Monday, January 31, 2011

Egypt's Antiquities Fall Victim to the Mob

Alex Joffe has written thoughtfully about the realities on the ground behind the looting of the Egyptian Museum and archaeological stores.
See http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703833204576114580200904212.html#articleTabs%3Darticle

Hopefully, this dose of reality will help undercut another attempt to blame the looting on unnamed antiquities dealers in New York, London and Paris. Their supposed culpabilty in the looting of the Iraq Museum was gospel to elements within the archaeological community after that tragedy happened, but this turned out to be nothing but a fantasy.

Hawass Throws In Lot With Mubarak

Anyone with any illusions about Zahi Hawass' closeness to the repressive Mubarak regime should note that President Mubarak has just named him State Minister of Antiquities in a new Cabinet.
See http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=206035

Meanwhile, criticism of Hawass remains generally muted in the archaeological community, with some exceptions. See http://larryrothfield.blogspot.com/2011/01/more-on-looting-of-cairo-museum-it.html

AIA, Related Groups Call for Increased US Vigilence for Looted Egyptian Materials

The AIA and related groups have called for increased law enforcement vigilance for possibly looted Egyptian archaeological material. See
http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/675086/9b952123c1/285206853/7b4b5690fd/

While I understand the AIA's and related group's concerns, I also hope this is not the beginning of a witch hunt aimed at collectors and dealers in Egyptian antiquities, which, after all, have been avidly collected for generations. Remember the claims that boatloads of looted Iraqi materials would be entering the country? Well, that never happened, but archaeologists certainly took out their understandable frustrations about looting in Iraq on collectors and museums, all with little cause, it turns out. I just hope that history does not repeat itself again.

Former Egyptian Museum Head Says Looting an "Inside Job"

Unfortunately, this is starting to sound more like the Iraq Museum debacle (minus the ability to throw blame on US troops). See
http://hyperallergic.com/17896/egyptian-museum-looted-by-own-guards-memphis-looted/

The museum director blames the looting on poorly paid museum employees. Apparently, another museum in Memphis, Egypt has been thoroughly looted as well. No police to be seen and the Egyptian Army was late at the scene.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Egyptian Journalist and Blogger Asserts Damage to Museum the Work of Police Thugs

Mona Ethaway, an Egyptian journalist and blogger, has asserted that the damage reported to mummies and artifacts at the Egyptian Museum was the work of "the police and thugs of Hosni Mubarak." See
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/29/latest-updates-on-protests-in-egypt-2/?scp=1&sq=Egypt%20museum&st=cse

This is not as strange as it sounds. Other reports have it that Government security forces have been vandalizing property in order to justify a crackdown in the eyes of the public. In addition, it has been reported that the police opened up the jails to show the Egyptian public that chaos is the alternative to Mubarak's rule.

Certainly, the story about the looting of the museum seems a bit odd; it came amid other information that the museum was being protected by protesters and the army.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Looters Destroy Mummies and Ransack Egyptian Museum Ticket Office

It's not clear how this happened given that protesters or the army have been reported to be guarding the museum, but Zahi Hawass reports that looters have broken into the museum and have destroyed two mummies and ransacked the ticket office. See
See http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews/idAFLDE70S0BG20110129

Meanwhile, a fire is burning out of control at the nearby headquarters of President Mubarack's political party.

Obviously, I hope this does not get worse, but this episode probably reflects the fact that at least some ordinary Egyptians might just consider the Museum to be another outpost of a hated regime-- just as the many Iraqis considered the Iraq Museum to be. And the fact that it is so near to party headquarters probably does not help much.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Egyptian Museum Secured

There are reports that protesters stepped in to protect the Egyptian museum before the Army (which is held in much higher regard than the police) secured the building with armored vehicles. Apparently, no one wants a repeat of what happened to the Iraq Museum. We'll keep our fingers crossed that the museum and its treasures stay safe.

Update: STRATFOR is reporting that Egyptian Security Forces have withdrawn from Tahirir Square, the location of both government buildings and the Egyptian Museum. If so, the Museum may now be unguarded. The situation remains confused so it is unclear if this is true or not.

The Archaeological Lobby's Role Models

Just turn on the news and one can see what the people think of the government of one of archaeology's role models, Egypt.

