Open the Medici Archives

The Art Newspaper reports on pressure to open up the Medici archives to the public to assist collectors and dealers in their due diligence efforts.  The archives have already been disclosed selectively, so its unclear why the archaeological blogoshere is so opposed to their release.  In any event, shouldn't those who claim to act in the public interest and often demand transparency of others, promote rather than oppose transparency here?

Anti-Collector Advocacy Poses as Academics Once More

Dr. Nathan Elkins has continued his anti-collector crusade by posting an abstract of an article from the Journal of Field Archaeology that is critical of the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild and its test case on Academia.edu. Elkins' latest article itself is not posted on Academia.edu, though Academia.edu invites readers to ask Elkins to make it available on the website.

This rather obscure journal (in the world beyond field archaeology at least)  is apparently Elkins' publisher of choice.  Indeed, its like-minded academics also published his 2010 diatribe directed against Ancient Coins for Education,  a not-for-profit that uses ancient coins as a teaching tool on Ancient Rome for kids.  That article is already posted in its entirety on Academia.edu. 

Elkins evidently has already made advance copies of this latest article about ACCG and its test case available to Messrs. Gill and Barford, whom he regards as colleagues.  CPO and Wayne Sayles, ACCG's Executive Director, have already asked Elkins for an advance copy of the article too as a matter of fairness, but he has denied that request point blank.

The article has now also been posted on-line on the publisher's website, but the cost is high--$39 for the rights to review the article on-line for a 24 hour period.  So, its no surprise that CPO has also asked and hopes Elkins will get whatever permissions he needs to make his article available free on-line on Academia.edu so that interested members of the public can judge the quality of his work for themselves short of subsidizing anti-collector academics by purchasing his article from JFA on-line or searching high and low for some library which might actually carry it. Despite Elkins' protests, it's unclear why he can't ask JFA to be allowed to post his article on Academia.edu.  Certainly, Elkins has already posted his last JFA article attacking Ancient Coins for Education in its entirety on that platform.

Leaving this lack of "open access" aside, it's questionable that Elkins' claims that the State Department acted properly are justified.  His apparent thesis-- that coins on the designated lists "primarily circulated" where they were made may or may not be true, but there is also a real question whether more is required under the plain meaning of the governing statute's "first discovery" requirement embedded in 19 USC Sections 2601, 2604 and 2610.

And even assuming Elkins is onto something, a cursory review of the designated lists for Cyprus and China should raise serious questions as to whether the Government did anything other than pick an arbitrary date and simply restrict all artifacts made in those countries beforehand.

Elkins may be entitled to his own opinions, but in the end the issue is one of law, an area in which he most certainly lacks expertise.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, the Government has been ordered to respond to the ACCG's written discovery requests on these points on or before June 20, 2015.  We will hopefully know more then whether the Government made a good faith effort to comply with the CPIA's "first discovery" requirement or not.

(Text updated 5/12/15)

Archaeo-Blogger Wonders about Professionalism

Archaeo-blogger David Gill has called into question the professionalism of BM staff in their dealings with his friend, Paul Barford.  But, their private reactions (now made public under the UK version of FOIA) are quite understandable given the discourteous person with whom they were dealing and his "take no prisoners" campaign against the Portable Antiquities Scheme. 

Archaeo-Blogger Defends Sensationalist Reporting

Archaeo-blogger David Gill has taken Chris Maupin, a knowledgable antiquities dealer, to task because Maupin has questioned sensationalist reporting by the BBC.  That BBC report repeats the oft cited claim that looting provides a major ISIS funding source.  Gill maintains that Maupin's critique is unfair.  After all says Gill, the reporter and his producer evidently attended an academic conference which discussed the issues!   But we should also be skeptical of academics with an axe to grind.  And there is every reason to be particularly dubious of "proof" originating with sources friendly to the Assad regime.  As we've already seen, that murderous regime is keen on attributing looting to ISIS for its own political purposes.   In any case, the values of looted material from Syria casually thrown about appear highly inflated.  Under the circumstances, Maupin's concerns about sensationalist reporting are warranted and he should be praised, rather than condemned for his efforts.

Archaeological Snobs Criticize Significant Reported Find

While the rest of the world is celebrating the discovery of a large hoard of Anglo-Saxon coins that was excavated with the help of a trained Portable Antiquities Scheme finds liaison officer, the archaeological snobosphere is going full out criticizing everything about the find.  Yet, the finders were detecting on private land with the permission of the landowner.  It's highly unlikely that any British archaeologists would have ever surveyed the site on their own and if the find were made in a country like Greece it's also highly unlikely any such find would ever have been properly reported much less recorded.

Too Much Information?

