• The sca le of looting nationwide in the USA Af/tlIIOWI
is such that the US Geo logica l Survey is Art alld Auctioll
now omitting archaeological sites fro m Tlt e Art Nelvspaper
new editions of topographical maps. Associated Press

23
 Athens 'cws Nlillerva
BBC News NelV York Pas!
British School of Archaeo logy in Iraq Newslettcr Nelvs lveek
Daily Piol/ eer (India) People S Dai~v, China
Dawn Reuters
Evans ville Courier and Press SIa.O"a 1l Llllldell
Exc [Link] news The Tillles
[Link] UNESCO
Forr /Vortll /Veekl.v Un iversity orTexas
Forth Worth Star-Telegram US Customs Service
Th e Guardia n US Departm ent of State
India Today Wall Street Journal
Kalltilll erini 7'lle Washing toll Post
Middle East Tilll es Yahoo ! news

Time crime: protecting the by the inability of Kentucky law to cope with the
damage and theft. The men could o nly be charged
past in the United States under state law w ith 'desecration of a venerated
obj ect' , a mi sdemeanour. Federal law, ow ing to
R OBERT HI C KS the A rcheo log ica l Resources Protectio n Act
(ARPA) , managed felony indictments through its

S lack Farm in rural Uni on County, Kentucky,

was known to contain beneath its ploug hed
soi l an important Native Ame ri ca n vill age, a com-
interstate com merce provis io n (d iscussed below).
This incident tri ggered a leg is lati ve change : as a
result of Slack Farm , state law was amended to
muni ty of wattle and daub houses that, between recogni ze g rave desecra ti o n as a fe lony, a crim e
1300 and 500 years ago at the conflue nce of the puni shable by impri so nment in a state peniten-
Wabas h and Ohio ri ve rs, suppo rted ac res o f tiary Each state has its own criminal laws w hich
m aize , beans, and s quash thro ug ho ut the vary across the United States in the degree to
floodpl ain . Although reli c hunters visited the site, w hi ch they protect the past. In recent years, how-
the Slack family, w ho had owned th e farm fo r ever, the United States government has created
generations, prohibited reli c hunting. laws that for the first time offer en forcement teeth
But succeed ing owners did a ll ow it. In the to heritage protection.
late 1980s, several me n paid the new landowner
$ 10,000 (about £6500) to lease digging rights Who are the looters?
between planting seasons. The men sought Na- Relic-hunting has been and continues to be a vig-
tive American artefacts attractive e noug h to se ll o ro us pa s tim e for some a nd a com merc ial
profitably and to obtai n them they bulldozed the enterpri se for oth ers. Interest in popular hi sto ry
site. Their digging pu shed as id e centuries of a has soared in the United States. Local hi story has
people 's history - their too ls, potsherds, hearths, become a do-it-yourse lf industry: people un-
and ho uses - while leavi ng modern debri s, par- trained in academ ic hi story search thro ug h local
ticularly soda and beer cans, among the artefacts. records to construct their genea logies. They col -
S ig nifi cantl y, the men di sturbed or destroyed lect rock album s, Victoria n mo urning jewell ery,
around 600 graves. ' Aeria l views of the bulldozed and salt and pepper shakers, thus creatin g a multi-
site, whi ch a ired on national te levision, showed million-dollar marke t for objects va ri o us ly
a pock marked land scape described by many as described as hi storic, antique, or mere ly nostal-
resembling a World War I battlefield. gic. The hig h prices attached to so me artefacts
Kentuckian s were most di sturbed by the on the co mm erc ial m arket in ev itab ly in vite
desecration of graves but they were al so di sturbed cri m ina Iity.