What about some of the others: Italy, Greece, Cyprus and China?

All have been in the news lately. Italy is as dysfunctional as ever. Pompeii is falling down. The cynical Italian public has become expert at maneuvering around bureaucratic rules, just as Prime Minister Berlusconi did himself when he performed unauthorized construction on his archaeologically sensitive property. Yet, the AIA and Italian Cultural Bureaucracy can at least celebrate their great victory against the small businesses of the numismatic trade and US collectors, all courtesy of the State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and its Cultural Heritage Center.

Greece is bankrupt. Museum guards recently rioted on the Acropolis for back-pay. Ordinary Greeks are fed up with over regulation, cronyism and corruption. Yet, at a recent CPAC hearing, the AIA was out in force to cheer on a bloated Greek cultural delegation that included a representative of a well-connected private institution, the Alpha Bank. Even as the AIA pressed for yet more restrictions on American coin collectors, none of the archaeological community so much as acknowleded the fact that the Alpha Bank regularly purchases on the open market the same sort of unprovenanced ancient coins that the AIA hopes to make taboo.

The Greek Cypriot Government seems as unwilling to compromise as ever when it comes to the sad division of the country. Yet, this division is cited as the reason it is so important to continue import restrictions on cultural goods. But while Americans are precluded from importing unprovenance Cypriot artifacts, including coins, the Cypriot cultural bureaucracy turns a blind eye when connected Cypriot collectors buy artifacts looted from archaeological sites on the Island. And let us not forget about the private Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation and its continuing ability to purchase unprovenanced ancient coins on the open market. More endemic cronyism of the Greek sort.

Finally, there is China. The Chinese Government encourages the rising middle class to collect ancient artifacts to help promote nationalism. Sure, a few peasants get the death sentence for looting, but Chinese auction houses connected to government officials and the People's Liberation Army have flourished. Yet, the AIA has supported import restrictions aimed at precluding Americans from collecting such items. And our State Department, as always, is only too willing to oblige.

No wonder it's so easy to be cynical about the efforts of the AIA and its allies in the State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to clamp down on American collectors and the small businesses of the numismatic trade.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

What is the Impact of Import Restrictions on "Coins of Italian Type?"

Many collectors have expressed understandable concern about the impact of new import restrictions on "coins of Italian type." Hopefully, this overview will be of some assistance.

I. What Coins Are Now Restricted?

The January 19, 2011 Federal Register contains a notice that restrictions are extended to certain coins of Italian type:

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2011/pdf/2011-882.pdf

The categories of coins subject to the restrictions are as follows:

F. Coins of Italian Types—A type
catalogue of listed currency and coins
can be found in N.K. Rutter et al. (eds.),
Historia Numorum: Italy (London,
2001). Others appear in G.F. Hill Coins
of Ancient Sicily (Westminster, 1903).

1. Lumps of bronze (Aes Rude)—
Irregular lumps of bronze used as an
early medium of exchange in Italy from
the 9th century B.C.

2. Bronze bars (Ramo Secco and Aes
Signatum)—Cast bronze bars (whole or
cut) used as a media of exchange in
central Italy and Etruria from the 5th
century B.C.

3. Cast coins (Aes Grave)—Cast
bronze coins of Rome, Etruscan, and
Italian cities from the 4th century B.C.

4. Struck coins—Struck coins of the
Roman Republic and Etruscan cities
produced in gold, silver, and bronze
from the 3rd century B.C. to c. 211 B.C.,
including the ‘‘Romano-Campanian’’
coinage.

5. Struck colonial coinage—Struck
bronze coins of Roman republican and
early imperial colonies and municipia
in Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia from the
3rd century B.C. to c. A.D. 37.

6. Coins of the Greek cities—Coins of
the Greek cities in the southern Italian
peninsula and in Sicily (Magna
Graecia), cast or struck in gold, silver,
and bronze, from the late 6th century
B.C. to c. 200 B.C.

Source: Federal Register: January 19, 2011 (Volume 76, Number 12)
[Rules and Regulations] Pages 3012-3013.

Accordingly, although the import of coins of great interest to collectors of Greek coins are restricted, the import of most Republican and Imperial coins remains unrestricted.