Archaeo-bloggers David Gill and Paul Barford have taken the Portable Antiquities Scheme to task for allowing archaeologists to post finds on the database that was designed to record non-Treasure finds by the public.  Of course, PAS is a voluntary scheme and while it is not mandatory for archaeologists to post finds, really what's wrong with them doing so?   In the end, shouldn't it be about creating the most complete record of significant finds possible?  As it is, without archaeologists reporting, there is a hole in the PAS record.  Sure, archaeologists should report details of their finds to the local Historic Environment office, but is such information as accessible as the PAS database for scholars and anyone else interested in learning more details about what is found?

Playing Gotcha

The Greek Reporter has a short  profile of  Dr. Christos Tsirogiannis, a Glasgow researcher, who uses police files procured "under the table" from the Greek authorities to play "gotcha" with auction houses and collectors.  CPO believes such behavior should not be celebrated but condemned.  The fair thing for Greek authorities to do would have been to share the materials with major auction houses so it can be reviewed as part of their due diligence process.  Instead, the Greeks (and presumably their Italian counterparts) use Tsirogiannis and his go-to blogger, David Gill, to publicly humiliate auction houses and prominent collectors with privileged information.  This gives the Greek and Italian cultural bureaucracies an easy "win" when the embarrassed collector and auction house surrender the artifact, and Tsirogiannis and Gill, two otherwise obscure academics, get some notoriety.   Perhaps all this helps divert attention away from the gross underfunding, bureaucratic incompetence and corruption that bedevils Greece's and Italy's poor stewardship of their own cultural patrimony, but it doesn't make it right.

Archaeology and Dictatorship: A Need to Examine the Archaeological Lobby's Links with Dictators and Terrorist Regimes?

Archaeo-blogger Paul Barford and his fellow-traveler, David Gill, have demanded that the EU Funded Glasgow Trafficking Culture group examine any links between paramilitary groups and the illicit antiquities trade. 

But what of the close and even more easily demonstrable links between the archaeological lobby and military dictatorships such as that in Egypt, Sectarian Governments like that in today's Iraq, or terrorist regimes like that of Assad's Syria or earlier, Saddam's Iraq?

Serious academic study could help illuminate how these links have buttressed State claims of ownership to anything and everything old, how this has only encouraged corruption, poor stewardship and even destruction and looting of artifacts in times of civil conflict or war.  It could also help illustrate how source countries can manipulate foreign archaeologists and other scholars by threatening denial of excavation or study permits, withholding sponsorship of excavations, and by other means well known to unscrupulous foreign government officials.

Now that would be an interesting study to read.  

Villa Associated with "Ben Hur" to be Concreted Over

Italian municipal authorities have announced plans to concrete over the villa of the real life arch-enemy of Ben Hur, Roman General Messalla.

Meanwhile, off in the increasingly out-of-touch reaches of archaeological blogosphere, a professor of some academic distinction has dredged up his version of an old exchange concerning the merits of the UK's Treasure Act and PAS as compared to the "state control" approach of countries like Italy.

Yes, much has happened since 1999.  PAS has recorded 1 million finds.  And, what of the supposedly superior "Italian approach?"   Click on the label for "poor stewardship" and make up your own mind.

Is That It?

Archaeo-blogger David Gill is making much of the fact that two lots have been withdrawn from auction based on the work of a confederate who combed through the April catalogues at Bonham's and Christie's.

Is that it?  Bonham's has 496 lots in their two sales and Christie's has 199.  Of course there are many lots with multiple objects but after their effort it appears at most only 0.288% of the objects appear problematical.  Even then, appearance of the photos in the archive don't necessarily prove looting.    But even assuming it does, that's still one-quarter of one percent of this particular market.  

So what do these numbers really tell  us?   That an epidemic looting continues in Italy?  Of course not.  That auctions are filled with looted material?  Of course not.  Or that Italy long ago won its war on looting and its time to rethink the need for its MOU with the US?  Most certainly.  

Exceptions or Rules and Prevailing Trends in Archaeology?

Archaeo-blogger Nathan Elkins has accused CPO of "intellectual dishonesty" for questioning the assumption that archaeologists promptly and  carefully excavate and record everything of significance at their digs.

According to Elkins,

"The point is, Tompa, that you paint exceptions, some true and some anecdotal, as rules and prevailing trends. That's what we call intellectually dishonest. Try a broader perspective for once."

But poor professional practices are important to consider when archaeological fanatics like Elkins, David Gill and Paul Barford regularly attack the Treasure Act and PAS because they allegedly encourage "unscientific excavations" by amateurs wielding metal detectors.