24
Peopl e who ill ega lly hunt relics - the looters - Table 1. Manetary value af artefacts. The American
display a range of mo ti vations but a new class of Civil War figures compare the highest prices paid for
entrepren eur has appeared, the investor. The in- the excavated artefacts in the listed categories for
1988 and 1995. (Saurce: variaus editians af Nancy
vestor has no particular interest in hi story but sees Dearing Rossbacher (ed.), The Civil War Collector's
artefacts so lely as commodities that can be bought Price Guide, Virginia , Orange.) The prices given for
and so ld for a profit (Table I). Law-enforcement Native American artefacts represent the highest prices
knawn to lJave been paid for the listed items. (Source :
authorities maintain that coll ectin g and in vest- federallaw-enfarcement officials.)
ing interests outs ide the United States, notably
in Germany and Japan , have fu e lled looti ng par- Monetary vulucs: 'lrtcfacts
ticularly for Native American artefacts. Germans
I. Cil'il IVar arle/tu.:ls (I-Iighesl kl/OH'II price paid pCI'
and Japanese buy approximately $20 million (£ 13
piece: all ilCIIIS arc ·dllg '.)
million) in Native American artefacts yearly; 1988 1995
Civ il War belt buckles fetch over $ 10,000; a Na- Plal es and bucklcs S2600 S 13,500
Can tee ns 52500 54500
ti ve American pot from the so uth west United
Ca p. cartridge. pisto l boxes S 1300 59500
States se ll s for $400,000 (£270,000). ' I f it's old, Kni ves 5450 56000
it can be so ld . '1 Intern et auction s pose a new Revo lve rs S450 545,000
l3ul\ets S \30 S250+
threat: millions of artefacts, some ad verti sed as
Butt ons 54000
ill ega lly obtained , se ll daily, attesting to a bur-
geoning market. The local looter ca n se ll to a 2. Nalive Americall "rte/ttCIS
I'oll cry 5400,000
world-wide audience.
Baskets 5 180.000
In the United States, lootin g has afflicted Carved slone objects S 15.000
all federal properti es, pal1icularl y natio nal parks Rare or 11llusunl poin ts S I 0.000
and forests. Federal law enforcers, tho ug h, are
handicapped in that they are spread thin. One of-
ficer in th e national park s may patrol million s of
acres. As a result, mu ch looting goes undetected
and unpuni shed. A recent handboo k on criminal
in vesti gati on states:

A rcheological reso urces are nonrenewable: w hen

they arc looted or va ndali zed, th e information they
contai n is lost forever. The looting or archeo log i-
cal sites in the United SlaleS is happening on a vas l
scal e. Staled bluntly, parI of our hi story has been,
and continues to be, stol en."'

The nature of loot ing in th e United States rese m-

bles that of many other co untri es. In so me places,
looting is an accepted multigeneratio nal problem, Figure 1. Members of the Reed Creek Archaeolagy Club
illegally excavate the graves of Native Americans in
a part of loca l culture. In other cases hobby ists, Wythe Caunty, Virginia (site designation 44WY25) .
ignorant of the law, may trespass and loot unwi t- Virginia requires either a court order or a state permit to
tingly (Fig. I). Profess ional looters, though, adopt disturb burials, neither af which the club possessed. The
object of the excavation was to recover ornamental
countermeasu res to avo id detection. Th ey care- artefacts buried with the dead. A joint FBI-Virginia State
full y plan the ir ill ega l excavation s, study ing Police investigation ended the amateur excavation which
archiva l or library materials and topographi ca l resufted in criminal convictions of three men. This
photograph was confiscated from the looters. (Photo:
maps. If the sites are remote, looters may reach Virginia Department of Historic Resources.)
them by horseback, all-terrain vehicles, or by foot.
Looters observe law enforcement patml be- during inc lement weather, or on hoi idays. To fur-
ha viour and ma y appear on s ites w he n law ther avo id detection , looters may post lookouts
enforcement presence is lo w or hampered: at o r LI se watc hdogs, emp loyi ng rad io scanners to
ni ght (w ith the full moon to illumin ate digging) , track nearby lawen forcers. They wear ca mou-