II. What are the impact of Restrictions?

The above restricted coins of Italian types can only be imported into the United States with an export certificate issued by the Republic of Italy or “satisfactory evidence” demonstrating that the coins were exported from or were outside of Italy at least 10 years prior to importation into the US or that the Coins were exported from or were outside of Italy before January 19, 2011. What constitutes “satisfactory evidence” is ultimately left to the discretion of Customs, but usually takes the form of a declaration by the importer and a statement by the consigner.

Source: Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (“CPIA”) § 307, 19 U.S.C. § 2606.

III. Open Questions

Under the CPIA, import restrictions only apply to coins “first found in the ground” in Italy. See CPIA § 302 (2). However, if a coin of Italian type was excavated outside of Italy in a country that declares anything found in the ground to be state property (i.e., Egypt, Greece or Turkey), it may still be subject to seizure pursuant to the National Stolen Property Act and other provisions of U.S. law. The same principal would apply to a non-restricted Roman coin proven to have been illicitly excavated in Italy in violation of that country's patrimony laws.

The more relevant question is how U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) will treat "coins of Italian type" which do not have a known find spot and/or whose whereabouts cannot be traced back before January 19, 2011, i.e., presumably an ever increasing number of coins as time passes. In the test case brought by the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild concerning Cypriot and Chinese import restrictions, CBP has taken the position that “country of origin” for purpose of the CPIA is synonymous with country of manufacture because Cypriot and Chinese coins may be found where they are manufactured. The Court has yet to rule on the validity of this claim.

There is another question related to coins already in the United States. Import restrictions should not apply to them, but what happens if they are sent abroad? Can they be imported back into the United States without the usual certifications? Presumably so, but again we will only know once CBP confronts the issue.

There also is the issue of the overzealous CBP officials. For example, one recently retired official in CBP's New York office was known to reject the certifications authorized under the CPIA. Instead, he apparently often demanded that the importer produce pictures of artifacts from auction catalogues to prove that an artifact was out of the country of origin as of the date of the restrictions. Obviously, if applied to coins, this would pose a major burden to importers.

In summary, these unprecedented restrictions promise to be a major headache for everyone, except, of course, their proponents in the archaeological community and the Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Cultural Heritage Center. The best I can suggest is to document your coins as being out of Italy before January 19, 2011 as well as you can and only purchase coins from established sellers.

Are Zahi Hawass' Days Numbered?

The archaeological lobby has endlessly promoted the draconian cultural policy of the Mubarak regime and the grasping tendencies of Zahi Hawass, Egypt's antiquities Pharaoh. The prospect of excavation permits has apparently clouded their judgment. No one as far as I can tell has grasped the fact that these policies are part and parcel of a deeply unpopular authoritarian package.

Now, however, the long suffering Egyptian people have taken to the streets in protest about the state of affairs in their country. See http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/world/middleeast/27egypt.html?_r=1&hp There is even some question whether the Mubarak Government can survive a Tunisian style popular uprising.

Of course, if President Mubarak goes, so too will his cronies, likely including the seemingly irrepressible Zahi Hawass. If so, one wonders which elite American University archaeological department will be the first to offer him exile.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Obama Executive Order on Regulatory Issues

President Obama has released an executive order aimed at curbing burdensome regulations, increasing public participation and an open exchange of ideas. See
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/01/18/improving-regulation-and-regulatory-review-executive-order

I would submit that the recent decision of the Obama Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and Customs and Border Protection to ignore prior precedent and to extend import restrictions to "coins of Italian type" violates every precept the new executive order purports to support. See
http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2011/01/state-cbp-take-direction-from-aia-on.html and http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2011/01/state-department-imposes-import.html

The Executive Order mandates that the State Department and Customs and Border Protection should identify such burdensome regulations for possible elimination. One suspects, however, that the archaeological lobby will do all it can to make sure these regulations do not receive the scrutiny they so richly deserve. After all, the point of these regulations is to be as burdensome as possible as far as they are concerned.