And what of recent news of significant Viking and Egyptian finds not from the field but from storerooms where the artifacts in question had lain for a century or more?  Or information that coins from Roman contexts excavated over a century ago are still awaiting proper publication and study?

Are these exceptions or rules and prevailing trends?  And if the latter, perhaps reports under the Treasure Act or PAS are more "scientific" than stale information dug up a century or more ago by trained archaeologists. They are certainly more timely.

Perhaps Not Everything is Looted

David Gill has written this post that suggests that not everything in the inventories of dealers associated with the Medici archive was looted.  I've heard the same from others associated with the antiquities trade.  That makes sense.  These individuals dealt with many antiquities over their long careers.  It's good that Gill has belatedly recognized as much.

Object Registry Fragment Foolishness

Archaeo-Blogger David Gill wants more details of the Met’s 10,000 or so vase fragments placed en masse on the AAMD’s object registry.  Presumably Gill wants each pictured separately to facilitate detailed study of their potential origin so additional pieces can be repatriated to Italy or perhaps Greece or Turkey.  But why should the AAMD’s procedures be the same for the $10,000,000 artifact as for the $10 artifact?  Gill’s confidant Nathan Elkins has already recognized that coins—given the sheer numbers that have survived-- should not be treated as the AIA treats other artifacts.  Gill should give vase fragments the same break.

Now is it Time to Free the Coins?

The dysfunctional Italian justice system has finally freed Amanda Knox after concluding she was probably not guilty of murder after all.

But what of the dysfunctional Italian cultural bureaucracy?

As its poor stewardship of major cultural sites like Pompeii shows, it has failed miserably at its core mission of preserving Italy's unparallelled cultural patrimony.

Perhaps, then its not all that surprising that the Italian cultural bureaucracy has instead spent so much time and effort diverting attention away from its own failings by pointing the finger at collectors and auction houses and claiming that they are responsible for looting.

But will funding shortfalls force a change in approach? Not likely, at least while the Italian cultural bureaucracy receives noisy support from archaeologists and their friends in the State Department Cultural Heritage Center bureaucracy.

But does that make it right?

Here, for example, is the reaction of one collector to Archaeo-blogger David Gill's continuing campaign against Christie's auction house on behalf of Italian authorities:

The hypocrisy of David Gill's recent posts (see http://lootingmatters.blogspot.com/2011/10/christies-on-cultural-property.html
http://lootingmatters.blogspot.com/2011/10/schinoussa-archive-and-italian.html)
really is too much. First he plays gotcha with Christie's based on stills from the "Schinoussa Archive" and then he accuses Christie's of failing to cooperate with other international institutions. Objects like those terracottas would never make it to auction if Gill and his colleagues would cooperate and share the Schinoussa images with auction houses and the public. No auction house would put obviously problematic material on the market and no buyer would buy it. Gill, by refusing to cooperate with auction houses and dealers, is doing more to further the sales of illegally obtained objects than the average Italian looter.

Why can't the Italian authorities make this archive publicly available rather than cooperating in Gill's game of gotcha?

And, on another note, how crazy is it that courtesy of the Italian cultural bureaucracy, the AIA and the State Department most ancient Italian coins of Greek and early Roman Republican types are off limits to American collectors-- while Italians themselves as well as other collectors world-wide can import the same coins no questions asked. If it is really necessary to impose import restrictions on coins, how about at least requiring some proof that they are the products recent illicit excavation?

Yes, its time to publish the Schinoussa archive and to free the coins.

Slim Public Support for Italian Import Restrictions Raises Questions About State Department Special Interest Program for Archaeologists

Politcos within the Obama State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and Diplomats from the Italian Embassy take note: a recent FOIA request reveals that CPAC only received thirteen (13) public comments in support of controversial import restrictions on "coins of Italian type."

Not that there really was any groundswell of public support for renewing the Italian MOU in the first place. Indeed, CPAC received only about one hundred (100) comments in favor of renewing the MOU at all.

Who supported the renewal of the MOU? The American public? Well, maybe only one or two individuals identified themselves as such. No, as one might expect, virtually all the support came from archaeologists who excavate in Italy, their students or their "trade associations."

And who supported restrictions on coins? Well, the AIA, Lawyer's Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation, a few professors and students from NYU (Home of Pro-Restriction CPAC member Joan Connelly) and foreign archaeo-bloggers like David Gill and Paul Barford.

Contrast this with the one thousand nine hundred (1,900) plus public comments opposed to the extension of import restrictions on ancient coins.

Given this disparity, one can only ask: What gives? Why has the State Department disadvantaged the interests of American collectors and the small businesses of the numismatic trade by imposing hard to meet documentation requirements when the support for such restrictions is so limited?