25
flage clothes and may camouflage their equip- removing (or attempting these acts) archaeologi-
ment by painting shovels or metal detectors black. cal resources from public or Native American
More sophisticated looters carry with them not lands without a permit. s
only shovels and metal detectors but also prob- To be a protected resource under ARPA,
ing rods (to locate graves or artefacts by detecting looted objects must constitute evidence of past
changes in soil density) and sifting screens. En- human existence, possess archaeological inter-
forcement officers have caught some looters est (not archaeological sign(flcance), and be over
bearing false identification or forged permits or 100 years old. Objects, or resources, are broadly
even wearing fake park ranger uniforms. Near or defined to include not only relics such as pottery,
on the looted site, the thief may store tools, sup- tools, or shipwrecks, but also rock art, skeletal
plies, or contraband artefacts for later retrieval. remains, features of houses or other constructions,
Once the looter finds artefacts, he or she even vegetal remains or organic waste. Of par-
may sell the items directly, through a dealer, or ticular interest to state and local law enforcement,
through an investor who has only a few clients. however, is ARPA's commercial provision: no one
Importantly, though, law enforcement officers may sell, purchase, exchange, transport (or offer to
cannot presume that looters, by virtue of the kind do the same) resources in violation of ARPA, any
of crime they commit, are benign hobbyists. Some- other federal law, or any state or local law. Looters
times looters are armed and may fire at an officer. who illegally dig up artefacts on private property
without permission and cross state lines to traf-
Applicable laws fic in them have therefore violated ARPA, thus
Recent federal laws and a concomitant enforce- transforming a local case into a federal one.
ment effort - taught to law enforcers, prosecutors, A recent case affirmed ARPA's jurisdiction
and archaeologists through the Archeological over interstate trafficking in antiquities stolen in
Resources Protection Program conducted by the violation of state law, ARPA's most versatile pro-
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center vision. The defendants had collected relics on
(FLETC) in Georgia - have spurred investiga- private property and then engaged in interstate
tions and prosecutions. Both the laws and the commerce; the court decreed that 'there is no right
course recognize that officers, in protecting life to go upon another person's land, without his
and property, must protect our past as well. permission, to look for valuable objects buried
While federal law has incriminated loot- in the land and take them if you find them'. 6
ing from federal or Native American properties ARPA contains other features attractive to
almost since the beginning of the century, virtu- law enforcers. Apart froln criminal proceedings,
ally no law enforcement took place until ARPA ARPA permits a civil recourse through an admin-
became law in 1979, later amended in 1988 to istrative law judge. 7 Also, ARPA investigations
include sharper enforcement teeth due to obsta- yield forfeiture of assets: vehicles, equipment or
cles encountered during prosecutions. The chief tools, contraband, and clothing. Arizona judge
1988 amendment for law enforcers was the re- Sherry Hutt has observed that as a result of al-
duction in the threshold commercial val ue most a decade of prosecutions, ARPA 'is well
ascribed to the artefacts plus the cost of site res- ensconced in the legal landscape'.1l
toration and repair to enable a felony prosecution Another recent, significant federal law that
(as determined by a damage assessment bears on past resources is the Native American
conducted by an archaeologist). The 1988 amend- Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or
ments include the criminalization of attempts to NAGPRA. Importantly for museums, holdings
destroy, damage, or remove protected resources, of Native American human remains must be in-
thus relieving officers of having to conduct sur- ventoried and surveyed, in some cases the
veillance while looters destroy a protected skeletons being repatriated to descendant Native
resource. 4 A general-intent law (meaning that the Americans for reburial according to tribal cus-
prosecution is not required to argue a specific tom. The same law, though, criminalizes illegal
intent to loot), ARPA prohibits people from ex- trafficking in Native Alnerican human remains
cavating, damaging, defacing, altering, or or any cultural items. 9