More on US State Department Decision to Repatriate Jewish Archive to Iraq

Alex Joffe has exposed the bankruptcy of the US State Department's decision to repatriate the Jewish Archive to Iraq here:
http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/content/module/2011/1/24/main-feature/1/the-iraqi-jewish-archive/r

For more about this decision, see http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2010/05/jewish-archive-to-return-to-iraq-along.html

Monday, January 24, 2011

ACCG-IAPN-PNG FOIA Litigation

I attended the oral argument in the ACCG-IAPN-PNG Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case against the State Department today. The Appellate judges were obviously well prepared. They gave both sides a hard time on various points in the briefs. Overall, though, I suspect the district court opinion will ultimately be reversed based on the conclusory nature of the State Department's declaration explaining why the documents at issue should be confidential.
Anyway, we should find out in the coming months.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

New MOU Offers Museums Nothing on Long Term Loans

For years, the mantra of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) was that long term loans to American Museums should substitute for museum acquisitions of unprovenanced antiquities. After the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) changed its acquisition guidelines to respond to these demands, there was hope that such long term loans would become commonplace.

This became an issue during discussions about renewing the Italian MOU. During those discussions, AAMD members expressed concerns that Italy has not complied with its obligations under the current MOU to provide long term loans outside the context of repatriation deals. In response, the AIA claimed two year loans constituted "long term loans" and that American museums were not proactive enough in seeking such loans from Italian authorities.

Though the AAMD had hoped that any new MOU with Italy would tighten Italy's obligations to provide long term loans, no such luck. Rather, all the AAMD has gotten is the prospect of yet more discussions on an issue that has now been "discussed" for some ten years. See 2011 Amendment, Art. II, Para. E-F. available at
http://exchanges.state.gov/media/office-of-policy-and-evaluation/chc/pdfs/it2011mouext.pdf

Yet more evidence that the museums have received absolutely nothing at all in return for changing their acquisition guidelines and that the State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is unwilling to hold foreign powers to account for even minor concessions in these MOU's. Yes, these MOU's may help ingratiate the AIA and its members to the cultural bureaucrats that hold sway over their excavation permits, but with little benefit or even at great cost to others interested in the exchange of cultural material.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Obama Administration Stifles Coin Trade Amidst Calls for New Jobs

The ACCG has issued the following press release about the State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs anti-small business and anti-collector import restrictions on coins of Italian type at the behest of the Archaeological Institute of America. See
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/obama-administration-stifles-coin-trade-amidst-calls-for-more-jobs-114381869.html

One wonders whether Cultural Heritage Center staff briefed ECA Assistant Secretary Ann Stock about the opposition to this measure before the measure was decided, and if there was any discussion about whether it helped or hindered the ECA's brief of fostering "cultural learning and mutual understanding." See
http://www.allgov.com/Agency/Bureau_of_Educational_and_Cultural_Affairs

State, CBP Take Direction from AIA on New Restrictions on "Coins of Italian Type"

I have noted that the State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Cultural Heritage Center and US Customs and Border Protection have ignored the following in extending new restrictions on "coins of Italian type:"
  • Prior precedent from 2001 and 2006 when such coins were exempted from import restrictions on Italian cultural artifacts;
  • The vast majority of public comment to CPAC; and
  • The concerns expressed by members of Congress, including the current chairs of the House Budget and Foreign Relations Committees.

In contrast, State and Customs adopted the suggestion of the Archaeological Institute of America's President that restrictions should be focused on the early coins of Italy including Greek and Etruscan issues. See http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2010/05/report-on-cpac-hearing-on-italian-mou_20.html Helpfully, someone (presumably also from the AIA) then provided State and Customs with the names of the two major references in the field, Rutter and Hill, to cite to in the applicable regulations.

In retrospect, this should not be all that surprising. The State Department's Cultural Heritage Center has been run like a wholly owned subsidiary of the AIA for years. State has dispensed millions of dollars to support archaeological projects abroad after AIA members savaged the Bush administration for the looting of the Iraq Museum. The AIA's influence at State (the bureaucratic competitor of the Pentagon) and with Customs officials that work with State on repatriation matters has only increased since that time. Now, we've just reached a point where State and Customs are willing to casually throw out existing precedent, and ignore public and Congressional opinion based on what the AIA's President suggests. Don't get me wrong. Dr. Rose has always acted most professionally at CPAC hearings and has done much to tone down the rhetoric (if not the attitudes towards collectors) at the AIA. Nonetheless, the State Department's process for imposing import restrictions was meant to reflect the views of all stakeholders, and not just that of the archaeological community. That archaeological interests are now paramount is not what the drafters of the statutory authority contemplated, nor is it acceptable or desirable from a public policy perspective.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