And more to the point, has State Department Cultural Heritage Center staff told the political appointees at State and the diplomats at the Italian Embassy how thin the support actually is for restrictions?

Collector Gifts Hoard to Athens Numismatic Museum After Study

Noted collector Jonathan Kagan has gifted a hoard of coins struck in Abdera to the Athens Numismatic collection after publishing them in a study dedicated to numismatic scholar (and AIA member) John Kroll. See
http://archaeologymatters2.blogspot.com/2011/07/return-of-coin-hoard-to-greece.html

The Greek cultural establishment and archaeologists will no doubt politicize this gift as a repatriation that helps argue for support for the recently announced Greek MOU. But, what are the odds that Greek authorities would have published the hoard, particularly given cuts to Greece's cultural establishment? And if the Greeks and archaeologists are so concerned about unprovenanced coins, why don't we hear more about the unprovenanced coins in Greek public and private collections, most notably valuable unprovenanced Athenian Decadrachms, recently added to the collections of both the Alpha Bank and Numismatic Collection in Athens? Scholarly publications place the find spots of virtually all of these coins as being outside of Greece. David Gill and Paul Barford, where are you?

Image: Unprovenanced Athenian Decadrachm in Alpha Bank Collection

Hawass: No Guilt By Association!

I had to chuckle when I heard Zahi Hawass in the middle of a NBC story about restoration work on the step pyramid have to assert in the words of the reporter that he was "the victim of a witch hunt for anyone who worked for the old regime." See
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/43778980#43778980 (1:59).

Hawass' allies in the archaeological establishment like blogger David Gill should heed their hero's message. Yet, Gill in particular is predictably doing his darnedest to use "guilt by association" to damage the reputations of targets as diverse as the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the C. Carlos Museum, and the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild. See
http://lootingmatters.blogspot.com/2011/07/accg-charity-charged.html and
http://lootingmatters.blogspot.com/2011/07/lewis-collection-and-virginia-mfa.html

Gill purports to be a serious scholar and the AIA deems his work worthy of an award. Based on such foolishness, however, one has to question whether either is the case.

Misplaced Priorities?

AFP reports that Bulgarian authorites are spending up to 320,000 Euros to repatriate minor Bulgarian artifacts allegedly smuggled into Canada. See
http://www.france24.com/en/20110616-bulgaria-brings-home-smuggled-antiquities-canada#
As is the case with many similar reports, we'll never know the actual facts because the importer abandoned the property.

Meanwhile, Bulgarian archaeologists are lamenting their country's lack of care for its world class archaeological sites. See
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=128889 The report also claims that up to 300,000 Bulgarians are part time treasure hunters.

It seems to me Bulgarian money would be better spent on security for sites under active archaeological investigation and on a treasure trove program for the rest.

Reports of repatriations may be fodder for the likes of archaeo-bloggers David Gill and Paul Barford, but ultimately don't they also just serve as a distraction from the poor stewardship of countries like Bulgaria for their archaeological sites?

"Any chance of using any influence you might have to get all the Medici photos published?"

So asks the only collector congratulating Archaeo-blogger David Gill on his award from the AIA. See http://lootingmatters.blogspot.com/2011/06/archaeological-institute-of-america.html

But why should Gill accede to such a request? He's gained much of his notoriety by ambushing unsuspecting collectors and auction houses with pictures from the Medici archives that he evidently has special access to. During the CPAC hearing on a renewal of the Italian MOU, lawyer Bill Pearlstein asked CPAC to condition any renewal on making these pictures public so that this looted material could be identified by the market. We don't know if CPAC adopted that suggestion in its recommendations to ECA Assistant Secretary Ann Stock, but we do know that the State Department did not incorporate that reasonable request in the revised MOU with Italy.

So, David Gill should also give thanks to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Cultural Heritage Center for allowing him to continue his game of "gotcha" and the notoriety embarrassing others gives him.

Archaeo-Blogger David Gill Gets AIA's "Outstanding Public Service Award"

Anyone who has deluded himself into thinking that the AIA takes a "moderate stance" on collecting should take note: David Gill has announced on his own blog that the the AIA has given him its "Outstanding Public Service Award:" See
http://lootingmatters.blogspot.com/2011/06/archaeological-institute-of-america.html

In so doing, the AIA has indicated its support for Gill's brand of Internet Cultural Property Vigilantism where accusation is all too often confused with hard fact.

Apparently, the award recognises Gill's "ongoing efforts to educate both professional archaeologists and the public at large on the threats posed by the international antiquities trade".

Note the citation does not mention an "illicit" trade. Presumably, the AIA hardliners view the international antiquities trade to be "evil" in and of itself so "illicit" is just assumed. That certainly is the tact all too often taken by Professor Gill in his blog.