26
 Investigative methods the evidence at the crime scene and perhaps to
The nature of looting presents enforcement dif- individual suspects (through analysis of dirt on their
ficulties. Once unearthed, artefacts are very confiscated clothing). Third, officers should take
difficult to link to a looted site. Many protected casts of footprints and shovel impressions.
resources, whether visible remains or under- Analysis of impressions, coupled with the
ground and hidden, are found away from public soil evidence, links both suspects and artefacts
view, some within thousands of acres of national to a particular site. Federal cases require an ar-
forests or parks. The best enforcement opportu- chaeologist to assist by contributing a damage
nity involves catching looters in the act. Short of assessment, determining the costs significant to
apprehension in flagrante delicto, officers culti- ARPA, and providing an exact description of
vate informants or obtain confessions. Informants what has been lost, recovered, damaged, or dis-
may indeed playa key role in developing intelli- placed. The case file should contain a statement
gence. Nearby farmers, hikers or campers, even from the appropriate issuing authority that no
hunters may witness looting. If officers discover state or federal permit existed to allow the sus-
fresh digging or site damage, surveillance may pect to excavate, remove, displace, or destroy
be possible. protected resources.
No law enforcement officer can afford to
devote dozens of hours to tracking looters. For- Federal, state, and local cooperation
tunately, officers are most likely to encounter Despite federal successes, parallel anti-looting
offences when pursuing other violations. In one efforts at the state and local level have been ir-
case, police officers searching a suspect's resi- regular. States' laws protecting historic or
dence pursuant to a narcotics warrant photo- archaeological resources vary and sometimes are
graphed a collection of Native American relics not parallel to ARPA. 12 Nevertheless, many state
later described as 'the most impressive collec- initiatives have shown promise. In Florida, for
tion of Indian artefacts in northern California'. A instance, the state legislature mandated a two-
sheriff's deputy who had been an archaeologist hour curriculum in basic law enforcement
saw the photos, recognized the significance of academy classes on archaeological resources pro-
the relics, and further intelligence brought another tection. In the spirit of ARPA, recently the
warrant to seize the artefacts. The suspect had Supreme Court of Indiana affirmed a lower court
been convicted previously under ARPA and the decision that applied Indiana's archaeological
court had ordered the suspect's return of looted protection law to private property, where a man
artefacts. The photographed stash consisted of the wished to dig Native American artefacts on his
best items from years of looting, hidden to pre- own property although the state required him to
vent seizure by federal anthorities. lo seek a permit to do SO.13
Officers must be able to identify and de- In Virginia, for example, most historic or
scribe tools and equipment used by looters. Many archaeological protection laws have specific ap-
tools, and the camouflaged clothing that some plications not always comparable to federal
looters wear, are innocuous by themselves, but interests. Virginia protects human burials wher-
taken in context create a suspicion of criminality. ever they are found on pain of a felony penalty.
'It is from the totality of the circumstances that Misdemeanour penalties attach to other heritage
reasonable suspicion may rise to the level of prob- laws. State permission, however, must be ob-
able cause,' the standard for arrest. II tained for excavations on state-controlled
Under ARPA protocol, officers process a property or on submerged resources in Virgin-
looting scene as they would any other crime ia's waterways (Fig. 2). While Virginia law
scene, although looting cases involve some defines 'objects of antiquity' similar to ARPA's
unique procedures. First of all, officers must care- definition of archaeological resources, there are
fully document, measure, and photograph the scene. differences: objects of antiquity do not have to
Second, officers should attend to soil samples as a meet an age criterion (such as 100 years) to be
laboratory analysis might reveal pieces of pottery protected and archaeologists are not required to
or bone or even pollen which particularly matches help investigate crimes.

27
Figure 2. An officer with the Virginia Department of Figure 3. Publicity surrounding the convictions of two
Game and tnland Fisheries took this photograph of men for violating the Archaeological Resources
looting in progress. Ernest N. Walker and Houston L. Protection Act in Petersburg, Virginia , frightened a looter
Crayton, later convicted of removing state-protected Civil into presenting a local funeral home with this box of
War artefacts without permission, are shown illegally human remains (a Civil War soldier who had been buried
removing artefacts with a small boat converted for the near the Cold Harbor battlefield) together with associated
purpose. (Photo: Virginia Department of Game and artefacts. The precise location of the original burial
Inland Fisheries.) remains unknown. (Photo: Robert D. Hicks.)