State Department Imposes Import Restrictions on Certain "Coins of Italian Type"

The State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and U.S. Customs have decided to impose import restrictions on certain "coins of Italian type." See
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2011/pdf/2011-882.pdf

The categories of coins subject to the restriction under applicable Customs and Border Protection regulations are as follows:

F. Coins of Italian Types—A type
catalogue of listed currency and coins
can be found in N.K. Rutter et al. (eds.),
Historia Numorum: Italy (London,
2001). Others appear in G.F. Hill Coins
of Ancient Sicily (Westminster, 1903).
1. Lumps of bronze (Aes Rude)—
Irregular lumps of bronze used as an
early medium of exchange in Italy from
the 9th century B.C.

2. Bronze bars (Ramo Secco and Aes
Signatum)—Cast bronze bars (whole or
cut) used as a media of exchange in
central Italy and Etruria from the 5th
century B.C.

3. Cast coins (Aes Grave)—Cast
bronze coins of Rome, Etruscan, and
Italian cities from the 4th century B.C.

4. Struck coins—Struck coins of the
Roman Republic and Etruscan cities
produced in gold, silver, and bronze
from the 3rd century B.C. to c. 211 B.C.,
including the ‘‘Romano-Campanian’’
coinage.

5. Struck colonial coinage—Struck
bronze coins of Roman republican and
early imperial colonies and municipia
in Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia from the
3rd century B.C. to c. A.D. 37.

6. Coins of the Greek cities—Coins of
the Greek cities in the southern Italian
peninsula and in Sicily (Magna
Graecia), cast or struck in gold, silver,
and bronze, from the late 6th century
B.C. to c. 200 B.C.

In making its decision, the State Department: (1) changed existing precedent allowing for an exemption, though there has been no change in the underlying facts; (2) ignored the vast majority of the public comment against such restrictions at the MOU hearing before CPAC; (3) ignored the concerns raised by members of Congress; (4) imposed requirements that only discriminate against American collectors and the small businesses of the numismatic trade; and (5) issued impossible to comply with documentation requirements at the very moment President Obama and Congress have promised to scale back job killing regulations. See http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703396604576088272112103698.html?KEYWORDS=obama+regulations and
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47064.html

I suspect there will be much joy at the Archaeological Institute of America that the State Department bureaucracy has again bent to its will. Still, one must ask is it really worth creating the additional enmity against archaeologists these ill-considered restrictions are certain to ensure?

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Saddam Hussein as a Role Model?

Paolo Ferri, the much criticized prosecutor of Marion True, has apparently advocated that Italy look to Saddam's Iraq as a role model for its antiquities policies. See
http://larryrothfield.blogspot.com/2011/01/italian-antiquities-looting-prosecutor.html and http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/“Clandestine%20excavation%20is%20a%20crime%20that%20is%20hard%20to%20prove”/22164

Ferri apparently likes Saddam's law because the dictate "was hard to contest." This speaks volumes about the mentality of Ferri and other "law enforcement types" associated with hard liners in the archaeological community. Obviously, fairness and interests beyond the state and archaeologists don't rate in this world view.

Will the State Department Follow Our Political Leaders' Call to End Job Killing Regulations on Small Business?

Both President Obama and the Republican Majority in the House have announced their desire to curb job killing regulations, particularly when they impact small business. See
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41131176 and http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47064.html

We'll find out tomorrow when the Federal Register is set to announce the renewal of the State Department's MOU with Italy whether the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has gotten the message.

The Archaeological Institute of America has been pushing the State Department to extend new import restrictions to ancient coins from Italy, even though restrictions on such common place items would only discriminate against American collectors and small businesses, who cannot realistically be expected to comply with the cultural restriction's extensive documentation requirements.

The State Department has certainly been out of touch with the President's and Republicans' calls for greater government transparency. And recent restrictions on Chinese and Cypriot coins suggest that State is equally tone deaf about the effect of its regulations on ordinary Americans.

Anyway, we should know more tomorrow.

Spanish Inquisition?

This story was posted on an ancient coins discussion list:

This is a letter that Antonio (from Lucernae) in Spain wrote to a good friend of mine detailing what occurred late last year.