In vestigating lootin g imposes chall enges on laws th at go un e nfo rced ow in g to lac k of

law enforceme nt office rs. In Virginia, w ith out an know ledge can be revived provided loca l law
archaeo logist's ass ista nce, an officer would find enforcement off"icers receive too ls and encour-
it diff"icult to process a crime scene or present a agement.
case for prosecution , since an archaeo logist is Sin ce th e Vi rgi nia program began in 1995,
needed to describe w hat was di sturbed, vanda l- many investi gations have occurred as a result of
ized, or recove red and to assess a va lue on s ite the training, and far mo re cons ultat ions have
damage or the recovered looted artefacts. Thus, take n place between law-enforcement officers
a joint effort of the Vi rgi nia Department of Hi s- and archaeologists. Vi rtuall y all of the consulta-
toric Resources and the Virg ini a Department of tio ns have in vo lved the dispos iti on of hum an
Criminal Ju st ice Se r vices produ ced a mode l rema in s. Skeleta l materi al is inadvertently d is-
policy on theft of histori c resources (ava il ab le covered through co nstruction, and so metimes
o n the Internet at < http ://[Link] [Link]/ del iberately excavated throug h lootin g (Fig. 3).
cri me p reven ti 0 n/sa m p led i recti ves/ ma nua 1/2- Nat ive Ame ri can graves are looted for buri a l
[Link].» plus a training programme ca lled 'Time goods; graves offa ll en C ivil War so ldiers are pil -
Cri me' that acq uai nts law enfo rce ment officers fe red for military uniform paraphernalia. The
with the looti ng problem , rev iews app li cabl e state co nsultations ha ve revea led amb ig uiti es in the
and federal laws, and outl ines an in vestigative law but more often serve to instruct re li c hunters
protocol , modelled closely on federal procedurcs, and ci ti zens. Abandoned or di sused ceilleterics
honed through prosecuti ons . The training encour- are imperill ed beca use of deve lopment and van -
ages officers to contact archaeo logists to he lp da li sm, and the ir d isturban ce or dest ru ction can
cond uct an in vestigat ion. A number of profes- unexpected ly ignite communi ty concern.
siona l archaeo logists throughout Virg ini a have The Time Crim e programme has evo lved
vo lunteered to ass ist law e nforcement office rs in unexpected d irectio ns. O ne hi storic site that
w ith investigations and to testify in court. Vir- featu res a summer sc hool for middle sc hool stu-
g ini a's examp le demon s trates that, des pite dents of archaeology has incorpo rated a looting
differences between state and fede ral laws, in- co mpo nent in w hic h students role-play invest i-
vest iga ti ve mcthods deve loped through cases in gators , crime - sce ne technicians , and even
other states ca n be adaptcd and that anti- looting journalists. T he role-p lay invo lves an enacted

28
 RELIC HUNTERS
BEWARE

Protect
Histori( ond .........",
Ar(hoeologi(al [Link]
Metal detecting, relic hunting Figure 5. A proseculoriallaclic in archaeological resources theft cases
has been to require , upon conviction, the looter to pay for a public-
and vandalism are illegal on
service advertisement in a newspaper of the locality where the crime
~ Fairfax County Park occurred. This notice was posted following a looting conviction in
Authority property Stafford County. Virginia. (Photo: Robert D. Hicks.)