Antonio (lucernae) writes:

On december 1 I had one of the worse experiences in my life because police come into my home and office searching all the ancient coins I had. They remove all my stock and account balances, documents, pendrives with info and pictures, computers, all my work material. They say that I buy the coins from not legal sellers and suppliers and it is a lie. I always buy my coins from Ancient Auction Houses and I have my invoices and all the info available but they did not listened to me. I have in a judicial process and it is so large here in Spain, maybe it could take more than 2 years in the way and I´m inocent. I´m sure that they finally send me back all but the financial damage is incredible, more than 40.000 euros have been confiscated (coins, computers, material, all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and around 3.500 of my nice late roman coins for clean too. I´m always buying large lots of uncleaned roman coins from Ancient Coins Auction Houses in all Europe and this is my fault!!!!!!!!!!!!! HORRIBLE!! This is an stupid and crazy actuation againt me, maybe a formal complaint of an envious seller?? I do not what happened really but all my coins are blocked and confiscated and the sumary is secret yet. I think that with God help all must to be clare in the next months but I repeat, Justice here in Spain is slow as a tortle.


Archaeo-Blogger Paul Barford and friends are already gloating about the story, see http://paul-barford.blogspot.com/2011/01/coin-dealer-in-trouble.html and perhaps mixing it up with another crack-down on Spanish Metal Detectorists, but I've heard other similar stories from Germany, Italy and the United States where the authorities ultimately return all the material after holding it for months for an "investigation." Hopefully, that will happen here.

Ultimately, there is a danger for archaeologists and law enforcement that there will be a backlash against such heavy-handed tactics. Such a backlash against the Spanish Inquisition eventually brought reform to the Church. Hopefully, reform of Spain's laws (which have been overly-restrictive since 1985) may ultimately occur here as well.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Greek Antiquities in Times of Crisis

The IADAA has publicized a report from a Greek Journalist that asks an obvious question about a taboo subject for archaeologists and cultural bureaucrats: Why not sell off some of the duplicates of the hundreds of thousands of artifacts sitting in storage around Greece? For more, see
http://www.iadaa.org/en/greek-antiques-times-economic-crisis

The Greek cultural bureaucracy certainly needs to rethink its priorities. Last October, it sent a large delegation on a junket to the United States to petition the State Department to impose import restrictions on Greek cultural artifacts that would only discriminate against American collectors. Meanwhile, museum guards who had not been paid for months were rioting on the Acropolis. For more, see
http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2010/10/oversized-greek-cultural-delegation.html

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Massive Hoard of Ancient Chinese Coins Found

Workmen recently recovered an ancient kiln used to store over three tons of Chinese copper cash coins dating back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279). For more, see
http://coinsweekly.com/en/News/4?&id=390

So much for any claim that Chinese coins are culturally significant items.

And more evidence that the State Department was way off base when it declared somewhat earlier ones so for purposes of justifying a MOU with China that effectively bans their legal import.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Promoting the Arts?

Archaeological groups have promoted the Chinese Government's view of cultural property issues on the Internet and before the US Cultural Property Advisory Committee. Presumably, however, they will not promote this act of the Chinese Government against a pro-democracy artist, but nor will they likely condemn it. See
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/world/asia/13china.html?_r=1&src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB

What is missing is a recognition that China's nationalistic stance on antiquities carries over to other aspects of Chinese cultural policy, like what was done to this artist.

While Pompeii Crumbles

Francis X. Rocca, writing for the Wall Street Journal, has written an interesting analysis about the structural problems facing the Italian cultural establishment that resulted in the structural collapse of buildings in Pompeii. See
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203731004576045682036807802.html?KEYWORDS=rocca+pompeii

Italy's priority should be to get its own house in order rather than expanding the reach of the current MOU with the United States to include common artifacts like coins.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Decision on Italian MOU Expected Next Week

The current MOU with Italy is due to expire on January 19, 2011. Since the first MOU with Italy was promulgated almost ten years ago, Italy has certainly ramped up enforcement of its cultural patrimony laws. At the same time, however, Italy's grossly underfunded cultural establishment has shown itself to be resistant to change despite some efforts at modernization. Moreover, long promised long term loans to American museums-- not linked to repatriation of individual objects-- have yet to materialize.