Figure 4. Vandalism to and theN of

archaeological resources goes largely bones dow n there - th ey' re everybody 's ances-
unchecked in Virginia. Some local tors. I say let 'em rest in peace .' I;
governments have promoted anti-looting
messages and have passed local ordinances
against it. (Photo : Fairfax County Park
R OBERT D. HICKS
Authority.) Crime Preve ntion and Law Enforcement Services
Commonwealth of Vi rginia
crime in prog ress featuring an illega l excavatio n USA
for C ivil War arte facts. Mimicking the practi cum
that teaches officers and archaeo logists how to Notes
process a c rime scene in th e fe dera l tra ini ng I. Harvey Arde n, 1989. Who ow ns o ur past? National
Geographic 175(3), 376- 93. A lso, sec Brian Fagan,
course, the stude nts must likewise interview the
1988 . Black day at Slack Farm. Archaeology 41(4) ,
perpetrator, take notes, co ll ect evidence, and 15- 16, 73.
make an arrest. Sometimes the time crime in ves- 2. T0111 Dunkel , 1992. A nation's heritage at ri sk. Insight
tigati ons them selves can in vo lve the unex pected. February 17, 14.
An internal in vestigati on in a state-ru n max imum 3. Charles R. Swa nso n, Nei l C . C ha meli ll & Leo nard
Territo , 1992. Crilllillallll vesligalioll. Sth editi o n. New
security pri so n exami ned the possibility that a
York (N Y ): M cG ra w-Hili, 60.
staff member had collected artefacts fro m the 4. AR PA was ca refu ll y dra wn 10 exc lude hob byists or col -
pri son fa rm, w hi ch happe ned to be located in an lec tors in th ;:i t surface linds of arrowheads o r coins,
archeo logicall y ri ch area fea turing a continuum say, from protec ted federa l o r Indi an lands arc allow-
of habitation fro m Palaeoi ndi an to the arriva l o f ab le w ithout a permit.
5. A RPA it defined under 16 UI/iled Slales Code §470aa-
Europea ns. 47011. T he legis lat ive hi story of the la w and its cu rrent
To all prosecutors and law enfo rce ment application arc amply descri bed in Sherry HUll, Elwood
officers, however, anti-l ooti ng efforts mean more \V. Jo nes & Ma rtin E. McA lli ster. 1992. Archeologi-
than skillful in vestigations : the public must be cal Resol/rce Prolecliol/ . Was hi ngton ( DC): T he
educated (Fi gs. 4 & 5). In many places, looting Preservation Press.
6. UI/iled Stales I( Gerber 999 F.2d 11 12 (7 th Cir. 1993).
supplements income or serves people 's hobbi es.
7. For furthe r detai ls o f the AR PA civil procedure, see
Two Ari zo na atto rneys observed that in order to Sherry HUll, 1994. Th e civil prosecuti on process of
present their case they first had to justi fy the crim e th e A rc haeo logical Reso urces Protec ti o n Act. Tee/llli-
of looting." O ne re form ed looter understood the cal /Jriej" No. 16, U.S. Depart ment of Ihe Interior,
message: 'Don' t di g - you destroy hi sto ry when February.
8. Sherry HUll . 1995. Th e Archaeologica l Resources Pro -
you do. A nd don ' t buy the stuff either ... Those

29
 teet ion Act. The Pederal Lawyer October, 34 . the Intcrior). To aid federal prosecutors - and state
9. 535 USC §300 I. ones - th e General Liti ga ti on and Legal Advice Sec-
10. 1996. COIIIIIIOII C rOll1ld I( 1),8 . (T hi s journallVas lor- ti on, Criminal Di vision, U.S. Depart ment of Ju sti ce
merl y Pedera l Jlrcheology maga zinc.) publi shed the Archeological Resources Protection Ped-
II . Swanson, Chamclin & Territ o, 1992 . Crimillallllves- eral ProsecutiolJ Sourcebook. a co mpendium or case
ligatioll . 67. law, statut es , briefs. and relate d mat eri al on AR PA
12. For a co mpendium of slate sta tu tes, see Ca rol L. cases.
Carn ell , A Survey ofSf(lIe Statllfes Prolecting Archeo- 13. Indiana's Histori c Preserva tion and A rcheology Act
logical Resources. a special report [Link] Preservatioll preva iled in Whitacre v. State. 629 N.E.2d (1994), af~
Lalli Reportel: Archeologica l Assistallce SIll(~V 110. 3, firmed 6 19 N.E.2d 605 (Ind. App. 1993).
August 1995 (p ublished jointl y by the Nati onal Trust 14. CO llgressiollal QII(frter~)I. 40.
for Hist ori c Preserva ti on and the U.S. Department of 15. Arden, 1989. \V ho owns our pa st? 392.