Import restrictions were contemplated to give source countries like Italy time to set up adequate internal enforcement mechanisms. Italy has certainly succeeded by that measure. Yet, no one seriously anticipates that current import restrictions on ancient Italian artifacts will be allowed to lapse. Instead, the one real question is whether import restrictions will be extended to a whole new extensive class of artifacts-- ancient coins-- after they have been previously exempted in 2001 and 2006.

Hard-liners in the archaeological establishment certainly hope this will come to pass. Still, Paul Barford, an archaeo-blogger, claims to have inside information that coins will again be exempted from restrictions. See http://paul-barford.blogspot.com/2010/09/coins-not-in-italy-cultural-agreement.html

It's unclear how given State Department secrecy, Barford knows this for a fact, but presumably he received his information from other, more connected archaeologists with links either to the State Department or the Italian cultural bureaucracy. Despite repeated requests for clarification, the usually wordy Barford remains strangely silent about his sources.

Instead, Barford and David Gill have promoted claims about coins, not made by another archaeologist or numismatist, but rather by Paolo Ferri, the prosecutor, who managed to drag the Marion True trial out for years until the statute of limitations finally mercifully ended what many concluded had become a persecution rather than a prosecution. According to Ferri, coins are supposedly of "crucial importance" to the dating of archaeological sites and are "difficult for the authorities to track," see
http://paul-barford.blogspot.com/2011/01/clandestine-excavation-is-crime-that-is.html and http://lootingmatters.blogspot.com/2011/01/paolo-ferri-returns-are-symbolic.html
(claims that were questioned to various degrees during the MOU hearing). Be that as it may, the fact remains that Italy itself (along with other major market countries within the EU) does not require of its own citizens what archaeologists propose to be required of Americans collectors.

Twelve members of Congress--including the incoming Chair of the House Budget Committee-- have expressed serious concerns to the State Department about any such discrimination against American interests import restrictions would only encourage. See http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2010/11/members-of-congress-weigh-in-against.html


Will the State Department heed these concerns? We should find out for sure no later than January 19, 2011.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

More on Benin Mask

Here is a more balanced article than what I have read elsewhere about the decision to withdraw an African mask from a Sotheby's sale. See
http://www.antiquestradegazette.com/news/7775.aspx?&utm_source=newsletter_up435&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=update&utm_content=ATG2

Although the press reported about on-line protests that preceded the decision see http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/29/after-online-protest-sothebys-withdraws-african-mask-from-sale/?scp=1&sq=Benin%20Mask&st=cse, some additional context is necessary. The destruction of the Oron Museum and the wanton burning of hundreds of ancestral figures (ekpu) as firewood during and after the Biafran civil war certainly undercuts any Nigerian claim to the high moral ground. See Gathercole and Lowenthal, The Politics of the Past 297 (Unwin Hyman 1990). In short, any self-righteous indignation about 19th c. looting needs to be tempered by an acknowledgement of what Nigeria itself did to Oron culture in 1975.

Monday, January 3, 2011

More on Pompeii Neglect

Newsweek has more on the Italian cultural establishment's neglect of Pompeii. See
http://www.newsweek.com/2011/01/03/pompeii-s-second-destruction.html

More money needs to be raised. Private donations may help, but any money received has to be spent wisely. Perhaps, the time has come to create a non-profit corporation to oversee the site. The success of such an operation would depend on the ability to use funds generated from tourists to take care of the site, but of course, that would likely siphon off moneys used elsewhere.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Costa Ricans Can't Find Cash to Reclaim Artifacts

The Brooklyn Museum wants to transfer artifacts from Costa Rica back to that country, but Costa Rica, a relatively well-off Central American country, can't come up with the relatively modest (for these sorts of things) cash necessary for "postage and handling." See
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/01/arts/design/01costa.html?scp=1&sq=brooklyn%20museum&st=cse

Assuming the artifacts are ultimately repatriated, they will just go from one storage facility to another. Better in my opinion to sell them off for the benefit of the Brooklyn Museum and Costa Rican archaeology or to transfer them to Costa Rican community groups in the US to help immigrants stay in touch with their culture. An archaeologist made a similar suggestion that artifacts be tranferred to immigrant groups that made it into a MOU with El Salvador.
See http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2010/03/mou-with-el-salvador-extended.html