A holy cross and the

necessity for international
conventions
Jos VAN B EU RD E 1

I n the midst of the majestic mountain s of north-

ern Ethi op ia are eleven churches. They are a
remarkable phenome non - carved o ut of so lid
rock in the twel ft h century AD by some forty thou-
Church of Sl George.
sand craftsmen. Eleven tim es, giganti c sq uare
caverns were ho llowed o ut to create chu rches
w ith the three interio r spaces characteri sti c of all sheetin g to protect it fro m the detrimental e ffec ts
Eth iop ian Orthodox buildings: a porch ; an area of clim ate. The Bet Med haneA lem harbours one
where the believers rece ive communion ; and the of Ethi op ia's most preci ous val uab les, th e Afro
most ho ly place, accessib le to pri ests and dea- Ayigeba, a heavy, sixty centimetre long and ri chl y
cons onl y. The churches are intercon nected by decorated cross. Its va lue is not only re ligio us
corridors, and the pl ace w here they were built is and hi stori ca l, Ethiopians al so ascribe to it a hea l-
named after the ir patron-king: La libe la. In the ing power. Two men permanentl y g uard the cross.
eight hundred years of the ir ex isten ce, th e bare On th e night o f 9 March 1997 o ne o f th e
feet of milli ons o f worshippers - s ingin g, pray- guard s had gone home sick. H is coll eague, shel-
in g, sac rifi cing, ho ping and despairing - have tering from th e rain , had fa ll en asleep. Aro und
passed throug h the rock churches of La Ii bela. On midni g ht th e inhab itants of the mountain town
the numerous hol y days eccles iasti ca l di g nitar- were abruptly woken by the so unds ofa bell ring-
ies, d ressed in colourful robes wa lk around the in g, co nfused vo ices, and so me shoot ing. Man y
buildings, and are joined by thousands ofbclievers. ran to the church, w here a priest had di scovered
Since th e introduction of C hri stian ity to that the d oor (w hi ch at that ho ur was a lways
Et hi opia in th e fourth ce ntury AD, numerou s closed) stood open. He had run inside, to the pl ace
ch urches and monasteries have been built, th eir where th e cross was kept , and di scove red th at it
wa ll s and ceilings often beautifull y pai nted. Each had di sappeared. Th e shots heard were fired by
has a range of ritual objects, sometimes made of the police, who arrested forty ch urch offic ials.
sil ver or gold . La libela's majo r church is th e Bet For days the the ft was front-page news in
Med haneA lem, measuring 33.5 metres long, 23 .5 Ethi op ia. As interrogati ons produced no results,
metres w ide and II metres hi g h. It is the o nl y th e pol ice were forced to re lease th e forty pri s-
church w ith an ex terna l co lonnade o n all four oners, o ne ofwho tll returned voluntari ly shortl y
s ides. It has now been covered by transparent afte rward s. Hi s story was lhat there was a man in

30
 Lalibela whose da ughter had been ill for a lo ng go. Because of th e absence of lega l agreements
tim e and who had repeatedly urged thi s cleric to between Belgium and Ethiopia they were unable
take the cross to hi s house, hoping for the recov- do anything.
ery of hi s daughter. Finally the pri est had given Th e Ethiopian Embassy in Brussels en-
in. On 9 March he had hidden him se lf in the gaged a Belgian la wyer, w ho advi sed against
church and, as soon as he was sure that the guards' starting lega l proceedings against the coll ector.
attention had wandered, had take n the va luabl e Such proceedings would take years and it would
obj ect. He had the daughter ki ss the cross sev- be very difficult to prove bad faith on the part of
eral times and blessed her ailing body. That is the collector. In stead , th e lawyer advised that an
w here hi s memory failed , as according to him approach be made to try to convince the co ll ec-
the father had pli ed him with liquor and the next tor that the holy cross ought to go back to Ethiopia .
thing he knew was that he was back in the church- A representative of the Embassy visited him, spoke
yard, without the cross. about the soul and spirit of the cross, and finally the
The police held th e cleric, and arrested and Belgian agreed to hand it over on the condition that
interrogated the father and brother of the girl. The hi s money would be returned.
pair claimed to ha ve buri ed th e cross in the The Ethiopian authorities agreed and in
backyard of their hou se, but police excavation s 200 I the cross was flown back to Addis Ababa.
recovered nothing. Ethiopia 's most important There, the Belgian ambassador invited Ethiopian
cross was gone. C hristian s in Lalibela and ac ross ex perts and members of th e Ethiopian Orthodox
Ethiopia felt injured by the loss . 'The cross is C hurch to inspect the cross. Th ey confirmed that
part of us', sa id museum director Ahmed Zekaria it was not a replica but the actual 800-year-old
in Addis Ababa. ' As lo ng as it is not back, some- cross of Lalibela. Soon after, the Belgian envoy
thing is lacking. ' I-Ie was sca re d that the handed the prec io us object over to the Ethiopian
commotion and publicity would dri ve the thi ef government, in what he later informed th e For-
to desperate measures, that he would melt the cross eign Affairs de partment in Bru ssels had bee n a
down into an ingot of metal. ' In that case Ethiopia moment de grand emotion.
would have definitely lost part of its soul. ' The outcome of this case was rather unsat-
Two years later, in June 1999, the contin- isfa ctory. The Be lgian coll ector, who had visited
ued efforts of the Ethiopian police were rewarded. Ethi opia several times earlier and was knowl-
They arrested some antique deal ers, and after in- edgeable about Ethiopian artefacts, mu st ha ve
terrogation learn ed th at the brother of th e sick known about th e theft of the hol y cross and its
girl had smuggled the cross out of La libel a. He va lue fo r C hri stian s in the country. He may al so
had so ld it for one thousand birr (around 11 5 US have known that such a cross should never ha ve
dollars) to an antique dealer in the neighbouring le ft the country. I-lad both Belgium and Ethiopia
city o fDes i. The latter had sold it for an unknown signed the 1995 UN IDROIT Con velltioll 0 11 Sto-
amount to an antique dea ler in Addis Ababa, capi- lell alld Illegally Exported CullUml Objects, the
tal city of Ethiopia. Thi s dealer had kept it hidden collector would have had to prove hi s good faith
for a year, after whi ch time a Be lgian coll ector at the mom ent of purchasing, which would have
had purchased it for 25,000 US dollars. been a difficult task. Now the collector has not
It emerged that the Addis Ababa dealer had only emerged unpuni shed, he even got hi s money
known the Belgian collector since 1994, but de- back. Mea nwhil e, in Ethiopia seve n people were
ni ed having so ld the cross to him. Th e Ethiopian sentenced to several years in jail.
authorities investigated hi s bank statements and
blocked an amount of 25 ,000 US dollars. They Jos VAN BEURDEN
informed the Belgian authorities. Wh e n an inte r- Utrecht
national courier attempted to import a parce l The Netherland s
addressed to the collector, it was interce pted by
Customs officials at Brussels ' Zaventem airport. Jos van Bcurdcll is author of Godell Gravell ell GrellzeJl
However, even though the accompanying doc u- about the then o f al'l n'ol11 countries in Afri ca, Asia and Latin
America (KlT Pubtishers, 200 I, ISBN 90-6832-293- 1).
ments were not fully in order, they had to let it

31